Today was so much fun!! My sister and I had a play day in the snow!!!
First Eddie and I did some fun online stuff with the hackamore and reins extended into a 22 foot line. We jumped over the tube which was covered in a 2 foot drift and extended for 3 feet. He just soared over it!!! Then I grabbed a helmet, redid the reins and hopped on!
This is when we were backing up and he got all collected - I love it!! So we played with the clover leaf a little bit and just walked/trotted around a little bit. We chased my sister and Scout too - hehe! It was fun to ride in the snow!
We just had a good 'ole time with the ponies. My sister has been teaching Scout how to drive, so she took us for a ride!
She had an inner tube attached to his surcingle and we went for a walk! It was fun!! I think Scout liked it too! Eddie didn't like it, because he had to follow me, but it was fun!!! YIPPEE!!!!!
It snowed again all morning, and at 1, we decided to go outside and take the horses for a walk to get outside and stretch their limbs a little bit. So we just went for a walk by the buildings and let them graze for however long they wanted to. I love snow!
It's so cool, last winter Eddie and I were just starting Level 3 Online, and still playing with Level 2 freestyle. Now we're graduated both, and well on our way to graduating Level 3. Who knew that we would ever get this far? Well, God did. I remember when we first started, I had a goal to graduate Level 1 when I was 15 and Level 2 when I was 18. Hmm... I never thought that they would be so soon. And so maintainable.
Look at all that snow!!!! I could so live some place where there is snow all winter. I hope this snow stays around for a while!
It looks like it's supposed to get down to the single digits tonight, so I have to make sure Eddie stays nice and warm!
~Lea & Eddie~
John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Hey there! Hope you're having a good day! I'm back!! I just got in from a wonderful play session with Eddie! We went out in the pasture and played mostly with the cutting game and falling leaf. We played for a good 20 minutes. It was a lot of fun! He was really getting into the cutting game. He was jumping from side to side even though it was slippery. Speaking of slippery... I was cutting to the right, and he was following my move, and my feet slipped out from under me and I fell on my behind. ;) hehe! It was funny. Eddie was looking at me like, "Why are you down there?! We're supposed to be playing!" So I got back up and we played a lot more. Oh guess what?! We were jumping over the log together and he FLEW over it! It was a foot or MORE high than it and it's a good 2 feet off the ground, maybe more. It was just awesome. It was so much fun to play in the snow!
So after we played we went in his stall and I had noticed that his front left hoof had chipped, so I did his front feet. They were pretty long! His hoof wall was really thick, so I brought it back to about 3/8 of an inch thick and closer to the sole. They look much better. I do love doing hooves, it's fun, but also testing to see how good you can get it.
There's the radar of what's about to come through. The X is where we are. The last batch of snow has just left. the boys are outside enjoying the fresh air and stretching their limbs.
We love snow! Hopefully we'll get to play today, even if it is snowing. I love playing in the snow. :) I don't know if Eddie does, but I'm sure he'd be happier inside eating hay!
So, since there's not much to talk about on this beautiful, snowy day... I thought I would make up a small list of things Eddie and I are going to play with this winter.
Freestyle! Winter seems to be our big freestyle season. So, I'm hoping to do some bridleless riding, and getting him to be softer to my body sygnals.
Cantering too. I love to canter in the snow, and he really gets into the groove of, "Let's GO!" It will be really fun to canter around this winter. :)
Jumping! My goal is to jump three cavaletties stacked up. Maybe the tube, but definitely not the barrels yet. That's pushing it, for now. We'll get there!
Liberty! I'm praying that we can play at Liberty in the pasture successfully before spring. I think we can do it, I just have to cause my idea to become his idea! ;)
Finesse - more fluid rein. We're not going too fast into finesse yet. I want to make sure he gets the concept of it.
Online - advanced zone 5 driving! playing with haunches in, and shoulder in, because he has a hard time with the latter. half passes and playing with where his body is when he does them.
We did them the other day, and he did great with them!!! We sidepassed from barrel to barrel with one rein and he did great. Yay!!
Winter is here, Lea & Eddie
Ecclesiastes 3:1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven.
Well I think I have tapped into Eddie's offering bubble. Lately, I've felt like we can do anything, if we take a slow, and steady approach to it. Today we played in the pasture, and he was amazing! He jumped 2 single barrels in a row, cantered towards me, did some ULTRA light sideways towards and sideways away. But the coolest thing, he jumped two barrels that were back to back. He just FLEW over them. I had never asked him to jump any higher than the barrels laying down, so we just made it l-o-n-g-e-r! It was so cool! His cutting game is getting really good too. I jumped back and forth and he keeps his eyes on me, he loves it! I think we have our quality and distance down for most of the things we're working on. Now we just need to play with speed. His circling game was interesting! He had gotten very LBE on adrenaline from cats running every which way, so I just stood in the middle and let him burn it off. I'm telling you, it doesn't last long!!! But the 5th circle at a canter he went to a walk. He sighed, licked and chewed and just looked at me. "Were we doing something?!" Yes! We were! Can we do two circles each way at the trot, then you can come in? "Sure mom!" Then everything was fine! He's so awesome. I love him so much! I hopped on after that and we chased Scout around. It was really funny! While we rode, we played with some suspension rein and our focus. He really follows it now. It's so amazing! This winter, I'm hoping to a) canter a lot and b) try some bridleless things. We've been preparing all fall, so I think we may be ready for it. Like an amazing Parelli student said, "When you are ready, you are ready. Doubt won't then creep in." - Dawn Emmerson. We'll be ready, when we're ready. :)
P.S. Snow is on the way here!!!!!!!!!! YAY!
~Lea & Eddie~
Mark 3:25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Winter is finally here! It's been in the 30's all week and it's supposed to drop down to the 20's this next week. I love winter, it's my favorite season, besides fall! Let's see... Yesterday Eddie and I had a short, 10 minute session in the evening. I know, our first session in the dark! It was kind of weird, I don't think he liked it! lol! But we did play with some bullseye, figure eight and I just let him graze. :-)
Today it was much nicer out and it was sunny! So we played for a nice long time. First we started with going for a walk in the track with everyone else. We drove from 5 with the 2 reins and he did amazing!!! I asked him to do some haunches in and he did it beautifully. Shoulder in wasn't as good, but he did try. :) We went in the pasture afterwards and played with some bullseye, circling game, long range point to point and we played with some more cutting game. He loves that game! I hopped on after that we walked around and did some point to point. It was very fun! Hopefully we'll be able to get some more good play sessions in before all this snow comes. There's supposed to be a LOT of snow this upcoming week!!!!!!!!! Savvy on my friends!
Today was an awesome day!! It was snowing on and off, so I went out to play in the snow, it was so pretty!!! So the last couple of play times have been kind of boring, because we've just beening playing with things that we've been doing for a couple of weeks/months. So today we started playing with some new things! And man, did he have fun with it!!! First we started playing with some cutting game. HE LOVED IT! I would make him guess which way I was going to run to, and he would jump the way I went and he reared a little bit, and shook his head. hehe! It was so cool for his LBI self, he was full of energy!! We did that a few times and it so so cool! Then we played with some advanced sideways. I had him sideways towards me a lot faster than what we normally do. I stayed percendicular to him and I crossed my legs, and he crossed his! What an awesome horse!! The next thing we did was, jumping multiple barrels in a row! I have 4 barrels set up. 2 together, then 10 feet away and had the other 2 together. We jumped one set, then trotted to the next! I was super proud of him, he did it the first try, for the first time! YIPPEE!!! Then we played with some more cutting, and just chilled for a little bit. It was so cool to play in the snow. I LOVE snow!!
~Lea & Eddie~
John 6:35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
HAPPY DECEMBER!!! Well that is definitely not what it looks like outside! It was in the 40's all day and I hardly wore a coat! It was nice outside!!! This morning my mom, my sister and I put up 2 more rolls of fencing. We're almost completely done!! Then I played with Eddie in the afternoon! We played online in the pasture and we did some slow things, because he was really sleepy. We leaned back and forth, (got it on video!) played with some driving game from the pedestal. I had him bring his HQ towards me while he stayed up there. Then some advacned porcupine pressure with leading by the forelock! :-D He did pretty good with it!!! Oh, guess what?! We're starting something really fun. I squatted on the ground, and I tapped his barrel so he would sideways towards me, over me. We're a long way away from it, but I think he gets it. I just have to play with my confidence! :) It's so cool, I couldn't have asked for a better horse. Whenever I get RBI, he goes LBI and takes care of me until I'm settled. Sometimes he doesn't, sometimes he goes LBE, but then we just back up until we're both comfortable and he has things to do! I love you Eddie!!! We bowed a few times and called it quits there..... oh.... but wait!!!!! As we were going to turn the camera off, he picked it up... He took the lens in his mouth... I tried to grab it.... but he ruined the lens! And we just bought that camera!!!! :-D I actually have it on video, because it was still rolling when he chewed it.... well that's a hidden expense I didn't plan on! But God is good, He will provide. :)
As this month of December begins... Lea & Eddie
James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Well today it was SUNNY and still cold, but it was SUNNY!!! YIPPEEE! So... At first Eddie and I went in the pasture and we played with a lot of different things! I really played with my slowness, and having him go before me. I really had that in the back of my mind with the whole session. So we played with some bullseyes, cirlcing (which he did 3 laps at a trot without breaking gait) sideways and we're learning this new, fun thing. He stand on the pedestal, I swing the savvy string over his back and he bring his HQ towards me. I'll have to see if I can get a video of it. It's really cool! I LOVE HIM! We refined things even more and I asked him to stand with his feet just a little in front of the other. Then I leaned forward - and usually I have to ask him with a phase 2 - but today I just leaned backwards and he leaned back. I leaned forward, and he leaned forward!!! YAY! WOOHOO! We did a few more circles and we did about 3 or 4 circles over the barrels without him breaking gait. Yippee! We did some weave, falling leaf, and some zone 1/2 iscolations and extreme friendly game in those zones. {Thank you Fran for the advice, he's doing much better!} To finish things up, we went in the corncrib and I finished trimming him. His back feet are doing swell. I really enjoy doing this, it's definitely something I will keep doing for a long time. Trimming is so fun! I'll get some pictures of his feet up too. =-)
