The Jonza Chronicles

Beginning of a new chapter.

2010-04-19T22:56:00.002-04:00

How babies change your life

Miss Jonza went into a Standardbred Retraining/Foster program when I found out I was pregnant last March. I have learned that she will now be living happily as a trail horse! I couldn't be more excited for her! I miss her, but it is for the best for her and for me :)

so pretty.

2008-11-08T19:11:00.000-05:00

So I know I haven't been posting much progress on my mare lately, but I finally got a lesson in on her today and she has just come so far since I first started working with her. The pictures are a bit blurry, thanks to a wonderfully rainy overcast day, but I think they show so much. Her shape is looking very nice, and she is stretching into the bit, and doesn't seem to have as much of a hiccup about it. She had some amazing trot and walk parts today. Robyn said that her walk is one that most dressage people would die for :D. .. now all Ineed to do is get her very consistant with that walk (and trot) so that by show season next year, we will be ready to get her into atleast some intro classes. I'm not sure if we will be able to get the canter finessed enough to do training level by the spring...but we can hope right? I figure i'd do atleast 4 of the SMDA shows...and maybe the first two be intro...and if i feel like she's ready i can do lower training the second two....So exciting. I'm so proud of her, and me for doing most of this by myself, although robyn gave her a wonderful start.

Figure Eights and Canter Strides

2008-10-11T23:41:00.000-04:00

I finally got my husband to come out and take pictures of Miss Jonza, and I think the one above is just soo cool in an artistic way. She is doing really well. A few days ago I asked for the canter and got three decent canter strides out of her before she fell into a pace. On the lunge she is really cantering nicely....even though it does start off with a gallop that she will slow down a bit into a canter. She also changes her leads constantly on the lunge! So we may even be able to utilize that in the future ;). She has a pretty decent little canter. We just need to work on that a bit. I've decided we aren't doing any canter transitions unless I feel she is really with me for that day.

Yesterday was a full out battle the whole ride, today she was completely different. Although she was stiff and resistant today, she finally let go of that by the end of it, and was able to do some decent stretchy trot circles without putting her head as high as it could go and flying around the arena! We are definately progressing. She's getting the leg yeild thing, and the serpentine bend of direction. What she has been having a hard time with is just bending her neck to my toes just to stretch and give....not to move anywhere. I've been trying to get her used to changing bends and have been doing a lot of figure eights and serpentines. I have to read up in some of my training excercises books to find some fresh ideas to keep her entertained. She gets impatient and gets bored easily. C'est la vie ;).

Leg Yeild

2008-09-15T21:50:00.003-04:00

So for the last few days we've been working on leg yields with Miss Jonza. She does pretty well with them, although she does get *stuck* and sometimes doesn't realize to just step OVER. Its been helping her to relax and actually be able to bend. I've been doing some turn on the forehands too, which is helping her to utilize her shoulders more. She gets stuck on her left shoulder and its hard for me to get her to move it. I can smack her shoulder with the whip and she'll jump over, but she doesn't get that all I want her to do it just to step over with that shoulder. The leg yeilding is helping, as well as picking a leg to halt with.

Friday, she was wonderful, really starting to connect and be nice and soft. Sunday I rode at night. It was the first time I had her in the Indoor with all the lights on at night, and I had a CD playing pretty loud. It took her a bit to relax with all the *newness*. She seemed to calm down and listen by the end of it....So we ended at a good note....Still just walking and trotting. Today, was SUPER windy, we think its from some remants of the last hurricane in the south. So she couldn't focus at ALL! She wasn't very spooky which I was a bit surprised with. I expected her to be quite a bit crazier. So that was good. All we did was walk though, she was too tense and unfocused to do anything more than that. My goal with her is to keep her calm and focused before we go into a faster gait. She will just become frantic in the trot if she can't be calm and focused leading into it. So thats how we've been going these last few days.

She is doing well. I would like another ride like Friday on her tomorrow. Friday felt great, and if I can get her consistantly like friday than I think I can start working on some canter work :). I'll try to keep her progress posted more frequently.

Reading

2008-09-08T22:51:00.002-04:00

So Robyn gave me a copy of Retraining the Harness Racehorse that she co-authored. I have started to go through the book this evening, and today I almost finished reading Basic Training of the Young Horse by Reiner Klimke. For the most part in the latter book I've read all that really pertains to me. Klimke believes you should teach the basics of dressage and jumping to all horses and then decide what their discipline should be considering what they enjoy most. Which is definitely a great thing to do. So I am thinking that I'm going to start putting some cavalletti into our little routine once a week or so. Robyn's book also recommends the usage of ground poles, which are basically the same thing. Also Robyn's book has a few excercises in it with side reins. I found my old side reins and will be bringing them tomorrow and have a session with them on Miss Jonza. So far it seems the only thing that they disagree with is the usage of cavalletti with the canter. Klimke thinks its pointless for dressage, but then again Klimke isn't working with Standardbreds now is he??? HA!

So tomorrow when I work with Miss Jonza we will first do 15-20 minutes on the lunge with the side reins, then 15-20 minutes with me on her, getting her to relax that trot some more :). I rode yesterday and it was horrid...mainly because I am sick...Today my head hurt too badly to even consider getting on her, I kept getting dizzy and light headed *sigh*. But I'll definitely work her tomorrow, with a renewed sense of what to do with her. I'm afraid of boring her to death when all we do is walk and walk and walk then trot some, then walk and stop. But I know that this is exactly what she needs :).

Glo did find another book for me to start looking through. Its Right from the Start by Michael Schaffer. He has a pretty awesome website with some video clips that show exactly what he mean whens when training youngsters. So I'm super excited to be able to read one of his books.

I know that Miss Jonza isn't a baby, but obviously since she's never been through the steps she needs to do it now, even if she is a bit older. Its good for her, and I get to have a horse to train all by myself, now that I have a clue of what to do ;). Yeah for books. They are like mini clinics in your hands.

circles

2008-09-03T22:33:00.002-04:00

So I rode in the indoor today, and I dragged my leg on the wall on purpose a few times. Miss Jonza is such a spaze about noises and *new* things I try to do something every so often like that so she can realize she is not going to die, no matter how *scarey* it sounds/looks/etc. She seemed pretty relaxed overall, and didn't react too badly to the sudden noises.

She did feel a bit heavy and downhill today...sorta plodding along. I think I'm going to work on some ground poles with her to get her to pick up her feet. I need to do *something* for her to pick up her feet. I'd like to get some side reins too and lunge her a bit in them. Help to build up her neck muscles in the right places.

Yeah for arenas

2008-09-02T19:01:00.002-04:00

So I've moved Jonza back to Robyn's farm so I can utilize an indoor/outdoor arena :). After a month of solid rain and clay based footing, I couldn't work her at all! She would slip way to much just walking! And that was without me even on her back. So unfortunately she has had the last month off. Now that I am boarding her I have been able to really get back into the routine that she (and I!) needs. Last week I started working her back up to being ridden again every day. Last Wednesday I lunged her to get her to move off pressure, etc. from the ground. She did very well. Then Thursday I got on her and walked for about 30 minutes, we did serpentines and lots of changes of direction. Friday I worked her another 30 minutes with about 2 minutes of trotting *if* that. Then she had the weekend off (had a LOT of stuff to do with getting back from camp, cleaning, etc.). Yesterday and Today we were doing about 20 minutes of walking and 10 minutes of trotting. Yesterday was great, she was really soft and willing. Today she was a bit resistant and didn't want to work, but by the end of the ride she finally gave in a bit...although she was really heavy and not really happy with giving in I figured it was a good stopping point and got off.

Right now all I am really working on is for her to be calm and consistant at the walk and trot, once I get her reliable on those terms, then we will work on collecting the walk and trot more and really fine tuning her. After these areas are complete I will begin the canter work. I don't want to stress her out too much or push her too quickly. She fries her brain all to easily, so slow and steady we will be :). I hope that by next year I can do a decent lower training level test. Now that I have her at a facility where I can really work with her, I plan to update her progress more often :)

Pictures to break up monotony

2008-06-02T20:55:00.000-04:00

What a handsome boy I have :)

And the bratty but cute...Miss Jonza :) Here you can tell she's saying I really *am* a good girl :) Now "Where are my COOKIES!"

relaxed trotting

2008-06-02T20:30:00.004-04:00

So for the last few sessions we've been working on Jonza trotting peacefully and relaxed, not all jazzed up, head in the air with a crazed look in her eye. It seems to help her tremendously if we do some inhand trot work before I get on. So I get her all tacked up and lunge her. We do a LOT of walk/halt transitions with changes of directions...ie: walk five steps, halt, walk 3 steps, halt, change direction walk 8 steps, halt, walk 2 steps halt, walk 4 steps, halt, change, etc. So that she never knows when I am asking her to halt, or turn. So she walks very calmly completely focused on me to get her cues. You can see her thinking with each foot forward...do we stop yet??? Then after a couple of minutes of that we do some trot/walk transitions...trot a few steps walk a few steps, trot, walk and throw in a halt here and there. I try to make it so that she doesnt expect when the transition is coming. Otherwise she will do it before you ask. She is very good at figuring out what you want next. The hole process has been taking us anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes. The first time it was about an hour! but now she is really getting into the hang of it. That all I want is her complete attention. Once she's really listening and being calm then I get on.

When I get on we walk around the paddock (my arena for the time being) doing little circles and going this direction and that, changing bends and such, reinforcing the calm. We halt every so often and change direction often. Then when I ask her to trot she is usually pretty relaxed. So we trot and if she gets tense I try to slow her with my seat. If she ignores that, I really put my seat on, and we stop dead in our tracks, wait a few seconds and walk on. We walk till she's calm again, then ask for the trot....this has been what we've been working on for the last week or so.

Its been going really well. She has really calmed down a lot from the first session. Her trotting is fluid and relaxed. Today she even had some *together* moments. I wish I could have seen her going today. It was nice to have her moving so well. Towards the end of todays session she did trip pretty badly :(. She fell down on both front knees. She seems ok though, tomorrow I will check her thoroughly for soreness, she didnt seem to have any today. Her feet look to be at a normal length....I'm finding out when the last time she saw the ferrier. I may have one come out (I need to find one sooner or later) and do a trim just to make sure. She is barefoot, but I don't think that has anything to do with the tripping. She does trip here and there, and its normally when she's not paying attention or just being lazy and not picking up her feet.

So I am thinking I will try to see what I can find as far as ground poles are concerned....Have her go over a few of those, and see if that helps her to pick up her feet more. Oh and Glo thought it would be helpful to do some reinbacks and teaching her to pick up her feet in hand. So we will work on those tomorrow too. I am pretty confident that she can do the reinbacks...we've done a lot of backing up and such in hand. So anyways that is my update...I'll post again tomorrow with the next step of her lessons....picking up those feet!

Today we went for a walk

2008-05-27T15:36:00.002-04:00

So we did another lunge lesson today, she responds ok enough, but i'd like the response to be a bit quicker. She only obeys the commands about 50-60% of the time. Which is a lot better than when I first started and she didnt listen to practically anything. She acts a bit frantic here and there, but for the most part has a pretty calm walk and trot. She did follow me around afterwards like she used to before we moved up here, so that is good. A step forward to being readjusted :).

We took a walk at the end of it, basically she will stop when I stop, turn when I turn, etc. If I ask her to back up a couple of steps she will do that too. So we shall see what tomorrow brings.

Rain

2008-05-22T21:19:00.002-04:00

So today I lunged Miss Jonza before riding her. She was still being a bit of a lunatic. Running around and galloping barely being able to stay in a circle. I finally got her to calm down and trot NICELY and was doing well. So I decided it was time to get on her. I got on and she was doing pretty good for a couple of minutes, she was walking and trotting pretty calmly, then she started speeding up and throwing her head around. So I decided to work on walk/halt again as she was starting to act up. She absolutely did NOT want to halt, she'd stop for barely a second and expect to be able to move on, when I insisted that she halt until she was calm, she would start walking sideways, foreward, backwards, and spinning so she could keep moving. Did I mention it was RAINING the whole time. After a long time of trying to get her to calm down, and being completely soaked, I managed to get her to stop moving for a few seconds, and figured it was a day.

I hope tomorrow is better :( She is new at being ridden, and I understand that....she doesnt know very much...but I don't believe walking and halting is that hard of a concept, or even trotting calmly...I mean she IS a trotter! C'est la vie

Twit

2008-05-21T21:16:00.003-04:00

So I worked with Miss Jonza today, and she was a complete twit. Throwing her head around because of the *flies* although taking up the *flies* didnt seem to bother her, and in the field these same *flies* werent a nuisance. Interesting how that is huh! She kept running sideways to get away from my leg, hopping and doing little bucks here and there. All because she didn't want to do anything....I'm sure she wanted to be back on the nice green grasses. It took about 45min to an hour to get her just to have her EAR listen to me, She still was prancing around like a princess and wanting to go go go. Head way up in the air, and just being a total twit. We got in maybe 1 minute of *good* listening and bending at the walk, and we were done.

So tomorrow I am going to lunge her for a good while and then get on and do our walk/halt transitions until she is listening and moving nicely...then see if she can trot. Today it was impossible. She could barely contain herself and listen at the walk, much less the trot. I hate it when she is like this mainly for the fact that its at times like this that she tends to smack her hind ankles together, and step all over her front heels with the back, and she trips over herself and everything around! The ground is as flat as it can be without being manmade flat! (Which I will be working on as soon as the tractor is up and running) when she's paying attention to me and what we are doing she doesnt hit herself nearly as much.

But how do you talk reason to a horse? "Miss Jonza...if you just pay attention and stop being a twit you wont trip all over yourself and hurt feet and ankles. Ok mum I'll try that next time ;)." HA yeah right!

So we shall see how tomorrow goes :) Hopefully the rain will clear off in the morning like they are saying its supposed to.

2008-05-21T15:12:00.000-04:00

2008-05-21T15:11:00.000-04:00

temp pastures

2008-05-15T15:47:00.000-04:00

And the work resumes

2008-05-13T18:24:00.002-04:00

So today I took Jonza out and did some lungeline work. I have replacement cheekpieces on order, so unfortunately until then I have to wait until they arrive before we can do any riding. Lungework was decent. She obviously is not up to par with lunging, but she'll learn. Basically I worked on walk/trot transitions, although she doesnt quite *get* it yet. She did finally settle down into the trot and looked gorgeous....

When we tried to change directions she acted like it was a completely foreign concept, and I know its not. So finally she understood we were going the OTHER way. So I think she did well. Tomorrow we shall see if she remembers anything from today.

They've ARRIVED!!!!

2008-05-12T21:32:00.002-04:00

Finally, after the two weeks of waiting they have arrived!!!! I'm so happy they are here, I just have to wait for Jonza's cheek pieces to come in for her bridle and I can start working with her again :). I'm super psyched. I love having the horses around. Tommorrow I'll do some inhand stuff with her, make her realize that I'm still the boss. Appearantly she's regressed a bit due to not being handled for the last two weeks. She seems the same to me, but we shall see once i start working with her again. Dew can go with me and take Chief. I'm not sure how he is for *walks* but we shall see. Yeah for horses! Gives me something to do in the middle of no-where.

Soon....

2008-05-07T22:45:00.003-04:00

Jonza and Cheif will be here soon :) Hopefully on Monday as long as Jaye thinks it will work for her :). The fencing is all done except for a few minor touches. ie: the fence charger needs to be mounted, but thats it :) I do have to buy another water bucket, and a couple feed buckets, and pick up hay from the hay guy. But really thats not much :) easily done for me this weekend.

I can't wait for her to get here. I hope she becomes friends with Cheif soon enough, and I can't wait to really start working on our training together.

Till she's here:

Fencing YEAH!

2008-04-27T12:43:00.002-04:00

So with the help of Dew and my grandfather...We got the first paddock put up yesterday! in a few days (when dew is home again) we will put up the second paddock. I plan on cleaning out the barn as well as I can to put in some stalls for the ponies. I finally have secured a friend for Jonza, his name is Cheif, an older stdbred, from Jaye. She is a mutual friend of mine and glos. She took in Cheif from an abusive situation (husband on wife), and needed to find him a forever home. So he's coming to me :).

Jaye was gracious enough to trailer him and jonza up here for me for free! all i have to do is pay for the gas. Which is just awesome, so it will cost me probably about $150 to ship them up instead of $375!! now thats a good chunk of change to be saving!!! Once the paddocks and stalls are finished, i'll take pictures. As of right now I have about 2 weeks to work on the barn to fix it. I was thinking of doing some of it today...but its raining bah! I may go out and work on it anyways so I can get out of the house!

So exciting!

2008-04-24T22:49:00.000-04:00

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Wonderful connection.....

2008-04-24T21:59:00.002-04:00

So considering this mare has been mine for about two weeks, and she has only been in training since september, she has been wonderfully connected for not knowing too much. Yesterday (pictures posted below) she threw a few fits...typical redhead...but was pretty good as far as the *spookiness* has been. She went in and out of the indoor into the outdoor without a problem, so that was great.

As usual we worked on a lot of walking, haults and bending. When she finally *felt* ready to trot she was wonderful. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of when she was doing just awesome. She started throwing a temper when one of the other mares left the arena, and so the pictures were of the after thought.

Today was very good too. It was super SUPER windy...the whole arena was flapping like crazy. My mare being the super sensitive spooky one was not impressed and was jumping around like a bunny. But she did good, she settled down after lots of walking and serpantines and haults and such. (as usual ha!) I figure I want the walk/hault and serpantine routine to be her calming routine, so when I know she's stressing I have a failsafe that settles her down and lets her feel good about accomplishing something she knows she can do :). So we basically walked for over a half hour, bending, stopping, left, right, little circle BIG circle, etc. When I did start trotting her around, she was clipping her feet a bit...she hasn't done this before so we shall see if this continues, I am thinking of buying her some boots just in case. But she was a very good girl, she didnt feel as connected today as yesterday, but we are still learning each other, and it was a very scarey day for her.

I'm sad....Its going to be a long two weeks before I can see her again! :(

2008-04-24T07:32:00.000-04:00

Such a good girl!

2008-04-24T07:31:00.000-04:00

Bending

2008-04-20T22:50:00.002-04:00

Today was my birthday, so I did what I enjoy doing, spent a good 2 hours at the barn (maybe a bit more!). Everyone was at the driving clinic, so I had the farm to myself. It was so quiet and nice. I am very tired from our 8 hour driving trip yesterday to the lurecoursing field, so I decided that I wouldn't focus on trot work today. So I did some walk, hault, walk transitions. Jonza was doing what I say, but she was a bit unfocused. So I did some trotting circles to loosen her up a bit. We did this for about 5 minutes or so, then began working on walking again, and bending!!!!!!!! We did lots of loops of serpentines, and worked on bending, bending, and MORE bending.

So thats what we did today, I think she did really good :) She doesn't like to move her body like that, and fights against it. So by the end it was good. Although she was throwing a fit halfway through each serpentine down the arena...and I wouldn't let her quit until we did a whole arena length without her freaking out halfway through. But she did a great job overall :).

Whata YOU lookin at?

2008-04-18T21:50:00.000-04:00

Outdoor is ready :)

2008-04-18T20:40:00.005-04:00

Today me and Jonza explored the outdoor arena....She needed some encouragement to leave the indoor to explore the new scarey world of the outdoor. She was obviously very nervous...and she got all rilled up and didnt want to go over the last bit of snow that was in the shadows of the indoor. She also got a little spooky over some jump standards that were laying on the ground in the corner. She did a jump twirl sort of thing, no big deal. Overall I think she did a VERY good job :) Here are a few pictures of her *first* few steps in the outdoor:

Then after she was comfortable with all the new things to see, there was an obvious change in her overall demeanor:

She is such a sweet and willing girl. I've decided that we will be working on mostly walk, hault and trot for the next month or two. I want her to be very comfortable with these movements before even considering the canter. She has only actually cantered under the lounge line, or if she takes a misstep. I want to make sure that she is happy and confident before we move on. I think that is the best thing. So for now, we've been working on walk/hault for the first 15-20 minutes of our ride. It has been working very well to calm her nerves with all the *new* stuff popping up. When we hault, I make her stay until she settles, then we walk on. After she is being very calm in each hault, and walking forward but not rushing, I ask for the trot. If she immediately starts rushing or even feels frantic, we walk some more.

This process has been working very well, and because of it in the Outdoor she was very calm within 5 minutes of walking around and exploring. Once I have her good and relaxed with only a few minutes of walking warmup, then we will be working on more connection with the trot, bending, and such. She is such a quick learning I bet by the end of the summer I would be able to do a decent training level test with her :) That is the goal.

Oh i'm so excited :)

2008-04-16T21:46:00.000-04:00

Running free

2008-04-16T21:19:00.002-04:00

What a pretty little Standardbred cater :).
She's such a good girl. Today we did some work on having her settle into the trot, and it was really nice towards the end. She seemed to be very rushy today, so tomorrow when I ride her, I'm going to walk and walk and walk until she calms down and just trots....when she feels calm and relaxed I will ask for the trot, if its choppy and rushed, i'll walk again....walk walk walk...then ask for the trot again....etc

Glo used this method with her boy Will to help him relax and focus on the work at hand. I think this will be a great thing to get Jonza used to doing. I want her to be happy to be with me. She's just a wonderful mare. I'm so happy to have a horse FINALLY its been too long. Now I just need to someone find her a horsey companion.

I finally have a horse

2008-04-13T22:26:00.004-04:00

and her name is Jonza....which I love. Pronounced John-zaaaa. Isnt she just SOOO cute...Can you guess what kind she is??

Conformation Clinic

2008-03-16T21:53:00.003-04:00

So today Robyn held a conformation clinic. We basically took standard conformation shots of a bunch of horses at the barn. I had Happy, he's a 7 year old Standardbred that I really like. He's a very sweet horse. He's the type of guy i'd love to have to hack around on. We completely destroyed the pictures by drawing all over them and measuring from here to there to discuss the different parts that make up the whole. For the most part Happy wasn't too badly put together, he has a nice back, decent legs, and overall soundness. His major fault is that his hind end is higher than his front by about 30degress! Which means his hind end is taller. But standardbreds tend to be really down hill because it helps for them to race faster. The good thing is that his overall measurements of his hind were pretty good, so that means he probably wont have many issues with his hind legs.

So all in all I came to the following conclusions about looking at horses to buy:
1.) There must be a strong back without a large space between the croup and the last rib
2.) Leggs should be relatively straight, with knees being better slightly to the inside rather than to the outside.
3.) Overall body porportions should be able to be split easily into thirds.
4.) Neck should be high from the shoulder, with atleast a fist being able to fit between the jaw bones.
5.) The overall body should be upward.

Of course the last two are mainly helpfull for us Dressage riders, we don't want a quarter horse with a low head/neck set, with a downhill conformation...because we want upward movement with collection.

Obviously there is never going to be the perfect horse conformation wise, but I feel like the above rules make for a well balanced horse, and something that anyone can look for in a mount for a reasonable price, and still be able to have a decent dressage prospect.

I have been doing a lot of browsing of horses. I am hoping within the next couple of years to get a horse of my own again. I of course want a dressage horse, or a dressage prospect. I like the eventing style horses. So all in all I think that this clinic was really helpful. I enjoyed it so much I went to boarders and bought the book that we were learning from.... The Horse Conformation Handbook, by Heather Smith Thomas. Its only $23, and very worth it for any horseperson's library IMO.

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I know I know....hands OUT of crotch!

2007-07-05T22:36:00.000-04:00

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me and Buddy

Smiling

2007-05-26T12:37:00.000-04:00

VERY good lesson

2007-05-07T18:52:00.000-04:00

So by the end of the lesson I was very very happy. Thunder is a very responsive horse. It is great to be on a horse that listens immediately to your seat, and likes to GO. I hate having to work myself to death just to keep a horse walking. By the end of the lesson he was definately moving off my leg much better than when we started. At first he just moved faster. He was quick to realize I didn't want him to move faster but over. The only bad thing is that he does steal reins and I am really bad at letting horses do it until my hands are in my crouch. *grumble* I'll get past that eventually. I will get to ride him again in my next lesson too. I think I will learn a lot about my seat with him, and I'm excited. He is the type of horse I want to have. You don't need to mess with his face, he has some spunk, listens to your seat, ahhhhh :). It may just be butterflies but I think I'm in love...... ha!

2007-05-07T18:46:00.000-04:00

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we finally got it together a bit.

2007-05-07T18:42:00.000-04:00

at first we seemed to move downhill, but after we worked on that.....

2007-05-07T18:40:00.000-04:00

So we get to know each other, and what do you know, we clicked ;).

and the thunder rolls........

2007-05-07T18:39:00.000-04:00

So, after a very long hiatus, I am back in the saddle :). Very much overdue if you ask myself. There is a new horse at the farm named Thunder, a quarter horse trained in western pleasure, who just happens to make a pretty decent dressage horse. So in these few pictures we start...learning the buttons so to speak.

RIP Miss Pearly Whirl

2006-07-13T23:48:00.000-04:00

Quite possibly one of my most favorite horses to have touched my life has died. Below is a dedication letter sent to the Horse's Maine, by Sandy Welsh of Puckerbrush Farm, where Pearl lived as a vaulting and a riding horse! Although she was as drafty as they come she did very well in Dressage, during her very short time as a Dressage Queen :) "Pink was her favorite color" and she looked absolutely fabulous in it. I'll miss my "Miss Pearly Whirl" very much, and I'll always remember her large, but very cute face.
Kim~

It is with great sadness that we pass along the news that on July 12 we lost our girl, Pearl. As many of you know, Pearl was the best vaulting horse we had ever had the pleasure of knowing. She taught many children and adults balance, horsemanship, patience and compassion.

She was fondly known as "Pearly whirl" or "Pearl the girl" and could be seen decked out in her bright pink ribbons and polos. She adored the children fussing around her but would let us all know when someone exceeded her weight limit by tossing in some bucks. She thought she was our princess and work was below her station in life. But then she would perform her slow, steady, smooth trot and allow even the smallest of children to practice their vaulting moves on her and she would glow with pride.

During the winter of 2005-06, the University of Maine Dressage Club decided that Pearl should learn to be ridden as well as vaulting. Kim Townsend brought her along to be shown in some of our schooling shows earning a score of 68% in an Intro B test with Laura Walters riding! Her canter work was coming along as well and she was ridden by several of the young lesson students at Puckerbrush.

Going back to January of 2005, we give many thanks to Curt and Lisa Bonney of Turner for allowing Pearl to come and live at Puckerbrush. She had lived with them throughout her life, allowing their children to climb under, over and on top of her. She had one foal out of a Morgan stallion and was a great mom. They heard that Puckerbrush was looking for a new vaulting partner and contacted us to come visit them. Pearl had been a 'pasture pony' for many years but we thought she had the temperament to work with us.

Pearl was only with us for a year and a half but she was a part of so many lives. When someone loses their horse, its a sad event for the individual. Unfortunately, the whole horse world in Maine is suffering a great loss as she had taught hundreds of people vaulting and riding.

2006-04-09T23:21:00.000-04:00

J&W in the rain

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Me doing Upper Training at the IDA UMass Spring 06 show. This is a morgan gelding that was very cute, we placed 10th, but it was a good ride non the less.

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Me and Pearl

2006-04-02T17:15:00.000-04:00

Today I rode Pearl at the Puckerbrush Dressage show today (4/2/06) and we did Intro A and Intro B, My first test we got Second (and almost killed the judge), and my second test we got 5th YEAH Pearl!

IDA Mt. Holyoke Spring 06

2006-02-27T12:17:00.000-05:00

Well this weekend we went to Mt. Holyoke for the Spring Dressage Show :). It was great! We all had personal bests and overall it was the best the team has done. We finished 8th overall in points, and laura and kat both got ribbons! They both recieved 6th place, I got 10th, and Amy got 11th. But we really did very well for our individual scores :). I got four 7s in my test, basically the canter work/transitions and the freewalk I got 7's on. Unfortunately I was on a very young percheron/tb mare and she absolutely wouldn't stretch out during the stretchy trot circle which counts double for the test. The judge gave me a four, which is sad because it was due to the fact that my mare was young. But She is going to be awesome in a year or two! I fell in love with her. She also baulked a bit at the judge when we first entered the ring for the halt/salute.

I am very proud of her though, and my test with her because this was the frist time she had ever been in a show, much less a dressage show!, and I was her first ride. I am thinking that I'm just going to have to get a percheron/tb cross for myself one day because I keep getting to ride them and I absolutely love them. But a draft cross would probably just suit me best in general! My test was scored a 58.33. So not wonderful, but I still am so happy with the score :). Typically I get atleast a 6 or 7 on my trot stretchy circle, so I recalculated my score with a 6 in the stretchy circle and I would have recieved a 61.66 so thats not bad either...but that is a if I woulda coulda type of thing. So look at the pictures below taken at the show. I think that some of them came out really nicely.

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