Pics!

Dozing in the morning sunshine

In the winter rain- black isn't he?

Surprised!? i woke him up lol

Almost in his summer coat! you can see his nose still has yet to shed-

Last summer, Me and my Prince!

First Ride In Six - Seven Weeks!

Well, as you can see by the title i went riding.. it was a Wednesday afternoon after RDA.

I basically just groomed Prince and took him across the river and tacked him up.. and then let him loose on the end of my twenty-two foot line, since he hasn't had the saddle on for so long he showed Victor (grandson of the people whom i'm staying with) how bad he really was! he bucked better then any bucking bronco i've ever seen. so to distract him i made him jump my wood jumps.
  A couple of days ago i fixed them up so they were higher then normal, and stacked to big drums on their ends on the highest end of the jump.
  Well after a couple of crazy gallops, spins, and wild jumping. He calmed down and started to think again. this time i asked him to canter over this really high piece( where the drum was standing on its end) and he just went too fast.
  -just to let you know i've being trying to get him to jump the drum standing on its end for a couple of months now-
  Anyways just in case he felt like he couldn't do it i had stacked one jump up to almost the same hight. it was about a foot shorter (?) then the drum.
  So he jumped the smaller jump! hooray!
  After that he was tired and was sweated up (it was quite hot) so i thought -what the hang? what am i waiting for?- and jumped on him and started walking him around. It only took one loop of the paddock before i trotted him. WOO HOO! great to be back on him!
  To tell you blog readers the truth i have been a bit afraid to get on him. dunno why.

Oh yes! i've made a video of pictures of prince and i'm gonna load it on to youtube.. hopefully it loads all right because this  is the first one i've ever done! i'll put the link on here when its loaded..

Special Moment! Sunday's Exercise

Ohhh sorry people! i know its been, what two weeks? since i last wrote in here.
   there is sooo much to catch up on! on sunday i finally had enough time to go and do something with Prince. I've been trying for about six weeks to do something!
  i decided to just do whatever comes to mind. so i went out there and brought him in,  and i tied him to the hot wired fence (don't worry! its off!), and then i decided to test him. i wanted to see how long he would stand still. so i walked over to his eletric fence and started bringing the back closer up to the main place where is shift him over. all the while i was watching him out of the corner of my eye. he stood still just watching me, and then he stuck his head down and started to eat the short dead grass around his feet. he used to paw at the ground and get "stuck" in his rope so i would have to come and "rescue" him.
  well so far off to a good start. after shifting the fence i went back and groomed his beautiful almost summer coat (yes, i'm working on the photos!) which has almost gone all black, his belly, some of his legs and nose still has yet to shed. His head came down to the ground but he didn't eat (yay!). once i had finished groom i hooked him up to my twenty-two foot line and backed him out.
  just before i tell you what happened, i've been working on the trotting poles and those raised ones (whatever they are called!) with him, as its been about three years since we last did them, and he has been banging his feet on them (careless horse!) but last time i did it, we almost had none, he just banged his feet on one.
  this week he wanted to jump all five in a row! i had to ask him to slow down and walk them, which he did banging his feet on all of them save one. i have this rule, if you can't do it at a walk don't do it at a trot!
 so i made him go over about three times, but by the third he was bored and he decided to keep himself busy but trotting (ugh, but i let him do it to see what would happen) and sure enough - bonk! bonk! bonk!- you get the point! only he knocked them all crooked, so i straightened them up and let him go again, he bonked them again, then THEN he trotted over all over them without hitting a single one!
 So i stopped him and gave him a treat. i looked around and there was this small fallen pine. Now Prince can jump any bush, tree, branch without any fear but give him poles and drums and he worries.
  i had made it higher then anything he had ever jumped. i sent him over it, and he jumped the side of it first try, but he wasn't thinking about what he was doing, so i asked him again and again, and he did it without fear or rushing it.
   he had done a bit of galloping around when i asked him to go over the tree (from not enough exercise and from too many weeks in the paddock) so he had worked up a sweat, so i took him down to the river and i plunged in. i suddenly got this idea. i know he doesn't mind water, but to what point? and how much does he trust me? so i walked all over the place with him following on a long lead (he was right behind me) and this gave him the chance to pick his own footing, but he followed right behind me all the way through some really rough big rocks (scraped his feet) and down to the deep fast rushing piece by the dam. he didn't falter at all.  i know now that he trusts me very much (horses have no depth perception) and that water was no issue. Great!
  i brought him back and tied him up and started working on his feet, i did them about one month ago and there was an inch more on the back feet, but half an inch on the front. Also last time i did his front feet i blotched them up. So i fixed the first one and stood up, First i wondered why my back didn't hurt (as prince leans) , then i clicked he hadn't leaned at all! so i walked over the other side and did the other foot. Nothing. back feet? nothing. WOO HOO! i've been working on this for months!
  Then i stood on a my grooming bucket to work on his bump on his back (caused by a saddle injury before i had him), and changed my mind and decided to lean on him. (should i mention i had no shoes on and no helmet? this was BIG for me!) i leaned on his shoulder and swung my leg over and let it rest on his bum (last time i did this he jumped and gave me a fright) but he just stood there, head lowered and body relaxed. so i just lay there, feeling venerable and nervous. but i knew if he trusted me, i should start trusting him. i lay there for what seemed ages then i felt the moment go, so i took my leg off and stood there on the bucket feeling like i just won a million dollars.
  i decided to finish off with something i had never done before. i got my savvy string (a thin string about five feet in length) and dropped it over his neck and i held the two ends in my hand very lightly and walked to the electric fence.
  a couple of days ago he had gone thorugh the fence, my fault entirely because he was about to jump the tape that had dropped to the ground just as i pulled it tight. he couldn't clear it and got it wrapped around his front legs and he bolted (he got a zap from it about a week ago) thinking that it was on. i counted as he ran, and it took him about fifteen seconds to realize it was off and get out of it. but he (in that time) got it wrapped around three trees, and stewed it all over the paddock across the river. The fence by the way was off, and i was shifting him over.
   now as we reached the fence he got to two metres up to it and i could feel him slowing down, so i asked with my body 'please for me, come forwards' he did, and he made it to one metre, but you could see he was worried that the fence out 'get' him. i let go of the savvy string and opened the fence and lead him in and turned him around and hooked the fence back up again and turned around to see him still stand where i left him. so i gave him a huggle and a kiss (my Mr Kisses lol) and let him go.

P.S if you want an awesome shedding tool, try an hacksaw blade! i got a slighty used one and it works a treat!  

This Interesting Week

Well its been an interesting week. Last Thursday i was watching one of my level two Parelli disks, and one of the tasks was to spend twenty minutes a day sitting with your horse. Basically you just pull up a bucket/chair or a stump like i did and you sit on it. After watching that i got all enthused, and ran out to do it. When i came up to the paddock, prince was dozing so i rattled the hot wired spring gate (i turned the fence off- don't worry!) and his head came flying up and his ears pricked up so high i thought they might have been held up with a bit of string.

   When i reached the paddock i jumped over the fence and walked over to the pile of wood and picked out a small stump (all the while prince was following me asking “what are you doing mum?”) and sat on it. Instantly his ears drooped (as though i pushed a button) and he relaxed his hind leg. He had done all this before.

 In ten minutes in he was already massaging my hat with his lips, and then he did my shoulders (very relaxing by the way! lol), and then he bit my hat and dropped it back on my head. I almost jumped up and hugged him! I had been wanting to teach him to pick my hat up off the ground if it blew off. But i hadn't had time to work on it, and here he was doing without me even asking.

   Then after that i reached down and picked up some grass and hid it and waited. Then he picked up my hat off my head again and dropped it on the ground. I gave him the grass. What a good boy!

    Suddenly it started to rain, and along with the wind i was getting cold. I felt prince move and i stayed really still. He moved so his butt was to the wind, then he walked up to me so i was facing his chest, then he moved his head over mine, and carefully put my head in the hollow of his throat! He was protecting me from the rain! When the rain stopped he carefully moved away and stood almost over me.

I have only seen mares do that to a foal! He thought me as one of his herd, which is really great.

-- Friday last week---

i had the day off so i brushed prince and decided that his paddock had no grass. Time to shift him over.

  I had him in the front paddock a little while ago, and that is like knee deep now. But i wanted to give that a rest. So the next option was across the river. 

Only about two days ago it was raging, and very high, so i walked across the swing bridge to see the level. 
   It looked good. It was very clear so that meant it was cold. No kidding. When i walked prince across the river, in the first two minutes in there my legs went numb. Brrr!- in the winter time it was warmer!-

  I managed to convince prince it was alright and i dragged him across, and then up the bank. He wanted to stop and eat some grass, but i asked him to trot and we trotted across to his new paddock, then once in there proceeded to roll! Lol and then sat up like a dog sitting!

Guy Fawkes

Did anybody out there have trouble with their horses? On Guy Fawkes night i gave prince some Rescue Remedy just to keep him calm, because i didn't want him panicking. I know he doesn't like gun shots so i was hoping he would be all right. In Kaponga it was kinda raining, so we only let off a few (we still have heaps left that we are hoping to explode sometime soon), and every time one loud one went off i worried about prince. Afterwards i went across the river and checked on him. He was fine, just hyped up. He wasn't scared or anything just wanting to go for a canter.

  The next night i didn't give him anything and we let a few loud ones off. I thought i better check him afterwards and he was scared. He was running around his paddock with his eyes huge! I walked up to him to rub him to calm him down and he wasn't thinking so he nearly ran me over. I was saved by the fact i waved my arms at him to stop. Which he did. He just wouldn't stand still. So i went into the shed and made up his feed and stuck some more Rescue Remedy in it to calm him down.

After that he was fine. Weird horse!

First Snow and Second Snow in Taranaki

First Snow- Prince learnt to dig for his grass

He got tired, so i gave him some hay to keep him warm

Mt Taranaki - first snow

second snow- prince digging in what used to be long knee deep grass

the snow was soo thick it stuck to the fence wires!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

It's been four weeks since i last rode Prince. Surprisenly he has been remarkable calm, until i shift him over, and then he comes tearing up to the fence where i've shifted him over. He bucks a couple of times as if to say “Yippee! Grass!”

i came out this morning only to find him dozing in the sun. I started to laugh when i saw his ears, they were drooped sideways. His ears shot straight up when he heard me, and he started to dance on his tiptoes as he does when he knows something interesting is gonna happen. Like me shifting him over, or giving him a massage. He LOVES those lol.

Last week i trimmed princes feet, and they look alright execpt for one foot- i munted it, took to much toe off.. ooops! But he isn't sore, so maybe i can trim them shorter then i normally do. I'll have to see.

Its been so warm lately, its awesome! I'm hoping its still sunny in Kaponga when i get home so i can clean out Princes paddock. Its been so hot that two people i know got sunburnt! Both really bad, unfortantly i didn't get anything, not even a tan!

Prince is shedding heaps, his black coat is coming through the ginger/brown winter coat. The other day i noticed his tail has been getting a bit thin, i'll have to stop brushing it.

Oh yes! A really good spray to get the knots out of horses manes and tails is silicone spray- just the stuff you get from car shops. I personally like Silicone Star as mine because its not too oily.

Well I hope to go riding this Wednesday after RDA. Fingers crossed.

Horses!

Well, i had a whole page full of info and stuff that has happened this week, but i can't find it! grr! so i'll have to see if i can find anything from my horrible memory lol.
  Yesterday Prince got moved to a whole new piece of grass, and he decided that the grass was greener under the electric fence instead of on his side of the fence (it was way better on his side of the fence), so he proceeded to eat all the grass under the hot wire first and then start on the stuff on his side. Crazy horse!
  i was on one side of his wooden fence (it had an electric fence going across it to stop him pushing on it and stopping him getting injured- as it was rotten) digging up a garden.
  i picked some grass off the clumps of grass that i had dug up (no dirt on it) and held it out over the fence to him. he stopped eating under the electric fence and told me (with very obvious face expressions) that "I can't reach it mum!" his feet were about two feet away from my hot wire and his nose was one long foot away from from my hand. We were stretched out to full limits (i wish somebody took a pic!). in the end i threw it to him which he promtly ignored. Toad!
  i haven't been able to ride him for almost three weeks now so he is pinging off the paddock fences- dying to get out for a run.
  Being a Kaimanawa you would think that he wouldn't like to do much exerise. huh! its so not true! Prince loves to move ( is and beautiful mover by the way) and keep himself fit. which at the moment i am stopping him because he had lost so much weight (if he looses a tiny bit more his ribs will be showing- not good!), so he is unfit. poor boy!
  the weather is weird around Kaponga. It has been overcast, sunny, raining, thunderstorms,  and overcast again. strange aye? i just wish it was summer!
 

Saturdays Ride

Saturday 24-9-11

Today I finally had a sunny day.. well half of the day at least. But thats all you need for a ride. And that's what I did. I rode.

First because Prince hasn't being exercised in ages I took him down the back and backed him up on the end of my twenty-two foot line thinking- oh yep I'll just stand him there for a bit. Nope! He spun on his hind legs and fired off at a full gallop (I was still holding the loose end which I just let go- there was no way I was going to get rope burn for this!) straight up the hill down the little race (and me thinking oh no! There is no gates shut! What if he goes out on the road!) out to the second-to-the-front paddock. I dashed up there hoping and praying that he hadn't gone on the road only to find him eating grass by the trampoline. Arg!

I caught him and then walked him back down the hill (shutting some gates this time!) and then I backed him up and this time was prepared when he bolted again.

I braced my legs and arms, and to my surprise (I forget how flexible he is) his head snapped around and his feet followed. At this point he had come to the wooden blocks that was almost a bouncer (to much space between it to be a proper one) so he had to do half a stride and then jump, two strides and another half and jump.

This is really really good to do before you ride, especially if they are hyper! It really takes the stuffing out of them. Of course to keep him from being bored I changed it a bit.

The jumps were positioned at ten to five. One jump on the big hand and one on the small. So on all the empty space on the other side (about halfway), I asked him to change to directions. When you are going full blast (extremely fast canter) around a twenty foot circle this is really hard on your horse unless you've done it before at a walk, trot, and slow canter. With the jump combination he was busy, busy, busy! After about four minutes of this I stopped him and gave him a rough rub and a treat. He was blowing a bit. Not much. So I took him around to the back and asked him to side pass about, oh, the whole fence line. He did half of this at a canter (yay! Cantering side pass!), and the other half and a walk.

He did that with a bit more sense then the jumps. So then I asked him to go between the fence and me and then disengage (cross his hind legs over and keep his front feet still). I noticed he moved his front feet and didn't cross his legs. Hmm. So I held his head steady and looked sideways at his butt (he could see what I was looking at from the side of his head) and he disengaged but still didn't cross his legs. So I picked up my carrot stick and tapped his butt. That worked.

Then to relax him I rubbed with the the carrot stick and let him eat (this relaxes him- just the type of horse he is).

I noticed at the beginning he had bucked a lot (I had the saddle on him). So to test whether he was ready to go riding I send him out to do a walk, trot, canter, and gallop on the end of the line. Nothing. So far so great!

I lead him back up to the house and tied him up. It was only then I noticed he was quite hot. Never mind, what I was going to do out riding would cool him down.

I mounted up from the ground (I've only just started this because of his weight- he was too fat!- and it made it too hard to get on him), and rode him down the drive.

When I turned him on to the roadside I just let him stand there, for a few minutes, and then asked him to go.

A few meters from our house I realized there was horses coming up. So I jumped off ( I wasn't going to risk me getting chucked off because of a few horses he wanted to meet!). I walked him past (he kept looking longingly towards their paddock) and I noticed the chestnut Thoroughbred mare was in foal! (Goody! I thought)Also she had a half Arab half Thoroughbred paddock mate near her. There was also a yearling foal in there. Not sure what mare she belong to.

Once past them I mounted up only to have a truck come down the road. I decided to stay on and see what he would do. He did nothing! So that was good.

However I had to keep pushing him him to walk, because he had to stop and look at the holes in the hedge! Finally I got sick of him and just turned him around and mostly trotted him home. That was a bit scary because he used his big huge high stepping trot and to post to that you had to do this- post-post, sit, post-post, sit (instead of post sit post sit-) Very different! For the post-post bit there was practically no touching the seat. Your butt would only brush the seat then bounce back up again.

So I found that I could keep him under control and trot him a lot! Great for confidence!

Tuesday 20th of September

What an awful week! it has been raining almost every day of the week, and prince who has made the most of it has been tearing up his already muddy paddock. so finally i got sick of the mess and he had run out of grass, so i shifted him to the front paddock, where he promptly rolled five times.
  This morning i came out to find him trotting around and around his paddock (exerising!) so i opened up a fresh strip of grass and he dived in without even saying "Thanks!" piggy!
   i took some pics of him in the new grass with my high speed sequince (or however you spell that lol) focus and got some neat pics (last week in the mud!)
  here they are!

Food? pleeasse??

oops! there is a fence, quick where's the brakes!?

fresh grass in his new paddock

front paddock, prince all filthy!

Last Week

Tuesday, September 13^th 2011-

So! spring started off beautifully here in the 'Naki, almost two weeks of sunshine! But pity that rain came along and ruined it. Prince's paddock is muddy and he is up to his fetlock joints in mud! But not only that because of the fine weather he has started shedding his long thick guard hairs, so the rain and the wind combination was bad! I found him this morning dancing around the paddock almost yelling to me “Hurry up mum! Hurry up! I'm cold and starving!” well he was, but boy! he didn't have to yell.

In his excitement he kicked me. Well ok! he nicked me on the back of my knee, and left me with a big blotch of mud there, and nothing else thank goodness. I got back from Wanguni late last night, too late to feed him so i got Pat to do it. I set up his feed and told her to just grab the last massive slab off of one of my hay bales.

This morning as i was walking up the drive i saw the fence was down around one of Pats trees (and since i know my horse loves eating trees) i started to panic a bit because she really didn't want that tree to get eaten. So i speed walked up the drive and got there and opened the gate and fed Princie boy, turned the fence back on and then looked at the tree (i had to get him outta my hair ya know) it turned out to be a big branch that had fallen over it(Much to my relief)! So i just hauled it off and straightened up the fence and then gave him a wet hug and kiss (well, he was wet not me!) and then fled back inside to get ready for course.

Introduction

For all of you people who don't know me, my name is Grace, and that is all you should know because this is my horse's blog not mine. However i am his writer so if i don't get things right i might be fired (but unfortunately for him I'm the only writer he has :-D).

I'll have to tell you the basics of things. I'll try not to give you to many details. You know being a wannabe writer and all i best not let slip that i have fallen from three different horses four times and have zero confidence in myself. Well that is not entirely true, i have more now thanks to Prince.

The first fall i had was off my first horse Cinders who used to bolt for home, and then the next day was no good to ride because she was to sore from her arthritis, in her back, by the way did i mention that i fell off on a metal track and landed on my head? Yeah well that hurts!

My second fall was off a fast young horse called Molly, who cantered on the wrong lead (leg for you none horsey people) and joined with the saddle slipping i fell off, landing and rolling in a nice soft patch of long grass. Yay!

By this time i had lost just about all confidence and trust for horses and i refused to go any faster then a walk.

However much to my disgust my next fall was off my horse. The horse i had only just got and had owned him for about six months. He had grass staggers really bad, he could even stand straight while i was picking out his feet. His feet would shake while i was doing them. Also he was badly dehydrated, because he did not like drinking from the plastic trough because it tasted like plastic (i don't blame him).

I tried telling my mum (who had never seen a grass staggered horse despite having owned horses for twenty years) that he was sick. She told me to -just get on and ride him, so i did.

When he saw the other horses in the paddock eating a new strip of fresh grass his befuddled mind told him that he was supposed to be in there and stuff riding. He threw me off with this nasty combination- buck, rear, buck, rear. I landed on my shoulder and rolled!

After that i refused to get back on him. I just started doing heaps of groundwork. About a year later i was slowly starting to ride again (its not like the movies where you just get on and whola! you get all your confidence back and you can do anything!) nope i was just walking around the paddock and doing short little rides around a farm.

Sadly my third fall was while i was feeling kinda confident about riding. He got a fright from a herd of cows running out from behind a row of trees, and a dock brushing him under the belly. His mind reverted back to wild horse instincts and he thought, i must get this tiger off my back or its going to kill me! He reared and spun around on his hind legs and then put his head between his front legs and just bucked and bucked. I had lost my stirrups and my reins and i was holding on like a bucking bronc rider. One handed on the saddle. But lastly he spun again and the saddle slipped and i fell off. Pity, because i landed on my head. AGAIN!

So that's brought you up to date on my confidence and my falls.

Right'o. Lately my confidence has gotten good enough for me to ride him again now that i ride by myself ( nobody to worry about except for my horse), and i have been doing trotting and trying to get him to side pass (go sideways), only he does it when i don't think about doing it.

The trotting we have being doing is around the tramp in the paddock. Yes, we have a trampoline in the paddock! Unfortunately its been squashing my grass, so i'm going to have to road ride again.

Beginning Words

I suppose I'm a bit slack. I should be writing a big long welcome letter, and everything. I had one but I left my USB stick at home. Pity!
   So next time I'm on here hopefully I'll have the introduction. Also just to let you know, i'm still working on my heading and a few other things so thanks for being patient. Next week on tuesday i'll have most things up and going.
  I had to write something because this blog looked boring.. Sorry!lol