Compliments

Yesterday Monte had a hoof trim. As our farrier was finishing I made a point of complimenting him on his work. He really has improved the angle and look of Monte's hooves over the past year. When we first got the horse, he appeared to have a bit of a "post-foot" in the back - almost straight up-and-down.

Mike's reply was, "Well, I always knew there was a good hoof in there just waiting to come out. And it helps that Monte is so well put together and has such good confirmation."

I have to admit that I felt unreasonably proud of our little horse at that moment and I swear you would'a thought Mike was complimenting me or one of my children! So silly! :)

Today we are preparing for a Pony Club clinic and rally in Wenatchee (180 miles away). I'm a little nervous about hauling that far, especially since we are taking another Pony Clubber's horse with us.

Figuring it out

Monte seems to have figured out what all those poles out in the arena during lesson time are meant for. E's instructor, Marla, set up several different jumps and he actually went over them quite nicely. Monte did have a couple of "young horse" moments, knocking over jumps completely, refusing a new set-up during the first attempt and getting squirrely enough at one point to unseat E, but overall they had a great lesson. E is becoming a stronger rider and is able to help Monte through all his little upsets.

Marla commented that he's becoming a good little jumper and that both E and Monte are doing great together. She doesn't see his size as too much of a hindrance to E at this point in time, and suggested that he might even be able to see E through her whole Pony Club experience.

I'm just happy to watch E and Monte work together. They truly have a great bond.

Riding with Pony Club

Pictures from last Sunday:

Pining for a horse

I find myself scanning the Dreamhorse and Craigslist ads very regularly now. I guess I really do want a horse. Or I at least want E to have a horse that I can ride too. I miss caring for Curly and working with him, even if I couldn't actually ride him.

Our farrier mentioned a gray mare he knew of for sale (less that $1k!) that he thought might be a good animal for us. Perhaps I'll give them a call this week.....

Talented ponies

I learned about a talented pony this weekend, Seldom Seen ridden by Lendon Gray.

Seldom Seen advanced all the way to Grand Prix level in dressage and even earned a gold medal in the Olympics. And he was only 14.2 hands!

Monte is 14.3.

But....I don't think Lendon Gray is 5'11" and they weren't trying to excel at jumping. Unfortunately for E, her height and desire to jump might be the things that force her to move onto another horse.

Which is really too bad, because Monte's turning out to be a really great little pony. If it weren't for the jumping, I'm pretty sure we'd hang on to him for a long, long time - even though you can see E's feet hanging below his belly! :)

E still hasn't committed to looking for another horse and I'm not pushing it yet. But I won't be surprised if we begin trying out new mounts by the end of summer.

D-1 Rating Accomplished

Macy, Pat Prince (the examiner for the mounted portion), E and Carla (examiner for unmounted)

Riding during the mounted portion of the rating.

Receiving her D-1 certificate.

E and Monte successfully rated for D-1 in Pony Club this afternoon. She was very relaxed about the whole examination and came away from the experience with a positive attitude. Plus we had cake! Couldn't ask for a better end to the weekend. :)

Mmmmm.....cake......

Let the shows begin...

E and Monte completed their first show of the year today. No champion ribbons but they did get a handful of red and blues. E would have earned a couple of more blues except that she still chooses to ride Monte two handed in the Western classes. Overall, they did wonderfully and enjoyed most of the day (There was one spat of tears near the beginning - nerves can be a horrible thing!) This was a great show to start the season out with. Only a small number of competitors and a nice judge who really tried to give advice on how to improve.

Coming home was a bit more, well, exciting, than we had planned, though. We were helping out a friend who is currently trailer-less and when we stopped at their place to drop them off something happened to spook their horse as he was unloading. And he took a nutty. A major one.

He began to rear and buck and pull back and unfortunately his lead rope got stuck in the tie ring and his halter held....and his little rider was stuck in the trailer with him going nuts. VERY frightening, to say the least. After the first 10 (very long) seconds or so, I was able to get in the trailer, let her out, and have E hand me a second lead rope to replace the stuck one. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The horse has a scraped up head (from rearing several times and hitting his head on the roof of the trailer) and a scrape on his back leg as well.

E took over at this point. We didn't want the horse to finish the day with a scary trailer incident, so she lead him around to calm him and then tried get him to load. Which he wouldn't do, of course. She worked with him for 30 to 45 minutes, trying to get him to see the trailer as a place of calmness - he was allowed to rest whenever he stood quietly at the trailer at first, but if he pulled away she worked him in the area surrounding the trailer. Eventually she got him to put one foot in. We called it quits then - she was tired to the bone and he was lathered up as well.

I was very proud of her.

The owner of the horse asked me what I thought about the horse. He's a nice looking animal, and I do think he is probably just fine for most people, but they are now afraid of him (this not the first negative experience they've had with him). And he knows it. The horse walks all over them (literally) and is difficult for them to control. I hated telling her that I thought he might be too much animal for them, but this afternoon convinced me that they are not safe around him because they don't know how to assert their dominance over him. I don't think he is dangerous in general, just terribly disrespectful and in need of some ground manners. I really do hope they find a solution to their problem.

Oh, and by the way, Monte just stood still during this whole spectacle. Have I mentioned what a good little man he is? :)

Tomorrow is Pony Club. E has her first rating exam. Hope all goes well.