Crunch time and greener pastures

Fair is almost here and E & Monte are not ready. There are so many skills they haven't practiced (forehand turns, haunch turns, backing, etc.) and what they have done was with Western, not English.

Another lesson with Ruben last night. They worked on cantering, stops and those turns I mentioned up there. He's starting to ask more of E, which is good. She has a habit of using direct reining rather than neck reining, plus she doesn't release soon enough when she asks for something. E gets frustrated trying to keep it all in her head. There are so many things you need to do at once when riding a horse! All of this will just take practice and time.

Sweat marks - proof of a hard workout

Curly is semi-sold. The young woman from Seattle did call and is very interested in him but doesn't have the full purchase price in hand. She asked if I would either lease him or accept payments. If she had been local I wouldn't have hesitated; it's easy to check up on your animal when he is close by. But because of the distance, I'm not comfortable with letting him go until he is fully not my responsibility. There are too many horror stories of leases gone bad. So, I gave her the option of getting her finances together while I "saved" him for her. I won't sell him to another buyer for a period of time and if she isn't able to pay in full by the end of that time period, he's back on the market. And I was very generous with the amount of time I gave her....R was happy that he's not leaving right away.

In the end, the amount she pays me might be not much more than what I'm spending to hold him....hmmmm......

We move the horses to a new boarding facility tomorrow! The new place is much closer - 7 minutes from our door to theirs. It's a full-care facility, so we won't be buying our own hay anymore (Yahoo! Glad to let go of that responsibility!), plus they take care of the daily stall cleaning for us. I know I'm weird, but I think I'm going to actually miss that part. Although the barn owner did say I was welcome to pick stalls anytime I wanted. ;-) One of the best parts of this barn is that the animals get daily turn-out. Every day. All year. In green, irrigated pastures. It'll be worth the increase in board expenses....

Curly gets to play

Actually, the title should be "R gets to play and Curly gets to work!"

Twice this week little sister R has asked to come out the barn with us so that she could learn to round pen Curly. And she's not doing too badly for an eight year old! She tells him what gait she wants, twirls the lead rope and does a decent job keeping it up until he complies. And to Curly's credit, he seems to be giving it an honest effort as well. It's not always easy to figure out just what exactly she's asking for. :-)

She has also been leading him around the barn and trail course, making him go through, over and around various obstacles. This is all very good practice for both of them.

Little sister R, showing off her new cowboy boots!
(Don't you just love the outfit??)

I asked her if she wanted to take a ride on the big boy, but she's afraid. I don't blame her, but I also think he would behave just fine. Anyway, it's nice to see her enjoying herself out at the barn and it's nice to see Curly with a job, even if it's an easy one.

Friend A showed Curly to a young woman looking for a horse yesterday. The potential buyer seemed to really like him and told A she would call me about purchase terms (leasing? payments?). R heard me talking on the phone about all of this and got REALLY upset. She's fallen for Curly now and wants to keep him. It's so hard to break your little girl's heart.....

I told her that we would find a better horse for us and that she could work with Monte until we did get that new one. She wasn't appeased with this answer; her loyalty is definitely with Curly.

But he's not sold yet...the young woman hasn't called - and quite possibly never will.

E rode Monte with a larger group of riders (her 4-H club) on Tuesday. It's been months since she's done this - and they both need to do more of it before fair! Her control of Monte slipped in this situation. She admitted to being distracted by all the other riders (it was a bit crazy at times!) and consequently, Monte had a tough time doing his job. Ruben was there and noted the things she needs to work on. This Friday's lesson might be a tough one!

Show clothes update: New jeans have been bought - 38" inseam! Also, borrowed English riding boots couldn't be found so we ended up buying some. They are nice but oh-so-expensive. Uhg! Grandma has offered to sew a riding jacket for E. She's modifying a regular pattern to look as much like a traditional jacket as she can. Yeah for grandmas who can sew! Also, we found some Western boots at Goodwill yesterday that are in almost-new condition and only slightly too large for E - and they are reddish in color, which will look so much better than her brown boots with her Western outfit (black pants, white shirt with a tiny bit of red stitching). I think she might be ready....