Happy Anniversary

This post is totally belated, as our anniversary was on the 17th, but Mollie and I recently celebrated our 13th anniversary :)

I never would have guessed where our journey would take us when I bought her.  To think that I was looking for a been there, done that, pony club mount and I ended up with her still makes me smirk.  She was everything we weren't looking for so naturally, she was perfect.

Here's to another amazing 13 years together you sassy girl.

Throwback

Because it's Throwback Thursday please enjoy a photo of 9 year old me on my first horse wearing the world's largest helmet.

And if you haven't voted in the first round of Semi-Finals at She Moved to Texas, please go over and vote for The Red Headed Mare :)

Sorrel

While I was grooming Mollie within an inch of her life this past weekend I was once again surprised by all the color variations in her coat.  Let's run through a little history.

Mollie's papers have her registered as Sorrel.
When we bought her she was definitely a Chestnut.
Each year she has gotten a bit darker, and the few white hairs she had on her flanks when we bought her as a four year old are spreading.
She also has a few perfectly circular, bright white dots all over her body.  From what I've read about birdcatcher spots I don't think that fits here... hers literally appear over night and she's had them for many years without them ever going away.
She has some darker "brindling" on her hind legs/butt.

So basically, for all you color experts out there, what color is my horse?

 

 

 

I should also mention that her mane is considered flaxen (I think) at this point... she also has horizontal white stripes at the top of her tail.  I'm not sure whether or not she's a true roan, or someone else mentioned Sabino?  I don't even know if that's possible.  All your guesses are as good as mine :)

 

 

Lastly, a shameless plug for myself, in the pursuit of chocolate.  Lauren at She Moved to Texas is having a March Madness contest and Mollie and I have made it to the second round!!  If you like this blog or if you like my sassy red mare please send a vote our way :)

 

 

EOW IV

Exercise of the week, round four!! Lets just take a moment to acknowledge that I've kept this little segment up for a whole month now.   Sometimes I'm a responsible adult.

For this week I'm bringing out one of my favorite, and must under rated exercise.  A figure eight.  Yes, I know you're thinking "Gee, good one, I would have never thought of that by myself."  But as I said.... it's grossly under rated.  The figure eight is one of my favorite exercises because it's deceivingly simple.  First, a kick ass diagram.

So I really only have the one diagram for this exercise because it's not all that elaborate.  That's the beauty of it.  Also, I know some people ride a figure eight across the long diagonals, but I much prefer it on two circles.  The trick to this exercise is keeping the circles the same size, keeping your bend to the same degree throughout, and keeping your pace the same.  But much of the magic of this exercise happens at that little red dot.  It is the only time your horse is traveling straight and should take no more than one or two strides before you've begun your circle in the opposite direction.

During those one or two strides where you and your horse are straight much is happening.  Say you had been traveling right, when you come through the red dot zone your weight should shift slightly left, your left side of your horse's back should drop (and the right should come up), and their spines should change from right to left bend.  It's a LOT to make happen in a stride or two!!

I try to keep the circles about 10m a piece and usually ride this exercise at the trot.  You could ride it at walk however and if you're super skilled, the canter.  Sometimes if Molls is rushing or blowing through me I halt each time I pass through the red dot.  I switch my bend before trotting off again, and then repeat.  

Not the most exciting exercise, but certainly one I pull out of my "tool box" and find beneficial for almost any horse :)

Sanity

So many times I accredit my sanity to my horse/riding in general but this weekend it was so true.  This past week and the week ahead of me are absolutely insane with work/related things that really interfere with my life and it was so nice to spend a total of 14 hours at the barn the last two days.  Yes 14 hours, no I don't feel bad about it.  Between lessons and riding Mollie I feel very productive and ready for the week ahead.

There are a ton of things I want to talk about from this weekend but instead of making this post a million pages long and then having nothing to post about all week, I'll try to break it up.  First up is ride recaps because that's what I'm most likely to forget.

Saturday:

Saturday I rode 3 horses.  I nearly died.  I had a 2 hour break in lessons so tacked up one of the beasts that rarely gets used and cruised around.  I totally failed at taking pictures but she's a draft cross (basically looks like a dwarf draft) and is white and fluffy.  So she's basically a unicorn.  She's super green and out of shape so my major requests were that she go forward and straight.  She was exhausted within 20 minutes so I cooled her out and tossed her outside before more lessons.

Second up was one of the boarder's horses at the lesson barn.  I teach said boarder lessons and he hadn't been on his horse for a few months (had been doing strictly ground work).  We decided yesterday was the day to get back on so I climbed aboard first to make sure the horse wasn't homicidal.  Once that was determined the boarder got on and had his lesson.  There's a whole post I really want to do on this horse/rider duo though, so more on that later this week :)

Lastly was Molls.  By the time I got to our barn it was dinner time, so I fed her half (a whopping 6 pellets at that point.... kinda) and tacked her up.  It had been a week and a half since I rode her (eek!) between crazy work things and going away last weekend so I didn't expect much.  I let her go around on a longish rein as long as she was using her back and not flying around.  Her canters left much to be desired but she was actually better than I expected at the walk and trot.  She was an absolute FREAK whenever I made contact via my left rein however... not sure if it's tooth related, behavior related, poll/TMJ related or what, but something I definitely plan to keep an eye on.  I gave her a long grooming after, got tons of hair off, and put her away with the rest of her dinner.

Breaking this post up with a photo shoot fail from this summer.  Awk.

Sunday

I didn't ride any horses at the lesson barn this morning, but had some awesome positive lessons and was excited to get back on Molls.  Can we please also note that I cleaned a saddle and two bridles at lesson barn?  Who am I?  Gave Mollie a super long grooming because I'm an awesome horse owner because I forgot to put her BoT boots on until I was done grooming the first time.  Got her into the ring and there were FOUR of us.  Totally unheard of at our barn, but a sign Spring is coming and people are riding more :)  All the ponies were really good, Molls looked nice and we even got a compliment from someone watching which always feels good.  By the time we finished it was back in the 30s and windy but it was 4pm, the sun was still out, and we were itching to get outside.  So Mollie and I hacked around the property with one of the other people riding.  Both horses were on "high alert" but well behaved and it was an uneventful walk.

Hoping to get out to the barn at least one night this week for a ride!!  I'm definitely going to need it.

VC Blog Hop x3

We now have the third installment of L's Magical Blog Hop!!

 

Yayyyy more drooling unicorns

 

This week's topic is: What's in your Bucket/Smartpak

 



Only a few people have linked up so far, but the general consensus is that my horse is totally neglected.  As far as food and supplements go, Mollie is clearly on the lower end of the maintenence spectrum.  But I'm definitely not complaining :)

 

Foods:

Mollie is fed unlimited hay throughout the day.  I was actually really surprised to see some horses get as little as 4 flakes a day.... Molls would blow through that in an hour and promptly demand more foods.  She does eat from a small-holed haynet (seen below) in an attempt to slow her down, but she's pretty much tossed another bag whenever that one is out.  Granted, all of our grass fields are still under snow and ice, so once they're allowed to graze all day again the hay consumption should decrease.

 

 

 

As far as grain, Mollie gets as little as possible as long as her supplments can still be mixed in.  Right now that comes out to about half a cup (yes cup, not quart) of Hay Stretcher.  Girl gets fat on air.

Mollie-Wog Caviar



Now on to her supplements.  I do use Smartpaks for Molls simply for ease and convenience.  She's been on the same Smartpak for years now and I live under the "If it's not broke don't fix it" motto.  The two supplements she is on are extremely beneficial to her and therefore she stays on them.

 

First up is Mare Marijuana Magic.  Seriously, this stuff has saved both our lives.  I put Mollie on it after about a year of owning her and she's been on it for the last 12 years.  She'll probably never come off.  I know some people don't believe in it, or they didn't think it worked for their horse, but it's always made a huge difference in her temperment and I consider it worth every penny.

 

 

 

Product Description from Smartpak:

 

Mare Magic is a customer favorite for calming and moodiness. It provides pure, dried Raspberry Leaf to help influence a quiet disposition in mares and geldings.
Raspberry is an herb widely known for its benefits to mares because it is believed to temper the effects of hormonal fluctuations. The active ingredients in Raspberry are thought to help regulate smooth muscle tone in both the reproductive and gastrointestinal tracts, relaxing muscle that is in spasm and strengthening muscle that is weak. Mare Magic’s dried leaf formula smells wonderful and horses find it very palatable.


 

 

Second is Cosequin ASU.  When Mollie was diagnosed with arthritis in her hocks about 5 years ago our vet suggested we try this before resorting to anything more drastic (injections).  I 100% recommend this product as it has kept Mollie completely sound ever since.  At 17 years old she is quite arthritic yet I have still never needed to inject her.  Every year the vet throws it out there as an option for "next year" but by the time next year rolls around Molls still seems to be in pretty good shape.

 

 

 

Product Description from Smartpak:

 

Cosequin® ASU goes above and beyond the traditional glucosamine/chondroitin sulfate products on the market. Cosequin® ASU contains NMX1000® avocado/soybean unsaponifiables (ASU) formulated with FCHG49® glucosamine hydrochloride and TRH122® low molecular weight chondroitin sulfate. Plus the addition of high purity MSM! This sets Cosequin® ASU apart from any other joint health supplement for horses. And all in a tasty, easy to administer powder! 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Exercise of the Week III

Back on the Exercise of the Week train because I have nothing else to blog about ;)

This exercise is one of my favorites, and I refer to it as "Headphones".  You'll see why shortly in my awesome diagrams below.

I really like this exercise because it forces the horse to step under themselves laterally.  When done correctly, they really bring their backs up and are wonderfully on your aids when you are done.  This exercise also calls for some lateral difficulties but if your horse isn't ready you could easily break the exercise up and do it in different parts before stringing it all together.

You're going to start off walking/trotting/cantering/whatever floats your boat-ing left.  Once you get a little less than halfway down your long side, halt (at the orange dot).  Bonus points for a square halt.

Guyz I'm getting so good at Paintbrush

After halting you are going to proceed to ride a semi-circle using lateral movements only.  If you can manage this without any forward or backwards steps you win all the things.  Obviously this is a lot to throw at a horse at once, so like I said before, if all you can get is a few steps and then walk off, no worries.

So once you've halted you're going to apply right leg, step into your left stirrup, and encourage your majestical unicorns to side step left.  I try to get in two steps of straight side pass before focusing my efforts in moving over Mollie's rear end.  During the "corners" you want their hind ends to cross over and their front ends to more or less stay in place.  After a step or two of "haunches over" you side pass left for another two steps, then another corner, then another two side pass steps to the wall.  Halt at the orange dot.

Purple slashes denote lateral-ness.

Now if your beasts are anything like Mollie they will be ALLLL sorts of puffed up by the time they get to the wall.  She's usually offended that I asked for so much lateral motion but at the same time she's reallllllly nice and on my aids.  So it typically doesn't take much encouragement to get her to go forward.  Either walk/trot/canter off from your orange dot to the right, ride through the short side, and halt a third of the way down your long side (orange dot).

From here you're going to repeat the "headphone" portion of the exercise but to the right.  So you will apply left leg, stand in your right stirrup, and step away from the wall towards the right.  Two steps to the right, one or two haunches over through the corner, two steps over, two haunches over to corner, and then side pass right to the rail.

Halt once you get back to the rail, then charge your steeds forward again and do it over and over! Or if it sucked do it never again.

Why this exercise works: There is soooo much lateral motion in this exercise it's practically impossible to be detrimental.  All the sideways motion is wonderful for getting you horses up and under you and this exercise allows for plenty of it.

Why I like this exercise:  This exercise is really awesome for days where Mollie just needs an ass kicking.  And that sounds bad, but ever have one of those days where your horse just isn't really on your aids/isn't really trying/is tuning you out?  Yeah, not easy to do in this exercise.  It really gets her moving, gets her working, and it's not very complicated.

Once again, please let me know if you incorporate this and how it goes!!