Let the work begin!!!

Sorry that I haven't been on for a while My computer decided to crap out on me lol, oh well life goes on right. A lot has happened, my showing was put on pause last year when Stewie got very sick do to allergies, so we pretty much spent a good portion of the  summer doing different things mostly just trail riding and trundling around the yard bareback and in a halter. Once he was better we did go to a few Dressage clinics with Alicia Byberg-Landman  and we did manage to get to a few barrel shows at the end of the season.  
The sad thing was that we did have to put down Stewie's best friend Roman do to sever arthritis in this knees... Hes was a wonderful horse with a very large heart that horse would do anything for his owner. Roman was an appendix Quarter Horse just like Stew but he was  a long legged thing he stood a towering 17.2 hh. hes the one in the red cooler.

 We did everything we could to try and help him but in the end we felt it was in his best interest to send him over the rainbow bridge.

Not every thing was so bad last year I got to ride with a wonderful clinician Alicia Byberg-Landman!! Me and Stew had been struggling with a few things one of them being his flexion and the other  using his hind end  when he goes into his canter. I know hes a barrel horse but I feel as tho to make an happier more well rounded horse you should teach them different things give them something else to do. Not a hot mess like when just doing barrels over and over and over.  The funny part is that Stewie is pretty good at dressage , hes not really your typical horse he has a wonderful work ethic, I can say we learned a lot  and apply it to our training and pattern work,  I am looking forward to riding with her again  

I have also been looking for sponsors to help me and Stewie to the next lv. in barrel racing I have set up a go fund me account for any one whom would like to give!
http://www.gofundme.com/lk0wdw

snow , cold , and being sick....

Well I haven't been able to ride for the fact that I got sick... And it doesn't help that its negative degrees out side, teens, twenty's  are OK to ride in but this negative crap not OK....Michigan seems to have a mind of its own either its really hot or really cold.... Well when it gets cold like this being motivated becomes my biggest struggle so I have learned  to be creative In the activities what I do with my horse so the different exercises we do are playing with the flag or tarp, or even the poles, free lounging to work on communication with him or just lounging
In general he Has become very good at it.

So Even tho its cold outside there plenty to do and plenty
To work on.As of recently he
Been not wanting to take his left lead, so on the advice of a good friend we started doing transitions on the lounge and to my excitement it help him a lot. Now instead of counter cantering he's picking up the right lead woot!
The good thing about doing all these different activity's is it helps to make him... Boom poof.
  We have snow that slides down the dome that makes up the roof of are arena, well the first time it happened he shied hard but after that it has never bothered him, same with the cannon they shot off at the rodeo looked up and around then went back to sleep never put a foot out of place. One thing I can say about Stew is that he has got a sound mind on him.        Most people like to skip over ground work because it bores them but you know that's your horses foundation, if I hadn't done all that ground work with Stew I doubt he would be the horse he is today. In reality that's what he was lacking , The reason he bite, kicked and ran people over was because no one ever set up the structure that is ground manners , yeah he was nice under saddle but horrible to handle. So on those days you don't feel like saddling up work on ground work you and your horse will appreciate it in the end :-)

Meet Stewie aka Hes all blue

Stewie is a 5yr old appendix quarter horse who is 16.3 hh. I got him as a free bee because his previous owners could no longer care for him and were having a lot of issues with him, When I went to go look at him he was in the last stall which  was attached to a  paddock where he lived by him self. The first time I took him out in the the arena he was so excited he bronced all four feet off the ground over my head... I am 5'2", then he hit the ground running lucky I had gloves on and a lounge line attached to him , he ran for a few mins then dropped to the ground and rolled a few times. Once he had gotten all that out of his system he then  looked at me like now what?

So I asked him to work at a walk,trot and a canter just so I could see how he moves. Stew has  lovely Smooth gates and I Could see that he was also willing to please, which I love in a horse being as my last show horse all we did was fight... after that I told the owners friend whom was there that I would have to think about it.  A few days later I went back out there this time with my grandfather who has been around a horses his entire life.well of course stew did the same thing he did the first time I looked at him. My grandfather stood there quietly and just watched him .

After he looked him over and we got back in the car He said "He's got potential."

So the next week we went and picked him up :-)