# Moving Forward



## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Thanks to the advice I got in one of my previous posts, I figured I'd make a journal to track my progress as I work on moving further into the horse world. I'm hoping that this journal is not only a way to track my progress, but also a way to keep me accountable as well. 


*My Horse Background:* 

Basically, I've sat on a few random horses over the years as a grew up, such as random horse back rides every couple years with someone I knew, occassional pony rides at the fair until I got too old/big for that, and then a few months of riding lessons when I was 12, 2 weeks at a horse summer camp, and that's about it. 

Then, when I graduated in 2016, I got my first horse. I learnt a lot from her as well as the many other horses I've worked with between that time to where I am now. Also, when I got my first horse, that was the same time i joined this forum so I guess I've actually been here quite a while lol. Anyway, so over the last 4 years, I've had a few sparadoc riding lessons, extra riding I was able to do beyond that due to having my horse, but there was a year and a half where I didn't ride. 

So basically, I've had very little experience in the horse world compared to a lot of other people who work with horses. 


*Where I'm at currently*:

At this point, I'm tired of getting thrown for loops with trainer who say they'll teach me only to then ghost me. I did have one instructor that I took lessons from for about 9 months but never made any progress and it wasn't until I recorded my rides that I started to realize all the mistakes I was making when I'd ride. 

However, I've managed to finally find a trainer who is willing to work with me and is very honest about what I'm doing and what I need to do to fix it. I've only had 2 lessons with her so far, but already I can feel the difference and I'm quite excited for it. I'm riding one of her horses and with the way I ride him, she says she'd put me at about the intermediate level. However, he's also a pretty easy ride that's used for beginners as well so it could be that on some other horses, I'd be more in the advanced/confident beginner category instead. 

Also, one other thing to note is that I have found out that I my hormones are out of balance so I need to take anti-depressants. If I don't, I end up being tired a lot, have 0 motivation for anything other than just sitting at home and watching tv, and my emotions are fairly unstable. However, as long as I take these meds, I'm able to function normally and enjoy life. Reason I'm mentioning this as it does effect my life with my horses.


*Goals:* 

Long term is to run my own horse/animal rescue place, train horses, and maybe even teach lessons at some point. 

Short term is more to improve my abilities the best I can and to gain the confidence I lost over the last 4 years as I've grown up and stop comparing myself to others as well as to my younger self. 

Another goal that fits in with both long and short term is to lose weight and get in better shape so that I'm able to work with horses better. I'm already down about 17 lbs but I still have another 40-50 to go yet to get to where I want to be. 


*My Current Horses:*

First up is my oldest, Sam. He's a 9 year old registered thoroughbred gelding and stands about 16.2-16.3 hh and is the tallest horse I've ever ridden. He's had most of the winter off with a few sparadoc rides here and there. He's currently living on my property at the farm and has been here a week. 
With this guy, I'm currently struggling to find the motivation to ride him because not only is he forward, but he's become quite spooky and I don't particularly care for our rides at this point.


















Next up is Jack. This guy is 3 years old now and I've done all the groundwork with him. He's currently off at a trainers to get 30 days riding put on him. This guy is both sensitive and eager to respond to your cues as well as lazy since he doesn't like to canter more than he has to and rarely gallops even when turned out in a big field with Sam lol. 
This guy has helped me gain a certain level of confidence back and he's an absolute sweet heart. I'm honestly looking forward to when he gets back and we can go for rides.


















Then there's my newest girl, Sadie (not sure yet if this'll 100% be her perminant name yet). She's a year old feral filly and is supposedly a quarter horse cross. I've only had her a week now so I don't know much about her. She does seem to have a bit of a dominant personality from what I've seen of her as well as she learns very fast. I've been able to touch her slightly and feed her grass out of my hand. 
Also, she's an unexpected purchase as I decided to save her from slaughter at the last minute. So I honestly have no plans for her yet other than to get her used to human contact and teach her ground manners. 


















Last but not least is little Melody. This sweetheart I met when she was just 10 days old and I honestly fell in love with her. She's currently about a month old give or take. She's a quarter horse and is going to be registered pretty soon here. She's supposed to mature around 15 hh and is supposed to be pretty versatile in her breeding. So I'm looking forward to getting her in September when she's weaned. 











So ya, that's a short introduction to myself and my horses and I hope that from this point on, I'll be able to start moving forward and not continually looking back and wishing for things instead of working to what I want to achieve. I know I'm going to struggle but that's one reason why I want to have this journal so that I can be held accountable.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

This will be fun to watch your progress as you go forward with your herd... :smile:
:runninghorse2:...


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Time for the first update. 

I had my second riding lesson today and it went even better than the first one. My legs weren't quite as still as they should have been, but that was because I worked extra hard yesterday and so was quite sore on my left side and it caused my muscles to tense way more than normal. Either way, the lesson went well and I'm still learning more and plan to have another one or two lessons next week. 

I also rode Sam today. It's been officially a week since he got brought to the farm and I've only done some ground work with him and led him around to get him used to the place. Apparently chickens and pigs are terrifying as well as random tarps lol. 

Anyway, so like I said, I rode him today and it's honestly one of the best rides we've had so far. He neck reined nearly perfectly which he hasn't done since I started working with him again. He also wasn't in the need for speed mood either. In fact, when I asked him to stop, he actually stopped almost instantly. When trotting, he actually trotted around properly and never tried to go into a canter which was one problem we'd had for a little while. On top of that, he slowed down wonderfully from a trot to a walk. Not only that, but during the whole ride, I rode him on a fairly loose rein and in the makeshift hackamore I made. 
We'd only ridden for about 5-10 mins but even so, that was an amazing ride. Didn't ride longer since the stirrups were the wrong length so I couldn't ride properly and once I got off, I couldn't really hop on again since what I used for a mounting block broke when I used it to get on him in the first place. 















This second pic is of the horse I ride for my lessons. He's a 15.3 quarter horse named Chester and built like a tank lol. 


Oh! And I ride Jack on Monday when I went to see his progress in training. It was his 11th ride and we went out for a trail ride. He honestly did pretty good. He plowed through bushes, mud, puddles, steep ditches and whatnot like a pro trail horse. However, his steering isn't very good yet lol. And his brakes are pretty bad too. There were two times that in order to get him to slow to a walk, I had to make him do a tight circle to get his mind back on me and slow down and behave. But either way, his trot and walk is quite comfortable to ride. 
Also I'm aware I look a little off on him. I had to use the trainers saddle and the seat on it is too small for me but it worked for the ride we went on. 












And thanks @horselovinguy glad you think so


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Well, yesterday I managed to rope my filly. I did a bit of desensitizing with it first where I just swung it around and "roped" the ground until it was dropping next to her and such. During all of that, she just stood there, looking bored. Kind of surprised me how chill she was, but then, I have been bringing stuff in with me at times so she's gotten desensitized to a certain extent already with me doing random stuff. So when I finally roped her, she kinda moved sideways, but otherwise didn't react. It wasn't even a perfect roping as I only got it hooked on one ear and half her face, but she then looked over at me and with a small wiggle, the rope was on. 
We worked on introducing her to giving to pressure to start working on the concept of leading and ended with working being able to touch her neck and finally, being able to loosen the rope and taking it off. 

As for today, I didn't even need to rope her. I was able to do a bit of approach and retreat with the rope and was apple to just lift it over her head. She did shift away/sideways as it went over, but all in all, she was pretty calm and just looked at me after as though asking what to do next. 
Well, we worked a bit more on lead and of course, she did a lot better than yesterday and the loop didn't even tighten around her neck since she'd give to the smallest pressure when I asked. She does stop frequently but she is just learning so I don't mind. But then we moved onto getting used to being touched and today I was able to rub the whole length of her neck on both sides. I even found a few small itchy spots that she enjoyed getting scratched on. So i was pretty happy with how far we got today. I'm hoping that pretty soon I'll be able to get the halter on but it's one step at a time. 


I also took Sam for a walk today. I didn't take my meds for 2 weeks (both forgetfulness and needing a refill) so with how energetic and somewhat reactive he was being, I couldn't bring myself to actually ride him. So instead, i tacked him up and we went for a walk down the road off property. We also had a storm rolling in so that's why Sam was extra energetic today. Anyway, so the walk went well. He actually handled it better than I expected so that was good. But ya, all in all, today was good with him. I also need to find something for a mounting block as the wood stairs I was using are too old and rotting. They sort of started to cave in the last time I used them to hop on Sam. So definitely need to find something new to use. 


Last little update is that next week I'll have 2 more riding lessons. One on Chester, the lesson horse and one that will be with me on Sam. So I'm looking forward to that.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Made more progress with my filly, Sadie. I was able to rub from her face down to her butt. Haven't touched her legs yet though, and she doesn't care too much for being touched on the face just yet. But she did love the scratches on her withers and sides since I was able to help rub more of the winter coat off. Got her doing the whole head lift and lip wiggle with how much she liked it and even nearly started trying to do some mutual grooming with me lol.
I also worked on a bit of desensitizing to the whip. Basically just hit the ground with it a bit at first. She lifted her head to eyeball it a little at first but then just went to sleep on me lol. So then I moved onto gently swinging the string part over her body and around her legs. She barely even looked over at the whip and didn't care at all that it was swinging around her and touching her all over. She did flinch slightly when the string looped around her flank a bit once, but that was it. 

She's honestly so much more chill than I expected. She just stood there, leg cocked and bottom lip droopy with eyes half lidded without a care in the world. Other horses I've worked with are usually more reactive the first few times I do this but I'm quite proud of how well she's handling it. 


I also managed to find a wooden block to use as a mounting block but it rained this evening so I wasn't able to squeeze a ride in. But I'm thinking I'll try to get a ride in tomorrow. Also got a few other wooden blocks that I was able to put out in the cleared pasture in a bit of a barrel pattern just so we can do something different and can do circles around them or figure 8's or the barrel pattern. But I'm definitely struggling to look forward to riding him. I love working with him on the ground and I enjoy it, but getting on is different. I definitely have a mental block there and I'm not sure how to get over it but I'm working on it. And I think the riding lessons will definitely help and I need to try to focus more on what can right instead of what could go wrong.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Worked with Sadie some more today. I gave her yesterday off since I plan to have Sundays as a rest day in general for all horses just so we all get some time off. Anyway, so I started up again today and this morning I started off with catching her with the rope again and went over a few things of allowing me to pet her and desensitizing her to having her face and ears rubbed. After that, we moved onto the halter and with a bit of convincing, I managed to get it on her. She did great with it so I went back to go over the things I've done when I had the rope on her and she was totally calm and was great at it. So we worked on yielding her hindquarters a bit as well and just overall desensistizing to me touching her. 

This evening, I went in for a short session and was able to go up to her and pet her just fine. I grabbed the halter and lead rope and was able to wrap the rope around her neck at the second attempt, was able to put the halter on her. So today, I've officially caught Sadie with the halter for the first time I'm pretty excited with that progress. I spent another 5 - 10 mins with her, just working on leading and yielding before letting her go and giving her supper. She also nickered out to me as well which is pretty exciting. 


















As for Sam, I managed to ride him today. After I got him tacked up and went into the large pasture/makeshift arena, I ended up lunging him. I got the feeling he was going to be spunky which is why I lunged him first and sure enough, as soon as I asked for a canter, he started to buck and race around as fast as he could and just over all being goofy lol. Once he was done going crazy and started to focus on me again, I put on the bridle and got up on him. 

Our ride only lasted about 20 minutes, but at least 15 of those minutes were focusing on trotting, slowing down, stopping, and steering. We're getting to the point I don't have to give any verbal cue to get him to slow down or stop and he's starting to respond better. We did have a minor hiccup today though, since he forgot how to turn at one point (we were doing neck reining) and he started to back up instead. Once I clucked at him, then he remembered what he was supposed to do and he started to move forward and turn and after that, we were all good again haha. 
So we definitely had a good ride today and made some progress for both him and i so that's pretty nice.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Didn't end up doing anything with the horses yesterday since we had a big rainstorm. But today has been fairly productive. 

Worked with Sadie and it's getting easier to catch her with the halter and lead rope. She's also doing a lot better with leading so I think we'll be able to start leaving her pen to walk around pretty soon which is exciting. She's also getting the hang of yielding her hindquarters and the cues for sending her off or getting her turn in and face me. 


I did have a riding lesson on my instructors horse, Chester today. She set up some makeshift poles with short logs to practice a bit of pole bending so that was interesting and fun to do. I even got to canter a bit as well. Her pen is a little small for Chester though so we didn't do a whole lot of it. Even so, it feels really nice to finally be making progress and that she sees me as skilled enough to try out new things . 


After that, I went home and hopped on Sam. In order to make progress with him, we need to ride more frequently so I managed to get on him as well today. I also had 0 apprehension of hopping on him so that made it easier to want to ride as well. He did great at the walk and trotting around wasn't too bad either. But then I figured why not take things to the next step since things were going well. So I asked him to canter. It took me till the third stride to get into his rythem a bit but at 7-8th stride, he started to feel good and picked up speed a little more and tossed his head and acted like he wanted to wanted to buck and play. So I settled him down again and we went back to trotting. We had to work on the trot for a bit since after the canter, he didn't want to listen anymore and wanted to go faster or only wanted to turn the way he wanted to so we had to work on some figure 8's and circles and going the opposite direction that he wanted to before he got his brain back and settled down. From there, we rode around the farm property a bit which is a first and called it good at that. 


All in all, today has been pretty good and I'm quite happy that I managed to ride 2 horses today and keep the motivation going to want to ride both of them. On Friday I'll have another riding lesson except this time, the lesson will be on Sam so that should be interesting. 
















After the rain storm, Sam had to go and roll around in the mud lol.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Sadie *is learning so fast! Today we added in her first ever grooming session. She actually seemed to start enjoying it too. Definitely got a lot of winter coat fluff off, but there's lots more to go yet. I'm thinking I'll soon be able to deworm her which will really help her lose the excess fur. We also worked outside of the little round pen area. Probably won't be too long until I can start leading her around the yard and once she realizes that means we can go to the fresh grass and she can have a snack, I'm sure she'll start to really enjoy it. 

Rode *Sam* again. Thanks to my confidence getting better plus getting better at riding and working more with Sam, he's starting to calm down and not try to rush around. We can actual ride and he takes his time. Once in a while he'd perk up and get brisker in his pace but overall, he's calming down. He's starting to read my seat better/I'm getting better at communicating with him. We even had a moment where I asked him to stop from a trot and he nearly stopped instantly which is a first. 

To finish off the day, I went out and saw my little *Melody*. She's about a month or a little over a month old now. She's also super sweet and loved getting scratched. When I rubbed her belly, near where the imbilicord was and on the inner thigh area and whatnot, she would lift her one back leg and her lip would giver and her head would be up. She enjoyed it so much that she didn't know what to do with herself lol. I found a few other itchy spots as well and she just absolutely loved the attention. Super happy with her and can't wait until she's weaned and gets to come home with me.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Sadie impressed me today. I was able to go up to her and halter her without needing to put the lead rope around her neck which was awesome. I think I'll be able to take the extra panels out of her pen next week if she stays this good to catch when I open up her area more. I just worked a bit more on her leading which is really coming along, as well as groomed her a bit more. She's also starting to enjoy that and she's starting to like her face getting rubbed plus I found an itchy spot that her head up and lip wiggling today too. I also realized that she has 3 swirls on her forehead which is quite something. 



Sam and I had a riding lesson today. Got told my saddle actually puts me in worse position than I originally thought. So not only does the saddle not fit Sam right, but in order to make it fit the best we can, it causes me to be in a bad position. But I'll be picking up a saddle tomorrow to try out on Sam and I'm hoping that it'll fit. If it does, well then I'll be riding Sam English instead of western like I have been. So it should be interesting how things go but I really hope i can finally find a saddle to fit my guy. 

Anyway, with the lesson, it went well. We're working on getting Sam to lower his head (instead of doing giraffe impressions) and engage his back end a bit more and round out his body or whatever you want to call it when they actually engage themselves and carry themselves properly. We're also working on getting him to do this at a trot as well which is definitely harder for him. He also didn't want to pay attention to me when going to the left. To the right, we did pretty good. But left, he kept wanting to turn his head to the right and look more at the birds and trees than pay attention to me and his turning wasn't as good as it's been before. But we managed to get to his attention back on me and once that happened, he started to settle and actually go into frame a bit better and we ended the session on a pretty good note.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Things have been interesting these last few days. I gave the horses the weekend off since they were doing so well. 

Sadie was easy to catch yesterday, thought other than go over a few basic things, I didn't do anything else since on Sunday I went for a hike and ended up with sore shins and blisters on my feet. So ya, our session was short yesterday. 

Today I was able to do more with her. However, she didn't feel like letting me approach her. So we had to do a bit of lunging before she realized it was just easier to let me pet her. From there, I caught her and we worked a bit on leading before moving onto working with the whip and desensitizing to it which wasn't an issue in the slightest. I also spent some time brushing her and it looks like she's rubbed part of her mane off with wanting to get at the grass so that's lovely lol. 

Anyway, since she did so good at everything, I figured I'd introduce some new things. First up was the saddle pad. At first she wasn't too sure about it, but with a bit of time, she was fine with it. I was even able to rest it on her back and get her walk around a bit with it. After a bit of a break, we moved on to introducing the idea of giving her feet. for the moment, I'm just working on getting her to give to pressure and lift her feet. All I did was squeeze the chestnut and retreat when she lifted her foot. We practiced both front legs for now and even got her to give me her foot on the left side for a second or two to hold. So we definitely made some good progress today.


















As for Sam, all I did yesterday was groom him and lunge him a bit since my feet/legs were too sore to be able to walk much. 
But today I managed to have a riding lesson on him. I also got an english saddle to try out on him. It was actually quite amazing how much of a difference it made to ride him English. It was like he was a completely different horse. The saddle doesn't fit him 100% but even so, he actually was quite calm and trotted around at a decent pace and the speedy giraffe horse I'd been working with was no longer there. Instead, he was more than content to just walk and trot around and he even started to carry his head lower as well and is starting to work on collecting himself a bit better on his own.

There were actually a few times I had to put a bit of extra leg on him since he wanted to just go back to a walk and even when he'd walk, he was lazy and took his time. It was just mind blowing how much more settled he was simply with switching to an english saddle, especially since this saddle doesn't fit him completely. But it fits him well enough that I think as long as I have a half pad or shims for it, it'll be fine. I'll be trying it out for a few more days just to make sure this isn't a one day thing and if he's truly preferring this saddle, then it's going to stay. 

I also switched back to the bridle with the bit half way through to see how that'd affect things, and Sam became even more supple. Not perfect as there's still some work to be done, but so much better than how he was last week. 

On the downside, Sam seems to have gotten himself a case of sweet itch. He managed to rub a good chunk of hair off his tail. Anyway, so I'm going to apply some ointment to the bald patches, give him some more frequent bathes when the weather allows it, and I got some bug spray that targets midges and a lot of other bugs as well, more than his previous bug spray did. So I'm hoping that I'll be able to get on top and eventually ahead of this.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Spent a good chunk of the morning giving Sam a thorough bath. He was very unimpressed by it lol. By the end of the bath, he was nice and soft and so shiny. I also worked on cleaning his sheath as well since it hasn't really been done since I got him last fall, plus I was told it could be a factor in his itchy butt. Turns out he has a lot of gunk build up. I was able to get a decent amount cleaned up, but there's some of it that's sticking to his skin like it's glued on so I didn't want to push it too far since it was uncomfortable and almost painful for him if I worked at it to much, even with the water and soap. So I just did as much as I could and called it good for today. I'll look up some ways to get rid of easier and then tackle it again tomorrow or sometime this week anyway. Can't imagine how uncomfortable he's been with that stuck in there. 










Also went out and saw Jack this evening. I got to see the trainer ride him around and he's progressing quite well. Rode him myself too and I can tell he's going to have to get used to me being on his back instead of her since he wasn't wanting to respond to my cues as nicely as he did for her. But she was also riding one of her horses around there so he was wanting to gravitate towards them most of the time. 
I also tried out the english saddle on Jack it's practically a perfect fit. He looks pretty good in it too if I do say so myself. I look forward to the day that he comes home and I get to work with him more myself.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Where training is concerned for Sadie, things have progressed nicely. She's holding her front feet up better for me and is giving them quite easily. So I'm able to start picking out her front feet soon. I'm going to be starting to work on her back feet soon now too. She's understanding being sent off a lot better too. She yields her hindquarters quite nicely. Her leading is doing a lot better as well. She's totally fine with the whip, rope swing around, having a saddle pad tossed on her, having my sweater tossed on her, doesn't mind being touched all over, and is good for being brushed, plus she's getting to be quite easy to catch. She's also starting to nicker when she sees me which is cute and exciting. I've also taken her for a walk outside of her pen twice now and she did pretty good. Of course there were some moments where she wasn't too sure about leaving her pen but we never wandered far. So she's definitely coming along quite nicely. 

Also, she's managed to rub off a chunk of her mane by reaching for the grass on the other side of the fence. So it looks like I just may be roaching her mane to get it all looking even and the same again. Really didn't want to do that cause I love her mane, but it doesn't exactly look nice to have a big bald patch. 


















As for Sam, I'm getting rather discouraged with him. Just as we were making progress, we suddenly ended up back at square one and it's really frustrating. I'm wondering a bit if maybe him and I just aren't a good match for ridden work. On the ground, we're great. I can do liberty work with him, he does everything I ask, and so on. But as soon as I'm on him, it's like all that is out the window. But I'm still working on it. 

There is a lady at the stables who's interested in him though. I know her and I've seen how her and her daughter care for the horse they have at the stables and know they take very good care of their horses. So I'm thinking of allowing them to do a trial period with Sam and see how it goes. If they seem to be a good fit, I'll let Sam go to them. If not, then I'll keep working with him. I never listed him for sale or anything, they actually approached me about him and we got to talking. So I'm not sure what to think. But at the same time, I took one an extra horse (Sadie) that I hadn't planned for and I'm not sure I can keep 4 horses long term so perhaps this will be a good thing. Either way, Sam is still with me and I'm waiting to hear back from this lady for confirmation that they want to do the trial period with him.


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## carshon (Apr 7, 2015)

It is very refreshing to hear an owner say I may not be a good match but I will do the right thing for my horse. I am sure you are discouraged with Sam but leasing or selling him to someone where you can see his progress maybe a good move.

Good job with Sadie!


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## csimkunas6 (Apr 18, 2010)

Really coming along well with Sadie! Nice work! And Jack looks soo good!!! I look forward to when he's ready to come back home to you! As for Sam.....riding is supposed to be fun, I love groundwork, but I love riding too. Might not hurt to let them do a trail period and see where it goes  Look forward to updates!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Really excited to keep reading about your journey with all 3.  Sadie is so cute! Love the updates!!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

carshon said:


> It is very refreshing to hear an owner say I may not be a good match but I will do the right thing for my horse. I am sure you are discouraged with Sam but leasing or selling him to someone where you can see his progress maybe a good move.
> 
> Good job with Sadie!


Thanks, I appreciate you saying that. I feel awful even considering selling him since I don't want it to seem like I sell a horse at the drop of a hat so to speak. 



csimkunas6 said:


> Really coming along well with Sadie! Nice work! And Jack looks soo good!!! I look forward to when he's ready to come back home to you! As for Sam.....riding is supposed to be fun, I love groundwork, but I love riding too. Might not hurt to let them do a trail period and see where it goes  Look forward to updates!


Thanks! And I really look forward to Jack coming home too. He should be coming back sometime this month I believe which is super exciting. And I agree, riding does need to be fun. I don't mind having to do work and having some rides that are just "ok" but with him, in the last month, all our rides have been "bad" or "ok" with only maybe 2 where I truly enjoyed riding him around and had fun. But who knows, nothing is 100% decided so maybe he'll find a new home, or maybe we'll finally reach a break through and we start to have some fun. 



PoptartShop said:


> Really excited to keep reading about your journey with all 3.  Sadie is so cute! Love the updates!!


I'm glad you're enjoying it so far


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Hey guys. Been a long time since I posted. I've been pretty busy with the horses, work starting up again, and all kinds of things. So an update is definitely long overdue.

First up, I have sold Sam. He's living the good life now with his new family. They pamper him and take really good care of him. He's boarded at the same place I'm at so I see how he's treated and everything on a regular basis. Honestly, I think he's more spoiled now than he's ever been before. So it definitely makes me glad that he's getting the best care he could ever get. Not to mention he gets along great with his owner and the two have bonded well. 

Last pics I have of him.










Next up is Sadie. She's come along well. I've been taking her training nice and slow so she can enjoy being a baby. Despite that, she catches onto things fast. She's learning how to trot in hand as well so we jog around the stables a bit at times. She's also going to have her first hoof trim next week and I'm not sure how well that's going to go. She picks up her feet nicely now and I can play around with them and clean them, but she's still not very trusting of strangers. So that'll be a wait and see. Oh, and I decided to see how she'd do with with a cinch type sensation and I used an extra lead rope to wrap around her where a cinch would sit. I'd tighten and loosen it, getting her used to the sensation. The first one or two times she looked at me or took a small step but that was it. I ended up being able to tie it around her a little snug and lunged her to see what would happen. Well, nothing happened xD. She literally walked and trotted around like it was the most normal thing ever and like she did all the time. No crow hops, no bucking, no nothing. I was very impressed but in general, that's just how she's been with pretty much everything I've thrown at her. 

Pics are from oldest to newest/most recent


















Then there's Jack. He actually came back from getting 30 rides put on him the same day Sam sold. At this point, I've done another 10 rides roughly. I sort of lost track of the exact amount, but I know it's at least ten lol. He's doing fairly well. We had a few hiccups initially but we got through that and things are going better now. He has a super nice trot that's easy to both sit and rise to. We haven't done too much cantering just yet. His steering still needs work and I don't want to go all the way to a canter until he can manage to consistently turn or go in a circle without being so stiff or just insist on going forward instead of turning. He's also starting to learning leg cues. In general, he does pretty good honestly. We go for little rides around the stables as well. 

Also, I thought he was about 14.2 hh since I used a measuring tape and roughly figured out how tall he is with it, but it's not the most accurate way. But then I went to a friends place for a riding lesson and she got a new horse that I was riding for the lesson and he's apparently 14.3 hh and yet he was shorter than Jack. She was doubtful of his size too and brought out a tape measure specific to measuring horses and sure enough, he's 14.3. When the lady came out to help me with Sadie a bit and she saw Jack, she figures he's probably actually 15 hh. We forgot to bring the horse measuring tape, but the next time she comes around, she's going to bring it and then we can properly measure him as I'm extremely curious to his height now. But based off the lady's gelding, I'd say Jack is 15 hh or at least pretty close to it. 










To finish things off, a little update of little Melody. Her back legs have straightened out so she's totally fine there just like the vet said. So she was let out to roam the big pasture with her mom and the other horses. I was sent a pic of her the other day and her registration papers were sent in as well. Her reg name will be Shadows Kidden Cline. I believe the Shadow part comes from her moms reg name and the Kidden comes from the sire. Cline is the name the breeder gave her after Patsy Cline. It's a name I don't mind, but I'm personally not a fan of Cline but oh well. I still love her and her reg name doesn't change that. And I'm super excited for this filly to come live with me this September. I'm thinking of bringing Melody and Sadie to the farm so they can have a bigger pasture/field to run around in for the winter to enjoy just being babies. 











So ya, that's about all I can think of off the top of my head. To conclude the update, here's a pic of Jack and Sadie's first meeting lol.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

That is wonderful news about Sam, & that's so awesome you can see him since he's at the same barn!  YAY! So glad it all worked out. I am glad he's happy with his new owner & they hit it off. That is wonderful. Sounds like Sadie is coming along nicely, too, she is so cute! Jack definitely looks like he grew, too. Interested to see what the tape says! Melody is just adorable, so sweet! So glad to hear things are going well, happy to see an update. 

LOL, that last pic is hilarious - Sadie is like, YEAH, BACK AWAY BOY! :rofl:


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> That is wonderful news about Sam, & that's so awesome you can see him since he's at the same barn!  YAY! So glad it all worked out. I am glad he's happy with his new owner & they hit it off. That is wonderful. Sounds like Sadie is coming along nicely, too, she is so cute! Jack definitely looks like he grew, too. Interested to see what the tape says! Melody is just adorable, so sweet! So glad to hear things are going well, happy to see an update.
> 
> LOL, that last pic is hilarious - Sadie is like, YEAH, BACK AWAY BOY! :rofl:


Ya, I couldn't ask for a better situation for Sam. Him and I both lucked out with how things ended up there. 
And ya, Sadie and Jack have a very interesting relationship xD They take turns chasing the other away from me haha. For the most part, Jack is top dog between the two but there times you can clearly see in his face that he's just tolerating her attempts at bossing him around and barely even moves when nips at him. They're quite something to watch XD


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Yesterdays ride was quite something. I could tell it was going to rain so I went to ride in the indoor arena. I also set up a single pole on one end and 2 trot poles on the other. Jack has never been ridden over poles so I figured I'd see what he thought of them. 

Anyway, we were riding around when a girl came in with her horse. It'd started raining and she figured she'd rather ride inside. Jack tends to want to be with other horses when under saddle. So he wasn't listening too great when I was asking to turn at different times. He'd either be hard to turn or he'd whip around more than I wanted because I was asking him to turn the direction the other horse was. And when I'd ask him to turn away from said horse, he'd turn his head but just drift sideways until we'd run into a wall before he'd actually turn properly at times. It was quite something. 

We did make progress on this but then the girl left. As Jack saw the horse leave, he tried to run over but I wouldn't let him and that's when we had the first excitement happen. He bucked! He was quite grumpy with me for not letting him go to the other horse that he gave a good solid 3 bucks. I actually had 0 trouble staying on, but I've yet to be bucked off when I'm on properly (was bucked off once just because horse moved as I was getting on and I ended up behind the saddle and he didn't like it, otherwise I ride through bucks no problem). I was also using an English type saddle which I'm still very used to using so I was honestly a little surprised that I managed to stay on as well as I did. 

After his bucking fit ended, I made him do some tight turns and yields to let him know bucking was not an acceptable response to give. After that, he settled down actually behaved much better. 


On the positive side, I discovered that Jack loves to go over poles. Every chance he'd get, he tried to turn towards the poles when riding by them and he figured out the trot poles very quickly too. At one point, I free lunged him and he took the chance to go over the poles all on his own despite there being plenty of space to go around and I wasn't asking him to go over them. So that was fun to see him enjoying that and I'm definitely going to add in poles a little more often.


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## Nubs (Jul 25, 2019)

I love this! Updates, babies and bucks! What could be better!?


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Nubs said:


> I love this! Updates, babies and bucks! What could be better!?


Haha, I'm glad you're enjoy it! All those things definitely make for a busy life and interesting times


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Had another interesting ride with Jack on Thursday. This time around I rode in the outdoor arena where a lady and a young girl were practicing barrels. Since Jack has issues when it comes to wanting to gravitate towards other horses when under saddle, I figured it'd be good to work on it some more. He actually did pretty good for the most part. He still drifted a bit when I asked him to turn away but it was better. We even took a turn or two doing the barrel pattern at a trot. He tends to not want to turn or if he does turn, he goes too far so that we'd go on the wrong side of the barrel. His steering definitely needs work lol. 

Anyway, the other two set up two poles that I think they called the stake. It's basically just like pole bending but with 2 poles and doing a figure instead of going through so many poles. As the lady went through it, Jack and I had stopped a few meters away to watch. Well, when the lady got her horse to canter back, Jack started to throw a fit but since I was expecting something like this to happen, he was able to toss his head and take maybe two steps before I got after him with doing a partial one rein stop and redirecting his feet to get him to yield his hindquarters until he settled. After that, no more issues. 

We got invited to join in, so we did. Jack did a lot better at this but he was also starting to calm down and not get so excited about the other horses anymore either. We even practiced standing patiently next to the other girl or lady as we waited for the other to finish and for our turn to come. Doing this actually seemed to help A LOT. By the end of doing this about 3 times, he actually started to trot normally/lazily instead of being a ball of nerves wanting to run everywhere. He's also had a problem with patiently standing at times so these breaks where we had to wait helped too and by the end, he had 0 issues just standing for a few minutes and watching everyone else. 

To finish things off, they set up 3 poles to introduce the hurry scurry. The first two were just ground poles while the last was raised about half a foot. I walked Jack over it the first time and he did alright with it. Then we tried it one more time but at a trot. He was wobbly going over the first ground pole and got better by the second and the raised one threw him off and he ended up jumping it. I felt rather off balance myself at times through it since he was somewhat all over the place and it was something new to both of us. But it went decently well. And after that, we called it a day. It was a blast riding with them and I think Jack definitely made some improvements during it. 



Yesterday I had a lesson on him on him and it went quite well! He was being lazy and dragging his feet a bit so we ended up going over some ground poles. Then the instructor raised the last pole (there were only 3) and we worked on that. We took a short break and I cantered Jack a bit which went decently well, though he would break gait a few times but easily took it up again when asked. Then we went back to the poles and worked on getting him to canter after going over the raised pole. Then we raised up the middle pole as well. He didn't bat an eye at any of it and happily went over them. And that was about it for that session. 

We did notice however, that he seemed to be a little stiff in his back end. He moved just fine unless he drifted and then he'd look a little off or if you looked directly behind him (which we didn't do until later since otherwise it wasn't really noticeable). Anyway, the lesson was only about 45 mins long anyway and Jack now has today off through Tuesday and depending what happens tomorrow, he may have a few more days off as well. Tomorrow he gets worked on by the chiropractor and we're pretty that's all that it's going to take to help Jack feel better as he has no swelling or heat anywhere. 

I'm pretty sure the stiffness comes from a day or so prior when he was squabbling with the mare in the pen beside his and he bucked a little into the fence and bumped his rump against it, spooking himself in the process. Fence does have electric wiring along it as well and these squabbles are never serious. But it could be the way he hit his butt against the fence made him a bit sore. Anyway, that's about all for this long update. 



Also, please excuse my bad form at the canter, I was still trying to figure out his rhythem and try to keep some leg on since he wanted to break gait a couple times xP


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

On Monday, *Jack* got his very first chiro session. He wasn't sure what to make of it but by the end, he was really enjoying it. He was out in a few places which I figured he was. His lumbar and back end were the worst of it which made sense why he was moving a little stiffly at times during the riding lesson. She said it was nothing serious, just stuff that was a result from the chaotic life he had before me and just the bits that come along with being started under saddle and I'm sure having a few saddles on that didn't entirely fit didn't help the matter much either. Either way, I'm glad it was nothing serious and that he's now doing better. And he's now on a break until Friday or Saturday before he'll be brought back into work. 



In the meantime, I've been focusing on *Sadie* since she has her very first hoof trim happening after work on Thursday. I've been trying to get different people to come over and pet her so she gets used to strangers as well as working on getting her used to her hooves being held between my legs similar to what a farrier does. She's getting better about different people reaching out to pet her, though she's still unsure about it at times. She was totally fine with riding instructor picking up her feet, so that's great. Crossing my fingers she's that nice for the farrier. I've been tapping on her feet as well and cleaning them and wiggling them around and holding them for longer than I would to just clean them all as a way to prepare her. Despite my preparation, I won't be surprised if she isn't happy about the trim since a stranger will be doing something her feet which a new experience. Last weanling/yearling I worked with, her first go to reaction was to rear or lay down despite being 100% fine with whatever I did to her. So I'm hoping to minimize my chances of having that happen by having the trim happen either right outside the paddock where she feels safe, or even inside the paddock where she feels the most safe. I also gave the farrier a heads up about her being feral prior to me having her so she can be prepared and I know some farriers won't take on certain cases and I didn't want to surprise her with anything. 


So ya, that's the general update for now. I did consider starting to work Jack again sooner since typically you only have to wait 1-2 days after a chiro session to start working again but he's young and I don't want to push him, plus I wanted to focus more on Sadie to prepare her so I figured Jack would be fine with nearly a week or potentially a full week off. But I'm also thinking of entering him into the gymkhana that's happening on the 23rd to give him some good exposure and try out something new since I've never been part of gymkhana before either. My instructor may even join us with her horse which would be a lot of fun. 








bonus pic of the super affection barn cat


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Yesterday was the big day. Sadie got her hooves trimmed and while she wasn't perfect, she did do pretty good! The first hoof had the most trouble since it was the first but even so, she wasn't too bad. In between each foot, she tended to shy away, but once the farrier pet her and started working, Sadie settled down just fine. By the 3rd foot, she was already doing a lot better. I was actually quite pleased with quickly she figured it out and settled down with it. 

Her hooves weren't trimmed as short as they could go since her first trim ever and the farrier didn't want to make her sore since it's new for Sadie. So she'll be coming back in 4 weeks to clean up her feet some more. So I'm pretty happy with how things went for her first trim and how much better her feet look.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

After having a week off, I had a lesson again on Jack today. He was pretty excited to get going and had lots of pep in his step today lol. We started off with 3 trot poles and he started to pick up his feet a lot more with it and we were enjoying it. Then my instructor surprised me by putting a cross rail jump. I haven't done a jump since I was 12 and even so, it was just once. Although, that one time was all it took to get me wanting to do more. So today was a blast jumping with Jack. 

Once he figured out what he was supposed to do with the jump, he just got better and better at it and he seemed to enjoy it. Since he's young, we don't plan to do this frequently. Maybe once a week or every two weeks. Otherwise I'm just going to go over poles and do barrels and other stuff. Barrels and pole bending and that sort of stuff will mostly be to help with teaching steering and such. I'm hoping to enter the gymkhana event on the 23rd to expose Jack to more things. We won't be competing to win, just going for fun and get the experience.


Anyway, here are some pics of Jack and I today. Position isn't perfect, but it was fun and we made progress.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Things have been interesting this week. I've only been able to ride Jack two times due to weather as well as the fact that my health went down for a spell because of heat exhaustion. But as of today, I've been doing better. I was able to spend a morning working with Sadie and she felt pretty good during it since she tossed out a few bucks and just goofing off when I got her to run around the roundpen a bit and she was having fun playing and running. 

I do have a bit of a bigger update in regards to Sadie actually. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I won't be able to keep her as long as intended. I had to put her up for sale. My original goal with her in the first place was to save her from going for meat and train her enough to give her a fighting chance at a good life. I have succeeded in that. I never intended to keep her long term/permanently. She does still have a long way to go, but she has a solid foundation and I'm confident with the right person, she'll really flourish. 

So, Sadie was put up for sale on Tuesday. By that evening, I had 3 people interested in her. One was a lady who helps run the stables I board at, another was a guy in the next town over an hour away, and the 3rd was about 10 hours away. The lady from my stable told me she wanted her and gave me the offer of a hundred dollars less than what I asked for (I figured this would happen which is why I asked for a hundred bucks more than I figured I'd get because I know people like to wiggle the price down) and could take her immediately. While I knew Sadie would be well cared for, I just didn't feel like it was entirely the right fit for her. 
The lady that lives 10 hours away didn't seem like a great match either, though not necessarily bad either. 

There's where the guy comes in. We've been talking from Tuesday till today and he seems like the perfect match for Sadie. His training style is similar to mine along with his beliefs on how to train horses. He's worked with ferals/mustangs before, retrained OTTB and so on. I was able to see some videos of him working with some of said horses and just in general when we spoke, things just seemed right. So after talking some more, we finally came to this: Sadie will remain with me until mid to end September. I wasn't able to vaccinate her as I said my circumstances changed and I just wasn't able to afford it. So he's sent over the money for me to pick up said vaccinations on monday. I will pick them up and give them to Sadie. Then, at the end of August when he gets paid, he'll pay me the full price for her and in September, he'll be picking her up. 

So ya, that's the long and short of what's going on with Sadie. So updates on her will only be around for a few more weeks and then she'll be off to her new home where I'm confident she'll be well taken care of and really blossom. I'll be sad to see her go, but excited at the possibilites that lay before her. Nearly 4 months ago she was doomed to go for meat. Now, she's about to go up further in life and has a bright future ahead of her! 



Also, in September my weanling will be arriving. So that month will be full of changes.











Also, I gave Jack a bath and he's all shiny now  I did notice as well looking back at the pics that he's getting butt high again lol


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So I didn't get around to riding since the last post. It's been nearly non stop rain for two days which is rather insane. But today things were finally better and I went out to ride Jack. 

Long story short, I got hurt. 


Basically, I figured I'd try out one of the original saddles I had to see how it'd work for Jack. At first all seemed fine. We rode at a walk and trot no problem. So I figured we might as well canter. We made about 2 or 3 laps around the arena when things started to go wrong. As we turned, the saddle slid sideways and I came off. I landed hard on my right hip and couldn't move for a bit. Jack stopped as soon as I came off and when I didn't get up after a bit, he actually came over and checked me out and just stood next to me. Of course, despite laying there in a lot of pain, my first thought is to unclip the reins from the bridal and just clip one end onto the halter to avoid them falling down and having him get a leg caught in it by accident. 

Anyway, Jack was pretty awesome and let me use him as a jungle gym to get myself back onto my feet once I got feeling back into the hip area (it was numb for a solid minute or so). I ended up having to lean pretty heavily on him too since my head started to swim and I couldn't stand on my own for a bit plus my hearing faded to the point it was almost gone. I remembered from the last time I got hurt like this (4 years ago and it was worse) that laying flat on my back helped restore my vision last time and thought it might help with my hearing this time. So I carefully lowered myself and laid flat again. 

It took a little bit but then everything cleared up. I wasn't light headed and my hearing came back and my vision completed cleared. Jack stayed where he was next to me and just occassionally touched my leg or my head with his nose like he was checking up on me and seeing how I was doing. After a little longer of laying there, I managed to get up with Jack's help and limped my way out of the arena with him. At this point, I realized the saddle was almost completely under him. The girth wasn't even loose. 

I managed to untack him and as I was about to head back to the paddock to put him away, I ran into one of the ladies that boards there and we talked and she offered to help me out and fed my horses for me since it hurt to walk. Once that was done, I managed to come home. 


But ya, I'm in a decent amount of pain now. Walking hurts but is managable. Bending over for anything is excruciating though. And sitting is alright if I sit the right way, but can hurt if I'm not careful. I have heat and swelling but I've soaked it and doing what I can to get it to heal up as quickly as I can. 

So ya, today was an adventure lol. 


I'm also very impressed and grateful for how Jack handled the whole situation. Definitely couldn't ask for anything better than what he did and am very appreciative that he put up with me when I could barely move and was fine with supporting me and stayed with me instead of taking off or doing anything else. He's a very good boy and plan to give him plenty of treats next time I see him.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

I'm sorry to hear that you got hurt. It's been a while for me, but that feeling of hitting the ground, fast and hard, is unforgettable. I always told my non horsey freinds it feels like a giant picks you up and throws you against a brick wall.


May I ask about the "H" word? Helmet? It sounds that you whacked your head pretty hard. If you were wearing a helmet, you may need to replace it now. 



Jack sounds like a real nice horse. Do you know why the saddle slipped? Did you check the cinch once during your ride? What kind of saddle pad are you using?


I hope you will take it real easy. It does help to move around as much as you can tolerate, though if you are in severe pain, do go see a doctor. hitting one's hip can be super hard on your pelvis and you may feel that is 'loose' for some time.


I hope I have not asked a lot of questions that you already answered. There are so many threads here that I can not remember always when I have read or have not read, and what.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

tinyliny said:


> I'm sorry to hear that you got hurt. It's been a while for me, but that feeling of hitting the ground, fast and hard, is unforgettable. I always told my non horsey freinds it feels like a giant picks you up and throws you against a brick wall.
> 
> 
> May I ask about the "H" word? Helmet? It sounds that you whacked your head pretty hard. If you were wearing a helmet, you may need to replace it now.
> ...



Ya, it's definitely quite something when one comes off like that. It's a first for me that hurt so much that was due to saddle malfunction. Last time it was cause the mare I was riding tripped and fell on me which was by far worse than this fall. 

As for the Helmet, it's fine. I didn't actually hit my head. It's more that I got an intense case of vertigo and shock from the way I was ungracefully dumped onto the ground and it's more that my brain hit my skull a little hard from the suddenness of it all, but I didn't hit my head against the ground. Plus I do have a spare helmet anyway. I have 2 so that I always have a backup. 


And he's definitely an amazing horse that blew me away with his response to it all. As for the saddle, I'm pretty sure it slipped because 1- it didn't fit right, 2- my balance was a little off so combined with it not fitting right, it didn't work out in my favor. Jack doesn't have much in the way of shoulders and the saddle is designed very similar to a treeless saddle. So I think as we turned, I was off balance just enough that the saddle slipped as there was no shoulder or wither to help hold the saddle in place. Also, when I took the saddle off after, I was able to see the dirt marks on the pad and it showed the saddle was also bridging a lot. Cinch was done up as tight as it could as I already know before hand to do it up several times before I ask for too much a trot or canter since my guy likes to bloat. So the cinch was fine. But I'm 100% never going to ride in that saddle again. 


I do plan to take it easy. I was hoping to go to a riding lesson today but considering it was painful to get out of bed and do anything else, I cancelled it. I'm trying to walk around despite it being painful to get up and move around. I don't feel any looseness but I'll keep that in mind. I do plan to go see a chiro myself once the pain has died down as I'm sure I'll need it. 


Not a problem. I get that totally. Thanks for your concern and input  I hope I managed to answer all your questions.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

After giving myself two days off to just try to heal up from the nasty fall, I decided to try riding again today. 
I rode Jack for maybe 10 mins or a little over. It was about all I could handle at the time. My legs felt so weak compared to where I was at before and my lower back was in a good amount of pain if we trotted too much. Jack was also wanting to run around since he was feeling good and I just didn't have the energy/strength back to be able to handle it. So we didn't ride for too long. 

But I did let him loose in the arena so he could run around to his hearts content and he loved that. He even tossed in his first big buck where he actually went a few feet up in the air with all 4 hooves in the air! For him, this is huge since his bucks are usually super tiny and barely make it a few inches up lol. So after he had his time to tear around the place like crazy, I took him out for a bit of hand grazing and called it a day. 



As for Sadie, I gave her, her vaccinations on Monday and she handled it fairly well. So with that done, she's going to be with me only another 2 weeks and then she'll be off to her new home which is hard to believe.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I thought about things quite a bit and sought out lots of peoples thoughts and I've made a decision. I'm getting a new horse that I'll be able to ride and learn on. He'll be the first horse I've ever owned that isn't a project in one way or another. He has more training than any other horse I've owned before. So with him, I'll finally be able to truly advance my riding properly. 

Downside of it is that he seems to have ulcers. I've been doing a lot of research into it and I learnt where to palpitate to figure out how severe the case is. From what I noticed, he only has a minor case. He is sensitive but he's not sore in all the areas that ulcers can affect. So I've taken into consideration the advice I've gotten from more experienced horse people as well as research myself. After all that, I'm starting to give him more alfalfa, some beat pulp, with a touch of aloe vera juice and to top it off, a bit of baking soda. 
This is just what I'll be using until I'm able to get a hold of UlcerGuard or something along those lines and some probiotics and such. I know what I'm giving now isn't necessarily a cure or will make them go away completely, but it should at the very least, ease it and make him more comfortable until I'm able to give him everything he needs.

I also spoke with the vet and I can no longer buy most things like UlcerGuard or such until the vet sees the horse and provides them themselves. And that won't happen till the first week of October since they're booked up before then. Which is why I'm taking steps to help him feel better now. He was started on extra alfalfa in his feed before this and apparently that's already making him feel better so I'm hoping that with the new stuff added, he'll start coming along quite well. 



On another note, Sadie is officially sold. A lady that boards at the stables ended up buying her and I'll be able to continue to see her and watch her grow up and progress in her training.

To finish things off, here are some pics of Chester, my new boy. 
He had a very sad looking mane so I figured I'd trim it and i find he looks much better with it roached xD 
I was also trying out different saddles to see if one of the ones I have fits him and it looks like the one in the pic actually fits him.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Yesterday I had a lady come out who was interested in Jack. She'd lost her horse a little while ago so what on the look out for another. Well, her and Jack clicked quite well together and seemed like a good fit. So after nearly two hours of talking, riding, and just generally getting accuainted, the lady and I signed a trial period contract. Basically, she's going to take Jack on a 2 week trial period to make sure he's the right one. If he is, then Jack will officially be sold. If not, then he'll be coming back. So things are rather interesting right now. 


As for today, I went out for a trial ride with my friend. I, of course, was on Chester and she rode her own boy. The ride went well and we enjoyed it and I'm pretty sure the horses loved it too. Chester especially was excited to get out and about. It was quite funny though because whenever we'd trot, my friend would have to canter her horse to catch up since Chester is faster/has longer legs so eats the ground up faster than her horse could. 

Also noticed that Chester wasn't sore at all today. We started giving him his new feed to help with ulcers yesterday and today he was already nearly 100% back to normal. So we're wondering if going on a trail ride and not just hanging out in the arena was part of it or if the special feed has helped that much already. Either way, I was very glad he was doing so well. I was even able to use my legs on him like normal and he never complained and was more than happy to do what I asked. 









This shows the size difference of the two. Chester is the one in the back. Chester is nearly 16 hh and the guy in front, Scout, is 14.3 hh lol.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Chester may be coming to live with me starting Friday  Nothing is set in stone just yet, but that's what we're talking about which is really exciting. 
Yesterday I just made sure to feed him his special food to help with his ulcers which he's starting to like more every day. Today he actually didn't want to wait for me to set the bucket down before trying to eat it lol. 
But it was raining a lot yesterday so there was no riding. So instead we did that today. 

When we rode in the arena, he did a lot better, though he did still get grumpy when I used my right leg on him. Part of it is behavior/habit at this point since when I asked him to keep forward and not pretend to bite me, he immediately smartened up and went on like normal without issue. We also went for a short trail ride and again, 0 problems using my legs when out on the trail. 
So at this point, I'm sure 50% at least of in the arena is behavior. I don't doubt that he is still store there as when I palpate the area, he does react to it. But for the last little while before I got him, the rider always got off after he'd swing his head around and act like he was going to bite. They got off because they knew/figured something was wrong. But now I think he figures if he just keeps doing that, then the rider will get off again. Plus I think he's bored of just plain arena work which is why he's so much more happy when out on the trail. 



Another exciting thing is that I will be going to my first ever horse auction on the 11th and 12th. I look forward to it and see what's going to come of it.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Decided to see what Chester knows when it comes to groundwork. Turns out he's extremely rusty and/or has forgotten a lot of it. When it came to lunging, he didn't do too bad there. There were a few times he was thinking about bucking but didn't. He backs up alright with steady pressure on the halter, though is slow. However, if asked to back up any other way, he wants to dart from side to side, put his head way up in the air, and even come towards (not aggressively though). With flexing, he acted like he had no idea what I was asking for. So we spent some time going in circles until he somewhat did it. 

With that, I came to realize that Chester and I are going to spend plenty of time working on his groundwork. But I don't mind since it's another way to add variety to what we do. Also, Chester's coming to the stables tomorrow  I plan to just let him be so he can adjust to his new surroundings and then start working with him the next day or so. 
Melody may also be coming next week sometime which is pretty exciting.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Yesterday was the big day where Chester arrived at the stables which was really exciting. I hung out with him in the paddock for about an hour or so but otherwise just let him settle in and didn't get to working him. 

Today I decided it was time to start working on his ground work and it went better than the other day for the most part. I think he remembered some of it which helped. There were a few times he was a bit sticky in moving when I was cuing him to move with lunging, yielding, and backing, but overall, we managed to establish a starting point. One thing I noticed when we were working on yielding the hindquarters was that he didn't do too good with his left side, but he was nearly perfect on the right side. So that's something to work on. And with backing up, there were a few times he didn't to back up until I really up'd the pressure. But towards the end he started to get it and backed a bit softer. 

So all in all, it was a productive day. We made plenty of progress and we both learnt something so I'd say it was pretty successful


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Day 3 of ground work training and Chester's making progress in leaps and bounds. He's got backing up down really well. He yields his hindquarters pretty much perfectly now. He doesn't care about ropes being tossed over him as much as he used to. Still flinches once in a while but not nearly as bad as he was. He responds quite well when lunging and I ask him to change direction and when I ask him to come in to me. We've also been working on having him respect personal space since he's been allowed to just crowd in with the previous owner. So he's getting better with that too but still needs work. 

I've also worked on introducing him to yielding the forequarters yesterday. He responded by freaking out and racing backwards the first few times. Today was better. we only had one incident of that. I'm not good at teaching it, that's for sure, but we're still making progress since I'm not awful at it either. But it's an area him and I both need to work on lol. 
I also started working on getting him to flex. We made decent progress on his left side, though it was his stiffer side. The right side he kept spinning around before finally standing and flexing, though he was a lot more flexible on that side. So it's far from pretty just yet, but it's a starting point. 

Also had a saddle to try out so I did hop on for a bit of a ride to test it out. Chester wanted to just do his own thing a couple times but with frequent changes of direction and practicing our stops, he started to settle down by the end. I also used my legs as aids and had 0 reaction from him like he used to give. So i think what I've been doing to help treat his ulcers has really helped since he doesn't seem to be sore anymore which is quite nice. 



And final note is that I got updated about Melody. She's officially being weaned now with one of the other colts. She'll be coming to me sometime this month and I'm super excited. Also, I absolutely love the markings on her front legs with how unusual they are.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So as I'm sure you guys have seen, I've gotten myself a new horse lol. She came from auction I went to where I managed to outbid the meat buyer for her. 
At this point, she seems super sweet and very friendly. She likes to be up close and personal with you and follows you like a shadow wherever you go. She does have some basic minor groundwork training but not much. Apparently she tends to be hot headed but I haven't seen much of that yet. But I've also only done one session with her to see what she does or doesn't know. 
I think I've also decided to name her Callie. It means "beautiful" which she is. Also, she's about 15 hh and is a quarter horse with 1/4 Arab in her. She's also 5 years old.


As for Chester, he had a chiro session today which he really needed. So today and tomorrow he's also gotten off work and after that, we're going to do a day of review of ground work and if he's good with that (he's had about 4 days off) then we'll move onto starting to ride next which is super exciting. 


Last but not least, little Melody is still doing well too. She's settled in well and will talk to me at times. She's super soft and fluffy too and just an adorable sweetheart.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Callie keeps making leaps and bounds in progress with training. So far I'm not seeing any of the "hot headed" moments that the previous owner said she has. She's been pretty calm and chill through all the training and catching onto things fast. Even when she's not sure about something, she doesn't freak out over it. More just semi chill move around until she figures out what exactly it is I'm after/gets used to what I'm touching her with. Yesterday was day 3 of training and I already felt she was ready to be introduced to the saddle. She wasn't too sure of the saddlepad at first but after a bit of work, she soon settled down and was fine with that. She did even better when it came to the saddle. 

There was some time spent just touching her elbows and where the cinch goes since she tended to suck in or bend her ribcage away whenever touched there with the saddle on/have pressure applied to prepare for the cinch. But it didn't take much and I got the saddle cinched up on her. With that done, we moved onto lunging. I was expected a few crow hops at the very least, but nope, nothing. It was obvious she felt weird with the saddle and would speed up at times when the stirrups tapped her sides, but all in all, she handled it VERY well. I was quite impressed with her. I did take the saddle off and then go to put it back on and she didn't bat an eye over it and was fine with it going back on and off. 
After reviewing some groundwork with her wearing the saddle, I called it good. Our session wasn't overly long but we definitely made lots of progress in it. 











As for Chester, things are interesting there. I'm starting to think his behavior of wanting to nip at my leg when riding isn't ulcer related. I'm starting to wonder if it's just attitude. Reason for this is that I can palpitate where ulcers are and he shows no signs of discomfort. During groundwork, no issues. I can saddle him up with no issues. The cinch doesn't even bother him. He's also had chiro work done, plus I'm using a saddle that fits him. 

When it comes to riding, he's totally fine whenever we're doing something, exploring a new place or he's just feeling hyper. The one day, he almost seemed to want to buck because I wouldn't let him race around the place like a nut. When that didn't work and he settled down and started to move around properly, then he tried to shake his head at my legs again. The thing is, if I correct him and don't let him turn his head to my leg, he keeps moving along. There have been times where he's tried to break from a trot to a walk on his own, but I ask for more speed, then he's totally for it. If we stop and I ask him to start walking, he immediately wants to trot. And if we're moving around and he's getting grumpy, as soon as I turn him towards poles or go around a barrel or two, he has no issues as though he doesn't care about my legs anymore. 

So I'm starting to think that maybe because he got arena sour at his previous home, then was given time off as soon as he pinned his ears and turned at your leg, he figured out that got people off him and he was free to go out and do whatever he wanted again. I think he's doing it as a way to get out of work now just like how he tried to race around and "threaten" to buck initially in protest at not being allowed to gallop around. I'm hoping to get a video of this and get more people's thoughts but this is what I'm leaning towards so far. 



As for Melody, she's continuing to do well and her and I are getting along quite well. She's a sweeheart and I love spending time with her.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Can't believe it's been 2 months since I last posted! Time really got away from me. 

In short, I've sold Chester and Callie is going to go to a new home at the end of the month. I recently moved, was in a car accident and now am sick and have to wait for covid testing to clear me before I'm allowed back at work. So financially, I can only have one horse right now. Both horses have found the perfect homes for them. Life certainly didn't go the way I expected it to, that's for sure. 

So once I'm doing better, I plan to work with Melody from time to time this winter, though she's just being allowed to be a baby for the most part and is in a big field with a gelding for company. And I'm going to be riding that gelding since it's a friends horse and she doesn't really ride in the winter. So I get to have a horse to ride without the expenses of owning it. So at least I'll still be able to keep riding. His name is Scout and he's 14.3 hh and a quarter horse, arab cross. He's super sweet but a bit of a cookie monster lol.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

How did the trial go with Jack? Sorry if I missed it! 

So glad everyone is doing well with their new homes. I know that is a lot to deal with, the fall & then getting sick, & a car accident to top everything off. I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that. What a good boy Jack was though, he really seems like such a kind soul. I love that! Scout seems fun, at least you will get to ride without all the responsibilities, that is definitely a plus, especially through the winter. 

Melody is adorable! They are so cute. I bet she's enjoying life!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> How did the trial go with Jack? Sorry if I missed it!


The trial went really well! They did have one rough day just cause Jack was momentarily stupid but it was just the baby brain kind of thing. Otherwise they got along great and even went to a trail riding clinic where they both greatly enjoyed their time there. So the two of them did bond quickly and Jack seems to be quite enjoying his new life there. I got sent several pictures and a video showing how quickly and nicely he was settling in. It was definitely a great match there.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I started looking through the pics of Melody that I have. I have pics of her when I first met her, all the way to a few days ago. The change in her is quite something! Can't wait to see how she looks once she reaches a year old and has shed out her winter coat. She's definitely a gorgeous baby. 
One thing I still need to do/figure out is how to get her transferred under my name in the reg papers, plus get them to update the papers since they forgot to include her two white markings on her back legs. I've never done this before so it's going to take a bit of research to figure that out. If any of you have tips on how to do that, that'd be appreciated. 


Also, I recently came across a horse this weekend that was for sale. I was talking with the owner and she was talking about how she has to sell her mare cause they're just not a good match as this horse intimidates her pretty badly. So I ended up having a look at this mare, and honestly, I really like her. The mare is 16.3 - 17 hh and is an appendix, approx 12 years old. She's stubborn, and doesn't want to do what asked of her. She tests people that she doesn't know. So this mare didn't even want to lead. She'd follow for 2 steps, stop and plant her feet. Walk another 5 steps, plant her feet, and repeat. When lunging, she refuses to move to the left and only wants to go to the right. I did manage to get her to go two circles to the left which apparently the owner hadn't even been able to do (and I can see why cause that mare wanted to throw a big fit over it). She backed up just fine. 

And then I decided I wanted to ride her despite that lol and not having ridden in like, 3 weeks. She didn't want to stand still to be mounted at first but at the 3rd try, she stood still and I was able to hop on. We went walking around which was alright. She didn't want to listen to steering aids very well. I was told she knew how to steer from leg pressure the best, but she kept on wanting to speed up when I used leg, plus turn from time to time. She didn't want to walk straight and when asking for her to trot, she'd want to suddenly stop when heading back the direction where the lady was. Then there were times she wanted to break into a canter instead of just trotting, then do another stop without being asked to. There was a time or two I was wondering if she was thinking about bucking. But by the end, she was walking decently, trot was ok, and her steering was getting better with less rush when using leg aids. 

It was quite the experience. I could see it in her eyes that she was confused just at the fact I was there and I was working with her. She looked lost, like she didn't know who to turn to cause she didn't even have a connection to the owner. I honestly quite liked her and if I could, I'd hands down take her. She has a lot of potential and I can see her becoming a fantastic partner with some work. She's also solid black and still needs a bit more groceries to put on some more weight. She also is recovering from a case of ulcers as well. Her history is pretty unknown since the lady just took her in cause she was in need of a good home. Apparently she's also registered, but the papers were lost by one of her previous owners. 
But the lady is asking $2,500 for her. I can't afford that, especially with a horse that needs as much work as this one. So hopefully she finds a good home. 


I'm hoping that at some point soon, I'll be able to get a chance to work on my riding so that soon I can offer my services to train horses. That line of work just keeps calling to me and it's driving me nuts that I'm not able to do that yet. I'm hoping to move to a different town come spring. Where I'll be moving, there's a lot more stuff going on with horses so hopefully I'll get an opportunity there to do something more with horses. 

First pic is Melody when 10 days old. 2nd pic is of her at 3 months. 3rd pic is at 5 months old. Final pic is of her at 8 months old. She looks like she's going to fall over with how disproportionate she's looking right now haha. 






























These are pics of that mare I got to see and work with a bit today.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Went out early this morning to set up the paddock by the house for Melody. Since she's getting big fast and has a tendancy to be pushy already and only knows how to lead and pick up her feet for brief moments, I figured it's high time I worked with her a bit. And I can't do that very well in the big pasture since most of the training sessions will be in the dark and I don't feel like hiking through steep hills and forested areas just to work with her a bit in this cold winter time.
So I'm going to have her in the paddock for a few days at a time, then put her back in the pasture for a few days and keep alternating like that.

Today was her first day in the paddock and she wasn't too thrilled about it. She couldn't decide at first how big of a tantrum she wanted to through or if she wanted to play with me. So she did a bit of both haha. It was a lot of fun to see her race around and toss out a couple bucks since I've only ever see her be calm almost lazy at times.
After work, we had our first training session. She caught on super quick to yielding her HQ so we didn't do that for too long since she was able to do a half circle almost perfectly by the 3rd try. So we also worked on yielding the forequarters as well. She wasn't as good with that, but she still caught on quick. To finish it off, I worked on teaching her how to flex. That one she kept thinking she needed to move around a lot. It took a bit but eventually she figured out and once she did, became incredibly soft. In between these exercies, we worked on backing up as well. She likes to crowd/be pushy at times so whenever she'd start coming into my space uninvited, I'd get her to back up. By the end, she would stand nicely and be patient without crowding me and was pretty calm. 

I also spent some time just hanging out with her and scratching her itchy spots which definitely made her quite happy. She's definitely got a lot of spunk and smarts. Should be interesting to see how she is once she's all grown up.


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## AbbySmith (Nov 15, 2020)

Good for you! Sounds like you are making a lot of progress with her! 
I love the pics. So cute! 😍


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Today was the 3rd day working with Melody. She easily moves her butt over when asked and is starting to figure out the forequarter yielding as well. She doesn't care about the lead rope swinging around her anymore either. Today I added some tinsel to the mixture so I could get some cute Christmas pics of her since this is her first Christmas. At first, she wasn't too impressed with it and kept shuffling sideways and giving it the side eye. But it didn't take long before she realized it really wasn't scary at all and I could swing it around her without issue. 

Once done that, I led her back to the pasture so she can spend the next couple days with her buddy since I'm not going to have the time to work with her for a bit. I was quite pleased when she led nicely and didn't rush or try to crowd me on the way back. That alone is huge progress since she used to want to crowd or rush a lot before. So I'm quite pleased with her progress so far.


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## AbbySmith (Nov 15, 2020)

😍 😍 Melody is sooo cute!! I love her! Those are some awesome pics!!
Her fuzzy baby coat looks so soft, especially now with her winter coat in as well. Such a cutie!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Melody got to experience big girl stuff recently. I went to ride Scout, my friends gelding, who Melody is in with, and brought her along. She was tied for the first time next to Scout and I'd groom Scout first, then go groom Melody. She actually did fairly well. There was one moment she forgot she was tied and for a split second, she threw a fit, but then once that second was over, she went back to being totally chill and just standing there nicely again. Goes to show training is paying off since her "tantrum" lasted literally a second and was pretty minor. After that, my friend and I took turns riding Scout and the other person would hold Melody to get her used to seeing Scout out doing stuff and that she doesn't need to be with him all the time. She used to throw fits when someone else was working him and she wasn't allowed to be next to him when she was being led around as well. So this was really good for her. By the end, she pretty much ignored Scout and his rider and instead, nibbled on some left over hay. 

Now, time for some exciting stuff! 


So....I wasn't exactly looking for a horse since I plan to move in the spring. I've been planning on saving up for the move and maybe go to an auction later on and getting a horse from there. But things didn't go as planned. I somehow ended up meeting an appendix gelding named Tommy. I've seen his add around for several months already and never paid much mind to it. And yet, on the 26th, I ended up meeting him. And not only did I meet him, no, I ended up putting a deposit on him 😅🤣

Ok, time for the actual details. Tommy is 8 years old and stands about 15 - 15.2 hh. His dam was QH and sire was an Appendix. So this guy has a bit more quarter horse in him than a true appendix horse. He has a very sweet and calm personality for the most part. Enjoys getting attention from people and is very green in regards to training. Apparently he's had a handful of rides but he's just been sitting for the last couple months. But the girl has just randomly hopped on bareback and walked around like that once or twice but that's been it. As for price, I got a really good deal. Due to her needing to sell him cause of graduating and her life going in a different direction, she only has him listed for $500 but only to an approved home. And only reason I couldn't pay that fully right away, is cause I was in a car accident not that long ago and I have one last payment to make recover from that first. But she's not in a rush to get him off the property and is going to hold him there until the end of January/start of February. 

Basically, I got myself a horse for christmas without really intending to lol. 
And honestly, one of the reasons I decided to go ahead with this, is because not only can I tell he's a going to be a good, solid riding partner, but besides Jack, he's the only other horse I've ever met in the last 4 years that hasn't given me an anxiety attack. Since the incident with my first ever horse, I've always gotten an anxiety attack when first meeting a horse or going to ride them. Depending on the horse's personality is how major or minor the attack is. I've had one so bad that just thinking of going riding sent me into an attack that'd last 5-10 mins and then I'd be fine. Others, it was only a couple seconds. But this guy, there was nothing. It was just like when I met Jack, who I also never got an anxiety attack from and that ended up being an amazing experience with him. So the feeling I got from this guy speaks volumes to me. 

Last, but not least, the pictures!


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## Bettythepony (Aug 23, 2020)

Congrats on buying Tommy! Sounds like you two will have a lot of fun together.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I just realized today, that in 3 months, Melody will be a year old! Hard to believe so much time has passed by already. Feels like yesterday when I met her for the first time as a 10 day old foal. I honestly feel really lucky to be able to say I've known her since she was just a few days old and have pics of her as a little baby. I'll have to post some pics of her then vs when she's a year old to show how much she's grown up.

Also, she's been rubbing the hair off from around her neck lately and I'm not sure why. I've been working with other more experienced horse people to figure out whats going on. We've ruled out lice and any other bugs. No raw areas or bald patches. No bumps or dander. She isn't rubbing the hair off anywhere else either.
Today I learnt though, that some babies will do this when they're too impatient with shedding out their last baby coat. It can also happen when they're lacking in a bit of minerals or Omega vitamin which flax seed can help with, as well as simply being too warm. After going through other things, I'm pretty sure at this point it's one or several of these things. So I'm going to find some ground up flax seeds or flax seed oil and start adding a bit of that to her feed and let her have free choice of minerals. Hopefully this stuff will help, but at least she's not hurting herself with rubbing the hair off. She leaves a layer of hair still on so I'm glad for that.

Oh! And I did a bit of an impulse/invesment purchase today lol. I got a pony bridle so that I can get Melody used to wearing one already and once she's had more training and reaches a year old, we'll start working on ground driving. Once she figures that out and has been out and about for walks, then we'll start ground driving out on trails. I really look forward to this, but I'll wait until I'm sure she's ready for it since I don't want to push too much too fast on her. But doing this will definitely help prepare her for when she gets older and can start being ridden. So it may be an impulse purchase, but also an investment in her future! 🤣

Pic of the bridle and of adorable Melody

















@Bettythepony 
Thanks! And I have a feeling we definitely will!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Melody got to meet Rubby, the bottle calf, yesterday. They've seen each other through the fence before and didn't care. So today my friend and I decided to see how it'd go to have them in the same paddock. We didn't let them loose right away since the last time we had a horse loose and have them see Ruby, that horse jumped the fence xD (And that horse was Callie...lol). Once Melody was in the same pen as Ruby, she became very warry and would jump at almost every move that Ruby made. There were a few times she tried to bolt too. But slowly, she started to realize Ruby wasn't going to hurt her. 

It was cute to see Melody actively choose to trust me by coming to me or hiding behind me at times when she got worried about Ruby being around. And with some time and gradual working to decrease the distance, it eventually got to the point that Ruby could be loose in the pen while I walked Melody around. Ruby loves people so she was way more interested in me than she was in Melody. And once Melody was doing alright and had even touched noses with Ruby, I let her go free too. Needless to say, she kept her distance, but would allow Ruby to get pretty much close enough to touch her, though still jumped at any contact. I even managed to run around and get the two of them to run with me a bit to play which was awesome. 

I was planning on doing a bit of training today, but as I went to get the hay for Melody, I managed to stab myself in the inner thigh on some metal. So I was only able to bring the hay to Melody and then had to head inside to tend to the wound. Honestly, at this point, I think I'm more accident prone than any horse I've ever met lol. I get hurt several times a week it feels like, plus I've been to emerg a few times in the last 2 years as well. 

Anyway, Enjoy the pics of Melody and Ruby  






















Melody attempted to wiggle through to follow me as well as try to see if she could fit through the fence xD























In the pic with me in it, can see just how big Melody is getting! She's growing tall fast.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Melody is SO cute!!! Oh my goodness. How adorable! She is growing too! & ouch, I hope you feel better. You need some bubble wrap!

Ruby is so cute too! The pictures are great!

Congratulations on Tommy, it sounds like you guys will have so much fun!! Yay!!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

@PoptartShop 
I feel like Melody knows how adorable is and tries to use it get her way all the time 🤣 

And thanks, I'm sure things are going to be a fun adventure with him!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Worked with Melody on her groundwork again the last couple of days. Our routine so far is that I head out 30-40 mins before I have to leave for work to fill her water bucket, give her bucket of special feed (mare and foal feed), and do anything else I happen to need to do. Then go in the pen with her, catch her, and do 10 - 15 mins of groundwork. I usually still end up with some extra time to just hang out with her after as well before I have to head for work. 
Evenings after work are normally spent just hanging out and enjoying each others company.

So far, Melody knows how to yield HQ, FQ, and back up (though she's still very sticky with this). She's also been starting to learn how to lower her head and lightly lunge. Of course, non of this is overly pretty or fancy looking at this point, but that's also not my goal. All I want for now, is for her to yield her body to me and learn how to give to pressure. Even with lunging, we only do about 3-4 circles each side and call it good. It's mostly just to teach her how to send out of my space and come when I ask her to. It's all been at a walk as well. 

The other day though, we had a big drop in temperature so when I went to her in the morning, it took 5-10 mins just to catch her lol. Then, when I worked on desensitizing her to the lead rope (done this plenty of times since the 3.5 months she's been with me and it never fazes her) but she decided the rope was the scariest monster she'd ever seen and had a total fit which included rearing and attempting to bolt. After a few mins, she settled down again and the rest of the session went normally without any more antics. 

I also roughly measured her current height. At the withers, she's 12.2 hh and at the height of her butt, she's 13.1 hh. 
At this rate, I think she may end up being pretty close if not at the 13.2 - 14 hh mark at the withers when she reaches a year old. I'm starting to wonder if she's going to be bigger than 15 hh when she matures lol. Most babies that I hear that are close to 14 hh as yearlings tend to end up being closer to the 16 hh mark when mature. Both her parents are only 15 hh though. But I guess we'll have to wait and see lol.

Also ponied Melody a little bit today for the first time too which was a fun experience.


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## AbbySmith (Nov 15, 2020)

Oh she's just so cute!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

My new guy has finally arrived! And, within a few hours of having him, I've decided to name him Flynn  

Picking him up was quite the adventure. He didn't want to load into the trailer at all. We had to use a rope behind his butt to help encourage him into the trailer. He ended up sweating pretty bad for a good chunk of the trip too, but by the end, he was calm and unloaded perfect and has been totally calm so far while in his paddock. 

I also have a feeling he's taller than 15 hh but I'll wait to measure him until tomorrow and see how tall he really is. I'm giving him today to settle in, but tomorrow I'm going to spend some more time just hanging with him and seeing what he knows for groundwork as well.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

It's been pretty much officially a month since Flynn has arrived. Boy have things been interesting with having him here! And not exactly in a great way 😅 

2 weeks into being here, he decides he wants to jump the barbwire fence to go into the neighbors side and hang out with those two horses instead of his own buddies. In the process of jumping over, he cut up one leg and scraped off patches of fur on his neck. Thankfully the wound was pretty minor on his leg and we just put some ointment on and he was fine. Now, nearly another 2 weeks later, he decides he didn't hurt his one leg good enough the first go around, and proceeded to hurt it further today!

I was at work for 30 mins when I got messaged about my boy having busted down the gate to the field, was bleeding, and acting liking a psychotic dragon. The other two horses were totally fine and pretty chill, but Flynn was going nuts. So, I managed to get out of work for a bit to go out and deal with him. By the time I got there, he'd ran off to the back of the field so I had a nice blood trail to follow to where he was. He then proceeded to attempt to walk farther away 2 times. Typically he's super easy to catch. But thankfully he wasn't feeling much like racing off and it wasn't all that difficult to catch him. 

Turns out, he scraped up the same leg as last time. It looks minor in pictures and at a glance. But there is one spot that's a little deeper than I'd like. Its not bad enough that the vet was needed. My friend and I just put some ointment on it and wrapped it up. Now the turd is in the front paddock on his own again since that's the only time he doesn't pull any stunts. Can't wait until I get him to the stables and can work on giving him a job to do so he doesn't feel the need to go around hurting himself. 

Also, I've come to find that if something is "scary" to him, he full on loses his mind. He doesn't just go into flight mode, but he goes into OVERDRIVE flight mode to the point nothing else in the world exists other than that scary object. Hence why he charges through gates and fences. He's been so sheltered with living in the middle of nowhere that even walking down a driveway has him spooked. 
Needless to say, as soon as we're able to, I'm going to do A LOT of desensitizing and groundwork with this boy. I feel like he has a QH body, but the stereotypical TB brain. He's an appendix and I suppose the TB genes just happened to take over the brain side of things lol. 

Today's injury 
















Previous injury







Not as bad as it looks. Minor scrape that just bled and the blood froze in clumps.


Other pics of Flynn and Melody


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Well, after spending a week and a half on his own, Flynn was put back with the others. So far things are going well. My friend even caught the three of them having a nap near the front of the field. Hopefully it's a positive sign of them all getting along and Flynn learning to settle down and relax with them. 


Things with Melody are going well. I discovered something new about her. She's scared of men. The breeder was a woman and I'm female as well and so is my friend who runs the property and tends to the animals. So Melody has little to no exposure to men and has decided that they're scary. I discovered this when she was getting her second hoof trim. The farrier is a man and as soon as he gets within 3 feet of her, she looses her mind. I could easily see how someone might think that she was abused by a man before due to how she reacts. But since I've known her since she was 10 days old, I know that's no the case. She simply doesn't like men. 

Anyway, throughout this winter season, she's been looking pretty....fugly lol. She had started to rub her hair out on her neck pretty badly. Plus the older geldings took out a chunk of hair on her back. On top of that, she just has consistent bad hair days 😅🤣 I can't wait until I can give her a proper bath and clean her up. Also, I plan on clipping her this weekend. She overheats easily since she grew a thicker winter coat than she needed. Hence why she rubbed the hair off on her neck. So with spring coming quickly, I'm going to clip her to prevent her from overheating and rubbing more hair off. 

























Melody's neck currently with new hair growth (it's like this on both sides) + the patch taken out of her by one of the geldings about a month or so ago 
















In case any of you are curious, no, she does not have rain rot, and no, she also doesn't have lice. She's been checked for both.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Today has been quite eye opening. 

*Events with Melody*
This was the calmest event. I brought Melody out to work on desensitizing her to clippers to give her her first clip. She wasn't too sure of them at first, but then did get a bit worried when they were turned on. She backed away a little ways, but then realized they really weren't that big of a threat. A few minutes later, I was clipping away at her neck and chest with her not caring at all. All I did today was clean up the underside of her neck and the front of her chest. I've never clipped a horse before and it was a bit harder than I first thought it would be lol. 

Also, she's been limping for a month now on her front right leg but we can't find anything wrong. No heat or swelling. So I'm thinking I'm going to get the chiro lady out to have a look at her. I know Flynn has been a bit of a jerk and has kicked her previously. So I'm wondering if he's jarred something a little out of place on her. If that doesn't help, then I'm going to see about getting her in to the vet to get it sorted out. 
























*Events with Flynn*
This guy was a massive jerk today. Easy to catch as usual. But as soon as I take him out of the field, he starts to lose his mind. I was planning on showing him the clippers. Not to clip him, just to desensitize him to it cause he freaks out easily most of the time. But he was acting spicy enough I decided to lunge him. That went over awfully. He kept stopping, turning away, and trying to go his own way back to the field. He even tried bolting on me several times. At one point, he tried kicking out at me too. I worked on getting him to back up out of my space and he didn't want to. And he threw a bigger fit if his back was turned to the field. He kicked out me several more times, later on even tried to strike me with a front foot and pawed like mad. Tried to run me over multiple times. 

All in all, he was on the verge of being truly dangerous. He refused to truly calm and settle down. I did manage to get him to finally lunge a circle and just walk with a few pauses, but nothing nearly as bad as earlier. Also got him to stand still for about 30 seconds which was all he could handle at the time. At that point, we called it good since we did make progress, even though it was quite tiny. By this point, we'd been going at it for about an hour to an hour and a half. He was lathered in sweat at the end, mostly due to his own nerves. At this point, I think he's developed being herd bound. And I don't have the proper resources to deal with his antics here. He's too reactive and also too dull to the halter or cues or me. This resulted in me nearly run over or kicked several times and zero respect for personal space. 

So, I called the stables and they'll have an opening available for me at the start of April. It's a little later than I'd hoped for, but it's better than nothing. Until then, I'm going to figure out some sort of game plan to try to work on things the best that I can for the time being. At this point, I think Flynn will be my most challenging horse to train as of yet.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Flynn*

So this guy is not doing good. My friend went to take her gelding out of the pasture and he wouldn't let her leave. He literally blocked her path and wouldn't let her move forward. If she tried to chase him off, he'd put his ears back and shake his head at her. At one point, he actually kicked out at her. So I had to go in there and be her body guard. I literally had to stay between her and Flynn so she could take her gelding out. 
At this point, I can't wait until I can get him to the stables and truly be able to work with him because this is definitely not good. Needless to say he'll be the most challenging horse I've yet to train. But it'll also be the most rewarding when we finally make progress and get going under saddle and have him behaving nicely.


















*Melody*

For some reason, I forgot that abscesses are a thing. Thanks to someone else bringing it up, I checked her for one that potentially hasn't ruptured yet. However, her feet are fine. No sign of any abscess. I checked once more for any sensitive spots or if there was any swelling or heat along that leg and nothing. So I started to check different areas of her body the way a chiropractor had shown me before. And that leg seemed fine. So I started to check her back end since I remember sometimes they can be out in the back, but when they compensate for it, it makes it look like they're sore up front. 

Well, when I did this, I discovered it's her back left leg that's bothering her. When I put pressure in certain areas, she started to tense up, head would go up, and she wanted to flinch away. It's hard to see due to her fluffiness, but I could feel it with my hand that her left hip seemed to be sitting higher than the right as well. So it seems her hip or leg is out. On the good side of this, it means a chiropractor should be all she needs to feel better again. Only a few days left and then she'll be feeling better. 

Oh! I also measured her. She's about 13 hh at the withers and around 13.1 hh at the butt. She's definitely getting big!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Melody*

She finally had her chiropractic session! And boy did it make a difference. Turns out her right front shoulder was out, her withers were out, she needed a few ribs put back, plus her hips were out. So she had several areas that needed work. She threw a bit of a fit when it came to putting her shoulder back into place since she was so sore there, but once it was done, she felt a million times better. When put in her pen, she immediately began racing around and bucking and it was very obvious she was feeling a lot better. She also has no more limp! But for the next 2 days, she's going to be in her own pen so that the other horses can't push her around and either kick her or make her wipe out since I don't want the chiro work undone. 


















*Flynn*

This guy was pretty good today. I just hung out in the pen with him and the other gelding while waiting for their water troughs to fill up. He was pretty sweet and a bit goofy. So I just played around with him a bit and was quite pleased with how good he was. I discovered he loves it when I play with his lips lol. He kept sticking his nose back into my hands so that I'd wiggle his lips and play with them. He also posed quite nicely a time or two for me which was really nice.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Flynn*

Yesterday I went to work with him in the morning to prepare him for trailer loading in the evening to be taken to the stables. Well, he didn't like having to think and work. He kicked out at me 3-4 times with his back legs. And then at one point, he decided the next best thing was to run me over. He actually knocked me down and gave me a minor concussion. So ya, the morning was rather eventful. 
However, we did end things positively. And by that evening, he literally popped into the trailer in 1 minute vs the 45 minutes it took us to load him when I first got him.

Today was the second day of his training when boot camp really started for him. We did roundpenning since I need to get him moving without anything attaching us since he's already proven previousy he has a tendency to be pushy and aggressive. Well, it took a sold 25-30 minutes before he finally started to realize that turning his butt to me was not the answer and instead, he needed to give me 2 eyes and turn to the inside rather than turn to the outside and show me his butt since he already has a tendency to kick out. 

By the end of our morning session, he was turning consistently to the inside and remained focused on me when we had breaks. Our first session lasted about an hour. 

Our second session only lasted 40 minutes. The first 20 minutes was spent going over the roundpen exercise and he did A LOT better. Still not great, but there was definitely improvement. 
Once he did that good for a bit, we worked on having him continue to keep 2 eyes on me as I moved around him. Then we did some desensitzing to the lead rope and whip. All in all, he did really well. Not perfect, but still good. 

During all of this, he remained focused and stood calmer than he ever has before. He was better behaved already than he was the day I brought him home. 

So now I can't wait to work with him tomorrow again. I've had 2 people tell me I should send him on his way since he tended to be dangerous, but I'm not about to give up yet. I want to be a trainer and run a rescue so I need to learn how to handle all types of horses, including ones that have a tendency to aggressive. And so far, things are going well.


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