# Life with Stitch and Cole!



## BlindHorseEnthusiast4582 (Apr 11, 2016)

I didn't get to read the whole post yet but they're both very handsome. I'm a sucker for a Paint.


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## Rideordie112 (Dec 7, 2013)

BlindHorseEnthusiast4582 said:


> I didn't get to read the whole post yet but they're both very handsome. I'm a sucker for a Paint.


Thank you! I'm excited to show them off a bit in this journal!


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## Uze (Feb 23, 2013)

That was quite the story, my goodness. I'm so sorry that happened to Stitch and you, but you've been through so much with that horse, it seems like you can get through anything. I'm glad you started a journal, I look forward to reading it! You seem like a very dedicated horsewoman, and all of your babies are super cute.


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## Rideordie112 (Dec 7, 2013)

Uze said:


> That was quite the story, my goodness. I'm so sorry that happened to Stitch and you, but you've been through so much with that horse, it seems like you can get through anything. I'm glad you started a journal, I look forward to reading it! You seem like a very dedicated horsewoman, and all of your babies are super cute.



Thank you! It was a crazy time. We didn't see what happened, we only saw Stitch and some other horses running around the main road at the top of the hill the barn is at the base of, and then the damage to the fences. That is the hypothesis formed by the vets who treated him.


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## Rideordie112 (Dec 7, 2013)

Today was a long day at the barn! I had a jumping lesson in the next town over at 11am. You'd think that isn't too early, but I'm really bad at doing anything during the winter. Especially lately I've been in a rut since it started getting cold. My sleep schedule is also messed up from working late and then having to stay up late after work to do my homework. So due to circumstance my morning was bound to have some sort of problem. 

To go to my lessons, I borrow my dad's truck and my BO's trailer. It's a pretty straight shot from my house, down the freeway to my parents house, and then right down the road to the barn. So I'm lucky there. But I ended up sleeping through my alarm and waking up at 9:45 instead of 9:00. As soon as I realized what time it was, I started panicking. There are always things I have to do at my parents house before I leave. My parents are the best, I may have moved out but they kept my room the same for when I stay over, and I keep a bunch of horse stuff in the closet; so I planned to just change there. 

So I jumped out of bed at 9:45, feed the cats and run out the door. By the time I get to my parents house, it's now 10 and I have a 20 minute drive to my lesson! So I changed really fast, sorta brushed my hair but not really, grabbed my dads truck and headed to the barn. As soon as I got there I immediately started hitching up the truck to the trailer. Our farrier is there, and he's parked obnoxiously close to the trailer, but I deal with it. Then he starts trying to strike up conversation with me, when obviously I am busy. But he doesn't seem to care. (Note: No one really likes the farrier, we have a shortage of good farriers in the area, he does a good job but he's lacking in the personality and manners department. He made small talk with me about my horse Cole's feet, who was next on his list to shoe while I was gone. And while I appreciate the interest in my horses well being I was already SO VERY LATE. 

So now that I have the truck hitched up, I did a quick safety check and then threw my tack inside. A little sloppily I admit, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Next was the hard part, actually getting the horse. The way my barn is set up, is that the barn itself is connected to the stalls and the arena. Inside consists of two 12x12 stalls and a lot of space for hay. We totally transformed it into one big stall that we use for storing boarders and kids who are leasing horses tack, then there is an area for lesson saddles and tack, and then a smaller tack room for the BO and trainer's stuff. Walking through the barn you directly enter an area where we tie and groom etc, but then at night can be closed off and used for horses. Lining this area is 6 stalls, three on either side each with their own run. And then there is the arena. There are 40 horses, so everyone is always turned out unless they need to be out. The barn is in a private residential area (Not many houses though. Many also had horses), and my BO has arrangements with her neighbors that allow her to use parts of their land. With that we have 6 pastures. One at the end of the property, two down the road and across a creek, another one farther down the same road, and another a bit farther down and at the top of a hill, and the last one is behind the neighbors kiwi plants! How do we catch and bring in these horses you ask? We use a Bobcat! All of the horses are trained to trot slowly behind the bobcat while someone sits on the tail gate and holds their lead rope. Stitch was in the pasture at the base of the hill. Someone else was using the bobcat, and the overflow from the creek was too high to walk through so I decided to take the trailer to the pasture. I have done this before but it's always a little bit scary because you have to go over a small bridge. 

So I got Stitch in the trailer right outside of his pasture . But to turn around and go back the other way you have to either back up or use this one family's driveway (It's a circle). We as a barn have a weird relationship with them, one of our pastures is right next to their house so they let us run their hose out there to water the horses in exchange for their children taking riding lessons every once in a while, or whenever they feel like coming. But its always a gamble on if you can drive the trailer through their driveway. Sometimes they get mad, sometimes they don't. I'm not the only one who uses the BO's trailer so i'm sure i'm not the only one who has used their driveway to turn around either. I tried to back up, but I was panicky because of how late I was that I gave up and used the driveway :-|
Hopefully they don't care, but whatever. 

I ended up getting to my lesson at 11:15 which was bad, but it could've been worse, and I texted my trainer ahead of time and she was very understanding about it; but unfortunately we did have to cut our lesson short because she needed to take her car in for a tune up. 

Stitch was really good. It took him a little bit to warm up since I hadn't ridden him in a week prior due to a mixture of cold weather blues and pouring rain. We did a lot of no stirrup work and two point- which I really need to work on. I feel like i'm getting stronger and stronger but I still struggle to hold my two point. It's not that i'm getting tired, i'm just not balanced enough. My previous trainer never really made me do two point or no stirrup work, which now that I think about wasn't a good thing. In due time I suppose? 

After that we did a lot of trotting to get Stitch moving and supple. He has a tendency to trot real slow and get lazy and then have a hard time staying on the bridle because he doesn't have enough impulsion from behind, and sometimes can be a little dead to my leg. To remedy this, a couple lessons ago my trainer gave me a crop for when Stitch ignores my leg. We cantered in both directions and worked on bending. This is new since Stitch's accident, but he's gotten in the habit of counter bending while cantering on his right lead only, and I don't know why but we're working on correcting it. I don't really think that is something i'm causing, but when the rain lets up i'll post a video. It's only on the right lead, and only around turns. And he doesn't fight you when you try to correct him, but its a repeated thing.

After that we did some jumping. We started with trotting some 18in cross rails, then we cantered and moved up to 2ft, then 2'3. We normally school a little higher but I kept screwing up. It was pretty discouraging. I would look down as we were approaching the fence and Stitch would just stop. Obviously this is my fault, but it's harder to catch then I thought because I don't notice when I look down. And when i'm riding my other horse he doesn't really react to me looking down. I really need to practice that, I wish i had someone who could come and watch me ride and tell me when i'm looking down!

After the lesson I headed back to the barn, parked the trailer then gave Stitch his grain, threw his blanket on, braided his mane and put his tail in a tail bag. It's supposed to pour rain for the next week shock which is gonna suck, but we really need it here in California. After that I took Stitch back to pasture and went to catch Cole. Cole isn't all that great about trotting behind the bobcat, especially when I'm alone and he has to be a little more self sufficient. We've been working on it a lot though, and it helps if there's hay from that mornings feeding left over in the back. I got to the pasture and he was all the way at the back of this 40 acre field, and there was no way I was walking that in 40 degree weather so I took the whole bobcat in the pasture and got to off road a little bit!:happydance:

The trot from Cole's pasture down to the barn is probably about 1/4 mile. And its a feat to get him to go the whole way without stopping, but lately he's been a star. I shouldn't have let my guard down because lo and behold Cole stopped abruptly, so instinctively I dropped the lead rope and stopped the bobcat so I could grab him. Well he decided that he was going to stop in the middle of the creek overflow we have to cross, and not only that but he was going to start walking down stream as well. So I had to go grab him, and I was soaked! When I got back to the barn I had to tie him up for a minute and take a breather, phew I was mad!

After that we had a good ride. W/T/C both ways, I set up some Xs with some barrels and popped over those and then it started raining. And I mean pouring. It wasn't supposed to start until tonight, we were supposed to have all day to rotate the pastures that we needed to, but mother nature loves her surprises. So I jumped off of Cole, quickly groomed, braided and blanketed him and then headed out on the bobcat in the rain. This time it was me, the BO and 3 other girls. We had three pastures to completely rotate before the storm really rolled in

We normally rotate pastures every now and then, mostly to let one get green while the horses munch on another one. But we have a couple that just don't have suitable shelter for the rain. And these two just happened to be the Moody Mare field, and the Proud Cut gelding field. A total of 18 horses! By this point lightening and thunder was starting so we were all literally running around like wild people trying to swap these horses around. People were on foot, someone had the bobcat and were transporting horses that way, another girl was riding her horse (who happened to be in one of the pastures that need moved) and ponying others. It wasn't pretty, but we were getting the job done. It took us over 30 minutes to swap both fields and feed and water the new ones. By the time we got back to the barn we were all drenched. 

I ended my barn day with my friends sitting around the BO's firepit out on the back porch. A crazy day, but a good one!
I took some pictures, I didn't get many because I was rushing around so much. But I got the boys new halters, Cole's isn't pictured because he drug the brand new rope straight through the mud after dragging me into the creek so I want to clean it up first. But it's green with polka dots, I felt the polka dots matched his silly personality. And of course, Stitch looks good in blue

















Also at our lesson today Stitch wore his nice black polos that I made him last night and two of my trainers other students wanted to buy a set! I make polos and fly bonnets and sell them at my local tack store, so Stitch and Cole are always my models! (If anyone needs any polos or bonnets i'm your girl!)









I don't have any new pictures of Cole today. The one I posted in my introduction post is one I took today. But for fun here are some pictures of our pastures. 
This was the pasture today when we had to get all the horses out before the rain








And here is the same one back not to long ago before it started to rain. And on the other side of the road by the green trees is another one of our pastures. 








Every year this wreaks havoc on my horses feet. Stitch especially, he constantly pulls his shoes off. Barefoot is not an option, and neither is staying up at the barn during the winter. I've talked to the farrier about this, because he will get shod and then literally the next day the shoe is off and his foot is all torn up. So I'm thinking it may be time to find a new farrier? His current farrier is just the one the barn uses for the lesson horses, and I can call my own if I so choose. If anyone has any ideas about that please do share. 

We have a great view in our little corner of paradise so just for some fun here some views of the barn, the pastures and the country around it. 
This was taken standing in the entrance of the barn looking towards the neighbors









This pond is about a miles ride from the barn









Stitch and I exploring the creek bed about 700 feet from the barn!









This picture features Cabari in his younger days. Me and a friend found this cute little area in the back of one of the pastures. 









Thanks for reading my first entry. Even though besides being late it was a fairly typical day for this time of year.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I love your journal already! Such a great story (minus poor Stitch's accident) I'm so sorry to hear that happened to him, but it looks like you got through it and I'm sure he loves you so much because he's in such great care!  You never gave up on him! So happy! They are both so cute. Jan seems like a great person as well. Very fortunate to have that for sure. 
I love the pictures, looks like a beautiful area! That's so cool you make stuff too, awww! That halter looks great on Stitch! Definitely his color. So beautiful!!!


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Yea, I'll follow along. You write very well. As to the problem with the shoes, that's a tough one because you jump. Since good farriers are hard to find, you might just do some research on your own about how to best trim your horse so that the shoes will stay on. Here on this forum is a wealth of information, just start searching for what you want to know to bring up past discussions.


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## NavigatorsMom (Jan 9, 2012)

Love what you've written so far! Your barn and BO sound very nice, remind me a lot of the place I'm at (been there since I was 11, grew up with the BO, etc.)  Can't wait to hear more. Paints I can usually take or leave but Stitch's color is beautiful!


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## Rideordie112 (Dec 7, 2013)

Thanks everyone! 

No barn today 
I had work but it was all cold and rainy anyways.


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## Rideordie112 (Dec 7, 2013)

whisperbaby22 said:


> Yea, I'll follow along. You write very well. As to the problem with the shoes, that's a tough one because you jump. Since good farriers are hard to find, you might just do some research on your own about how to best trim your horse so that the shoes will stay on. Here on this forum is a wealth of information, just start searching for what you want to know to bring up past discussions.


Thank you! 

And that is a good suggestion. Although one I am wary to try, I would have to learn literally everything. I don't know nearly enough about the hoof right now. I think next time I go out to the barn I'll take some good pictures of Stitch's feet and post on the forum


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## Rideordie112 (Dec 7, 2013)

PoptartShop said:


> I love your journal already! Such a great story (minus poor Stitch's accident) I'm so sorry to hear that happened to him, but it looks like you got through it and I'm sure he loves you so much because he's in such great care!  You never gave up on him! So happy! They are both so cute. Jan seems like a great person as well. Very fortunate to have that for sure.
> I love the pictures, looks like a beautiful area! That's so cool you make stuff too, awww! That halter looks great on Stitch! Definitely his color. So beautiful!!!



Thank you! It was really scary but he is totally sound and healthy now! 

And my mom chose the halter for him, she has great taste.


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## Rideordie112 (Dec 7, 2013)

NavigatorsMom said:


> Love what you've written so far! Your barn and BO sound very nice, remind me a lot of the place I'm at (been there since I was 11, grew up with the BO, etc.)  Can't wait to hear more. Paints I can usually take or leave but Stitch's color is beautiful!


I Normally feel the same way about paints! I would be lying if I said his color wasn't part of what attracted me lol


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