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February 27, 2006
Fright in the Field!
A lovely hack becomes frightening surprisingly quickly!
Well, I had grandiose plans for this summer. I had called up the local Mounted Orienteering group, and they sounded friendly. Cheryl was interested, too. We were eager to try out our mounts outside the arena.
We had had several uneventful rides inside the riding ring, and in Kai's pasture. Now, we wanted a bigger challenge: the back trails behind the property.
Laurie had come to see her horses and had taken them into the stable to groom them. This left their large pasture open, and that was conveniently the shortest route to the trails. Cheryl and I decided to ride through Traz's pasture and into Laurie's horses' pasture. If all went well, from there we'd access the trails.
The horses were "feeling their oats" and on unfamiliar ground. We decided, after riding a few circuits through the huge field, that we'd forgo the trails for that day. We did circles for awhile to calm the horses down. As I was asking Kai to circle, he started and kicked out a bit in the direction of Traz, so I reprimanded him verbally and gave him a slight tap with my riding crop. Cheryl told me that Kai wasn't kicking at Traz, he had merely unearthed a piece of wire from the muddy field(fortunately not barbed) and was untangling himself. I felt terrible for assuming that Kai was guilty! (We got rid of the wire.)
We should have quit while we were ahead, but we were having an enjoyable time. That is, until Traz got wind of the fact that Laurie was FEEDING her horses up at the stable. He wanted the ride to end right then!
Cheryl and Traz were behind me, and all of a sudden, I heard Cheryl yell, "He's out of control!" The next thing I heard was a horse galloping up behind me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cheryl fall off of Traz, who continued galloping, reins flying and nostrils flaring.
I had asked Kai to stand, which he did, but he was prancing in place. Traz was racing around. Fortunately, Cheryl only injured her finger (it was broken.)She said it didn't hurt very much. She wasn't sure how that happened, as she landed on her posterior, and not her fingers!
Cheryl held onto Kai while I dismounted (I was afraid we'd have two loose horses if I tried to dismount while Kai was poised to charge), and we caught Traz. Our next ride will be in the arena for sure (and we'll lunge Traz for awhile beforehand.)
I would like to thank Kai for being such a great horse! he listened to me, and followed my instructions. This made the whole situation a lot easier to handle.
We feel very lucky that nothing terribly bad happened, as we both know people who have had terrible accidents while riding.
Moral of the story: Wear a helmet. If you must fall, land on your rear end. And never ride alone!
Posted by Jessica at 11:05 PM | Comments (1)
February 20, 2006
A Visit to Uncle Don's Office
I took Derek to visit Uncle Don at his office on Friday.
Derek enjoyed racing around the office at his usual top speed. Then, he played peekaboo with Uncle Don. He was being very good until Uncle Don showed him the nifty buttons on the fax machine. They sure do make a very entertaining "beep, beep, beep" sound! Especially entertaining if you are only 20 months old! He spent a lot of time after that trying to get back by the fax machine so he could press more buttons.
He had a thoroughly enjoyable visit!
Posted by Jessica at 12:03 AM | Comments (1)
February 13, 2006
In Search of the Ultimate Saddle
Cheryl had decided to try riding English. So we went in search of a new saddle for her.
Both of us are on very tight budgets right now, so we had, shall we say, very limited resources to work with. But, to my surprise, at a used tack sale we found not one, but two saddles that were in our price range, looked like they might fit both rider and horse, and didn't look as if they'd fall apart immediately!
One of them was $25 and the other was $30.
If you don't ride horses, then let me explain to you that saddles normally aren't that cheap! I would price a good quality used saddle at between $400 and $800 because to buy one new would be impossible unless you have more money than brains! (Besides, used ones are broken in nicely and hold their value. Just be sure to examine them for damage before purchasing.)
The $30 "wonder saddle" had some obvious cosmetic problems, but is in servicable shape, so we bought that one. It has a very wide gullet, so it fits Kai with no problem, but doesn't quite fit Cheryl's horse as well. It's also missing the dees, so we can't attach a breastplate (bummer.) The billets are okay, and it has a nice, deep seat and padded knee rolls.
I had been so enthusiastically embracing the Western Spirit with my "Dale Evans Special" that I hadn't ridden in my own English saddle since November. I had a sudden urge to ride English again. I put my saddle on Kai, and it seems he's grown (rounder, anyway!) It didn't fit him in the shoulder area. Now I am panicking! I have no English saddle! I must sell my Courbette and buy another one ('cause that's the only way I'd be able to afford one!)
I went on eBay to look up prices for my saddle. According to the descriptions given on eBay, my saddle is supposed to have a "flex-tree" which will conform to a horse's back. I'll try it again...maybe it has reverted to Chizzam-shape after being used on him for so many years.
.........
In other news, our house is haunted. We came back from a lovely night out on Saturday (Derek was at grandma's and grandpa's) to find a TV on. Except we haven't used that TV in months. (Cue "Twilight Zone" music...)
Posted by Jessica at 11:22 PM | Comments (3)
February 09, 2006
Derek is saying more words!
Derek has increased his vocabulary. Besides "choo choo", he is now saying "Bob." As in "Bob the Builder."
His two favorite things to watch are Thomas and Friends and Bob the Builder.
I try to encourage him to say some other words, but he gets very frustrated when I ask him to try. If I don't push him, he'll try them on his own.
Now he can say "bird", "snow", "dog", "juice", "Doodah" (Grandma), and "Boppa" (Grandpa.) Of course, he also says Mama and Da!
Posted by Jessica at 12:18 AM | Comments (1)
February 01, 2006
Mud, mud and more mud!
4 Wheel Drive is a necessity when visiting the stable.
When we ride, the horses are fetlock deep in MUD! Yuck! but at least the weather is warm enough for riding.
We hope to try a trail ride soon. The owner of the farm showed us an aerial photo of the land and pointed out the way to get to the trails. We'll go on foot before we take the horses just to make sure we can get back there okay.
Posted by Jessica at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)