You get what you ask for.....

Oh my!!! :)

Danny had Monday off and on Tuesday, Fleck and I had our lesson with Cindy. The ponies were all in the front field so I pulled the trailer up and whistled. Fleck looked up but didn't come so I started out to get him. Danny came galloping up to me. (Be still my beating heart!....awwww!!) He slid to a stop and was like "Hi Mom! What's up?!". I gave him some love and headed off to get Fleck. A step or two away from Danny, I started trotting and Danny trotted after me. :) So I got Fleck and headed toward the trailer. I put him in and he was screaming his head off for Danny. Danny turned and came galloping up to the gate, so I thought... why not?! Let's take Danny too. So in the trailer he went and we were off. 

We got to High Point and I tied them both to the trailer while I tacked up Fleck. I groomed him and then put his saddle pad on and went back to the tack room to get his saddle. When I came out, I saw the saddle pad slip off his back and then get flung and whipped around in the air. Doh!! Daniel.. give that back! I got it back on and got Fleck tacked up. Then I put Danny in the trailer with Sunny (Peri was hanging out after her lesson) and went and rode Fleck. (Cindy said she didn't think she wanted to know what happened to Fleck's saddle pad.. ha ha!). During the lesson Danny and Sunny were good and just hung out. Once I finished with Fleck I tied him to the trailer and got Danny out again. He got groomed and then tacked up and off we went. As Peri and I were walking up to the outdoor ring I made the comment that I might be tempted to get on him without the lunge line and walk him around the farm for his first trail ride. High Point has a perimeter fence with a lane between it and the pastures. It makes a loop around the farm and would be ideal as it's only about 6 feet wide and there's no escape. But it's also electric and hot, so if Danny hit it, it might be a bad thing. So we're discussing this as we hit the top of the hill. I'm not sure what got Danny started, but suddenly he was piaffing and passaging in place. His tail flipped over his back and his nostrils flared and his feet were dancing! He was all worked up. He was spinning around and being silly. Um... never mind... I may not even ride today!! He was really worked up! The other girl riding got off and she did swear that she was done anyways. I decided to lunge Danny and burn off some of that energy. And HOLY COW!!!! Beth wasn't kidding... that boy can MOVE!!! I think my jaw hit the floor. I realize that every horse gets bouncy when they are all excited and don't have a rider, but holy cow!!! He was literally floating in the air. It was trot, BOING.............. , trot, BOING.............., trot, BOING....... FLOATING!!! And it was gorgeous! Drool worthy!! Once I picked my jaw up off the ground I put him to work. I let him get his sillies out but made sure that he was paying attention to me. And he was. He was distracted and playing, but he was also paying attention to me and trying. He quickly started listening and I gradually asked more and more of him. I got him to come down to the trot, change directions, stop and turn in, canter, back to trot, walk, etc. And within... maybe 10 minutes, he was listening and trotting normally. Okay... maybe I can get on. But no way in heck am I getting off the lunge line! Hee hee. I walked him up to the mounting block and he was on high alert but stood. I patted him all over and he didn't react, so I got on. He was tense, but did what I asked. He was a little bit in Peri's space (okay, so maybe a lot bit) and was a bit more fussy in his face when I asked him to halt, but really not bad. We stopped, we walked on, we turned right and we turned left. Not too shabby at all considering he is a 2 year old that was a bucking bronco 20 minutes ago. I stayed on him for about 10 minutes and then got off, while the going was still good. I gave him lots of praise and then we headed down to the big barn. I wanted to show him the indoor arena. 

We hit the barn edge and he planted. He grew another foot and his eyes got big. He snorted but trusted me and we inched our way into the barn. Once he was in, he was a bit braver and we made it to the indoor arena. I didn't want to disturb the two riders so I stayed on the edge of the arena but we walked up and down. He stopped at the mirrors and stared. And then wiped his drooly nose all over them. oops! Then we walked back to the other end. On our way back one of the horses came up sort of near him and right in the corner of his eye, they picked up the canter from the walk. Danny started but stayed with me and settled down quickly. REALLY not bad for a 2 year old and his first time in the indoor. It was about what I would have expected of Fleck. But he was still up on his tippy toes. 

I then decided since he was so sweaty, I might as well try him in the wash rack again. He's been in Beth's but not at High Points. Theirs is a bit more narrow. We pulled off his tack and got him in the wash rack. I held and Peri hosed. He wasn't super good but he eventually stood. Initially he kept trying to sneak out and then he kept picking up a hind leg when she got to his back end.  But he settled down and was excellent at the end.

Phew!! That was quite a lot for him. And quite honestly, much more excitement than I expected. I guess I shouldn't have wanted him to be more forward huh?! :) 

I so cannot wait until he and I are galloping in the XC field! It's gonna be so much fun.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of his sexy trot or really.. any pictures. There was just a little bit too much excitement to risk it. But man... I wish I had. It was a great learning day for him. 

FEH show recap

Well, Danny was MUCH  better behaved this year! :) He gets a gold star sticker for that! Though he still was naughty. Hee hee..

It all started the night before with a bath. I don't really have a wash rack so I just hold him and hose him at the same time. He was being a punk. He kept spinning around and I was trying very hard to be patient. At one point, he started walking away from me to go into the glower bed. That's when I had enough and I slapped him with the end of the lead rope on the butt. Probably not my smartest move, as I had hooves flashing dangerously close to my head. I yelled at him and tugged on his head and... the poor kid spun, slid in the wet grass, and went down flat on his side with a "whooomp!!". I think he knocked the wind out of himself because he sat for a second, then took a deep breath, and then got up. Well... that's what happens when you kick at Mommy's face! After that Mike came out and hosed him while I held him and he stood like a gentleman. So he was all sparkly clean. I fed them and stayed up late to clean his bridle. At about 12:30, just as I was getting to bed, I heard thunder and saw lightning. And then the rain started. It POURED!!! Great... there goes all my hard work.

But surprise, surprise! Danny was actually super clean in the morning! Either they stayed out of the rain or he never laid down or both. Yay!!! I got them fed and then grabbed him to go braid him. Doh... NOW he was dirty! He had slung grain soup over his whole blanket.. on both sides!! Argh! I was able to sponge him off though and it looked pretty good after that. I tied him up to the trailer to braid him. Yep... his mane is still way too long and way too thick. The braids looked pretty bad but weren't horrible. He was good but a typical two year old and wanting to play a lot. He kept chewing on my trailer door. We got sprinkled on a few times too during the braiding session. Argh. Luckily he loaded right up... but I couldn't shut the trailer door. What on earth?? What did he do??? Somehow he chewed on the handle enough to make it so that I couldn't keep it shut. Argh. I was able to lock it from the inside and it stayed shut, but that meant I couldn't go in and out of that door. oh well. I'll deal with it later. We picked up May and she loaded right up and her and Dan hauled quite nicely.

When we got to Cedar Ridge they were ready for us. Uh oh! We rushed and got them bridled and numbered and walked them down to the barn area. And waited... and waited! Argh.. I could have spent 10 minuts brushing him and picking out his feet and polishing his hooves. Oh well. We all milled around in their parking lot and I practiced trotting Danny. He was great. It was fun seeing all the other babies and it was nice to hear all the nice comments about how pretty Dan was and how tall! And Beth made my day. Someone said how nice looking Danny was and she said "You should see him move"! I asked "Who, Mighty?" and she said "No... Danny"!  Yay!!!

Finally it was our turn to go. Danny stood very well for his conformation evaluation. No fussing really and he didn't eat the reins too badly. Then we started off on the triangle. He was a bit goofy at first but did pretty well. Then our trot was a bit more exciting. He kept starting off at the canter but then settled into a trot. Finally, down the final third of the triangle, we got a decent trot going. Yay. He behaved himself while we waited and then they called us all back in at once. I'm not sure what the delay was for, but we circled at the walk about 5 times. Danny had had enough by this time. He was dancing and carrying on. Nothing horrible, but fussy. Carolyn Cadier must have remembered us from last year because she whispered as we passed "if he's acting up feel free to leave so you don't get the others riled up". ha.. That was her polite way of kicking us out Dan. So I pulled him up into the corner of shame and made him stand. He stood well, so I tried again. And again he was fussy and silly. I think I tried about three times. The last time he saw himself in the mirror and stood and stared! He puffed up and posed and was enamored! It took me about 5 minutes to get him to move.

And then they finally called out the scores. Danny did fairly well. We placed 4th out of the 6 horses. Not too bad! He scored an 8 for type with the comment of "Athletic". Yay! Good pony! I hung his ribbon on his bridle and the goober kept eating it! Ha ha..

 

It was a good day!
Here are the naughty pictures! These might be my favorites of them all too!

And... trooooootttt :)

Tonight I took Danny to Christina's for a field trip. Her boarder has done a lot of work with the babies so she's very helpful. And I don't really have anyone here to help me, so... I took advantage. Danny loaded right up with no hesitation despite being the only one on the trailer. We got to Christinas and he said hi to May and Sham and then patiently waited his turn tied to the trailer while Christina rode May.

 Then I tacked him up and it was his turn. He was much more animated today! But in a good way. He was pretty darn good and walked on well. Stopping was a bit tougher today. He was pretty fussy about it and it took a little bit of time, but he did stop. He was very distracted! Soooooo ADD. He spooked at the plank jump but walked right up to it and sniffed it and was cool. He was very distracted and kept staring at Christina. Hee hee. But turning was pretty good.
 
Then Christina said "I think you should try the T R O T"... so I did. I basically just closed my leg and said "annnnnnd troooot"! and... he did. :) He did about 5 steps then tripped. Hee hee. Poor kid. But what a good boy. We did it two or three more times, just a few steps each time and then got a good halt and quit. His little brain was just about done for by that point with all the other distractions, so it was a good place to quit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRaFM54kysU

 
I did decide to try trotting him in hand and he was decent but very hyper. He was very polite with his rears and bounces though. ;) They weren't real rears.. more just bouncing. Saturday is going to be fun. ;)

I do love this kid though...

Oh, and.. he kept trying to stop and sniff poop... just like Fleck. And then when I unloaded him.. he immediately peed! Man.. I love how clean he likes to stay! :)

Such a punk....but a cute sneaky smart sweet punk

Danny cracks me up. He's such a sweet little kid. Today I went out to check Fleck and see if his foot was sore (poo.. the answer is yes) and Danny was messing with the paints next door. He's already bigger than them. Way bigger!! Of course they are quarter horses, so that's not shocking. He was chewing on them and mutual grooming and playing over the fence. Argh.. that's probably how Fleck hurt his leg. Darned barbed wire... Anyways, since Fleck was sore I decided to mess with Dan. I put him in his new navy rope halter (yay!) and we did some lunging. He was pretty darn good despite Emma chasing after him some. He was pretty perky tonight and was trotting and cantering. Getting him to break down to the walk and keep going was hard though. He was good at going from the trot into the halt and even spinning in to look at me. :) He remembers his lessons from prior. :) 

So then we did some trotting in hand stuff and he was spunky! He kept trotting ahead and cantering. And at one point.. hee hee... Little turd... I made him work because he got too carried away and then I asked him to come back down and he spun around and half-reared and shook his hoof at me but respectfully far enough away and then looked at me like "oh... am I in trouble or does she have a sense of humor too". Hee hee... It was funny... I had to get mad because... you know, but it was cute!! But then... we had a very lovely ENTIRE trot triangle!! Whooo hooo!! And you know what else is kinda funny? He is still trying to chew on his lead rope, so it makes for a very pretty neck and trot! Hee hee...

I love this kid... He's just such a goof.
 

Ride Number 3...

I just might have a super baby!! I finally got to ride him again, Thanks to some help from Christina. I stopped at her house on my way home from work and helped her with May. May was an excellent pony and did very well. We really have such good babies! Afterwards, Christina met me at my place and it was Dans' turn. Unfortunately this coincided with the delivery of the bobcat and the guy who was going to smoothe our our driveway. And unfortunately he had to park right next to the trailer. We walked Dan up to the trailer and he was pretty good. Until suddenly he saw the bobcat! He froze and honestly grew about a hand! Holy smokes! We talked him down and he investigated and decided it was okay. I tacked him up and as we were getting ready to head down to the round pen, it was time for the bobcat to back down the ramp off the trailer. Oh gosh... I let Danny look at it and while he got a little bug eyed he did pretty well. We headed down to the round pen and he really never gave it another thought. Now granted, it was on the driveway and he's been fine with other machinery before as we had some trees get cut down not too long ago. But still... for him to be cool with being ridden for the third time with a bobcat smoothing down the driveway not too far away... I'm impressed! He was in fact, so unimpressed that it was almost hard to get him to go. 
We started with the usual waving around before I got on, but he didn't care. He wasn't too keen on walking off today and it took a bit of encouragement from Christina. He had whoa down pat and was turning pretty well today. He just didn't really want to go. And when he did he was awfully sluggish. It was very hard not to kick him on and encourage more go. But I'm trying very hard to teach him that soft aids are the way to go. And I do think that perhaps he has a brewing abscess on his left hind as he kept it cocked more than usual today. But he trotted out sound on the lunge line after my ride so... We'll see. Regardless we did about 10 minutes of walk on, turn right, turn left, and whoa. He was much less fussy with his head today. Very minimal flinging of it about and he was much less interested in chewing on the reins today too. Yay! Not sure if he was distracted with the bobcat (or more importantly the thought that perhaps Roany and Flecky were going to leave him as they threatened to). He got lots of pats after I got off and he seemed extra snuggly and extra proud of himself.

SOOOOO Much fun!! I'll do a few more rides to help get the "walk on" established and then he'll have the year off again as far as riding. He gets so bored so we'll do more ponying on the trails and long lining on the trails. And maybe he'll even get to come to some shows with Flecky and I to get him used to the atmosphere. 

He also has his show coming up soon!! In a few weeks we'll take him back to Cedar Ridge for the FEH show. I'm hoping he'll behave better and the judge can actually evaluate him. It'll be interesting to see how he stacks up when he actually is able to be judged. I may be biased but I feel like his last place showing last time was only because he was too much of a punk to show anything off. So I'm hoping he'll behave. I've got to start some primping though! His mane is an unruly mess and he has all sorts of scrapes and lumps and bumps. He's in desperate need of a bath too as his blanket is so dingy from all the mud and dirt he's been playing in. Looking forward to it though!