Saturday, March 10, 2012

I never thought this day would come....

Gracie's DreamHorse Add

Gracie has been officially put up for sale.  I thought I would NEVER do this but I need to follow my dream and riding English is not it.  She is an AMAZING English horse and I just don't ride English.  I'm doing her and myself a disservice by keeping her.

Although when I took this WP video she sure did look amazing!!

Gracie WP video

Gracie Hunt Seat Trot Video

Gracie Hunt Seat Canter Video

So if anyone knows of someone looking for an amazing All Around Mare...please point them in my directions.  She has know where to go but up!!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

The Perfect Horse...


Meet Apollo, he is my double registered new WP gelding.  He is Perfect.
Almost.
I bought him two weeks ago today. 
After the first week when he had what I thought was two colic scares I did some research.

Turns out he is HyPP N/H.  
I was not told this when I purchased him. 

And being the good horse owner that I am I brought him home and started to fatten him up with
Orchard grass,
Grain,
and
Cookies w/Mollasses

I could have killed him being the good horse owner that I think I am.

HyPP positive horses cannot have high potassium diets.  
Everything I was feeding him was WRONG, Everything.

So in the past week I have scoured the internet to find any and every piece of information on HyPP.
I have seen every opinion from 'All N/H horses should be put down' to 'Owners just need to be aware and HyPP N/H horses can live a long productive life'

I choose to believe the latter.

I have started to adjust his feeding program and he has been symptom free.
Currently on 4 feedings a day

2 flakes grass hay a.m.
1 flake grass hay midday
2 flakes grass hay p.m.
1 flake grass for midnight snack

Grain 
Crimped Oats
Lite Balance grain
Super Gain (Great for HyPP horses that need to gain wgt) 1/2 suggested serving
HorseShine 

The above is what was recommended by a reputable feed company.
The Hay I'm still nervous about because I don't know what the potassium level is.  I'm going to have this tested.  I'm also having some Timothy tested to see if it's lower in potassium than the current local I'm feeding.
We are slowly working on getting him into shape as stress free as possible.



I still have high hopes for this boy.  He is EVERYTHING I have always wanted. Slow, kind, and gorgeous!!  He just has issues, that I intend to work through.

Now would I have bought him if I had known? No.  But I did and he is mine to take care of and make sure he lives the most productive life he can....


Thursday, October 20, 2011

Cowgirl Definition


Nuff Said.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

We did it!!


 We Went around in a circle one way..


We went in a circle the other way...


We competed with friends...


(I didn't win a ribbon in this class :-( Kim took 4th)

We waited together... And we had a BLAST. 

Grace won 3 first place trophies(Junior horse English, Adult Rider Equitation English, Novice Rider Walk/Trot Western) , 1 second (Judges command English) 1 third (Adult Rider Western Pleasure) and 2 Forth (Adult Rider Walk/Trot English, and I don't remember what the other forth was for...)




GRACIE and I Won this one!!!!!!  I almost fell out of my saddle!!!


My first Ribbon EVER and it was Blue.  Grace was amazing!  Can't wait to do it again!!

Monday, September 5, 2011

The New Barn....


GRACIE....Long time no post but I didn't really have a lot going on, but in the last week or so we've had some big Changes...



But First I have to show off my girl...

Yowzaaaa..... just breath taking


I think she is just turning into one HELL of a gorgeous Mare...


So here are the hay fields we ride in...acres and acres....in the background there...

Here is Ellie, this is Gracies half sister...they have the same sire.  Ellie is also as sweet as Grace!!



Here's Grace and I out for a stroll around the grounds after her bath tonight...


What a gorgeous evening for a lite snack...(not that she doesn't graze all day in her turn out)

Up this drive way is a trail to the upper hay fields...those will be our next adventure I think.  Some Sunset photos are in the near future.

So hopefully more blogging is in order!!  More adventures in Riding Yippeee!!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Fear

It was like going into a haunted house, or going to see a slasher movie, covering up your eyes but peaking through your fingers....Heart beating so fast because you know something terrifying is going to happen but being a little excited waiting for the moment when the Evil Clown jumps out of a closet or the stupid teen ager decided to go look for help alone when they know the insane asylum has lost a few of it's most dangerous of guests!!!

That's what it felt like when my trainer sent me this text "Your Going to Canter tonight". And I did. I have only cantered on Grace once before and we had a meeting of the heads.. she gave me a black eye.

So I have been doing some reading and decided the best way to do this was on the end of a lunge line. Like a 7 year old. But it worked. Here's how it went

K: Are you Ready
Me: uhhh
K: Take a deep breathe
Me: uhhh
K: Let it out
Me: uhhh
K: Kiss/Canter/whip

And off we went

It was not comfortable for me it was scary as hell, but I hear with practice it becomes second nature. So we are going to practice, practice, practice.

So I did not fall off, I did not get a black eye, and I felt like I had won the lottery after watching Nightmare on Elm Street (the original) in the dark alone.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

A Gift...but we'll take it

Gracie and I had an open show this Saturday and we were signed up for 4 classes, the 18-39 English Pleasure and 3 western W/T classes.

I got to the Equestrian Center a little later than I had planned so Grace didn't get an opportunity to get a warm up in the morning. So when I took her out to get her ready she seemed pretty low key. Boy was I wrong.

I have to mention that this show had a LOT of horses participating. I don't think I've been to a show yet that had so many people showing.

My trainer hopped up on Grace in the warm up pen and I knew right away that it was going to be interesting. Grace gave a cow hop when Kim mounted and I almost right there wasn't going to ride her in the western classes she was that hot. There must have been about 20-30 horses in the warm up pen and Grace was just not having any of it. She would not relax and I was concerned about her going into her class. I went up to the stands to watch.

The English pleasure class was Crazy maybe 10 horses in the class and to be honest I thought it was Graces Worst ride in a class yet. She was just not relaxed and I could tell Kim was getting ready to SCHOOL her in the class.

So at the line up when she wasn't called at least 5th I thought oh well, next time. So I started down the stairs to get the gate so I could take the naughty mare to get ready for some serious lunging and I heard our Number....Uh what I couldn't believe it. She took First...and here is the trophy to prove it.


So on to the outdoor to do some schooling and work out the ants in her pants so I would feel comfortable mounting up for our 3 afternoon Classes...

After her lunge session she seemed to be much more relaxed. I mounted up and she was awesome. She felt relaxed and I thought okay...this might actually be fun and not complete torture for both of us..

We went into the Western Novice Horse class and OMG there were at least 25 horses in the ring with us before they decided to split the class into two. We had our best ride yet...I remember at the line up I was tearing up because I was so proud of her. I had no idea how the other horses did and to be honest I didn't care. OUR RIDE was amazing...and when they called us in the top 5 I about lost it. It's the first time Grace and I have placed at a show. To be honest if they hadn't called us I wouldn't have cared. It just felt good. Being Top Ten in a class of 40+ horses feels pretty damn good. (No we didn't ribbon but I still feel like I won big)

But she broke down after that class...all she wanted to do in the next classes was to race everyone in the ring, and when there are 20+ horses in a class you never have a slot where she can feel like she's in front and can relax.

But it didn't matter to me. We made it through and we both keep improving. That's all I can ask for.