A Shift

We had another snowstorm on Wednesday and the Twin Cities got anywhere from 3 to 15 inches, depending on where they were. The horses go hit with around 15 inches and it was not fun. The horses had trampled down the snow around the hay bale and a path to the water trough, but not many hoof tracks anywhere else. They were having none of this nonsense.

But the weather was merciful and we've had beautiful weather that has been melting the snow rather quickly, which has made everyone rather happy. The horses have resumed molting and everything's become one big slushy puddle. So Royal and I still sticking to riding on the road.

I don't mind. The road is nice and squishy in parts and the rocks haven't come out too bad in the har spots. The wrinkle is that everything keeps changing and Royal's excellent memory remembers the way things were the last time we walked past, and now they're DIFFERENT, which means HORRIBLE DEATH MONSTERS OF DEATH, obviously. So the challenge has been getting him to walk past the HDMOD sanely, if giving them the hairy eyeball. I'm not trying to get him to bravely march past them like they're not there, but I expect him to at least not lose his brain. So far, it keeps getting better. He still gives pretty much everything the hairy eyeball, but not snorting past it like he's got the worst cold ever. But something else has changed.

Royal seems a lot happier to see me over the past few months. He recognizes my car and sees genuinely happy to approach me. He also doesn't need a lot of direction to align his body and stretches on his own. And yesterday while I was warming him up OnLine, he came over to me and held his head against my torso and stayed there for a couple of minutes. It was nice but odd. And then after I got on and we rode off, but when we got to the big dirt road, he wanted to go right instead of left, so right we went. He marched on proudly, until we got the end of the neighbors property and he turned and saw Them. The cows. In their winter pasture, not where he's used to seeing them, and staring at us. That of course, made his brain leave and we skittered around in view of the cows until he could walk sanely. And he kind of hovered back home, but at least he wasn't bolting.

St Croix Saddlery was having their Easter sale, so I dropped off the green blanket to be washed and fixed. While there, I finally bought a bit I'd been contemplating for months. It's a Myler comfort snaffle similar to the one I already have but with eggbutt cheek piece and a slightly thicker mouthpiece. And, after getting Chipotle, I headed home for a tack cleaning extravaganza. I cleaned and conditioned the stuff I haven't touched in years, and may not use again. But it's nice to have it clean again.

Today it was 70 (70!) degrees, so of course we went for another ride. I put on his new bit, but still left the halter on underneath and attached the reins to that.

At first he was confused.

But then he got distracted.

So we were off, and heading down the road. I asked him to trot to stretch his legs, and trot he did. We flew down the road, but he wasn't scared or tense. Just ticklish in the feet. We went down the little side road and he even broke into a canter. Just seemed happy. All pricked ears and bright eyes.

If everything goes halfway according to plan, Carriage House is going to be a blast.

These Boots Were Made For Walking/Trotting/Cantering/Jumping

And that's just what they'll do.

Royal's soreness on gravel bothered me so much that on Saturday, I headed out to an unfamiliar tack shop to get a pair of Cavallo Simple Boots. I ended up paying much more than if I had ordered them online, but I was just so desperate. The next day I was able to try them on him, and they fit! Royal didn't seem to mind them too much, apart from a few high steps at first. They look a little clunky, but he plowed over the gravel like it was made of grass.

He's still a little tender with his hind feet, but they're too narrow for the Simples, so I ordered a pair of Sports. They should be here soon, but we have still been able to get a few trail rides in. On Monday, we went back to the park. He's still a little unnerved by the odd changes in ground texture and all the cars that fly by us (although most give us a nice wide berth), but is getting better. We made it to the park, but just beyond the trees boarding the grassy area, out of sight, was the Lawnmower of Death. It would get closer, then go away, then closer, then go away, on and on. Royal was not happy about this at all, and it took some figure-8s around the trees with serious bending before he started to stretch and sigh. Good boy, so we continued on our way. My sister told me that the road that runs through the park eventually goes circles back to the highway, and we could just do a single loop instead of doubling back down the highway. Sounds perfect, so onwards we went.

It was very beautiful.

But after going for a while, I started to wonder if we were lost. The road had split three ways: left, straight (dead end), and right. We took the left fork, but I started to wonder if we should have gone right. We kept soldiering on, although I kept wondering where we were going and Royal seemed really happy to be exploring.

Nice cornfield, but where's the highway?

We did eventually meet up with the highway, just on the other side of a river. Which is big, and the bridge has no shoulder, so we were forced to walk in the middle of the lane. Which was scary enough as it is, but Royal was also worried about the sound of the river. So he wanted to walk reeeeeaaaaaally slllllllllooooooowly across the bridge and I wanted to go fast to get to the shoulder on the other side. So we compromised with a regular walk, and Royal was probably wondering what I'd gotten us into, but we made it to the other side safe and sound. Getting back on the gravel road was tough for him and he winced every other step on his hind feet. But he seemed mostly cheerful about the adventure, and once the hind boots get here, we'll go on more.

Today we went back to the field, which has (mostly) dried up. It'll rain over the next couple of days, but with lots of help, I've scouted out the high areas that will probably dry and pack the quickest. One is close to the edge of the ridable field (the other half is owned by someone who is growing corn there. No touchy.) and it's about the size of a small (20 x 40 meters) dressage arena. Right now, I don't have any rails or letters (and those will eventually be in the form of poles and cones), so we made our own arena out of hoof prints.

Pretty sweet, no? Royal was a bit confused at first, but as the "trail" began to appear, he got it. We played with the Game of Contact, which he haven't done in a long time, and he picked it right up. He still has a tendency to slow down and curl up behind the bit when I pick up the reins, but at the end, he was holding the contact steady down the long side with no bounces or bobbles. We also popped over a couple jumps at the far end of the field, which he seemed to enjoy.

We cooled down by going onto a side street. It's very quiet and not very gravely, which both of us appreciated. I even offered him the option of going back early, but he wanted to keep going until we reached the woods at the end.

He seems very happy, and my frustrations about riding places are greatly diminished. With the boots, I don't have to worry about soreness and they even have a mild snowshoe effect in the field, helping him not sink too much. We can work on GoC stuff almost anywhere and I think we'll be fine with a one or two jumping sessions a week. Things are definitely looking good.

I'd Take A Carrot Like This Back To The Store

I promised myself I wouldn't do it. I already had a perfectly good carrot stick and not everything has to match. So no, I wouldn't do it. Nope. Not happening. No.

But I couldn't help myself.

A BLUE carrot stick? My word! But I just had to have it. I think it's part of the fun of horse-ownership, matching everything you can. Most of my brushes aren't royal blue, but everything else can be. Why not? I had a coupon and I can use my blue string to make everything really coordinated.

They really put a lot of work into it. Even the divots in the handle (for grip) are Parelli horse heads. And of course "Parelli" is emblazoned all over the thing.

I still think it looks cool.

I haven't had too many chances to play with it. I've been feeling sick for most of this week. On Monday we did some jumping and went for a walk on the road. The deer carcass was gone, but Royal still gave that area the stick eye. Tuesday was really warm (50!) and the horses were sweaty just from standing around. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were freezing cold and I couldn't stand being outside for more than a few minutes. Where did winter come from? Saturday was better. My Game of Contact DVD set come earlier in the week, so I'd been watching that and get lots of ideas for things to try. But Royal made me eat some humble pie.

Often, the things I think are going to take us a long time to figure out often only take a few minutes and the thing I think will only take a few minutes take a few hours. Such is life, and I still have not learned my lessons well. I started off doing some bit isolation with Royal (teaching him to stretch down into the bit) on the ground, and about thirty seconds in, we both hear a crack. Oh no, not Needle-Dick! Yes, and he was just getting started. For the next two hour, echoing cracks sounded throughout the arena as I tried (and mostly failed) to convince Royal that the world was not ending. It took about an hour and a half before he calmed down and realized that bit = stretch. No riding, as I wanted to quit on a halfway sane note.

Today my friend came out to the farm to meet Royal and do some riding. Royal was very well behaved and even my dad's horse BJ got in on the action. Much fun was had by all (except for a bit of unpleasantness at the end) and I think I can make my last day of vacation count. And then, back to school. Sigh. :(

Horse Blogging #13- A video of your worst riding

Really? I suppose it would be the video I got of me and Royal cantering on the left lead. He's always had problems with it, although it's been getting better. I filmed this to send to an Instructor, and got pretty much no feedback from it, other than "how has your riding changed since watching this?". So, as usual, had to go and solve my own problems.



Why I don't like it: I have a lot of excessive movement in my upper body and my butt keeps coming out of the saddle. Royal has a tendency to canter on the forehand, which makes nice riding really hard. But, like I said, it's been getting better and yesterday was a nice breakthrough.

After lab (I! Had! Crystals! Go me!), I went out to the farm, hoping to do some riding. The arena still has a few wet spots, but nothing too serious. I put on both pairs of his splint boots, and, just for fun, the royal blue bell boots. Combine the cotton pad with royal blue trim that I use under my Theraflex, and my horse has more matching accessories than I do. He did a bit of the goose-stepping with the hind boots and didn't really know what to make of the bell boots, so my ground warm-up/pre-ride check mostly consisted of convincing him that he could still move like a sane horse with all of this stuff attached to his legs. Once he was suitably sure of this, it was time to ride. I decided to use my show bridle and just kept the noseband really loose. We looked like a Reale Englishe Horsey and Ryder, instead of the unkempt and wild pair we really are.

I tried out the Cloverleaf pattern at the trot, which he started to get pretty well. The indoor is too small for canter; that'll have to wait until I can use the front field. I also played with contact, which Royal had become a lot better at tolerating. He used to basically panic with even the slightest hint of contact; now he just kind of chews on the bit in a perplexed but pleasant matter. It's times like these I wish there were a mirror in the arena, since I can't really see what's going on. Maybe I should sent up a video camera.

The big breakthrough came at the canter. As you can see from the video, Royal tends to canter with a high head, and often goes very fast. So, I use the Game of Contact to try to help him lower his and canter more on his hind end. I wasn't trying to get him to stretch all the way, just stop looking like a llama. It didn't take long for him to start cantering better and give a big snort/sigh going to the right, but the left was a big more challenging. He kept breaking gait, trying to counter-canter, and got emotional. I just hung in there until I felt him start to relax and start to lift his back. Good boy!

Of course, my little cotton pad was absolutely filthy after the ride, even I got Royal as clean as I possibly could. And he had some dry spots, so it's time for more shim experimentation. But he was still a fabulous boy.

Horse Blogging #11- Find a horse for sale online that you would want to buy

I'm more than happy with Royal and have absolutely no desire to acquire any more horses. Although, if time and money were not factors:

She's a 5 year old Trakhener-Thoroughbred cross and she would be lovely. I'd be concerned about her being started and competing so early, but if I got her, it would probably just be very easy stuff for the first year or so. Most horses are started quite early and they turn out okay. She does look yummy.

Not much going on with the Royal Fuzz. We did the rest of the spring vaccinations and he was an absolute angel. The vet said he (Royal) was the best he's ever been. Yay for Royal! And my Theraflex pad (which I've had for years) got the approval of the vet. It's a long story, but my barn owner wanted him to take a look at it since she wants to get one. So he did and said it was one of the better pads he's seen. Which is kind of a big deal, considering how damn near everything I do with Royal gets shat on by everyone else. To hear what people have said to my face (not even thinking about what's said behind my back), Royal should be a wild and spoiled hellion with a broken back and blood spurting out of his hooves. Instead of the well-mannered and polite athlete with a healthy back and fabulous hooves that he actually is.

Obviously I've been able to push on despite the insults, but it was nice to get some external validation for once.

Horse Blogging #10- How your family/friends feel about your riding

I think they've all finally accepted that this is not a stage that I'm going to grow out of. Of course, my mom and sister encouraged my riding since pretty much forever, my dad humored me and now fully supports my desire to compete. My brother has been the most stubborn about it. He used to always make fun of me and my passion for horses. He would call Royal a "nag" and urge me to by a racehorse so I could make some money. He also made fun of Parelli. But, now he seems to be okay with it and even wants to come at watch me at shows. I'm somewhat suspicious but I'll go with it.

But, hardly anyone ever comes out to the farm to watch me play with Royal. I have to mostly tell them what I did. That's been the way of things for a long time, so I don't that'll change. It's why I have so many pictures of just Royal and so few of me with Royal. Sigh.

This week is not going to have a lot of Royal-time. I'm fairly busy this week and weekend with work and vet appointments and my internship. I did go on Monday and just took Royal for a walk in his new bridle. I experimented with noseband tightness and while he can chew with the noseband at the proper tightness, he doesn't want to. Damn. Now I have to decide how much I want to practice with it on. I definitely need feedback, especially in Finesse.

Could I get a noseband with elastic inserts please?

April Spa Day

If Royal could see this title, he'd disagree. Spas are supposed to be relaxing and his spa day wasn't. But that had less to do with the spa treatments and more with other factors.

We had a pretty big thunderstorm Saturday night, which meant mud galore. And that the arena flooded again. I went out to the farm to find this:

Who says bays can't get dirty?

So I brushed him off and was just starting to pick out his hooves when I heard a familiar cracking sound. Which could only mean one thing: Needle-Dick was up to his crap again. Royal, bless his heart, let me pick out his feet but it was obvious he was worried about Needle-Dick's issues. He continued to be a good boy and let me detangle his mane and tail, which took a while. I haven't really touched either all winter, so there were a lot a snarls to get out. Luckily, I have a really nice detangler and it looked so much nicer. As did he.

Notice how much thinner he looks than the dirty picture. Part of that is I brushed a lot of hair off, and part is Needle-Dick's gunshots were really bothering him and he was not happy about being tied to the wall. He tends to appear thinner and taller when he's tense.

I tried to see if his new bridle fit him any differently now that a lot of his winter hair has fallen off and it does look different. But, much to my chagrin, I have to tighten the noseband in order to stop it flopping around on his face. He can still chew, but I'm not entirely happy. I'll try to soften it up and make it more flexible, but right now I'm cursing the rules that make nosebands mandatory for showing.

I think he still looks handsome, though.

Spring? Spring!

Could it be? Yes! It seems that winter, after a long and terrible battle, has finally released its grip on the upper Midwest and we have lovely mud season weather. Mud Season: You'll be so happy to see the sun you won't notice the mud taking off your shoes.

But all is well in the world of the Royal Fuzz. After the close-call with the Arch of Death (and I did find a new one, so that'll go up as soon as it gets here) and Royal's subsequent touchiness with his legs, things have been going well. Tuesday I went out after lab and, after making sure wasn't touchy about his legs (he wasn't), I hopped on bareback and we went for a walk down the road. The farm is on a little dirt road with a few other houses. The next-door neighbor is the one I call Needle-Dick, because I'm sure he must be compensating for SOMETHING. He has a shooting range in his backyard, which is technically illegal, and is shooting almost every day. I want to tell him that a handgun won't do much for him an a zombie apocalypse, but Needle-Dick doesn't strike me as the humorous type. He also leaves his garbage cans at the end of the driveway all the time, which mean Royal is convinced they are hiding monsters. He does not want to walk past them or will only do so with a lot of snorting and tension. I decided to see how far we could get.

So, we're moseying down the road and about 1/8th of a mile from Needle-Dick's house, Royal spots the garbage cans and stops dead. I decided to use the zig-zag technique and asked Royal to go to the right. Then left. Right. Left. Right. Left. All the while getting closer to the cans. Finally we're right in front of them, and Royal stays on the other side of the road and walks past the cans. I kept his nose slightly tipped to the cans, and once we made it past, asked him to disengage his HQ and stop. We looked at the cans for a while and walked past them again, slightly closer. Stop, disengage, and go past again. He walked in the middle of the road only slightly looking at the can, we turned around again, went past the can, and went back to the farm. I was so proud.

Thursday I didn't have any class, so I went back out. I hoped to do some more riding and also try on Royal's new splint boots. I've had the front ones forever and they're still holding up fairly well, with just a bit of discoloration and rust on the metal. So I got some matching ones for his hind legs. He thought that was very weird and starting holding up his hind legs, one at a time. I didn't have my cell phone with me at the time, otherwise I would have gotten a picture. As it was, I wanted Royal to get used to the boots, so I walked with him back out to my car to get my phone because I really wanted a picture with all four boots on.

Why yes, my horse's color IS royal blue. Why do you ask?

Then followed one of the best ride we've had. I've (finally) realized that I shouldn't be treating him like an Right Brain Extrovert, but a Left Brain Extrovert. RBEs need lots of consistency to relax and focus, while LBEs need to play to become obedient. So I basically became manic after our warm up. Walk, trot, canter, walk, back up, trot, canter, trot, walk, turn on the haunches, trot, walk, back up, walk, canter, walk, canter, trot, canter, walk, turn on the forehand, walk, back-up, walk, trot, walk, canter, etc. All in very rapid succession and being very particular about transitioning off my seat. At first he was sort of fighting me, but quickly became more in harmony with him and starting putting a lot of effort in. I was trying for balanced transitions and when I got a smooth and lovely left lead canter departure (his biggest challenge), I quit there. He got many treats and a good roll in the dirt. Both of us were very happy.

Horse Blogging #6- All the tack and riding clothes you have (brand/color/other details)

Oh boy. Before we start, can I just say that I sell pretty much everything I no longer wear and I see all of this stuff as necessary in some way, shape or form? That being said, it's still a lot. So, here we go.

Tack

Parelli:
Royal blue halter
12-foot line
22-foot line
45-foot line
2 Carrot Sticks
Savvy String (this item is the one I've had to replace the most often. Royal has a tendency to chew them and the leather poppers can become brittle and break in the cold. I think I'm on my fifth)
Black Hackamore
Country brown snaffle bridle with Horseman's reins
Confidence (French-link) snaffle
2 sets of Finesse reins (having an extra has really come in handy)
C3 Cradle bit
Cradle headstall
Theraflex pad, English
Bareback pad, black
Dark Brown Fluidity Saddle

Other:
Dark brown Crown bridle
Myler Comfort Snaffle
Royal blue polo wraps
Royal blue Davis Splint boots, med and large
Royal blue Professional's Choice Ballistic Bell Boots
Black Eskadron Open Front and Ankle boots
Roma White Dressage saddle pad
Royal blue standing wraps
White No-Bow Wraps

Clothing:

F.I.T.S All Season Full Seat Breeches in Black, Sahara, and Expresso
Equissentials Full Seat in black with brown leather
Equissentials Full Seat Winter Arctics in black
Ariat paddock boots in black
Ariat Cameo half chaps in black
Ariat winter paddock boots in black
Tipperary Eventer Vest in black
Charles Owens AYR8 in black/black
Various T-shirts, sweatshirts, vests, and jackets.

I tend to like black because it goes with everything and I think it looks pretty classy. I've never really liked the look of brown tall boots and I think the brown would not look as sharp next to Royal. Not that I'm a fashionista or anything like that. I would make George Morris cry for days on end.

PNH Blogging #23 - SADDLING: do you use the PNH saddle and/or theraflex pad if not what do you ride in and what does your horse think of it

Parelli saddle? You mean the chocolate brown Fluidity sitting on a rack less than three feet from me? That Parelli saddle?

Yep, I have a Fluidity. It's an 18" Standard width, and I LOVE IT! Royal seems to like it too, and his back has really benefited from it. I've done lots of stuff with it: jumping, flatwork, trail rides, and both of us are very comfortable.

I know the Parelli saddles are expensive, but so are a lot of saddles. Stubben, Pessoa, Bates, Passier can all be in the $2000+ range, and they're are not nearly as comfortable and versatile as my Fluidity. It's also kept me safe on a number of occasions when things haven't gone according to plan. Especially when I started jumping more. The deeper seat of the Fluidity was able to catch me if needed and the wide contours of the saddle helped Royal learn how to use his back.

Compare this with other saddles. My barn owner has been having problems with her saddles, both English and Western. Neither fit her horse very well and she's considering getting a Theraflex pad. I let her use mine today with her English saddle, and her mare seemed happier, but the pad was having to make up for a poorly designed saddle. It's so much easier when the saddle is designed to fit a moving horse and not a stationary model.

Unmounted "Intro to Dressage/Eventing" Clinic

I've mentioned before that I would like to try eventing with Royal this summer. Most of our major issues have been worked out and the remaining ones are being chipped away. Or, they were before the weather took a detour to Crazy Town. I haven't been as eager to play with Royal lately since the opportunities are so far and few in between and it always feels like I'm just trying to get him to use up all his energy instead of teaching him new things. Especially while riding. Right now, I'm just trying to get through February so we can start having more regular sessions.

Luckily, a lot of Minnesotans and Wisconsinites are in the same boat, so the Central States Dressage and Evening Association is holding a bunch of "unmounted" clinics. These are more informational seminars than riding clinics, but still useful. The one I went to today was all about preparing for shows, what the judges are looking for, how to fill out your entry form, etc. It was out in the woods of Stillwater at a very nice facility. I found most of the sessions very helpful.

The first one was the least helpful. It was all about bitting and choosing the right bit for your horse. The first half went over the structure of the horse's skull and the various types of things that can go wrong. Bad things like arthritis, malocclusions, and loose teeth. This was mostly stuff I already knew, thanks to the equine courses at the U. The last half was downright WRONG. The presenter described a study they did where they used a fluoroscope to examine how various bits sit in the horses mouth and what their actions are. But, in order to test this, they put the horses IN STOCKS and pulled on the reins! And, as anyone with a cursory understanding of horse behavior could guess, the horses started chewing and fussing with the bits. WELL, DUH! You put a trained horse in a confined space where it can't move more than a step and put tension on the reins, IT'S GOING TO START CHOMPING AT THE BIT. You're telling it to stop or back up, and it's already stopped and can't back up. I understand that you can't exactly attach a fluoroscope to a horse's head and ride around, but this research showed nothing useful. Only that confused horses chomp on the bit. Whoop-de-friggin-do. And how the horses chew does depend on the bit, but also on the horses emotional state. The more emotionally tumultuous, the more frantic and frenetic the chewing. People, this is not rocket surgery. This is basic horse behavior.

Then the presenter went on about fitting a bridle, and they mentioned crank nosebands as a good thing. I despise cranks. You might as well put a big sign around your neck that says "I have rough hands, and will strap my horses mouth shut so they can't give me feedback about it." Hate hate hate cranks and damn near every English bridle has them. I was very displeased to find my show bridle has a crank-like noseband, but it's very mild and I will never put it too tight. Two fingers or bust, people.

The other sessions were leagues better. There were two concurrent sessions: one about saddle fitting (which would have inspired more exasperation from me) and one about entering your first event or dressage show. This was very helpful for me, and apparently, there's going to be a recognized event in Delano, which is in the Twin Cities area! Yay!

The third session (for the whole group) was given by a dressage judge who talked about how to ride the dressage and eventing tests, how the tests have changed, and what the judges see. The main things I took away were: 1. practice your halts, 2. don't get flustered by mistakes, 3. Judges are eager to give high points if earned, 4. a horse and rider score much higher if they are in harmony. The judge was very funny and inspired me to start practicing.

The fourth and final sessions was about Things That Can Go Wrong and How To Laugh About Them. Take-away message: don't take everything so seriously and don't forget to have fun. All in all, a mostly good experience, and I feel better informed about how prepared Royal and myself for showing. Prior and Proper Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance and all.

So, right now, the plans are to try some private x-c schoolings at local barns, do some open schooling days at the Delano barn, compete in the Carriage House schooling show, and Roebke's Run HT in July and Steepleview in September. If the private schooling don't work out, that's okay. Royal's farm has a big pasture with lots of logs and an area that turns into a mini-lake if it's wet enough. And, given the amount of snow we've had this winter, I think the mini-lake will be around for some water crossings. But, first the snow has to melt and the weather has to be a bit more consistently comfortable. Until then, Royal and I rest.

PNH Blogging #14 - What PNH tools, clothing, tack etc. do you own?

Hoo boy. Here we go.

Tools/Tack:
Halter
12-foot line
22-foot line
45-foot line
2 Carrot Sticks
Savvy String (this item is the one I've had to replace the most often. Royal has a tendency to chew them and the leather poppers can become brittle and break in the cold. I think I'm on my fifth)
Hackamore
Snaffle bridle with Horseman's reins
Confidence snaffle
2 sets of Finesse reins (having an extra has really come in handy)
C3 Cradle bit
Cradle headstall
Theraflex pad, English
Bareback pad
Fluidity Saddle

So, yeah. Almost everything on the webshop. Although it was acquired over 6+ years, one or two pieces at a time.

Clothing:
Lots of t-shirts, some I don't wear anymore because I wore them to their grave
2 long sleeve shirts
2 sweatshirts
4 visors
3 Baseball caps
1 pair of Equissentials breeches that I haven't worn in over a year. I have a pair of winter Equissentials that I wear, but the rest of the year, I prefer FITS.

Also, I have one the Big Green Balls, various calendars, and a Parelli Mug.

Lots o' Parelli stuff, but it's pretty tough stuff and most has lasted me a really long time.

Royal's New Bridle

Well, I survived Christmas with the family and got through it relatively unscathed. Final grades were not what I'd hoped, but not much I can do about it now. Now, on to the happy stuff. Royal got a new bridle and I just had to try it on and it fits! It's a Crown Bridle and I also got a new bit: a Myler loose ring comfort snaffle and he seems to be okay with it. I just put it on to see how it fit and rode around bareback on a loose rein to just let him get used to the feel of it. He seemed to chew on it a little more than usual, but he was also antsy today.

Of course, pictures!






The leather needs some conditioning, but I think it will suit our purposes quite well.

A weird thing happened while I was cleaning up the arena. Royal was walking around loose in the arena when he got really scared by something. He trotted over to me, wide-eyed and tense, and I could hear his heart beating. Without a stethoscope or putting my ear to his barrel. I put my hand right behind his left shoulder and could feel his heart pounding away. Whatever scared him was by the big side door to the arena, because he would not take his eyes off of it the rest of the time we were in there.

Strange, but cool.