Update will come sooner or later. Tomorrow I'm going over to the place next door to be evaluated by the trainer, T. She's real nice, and I'm actually glad she makes people pass her evaluations before they come onto the property--I've had enough of idiots for one lifetime. Ace and Captain continue to do well with the new adjustments, and their SmartPaks are (hopefully!) coming tomorrow.
That's all for now, but I might have an update tomorrow!
It takes a special kind of person to forget their camera three times in one day. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but I do have stories!
So far I'm loving every minute of going to see the horses three times a day. Pretty soon it'll only be twice, as I'm slowly petering them off of lunch, but I'm thinking about riding Ace around midday so I don't have to deal with the dark. Plus then they can be ridden separately, so they're alone in the paddock for a while each day. They've become just a liiittle attached!
Anyway, I am continually more and more impressed by Ace's behavior. I was fully expecting a nervous wreck, but he is completely calm. Even the barn owner, C, says that she's really enjoying my two boys because they're totally laid back and hardly make a peep. At feeding time they get pretty rowdy, but I think that's normal.
So tonight my sister didn't want to go out, so I left early and headed out there to ride. I was originally only going to ride Ace in the big round pen on site, but I felt a little stupid so I took him out for a ride up the driveway. Captain was a bit beside himself at being left alone in the paddock, and every time he saw Ace he whinnied (and for such a big boy, his whinny is quite cute and girly). I thought that was going to upset Ace, but nope, he walked on like a pro. I rode him up to the gate with no problem, and then figured I might as well take a ride up the road. I pressed the button with my foot to open the gate, and out we went! He was so awesome. His head was up and he was alert, but he didn't spook, even when the Gator at the fancy schmancy place next door revved up and drove off pulling a rattling cart.
I'm pleased as punch with how he's acting, to say the least. I'm so relieved that I can actually take him places and not worry about him having a cow. Captain's also having fun at the new place, and enjoys having a blankie on again. Like I said above, I forgot my camera all three times I went out today, but I'll hopefully remember it tomorrow morning when I go to feed and clean!
Sunday was the big day, and I got up suuuper early to make sure Ace was nice and relaxed for the hour plus trailer ride. I was very anxious about a lot of things regarding him, not only the trailer loading but the trip itself, and how he would react to a new atmosphere after almost four years of being at the ranch.
Guess what?? He was a STAR! It took about fifteen minutes to load him up behind Captain, and he dove into the hay bag and let me clip the bungie-tie onto him. He was busy munching so he didn't really notice when I did the buttrope and closed the door. Both he and Captain were outfitted with Kensington booties, flymasks, and their 1200D sheets, but I was still terrified. Last weekend I loaded Ace up in our trailer and he stayed in, where as before he would back himself out in about ten milliseconds. I tried something new though, in that the food was ONLY in the trailer and every time he backed out, I immediately said "load up!" in a firm voice and clucked. He seemed to get the message last Saturday, as he did on Sunday. I'm very impressed that Ace will now walk right in with his front feet, and will go as far as having his hind legs touching the bumper of the trailer, though he needs a little extra encouragement (in the form of grain) to come all the way in.
Captain loooves his trailer and even gets mad when he sees it and he can't go in. Needless to say, I was completely worry-free about his trip, because I know he's in hog heaven when he's in there stuffing his face. It was the opposite with Ace, because I was imagining scrambling and trailer rocking and pulling back and rearing and cracking his head open on the roof... Well, to my very pleasant surprise, none of that happened! They were quiet as lambs the whole way down. I didn't hear a peep from Ace at all. He was gently rocking the trailer when we were stuck at a long traffic light, but I think that was the way, way, lesser of many evils.
We arrived a little later than expected, just because my mom and I both firmly believe in not going too fast while trailering (I think the fastest we went was 45, LOL). Anyway, we pulled up to the place and parked, and I cracked open the back door and unhooked Ace before I had my mom undo the buttrope. I wasn't sure how he'd unload after an hour plus trip, in a new environment with new smells, but he slowly backed out like a pro and looked around with his ears perked. Um, what?? Everyone was expecting an explosion out of him and he sits there and LOOKS AROUND. I was so proud of him right then it almost killed me. Captain couldn't care less about where the hell he is as long as he's not roomies with Jack the Ripper, so I think that might've helped, but still.
I'll update with pictures tomorrow, and to let you know how Ace has been doing during our rides (take a wild guess, I know I'm surprised!). We'll be going next door on Thursday-ish to the facility with a beautiful indoor ring, fully set up all-weather jumping arena, and mock XC course, so we can actually get a work out in rather than riding up and down the driveway. Tomorrow I think I'll take a trip down the road, since it's one of those quiet country streets that sees maybe ten cars a day.
I'll have a post up for y'all tomorrow, and if not please bug me until I do, you have my permission!
So, I forgot to do Ghost it Forward, but it's past Halloween so the fun is kind of sucked out of it. But, instead of doing that meme, I was kind of reminded about something I've been wanting to do for a while by the mastermind behind Now THAT'S a Trot! When she tagged me she said I'd restored her faith in Western Pleasure, and I would love to do that for everyone. It's not an easy thing to restore your faith in it, but I love the ideals for pleasure. If you know the sport like I do, it's obvious that judges DO go by the registry standard. But, if you've got a class full of four-beating peanut rollers, does no one win? No, there has to be a winner in every class (unless the judge is like Cookie who judged all of my 4-H shows and told us we all sucked so there was no winner). Unfortunately, those four-beating peanut rollers have set a bad standard for my discipline of choice, and the horses that are actually good at what they do are branded as "icky" by default.
The video you see above has some awesome example horses who kick ass in the show pen. Are they "icky"? I certainly don't think so. I think that THEY should be the standard for western pleasure, not four-beating peanut rollers. I know, I know. Right now these horses are the exception rather than the norm, and that stinks. But, they win a hell of a lot more than four-beating peanut rollers, and I can contest to that.
One Hot Krymsun can also contest to that. If you don't know who he is, you have been living under a rock. He's a three time AQHA World champion, four time AQHA Congress champion, and has life time earnings of over $65,000. While I don't support the riding of two year olds at all, you can see that this horse is a beautiful natural mover that exemplifies the western pleasure standard set in the AQHA and APHA rulebook. He is also AQHA's leading sire, so from that I'd reckon that people in the pleasure industry do want to recreate that standard.
When I first learned to ride, I got dressage lessons. For over three years I learned to ride without any hands, and it stuck with me. Even when we had to downgrade to western giddy-up lessons and get something less expensive, I really only used my hands to reinforce my whoa or downward transition, and to steer. When you watch people in every discipline in the warm-up ring or at home, about 80% of them have their hands in their face or are stuffing their horse into a frame. I was in training with a very popular Northern California AQHA trainer for a long time as well. She told me that good movement starts from the withers back, and that you can't ride a horse's head and neck. That philosophy has been the basis for my riding techniques since I first heard her say it. Since then I've been successful WITH my western pleasure horses in dressage, jumping (at rated hunter shows), lower-level eventing, western riding, and drill team, among many other things. While I don't have the money to show big time APHA or AQHA, we do pretty well at our local shows, and I've been to the Gold N Grand and done well there. I'm sure many others have the same story as I do, as well. When a horse is a true athlete there are no limits on what they can do.
My question is simple: is it really western pleasure that's so horrible? Take a good, hard look at your discipline of choice. There has to be someone whose methods you don't agree with, and whose horses are not natural or relaxed movers. Well, I'm telling you this. The top dogs in the western pleasure industry (like One Hot Krymsun, or this horse, who I absolutely love) probably think that four-beating peanut rollers are "icky" too. So, next time you watch a western pleasure horse, take off the predispositions to this discipline that you may have worn for years. Truly watch the horse, and ask yourself if he looks like a pleasure to ride, with true gaits, impulsion, and a relaxed, kind expression. If you answer yes, than that is a western pleasure horse that fits the description in the rulebooks. A horse should be judged by that, and not by what discipline they do, for just as with breeds, there are exceptional representatives and some not so good. I ask you to remember this with every discipline, also, not just mine.
There are always going to be bad seeds in every equine sport. Please don't let the ones in mine bias you to the horses who are awesome at what they do.
What do you think of when you imagine a western rider? If spurring, yanking, and a general disregard to a horse's movement came to mind, you're mostly right. But is this riding method due to cruelty, or ineducation? Who's riding like this because "trainer said," and who's doing it because they want to?
When I first learned to ride, I got dressage lessons. For over three years I learned to ride without any hands, and it stuck with me. Even when we had to downgrade to western giddy-up lessons and get something less expensive, I really only used my hands to reinforce my whoa or downward transition, and to steer. When you watch people in every discipline in the warm-up ring or at home, about 80% of them have their hands in their face or are stuffing their horse into a frame. I was in training with a very popular Northern California AQHA trainer for a long time as well. She told me that good movement starts from the withers back, and that you can't ride a horse's head and neck. That philosophy has been the basis for my riding techniques since I first heard her say it. Since then I've been successful WITH my western pleasure horses in dressage, jumping (at rated hunter shows), lower-level eventing, western riding, and drill team, among many other things. 
While I don't have the money to show big time APHA or AQHA, we do pretty well at our local shows, and I've been to the Gold N Grand and done well there. I'm sure many others have the same story as I do, as well. When a horse is a true athlete there are no limits on what they can do.
