Memphis got promoted!

Oh happy day for Memphis! He got promoted to inside the barn! Where he is boarded there is "outside" and "inside" board. Basically, its a lady's personal residence, so this is NOT boarding facility. I was torn when I started boarding him to either, a large boarding facility or this lady that had taught me how to ride and had helped me through many issues with horses.

In the end I feel confident with my barn owners abilities to care for Memphis, she has enough sense to reprimand Memphis when I'm not there, but also enough sense to leave me to his training and future. I love where he is at and cannot wait to buy a horse trailer to haul him around in!

Anywho, I'm rambling as always... There is the main barn with 6 stalls that is indoors and then there is a sorta lean off of the barn with two stall in it. These are not protected by the barn doors but are out of the elements. Memphis stayed in these conditions most of the winter. Without the barn doors he still stayed very warm without a blanket and I stood in his stall for over an hour one in the teens night just watching him eat without getting cold. So I never did worry about his well being.

Anywho, again, he got promoted to the inside barn! Another two horses moved in for a period of time and so my sweet sweet Memphis was moved in the big barn. I feel honored and happy that he is inside. I almost feel safer for some reason.

I mean I have Memphis insured for close to 3k including his tack, so if something did happen to him, I would be able to buy another horse, but that's not what I want. I really do LOVE Memphis. I plan on keeping him till he is well into his 30's and unrideable. It took me almost 3 months to gain a connection with him, in fact I wasn't sure if I could for a bit. Almost to the point where selling him crossed my mind.

I know, crazy right? Then Memphis started to morph for me and become MR sweetheart. Today for example, he licked me. Had no intention of biting me or nibbling, just wanted to lick me. So totally sweet it was. Then I just let him wander the barn for no other reason than I wanted him to. He respected me and my needs the entire time.

Which reminds me, I was out there last night to work on BIG SCARY OBJECTS and saddling. We worked on feed bags, plastic crinkly bags, and scary clunking together coffee cans. I have found that while he will object to such objects, if I take them myself and play with them for a second, then make said loud noises with them, he is much more calm. Near the end of BIG SCARY OBJECT night, he was much calmer. I plan on continuing the work with these items to get him desensitized to almost everything he could come across.

Although, the largest thing to get him good with is the barking dogs next to my trainers house. That is the thing he is most terrified of and last time I had to stud chain him to get him within 10ft of the dogs. Now granted they are scary loud dogs, but they are being a 6ft privacy fence and they have no way of attacking. So I WILL get him past them without the stud chain. I know he has it in him. I just know he does.

Again, as with Dodge, I am no horse trainer, nor do I have a horse sense. I'm just employing common sense and a whole lot of what I've been told and read about horses. I will not beat Memphis unless he totally asks for it. Even then it's a quick smack and a then were done. I do not believe in making a horse "submit", I want my horse to do what I ask because he knows he should. Nothing more, nothing less. I have been known to be too lenient with horses before and have been quickly told and shown the error of my ways.

ARG! I'm rambling again! More to be posted this week!

Stupid Rain

I should have been out at the barn today working with Memphis, but it's raining. When it rains I only have one place to work with Memphis and that's in the barn. Since the BO's tractor is broken, I currently do not have a place to do anything.

Tomm it is supposed to not rain, so I'll probably go after I get my hair cut to see Memphis. Work on the plastic bag again and then saddling.

Which reminds me, the little butt has been deciding to test my patience. When saddling he has started to fidget around. Now this could be because the first cinch was too short, a 32" when he really needed a 36". It could be because he is excited about riding or it could be a pain issue. I'm thinking the cinch was the problem, as on Tuesday he didn't fidget at all when I cinched him up and that was the correct size cinch.

He's also taken to walking around when I try to mount, so I worked on that with him for over 15 minutes Tuesday as well. Lots of moving with him when he moves, flapping the stirrups, and fake mounts into the saddle. Once he finally realized that moving away wasn't going to get him anywhere he stood still. I mounted and then just sat there on top of him. I don't smoke, so I had to imagine the time it would take to smoke one, I'd say 3 minutes? Then I had him move out.

Then once again worked on legs and neck reining. Phew! Think he would get it soon enough. Probably be better once the arena dries out and I can put him on some poles. I do leg aid, then neck rein, then direct reining. I'd like him to eventually move off my leg, but that will take lots of time. I got lots of time this summer to devote to him, so he better be ready :D

Right now I need the tractor to move so I can work in the barn. I plan on setting up some poles in there and doing some tight circle work. I also need to work on asking for the gaits with him as I personally screwed him up last trail ride by making him pace. I need to go back to flat walk then running walk then pace then canter. He has all of those gaits, I just made him transition too fast. Go me. I'd like to take the pace out of the equation and that is something in the summer I am going to work on discouraging.

Sigh, Memphis needs so much work. He was green when I got him. He is still green because of me. I want by the time he is 6 to be much more refined to everything. I would also like to have put a ton of miles on him throughout the forest next to where he is boarded. The hills will work wonders on him and muscle tone and my own butt too.

When he is 10 I would like to really get into some competitive trail riding with him, I just want to start it out so slow it's not even funny. I don't want a broken horse and I don't want myself to get burnt out.

Horses sometimes make you do silly things

All the horses in the barn are "feeling their oats" as my barn owner likes to put it. They need to be out in pasture running around but the pasture is a pit of mud so stall keep they get till it finally stops raining. Meaning every horse in barn is feeling it right now.

Memphis is no exception. Today I stood around for 20 minutes rubbing him down with a plastic bag that he decided to freak out over. Silly horse. Very silly horse.

I really like the smart cinch! I can see where it would be very easy to overtighten it, so I must be careful, but what a neat idea!

Anywho, how bought some camera phone pics of Memphis! They're dark so don't complain. :D

NM I can't figure out why Blogger keeps cutting the photos off. It will take me more work than I want to fool with right now to get it corrected.

My Dodge post made it to a favorite blog of mine!

Whippeeeee! I feel so honored! I was never even expecting that! So I guess now I'll expand a little on why and what I've done since Dodge.

As most of you probably already know, I now have another horse named Memphis. He is 5, full of zest, and has just the right touch of stubborn. I bought Memphis because something deep down inside of me could not possibly live without another horse. I'm not sure what horses do to some of us or why they seem to squirm into every single nook and cranny of some peoples lives, but they do.

After Dodge died I quit riding for a long time, almost a year. I just didn't want to be around horses since I knew that I would want one right then, so I refrained. Besides, we had bills to pay off and life to live for a bit. Then around June of last year I decided to start riding again and quickly fell back into the horse rut. I was riding stock horses again and for a minute, figured I should just buy a nicely put together QH.

After the second month of trotting it was quickly decided that gaited is what I need to be happy on a horse. (You non-gaited fans, how in the world do you do it) The quest was on! Took me about a month till I found a horse that felt like Dodge in the saddle and he was cute as a button too. (Just don't tell him he has donkey ears)

Now I have this bay Walker that is totally awesome and better than all other horses in the world. (I am slightly biased here, I am his horse mommy) I'm not the greatest rider in the world and he is not the best broke horse in the world, but we're working through it together. He has a willingness to learn when he isn't being totally impatient, which is a large majority of the time.

I'm completely content with him and very smitten ;)

Sometimes you do and sometimes you don't

Tomorrow my new girth should be here (or cinch, whatever it gets called today). I ordered the Weaver Smart Cinch, it was the only dag on one I could find in felt. I figure if the I've been using the felt cinch I have now with no issues, I'll get another felt one. Jeez, the way I went back and forth deciding on that, you would think that I would be a girth expert!

I also am going to annoy Memphis tomm because I want to try the new girth out. He will be thrilled, I can already see his ears going back in that thrilled look he gets. He is tolerant of me though, so that is more than I can say about a lot of people. :)

I was *supposed* to lunge his spunky butt on Thursday and then again on Saturday of last week, but the flu prevented me from doing anything. So my big booger got an extra week off. Tomorrow, he isn't going to like me much.......

I might actually make him work on the lunge line.... OH THE HORRORS!

And then I might actually ride him!..... IT JUST DOESN'T STOP!

And then... then... he might get a bucket of feed! OH MY GOD THE HORSE ABUSE!

My big plucky idiot. So lets do a pictorial!

Here are some chickens for your viewing pleasure:


Fresh Eggs from my Hens from above:


Here is Memphis looking oh so thrilled:


And this picture makes his head look huge.. don't tell him that though:

I don't even remember..

What in the world I blogged about last. It's been that dag on long. So let's get down to business here.

Memphis:

He is doing well. Had his hooves done a few weeks ago and going to worm him again this week. I lunged him on Sunday and he was a bucking fool on the line and I plan on doing it again on Thursday but really wearing his happy ass down. I also had to order a new cinch for him as his old one is tooooooooooo small. I think that is why he is getting cinchy, that old cinch needs to be about 4 inches longer.

Buck:

He is also doing fine. He is starting to put weight on his leg, but does go through phases where he doesn't put any weight on it at all. I'm happy so far with the outcome of the surgery.

Chickens:

Started laying again! I had a green egg when I went out to do my chicken duties this morning. Another hen was getting ready to lay when I opened the coop. How exciting!

Life:

I'll post this one tonight. I also hope to get some pics up of everything going on.