All the pictures!

I love everybody's topical posts.  They are interesting and cohesive and feel like they have a point.  I keep meaning to do one or some, but I get distracted by this:

Channeling his inner unicorn

Can't say no to this

So there you have it, my myopic world view.  Really, it isn't, I had the best ride ever on Diva the other day, I could practically feel the butt and neck muscles developing while I rode her!

We also enjoyed some clouds and cooler temps!

I've also ridden Bridger and he was passable, which is actually really good considering how long it had been since I swung a leg over his back.

More pretty clouds!

We have also had some great nights at the races with wins, seconds, and thirds!  I need to scan win pictures so I can share them with y'all.

And here I come full circle back to P-diddy and his OTTB adventures.  After his epic jumping on Sunday he got Monday and Tuesday off.  Then Wednesday the my friend who owns the 100 acres came with to meet Prisoner and ride him.  It was a fun day at the barn as Sprinklerbandit and Alyssa were there as well.  Prisoner was a bit more tense than other rides, but was still ridable and relaxed pretty quickly.

A quiet moment

His first time trotting through multiple poles

All the beautiful brass

He says hard work is hard

Oh babies

Loving the pastel hues in the whole picture

Then my friend got on and I was so impressed.  They got along great and even had some nice trot work!

I was planning on giving him another day off today, but then the urge to dress him up (in a dressage saddle no less) took over and we had a mostly walking and some trotting ride.  I am really working to supple his body so he can continue to improve his self carriage.

Great angle, so spoiled by Alyssa and her camera!

Yes, I am grinning

Look at him not me

Again, what a trot!  Again, wtf am I doing?

Love this, he is going to be so fancy!

Hello engaged hind end!

I'm in love

Yes, I put in a french braid, because why not!?

And he snuggles, winning!

There you have it, another progress report with epic pictures thanks to Alyssa!  Maybe a topical post will happen later, something along the lines of: 'WTF arms and legs, the story of how I fixed my new and comical position errors.'

Did someone say BONNET?

I forgot to include two things yesterday.  One, Alyssa took all the great photos of Prisoner again:)
Two, she is running a contest!
What?  Yes, go over to fourmaresnomoney and enter to win a custom bonnet!  On second thought don't go enter, I want to win!  Kidding, you should check out all her adventures with Bacon and their discoveries in the world of jumping!
I love bonnets if you hadn't noticed, I blame sprinklerbandit for nurturing that addiction.

This fugly bonnet needs replaced!

My husband blogs

This afternoon I was eating a little lunch and the hubby was napping on the couch.  He rolled over and asked what I was doing, to which I replied, "blog stuff."  "Ooo, important things," he says.  Then he followed with this:

Today I jumped Bridger.  I felt the wind rush through my hair as we approached, I felt his legs lift for take off.  Woosh.  Thud, we land on the other side.  I pat his neck, good boy Bridger!

Little did I know he thought about such things.  He really doesn't even seem to understand the difference between facebook and blogging, and I haven't tried to explain.  If I am on my phone he asks how pintagram (pinterest and instagram) is doing.  Oh to live a life without social media, not sure what I would do.

Maybe in the near future I will do a husband style in the moment blog post!

BTW, in case any of you were wondering....Prisoner is still doing awesome!  In-fact we jumped all manner of interesting new jumps and he was stupendous!

Such fanciness!

Borrowing Sprinklerbandit's Ogilvy

First time over the scary black tube (not so scary)

First time cantering a jump

First time over the wee baby oxer, wheee!

Second wee baby oxer, much better

First vertical

So yeah, that's him, two weeks off the track.  LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Happiness

First things first.  I rode Diva finally and she was back to her awesome self (she hasn't even been on regumate)!

Hacking on the buckle

She approves of the new helmet

She remembered all the things and threw no fits.  She even remembered her ground tying skillz and got a bath at the end.  Everyday while it as been 100,000,000 degrees (actual temp), I have been grooming her and fly spraying her and oiling her hooves, I think the bonding time has been good for her brain.  In case you are wondering what the temperature was when I finally decided to ride her...100  with a strong wind.  Felt nice.  FU summer and your mind warping capabilities.

Now you are probably wondering if Prisoner is still amazing.  If you have been on Instagram you know that he has indeed.

Third day of jumping, 5th ride off the track

This horse is freaking phenomenal.  I showed this picture to a friend who is super blunt and her response was, 'It's about time you had something with talent!'

His fourth ride

Hell yes, all the trot

He starts out with about one lap of speed walk and then chills (all of that with loose reins).  Then I work on bending through his body and when he feels pretty good I pick up the trot.  Again this starts out with a little tension, but I keep calmly asking him to go correctly and in less than ten minutes I have a fancy horse.  The first few strides of canter he wants to lean on me so I float the reins and he starts to carry himself in a cute slow balanced canter.  After that we can go forward and come back like rock-stars.  At the end of the ride I have been going over a few cross-rails so he can think about the idea of it all.

He is also master of bath time

I am working hard to not push too much and let him keep decompressing from the track.  Seriously though, I think this guy is going places.
Now for lots of pictures from Alyssa with her fancy camera.

Bending

Hello beautiful black and brass tack combo

Like no big deal

A wide cross rail, pretending it is a first oxer

Love him

Leading the way through the pasture

Videos

Quick post here with some videos of Diva from right before my trip and videos of Prisoner!

Woah

I am in shock.  Why?

Can't believe it

This adorable and gorgeous horse is now mine!  What? Yes, this is Prisoner (while I'm not one for changing names I think he is in need of a new one), he is a 6 year old gelding, of nearly no racing fame.  I feed him and his barnmates breakfast and groom them for our friends/barn neighbors at the track.  He has been a slow runner forever and I've always said he was too cute to not be a riding horse.  Well finally he ran last or next to last and his owner said, 'ok find someone to buy him.'  Enter sprinklerbandit's friend Ellie of photographing fame, she was looking for a horse and we thought he might fit the bill.  It was killing me to not be getting him myself, but I wasn't really looking and had no budget.  I rode him around at the track on the 4th of July and the next day he went to C-rage and company's barn.

He looks great, not sure what I'm doing

I rode him again on Monday and he was again a rockstar, we walked and trotted all over the arena.  Ellie came and liked him, but it wasn't love.  After her final decision Friday to not bite the bullet it was a nervous two days of trying to figure out how I could get him.  Let me tell you I have a lot of amazingly supportive friends!

Third ride, First jumps

I kept telling myself no, but then on Saturday I jumped him over a wee tiny crossrail, OMFG!  He was beyond amazing (there is video on instagram @redheadlins)!  Also Wednesday and Saturday he cantered on the correct leads, around the arena and on circles.  Needless to say I had to figure out a way to make him mine.  Sunday morning I was getting ready to head out after finishing chores at the track and husband gave me a crisp 100$ bill and I mumbled something about needing several more of those.  He stops and looks at me, 'what ever for?'  I may have employed classic charlie puppy dog eyes, and started spouting off about how amazing Prisoner was and that he was the best horse I've ever taken off the track and blah blah blah.

Just try to say no

Well, turns out he had already tried to trade the owner one of our slower but still good fillies but she is a little looney and they weren't interested.  Not ten minutes later he was on the phone and I caught something about 'bringing his paper's down' it was totally one of those moments that you know exactly what was going on.  He hung up and looked at me and as I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing on the phone, he just shakes his head and says, 'the things I do for you.'  Ha, squeee, OMG, I was having an internal freakout moment/30 second dance party.  He pretended like he wasn't happy, but that is his MO, now he asks me how my new horse is with a big grin.

First ride in an arena, me trying to not get attached

The deal is husband has to find a racing replacement for the old owner while he is in Phoenix this winter.  Well, I headed out to the barn where the barn owner promptly screamed (in a good way)!  My phone has been blowing up ever since and I can't stop smiling.

First ride out in a field

You might be shaking your head, 'what are you thinking redheadlins, you have too many horses.'  Well, that comment I made a while back about Mojito breaking my heart is still true, Prisoner is doing his best to glue the pieces back together.

So stinkin' cute!

No worries Diva is still amazing, but afternoons of 108 degrees are still cramping my riding time, bleck!

Diva Progress

I would like to do a dump of information about Diva this spring.  As I brought her back into work after the long cold winter she was good to ride as far as not needing lunged and such.  She was terrible to ride as far as remembering the things she learned last fall and early winter.  She was fussy and pissy and completely beside herself.  There were better rides and worse rides, and I was getting frustrated.
Good Points:

• Better canter
• More coordinated
• Weight gain
• Awesome hoof growth
• Slightly quieter mouth
• Jumping showing improvement

Bad Points:

• Can't apply leg aids without a fit
• New evasion methods tested:
• Head straight in air
• Running through my leg
• Kicking out
• Attempting to buck
• Squealing in opposition

The fact that many of these seemed really out of character from the lovely mare I had last year had the wheels turning in my head.  I got her teeth floated, helped some, but not astounding amounts.  Husband came out and did body work, BAM!  Turns out she had ribs out of place, poor princess.  I felt really bad, but we suddenly had some better rides.  It still wasn't perfect though and she still seemed inconsistent.  Finally I started her on regumate, it was amazing!  Seriously, we still had to work through her large opinion, but we could actually put in productive rides.  We went from this:

Grrrr

To this:

Booyah!

This awesome picture was actually after three days without regumate, I mistakenly thought that we had kicked her out of heat.  LOL.  So I decided to join in a lesson with sprinklerbandit the next day.  Oh for horses making us look like fools.

Oh Diva

She was back to kicking and squealing and being totally insane.  Steph finally asked me, 'are you afraid she is going to go through the arena fence?'  'Yes, yes I am.'  So she got on and I was happy to watch for a while.  Diva tried every evasion (it was nice to see it was all stuff I could easily handle), but finally gave it up and went well.  I got back on and we discussed how I can't let Diva trick me into a fight.  I have to let her figure it out and I can't take it personally.  We agreed that while regumate may help, we women have to deal with hormones so Diva at least has to try.  Steph also rode her in spurs which was a first, after some throwing of large opinions Diva didn't seem to mind them.

For the next few rides before I went out of town I rode with spurs and a running martingale.  I think there was angelic singing.  When she went to throw her head in the air she would hit the rings and quietly return from the stratosphere.  Then when she would try to run sideways instead of trying to passify her to avoid the destruction of property I would just apply my spur, AND DIVA SAID, 'AYE AYE CAPTAIN!'

Check it out!

I am now home and battling 105 degree weather, but I hope to have a Diva update very soon.