# The Journal of a girl and six horses



## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

Well, I thought I'd finally start my own journal. I'll start with me:

My name is Danielle. I am a 16 year old girl who lives in South Africa. I am completely horse crazy. I own 6 horses, and have been riding for about 6 years (ironic isnt it lol?). I have a stutter, but you wouldnt think it with how much I talk LOL!!

Next my best friends: My horses...

*Arrow Star:*
Arrow is a brown, 18 year old TB mare. She can get quite skittish, but is very sweet. She is very very "fat", as her stomach muscles went slack from breeding. She doesnt have jumping potentioal, but she is a great lesson horse for children. Her trot can be very slow if you ask her, and her canter is lovely, although you have to ask alot for her to canter!! She hates being caught and trots around the whole field!!! But I still think shes awsome!!








*Bishop:*
Bishop only has 1 eye, we had to remove the other eye due to injury. He is an absolute honey bunny, who can do it all. He is a schoolmaster, and I dont ride him much, so others do. He took me and 1 of my friends to our first shows, and we love him!!! He is a bay, 22 year old TB gelding whom we retired last month 








*Silver Sabre:*
Silver is a bay, 14 year old TB mare. She is still learning, but is able to jump 80cm. She can get quite hot, but she is very sweet and gentle if ridden right. Her canter is abit unsmooth, but other then that she is a pleasure to ride.








*Irish Dream:*
Irish Dream is a lovely little mare. She is a bay, 15 year old TB mare. She loves going FAST, and sometimes hets too hot for me, so my riding instructer rides her and is training her to be a polocrosse pony. Then after that's done, I am going to learn to handle her, learn to play polocrosse, and play with her, lol yay!!








*Love Story:*
Lol, what can I say about my beast? She is a dark bay, 12 year old TB mare. She is a honey of a horse that is really sweet. She gets quite impatient when riding, she hates going slow... She is an awsome jumper, and can jump up to 1 20m. She is my showjumper, and my bestest best friend . She has the biggest heart, and will reallt try anything just to please me.









*Traces of Gold:*
Traces is a bay, 14 year old TB mare. She is a little monkey =). I was training her to jump, when she got AHS. She is fine now, and has really picked up weight. I have started riding her again, mostly gentle rides with some trotting and alot of walking. She is a honey, always so sweet and gentle, I let 3 year olds ride her. Once she is fit I'll start jumping her and cantering her again, which she should do with ease. The nice thing about Traces is she is like a car; you put her in walk, she stays in walk, you put her in trot, she stays in trot, etc. Lol I love this little mare








We also have some other horses and ponies at our barn: Next post


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

*Continued!!!! *

Here's the others!!!:

Night Heat:








Sargent Pepper:








That's my jumping instructer on him^^. 

Discovery:









Blackjack:









Shorty:









Damper:









And Pony Girl:








Well there you go, thats my family  And here's me and my two best friends, Maxine and Jess - Lee:






















We are all a big family at our barn  Sorry it's sooo long...


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

I went riding on Thursday.I had a really bad fall last Saturday, ow. Got dumped right on the jump lol. Was my fault, not Love's. Anyway...

My jumping instructer was busy, helping fix the roof of their house (South African storms = WOW), so my dressage instructer taught me. She herself is an excellent jumper, she just chose dressage :smile:. Now I was a little nervous after my fall last week, so she put the jumps (we only worked with three) right down to about 40cm, and we built it up to 80cm as we went. we worked on my contact today, my hands over fences, and keeping Love Story calm and in the centre, both in trot and in canter. And things went great!!! :lol::grin: She didnt overjump or rush once! She was calm and quite the whole time. And I even discovered that my beast of a horse can indeed jump 80cm from a trot (she pretends she cant lol). So now I feel lots better, and cant wait to jump again!

We were meant to ride today, but it rained, boo! So we're riding again on Monday!!!


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

We were meant to ride yesterday, but I couldnt go as my mom had no car. Boo 

But my fellows went  and jumped. My one friend even worked Traces for me (training her for jumping) and she jumped 80cm!!!!! WOW!! But she bucked and sidestepped abit, so our instructer got on her, and things were fine.

Im going riding on Thursday, cant wait!!!


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

Well, I went on Thursday, had lots of fun. I worked Love while my dressage instructer worked Traces. We worked on my contact again, as well as my lower leg, and my release over jumps. We also worked on Love's canter; she wont canter on her left lead and we dont know why. Hmmmm. But we jumped a few high jumps. I was kinda nervous, because she had us jumping a fence that Love sometimes got a bit funny at, but I kept the contact, drove her forwatd and vola! Perfect jump! lol. Then we ended with a bit of fun, we had a "race" in a canter. We had to go from a halt to a canter, canter to the other end, and do a sliding stop. Lol, I won. Traces was AMAZING with the sliding stops, but Love Story kicked her butt with the halt to canter bit 

Although, with Traces being really good at Western things (she's also good at barrels), such as that sliding stop, plus she spins(!), maybe I should enter her in a local Western show. What do you guys who read this but never answer think? Lol

Dani Out!!


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## BMUNCH (Feb 4, 2009)

They all look very skinny to me. And wormy..


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

My show on Saturday went amazing!! We jumped it two classes, both 70cm, so the jump offs were 80cm. The first class was a two phase, which is basically like speed jumping lol. Me and Love Story went abit too slow so we got eliminated from that class... again. :lol: But in the compitition class, we did well. We got a nice clear round so that put us into the jump off. But in the jump off, Love Story knocked the very *first pole*(!!)*:shock:* so that sucked, but we did place. We came fifth!!! Out of thirty two riders!  It was a great show, and I was sooo proud of Love Story! Here's pictures: 

















On Monday we gave the three jumpers - Love Story, Bishop and Damper - a break, and gave ourselves a break too. We had a flatwork lesson on Arrow, Traces and Night Heat. We worked on our elbow and wrist position. You wouldnt believe how bad they are suddenly! :shock::-o We had a great ride, nothing too exciting except one of the dogs catching himself on the fence, oh and our jumping instructer kept poking me in the stomach lol.

I went riding yesterday, and since it was my birthday , I didnt get a lesson. Instead, me and our dressage instructer tacked up; I tacked up Silver Sabre, and she tacked up Traces, and we went and warmed up. Then we swapped horses (dont ask lol) and went for a nice, long, fuuunnn canter on the dirt road. It was soooooo fun and the perfect ending to a perfect day!!!

Our next show is in two months time, so we're going to start training both ourselves and our horses next week. YAAAAY!!!


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## beauforever23 (May 6, 2010)

they all look very skinny!! put muscle on them before jumping!! i suggest maybe a scoop more grain in their feed.. and work on their extended trot.


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

^^ Those pictures were taken a loooong time ago, they all look better. Love Story looks thin in the above photos because she was sweaty, she actually has alot of muscle. But thanks very much, I will increase their feed . Im just curious, why do you say I need to work on their extended trot? Thanks


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## beauforever23 (May 6, 2010)

it will build more muscle...


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

Oh, ok. Thank you then, I will deffanitly work on their trotting


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## southafrica1001 (Mar 24, 2008)

Hey fellow South African ^_^ 
Nice journal and horses, keep it up!


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

Your South African? GREAT! Me and flamingauburnmustang arnet alone!! YAAAY!! Btw, welcome to HF


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## southafrica1001 (Mar 24, 2008)

^ Yep i am ^_^ 
haha
Thanks ^.^ I joined a while ago but i don't always log on for a while CX


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

Wow I havent done this in a while... Let me see....

I rode Traces of Gold on the 15th of June, and Max rode Night Heat. We worked on trotting poles, and a tiny tiny bit of jumping over small jumps. They behaved very well, though lately Traces has been getting upset and nappy when she's ridden, she doesnt like it anymore, though she LOVES trail riding:?... So after a longish break thats what we're going to do with her.

Then on the 16th we rode again. I rode Sargeant Pepper, and Max rode Discovery. Disc is a very quirky horse; if he doesnt like the way you ride, he'll give you alittle buck. But luckly he likes the way Max rides him lol, and was perfect with her. In fact, she said he was quite lazy. Sarge was the complete opposite lol, he was raring to go, and was full of spunk. He was very fun to ride. In fact he was so hyped up, it took me about 2 full minutes to slow him down!!:lol: Then our instructer came over and told us we could build a small X jump, and pop them over it. Sarge has the CUTEST jump; he jumps with his front legs, but kinda just trots over with his back legs lol. But Disc used to do Adult B Grade, so he jumped great, it was just a factor of getting the impulsion lol!!

I'll do our show training and prep tomorrow...:lol::lol:


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

We started training for our third SANEF show a little while ago, its on Saturday. We're SO EXCITED!!! Luckily our horses are jumping great.

This show is going to be AMAZING(!), but at the same time a little scary... We have entered two classes; Competition, and 2 phase. I just found the schedule, the high school is going to jump first again, just like last time. Im glad, because now me and Maxine can just do it, and then relax. The annoying part is, we have to walk our course at 6:30!!! In the morning!! That means waking up at 4 again... *sigh* :roll:

I looked at when we are in, in the Comp. I'm in 11th, and Maxine is in 17th... Its gonna be nerve wracking watching them all jump before me. But in 2 phase Im in 3rd, which is great... and Max is in 10th. Then Jess Lee is jumping in the afternoon, since she's primary school. For Comp. she's in 1st (lucky!!:lol, and 2 Phae she's in 5th (lucky AGAIN!!:lol::lol. 

The only little bad training session we had was on one Monday that we jumped (we jumped twice a week), Jess Lee had TWO bad falls, but she's ok now, and is jumping great!! The jumps were only about 60cm, so it was a little bit of a shock for us all. We are jumping 70cm classes, so our jump off is 80cm.

Then on Friday we stayed over at the stables to sort out tack... so we were ready to go on Saturday afternoon when it came to jumping... except for me. I had VERY bad pains in my legs and back, so I diddnt jump, but Max and Jess did, and I became pole picker upperer (instructer's words, not mine lol:lol while they jumped. Luckily I diddnt have much to do; the only knocked down two poles...

We jumped yesterday (Monday) and it went good. Me and Love's polo wraps got into a fight though lol, they wouldnt co - opperate:-|. But then it was all good. Except then Love Story wouldnt walk to the arena, so I had to bribe her with a carrot. That put her into a good mood though, cause she was very responsive; she jumped beautifully, and actually went from a walk to a canter without me having to have an argument haha. All in all the training sessions went VERY well, we are hopeful for a fun and exciting day 

Im going to groom tomorrow and Thursday... Love Story doesnt really need it, but still. And Im going to help Maxine with Damper, she rolled and has now turned into a bay LOL.

Post more tomorrow!!! :lol:


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## LoveStory10 (Oct 31, 2009)

Today I went and groomed Love Story, for two and a half hours. I got her dust free and pretty, but knowing my luck she'll roll lol. I trimmed her mane a little bit, just to neaten it up. Bishop and Love had their supper outside, cause we were grooming.

But then me and Love had an argument; Love wanted to go to her stall, but she wasnt allowed to lol. We cleaned the wraps, and polished our bits a little bit.

Im going to go again tomorrow to make sure she is pretty and dust free.


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