training – Page 4 – My Ex Racers

10Apr 2014 by myexracer

Paddock fail

[caption id="attachment_1163" align="alignleft" width="250"] I might change her name Cthulhu[/caption] Tried to ride Circe in the small paddock today. Id call it a fail from the moment i tried to mount and my foot slid out of the stirrup on a truly epic mounting fail until she baby reared at me when I was on the ground walking her back in to the barn. We only got around the paddock once then her antics made it too risky for me to keep on keeping on so i dismounted. I made her stand in the cross ties while i mucked stalls. There was no way in hell was going to reward her with going back to the herd, or standing in her stall eating after she was a total brat. In…

24Feb 2014 by myexracer

Baby Besos

Life with Jezebel, Training

I woke up with a start at 3am and was up almost all night. The weekend had been rough on me. It was predicted to be a sunny and warm 55 degrees on Sat and i was finally going to be able to ride both my horses. I was pretty excited about it. I got to the barn and both my horses sheets had been removed for unknown reasons and they were covered in the thick wet deep mud that covers their field right now. Other horses in their field had their sheets on which added to my utter and complete anger over the situation. My one day to ride in two weeks 20 days had turned into a day to give both my horses baths. I ended up being…

13Feb 2014 by myexracer

Time will tell

Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training

[caption id="attachment_943" align="alignleft" width="300"] Hi mom![/caption] It was finally unfrozen enough to ride! I had been going down and hanging out with the girls but riding was kinda not an option. I made arrangements for Michelle to come work with them both. Nobody had been on Jezebel since i got tossed though i had lunged her to make sure she was sound. The last time, she looked stiff in the right hind and left neck but not really off just stiff. When I got out to the field i was greeted by a happy Circe and Jez with her blanker half off making a fashion statement. Ha! I guess she didn't want to wear it. I brought them both in and they were amazingly good. Sometimes bringing in two horses…

05Feb 2014 by myexracer

Ground work day

Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training

[caption id="attachment_918" align="alignleft" width="225"] Have you met my horse "spooks-a-lot" ?[/caption] It was ground work day and by that i mean lunging. I'm still a little sore so i didn't want to ride and well riding Jezebel is on the back burner for right now aways. When i went to pull the girls from the field all of the horses were on the cow side of the field. They share the field with two beef cattle (Suzy and Jenny) there are gates separating the two areas but they are open 24/7 and they all mingle. The cows have their own run in but not today, today they horses had taken it over. All 9 of them were on the cow side invading the cows space. As i walked up i…

03Feb 2014 by myexracer

A donut without a hole is just a danish

Life with Jezebel, OTTB

[caption id="attachment_903" align="alignleft" width="300"] Tacking up on rear day[/caption] I woke up at about 2am with a start worried about Jezebel. Being sore all up and down my left side from my tail-bone to my atlas vertebrae in my neck didn't help but really it was because I kept thinking and worrying about my girl. My mind racing with what ifs. What if shes injured again, what if were in for another layup, all the hospital paddocks are full how will i get her on restricted movement of thats what i need to do, what if this rearing thing is permanent, how much is it going to cost me to fix this and on and on and on. I do worry about her and rightly so but this was just…

02Feb 2014 by myexracer

The wild ones

Barn tales, Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training

[caption id="attachment_890" align="alignleft" width="300"] Circe being good[/caption] It finally melted... the snow, it finally melted. I made plans with my trainer to ride both the girls Saturday afternoon. Sunday is our usual day but she was working down the road with a friend of mine and her horses so we switched it up. Besides it was sunny and warm and by warm i mean it was 45 degrees out. Being the first warm day in what seemed like forever and a weekend the barn was crowded. Everyone wanted to ride. 2 people were riding up the driveway, another was tacking up for the trail and the resident natural horsemanship guy at our barn had back to backs at the same time as my girls training rides. We elected to split…

06Jan 2014 by myexracer

Gooooooal!

Barn tales, Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel

This should probably be an actual page not a post. Yanno so i can look at it all the time with it starring me back in the face every time I see my site, for motivation. Not that I need a ton, im a self motivated person. I've been a freelancer for the last 12 years. When I was a fancy shmancy art director in La La land I learned right quick to hit your motherfucking deadline. Of course that means you have to manage your workload, your clients expectations and make sure you buffer in for the unexpected. Setting goals is no different. The expectations you are managing are your own, the unexpected buffers you need to build in could be injury's and changes to your time-line. This is…

05Jan 2014 by myexracer

The weather outside is frightful

Barn tales, Off Farm

Sunday is my regular day with my trainer, its the day she works with both horses, yanno providing the weather agrees. Today it did not. Everything was still, snowy, frozen and for a little added bonus we had off and on again freezing rain. Training was canceled, well try again mid week. Sunday is also the day my better half takes his riding lesson. They have an indoor so if the roads are clear class is on. The roads were clear. I like hanging out at his lessons, the last two sessions (they go on 10 week sessions) i met people i really liked and keep in touch with. One is using my trainer to work with her 11 year old daughter and the appendix she keeps at home. I…

29Dec 2013 by myexracer

I call her Besos

Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training

[caption id="attachment_650" align="alignleft" width="225"] Im ready, lets go![/caption] It was a beautiful day out today and my trainer was able to come out to work with the girls. The barn was quiet and i pulled both girls out of the field and got them ready. Jezebel was up first and did much better today. She always does better when she's busier working and I was able to ride yesterday and the weather was good so we got in a good ride together. She still takes a long time to warm up but not as long as when she had too many bad weather days off. She was looking good at the trot and didn't give Michelle to hard of a time. When it was time to canter, her upward transition…

22Dec 2013 by myexracer

Two Gross Ponies

Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training

[caption id="attachment_596" align="alignleft" width="300"] The other side of her is covered in wet sloppy mud[/caption] My trainer came out on Sat which is great cuz shes supposed to be out this morning as I write this but alas .. pouring. Though riding in the rain is certainly an option especially when the weather is warm like it is today (WTF weather gods is the 2nd day of winter and its 70 in Maryland!) The drainage in the all sand ring can be dicey when newly wet and sloppy. We elected to push the day to another. [caption id="attachment_597" align="alignright" width="300"] Yehaw! That right hind sure looks all healed[/caption] So back to yesterdays training session. Both horses got ridden, both horses improved, both horses were bad. Story of my life, bad…

Tag: training