Make a Smilebox slideshow

Our trip to the Chiropractor

Lisa took Princess and Dino to the Chiropractor yesterday. We new Dino needed an adjustment, and we wanted Princess to have a check up to make sure she's in good shape for the competition.
Well, Princess went first. The Doc felt her face above her eyes and she pulled her head away. He said she was out in the jaw, that her jaw was offset. He then felt down her neck and she moved away from his hand when he got down her neck about half way to her shoulder. He said her neck was out. He then felt down her spine along her back, that was good, but when he got to her hip area off to the side and pressed down she squatted like a goat! He said her pelv/hip was out. He said the neck and jaw was compensating for the hip/pelv being out. So he went to her head first and did an adjustment. She stood for him and after the adjustment she looked at him and you could almost see her asking for more. She was like that all the way with all the adjustments. She really like the Doc and he really liked her.
Then it was Dino's turn. He had all the same problems as Princess, although he had to have his adjustment repeated a couple of times. He was fighting the adjustments some and you could just see the pain in his eyes. His pelv/hip was out, but also his stifle muscle was affected. The Doc did a lot of work on this area. The Doc uses a rope to pull there legs in different directions and Dino really fought it and tried to get away. The Doc said he really liked both of my horses and that Princess was just a great patient. He really liked Dino though!

Horse show

Lisa and I loaded up Dino and Princess to head to the beach Saturday. We heard about a horse show at Green Acre Stables in Lincoln City and new our fellow EMM trainer was going to show her horse Weston there. So we decided to stop in and see how she was doing. The show was pretty small and I thought why not get Princess out and put her in some classes. While I was at it I thought why not put Dino in a couple of classes while I was there. Princess was pretty nervous and didn't settle down for most of her classes. A lot of people really liked her and were very interested in the EMM contest. One lady said she was going to the adoption at Albany because she really wanted to bid on a mustang. Everyone thought Princess was so cute and were impressed with her progress. Dino of course was a big hit and won 2 of his classes and got a 2nd. in the other one. One girl wanted to know if Dino would be up for adoption or if he was for sale. Not a chance!
Jasmine did great with her horse Weston and won high point English.
Tomorrow Princess and Dino will be going to the chiropractor. Dino is quite stiff in the neck and Princess is just going to see if she is aligned alright.

Our day at the beach

I took Princess and Dino to the beach today. I was by myself, so I just rode one of them at a time. Some of you were asking for pictures from last time and since I was by myself I got a little creative with my pictures. I rode Princess first. She has become an awesome trail horse as you will see from the videos. While I was riding her I videoed our ride. We walked through water on the trails, cantered on the straight stretches and took a stroll down to the beach. The pictures with all the logs and brush is the trail coarse we went through. She just went right in and had no problems crossing all the logs. It was great!
I then rode Dino. We practice towing logs and did the log jam too! It was a nice day at the beach and my rides made it just about perfect. I wished Lisa could have gone with me, but she had to work.

We went down the sand bank and over the log at the bottom

We went out across the log field

Kevin teaching Eeyore to read!

This is our friend Debbie's horse Eeyore.

A Fun Day!

Today I took Princess for another play day with our mustang friends. We usually work on trail coarse, but today just did flat work. Princesses canter is coming a long really nicely. I would like to see her head a little lower and a little more relaxed, but it's coming along. Lisa said we looked great and that in a month she'll be a different horse!
The Pacific Wild horse Club will be doing a demonstrations a Expo with 8 horses!!! So they have practice for there routine every two weeks. Since all the horses couldn't make it for practice we used Princess as a stand in. There demo sas all the horses playing follow the leader at a trot. Princess just falls right it and trots like a pro. She like's following the other horses and doing what they are doing. Afterward when I rode her around she was completely relaxed and we had a nice finish to our ride doing rollbacks.

Practicing trail

This is Princess practicing her trail coarse!

Conditioning weekend

It was a condititioning weekend for all three of us. Princess, Dino and me. I took Dino and Princess to our favorite beach. I saddled Princess up and took her out on the trail by herself for the first time. The first twenty minutes, she could not walk down the trail in a straight path, but that is typical of young horses. Then she got into her grove, it was like she had been a trail horse all of her life. She was just going to see what was around the next corner. The ride took us on a trail that I had not been on before. It was for a more experienced horse than her. It was narrow and steep with lots of trees and root wads, one half of the trail was a drop off to water on one side. She handled it all very good. Even when we passed a mule and another horse on the trail with hardly room to pass, she did so with out any problems. From there we headed to the ocean. Up over the dunes she was a little hesitant. Unlike the first time with Dino it was a little much for her, with all the people and dogs, She handled it, we did a few circles and then went back up into the dunes again. We were going along the trail in a dark place, when we came upon two yellow labs running towards us. She stopped and just waited for them to come right up to her. They turned around and she followed them. I think I was more worried than she was. We started trotting and cantering on the trial. Crossing water were some places it was quite deep. We cantered on some of the trails in the tree areas were we had a lot of turns to make. She was just loping right along. She was a joy to ride. After two and a half hours it was time for her to rest and it was Dino's turn.
Dino started out doing his favorite thing. Cantering in the waves in knee deep water. Then we did some drift wood jumping. Then over the dunes into the wooded trails. Were we did the cantering and water crossings. The water I said was deep for Princess, wasn't that deep for Dino. Like with Princess we did a lot of slow cantering through the trails with lots of transitions. I worked him for two and a half hours and headed home.
Today we worked on just getting her to relax in our arena at the walk trot and canter.
We worked on transitions, and a lot on different trail coarse items. I just gave her an all around work out.
I also worked Dino, and worked on jumping. After riding Princess and then riding Dino it felt like I was riding a warm blood. It felt like he grew. Not only up, but out.
I told Lisa that after this weekend, I almost like riding Princess better than Dino.

Extreme Cowboy Race

Dino has been selected to participate in the Extreme Cowboy race at Albany horse Expo this year. The Extreme Cowboy race is a timed and judged race through an obstacle course that is designed not only to push horse and rider teams out of their traditional “comfort zones,” but also to test communication between horse and rider and the horsemanship skills and athletic abilities of each competitor. Spectators will find the competition exciting and entertaining to watch while contenders will address its challenges in a race for $7,200 in cash prizes, and the title of “Extreme Cowboy Race Champion. ”http://equinepromotions.net/NWHFECRINFO.pdf
Dino is looking for sponsors for this event as it is costly to enter. So in order to enter the race, Dino needs your help.
I will be riding Dino in exhibitions with the Kiger Mesteno Ass. Along with showing Princess in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. So I hope most of you can attend as it should be an exciting, fun filled weekend.

Exceeding my expectations

Princess is just doing great. She is responding well to the bit now and moving forward without much prodding.
Saturday we went to another play day with our friends of Pacific Wild Horse Club. Everyone was very impressed by Princess. One friend asked if I was going to teach her any tricks for the finals (if we make it). I said no, I think it is really important to just work on putting a solid foundation on her.
When I first saw her in the corals in Burns I watched her for quite awhile. I figured out she was the low man on the totem pole and probably would be very submissive. She was a kicker in the beginning, but soon proved that she would cooperate. She has done more than that. She trys so hard to please. I new right away that she would make some kid a great 4-H horse. So I have been leading her in that direction. We like to show and I figured that would be the best thing for her if she was going to be a 4-H horse. For her to get a lot of arena time and to be around a lot of other horses and people. She has exceeded my expectations in every way. It will be extremely hard to let her go.