Akhal-Teke; Meeting Attley

 In the spirit of Halloween….

 

May I introduce you to, Sophie.. The barn “Grain Monster.”

She looks so cute and harmless…. Then…….

I don’t have any pictures, unfortunately, but today I met a 2y/o buckskin Akhal-Teke named Attley.  My brothers girlfriend owns him, lucky!  =D

Sabrina said she just measured him and he stands at 15.3hh right now, at two!  I’m used to being around 14hh 2y/o QH’s at the barn, so it was sure a site to see this leggy creature.  He reminds me a lot of Ink, curious, mouthy; picking everything up for a sample, and playful.  Sabrina said both his parents are jumpers, and his sire was huge, well over 16hh.  Attley is a gorgeous horse, and just by looking at him you could tell he’s special.  I would love to have him as a project horse, or even as my own hehe =D.  We’ll see if Sabrina will be willing to sell him later on..  He can’t be ridden for a few more years, so there is plenty of time for lots of ground work.  Sabrina had him out in the round pen working with a big blue tarp, which he had no problem with. 

I’m going to go check on him when my family and Sabrina and Kirk (my older brother) go out of town for a wedding.  Yay, absolutely!

I had to hurry when I went to see the horses and give them their grain.  I needed to get home to get ready for my Equine Nutrition class tonight.  I put Errika on the hot walker, and walked back to Ink.  Just to grab his grain bucket and scurry back up to the barn.  But I did manage to throw a few kisses, pats, and hugs in there!  He walked right up to me, and put his head at my chest, it was the cutest thing.  I wanted to stay and hang out with him until dark, but I couldn’t =(. 

Needless to say I hurried back up, whipped the grain together, put Errika’s blanket back on and then put her away, and left. 

I plan on riding tomorrow, just working on the same collection stuff with Ink, but I also feel like just hanging out with him and maybe fit in a join-up before and then after.  I have decided that, based on common sense and what I have learned at class, I am just going to do light work, the collection, for this next month to help him continue to gain weight and get this solid.  He’ll probably get bored so I’ll have to mix it up quite a bit. 

Field Schooling & First Join-Up

Me and Ink went back out in the field today to work on going on collection.  It was an absolute success just like yesterday.  =)  I was very proud of him.  So instead of boring you with all the details, which aren’t many anyway, I will share with you the pictures from today.  Please excuse my horrid position and leg. 

Then….

Matt and I took him into the round pen after I un-tacked him, because I wanted to try free lunging him for the first time in the round pen.  He totally got it, and was going around, even picking up the canter quickly after the verbal “canter”, kiss, and then whip ques!  Ink was awesome, such a smart horse, I didn’t know he knew all those things that well. 

It quickly turned into a join-up.  I just wanted to try it, so Matt left the round pen.  We did a successful join-up! 

Then hanging out together, and giving loves =)

 

Green Grass Jubilee

Today was super.  I have to say my favorite days are Sundays spent with the horses.  The day was long and relaxing, and the sun was out and bright.  During the earlier part of the afternoon it was warm, and when I went out to get Ink, he was drenched in sweat.  Matt, on accident, completely ripped Ink’s light cotton sheet that I put on him during the warmer days and not so cold nights.  I also use it on really cold nights underneath the thicker blanket.  But it’s no more =[.  Beyond repairable.  

Anyway, lets get back to the story shall we?  I brought him up and was un-decided as to what to do, a bath or let him dry then groom him?  Matt brought out Errika and Klint came and joined us on the grassy area by the hot walker.

 It was quite fun =).  Matt laid by Errika as she grazed and occasionally took a break to blow warm air on him and engage it was seemed like a non-verbal form of a conversation.  Klint held Ink (this all while I had to take photos instead of join in!) and he kept his head down munching away without a care in the world. 

Silly Matt. 

I was experimenting with the camera settings, that’s one example of what I was trying. ^

Me and Errika, finally our turn!

The four of us! 

Errika’s #1, and she totally approves =D

More of my experimental photography

After that fun Matt and I decided to give Ink a bath. 

Ahhhh!  Ink loves his belly itched!

Massage and bath, oh my!

And what happened next?  Well Ink spent a little while on the hot walker with a bud, then Errika got to go on there too.  Ink was sun-drying.  Then after about 30minutes he was dry and ready to go.  I didn’t plan on riding, but I was thinking about doing some more of our softening stuff and try the collection out back in his field.  So, because it was just too nice of a day and it overall felt good, I took a go at it.  We made a lot of progress, it was just fantastic.  He was actually collecting by himself, with very little pressure and contact, and going on the bit!  I made sure I rewarded him every-time he softened and went on the bit in the beginning and once he had that down I worked up to doing it in longer increments, then once he was consistent I rewarded him by doing the usual; releasing all contact, pressure, telling him was a good boy, patting him, and then collecting back up in around 5 seconds, sometimes a little longer if we were working longer.  I had a blast as well, and Ink’s mood changed when we went to un-tack in the barn.  He was happy and I could tell confident and proud, as was I =). 

Besides Horses..well not really..

I have numerous blogs here on wordpress.  Some I wish to remain private, and I do so only because I use them as a version of therapy to write my thoughts down.  I can tell you their contents are brutally honest.  In those terms I let nothing stop me from expressing myself and my feelings in the words that fit perfect to the situation.  I’m generally a light writer, and even in my private blogs I am pretty light, but I do have frustrations, as do many, if not all of us.  I do however, want to start a private blog on public issues and my opinions of them.  I love watching Oprah, Dr. Phil and listening to Dr. Laura, and I don’t seem to have a blog to talk about those type of things.  I am not into the reality shows, nor do I care about to add to the latest Britney Spears gossip, but I do like to share my thoughts on real, important issues.  Seems that all you hear about in the news these days is about celebrities and their lives, which is not only over-used but also rather annoying. 

I had an email yesterday from a lady named “L”, and I abbreviate her name just in-case she would want to remain anonymous.  I was so delighted and honestly excited to finally have someone email me to Errika’s address, for the fund raising/information etc.  She shared her story about her daughters Arabian that was put down after colic surgery at UCD during this month.  I would love to get together with people such as “L” to possibly start up a universal emergency surgery fund for horse owners such as us to be able to use in similar situations.  Not everyone has $8,000 lying around, emergencies do happen.  It’s a large financial burden if you don’t have that kind of money. 

To go further about my other blogs, I do have that other one, my blog for my photography portfolio.  http://eirphoria.wordpress.com.  The name “Eirphoria” came from; 1) Errika’s name, as I used to call her “Eircee”, and later shortened it to ”Eir.”  The nick-name “Eir” comes from various meanings, not just formulated from her name, but also explains her.  She is a light in spirit as air.  She carries herself in life lightly.  There are so many more reasons as to why that fits her, but basically those two are the main ones.  2) Besides that, the “Phoria” comes from “Euphoria” which, if you open up a dictinary (I opened up Wikipedia ^.^), means - “….colloquially the term is often used as a standard term of emotion to mean intense, transcendent happiness combined with an overwhelming sense of well being.”  I am happy behind a camera, I’ve always been a super creative, expirimental person and I love capturing things through a camera.  The two things combined, “Eurphoria” (well being and happiness) and Errika (Eir; light) brings use to “Eirphoria.”  The horse named Errika; light, gentle, miraclulous(miracle) angel sweeping on hooves - a complete state of well being, transcendent happiness and overall contentment in the world and path which we all walk is Eirphoria.  Through a camera we transend the moment of “Eir” and the “Euphoria” to bring life to the meaning of “Eirphoria.”

Whooo, that’s a mouthful! 

Just Enjoy

I met Matt at his work to get some lunch.  Afterwards I drove myself to see the horses.  Errika whinnied when I was walking to the barn, her usual welcoming =).  I took her out for a walk and we went into Ink’s field so I could take off his blanket and grab his grain bucket.  I let Errika loose and she grazed while I did my thing.  I visited with the two foals out back too.  All the horses are getting a cold, and I noticed that the filly was coughing and mucusy.  My main concern is keeping Errika isolated from the cold that’s going around, most likely started because of the weather we’re having.  The cold, then warm, then rainy, then really cold weather.   

Ink was grumpy when I walked up to him to take his blanket off, but once I had that blanket off he seemed happier.  He was probably mad at me for leaving it on too long.  It’s a typical fall day here and you can get away with leaving the heavier blankets on a little longer, but Ink still was sweaty when I took it off. 

After grabbing the grain bucket, and then convincing Errika to leave the grassy grazing haven, we walked back up to the barn.  I gave Errika her grain and then spent a little time grooming and combing out her mane and tail. 

I’ll be going over later to give Ink his grain (I used the last scoops of beet pulp for Errika) and probably ride.  It’s a nice day for it. 

Photo and Class

Isn’t that picture neat?  I always thought so.  That was Errika earlier this year, I believe during Spring.  My favorite thing about taking pictures of horses is that their eyes and expressions are so honest.  A human will fake a look but a horse will give you their whole emotion for what it is.  I can say I have used my camera to it’s potential.  I still use it, but I tend to favor Matt’s little digital Canon.  The  PowerShot SD800.  I am very into photography, and sometime I will pursue it further.  I’ve been brainstorming about selling prints of some of my work.  A lot of people these days use programs like photoshop to enhance or tweak their photos, but because I don’t have one of those I have to make them look the best I can at the moment I take them.  I don’t think I’ve done too bad.  The Digital Rebel XTi is the camera I’m looking at right now.. 

Well last night my Equine Nutrition class went well.  Matt and Klint took me so I wouldn’t have to walk in the parking lot alone when the class got out.  We got there about 40 mins early because I wanted to make sure I knew where the class was.  We took a quick trip to the Home Depot before hand for the black plastic for the haunted house thing.  The trip to the depot was quick -I wasn’t planning on being to the JC that early. 

The teacher was neat, but she talks really fast so it was hard to take notes without missing something :/.  The digestive system section of the class went over my head, it was just too much for me to comprehend that fast.  I did, however, enjoy the feed/nutrition section. 

We have a quiz at the beginning of every class.  It’s only 6 classes meeting once a week so we have to stuff a lot of information into our minds at once.  I don’t know how well I am going to do, but I’m going to try to study what we went over in class, at home so I’ll be prepared for the quizzes and get everything more ingrained. 

 

Tired

Today is hot.  I remember around this time last year we went through a very similar weather episode.  Rain, cold, and then a big boom of warm and hot weather.  It’s very interesting..

I just got back from visiting with the horses.  I didn’t do much, I rode Ink for 15 mins, nothing really exciting.  I just rode without stirrups and did some trotting.  It was too hot to have the motivation to do anything.  I turned Errika out in Ink’s field while I brought him up and rode.  There is green grass everywhere.  It just started sprouting up when we started to get all that rain.  The horses love it =). 

I have my first class tonight at the JC.  My equine nutrition class, I’m not overly enthused to be honest, but I want to go. 

Last night Matt, Klint and I drove down to Wal-Mart to do some Halloween shopping =).  We bought the fake cobweb stuff, Matt bought a fog machine (which he also is going to use for x-mas), and a sign that says “butcher shop” on it (ew, I know).  Then we went to Walgreens way across town, and bought some more stuff.  We are going to make a haunted house thing.  Not last year, but the two years before Klint and I made a haunted house that we called the haunted stoop because it was partially on our walk-way to our front door and went to the steps to our front door.  It was fun to make.  We used an um-teen amount of black plastic garbage bags to make the shell of it.  This year Matt is buying contractors black plastic which is about 10 feet wide and thicker, and it comes on a big roll.  Tomorrow we’re going to start building it.  Hey we’re only kids once!  =D

Warm Weekend

I hope you all had a great weekend!  I had a horse-filled weekend, and did some productive things yesterday.  The weather changed from Friday, it was warm and clear. 

Saturday I rode Ink, did a little jumping after working on what I’ll call going on the bit, the early process.  Tim helped me with his guiding, because Ink falls on my inside leg and it’s hard to keep him on the track.  We made great progress!  Later we went to the Home Depot to buy fencing for the gates in Ink’s field so he can’t wind-suck on them. 

Yesterday my younger brother Klint, our neighbor Kevin, Matt and I went over to see the horses.  We all went to the back first to put the fencing on the gates and I brought Errika out with us and turned her out to eat some grass while we worked.  Ink was curious about what we were doing and hung out with us some of the time, until he got too close and we had to shoo him away.

After the fencing we brought up both horses, I had Kevin and Klint put her on the hot walker.  I rode Ink, warmed him up, worked more on the guiding and going on the bit.  Then my instructor Matthew had Klint and Kevin be the pole boys.  The jumping in the beginning wasn’t super duper.  He generally stepped over, not jumped.  I think that when the jumps are that small he doesn’t feel like he needs to put any effort into it.  Then I had the pole boys set up two sets of standards about 3 strides apart and eventually we worked up to two cross rails, and kept raising the back one.  Then I wanted to try something new.  So they took down the first cross rail and left just a ground pole there, and took the two standards and put them behind the last pair of standards.  The front of the jump was a cross rail while the back was a verticle.  Ink’s first time over wasn’t pretty and he kind of took off too early and wasn’t expecting the little spread there.  But after that, he jumped it very well!  He was forward, ears and eyes up, it was great.  Finally a jump he felt worth some effort!  It was a lot of fun! =D  We raised it towards the end to about 2′6″. 

To critique myself, I need to put my heels down, my eyes are up, and sit deeper in the saddle before take off and let his thrust push me up.  After not being coached for four years, I’m a little rusty to say the least.  But the boots I’m wearing are thick rubber boots and it’s hard to flex your ankle or put your heels down. 

After I rode, I had Klint hop on Ink to cool him out while I took a break. 

Pooh my water is almost gone..

Friday

 

It was raining too much to ride so I brought Ink up for a grooming and to escape the muck.  Not too long after the rain temporarily stopped.  Errika wanted to come out and get some fresh air so I took up the dry moment and put her on the hot walker.  I put Ink on there too, but he was less than enthused about walking around in circles.  He’s probably spent 2 years alone walking around on a hot walker at the track. 

I tried to switch it over and make them go right, but Ink doesn’t really like to go that way.  Errika was just having fun enjoying herself, she would stay on there for hours.  When I was riding her before she coliced, I would try to put her on the hot walker and she would stop most of the time, refusing to walk around in circles, how pointless?  But look at her now, all happy!  She was posing for the camera every-time she went by me, it was too cute =).

 

After about 30minutes on the hot walker, I brought them both back in.  Errika’s grain was ready, and she knew it.  I gave that to her and then put Ink back in the cross-ties for some more grooming.  Eventually he got his grain in the barn because it began raining again.  Once he was done I walked him back to his field.  The horizon was this beautiful pink color right below the cloudy skies. 

Ink in his field.

– Earlier Update –

My mom and I are going to drive over to see a barn that’s really close to us.  She saw their very nicely presented ad at one of the feed stores around here.  It would be pretty neat to take lessons this close to home, it’s just at the opposite side of the city, than where Ink and Errika are.  I’m looking for a job right now so I can help my parents pay for Errika’s surgery costs and lessons, if I find a place.  I have other expenses to pay as well, but my mom has been very supportive and has helped me out tremendously. 

My aunt referred me to an event trainer two cities below us, but she doesn’t have school horses for lessons.  You either have to trailer in or board at her facility.  The lady sounds really awesome though. 

I might be able to ride later today.  It’s been raining off and on today. 

[ Softening 2 ] & Jumping

This evening it was expected to rain but it didn’t.  However it did get really gloomy and brisk.  I worked on softening Ink by myself.  I need to find a trainer to take lessons with, I’m not afraid one bit to admit I need help.  But I think this task with well today.  He was catching on so quickly, yet again.  I did that for about 30minutes, maybe a little less I’m not sure. 

I thought that I would have to make this ride snappy because my mom had to get back to change.  She was going to go to dinner with my dad and friends.  That was cancelled though so I had more time to ride. 

Matt was my jump helper and he set up a little cross rail and we worked up to the above.  Ink was great going over the jumps.  I just had to make sure he had enough impulsion to actually jump it, because otherwise he would just step over the jump.  No refusals, and even when he came in wrong he kept trying.  I was very proud of him. 

Towards the end, the rain started coming, but just a mist like rain.  It was fun jumping in that kind of weather, reminded me of my pony school days! =D

Errika spent the time while I was riding Ink, on the hot walker.  Then she got to eat some grass and then her grain.  She’s doing very well, I can’t wait to start exercising her again!