August 29,2012

    So there is this horse that I had been riding for 8 months or so. I really had fallen in love with her. Her name was Maggie. She and I really get along well with each other. Well so anyway I had found out that my teacher is moving a way. It was sad to here and another blow was that the owners of Maggie were selling her!

    I was really sad that they were selling her. It was hard to think of her going to another owner and me not being able to ride her anymore. Well, so anyway I asked my parents if I could buy her. She has great bloodlines and I knew that she would be worth a lot of money. I did not know how I was going to get all the money to pay for her, but I knew that I had to try.  So I had a week to decide and to get my parents permission to buy her. I was really  was nervous on the day I had to give and answer because my parents had not given any indications on whether they would let me buy her or not.

    As I got her out thinking this is it Maggie.. we may never see each other again. It had been so enjoyable to work and get to know her. We had   a bond that I do not think most people can understand. So anyway I started to groom her and my dad gave me some rules and said if I did not keep up my side of the bargain we would sell Maggie. I could hardly believe my ears! They were letting me buy her!! My teacher finalized the buying agreement with the previous owner. I bought her for a little more than I had originally thought I might get her for, but I was so happy I did not care how much I had to pay for her.

    Maggie was bought on August 29, 2012. I changed her name to Bella. Her full name is Bella Rosa. She is really getting along with all of us. I am so happy how well my parents are responding to having a horse in the family. Bella is one of the kindest, quiet tempered horse you will find anywhere.  Here is a  pictures of her. This blog is now a blog of Bella's and my horse adventures. I will hopefully be writing more about the two of us. For now I will close.

   As soon as I can I will post a new one.
  

Upcoming Events

     I thought that I should drop a quick post about what I will be doing June 15-17. One of my friends gave me a horse magazine that had something about Clinton Anderson's Walk About tour. I started to research when and where he was going to be. Soon I found out that he is going to be in Iowa! I mentioned it to my parents and it took them a while to decide whether or not it was a good idea to go.

     My mom and I ordered our tickets for Clinton's show. We will be gone for three days! I am really looking forward to it. Samantha, my teacher is also coming with us. I think that this will be a good learning experience for me. It is a good thing that Samantha is coming so that I can ask her questions. When we get back I should have a lot to write about.

Lessons of Late

    It certainly has been a really long time since I last posted. Recently, my teacher has given me the opportunity to work with a very young horse. I really do enjoy when my teacher gives me these little challenges. I am hoping that in June I will be able to Clinton Anderson's  three day event in Iowa. My teacher might even be coming with my mom and I. I think that it will be a very good experience for me. During most of my lessons I have been working on my technique. It is easy to learn the basics of riding and care of a horse. It is important that you learn to master those things. In order to do so you must practice what you have learned all the time.

    I have spent almost two years working with horses. I have learned a lot but I still do not know enough. It has been a good experience to be working with another student. Too learn how to deal with making sure you do not run in to the other person is a lot harder than most people who do not take lessons know. I hope to keep getting these great challenges and experiences.

A Possible Job And an Update

   Well, I know that it has been a long time since I posted. I thought  that I would give a small update. The barn manager at the ranch that I go to for lessons, put in a request for a  person to do morning and evening chores. Well, I talk to my dad and he said that it was alright for me to do it. I am hoping that the people who are selecting candidates will let me do the chores.

    Lately, I have been working with a horse that is kind of difficult. He took a five month break from what he had been doing. It has been a good experience for me to work with a horse like that. I hope that more opportunities come up to work with difficult horses.

    Sorry that this is not a long post, but I thought I would just quick tell you the latest news. Hopefully I will have more news to tell later.

The Past Two Weeks

   The past two weeks have been pretty busy. On Wednesday I have a riding lesson, and on Fridays I try to go to the ranch.were I have my horse riding lessons. Sometimes my friend comes and helps me  clean cobwebs from the stalls. I also get to lunge horses when I go.

    I will tell about two weeks and then about this past week's lesson. It all started almost normally. I had to get a different horse to ride on. He was at least 16 hands and weighed over 1,000 pounds. He was a big horse. I got all of his tack on after I brushed him and cleaned out his feet. My teacher Samantha told me she was going to get another horse for another student. She got the horse all taken care of. The other student showed up. While Samantha and the other student were getting ready, I lunged the horse that I was going to be using. The horse was meant for western pleasure. He is not like Skylar. His walk is slower and he does not respond like Skylar does. When the other student was ready, Samantha had us get onto our horses and start walking around the arena. I could not get onto my horse without a mounting block. He was so tall! After I got on I had him walk. We then went into the trot. Samantha had me  lope while she worked with the other student. The other student was having a little bit of trouble with the trot. Who could blame her? She had just started working on the trot I think. I think it took me a couple of months to start getting the hang of  the trot. I still have trouble remembering to keep my heels down. So while Samantha worked with the other student on the trot, I worked on the lope. It is hard for me to get the horse into a lope and stay loping until I ask it to stop. I like loping. The motion is like being on a rocking chair. . After that Samantha got out cones and we did weaving. First it was at a trot, Then it went into a lope for me. When we got all done with that we ended the lesson. I had to get home early that night so I did not get to stay and play guitar. I would have gone to the barn on Friday, but my sister had to take a test in Worthington, MN. My sister and I went and I read while she was taking her test.

    Wednesday of this week I went again for my lesson. When I got to the ranch, The other student that I had lessons with the previous week was there getting her horse into a halter. Samantha told me that I was going to be riding the same horse I rode last week. I got him into a halter and brought him to a place where I could tie him up. After I tied him up, I brushed him and put on his tack. Once I was done putting his tack on I led him into the arena and lunged him. When the other student came in she lunged her horse. It is sometimes difficult to when you are sharing an arena to be careful of the other horse and rider. We got onto our horses. It was difficult for me once again. I had to use the mounting block. After we rode around a bit Samantha had me get off so that she could show us something. I did manage to get on the horse again without the mounting block. I had some help. Samantha got out poles so we could weave in and out of them. I had to trot and then lope back. I had a little time to myself to trot and lope while Samantha worked with the other student. Once she was done she helped me with my loping. Once we were done we put the poles away and I did play my guitar for a few minutes. I did agree with Samantha to meet her on Friday.

    On Friday Samantha called later than usual. She said that she and another lady were bringing a mare and a colt. I called my friend to see if he wanted to come. He and I worked on cobwebs until Samantha came. They unloaded the horses. On Monday they will be weaning the colt. She had me lunge a horse called Tinker. The horse is very nice. It is a really funny horse. You ask the horse to walk and she immediately starts to trot. After I got done I had to go. I can not wait to see what we will do this Wednesday.

Wednesday and Today

   I will start with an account of what happened on Wednesday during my riding lesson and then move on to tell about what I did today. I have lessons every week on Wednesday. I really do enjoy them. They are a nice little break from school. It is especially nice when the sun is setting and you are walking on your horse at a nice leisurely pace. So now on to my lesson.

   Wednesday started out a little chilly, but after a little while it got a little better. I went to the barn where I have lessons and went and got the horse I would be using his name is Skylar. He is a beautiful Paint. After I got him out I led to a place where I could tie him up and brush him and put on his tack. Once this was done I led him into the arena where I could ride him. I have a tendency to not check the cinch on the saddle to make sure it is tight so that the saddle will not move or anything like that when I get on. It has happened to me more that once. So I knew that this time I would make sure I would check it. Well, I almost forgot, but I did at the last minute remember to tighten it. After I got on I realized I forgot another thing. I forgot to put my spurs on. Skylar is a really nice horse but he can also be lazy. So then I had to get my spurs on and get back on. I did that and began riding. As I was riding I was thinking wow I can feel the wind in my hair. How odd because I usually do not feel that. Well, I did forget another thing and that was my helmet.It did seem like a lot of getting on and getting off. It is definitely great exercise to get on and off a horse.So after I made sure that I did not forget anything else I got on once more and stayed on until the end of the lesson. During the lesson I learned how to turn on the fore end and the hind end. It is not as easy as I thought it might be. We also did the usual trotting, loping, and at the end, galloping. After the lesson ended my teacher let me help her lunge a couple of horses that she is training. I really do enjoy lunging. I asked her if I could come back on Friday to help with the horses and anything else I could do.

   When I came back to the ranch today I brought a friend along. We got the nice task of sweeping cobwebs from the stalls and  ceiling. It is not a bad sort of job if you have a friend to talk to while doing it.Once we finished the first row of stalls we stopped for the day and went on to another job of helping feed a couple of horses. I asked my teacher whether it would be okay if I could ride Skylar today. She of course said yes. It is nice to have a teacher who is willing to share her horse even when we are not in lessons. She also let my friend ride him. I grabbed Skylar and did the usual routine: brushing, cleaning out his hooves, putting on the saddle and bridle. After that I got on him and rode him around. I did the usual with him as I would do in a lesson. I made him walk for a little bit and then made him trot and lope. He was really not  wanting to obey today. I got off so that my friend could have a turn. let him go at his own and first, but it did seem that Skylar really did not want to obey. So then I suggested that I put him on a lunge rope and see if he would obey with my friend. And also so that if anything did go wrong (like him bursting into a lope) I could have control. Nothing did go wrong so I had my friend jump off, and I lunged him as I should have at first. That went okay for the most part. I did get on him and rode him around to see if he was more obedient. He was until I got off. My friend I must say did a great job with such a funny horse. I hope that he will want to come back to the barn with me in the future.

Horse Riding

This blog is for my adventures in my horse riding. When my sister was gone a few years ago in South Africa for almost 7 weeks, my parents  signed me up for horse riding. I was a little nervous at first, but this was not my first time riding a horse. I rode a horse for a day some years before at a church camp. My teacher, Samantha Johnson, is a very nice teacher. So anyway I went to this first lesson very nervous. As soon as I met the teacher I knew I had nothing to worry about. In this blog I will tell you about my time every week. I have recently in the (last 2 months) begun again to ride and to be taught by my teacher again. To begin with this past weeks lesson. This week when I got to my lesson I brushed the horse that I was going to be using, and I also put on his tack. It is to me a great achievement that I am able to do all of this all by myself. I then lunged the horse around the arena. When I got on the horse I began slow. Then as I got used to being on again I began to trot, then lope and finally gallop. That was the first time I galloped on purpose. I believe that galloping is far better than loping. I used to think that loping was nice and smooth, but going at a gallop is far better. I can hardly wait for the next lesson.