I had planned on going to a dressage show on Dec 1st with Josey but it was just too hard to pull it together. Since the move I have been trying to get my back up to speed again. I have also been shocked at how many little things are needed when getting set up at a new place. I have also picked up some crazy marathon shifts at work. Because they only had a part time position open I end up picking up last minute shifts and feel like I need to take any overtime that is available. That makes it hard to plan out a riding schedule.
With all that in mind I decided since I was going to a show in January anyway I might as well work Josey into that schedule. Jan 26-27th there is a two day open schooling show coming up the end of January. The morning is halter and English rail classes and the afternoon is western. Romeo's young lady is going to show him so it will be a big fun day. Dickie is going to be entered into two halter classes. I am not sure if I will actually end up showing in the class. I am going to register Josey for the English pleasure walk trot classes. Not sure how we will do because she isn't a hunter but it will be a nice way to get every one out and about in a low key environment.
I have a ride lined up but might be able to borrow my Mom's truck for Jan/Feb. It will be nice to have the flexibility to haul a few times before then. Romeo is at an outdoor and it deep and soupy early this year. It would also be great to take Dickie the Dofus to a new arena just to see how he handles it.
February 13th is a really BIG day! Dickie is three!! I know that he isn't going to magically mature in three months but once he is three but I will feel better about short rides under saddle once he hits that mark. I plan on sitting on him bareback a few more times until then. I am not big on the concept of starting horses by getting on them one day and riding until the bucking is done. I plan to slowly increase activities that will prep him for riding and let him guide how far we go next year :)
I haven't been reading your blog long enough to know all the work you have been doing with Dickie, but have you tried ground driving him? This helped so much with my mare before I ever sat on her.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great suggestion. I started to ground drive him but needed to get some more basics under control. I actually plan to start ground driving again next week. Ground driving is great! Then you can at least have some control up there.
DeleteI am super excited to get Josey all set for the show! I will be handling the important stuff like ensuring her tack has the right amount of style and bling! Plus, I got to get busy on those coordinating shirts and saddle blanket for Josey, Carter and I!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy you are in charge of the white horse and I'm in charge I the brown one. Although I'm not looking forward to braiding his wiggly ass. I need to get us a white saddle pad. I'm hoping one comes up on tack of the day.
DeleteIf we go to side saddle we can get a white one super cheap!! Extremely cheap as I have a credit there!
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun!! I can't wait to read all about the show. I hope someone can take pictures for you. *hint hint* :D
ReplyDeleteYay! Dickie is almost three! How exciting! I was the same way about riding. I don't like the idea of getting on and expecting a horse to canter circles on the first ride either (all of my rides so far have been walk only and only ten minutes or so lol, I'm very conservative hehe). Could you imagine having to do something so strenuous with all that extra weight with no conditioning? *shudder* I'm hoping the whole "ride the bucks out of them" tradition has about died out lol. Dickie is going to be great.
I did it backwards. Rode first (when he turned three) and now I'm going to teach him to ground drive because I have absolutely NO steering LOL! I tried teaching him to ground drive before, but was having trouble with it because I didn't want to longe him at that young of an age. So now that he's older I'll probably teach him to longe, double longe and ground drive. :D Fun stuff to work on while he matures some more.
Im hoping to have photos and video. Until recently I was thinking that I would probably end up just taking him along for the ride since his ground manners are so unpredictable. He's getting pretty streaky now though so we might make it into the class.
ReplyDeleteIt's great you can ground drive now. I know there's a suggested order to do things but in the end horses are individuals and tell use what works. I had to do quite a bit from the saddle on bre because she was traumatized on the ground. When I was on her she couldn't bolt away from me. I just went with her then built her trust. We totally seemed to do things backwards. It worked though!