More than a month later...

I know I'm bad. I keep on promising to update more and I don't.

Dixie is doing good. I won't be riding her for the next week or two though. I was thrown off of Vegas, my friend Cassie's horse. I landed on my shoulder and the doctor thinks I tore my muscles so it should take about 4-6 weeks to heal. It's already been two weeks and I really want to heal, in order to do that I shouldn't aggravate it anymore. Unfortunately, riding aggravates it.

I've been working on lunging and groundwork. I really need to do that anyways so it works.

Let's see, what else...I hate WINTER!! It just snowed an inch or two and I absolutely despise driving in the snow. Ooooh well, spring will be here soon I guess.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure :)

Pictures!!

So per ImaBronsonBear's request, this will all of my pictures that you haven't seen! And I'm holding you to that sugar and spice!

And yeah I agree with you too, slow cantering can be really nice just going down the trail. It's very relaxing :)


Dixie sporting the very fashionable winter hat...





And now we have Dixie sporting my brand "new" saddle...



A cute picture of two best friends :)


And for the finale, we have what Dixie does best; eating...

It's been a long time!

This is a horrible habit of mine, I tend to start diaries and/or journals and then lose interest. I am determined to not lose interest in this blog! I love typing and talking about Dixie, what reason do I have to not update it?!

Life has been kind of busy lately though. School obviously comes first and I'm trying my hardest to actually successfully pass this year, I'm so sick of being in high school. Granted I only went a semester over my original graduation year, it's still too much. And then to add on the stress and to take away more of time, I have to work to support Dixie. So whenever I'm not at school, I've got 16 hours of working to do. Finally, when I'm not at school or working, I go to the barn. You can see why I've been neglecting my internet commitments, right?

So yesterday Sherri and I took Whoopdi and Dixie out into the corn field. I had told her earlier that I would love to run in the corn field one day but I didn't want to go alone. I was pretty worried about Dixie not stopping once we got running. Having a horse run-off with me is kind of a fear of mine, I've just ridden a few horses within the last years who have run off with me. This was one of Dixie's big problems in the beginning. You could definitely say that this was her ultimate test. So we head into the corn field, we start trotting down the rows, everything is going great. Then we spot a huge buck, the horses didn't seem to be horribly bothered by it. Sherri asked Whoopdi if he wanted to go get it and he went off at a trot after it! Dixie of course had to follow! Dixie was trying so hard to keep up with Whoopdi without cantering, I don't think her little legs could go any faster! So that was fun in itself but then we go to the end and started cantering...oh my gosh! It was sooooo much fun. Dixie was so good too! She was actually controlled the entire time, she stopped when I asked her too and went when I did the same. I am just so proud of her!

This is just a quick post but I did update the things that I want to accomplish with Dixie and I took away the horsey items that I've obtained section.

I'll be back with pictures, don't worry!

It's been a few weeks....lots of updates!!

Ok, so since there is so much to tell. I'll categorize everything...I do love to categorize :D It will be color-coded too! How exciting!

Dixie

Things with Dixie have been going very well! I just read up on my last post to this blog and I'll start by updating everybody (if there are a lot of you...I seriously doubt that :) ) with what was going on then.

After my dentist appointment, I went and just hung out with her. I wanted to show her that we won't always work everytime I bring her in. I braided her mane that day, did a little groundwork (not even enough to count as work) and then went outside to sit with her in the field while she grazed. That was my plan anyways, she refused to eat any of the grass and preceded to bug me about giving her treats. I gave in. I couldn't help it, she's too cute. It was a good day, I'm glad I did it.

I did ended up doing the passenger lessons on our next ride. It went ok. I was a little nervous about giving up all of the reins and she was pretty confused about what we were doing. I'll try it again at some point, I really think it will help us.

I have, since my last post, started my lessons with Dixie. I am so happy I did too! I love having somebody there who can see what I'm doing and help me to improve. I have done about three lessons and Dixie has already improved her backing up, spirals, and we have just started side-passing. We side-passed ten feet on our last lesson!! I was so happy. Of course it was towards the gate but it's definite start!

That's about it for me and Dixie. I have been thinking a lot about buying her lately and my only concern is her and college financially...I worry a lot about that. After getting some advice and talks from the forum and talking with my mother, I have settled a bit about this. If and when I do buy her, it will be next year so for now I'm just enjoying riding her and not worrying a whole lot about it. It is of course still in the back of my head.

We also have a trail ride next wednesday that we'll be going on. I'll actually try to get pictures this time!!


My Walkabout

Well, my walkabout has kind of collapsed or at least it feels that way.

I had planned on going to California for a month in November or December. It's a wild horse sanctuary and they have a work study program. They just e-mailed me today informing me that my dates are out of their season. I had talked to them earlier about my dates and they gave me no reason to doubt this so I'm quite fustrated. I sent them a very professional e-mail expressing my fustration with this so I feel a lot better right now.

I am now on the search for an internship.

So far, these are all the prospects for my walkabout starting in September and ending in December. I graduate at the end of December.

• Local Therapeutic Riding Stable - The lady that I've been talking to sounds wonderful and it seems to be a full-go for me volunteering. I should be able to start this in mid-September and keep with that for at least a 6-8 weeks until I find my second one. I would even love to continue volunteering afterwards.
• Trail Riding Place in Indiana - I went trail riding at this place for my 17th birthday. He basically offered me a paid internship. I, of course, could not get paid during my internship for my school but I am curious if I could bring Dixie with me and it could be a work for board type thing. That would be wonderful although I'm not even sure if I could bring her or if I could do this in the dates that I need to do it. I mean, how busy in November and December really for trail riding? Not too busy, I'm guessing.
• Numerous Ranches that I have not yet contacted - I have found quite a few of ranches located in the west. I need to contact them with my details and hope for the best. Most of the places are dude/guest ranches so they have rates and everything for the lodges and "experience". I am hoping that it could be like a job thing without the pay and more learning on my side as I have never been on a ranch with cows. I am very willing to learn though!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently...

Nothing has been going on much lately. I've only ridden Dixie a few times since the trail riding trip. I've said this before but I really need to bump up her training. I've been doing spirals, figure 8s, and serpetines regulary now and I'm sure that's helping. That's about all I've been doing though now, it's been so hot and humid, we just don't feel like doing much and I feel bad working her in that kind of humidity, she's got to miserable some days.

I've got a dentist appointment tomorrow(today, haven't slept yet) and then hopefully I'll be heading out to the barn and I'm going to try to start her passenger riding lessons tomorrow, hopefully that will go well. It will be good for me too cause I've gotten so used to almost always steering her. I hope it won't be busy because obviously I can't do anything like that if there's another horse, it usually isn't during the day. I'm also going to the tack store tomorrow to get some first aid items and a crop...I have a feeling I might need a crop for tomorrow if I don't use Sherri's bridle with the splint reins and I use mine with the roper reins.

That's all for right now, I better get to bed, I've got that dentist appointment early tomorrow!

She transformed into a trail horse!

Well, I went on my birthday trail ride today with about 6 or so other people and their horses. I brought Dixie along, this was our first off-property trail ride together. I came out Monday and Tuesday so I could get her on the back property trails before we went on our big trail ride. I worked her in the arena first and then we headed out, she did pretty good. She didn't always want to go in the same direction but she overall just fine and her trail walk was very fast! On Tuesday, I went into the gelding turnout pasture (the geldings were inside at the moment) with another girl from the stable. The gelding turnout has a lot of logs and trail obstacles to go over. I took Dixie over the bridge, huge logs, lots of logs in a row, etc. She did very well. I also trotted her around a bit and she did fine at that too. I was so proud of her!

I have to admit, I was a bit worried about today.


Italic is what I thought would happen. Bold is what actually happened.

Not going/coming out of the trailer smoothly.
She loaded like a champ, didn't think anything of it.

Not slowing down when I wanted her to.
She listened to all of my cues on the trail, especially my voice. She listened extremely well to my voice. For example, when we would go down a hill and she would start to trot. I would tell her to walk, slow down, ease up, take it slow, etc. and she would listen.

A nutcase before we go on the trail because of her freshness.
She was completely calm when she got off the trailer. She didn't seem fresh at all, didn't want to go any faster than I wanted her to go, I only had to one-rein her to get on but that's always how it is. She has a problem with walking off, we're still working on it.

Rushiness on the trail.
She was not rushy at all. She had a nice consistent pace and if I clucked to her once or twice she would walk slightly faster.

Possible run-off with me.
We trotted as a group and she slowed right down when I asked her to and never even tried to go faster or gave me any reason to think she would run off. I often had her trotting up the hills and again, she never went any faster than of what I asked of her. Last time, I went to the same place but I rode Harvey, their lesson horse. He ran off with me while going up a hill. He is considered very bombproof.

Constantly one-reining her.
I barely ever one-reined her...actually, I don't think I ever did. I did slightly when she decided that maybe she shouldn't be going that way but she quickly straightened herself out and listened to me.

Becoming pissy and flipping her head around.
She only flipped her head a few times when I had some consistent contact but other than that, she really responded very well to the contact and even rounded slightly when I asked her to slow down. I haven't really worked on that with her so I was truely amazed.

Over-reacting to the water and doing something that could be dangerous or just being afraid of it and therefore causing problems whenever we would come up on mud or water.
Again, she handled this like a champ. She actually went hock-deep! We also had a lot of mud on the last mile or so and she went through it with some hesitation and needed a bit of encouragement but overall, she was great. Infact, she lead another horse through it that was having problems, two of them actually.


Riding up on other horse's butts.
She did this a bit but I could easily pull her back, I would just have to keep on doing it since her trail walk is a bit faster than most of the slow-pokes that were in our group. She also had no problem with Captain, a friend's horse, riding up her butt. He was most comfortable with his nose up her butt so we just rode like that the entire time. I think the two of them kind of bonded over the trailer ride.

Not being comfortable in a position in the herd.
She was comfortable in any position that we were in. Half of the time we were in the middle, she never had a problem with this. The other half of the time, we were leading since we were the faster ones. She did this very well, she even lead the whole group through all of the bad mud. I think she likes to lead but I'm grateful that she's content in any position. Harvey really loves to lead and he's gets so anxious if he's not and then he gets mad whenever a horse is on his butt, kind of made it not enjoyable at times.

Bucking.
Nope, no bucking whatsoever. She didn't want to at all either.

Possible herd-bound problems as well.
Again, nope, she would walk alone and away from the group. I had to go quite a ways back to help Erika and Captain and she was perfectly fine trotting away from the group that she was just neighing to earlier.


All in all, I am absolutely amazed by how she did today. I love that fact that I have this very trust-worthy and dependable trail horse now. It's like she transformed on the trailer ride over there. I really think we bonded on this ride as well. When we were all taking a break. I sat up on a hill with her right next to me. I ate my beef jerky and fed her carrots at the same time. She was so sweet, she just put her head gently in my lap, ate the carrots, made sure to not walk on top of me and then soon rested for a bit with her nose on my shoulder. She also paid close attention to me while we were sitting there. If I moved, she would look over and make sure everything was ok and then if I went back to my horn bag to get something, she would turn her nose around to see what I was doing. She was just so attentive and I felt like she was taking care of me and that if we were in a situation where I needed her help for our safetly, I am sure she would come through with flying colors.

I'm so proud of my girl.

This trip also closed more, if all, of my doubts about buying her/a horse in general right now.

There's Hope

I went out early this morning to try and beat the heat. My plan didn't work as just as I was ready to ride, it became humid and extremely hot.

I didn't really do much in the arena, just the normal warm-up and then some transitions between the trot and canter. She did well with that. I then went outside to the trails. She handled this amazingly well compared to the other time. She was bit rushy and didn't always want to go where I wanted her to go but overall she was ok. She is quite the muncher!

After I was done with my trail ride, I went to her pasture to ride in a bit and see how she does. All of her pasturemates were in another pasture because some of the land was being worked on for drainage issues. We rode half way through and she was still fine. I felt so bad because she kept on neighing for her friends but nobody answered, she looked as though she had been abandoned! I gave her bath when I brought her in and snuck fly spray on her, she behaved very well with that! I was so proud of her. Then, when she was finally ready to go back outside, I took her to the pasture where her friends were and she was so happy to see them! It was cute, she neighing with joy and they all came running to see her.