Thrusday, March 13th 2008

Hey!

Well, I'm kind of frustrated with myself at the moment. I had started a post about "riding" Valley, and I just attmepted to finish it, but I forgot everything I did! *tear* Anyways. I guess I'll just write about today!

When I went to catch Valley and Chloe to eat, it was kinda late, so they were on the other side of the pasture. Valley walked right up to me, and I petted her. Chloe, didn't. She just stood there. So I just stood there with my hand out. Finally, she reached her nose out, and toched my hand. So I stepped over to her, petted her, and put her halter and leadrope on. After I put Valley's halter and leadrope on, I mounted Chloe (she started walking before I was all the way on >.<) and rode towards the house. She started cantering, and that was fun. Luckily I brought my helmet. Well, I think I did.... Yeah, I did. Lol. I can't remember anything these days! I'm getting old! I'm like.... 13! OK. Sorry. Back to what I was saying...
Chloe kinda needs to work on 'stopping'. Well, it might be only cause she wasn't wearing a bridle, just a halter and lead rope, but I don't' know. I finally got her to slow down before we hit tree branches, lol. Well, since Chloe had cantered across the pasture, I dismounted, and walked her in some circles. Valley followed almost the whole time.

On the way up to the shed, I worked on Valley's stopping. Cause when I "rode" her the other day, she didn't get what 'whoa' and 'pulling gently on the lead rope' meant. She does pretty good on stopping when I'm not sitting on her.

While Valley was eating, I groomed her as usual. As I've said before (I think I did anyways), I haven't been picking Valley's hind feet out yet. She is so good at having her front hooves picked up, and picked out. Well, today, I took Chloe's lead rope, and wrapped it around (only once of course) her right hind legs. I pulled a little bit on the rope, and clicked my tongue. Valley picked up her hoof, and sort of kind of kicked a LITTLE bit. But she quickly stopped, and held her foot still for a few seconds. I let her foot down (I wasn't holding it with my hands in case she kicked me, but with the rope) for a few seconds. Then I did the same thing again, and she did better. After I did her front left leg, I did the same thing I did to her right hind leg, to her left hind leg. She didn't do as good as the she did with the other hind leg, but she still did OK.

Then, I took her down to eat grass as normal. I sat on her as usual (with helmet on). She walked around a little bit with me on her, looking for better grass. She did great, since I wasn't directing her. Lol. I tried to get her to turn, so she wouldn't eat some grass I didn't know if was O.K. for her to eat or not. But she just kinda flexed instead. So I jumped off, and put her away. Before I put her away, I did sorta kind (I'm not sure how to do it, but I just did the best I knew how from reading the horse series 'Heartland'. Heartland is an AWESOME series!!!) T-touch. Which is sort of like a massage, that helps horses to relax. I gotta go to the library and check that book out about it. Anyways, she enjoyed it -- I think. Then I put her away. She tried to turn around and go back out, but I stopped her.

This afternoon, I caught Valley, took her to the shed, tied her up, and started to brush her. She was REALLY muddy, and her belly was wet. I brushed her with four different brushes (for the body), and a face brush. I picked out her front hooves, and combed her mane out which looked beautiful afterwards. She was kind of acting bad while being tied up, so I untied her to brush her. One of these days, I got to get her used to being tied up! Bad me!

Then I took her down to graze some, and I sat on her (with the helmet). After a few minutes, I took her over to the trampolines to get used to them (she's kind of scared of them). She didn't freak out or anything, so after she sniffed it, I put her away. She didn't canter or gallop away as usual. I guess cause I didn't do any 'work work' with her.

Well, it's past my bed time, so I'll post A.S.A.P!

Love,
Sarah