# Raina Ramblings



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 2, 09/16/2012

First ride on Raina happened 4 months after I was given her, Jan. 29, 2012. I moved back "into the area"...well, not so much. I was 4 hours away from the barn and I so desperately wanted to see her. So I drove the 4 hours to check up on her and see how she was.

When I got out to the barn, I found her laying in a bunch of hay, happy as could be.










She got up and started moving away when she realized I had a halter. She never used to run from people. I suppose she picked up the habit with the owner who gave her back.

I hooked her to the wall...and she stayed tied. Good girl. I saddled her with the saddle that was offered to me to use at the time, and used the bridle she had always been ridden in. The saddle itself was a touch too small for her, and the bit was tom thumb. But I figured she had always been ridden in it and I shouldn't be changing bits on her out of nowhere, so I went with it.

Surprisingly, we were on two legs from the barn until we got to the woods. We had trained out of that 2 years ago and I guess it was back. She was fine when we got to the woods and we had a rather high-speed trail ride. She power-walked the whole time. I could see her confidence was gone.










We made it through alright though and nothing else happened the entire visit. She stood queitly on the wall so I could untack her and she stopped for a drink after I set her loose in the pasture. I didn't get to see her again for another 5 months.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 3, 09/16/2012

I finally moved back into state. It was June 10th when I was able to go see Raina. I moved back into the area a day before, I believe.

The saddle I had before didn't fit her, so I had to go bareback until I sold it for another one. I switched Raina's bit to a simple snaffle which she liked a lot better. None of the head-tossing I was seeing back in Jan. 

I rode her bareback for about 45 minutes and we worked on leg commands, and slowing and stopping from seat. She picked up on it wonderfully. All I had to do was sink my weight and she'd go from a trot to walk, and from a walk to trot without any rein aids. That was my first sign of hope that not everything I had done with her was lost. 

Over the next few weeks, her hair-do would change, as well as her attire. The BO got in a new roundbale holder and Raina had rubbed off a chunk of her mane in the middle. The BO appologized and I asked "For what? She's a pasture horse, not a show mount". I did end up pulling the rest of her mane though so it didn't look so funky. She stood for it like a champ...partially because I don't think she knew what I was doing.

We were also cantering without bucking. Big progression! I had to buy a dressage whip and all it took were a couple taps, and we were back in business again.










Though the new saddle fit HER, it was KILLING me and my tailbone. The last draw was when I rode her for about an hour and literally couldn't sit the next day because of it.

Two years ago, Raina neckreined. Now she does it only occasionally. I believe this is a balance issue. While cantering, I have to use unilateral halfhalts to pick her up and rebalance her and the halfhalting rein depended on which side we were working on. The last time I worked her seriously, I was using bilateral halfhalts with my seat, and she responded to it very well since she is beginning to understand where her balance is.

With the unilateral halfhalts came neckreining again, and she's not as prevelant about it as she used to be. This is something we have to work on for the future. But again, I feel that once she gathers the correct balance and gait, neckreining won't be such a challenge anymore.

I do believe she's been ripped around by one rein though, since she would neckrein so well 3 years ago. Instead of using their legs to reinforce the turn, they just ripped on her face in the direction they wanted to go, causing her to fall into the turn. 

The last time I cantered her in the arena, I was using one rein and halfhalting with my seat, and she'd listen. We are still working on things though.

There came a time where a friend of mine wanted to ride a horse. And Raina was going so well...so...I opted to put him on Raina.










She did VERY WELL for carting around a new beginner. She was a lot more patient than I thought she would be, and within 15 minutes, I set them free off the lungeline. Her patience lasted about 45 minutes and she was done with this newbie on her back, so thats when I got on and put her back into work. She kept balking at the gate and I wasn't about to let her get away with it the way she could with a beginner. After about 15 minutes, she settled down and we ended on a good note.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 4, 09/16/2012

September 4, 2012, I enrolled my 3 year old daughter in horseback riding lessons with my BO, who gave me my start when I was younger. This was not only to feed my daughter's growing obsession with horses, but to also secretly get me up at the barn to ride Raina. Its very hard for me to get to the barn when I have my daughter, so this gave me a baby-sitter who taught my daughter how to ride, as well as give me Raina time.

At this point in time, my new saddle came in the mail.









And I wanted so desperately to try it. While my BO was busy with my daughter, I caught Raina, tossed the saddle on her, and went to join my daughter in the arena. The saddle fit Raina perfectly and I was exctatic!










We didn't work on much that day. I was mainly just out to enjoy Raina and let my daughter have fun. We did work on our walk/halt transitions and our trot/walk transitions. At the end, I cantered her and that didn't go so well. Mainly because I didn't give her enough time to really warm up to work. The canter to the right was much better than the one to the left, much to my surprise.

And the saddle gave me enough room to actually ride instead of being smashed into the cantle, like the other one did. All in all, it was a pretty decent ride and one of the only times I got Raina out to actually just enjoy her, not work her.

No rearing on the wall.
No bucking at the canter.
Still herd sour. Her ears went up and she greeted me, but then she wanted to leave me behind.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 5, 09/16/2012

September 9, 2012... I lacked the money for a b-day gift, so I asked my BO if I could use one of her horses to take my sister on a trail ride. She said yes, and so we headed up to the barn.

I forgot my barrel saddle for my sister to use...I only had one saddle and two horses to equip, so I coughed up my new roping saddle for my sister and elected to go bareback on Raina.

We brought the horses in from the pasture. Once again, Raina ran from me. I'm getting a little frustrated with this, but I stayed calm. When we came into the barn, all but one wall-tie was taken, so I told my sister to tie her horse to the wall and I'll tie Raina to one of the empty stalls.

After about 5 minutes of being tied to the stall, Raina reared up, pulled the bar loose, and freed herself. I was a bit shocked. She hadn't done that in a long time. Why today? The last time she did that, I got on to her about it and she hadn't done it with me since. The only reason I didn't that day was because people were around and I didn't want any of them upset at the fact that I disciplined her.

I wonder if she did it because she didn't feel confident being tied in another location? But that seems unlikely, since I have tied her outside at the hitching post without a problem. That was a new location as well.

By this time, I had helped my sister tack up her horse so I put the bridle on Raina and away we went.

She wasn't upset at leaving the other horses. I'm guessing its because she had a friend with her this time. Though I did see her lack of confidence in the trail more than once. She wouldn't relax at all, even with a friend. We ended up in a small clearing deep within the woods. Once we got into the clearing, she tensed up some more and tried to run back into the woods. We stuck around until she finally calmed down a bit.

We also went into the water. She refused to go at first, but I worked with her (which included taking my boots off and going in too). She decided she'd go in for me, but she still didn't trust the idea at all.










We stayed a couple more minutes in the clearing, much to her dismay










And then we hit the trails back to the barn. On the way back we got lost...and a couple times Raina decided to take the lead. I allowed her to do that. About 5 minutes of leading, she's root her feet into the ground, ***** her ears ahead, and decided that the trail was much too scary to go on infront anymore and my sister's horse would take up the lead.

I'm a bit concerned over her lack of confidence. She's somewhat the same horse she used to be, but she isn't. 3 years ago she was a working beast. She dove into work and loved it, and took on a lot of challenges with only some encouragement. Right now, she completely lacks any confidence and won't even confide in the rider for enouragement. I feel this is something she will get over with time when she realizes I am there to help her, and I won't direct her into any danger.

Playtime is over for now. The lesson and the trail ride were enough "playtime" to really show me all the holes that need to be filled in. She does so much better when her job is laid out infront of her and so thats how I will keep it until her confidence is gained enough to venture out again.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 6, 09/17/2012

I went out to the barn today after work to see Raina. She didn't run from me in the pasture! She didn't come up to me, either. But she knew I was there. I walked up to her, turned so I was facing the direction she was facing, and hooked my hand around her nose. She stood there for the halter. She also didn't bulk from coming in from the pasture either. She normally stops once or twice and I have to ask her to walk again. But she stayed with me in-step and didn't bulk once.

I tied her to the wall and she stood like a champ. I did the necessary grooming (and looked for swirls since we had a swilr discussion a couple days ago and I was curious). I only found the one on her forehead I knew about, and one under her throatlatch. I'll look that up later!

I wrapped her legs up in polos. Two diagonal turtle shells and two diagonal reds...representing the TMNT ;-) She still doesn't like the polos, but she's getting used to them.

I started the session out with walk/halt transitions like normal. She does well with them and responds to the bit. There were 3 other horses in the arena with kids on them so I made sure to keep my distance. We stepped it up to some trotting and she trotted rather calmly and easily, and neck reined while doing so.

Then the kids left the arena and she became tense. The relaxation was gone and thus, so was the rhythm. We continued to work at the trot, but now I was focussing on trot/walk transitions to keep her attention. We did well neckreining and she was listening to my bilateral halfhalts fairly well.

I asked for the canter while neck reining and she just started to trot faster. So I brought her back down to an even trot, picked up both reins to rebalance her, and asked again. We cantered the arena 3 times before I brought her back down. She still wants to dive in with her inside shoulder, but there were times where she was holding herself properly so I let the support on the reins go.

It was about time to go in the other direction. She was doing well at the walk/trot transtions when the girls who were in the arena before brought their horses back out to put in the field. You have to travel through the outside arena to get into the field. Raina thought about having a meltdown, and I thought it was then or never to force her focus and make her concentrate on her job.

I had worked on softening with her before and she is much better going to the left. So I asked her to soften and instead, she was ducking her head up and down like a moron and running through my halfhalts and positioning rein, so I said "Sure, you wanna run through those? Lets canter"

So we cantered around for a bit and when a brought her down, she was more responsive to softening and flexing. Still upset that she couldn't go into the field, so I made her focus on something I haven't made her focus on...softening while at the trot. I insisted, she fought for a little bit, and then finally settled into a beautiful working trot, poll and jaw softened and stepping straight into the bit.

We got through her "meltdown" without actually having a meltdown. I was proud of her. I decided to stop for the day and just play with her in the inside arena to try and form that bond I feel we need. Unsaddled her, inwrapped the polos, took the bit out and lead her around by the halter. We worked on leading without any contact on the leadline. She stayed right by my side, her inside ear pointing in at me, her big eye watching my every move so she could respond to what I was doing.

We walked, stopped, turned away, turned in, and finally jogged. The leadline was slung over her back the entire time and she stayed right with me, her attention was glued. 

I stopped her in the middle of the inside arena and swung myself onto her back. With just the leadline connecting to the bottom ring on the halter, we moved around the arena very sharply. Everything I asked, she responded to in a heartbeat. I put my leg on and touched her neck with the lead, we'd turn in an instant. We'd turn the other way without issue. I'd lean back and sink my seatbones in, and she'd stop or slow down. I was having MORE success directing her with a halter and leadline while bareback than I was having in a bridle, under saddle!

How does that work out?

While under saddle, if we were trotting and I'd put my leg on for the turn, she would speed up. Bareback, I put my leg on at the trot for the turn, and she would turn like an Ace. 

??

I adored her then.

I decided enough was enough and I walked her over to the gate to open it while still on her back. This was going to be a test. Would she fight me? Would she figure it out? After we had the gate open, would she take off with me through the outside arena until we got to the field gate? Only one way to find out.

I walked her to the gate and made multiple attempts to lean over and open it. She was uncomfortable standing parallel to the gate and then have me lean over her, and kept walking off. She began to fight me about it until I finally stepped her up to the gate and just had her stand there. We slowly krept forward and I unhitched the gate and swing it in towards us. She moved out of the way.

And there we were. Open arena, field gate in sight. What did she do? She walked into the arena...towards the OPPOSITE side of the field gate. I was a little stunned. I directed her towards the field gate and we had another little confused bit. Again, she was unsure about having me lean down and unlatch the chain. But we did it, and I shoved the gate out of the way. While in the pasture, I dismounted, gave her a treat, and unhooked her.

She ran off towards the herd.

I was very, very pleased with today. But a little perplexed at the saddle-v-bareback thing. She will continue to perplex and surprise me until the day she dies, I think. She's an awesome little mare.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 7, 09/18/2012

Today was a step forward in the place we used to be, and I'm happy with it.

Though Raina DID run from me again...something I wasn't happy with at all. Instead of chasing her, I pushed her. Everytime I came near her, I would push her out, and I wouldn't let her stop. Finally, I released the pressure and she allowed me to halter her. I didn't do this to tire her out. I just got tired of the chase game. Instead of "Haha, you can't catch me because I'm FAST!", it was "Ok...so you're the boss. Can I stop now?" I asked her to halt after some licking a chewing. Not quite sure if this is what breaks a horse who chronically runs, but it worked well for today.

Again, no bulking as I brought her into the pasture. No rearing while being tied. She stood better to be mounted (which is something she has developed with her other owner, I think. She didn't do that 3 years ago), but was still impatient to go after I got on and didn't want to stand.

I tacked her up and rode with the halter inside. She was responsive. I took her outside, she was less responsive. I changed to a bit, same thing. It makes me believe that this isn't a tack issue, its more of an attention span issue. She feels safer in the indoor arena because other horses are nearby. Outside, she is the only one there and her confidence lacks.

So, I put her to work. We worked the entire session. I guess you can say we always work during sessions, but I really drove her home today. I didn't care that she was alone, we were working and we will work until she pays attention to me. By the end of the session, she was turning a lot more sharply and halting a bit more crisp. I kept her busy with figure 8's, circles, direction changes and transitions. Keep that mind focussed.

I asked her to canter and she wasn't diving in with her shoulder! Holy Hannah! She STOOD UP off my leg and balanced herself through the turns! 

Of course, there is a contributing factor that I had to adjust my leg position to get this as well. But I am very pleased with that stepping stone.

I picked the reins up today and asked her to step forward, into the bridle. I decided a couple weeks ago I wasn't going to make her do this, but it almost seems like an essential for her. We had worked on it off and on and she was doing well, but again, wasn't top priority. I made it top priority today and what do you know, neckreining came smoother and response to my legs was sharper.

After our ride, I untacked her and checked her for any soreness (I usually do). She appeared fine. No heat in the legs and her back was alright.

I am kind of torn a bit though. She needs this sort of work (which is why I fell in love with her 3 years ago) to ride well, but she runs in the pasture from anyone who has a halter. I don't feel like I am a contributing factor since she didn't do this 3 years ago when I trained her. Its a habit she picked up somewhere inbetween. I'd still like her to feel comfortable inside the barn, away from her herd.

This might come in time when her confidence in herself and her rider builds. We'll see.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 8, 09/19/2012

I LIVE for days like today!

Everything that we have been working for came together today, and Raina got some admiration from the BO!

I caught her easily today in the pasture. I gave her the option of me pushing her, or me catching her..and she chose the latter!

Hooked her to the wall, and she sighed and lowered her head in relaxation.

I got permission to ride during one of the lessons and one of the students said "Is that Raina? Oh, she doesn't canter". I just smiled.

Raina stood while being mounted and then literally told me "I'm with you right now. Lets do this!" and we had an amazing ride. She was eager to get started so I didn't fart around with transitions the way I have been. We got right to work and she softened beautifully at the trot. We cantered, and she picked up on it easily...and I thought today was as good as any other to neckrein her at the canter.

She was a champ today. Responsive and eager at the canter, happy to neckrein during it, and at the end, she softened back into a nice, easy-going trot. 

At the end of the lesson, my BO said she looked great and asked if she could ride her next time I was up. Of course I said yes! What a compliment! This woman bred her and then gave her to me because she couldn't do much with her because of her attitude...and now she wants to ride her! She never rides! Ok, maybe she does. But in all the years I've known her, I've only seen her ride a handful of times.

I'm a bit cautious about it though because today...everything we were working for came together for the first time. She's not consistant though and everything I get, I still have to work really hard for. I'm not concerned that another rider would cause her to backpeddle because the BO is a capable rider. I'm just worried that Raina won't do as well for her as she does with me, and the BO might be a little disappointed.

We will see how it goes though. This is why I love training. I love those "lightbulb" moments when the horse finally understands and is with you every step of the way. I'm hoping this attitude will stay and her confidence will grow out of it.

This was taken after her ride...boy she's a chunker!


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 9, 09/21/2012

Scooted my butt out to the barn today on a tight schedule (even though I shouldn't have, but I just can't help it). I ran out to grab Raina and she walked up to me! But then thought twice about it when I started untangling the halter and ran off. So I pushed her a bit and then asked her to stop. She let me catch her.

It was pretty windy today and we just got two gigantic flatbeds worth of hay in, which are chilling in the outside arena. The BO put a tarp ontop of it and it was flapping around in the breeze. Raina was pretty calm about it after we walked over the tail end of the tarp a couple times, so I took her in and hooked her to the wall. No relaxation while she was there. It would be a fun ride.

I tacked her up and took her outside, and she trotted with a good, even pace. The real problem began when I asked her to soften, and she then tried to use the tarp as an excuse. We ended up fighting eachother until I finally decided we weren't fighting anymore, we were just going to canter. So we cantered around the arena about 6 or 7 times before I brought her back down.

She was a bit more cooperative after that and we managed to get a couple good steps, though it wasn't like the last ride. She was still a bit testy about the whole thing and was really telling me about it today. Finally, the BO came out and I asked if she wanted to ride, since she asked about it the other day. She was totally unprepared but opted to hop on anyways.

They did pretty well and she asked me how to "get her head down". I guess in order to get her horse's heads down back when she trained, she used to tie them down. I told her to press on her inside leg and put some pressure on the inside rein. There is a lot more that goes into it, but that was the general idea. I also gave her a crash course in the pressure/release theory. After all that explaining, Raina softened for her and she was very happy. She was very impressed and said that Raina had come a long way, and was eager to see her do sliding stops. I told her that might not be for a while, but we are working towards it anyways.

This photo was taken Aug. 21, when it was all I could do to halfhalt Raina









And this was taken today:









She was a big pill today but we ended on a good note, so I'm happy. I rode her more in the contact today than I usually did because she was acting like a booger. Although I can see 1000 things I could be doing differently in these two photos, I'm happy to see what little progression we have made. One small thing is the fact that my calf is on her side instead of braced in the wind.

The BO noticed that Raina had trusted me today when we were heading back to the inside of the arena and there was a white grain bag. Raina looked at it but didn't startle, and she said that she always startled at stupid things like that. Also, one of the girls at the barn "awww"ed at the fact that Raina followed me without any contact on the reins or leadline. I do love that. She was taught to stick right by my side, and thats where she stays.

I could tell by this look in her eyes before our ride, that it was going to be a challenging day. 










Mares ¬_¬


----------



## Jore (Dec 4, 2010)

She definitely looks a lot better, and you look much more relaxed so to speak.  I understand your excitement on the progression though, I was elated when Indie was trotting a circle with inside bend and in a frame yesterday. I love the polo wraps, by the way! 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Thanks! She is coming along and I sometimes get impatient with the progression and a bit frustrated. She is just so ready to fight at any given moment. For instance, she was fine with the tarp until I asked more out of her, then she decided she was going to fight about the tarp and we weren't even talking about it! 

Me: Please step through and bend
Raina: Well I don't like that tarp, its the wrong color and it doesn't match the hay under it and we're within 30ft of that color abomination and I'm angry about that and...
Me: Just step through and bend
Raina: I'm not done complaining yet

I was very happy because she is stiffer to the right than to the left, and she finally bent and yielded to the right leg. No softening or anything, but when I put my leg on to move her away and picked on on the right rein, she gave me a bend. Very happy!


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 10, 09/24/2012

Remember back in the logs when I mentioned I took Raina out on a trail last winter and she was on 2 legs the whole way to woods?

I haven't taken her out since, save for that trail ride with my sister. She took Raina's best friend, Shaggy. And still, Raina was a mess of uncertainty. Since then, I've worked her in the arena and I feel we have gotten some good progress. Not great, but good. I struggled with the idea of taking her back out. Why? Basically fear. The way to the trails is up a gravel driveway with patches of old, broken up cement. Its up hill and the last time she reared on that, I was afraid she'd lose her balance and smash me into the cement.

I drove up to the barn today and caught Raina. I pushed her away from the herd and she ran herself like an idiot around the pasture for no reason. When she finally stopped, I caught her rather easily. I brought her down into the barn and she was challenging me every step of the way. She wouldn't move when I pressed on her hip, she wouldn't pick her feet up. She was being a general pain. I unhooked her from the wall and had a session with her about yeilding when I say yeild, and things were a little better.

The polo wraps kind of made me angry. She should have gotten used to them by now but everytime I go to wrap her hind legs, she picks her legs up and tries to move around. I got on to her about it today because I had to take the wraps off and redo them because she kept lifting her feet. After that little correction, she stood for it.

The BO was using the outside arena as a turn-out for the inside horses. If I'm allowed to have an opinion, I'd say that I hate that. I wasn't able to use the outside arena and the inside arena gets so dusty, even after you water it down. So I looked at Raina and said "Lets hit the trails, sister". It was now or never.

I trotted her around the inside arena for about 10 minutes to grab her attention. She neckreined like a dream and was sharp in the rollbacks, so I unlatched the gate and rode her out. We rode down the driveway and up the other one towards the trail. Past the field....we rode past the field! We RODE past the field! She didn't bulk, she didn't rear! I made sure my legs were right on her sides just in case, and I brought my whip with me...but I didn't need it. The last time I took her out alone, we reared and reared and reared. Today she walked right past the barn and field, and we headed into the woods.

We cantered up the first hill and I gave her the reins. She discovered the little target practice area for the neighbor (it had targets and a big plastic deer) and she was rather looky going past it, but we didn't have a problem. About 50 yards later I opened my little trail pouch (it had velcro) and we just about orbited the moon because of the noise. haha. That was her only spook though.

She wasn't confident, but she went along rather pleasantly. I didn't want to be out too long since it was her first trail alone since last winter (and that didn't go well). We bent through the trails and went up and down the hills. We walked, trotted and cantered. We finally came upon a log she didn't like the looks of and she tried to turn around. I got her back on track and we made it past it.

By this time, she was breathing pretty hard and I could tell she was just working herself up, so I got off and did some pretty normal stuff. I checked the saddle, made some adjustments, and then sat down and had a cigarette. Before long, Raina's wide eyes calmed and she hung her head next to me. I sat around for maybe 10 minutes until she was relaxed, and remounted.

The break did her some good. She was still alert but her walk was much slower. The break brought her back to me. We encountered a RANDOM bulldozer in the middle of the woods. Right smack dab in No Man's Land. She bulked but didn't turn around, and walked past it hesitantly. Up ahead, I noticed a gigantic green machine parked in the middle of the trail and thought "Oh dear god, she's not ready for that yet" so I turned her around. She hadn't seen it yet because it was dark green and blended it. We walked past the bulldozer again and finally followed the dog home (because she's a great GPS).

We made it home and everyone was pleasantly surprised to see that Raina had been on a trail alone. I guess she still has that "NightMare" name at the barn and will probably carry that reputation for a long time. They are still surprised she canters without bucking, and doesn't do have the stuff she used to. I'm not surprised, just happy with it.

We made it through the trail alone though, and nobody died...especially Raina. She was so sure she would, but she kept trucking on when she felt my leg.



















I was very proud of her today


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Log 11, 9/29/2012

I wasn't going up to see Raina today until someone at work mentioned they were going on a trailride. I thought...you know what? Why the heck not.

So after work, I drove up to get Raina. Again, she ran from me but this time it wasn't nearly as long and she didn't run nearly as much. Little progress is any progress, I guess.

I tacked her up and took her out into the arena. I have been backing her up everytime we stop, and today she finally got the concept. We started out with walk and stop transitions, then went up to the trot. We first did trot/walk transtions, but then they became trot/stop transitions with the back. She has tucked her little butt under her pretty well a couple times.

The canter was pretty cool. I dropped the rein and within three strides of just leg, we were in the canter. I'm beginning to allow her to find her own balance. I feel I have aided her enough to start with that she can now figure it out...and I do help her still on occasion.

The best part is that she's not rearing anymore. I can pull back on those reins and she'll back 10 steps if I asked her too without taking her front feet off the ground. I had a lot of doubters, and I'm glad to be able to say that.

I took her back in and untacked her, and just spent time with her. We went outside and I hand grazed her for 10 minutes, and then we played a "chase" game where I turned to face her and backed up, and she followed me around. I went left, right, forward and back and she kept right up. When I went forward, she went back. It was a cool game. Then I climbed on her bareback and walked and trotted a little bit more. Hopped off and played the chase game again, and I fed her some treats. 

Overall, I think she had a good time. I took her out to the pasture without a lead and opened the pasture gate, brought her in, closed the gate...and she was right there by my side every step. I took the halter off and rubbed her down. She didn't bother to move until I walked away, and she casually strode off.

She was in no hurry to rejoin the herd today. That makes me happy.

This is her trying to kick at the dog lol










I didn't blame her!


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

I haven't been active on the board for the last couple months due to real life stuff. Inbetween, I've ridden Raina on and off and saw a couple big changes in her.

For one, she comes to me in the pasture now instead of run away. This changed when she became ill. Snotty nose, swollen lymphnodes, the runs, fever, wheezing and coughing and she was lethargic. I brought her inside and put her on sulpha tabs for a week and by the end of that week, she was back to herself. The BO was out of town for that week so I had to go clean her stall every night. Since then she's been coming up to me in the pasture and she whickers at me. I don't know why that changed, but I'm not complaining.

I think she was in heat a couple weeks ago because she tried to attack the dog when I was leading her in from the pasture. She also nipped at me. I gave her a swat and she pinned her ears, rolled her eyes, flared her nose and beared her teeth at me, so I threatened to swat her again and her attitude changed in .2 seconds. I then hopped on her and we went for a bronc ride around the arena. She was just in a huge sour mood and it made me laugh.

I could only chalk it up to being in heat since she has never, ever been this sour...even on her bad days. The next time I went up to ride her, she was back to normal.

I've been trail riding her mostly. The outside arena is frozen over and used as a make-shift pasture for the stalled horses, and the only thing thats left is the small inside arena or the trails. The inside arena gets really crowded very quickly so I usually take to the trails.

She hasn't done her rearing bit in a long time. She used to try and refuse the trail by rearing but now all she does...if she's feeling particularly barn sour, is try to turn around. If I don't catch it in time, I just circle her until we face the trail again and make her move on. Though our last trail ride, she didn't even think about circling. She wasn't exactly confident but she was cooperating with me without argument, which is a big step for her. I feel she is trying her best to work harder for me (other than that time she was in heat!) and its beginning to show with his willing she is to follow directions and not bulk.

The trail didn't last very long since it was snowing, and the ground was very slippery. I ended up getting turned around and just let her have the reins, and she took us home. So much better than a GPS!

ETA: I also wanted to add that I've been playing around with bits. I tried a western curb on her with a low port and a roller for a couple weeks. She didn't seem to mind it and I didn't use much pressure on it since I'm pretty well versed in snaffles only and anything with leverage makes me cautious. It has something to do with the feel. I'm not in direct contact with the horse's mouth when there is leverage and it feels weird. Two rides ago I switched her back to the snaffle and again, no real big changes. I'm happy to see she responds just as well as she did before the curb. She seemed indifferent to the bits, even though they were so different.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

2/9/13

Iseul and I randomly took a trip up to the barn yesterday. I wanted to show her the facility and after we had gotten done trimming her horse's feet, we were so close to my barn that we figured we'd just stop by.

Raina was alright to catch. A little uncertain for some reason. I looped the noseband around her nose and she started to back up. I didn't have any treats for her so this may be the reason she was more reluctant than not to be haltered. I normally don't lean on treats when it comes to training, but they entice her enough so venture forward. After a treat or two, I can halter her with no problem. Yesterday there were no treats and she harbored some resentment about that.

We brought her in without a problem and I brushed her down real fast. There was a lot going on in the arena so I noticed she was a bit antsy. Nothing big, just figiting. I hadn't brought my saddle along with me so we were just going to hop on bareback and goof around. But really, theres no "goof around" time on Raina. Every ride is a training ride. She needs to be guided and secure in every step otherwise she'll spazz.

I hopped on first and she was fine. We did some walk and trot and I showed Iseul how she pivots on her hind end. Its not a show quality spin, but I felt it was something she should learn for her possible future of team penning.

Then Iseul hopped on and Raina flipped out. Iseul tried to hop on via the bench and Raina didn't want anything to do with it. She hardly got her leg over before Raina was scooting off to the side like a reject (as though she's never been backed before) and Iseul landed on her feet. Raina and I had a short lesson (rather, a reminder) on standing still for someone to mount and how her behavior was unnacceptable. After that, she refused to step back to the bench and wouldn't step over when I asked, so I grabbed the whip. A couple taps later and she was standing where she needed to and, with one eye on me, accepted Iseul on her back.


She walked around for a little bit while someone at the barn was watering horses. She would have to step over the hose (normally not a problem) while the hose was moving across the ground. Raina spooked twice. They weren't big spooks but I can't tell you how often I've ridden her around with that hose moving about.

Iseul asked her to trot then and Raina gave her this speedy, bouncy trot with her head waving around the air like an alpaca.

I knew Raina was a bit of a pill. Thats why I like her so much. She's never dull and you always have to be one step ahead of her. She had come very far with ME but I don't really let anyone else ride her to know if the training would stick with another rider.

She may just be a "one person horse". I hopped back on her and she settled back down. She attempted to spook once or twice more, but I managed to catch her quick enough to correct it and move her through it. I asked her to trot again and after a few halfhalts she came back to a nice and easy one...and even stretched down to the ground to find some type of contact. It took me a second to realize what she was doing. At first I thought she was trying to sniff at the ground as we went along, but she just wanted that contact. I haven't felt that in a horse in a long time (since I last trained) so it took me a moment to really remember lol

I haven't done contact work with her in a long time. Mainly due to the fact that we have been trail riding lately and the inside arena can get very crowded to work in through winter. The main reason I even started it was because she needed balanced and rebalanced when I first started working with her. She still needs help in the canter so I continue it there and will until she learns how to carrie herself right without help. It was very nice to see her reaching and -wanting- that contact. 

On a side note, I knew this before and it really came to light yesterday as I reviewed the photos, but she is very downhill. If I were to ride her in dressage, it would be very hard and challenging for her to tuck her rearend under her and use it properly. I plan on doing some team penning though so I don't feel as though its AS important as it would be in dressage. Its still a key factor in tucking and turning though, and its something I am going to work on her again with when the inside arena is clear for work or when the outside arena dries up.











Looks like I have to correct my "puppy dog hands". Blah!


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

2/18/13

The last couple times I have seen Raina were fairly uneventful. No riding since she's been gimping. The old farrier came out to trim her hooves and it occured to me that this particular farrier didn't mix well with Raina or what I wanted in a farrier.

She was very cautious while trimming her and didn't take a whole lot of time doing it. Raina was obviously upset with her because she kept acting up. Nothing bad, but she'd pull her feet away. All in all, it was a rough job. There were pieces of sole that weren't entirely cut out (like she thought about it but decided not to, so stopped) and her hooves were chipping even before I put her back in the pasture.

The farrier said she might have an abscess so I should soak her foot. Then (since she knew Raina from before) went on to tell me that she'd never stand for a soaking, so just sit and wait.

Raina had her feet fixed the next day and she walked a lot more evenly, even though she was still limping a bit. She seemed a lot more cooperative with having her feet done and when the farrier got to her sore foot, her eyes got real wide but she didn't move an inch. She stood for her foot to be soaked (after a spook when she moved her foot and the bucket moved) and just about went to sleep.

Its been a frustrating couple days. I'm crossing my fingers that this soaking will do her some good and she does blow an abscess soon. If she doesn't, I'll have to get her checked out.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

*Keeping things in perspective*

2/20/13

I'm glad I'm keeping this blog at least semi-updated so that on days like today, I can look back and review the progress.

Its been a slow couple months and I'm a little discouraged because we've plateaued. This is due to a couple different factors, but the main one is winter. My expectations for the winter months and what I wanted to do in them have kind of been a failure, and instead of progressing, we've just basically "sustained".

The outside arena is a lake of soupy mud. I lost two of my boots in there already. The inside arena is crowded and barely big enough for the canter work I want to do. And just when I was capable of going up to the barn more consistantly, Raina goes lame. So we've not been progressing. I read what others have written in their journals and I feel discouraged. 

She still has a reputation, and I don't think that will ever change no matter how well she comes along. She'll always be viewed as the "psycho horse". When she's in tack and I'm riding her, people don't even recognize her. She stands there with her head low and people ask me if they can come over and pet her, because she used to bite/kick/rear/terrorize. She no longer does those things. I have to keep that in mind.

She has bucked in the inside arena. I kind of threw that at her before she was prepared for tight circles. She bucked a bit at first but then figured out her balance with a little help and for a while she was fine. Then she began bucking again and I believe this is reluctance to move forward due to her abscess/sore foot. So I'm not too worried about the bucking. It will subside when she feels better. I haven't ridden her for a while but I don't suspect a whole lot of trouble when she is feeling better.

I have to keep in mind that she never cantered before, and she was cantering rather smoothly before her lameness.

The farrier said she "knew this horse" and she would never stand to have her foot soaked. She stands like an angel. She stands still as a stone inside the washrack that every horse is petrified of. The BO was pleasantly surprised.

I guess Raina's motto would be something similiar to "Challenge accepted". You think she won't do something, whether its good or bad, and she accepts the challenge and does it anyways. We are a like on many different levels.

The last time I went up to treat her foot, I wove a crow feather into her mane with sinew. I also sewed a small pouch together which contained a small hunk of chrysoprase, pure tobacco and a pinch of corn meal and wove that into her mane as well. Chrysoprase is a healing stone and helps speed the healing of any wound. Some people have Jesus, I have the Earth.

I'm going back up tomorrow to do another check up and to soak her foot again. I hope she feels better soon. Not that it matters riding-wise since we can't really ride much anyways. I just want her to feel better.

And to help my spirits, I'm gonna post a "before and after" of her trot

Crazy trot where she'd just run around like an alpaca









Right before she went lame. Rode her bareback on a loose rein and she stretched low to reach for the bit









Trying to stay positive...its just hard sometimes with a lot of setbacks!


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

2/23/13

The past couple days have been a mixture of relief and disappointment.

I am very bad at recalling specific days. Seriously, yesterday is nothing but a blur. But I can remember events so thats something, I guess.

Anyways, a couple days ago I went up to visit Raina. I walked/trotted her on the lungeline and she was fine. I looked for the area where an abscess might have blown out but I didn't really see an exit wound. I thought I might have seen one and was satisfied with it. It was very small and I guess I should have known better to think an abcsess hole would be as small as what I thought I saw.

Anyways, she traveled just fine so I hopped up and rode her. She went great. Walked and trotted without a problem. I asked for the canter and we cantered rather smoothly. No bucking, no fits. Just dandy. I didn't ride her for very long. Satisfied, I hopped off and put her back in the field.

The next day I went up, she was sore again. I didn't notice it at first since she wasn't limping at first. I tacked her up and walked and trotted. We cantered and she went along just fine. She is the type that if she is in any discomfort, she will kick and buck and let you know. But nothing happened at the canter.

I went to cool her down (she wasn't hot, didn't ride her for too long. I was just walking her around until her breathing returned normal) and there was her limp. It wasn't very noticable at all, but it was there. She was still tender. Rather discouraged, I put her back in the field after checking for any heat and swelling. Didn't find anything.

I went up today after looking at a purchase mare with Isuel and she was still sore. Not majorly, but if you knew her stride, you knew she wasn't feeling 100%. I walked her out of the arena and into the gravel and she gimped like an idiot, so obviously more tender on solid/rocky surfaces.

The vet is coming out in the next week and I'm going to ask him to review her. A friend of mine says I am being impatient/paranoid and that I should just toss her back in the field for 2 or 3 weeks and let her work it out on her own, whatever it is. I can't help but be pro-active though since I worry so much about what it _could_ be. So the vet is going to check her out.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

3/1/13

The vet came out yesterday to give another horse some shots so I hopped on board with it. Of course, I was still freaking out over navicular because thats what I do. I'm sure this board and my friends are all tired of hearing the word by now but its literally been the only thing on my mind because I fear it so much.

I went up to get Raina and she was in a following mood today, but she was following all the wrong people. She followed Shaggy, her herd leader and he decided to push the herd into a trot when I arrived. They didn't go far. When I caught up, everyone had slowed down and were milling around so Raina decided to follow the "runner" in the herd. So I pushed them for a minute before managing to separate them. She came up to me after that and I brought her down.

She was an angel for the vet. The vet had me trot her in both directions on the lunge, walk her to and away from her as well as trot her to and away. She hoof tested Raina and basically said "She's not lame". Of _course_ she wasn't ****. The vet palpated her knee and her shoulder and said she had some soreness in her knee. I told her that she did this to me once before. She was sound and then after a day of average work, she went off again. She said I could do one of two things. I could work her hard over the weekend to make her sore for her to check back on Monday or I could rest her and see how that goes.

I decided to rest her. The vet said she was pretty confident it wasn't navicular. She pressure tested the area on the frog where the navicular bone sits and if it was sore, it would hurt. She said it was just one test though and navicular could be tricky, but as it stood right now, she couldn't peg her as lame.

So I tossed her back up into the field and paid the vet $63 for her opinion **** It was more or less for my peace of mind and now my friends won't have to tell me to shut up about navicular anymore. 

Raina had last week off and she'll have the following week off to see how she does. The vet said that Raina had become extremely well mannered since I had her, and I beamed.

Of course when the vet went, so did Raina's patience. I have no idea what the problem was. The horses were down in the field so she could see them and Raina started swinging back and forth on the tie and screaming. I took her off and did some ground work with her. Walked/trotted her, random stops and back-ups, turns and whatnot. Her general demeaner calmed down. I put her back on the wall and she stopped swinging, but she still called.

Alahna (Iseul's mare) and Raina (in the back) hanging out after the vet


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

3/5/13

Went out to see Raina and she was sound. I trotted her both ways on the lungeline without a problem, so I figured we'd take a short trail to get her off of running in circles to see if straight lines worked out any better for her.

The wall ties were occupied so I brought her over to the tack post. Tossed the saddle pad up without a problem, which was GOOD. We've been working on standing to be tacked. I let my guard down and tried to put the saddle on her, and she sidestepped away. My saddle is about 50lbs, half my weight, so its pretty important that Raina stands. She didn't stand. BAD. She sidestepped across the arena until I managed to grab the lead and then the drama llama freaked out. I put her back in her place (figuratively and literally) and the next time I lifted the saddle, she stood for it.

She's not sore in the back, so she really had no excuse.

So out to the trail with Iseul we went. Raina never really was a leader on the trail. I can take her out alone and she'll try and turn back once or twice, but once we hit a certain point on the trail, she's fine. She certainly tested me that day though.

She tried to turn around 3 times, I think. And instead of accepting the fact when I turned her back to the trail, she thought she'd fight. The worst of it was her last "fit". She was so focused on fighting that we literally bowled into Alahna and I could feel Alahna's tie-down get caught on my knee (but luckily it slipped off without a problem). Just about had enough of it all, I reached behind me and slapped Raina on the butt and Raina immediately moved forward without a problem.

We encountered some small streams and much to my liking, Raina just walked right over them. Big improvement from the last time we saw little streams! The BEST part was when we were walking along the trail and there was a huge hump on the trail, and behind the hump was a big dip into a deep water puddle. Instead of leaping off the hump and over the water, she ducked her head, studied the puddle for a moment, and then dropped down into it. I was very proud of her.

Our trail took a lot longer than I liked because we got lost, and I never felt Raina limp once. We encountered a steep hill that I remembered. There was a bunch of white chalky substance (naturally occuring) at the top of the hill and 4 years ago, Raina wouldn't go near it. We'd run half way up the hill and she'd spin around and bolt back down to avoid the white ground. It would take me a couple tries to get her up the hill. She took the hill like a champ this time though. Didn't think twice about it, and bucked at the top like a big "Yeehaw!"

If I had remembered where we were going, I wouldn't have taken that particular trail. It had a lot of obsticals on it. We came across the old abandoned buildings with a loose tin roof that was flapping and clanging in the breeze. I'd gotten Raina past that 4 years ago but that was 4 years ago. She didn't want anything to do with it, so Alahna went first.

We also saw a quad rider who was very polite, much to my liking. When he saw us, he stopped the quad, turned around and drove off. I was certain Raina would explode but she was really good. Her ears were up and she was watching the quad intently to decide her next move, but that was it.

We finally made it back to the stables after a trial and error in finding the right path home and the rest was pretty uneventful. I lunged her to see how she was doing and she looked a little sore, but not dead lame. I spoke with the barn manager to get some ideas on where I needed to go with it.


When she's off work, she's fine. I can lunge her both directions and she doesn't show any signs of being off or lame. After I work her, she's sore again with no heat anywhere. I'm stumped. The BO said that I never ride her hard. Its not like I'm driving her into the ground. The farrier said she found no signs of lameness in her feet. The vet didn't see anything. I palpated her muscles and if she's got a sore muscle on one side, the other side is sore as well. So why is she off everytime we ride?

Ok, enough wondering. I'll pinpoint it sooner or later, whether it be with x-rays or a chiropractor.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

3/11/13

Went up to see Raina today. I trotted her lightly in both directions and she's lame again, without work. I'm going to talk with the vet tomorrow to see which direction we should go in.

Raina enjoyed a massage today. I love massaging horses. After they figure out whats going on, their eyes close, they yawn, they lick and chew, they nicker, they'll even stretch. Raina wasn't quite sure what I was doing at first, but then she settled down into it and started yawning and falling asleep. I got a nicker as well 

She had some knots on her right shoulder, which I kind of suspected. 

We also did the 2x4 test on her. We put the toe of her right foot on the edge of a 2x4, held up her other leg and then lifted the board. If there is any pressure/soreness on the navicular bone or the ligaments, the horse will jerk its other leg down to relieve the pressure. Other than lifting her head to stare at the board as it came up (she wasn't so sure about the board, it was painted white and she wanted to spook at it), I got no reaction. 

Again, I'll be speaking with the vet hopefully tomorrow to see where we need to go with this.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

3/12/13

Ok! So you can laugh all you want now. The vet came out to the barn this morning without calling so I wasn't able to meet her there and talk with her. However, I DID talk with an amazing woman named Kathy. She's an animal communicator. Ok, get it out of your system  Anyways, I've been wanting to get a consultation for months and I just wanted to take the time to find the right one. I've been watching Kathy for months now on facebook and read all of her reviews, and she looked pretty good so I finally scheduled an appointment.

I called Kathy and we got started. I told her Raina's name, age and color. She paused for a second and said "Is she the dark bay who's alone in the paddock or the red bay up in the field?" :shock: She picked up on Iseul's mare, Alahnna! I told her Raina was the red bay. Kathy took a couple deep breaths and said that Raina was showing her a lot of tightness in her right chest area. Her chest, the girth area and the scapula. I said I found a lot of knots over there yesterday when I massaged her and that she has been lame on that side. The second thing Raina showed Kathy (after I asked her to dig further) was that she was feeling some pain on the medial side of her right leg, but it felt secondary compared to the shoulder. 

I asked her to see if Raina would be interested in team penning. After a second, Kathy laughed and said that she showed a visual to Raina with separating cows and moving them out of pen and after a second Raina said "Wait, I'm allowed to do that?" :lol: Kathy told Raina that she couldn't be too aggressive with the cows, but I would like to take her in and do it. Raina loved the idea.

I then asked if Raina was ok with her saddle and bit. She said the saddle fit fine and her response to the bit was "What, thats all you got?" :lol: Bahaha, sorry. It was just so funny. She also said that when I don't take the initiative, she does and she does whatever she wants. Very true, thats why no one at the facility could ride her since it was a trail riding facility and everyone just kind of clodhops around on their horses. 

I asked what Raina thought of me and she said she likes me and thinks I'm hilarious :-| Haha not the type of answer I was looking for, but much better than what I was afraid of hearing...like "Oh, I hate that woman".

Anyways, it was a load of fun. I understand Kathy is not a vet and I didn't ask her to diagnose anything. I've been wanting to try this for months and finally just did it. Iseul has been saying "shoulder" for a while and as I watched Raina move yesterday, she didn't want to extend. That, along with all the knots and tightness I found really fit into what Kathy was saying. I'm scheduling a chiropractor for an adjustment, which was one of the things I had thought about doing but wasn't quite sure about. Wanna get that shoulder moving back the way it should be and then address the lower leg issue if the problem is still there.

That was a ton of fun. I plan on calling back for another appointment in a couple weeks


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

3/16/13

This journal seems to have switched over to "Raina's health report" lol whatever, and update is an update.

It was cold and rainy and miserable today. The chiropractor is coming out this coming Wednesday. I just started a new job so I hope I can make it. He's supposed to be out around 2pm but my BO said I could arrive a little later if I need to since there are also 2 other horses who need seen. 

I brought Raina in from the pasture and she was very easy to catch. I had to fix the fence real fast (which wasn't really fast) and walked right up to her without a treat. She let me halter her and we made the muddy descent down to the barn.

I groomed all that mud off her coat and transfered it onto MY coat and then lunged her lightly. I'd say she was about 80% better than the last time I saw her. She gave me one or two off steps but other than that, she was pretty darn sound. Satisfied, I switched her back over to the lead and just hung out with her. Rubbed her ears and her face, played with her mane, did some more grooming. I actually curried and brushed her today, where as usually I just take the shedding blade and scrape off all the dirt and if I'm riding, I'll go over her coat real fast with a hard brush. But she got the whole shibang and seemed to appreciate the attention.

I got a wonderful compliment today. The BO came over to chat and she said her husband and her were talking about me the other day. Her husband said I worked really well with Raina and Paige said that she doesn't think she could have found a better owner for her. We work so well together and she's very happy and relieved to see how well she's been doing. It made me beam.

After a short time after, Iseul and I let the horses hand graze for a couple minutes before tossing them back out into the pasture. I'm happy Raina is feeling a lot better than she did last week and hopefully this chiropractor will get her back on track when Wednesday rolls around.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

I haven't updated this in forever. I started a new job and its had me so drained that I don't bother to pick up the laptop at night and scroll the forum.

Raina's chiropractor appointment went very well. The chiro knew her and knew exactly where she was hurting. He put her back together and I gave her 2 weeks (3 weekends) to rest. I came back to a wildcat!

First day I went out, I just rode around the outside arena. It was finally dry enough to ride a bit in it and we were all taking advantage of it. Raina was high as a kite and her trot was fast and choppy, but I let her move out and then went for the canter. She was giving me the wrong lead, which is weird. She's usually really good about her leads. She was lunging at the canter too, which made me laugh. Rolling her shoulders up like she was going to do something, but continuing on with the canter. By the end we got a couple nice canter steps and then I put her back.

I then gave her a bath last Tuesday...and she wasn't very fond of it. She stood for it though. Poor dejected soul...









We did some trailer loading and she went insane. Rearing like a mad woman and flinging herself around. By the end of 10 minutes, I managed to get her on the trailer twice.





























Side note: She wasn't sweating. She was still wet from the bath.

We ended up going on a trail ride yesterday and it was very possibly the worst trail ride I've ever been on with Raina. She was a wildcat the entire time. Spinning like an idiot for no reason at all. Then we got down to the field where the river is and she blew a fuse. I asked her to stand while I got off and once she was still, I slid down. She moved forward the second I slid off and I popped her, and hell broke loose. She flung herself around and I hung on, and she reared twice like a fullblown idiot. I got her to settled and she stood still rather calmly but kept lifting her upper lip to smell something. There was something in the air, I guess. I hopped back on and it was another fight to stand still, though not as intense. After a few moments, Raina stood still and when she was pleasant enough, we continued our trail.










By the end of the trail, I let the reins hang off her neck and she just walked home like a deadhead.

Fast forward to today!

We just went up to goof around today. Raina was a bit sore in her girth area so we didn't do much. I tacked her up and rode her around, and her canter was a lot better. Still very unbalanced but we were in the inside arena since all the rain made the outside arena a muck pit again. She went along pleasantly though without an issue. I then untacked her and we did some free lunging outside in the muck pit. Nice and easy, nothing wild. She turned into me and when she arrived, I pet her and then walked away. She followed. I ran, she trotted to keep up. I stopped, she stopped. I turned to face her and walked her way, she backed up. It was a pretty cool thing to do and I'd like to do it again sometime.

We also mastered the blue tarp. She fight with me about it last summer and what do you know, the blue tarp randomly showed up in the inside arena the other day. I got her to go over it (finally) and then rode her over it. Its a habit now. When we pass the tarp, she walks over it. I brought her in from the outside arena without the lead and she followed...and when we passed the blue tarp, she wandered off to walk over it. Made me laugh!

I rubbed some linament on her girth area and then Iseul and I walked out to hand graze the horses. I took that opportunity to do some more trailer loading and after about a minute of deep thought, Raina walked onto the trailer without a problem. We loaded twice and then I hand grazed her again.

She's a wildcat and reminded me of that over this past week. I know a week or two of no handling really causes her to revert back to who she was but I got a full reminder on the trail ride. We are going out again tomorrow for more fun!


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Things went really well today!

Raina was still ouchy in her girth area, so I decided to go without a saddle. She was pleasant enough to catch and I noticed her soreness while I was grooming. We were opting for a trail ride today so I just bridled her and off we went.

I'm very pleased with her behavior! She didn't spin once and never spooked. We cantered up this one hill that had a surprise mid puddle in the middle which took the horses by surprise. They all jumped it and Raina sailed over it and kept going. I'm glad I had all those jumping lessons a couple years ago because I didn't have a saddle on to secure me! Normally I'd make her go through mud puddles (She's been going through streams like a champ, which is a complete turn around from last year) but we were going too fast and the puddle was a bit of a surprise, so we just jumped over it. That was the funnest part of the trail!

We then cantered up this other hill and I dropped my phone and broke it, which was a complete downer. Its an iPhone so now I have to drive about an hour to get it fixed. Cantering bareback without a care in the world is fantastic...I need to go on more bareback trail rides!

We slid off a small ditch without a problem. We were above the trail and there was maybe a 1ft drop off to the trail, and Raina just eased down it. I didn't really expected her to do much else but ease into it. It was a pretty sharp drop though. Nice and easy.

We finally circled around to the back pasture and rode through the field to the barn. Raina acted like a normal horse today without one single issue. I guess she was making up for the other day where she turned into a wild cat? Not sure but I hope it lasts!

No pictures today because they are on my phone. Haha...oh well. I'll get them sometime or another.


----------



## clairegillies (Nov 25, 2012)

lovely to read of your story with Raina, hope to catch up on more.

Claire


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Thanks! She's not the monster she used to be but still really fun and challenging. I couldn't have asked for a better horse  Happy you're enjoying her blog!


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Well, I hopped out to the barn this last Wednesday. I have my daughter with me and its finally warm enough to get her back into lessons. I didn't want her out in the cold (she's only 3) over the winter so I cancelled lessons for a while. She can stay out in the cold longer when she's older. I scheduled a lesson for my daughter on Wednesday and also brought my younger sister out with me to try out a horse to lease while I was at it.

After I got my daughter re-introduced, I left her and the instructor (I've known the instructor for almost 20 years and trust her completely) to go retrieve Raina and my sister's future lease horse from the field. We hooked them up to the wall and started grooming...and mush to my complete happiness, Raina is finally blowing her winter coat. I kind of love shedding season because I love how I can just rake off all the fur and it just keeps on coming. I find it pretty fun.

After I groomed Raina real fast I went to go see how my sister was doing. We don't know a whole lot about the pony she pulled out, other than its a haflinger named Buddy and he has gone on loads of trail rides. I really just want a safe mount for her so we can go riding once in a while. He groomed fine and I picked out all 4 feet without a problem. I saddled Raina and left her standing before saddling Buddy and trying him out first for my sister.

My sister has been around horses off and on through the years and I'd call her an intermediate rider. Confident enough to try anything but smart enough to approach it cautiously. Though if Buddy was going to do something, I would rather he try it with me than my sister. I walk/trot/cantered him and he really has no breaks, but isn't out of control. He just wants to trot. Everywhere. The transitions were smooth in the aspect that he didn't challenge what was asked. He was just very strong when it came to stopping. After a couple minutes, I tightened his saddle and threw my sister up on him, and I got on Raina.

It was a ho-hum sort of day. She picked up contact rather pleasantly and she softened at the walk and trot. I asked her for the canter and she did it. Brought her back down and out of the corner of my eye I see this yellow thing while we were trotting, and it was my little sister right up my butt, trotting on the haflinger. It made me laugh. I haven't been trailed like that in YEARS. People usually get out of the way and keep their distance when I ride, but she was right up my butt and it made me laugh. No fear. Buddy didn't care, and Raina didn't care (she likes to pin her ears when someone gets too close). Leave it to my little sister to crowd me with no remorse or regard for personal space. Its been a long time since someone has purposefully tried to annoy me while on horseback. Made me laugh.

My daughter was done with her lesson and we rode around some more while she played in the sawdust. My sister really enjoyed Buddy and was working on his down transitions. At first I had to keep a pretty tight rein on him and haul on his face to get him to slow, but by the time she was done, he was walking with a slight loop in the rein. Still had to haul a but to stop him, but she was making progress.

Raina was being very cooperative. My sister even remarked about how she stood so still and calm while I rode Buddy. After my sister got off Buddy, she lifted my daughter up on Raina who stood stone still. She usually tries to walk off when being mounted, or eyes and sidesteps when someone wants to give me something while I'm in the saddle. She stood very still though and I got my daughter situated on the saddle infront of me. We walked two laps around the arena before I gave her back to my sister. Lets face it. I want to trust Raina, and I do trust Raina when it comes to me. But when it comes to my daughter, thats a whole different story. Two laps and I was done with the trust, even though she was very good for it and cooperated calmly. Better safe than sorry though.

On a side note, I have introduced Raina to sidestepping. We didn't practice on Wednesday but we have before and I just forgot to mention it. She's confused with it (or course) and isn't quite sure what the hell I'm asking. She seems to think I'm always asking her to do weird stuff. But after I got the legs to move laterally for one or two steps, I let her walk forward and she was actually trying to think it through instead of just fighting me for it like she usually does with something new. 

My sister really liked Buddy. She thinks he's hilarious with his "plow horse" way of thinking for a body his size, but we want to take him on a trail ride before she signs any lease contracts so we know he'll go quietly.

Anyways, some pics!

My daughter during her lesson. She is on a lunge line


















My sister on Buddy and me on Raina (ETA: Buddy's noseband was way too big for him. Its not tight at all and just sort of hung there. I connected it because we couldn't take it off the bridle and I couldn't have it flopping around)









My daughter, Rain and me









It was a lot of fun! I was in a saddle and I actually laughed...usually when I'm on a horse, all I can think about is work. But this was kind of a fun refresher. I remembered that I can be in the saddle and laugh too (especially when my sister is trying to catch me on a haflinger). My daughter has another lesson on Sunday and I'll be taking my niece with us so she can have a lesson as well. It'll be cool


----------



## clairegillies (Nov 25, 2012)

lovely pictures, everyone looks happy, the horses look happy too. 

Claire


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

I noticed Raina is losing a little bit of weight. I'm not worried about it since she did need to lose weight, but I'm wondering why. I'm just going to keep an eye on her for a bit and see what she does. She's at a good weight right now, right where she needs to be. Where as before she was a chunker.

Anyways, I took my daughter and my niece up to the barn today so they could have a lesson. I just got Raina's new bridle in the mail and wanted to try it out. It matches the saddle (brown) where as her black one didn't. I'm so used to how the black looks on her that I'm kind of iffy about the brown one, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.










It was another ho-hum playday today. I had the kids up and just wanted to play around while they rode. Raina was cooperative for the most part. Walk/trot/canter in the outside arena without a problem. She did crank her tail a lot at the canter but thats just her attitude. My daughter thought it was pretty funny.

The vet will be coming out to give her vaccinations and to draw a coggins. I've been strugging with the decision for a couple weeks, but I figure I'll go for it. I might take her to a couple shows this summer to get her exposed and see how she does. It will just open the world up a little bit if I'm able to take her places.

Raina is infatuated with my daughter and I think its hilarious. Last summer she threatened to eat a small child (pinned her ears and snaked her head at a kid that walked too close by). The second she saw my daughter, her ears went up and she wouldn't leave her alone. Stood behind her and peeked over her shoulder curiously at what my daughter was doing...following her around. It was really sweet and funny. Today was no different. She steps so carefully around her and is just so interested in what that small human is up to.


----------



## clairegillies (Nov 25, 2012)

I am glad Raina is careful around your daughter, that is so nice.
love the colour of her bridle, I think it suits her


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Well, I guess theres a first for everything.

My sister is thinking about leasing a horse from the barn so she has been trying out different horses available. The BO said she had the horse my sister rode last year for her birthday available for lease this summer, so we went up to try him.

I didn't have any of my tack with me since we went to the barn straight from work, so I helped my sister saddle Shaggy up and I hopped on Raina bareback with a halter.

Sometimes you just gotta trust your horse.

I know a lot of people ride their horse's on the trail in nothing but a halter all the time, but no one would even consider it with Raina. I had been thinking about it for a while and yesterday I just finally did it. When opportunity knocks, right?

The trail went very well. My sister had to muscle Shaggy around a little bit. I don't think he's been handled much over the winter...maybe he has, but at any rate, his manners need a little tune up. Raina was extremely pleasant. We trotted down the long stretches, cantered up hills, stopped and hung out for breathers. She was so good and did everything without a problem. 

We finally got back from the trail and the BO was there. I guess she put two and two together and asked if I had taken Raina out on a trail in nothing but a halter and lead rope...I said yes, and her jaw dropped. She kept saying how impressed she was and that she would have never figured it was possible.




























A year ago I would have never thought I'd be doing this with her. It won't be a normal, everyday thing. But its nice to know that she is now capable of it.

The vet is coming next week to draw her coggins and give her shots to show. Her winter coat is almost 100% shed out and she's looking beautiful! I'm so eager for this summer to start


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Holy crap, the horses went insane today!

I scooted on up to the barn after work and pulled Raina out of the field. She didn't run (she kind of never does anymore) and I hooked her up to the hitching post. I swing by Tractor Supply for some fly scray since the flies were bothering her the last time I was up. I sprayed down her body without a problem and she wouldn't stand still for her head. I usually cover the eyes when I spray the head so I don't get any in their vision...and when I did Raina's she flipped out. Flung herself backwards, lunged forward...I don't know how many times. All I could think of it "Crap, this is gonna HURT" because I was between her and the hitching post, and she was bouncing around like a stray 1200lb ping pong ball.

It was finally over and I was untouched, but I was seeing red. I unhooked her and we had a smack down. After that, she stood still to be sprayed in the face.

I admit I kind of lost my temper, but holy crap, that scared the life out of me and it was unecessary.

I started saddling her up and was chatting with Iseul when someone exclaimed "Did you know there are loose horses over there?" ...no, we didn't. We walked over to the side of the barn and there were 3 horses loose. Each person grabbed a horse and we went to go see what happened. The outside arena is still being used for a turn-out for the inside horses and theres a spot in the arena (2 spots, actually) that have been fenced off with hot wire. One was in the corner, where there arena fence no longer exists, and another is up to baracade the horses away from entering the other barn (which is connected to the outside arena). The hotwire where there is no wooden fence had been broken through, so I jerry-rigged it with a bandana (People keep making fun of me for wearing them, but they come in darn handy!). The BO came up to see what was going on, and thats when I saw this dun horse (one of the ones that was originally out) shimmy under the hotwire again...which apparently wasn't on.

I went and caught her again and took her into the back barn, and then an appaloosa mare just barged through the hotwire and into the barn after her. The BO looked at me and I looked at her and exclaimed "Good go, we've lost all control!" She laughed and went to fix the fence, and she'll be making sure its hot from now on.

Anyways, back to Raina!

I tacked her up without a hitch. She stood still, which was good. She likes to swing sometimes...but after that beating, I expected her to stand still. We went out into the arena and worked on our up and down transitions. Every time we stopped, I backed her up. I started doing this last summer to sit her more on her butt when we stop and I just stopped it through winter since we were doing nothing but trails for the most part, and there was that time where she was lame.

She did well, and we stepped up into a pleasant trot. I had to control it a little and before long, I was asking her to reach down and soften. She's been doing this thing where she'll soften for one step and the next step, her head pops up. It makes her look like she's limping and it's getting on my nerves. Technically, it means my positioning rein is coming through, but my halfhalting rein isn't. So its my fault. But I was getting steamed.

We started to canter, since that gait is the most forward gait and she was beginning to back up and get fiesty at the trot, and she did it without bucking. It was time to work on standing up in the corners, and slowing down on the long side. I feel she did alright for her first "real" canter session where I expected her to balance. I'm sure it looked ugly as sin, but I got a couple good steps. I asked her to stand up in the corners, and she'd rock back. She started bracing on the inside rein and turning her head to the outside, so I pulled her head back inside and...surprise! She balanced!

It felt ugly, and I'm sure it looked uglier. But you gotta start somewhere! I brought her back down to the trot and she was trotting more evenly and softened at the jaw and poll a lot better for me. Leave it to the canter to bring back that forward.

We did a couple circles of canter, which I was thrilled with. It was sloppy, but she moved out when I put my leg on when I felt her want to break gait and she did it without a buck. I didn't even have to tap the whip for enouragement.

We finally ended out ride and I untacked and groomed her down. We went over to the trailer to practice our loading and she went right on without a fuss. We also practiced some side-stepping while I was still riding, and she got a couple good steps that I was pleased with. She'd move her front over first and then move her back feet separately and it made me giggle, but at least she's starting to grasp the idea.

I rubbed her girth area down with linament since thats the area that seems to get sore and we hung out for a while before I put her back.

Today was a little crazy but it was a lot of fun!










(this pic is flipped)


















I will be switching her bit out on my next paycheck. We are training at the canter and my training bit has always been a snaffle. I have misplaced my original snaffle so I gave to go get another one.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

I pulled Raina out of the pasture two days ago (guess that would be Wendesday!) and tacked her up. She was easy to catch and stood well, even for her fly spray! No more issues there...for now 

We went out into the arena and I let her walk around on a loose rein. When she warmed up, I let her move out at the trot on a loose rein and she stayed at a steady rythm. Not too fast and rushed, but nice and reasy going. I finally brought her down to a walk and we did some softening work. I guess I was being too nice or something because she'd give me a couple steps and then stick her nose out, no matter how much inside leg I gave her. I became more assertive and she finally settled into a nice steady stride.

The trot was the same. Very nice trot for today and I was happy with it. We worked on remaining softened while doing a downtransitions from trot to walk. Although I don't believe the lesson "stuck", we got a few decent down transitions.

And then we cantered...I gotta say, it was much better than the other day. I still have to use my whole body to halfhalt her in the turns and stand her up, and I'm sure it looks ugly as sin still. But she's getting it. She tried to soften at the canter but I didn't want that yet. I want a steady, easy and balanced stride before I get her to soften at the pole and jaw and we don't have that yet.

And then I cantered her in the other direction and she was so smooth. No fighting to pull her up, no head slinging...her stride was so much more relaxed and steady. Not where it needs to be, but SO much nicer than the other side!

We backed up a lot and did some slow spins and rollbacks. She was even pooping while we backed up once...something I find kind of shocking because she hates to move while she poops. 

Her side stepping is becoming a lot better. She's realizing she needs to move her feet to the side when I apply my leg and I'm thrilled with it. She still fought me a little but it was so much better than the other times.

By that time I had worked her pretty hard. She was lathered and hot and she did really well. I untacked her and hosed her down and let her dry. While she was drying, I did some more trailer loading with her. She walked on without balking at all and stood there with me. I usually walk her right off when we stand inside the trailer for a couple seconds, but this time I made her stand for a longer amount. She got a bit worried and threw her head back and backed out like a goob. So we went back onto the trailer and stood for a longer time twice. She was good for it.

I didn't get many photos but I thought I should share one or two.

The horses up in the wooded area of the pasture:









Raina, after she was hosed down and drying:









I will be training a little haflinger gelding in the next couple days so he will get his own blog. Can't wait to talk about him!


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Holy man in a can!

My sister adopted a pony off the BO. She rode him once for a little bit to see if she wanted to lease him. She liked him but opted for the buckskin the BO had. The BO came back the day she paid to lease the buckskin and mentioned that the pony was up for "sale" by the owner. The owner gave the pony to the BO and told her to give him away. The BO asked my sister if she wanted him, and she said yes! So now she has a haflinger pony, which I think is hilarious.

She's very excited about it and we stopped by Tractor Supply on our way up so she could buy him a halter.

Anyways, we went up to the barn today to go ride the horses. Raina was very easily caught. She walked right up to me. My sister caught her pony and we went to tack up. It was supposed to thunder storm today but other than a couple clouds, it looked clear.

We spent a good half hour jerry-rigging bits and pieces of my tack to fit the pony. I had to put some knots in the bridle, then we had to switch the girth out on the saddle we were using. I also put a knot in the breast collar for him. I let her use the bit I was using for Raina because it has a bit more power than a snaffle and he acts like a plow horse without breaks. I hopped on him to make sure he would respond well to the bit, which he did, and then let her get on.

Raina fell asleep on the wall while she waited, and after I got her tacked up, we went out. Raina didn't swing away from me when I put the saddle up, which I was really happy about. This is her second time with just standing for the saddle. She likes to swing around and I usually have to beat her up for it. Today she just stood.

We hit the first hill (that introduces us to the trail) and cantered up it. In the middle of the hill, Raina began bucking and throwing a huge fit. We finally got to the top and I realized the bag I had lashed around the saddle horn for our stuff was hitting her on the shoulder while we were cantering and thats why she was bucking. There wasn't much I could do about it except avoid cantering so it wouldn't hit her anymore.

At that point, the sky opened up and it downpoured. Lightening, thunder, sheets of rain, the whole shibang. There was a huge thunder clap and I thought for sure someone would come unglued, but the horses stayed steady. We just carried on. Raina was so great. She lead the trail ride confidently (she almost never does that!) and never spun around. My sister and I made it down to the river in the pouring rain. By then the lightening stopped and the sky was just grumbling thunder.

We decided to go back at this point and both horses crossed swollen streams like aces. My sister's pony need some patience work. He just wants to trot and trot and trot and never stand still, but he will get better with more work.

By the time we got back to the barn, the rain stopped and everyone was laughing at us, including us. But it was a lot of fun.

I had Raina in a snaffle today and didn't find any difference in her behavior (ignoring the rein). I loved it. My sister needs to get some pony tack! I'll be working with her pony to get him more responsive to the bit. I don't like stronger bits to control a horse so that will be the first thing I do with him.

Me on Sabi









Raina after the rain










Me after the rain!


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Boy, I have a lot to write about with Raina.

This past week has been a jumble of accomplishments and disappointments. I feel my patience growing thin with her on the trails.

I will have to admit that she will never be a trail mount, no matter how many times I work with her. She just won't be good for trails. Thats alright, some horses aren't good at trails and I didn't want Raina as a trail horse. But some of the things she is pulling is unacceptable and I will have to get extremely mean with her next time she tries.

Anyways, lets hop back to Monday, 5/13/13

I took her for a trail that day. I really just wanted to do some arena work since we've been working on the canter, but my sister came with us so we trailed it. Raina actually walked up to me in the pasture. Thats a FIRST. And SO much better than last year, when I had to push her for 10 minutes because she was running!

I brought her in and brushed her and we all tacked up. Raina lead the trail rather pleasantly, and I was a bit surprised. I was firm with her. I wanted her to lead. Period. So she lead. Until we got to a creek with a steep embankment. My sister and I had to wait for Iseul to catch up, so we stopped just after reaching the top of the bank. When Iseul finally caught up, I asked Raina to lead again and hell broke loose. She whipped herself around like nuts, threw a huge fit. She was pushing the other horses towards the embankment and she finally reared and put my knee into a tree. By this time Iseul managed to sneak past to take the lead, and Raina finally decided to follow. I whipped her hard twice to push her past Iseul and into the lead. She was GOING TO LEAD. 

The rest of the trail ride was alright. We went into the field that Raina usually spazzes in and Raina just sat calmly. Last time we were there, she gave me a good fight. She never liked that field and I always had to argue with her, but that one day she went berzerk and I went berzerk after her. That might be the reason why she stood so well this time.

On the way back to the barn, she started prancing. So I made her walk ALL the hills until she stopped prancing. Finally, we were on the last hill towards the barn and my sister was trotting her pony ahead of us. I thought "Hmm, how can I upset this?" and I took off on Raina and ran her past my sister. My sister took the challenge and ran after us, and Iseul brought up the rear. It was a lot of fun. Everyone walked calmly back to the barn.

OH, and Raina jumped a little log. I was just curious what she would do if I trotted her towards the log, and she gave a little jump. It was cute 

We finally got back to the barn and sat on the horses for a while, and Sabee started pestering Raina. They're so funny together. When we first bring them down to ride, she doesn't care if he's up her butt. But after the ride, she pins her ears at him.

Anyways, he was pestering her and I got a good "Mare Stare" from her










What a cow.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Wednesday - 5/15/13

I hope I'm not getting my days confused. 

I ran up to the barn to mainly work on Sabee, but I wanted to work with Raina as well.

She walked up to me in the pasture again, which I'm just loving! I brought her down and tacked her up and let her move out at the trot after we did some walking. The trot went well. She kept a steady trot for the warm up and then I asked her to bend and flex. She gave it to me easily enough so after a couple circles of that, I asked for the canter.

It was ugly but I LOVED IT. She stood up in the corners, and the canter was slower and much more balanced without me having to haul on her face! She REALLY wanted to soften going to the left, but I felt we weren't ready for it yet so I continued to work on halfhalting with my seat. I want to slow my seat rhythm down to slow her canter, but she's taking that as a cue to break into a trot. We worked on that for a bit and she finally seemed to understand a bit.

Man, what a good day with Raina! She finally stood up off the forehand and balanced. I have no pictures from that day because I was feeling a little woozy after the ride, so I hosed her off and put her back into the pasture. She was beautiful on Wednesday.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Ok, so last entree from this week that I have to catch up. I swear I've written at least 5 blogs between Raina and Sabee.

Anyways, yesterday. Thursday 5/16/13

We took the horses out on the trail. Raina didn't walk up to me but she didn't run. She was pleasant enough to catch. We tacked them both up and I coached my sister in the outside arena and gave her some pointers on Sabee while she rode him. After about 10 minutes, we headed out on the trail.

Sabee and Raina took turns leading and they were going along very pleasantly. We hit the field (the one where Raina likes to spazz) and Raina just stood there calmly. We decided to go into the river...big challenge for Raina. Last time we went into the river, I had to walk her in myself. Raina led down the embankment well enough and put a foot into the water, but didn't want to go any further. Sabee charged past us and went splashing on in, and Raina followed! It was great!

On our way out of the water, we met the BO's neighbors who drove down on a quad and we chatted with them for maybe a good hour. I asked them to take pictures of us in the water and they didn't have a problem with it. But Raina did. I asked her to go back down into the water and she downright refused, throwing herself all over the place. My sister finally came up to lead Raina down into the water by having her follow Sabee and after another little fight, we got back into the water.

After the photo shoot, we thanked the neighbors and headed home, and Raina was a prancing machine. This is really starting to make me angry. She's eager to get home so she could go play with her buddies in the field and she just prances and prances and prances. This is a new thing. It just started last Monday. I make her walk up all the hills and the prancing stops, but she's still being an ignorant cow. She was so eager to get home and rest, and when we got home, I worked the snot out of her. She was balking at the gates and boy did it send me into fits.

We cantered for a long while in the arena. We didn't just canter, I made her work. She rebalanced, she kept her canter slow, she curved against my leg, she even softened for a few steps. By the end she was lathered and I hosed her off before putting her back into the field.

She will never be a great trail horse. I know this. But the last two times we were out on a trail, she threw fits I wasn't happy with for no other reason than she "Just didn't want to". 

I'm not sure if I should push her through it and make her trail ride, or if I should back off and work on arena work. I'm going to be doing both for a while. Everytime I go up with my sister, arena work and trail. Everytime I go up alone, arena work. She needs to learn and respect that it doesn't matter whether she wants to or not, she's going to do it regardless.

In the river:


















Working in the arena after the trail


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

Saturday 5/18/13

It was a bit of a discovery day for Raina.

We tacked up the horses and went out on a trail ride about 15 minutes after the first group left. She was a bit "looky" today and spooked once at her own shadow for no good reason. But other than that, we lead just fine.

We traveled down to the river again, since its the main area she is having problems with. The second we got into the field she wanted to fight, but I instructed my sister to take Sabee down the bank and Raina followed just fine. We made it to the middle of the river where there was an island and I got off Raina and let her relax. About 10 minutes later, I got back on and she fought me all the way across the river again. She literally sidepassed back across the river (in the opposite directing I wanted to go, towards home). She fought me up the bank. She fought me in the field, and then she fought to get back onto the trail to go home. It was a pretty good fight, one I hadn't seen in her yet.

About this time, I got off and worked her butt HARD. The ONLY rest she got was in the water. If she stepped out of the water or moved when I didn't ask her to, she worked and worked and worked. About 10 minutes of this, I finally mounted and took her back across the river towards the island where my sister was waiting. We forged through the water towards the next island and stood on there for a break. The other group came down from the opposite side of the river now and stood and talked to us for a couple minutes before moving across the river and back home again.

We asked Sabee and Raina to cross the rest of the river and they did just fine. We hit a bank and went up into the park which was on the other side and rode around there for a couple minutes. Raina saw her first "grill" and didn't like it, but she didn't spook. After about 15 minutes, we waded the horses back across the river and started home again.

We got lost on the many, many trails back home that we haven't explored yet and the dog ended up finding a groundhog and killing it. I managed to get the dog off of the poor thing after it was dead. A little while down the trail he found another one, and I managed to stop the carnage before it started, thankfully.

We came back to the farm through the back pasture and neither horse bulked at passing their herd. After hosing them down, we put them back into the pasture and headed home.

I'm exhausted. That was one HELL of a fight she gave me, and EXTREMELY unecessary. She literally fought me the whole way across the river we just forged, up the bank, and tried to bully me back onto the trail. Things didn't go quite like she wanted though.

I guess its a lot better than Thursday, where she wasn't more than 5ft from the bank and acting up. And its much better than last year where I couldn't even get her to cross a stream without leaping it. It was exhausting though, and we made progress. She needs confidence in doing this, and the only way to gain confidence is to keep doing it over and over again.

Before the ride









On the island in the middle of the river


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

I took about a 2 week long break from "horses" in general given the last time I rode Raina and the situation with Sabee. It kind of bittered my taste for the whole barn experience and I just needed a breather.

5/31/13

On Thursday I called the BO and asked about a lesson for my daughter. We decided Friday afternoon would be best. After fighting some pretty nasty rush hour traffic, I texted the BO to see if we were still on for the lesson. I guess we weren't, because she remembered agreeing to a Thursday lesson and I remembered a Friday lesson. I called my sister since she was with me for the conversation and she confirmed Friday as well. The BO seemed really frazzled, since last week. We had that situation with Sabee, and then she was out of town for a couple days, and now theres a dieing horse at the barn. Theres something else going on there but I haven't figured it out yet.

I wasn't mad, but we were already half way there and I had promised my daughter she could ride, so we went to the barn anyways. Raina was really easily caught and I tied her up to the hitching post. Fly sprayed her down and tacked her up. My daughter lead her to the outside arena where she got her first lunge lesson. It was kind of cute and it made me remember just how sensitive Raina is to body language. I'd have the lungeline and she would be fine, but the second my daughter took the line, her gait would quicken and she got confused.

Anyways, after our lunging lesson, I put a helmet on the kidlette and tossed her up on Raina for a lead line lesson. She enjoyed it and we walked around the arena for a good half hour before she got bored. So I pulled her off and I hopped on Raina.

The walk and trot went fine as always, and then I asked for the canter. She immediately bore down onto the forehand and I had to pop her up, especially in the turns when she wanted to drop her shoulder and lean. After a couple circles, she was doing much better. 

We have been working on hopping over small jumps. I kind of miss jumping and I feel its a good skill for Raina to learn. I asked my daughter to set up a cross rail and we went over it 4 times without a problem. Raina didn't bulk at all, though she did get a little speedy before the jump. She's green at it, I expect that. For right now, I just wanted to see her go over it. We'll work out the kinks later.

She did really well and tucked her legs for the 2ft cross rail...and then we called it a day. It was a good day, I think. I'm still kind of down from what happened with Sabee but lesson learned and its time to move on. I will be out there on Sunday afternoon to do some more arena work.


----------



## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

June 4, 2013

I brought Raina in from the pasture and groomed her up. I asked her to move over and she shoved into me, so we had a little lesson in moving when I tell her to.

She saddled fine and mounted great. Her trot was pleasant and so was her canter. She's finally getting the idea that she doesn't need to fly around the arena when I ask for a higher speed.

I've also gotten her into some jumping. He seems to enjoy it so why not? I took her over a small cross rail and she took it just fine. Took her over it again and she just trotted over it, so I'm guessing she needs more of a challenge. I'd like to set up a two stride next time I'm out with her.

I decided then that I'd actually ask her to soften and work and she backed off the bit... A lot. I had changed her from the snaffle and back into the curb bit she ha been going in for the last couple months. I'm guessing she's not happy with that so ill just switch her back to the snaffle.

Other than that, nothing much to report. She's doing just lively in the arena and I plan to switch her into a jumping saddle here in the next couple weeks. Should be fun!


----------



## amkingerski (Aug 27, 2013)

*Tuf Tami*

I read your thread and am very impressed with what you did with her!
I sold Tuf Tami to your BO (not certain what BO stands for so I will not post her name).
Tami was quite a horse, raced 150 times with 14 1sts, 21 2nds, 17 3rds -- in the racing world that's an accomplishment! http://www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=Horse&refno=1133047&registry=T
She mostly ran bare foot and was FORCED into retirement because she was 12 years old!
She had perfect conformation and not one blemish on her legs after 150 races...she ruled the herd with a strong but very kind hand not allowing fighting or bullying by the other horses.
I had 2 TB foals out of her - her 1st was toed out a bit and didn't race but showed tremendous speed (until my twit of a trainer bowed Timmy's tendon with overwork, ugh); her next TB foal was Oddy Oddy All Day one of the loves of my life, kind and gentle as they come - he hated getting dirt in his face so we were going to wait until Presque Isle opened with the synthetic surface but he died of colic shortly before it opened, I miss him dearly.
I had Tami up for sale for $5,000 but your BO talked me down to less than $1,000 claiming to be poor and struggling, haaa!
I lost track of Tami but wouldn't mind having her back so she'd be guaranteed a forever home.
Tami's pedigree is impressive, mostly British & Canadian thru NORTHERN DANCER -- she was mainly bred for the turf but ran (and WON) on all surfaces. The TB foals I got out of her had her sweet temperament so I think the QH stud made up the bad side of your mare.
I'd like to hear from you at [email protected] and update your progess...if you'd be interested in retraining a throw-away horse that was given to me, we could talk $$


----------

