Monday, March 28, 2016

Ollie and the Towel

A few days ago, I went to take the blankets off of Ollie and Sherman because the weather had warmed up. I set Sherman's blanket on the fence, turned around to get Ollie's light sheet (my secret to keeping him clean), turned back around, and BAM!









I quickly hurried over before he damaged Sherman's blanket, and decided to give him a towel instead. Note: I supervised him the whole entire time, and wouldn't have left him alone with the towel. 

He sniffed it....


Picked it up.....



...and....





..threw it into the air. 




*poses for camera*








After he had partially murdered the towel (a.k.a stomped on it, flung it in the air, pushed it with hos nose, bit it multiple times....)  I took it away from him. :D 

I love my boy. 

Do any of your horses play with random objects? 
~Alyssa




Saturday, March 26, 2016

Q & A Video

Hello, everyone!!

I did a quick Q and A video yesterday for my YouTube. I am never really on my YouTube and hope to get back to posting more frequently. These question's and answer's are all about Ollie. I hope you all enjoy watching!!


Thursday, March 24, 2016

Spring.....?


I am getting tired of all of the snow. For the past few weeks Colorado has been gracious to us, and we have had some really nice days. However, the snow came back yesterday, and we now have over 1ft of fresh powder.


Of course, this means that I cannot ride Ollie, or any of our horses, until it clears up again. Spring, I thought you were going to bring warmer weather! :(

Even though it still seems like Winter, the horses are acting like it is Spring. Ollie is particularly being a pest. Poor Sherman.



Sherman: "Don't touch my blanket!!"

Ollie: *trips*


Ollie: *comes over to apologize* 



Ollie: "Haha!! JK!"





Hair goals. 


Sherman: "Get away from me."

Ollie: "In your dreams!" 

Ollie: *notices Sherman's cocked leg*











He is so photogenic


Billie: "Stupid boys."


 ~Alyssa

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Bucked Off Twice

Hello, Everyone!


Ollie was pinning his ears at Knee High and splashing at the same time. :D 


I bet you are wondering about the title of this blog. Yes, I was bucked off twice today. No, I am not hurt, and yes, It was on Ollie.

I went out this afternoon with some friends of mine to a nearby trail. We were walking towards the trail when we asked for a lope. The two other horses went ahead of Ollie because I was holding him back. he didn't want to be held back, but he was tolerating it. Next thing I know I saw Ollie duck his head between his legs and.....

...I was on the ground.



The key to when a horse bucks you off is to get back on as fast as possible, and make his feet hustle. When a horse isn't broke or has holes in his training you may have to step back and evaluate why he bucked, but I know my horse well, and he is NOT ALLOWED TO BUCK.

Hopped back on. Move those feet. Hustle, hustle, hustle. Right back into a canter. flex, flex, disengage hindquarters, soften his face. Okay, ready.

We continued on our way.

I was thinking about why Ollie bucked. Horses buck for a reason, either irritation, pain, confusion, happiness, being fresh...etc. But, unless it is pain related, Ollie had no excuse whatsoever for bucking.

He improved, and so  we went over bridges, crossed water, went underneath a bridge, over logs, and trotted in sand.



Make the horse think. Put his mind to work.

Towards the end of the ride, we decided to lope/gallop some. We did, and Ollie was fantastic. I kept working with him, and he improved.

We started to gallop really fast. Ollie was galloping up to one of my friends horses, so I asked him to turn to the right. I have been working on neck reining and adding a really good "steering wheel", so when I asked him he veered to the right. Fast. at the same time, he started to hump his back and partly because of the quick turn, and because I was off balance, I came down again.

Right back on.

Hustle those feet. Lope circles, ride in a straight line, do a stop, back up ten steps, turn around and repeat.

Move Ollie, move.

We finished our ride without a problem. But I was still thinking, "why would he buck? he has been in training for a few weeks now and was perfectly fine."

I was thinking about this question as I got home.

Then it hit me.

I KNOW WHY!!

Culprit:



Let me back up a little bit.


The saddle above is one I usually use on Ollie. Sadly, it is a narrow tree saddle and Ollie is filling out to where it is starting to pinch him and no longer fits him the best. A few days ago I put him in my mom's wide tree saddle and he was much more comfortable with it. Today I was going to bring the wide tree saddle, but because it is my mom's I decided on the narrow tree, thinking it would maybe be okay.

No, it wasn't.

It was pinching him and I think after being ridden in a wide tree saddle, and then putting the narrow tree saddle back on was something he was not happy with. However, to make sure I am going to try both saddles on him tomorrow and make sure that is the problem. If so he needs a new one..and I think that it may be time to buy that Clinton Anderson saddle!


As for the trail ride, it was bunches of fun and is always more enjoyable with friends. Many thanks to Mrs. Tanya and Alex for inviting me to tag along!

Another great reason to always wear a helmet. you never know when you could come off, even if it is on your most trusted horse.



Until next time!
~Alyssa