Cats

Cats are odd creatures who really seem to think the world and all that is on it, is meant for them. All we do is for them. New furniture? Theirs. Food? Theirs. Toys, sunny spots, people sitting idly? All there for the cats. And the odd thing is we let them. We will sit somewhere less comfortable so as to not disturb the cat. We will pet them while they impale us with their claws in "thanks".

I wish I was a cat sometimes. Athletic, graceful and can sleep pretty much anywhere.

Milo last night was acting like the outdoor ring was his play pen and was oblivious to the horses he was spooking or cutting in front of, and he was quite distracting for Jerry as he paraded along the top of the fence. I think he was just trying to convince me to go back to the barn and feed him. Cats have strange ways to get their point across.

Anyway, Rob sent me this link about a cat who seems to have a UK bus service catering to him; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5933325/Pet-cat-catches-the-daily-bus-for-four-years.html

Karen

So in the month of new horses, we have yet another. Some of you have already seen her; she is in the wood pens by day, and beside Bliss in the barn at night. She is off the track and was in need of a new home as she just couldn't do the longer distances. How could I resist a chestnut filly in need of a home? Her race name is "Found a Gem" but I am calling her Riva so far.

The cooler weather this week is sure a welcome break. Hopefully this will help revive the horses a bit as well.

Anyone have exciting plans for the long weekend?

Karen

Fun in the Sun

The fun day at Hillside did end up being lots of fun, and the weather was great. A little warm, but manageable.

The horse's competing in the ridden obstacle course class didn't appreciate the pool noodles at all, so they are going to stick around for desensitizing work. Poor Fancy likely had nightmares last night of the noodle chasing her!

Hans was hilarious in his classes; seeing a 16.2 hand baby do the equine version of the limbo to get under the "walk under" rope was something I wish I had taken a picture of! the big goof just wants to please.

I had a blast on Rocky too. He was oddly bucky in the barrel racing, but loved the jumping. He hasn't jumped or even been ridden english since last summer, so I wasn't sure how he would be, but he seemed to be happy to be back jumping and we were unbeatable over fences...if only "real" shows had my weird classes....

It was great to have everyone who participated help in the set up and in the clean up afterwards. It was also great of Rob to come out and Barbeque for lunch! It was fun for me to be able to participate in the fun rather than just coordinate it all, so thanks for everyone who helped out so that I didn't have to do all the work. I wish I had arranged a photographer though, as there were some great moments I wish we had caught on film.

Sam ended up as Champion with Chance and Magic. Sara was Reserve Champion with Fancy. Amanda and Ri tied with Christine and Hans/Bliss for Reserve Reserve Champion.

Karen

Hot.....

Hot...way too hot. One or two days of hot i can deal with, but this is too much! Rob and I beat the heat a little by going canoeing this afternoon; it felt nice to be out on the water, although the life jacket got a little warm. It was our first trip out with the canoe, and I was a little nervous, so of course Rob had to rock the boat on purpose saying I "would need to get used to it just in case." Huh? You guys are lucky I don't teach using that same theory: "for your first lesson I am going to put you on a horse that bucks/rears/bolts so that you get used to it just in case..."

We went to Elk Island for our first outing; I had fun. We saw a variety of birds, bugs and plant life. I did see three fish...sadly though only one of the three was alive. I also saw a bunch of snails and Leeches! There was also these green blobs either floating in the water or attached to plants. i thought they were just balls of algea, but when I picked on up, I found it was a lump of clearish green goo! Water boogers! It felt really neat as it didn't fall apart, just rolled around in my hand. No idea what it was, but hopefully it doesn't turn out to be toxic.

It is supposed to cool down a bit tonight and possible rain, but we still plan to go ahead with the fun tomorrow, so please come on out to ride!

Karen

Sailor

The next training horse came today: Sailor. He has the same dopey look on his face that Hans and Magnus have...kind of a "will you be my friend" "food?" look about him. Must be a 3 year old gelding thing. He is a draft cross, and a nice black/bay. I have him on the south side with Pete so he settles in. He is a little on the thin side, and looks like someone was picking on him at his last location.

Oh, and if you come ride today, I appologize in advance if your horse spooks at my pasty white legs...I am planning to wear shorts while I teach tonight!

Karen

This Sunday!

This Sunday, starting at 10am, we are hoping to have a little fun show at Hillside. There will be jumping and non jumping classes, with two "non-ridden" classes going first. I am hoping to convince Sara to bring her two year old! There is no entry fee, I just want everyone to come out and have fun, and to help with the set up and clean up. Please let me know if you are able to come, so I know it is worth holding! Please bring snacks or food to share as well.

Karen

Amberlea Dressage Show

Wow....three days without internet and I surived! For those that don't know, the storm late Saturday night took out the internet tower (as well as damaging our property and taking out two greenhouses just up the road). In a way it has been a little liberating though!

Last Weekend was also the Dressage "Fun" Show at Amberlea. Wow was it hot when we got there, and again when we rode on Saturday. Amanda was lucky to have two of her classes in the morning, but she had her Eq class at 4:30 when it was 30 above. Clare and I had our Level 1 classes in the early afternoon and they nicely waived having to wear our riding jackets. Even so it was painfully hot. The heat didn't seem to affect the horse's much though, all three still had energy, it was just the humans that did not!

Saturday night I rode my first Freestyle too! It went ok. Dexter was very forward compared to home (lengthen canter turned into hand gallop!) so we got ahead of the music; luckily I had a built in buffer at the end just in case that happened. Part way through I felt like I was going to faint I was so hot! I wish someone from Hillside had been able to see it or even video though so I had additional feedback for next time.

Sunday was a lot cooler and breezy...which was in a way nice, but then it got TOO breezy, so they moved the classes inside. Hard to ride a dressage test when the ring and letters keep blowing over!

In the end Ri was the super star with a stall covered in ribbons. He and Amanda were reserve champion walk/trot Adult Amateur. Dexter was reserve Freestyle. Whisper was good too, with her best accomplishment being getting Clare over her fear of showing in that indoor arena!

The "vintage" ribbons were very well done. Amanda imagined getting ribbons with old dates and such, but Jan Simmonds removed the old print, and so all the ribbons had the correct print and placing on them, just the colours weren't right for the placing and the buttons varied. It was very well done.

Aside from the weather, the show was great. Everyone was so friendly and positive. People we didn't even know would comment on how well the horse looked, or how much it improved from one test to the next. Ellen Drews in particular gave me a nice compliment on Sunday morning...the timing was perfect as I was completely exhausted after showing and stacking hay on Saturday, and dealing with the storm Saturday night! It is amazing what a few nice words can do to the spirit.

Poor Rob on Sunday had to deal with clean up from the storm though...I guess the power was out longer than I expected, and went out during the day as well, so he kept busy making sure the horses had water. Thanks honey!

A little while ago I posted concern for what the rain would do to the show grounds at Amberlea during their Jump for Hope show, and although they managed to get a ring ready for the Dressage show, their big sand ring, and a corner of the smaller sand ring was pretty much ruined and they are having to redo them. This is just after getting new sand in too. They are going to scrape all the new sand back, dig up and level clay, seal the clay, put a layered base, and then put the sand back. All in all it is going to cost about the same as a luxery car. So when you wonder why stabling fees are what they are when you show at Amberlea, this is why; maintaining a show grounds isn't cheap.

Karen

Pretty Horsey!

A new training horse came today: Jewel. She is in the wood pen by the house (Rocket and Rocky moved out front again). She is part arab and it shows...she is very pretty, with just the right amount of dish to her face.

She spent about 5 minutes calling to the neighbours ducks/geese. The boys didn't appreciate the fact she wasn't paying attention to THEM, so they soon lost interest.

Karen

How to ruin a perfectly good song...

Listen to it over and over and over as you try to put together a stupid freestyle! No wonder there are people that do this as a business; it is hard and annoying.

I think I finally have something together though...I tried practicing it with Dexter a bit today, but he too is sick of the freestyle and is starting to anticipat the simple changes, so I had to give up on practicing it. I will wait and try it out in the ring at Amberlea on Friday...I hope the timing ends up ok in their ring! I am kind of wishing I had gone with vocals rather than just instrumentals though; words would have made it easier for me to know if I am where I should be in the test so I can cut corners, or slow up a bit to adjust the test for the music. Arg. Lesson for next time I suppose.

Karen

Memories

Most people who meet me think I am a lot younger than I am. Most seem to think this is a good thing, but I wish I looked more my age for professional reasons; in riding, skill comes with experience and time. The truth is, I am 36 years old. In the grand scheme that isn't even that old really. People are often living to 80 or 90 years old now days despite the best efforts of our health care system. Can you imagine the things that someone in their 90's would have seen? World Wars, the Great Depression, the Moon Landing, Elvis. They would have lived before TV and when the main modes of transport were horses and trains.

Even in my relatively short life time I have seem many changes, and lived through some historic times: I was in East Berlin and have seen the Berlin wall from both sides, and I saw the footage of it being turned into rubble. I remember the first Space Shuttle Launch. I remember when Edmonton really did seem to be the City of Champions with many winning sports teams. I lived through the Cold War and remember the onslaught of Nuclear war doomsday movies. I remember when Micheal Jackson took the world by storm with his music. I remember when MTV and music videos first came out.

When I young we didn't have the conveniences of Microwave Ovens, dishwashers (well...we had Mom), or even Velcro. Things took time. Like dialling a rotary phone. Do they still make kids toy phones that are rotary? Do Kids even know what I am talking about? And when you dialled zero, you got an actual person at the end of the line to help you find a phone number. And Alberta just had one area code: 403.

Household computers came about when I was young too. Our first one was an Apple IIe. I don't even think it had a mouse. You had to type in commands. And dot Matrix printers. What a sound they made. I remember playing Asteroids and thinking it was so cool; a triangle attacking odd shaped blobs.

We definitely didn't have Internet, so horse shopping meant scouring newspapers, postings in tack stores, and by asking around.

When I was growing up there weren't cell phones, heck, we didn't even have an answering machine! Now it is annoying when someone doesn't have a cell phone or at least voice mail; I am so used to being able to get a hold of someone when I want to, to at least leave a message, and I have a panic attack if I realize I left home without my cell phone!

Stores were closed on Sunday, and banks had...well Banker's hours. There were no ATMs. You had to go during the day, stand in a long line and wait to talk to a teller. Your account information was updated into your bank book. I remember I was reluctant to use ATMs as I was worried about the Tellers loosing their jobs...but now I can't imagine not having ATMs.

When I was a kid, we all thought there would be hover cars by now though...where are the hover cars? Although the cars we have no have come a long ways from the giant blue station wagon my family took on huge road trips (as far as Mexico). No Air conditioning and blue vinyl seats. But it sat all 6 of us, with 2 seats to spare. Good times.

So do I seem older NOW?

Karen

Slow....

The internet here has been incredibly sloooowwwww for the past few days. Not the best timing as I still would like to find a better song for the last trot section of the Freestyle I am supposed to do on Saturday. It is WAY harder than I thought to come up with a Freestyle; first to get all the required moves in, then to make sure it is within the min and max time allowed, and then to find music...and I am not even being that picky; there is no way I am worrying about actually matching it to his foot steps I am more just going for mood. Once I have the music together I need to memorize to timing of it, so my movements actually go with the music. Maybe I should have worked on this soon? This also means listening to the same song over and over and over and over...thank goodness it is only instumental so not so easy to get stuck in my head.

Karen

It's the sun!

It was so nice to finally get up to some sunshine this morning! Still quite chilly though, but it seems to be quickly warming up, so I will make sure the rain sheets are all off before it gets too hot. Last night was REALLY cold out here. I could see the dog's breath during their evening walk.

The horses seemed happy to get back out on the grass today.

Hopefully the outdoor arena doesn't take long to dry and we can get back to riding outside. I really need to practice the Freestyle I optomistically entered for next weekend! I still need to work out the timing, as the one pattern I tried was too short, and my new one is slightly too long. I think I have found a solution, but I need to get out there and ride it, and video it so we can match it to music.

Karen

New Article

I realize I haven't written anything for a while, and I really like writing, so I am using this rainy weather to motivate me to put some of the many things in my head down on paper. I am working on four topics: The Art of Praising (horses), The Lazy Horse, and two on training techniques, which are common, but I find questionable.

The first one is tying a horse's head to one side to teach it to give to the pressure of the bit: http://www.compassionatehorsetraining.com/TOpinionTyinghead.html

Thank you to Chance for being my demo horse for this article.

The next well be on the training technique of leaving a horse tied for hours to "teach it patience."

As you may guess, neither of these things are done at Hillside in the name of training!

If anyone can think of a training technique that is fairly common, but that you consider possibly questionable, let me know and I may cover it in a future article.

As horses become more and more expensive to keep, they are going to be considered more of an "elite" thing, and I forsee that the general public will come down hard on cruelty or perceived cruelty in the industry (which is a good thing). You can already see it happenning in the US with the anti-horse slaughter bills being passed. People generally judge things they consider to be enjoyed mostly by the "elite" harshest and future trainers are going to have to be one step ahead of this trend.

Added...I just finished this too: http://www.compassionatehorsetraining.com/TOpinionsTiedHorse.html

Karen

Wet enough for you?

We have received close to 5 centimeters of rain in the last few days! That is 2 inches for your old folks out there. Or half a hand for the horsey set. That is a lot of rain. Meaning a lot of MUD!

And of course it is raining right now too.

Oh well, the farmers, frogs, and farriers should be happy. All this rain will hopefully give crops a chance, refill the wetlands, and soften horse hooves. Who likely isn't happy is the horse show organizers running the Jump for Hope show at Amberlea. I guess it is a HUGE show this year so I hope the rings get some chance to dry. I imagine it would be physically painful to watch their new Grand Prix ring get chewed up in the mud; they have done such a lovely job improving the show grounds so hopefully it all holds up under this rain.

Speaking of riding rings...please stay off the outdoor ring here until it has time to try. It is hard on the base when it is wet as it is still a fairly new ring.

Karen

Help Wanted...

I am looking for someone (or a couple someones) to do afternoon chores on occasion, particularly during horse shows. Afternoon chores take anywhere from 30 minutes (if the horses aren't on grass) to 90 minutes if I also need you to finish cleaning stalls for me. Typically it would be under an hour of time though.

The dates I need help for are the 18th and 19th of July when we are at the Amberlea Classic Dressage Fun show, and then at the end of the month when I am at the next Amberlea Dressage show.

The work isn't hard and the horses think you are their hero.

Let me know if you are intersested!

Karen

The Rain Came

At about 4am this morning we got about a centimeter of rain in just over an hour. It rained so hard poo piles were pulverized and little lakes were formed in the paddocks. It looks like we will have rain for the next few days too! This is great for the hay fields and the farmers, but means we are riding indoors this week. It also means that the horses won't be on grass until likely friday so that the grass can grow and not get chewed up into the mud.

Karen

Horse Horror

Carole and I took advanage of what looks to be the last truely nice day for a while, and took Rocky and Tonka out for a ride. First we went South on 221 to the hay feild on highway 16. Rocky was frightened by the neighbours entrance rocks and a round bale hidden in the trees....Tonka was only afraid of Rocky spooking! By the time we turned around to come back Rocky's one sided spooking had my saddle off to the side. So we headed back and then continued north down 221. Rocky was afraid of another entrance rock and a sign. Tonka, still afraid of nothing. Neither horse seemed to even notice the deer that we saw just across the road...the deer was playing statue which may explain why.

So we got as far as I planned on going, when I got the bright idea of looping back through the subdivision...what I didn't realize was that the 3rd entrance is a dead end...and that that is where the mini donkeys live. We put brave Tonka in the lead to go by the donkeys...and wow...I have never seen Tonka move so fast or so sideways when the second mini came galloping to the gate! Mr Scaredy Rocky didn't even look their way. Fortuantely the little guys didn't start breying until we passed...what a rediculous sound, and I am sure that would have pushed them both over the edge. Just as we passed that calamity, we realized we had to go back that way...so we walked the loop, oogled the odd looking/kind of cool house at the end of that road...and then decided to hide in the opposite ditch to make it past the killer mini donkeys. Both horses survived and we made it home in one peice.

Ditch riding is fairly new to me. Not something we ever could do at Whitemud. I did a little at Sunrise when Niki (Tango's mom) was super mellow pregnant mare, but at Amberlea it would have been frowned on by my trainers. And really, it just doesn't seem that safe to ride by speeding cars! Apparently though, horses are just as keen to stay away from the cars, and our ditches are plenty wide. The main risk with ditch riding here, is the ignorant idiots (yes, I am calling people idiots again) that throw beer cans and bottles in the ditch! And what is with all the CD's? I understand paper and plastic blowing out of the back of trucks or out of garbages, or being carried off by crafty crowns, but not all the bottls and cans. Very annoying and I would really like to know the thought process involved.

Once again, I blame teenagers.

Alas, I think this week is mostly going to be raining...which is good for the grass, but it means we will be back in the indoor arena...so what can we work on in the indoor arena that doesn't require me to carry too many jumps but that is challenging? No stirrup work perhaps? Maybe an obstacle course using lateral work to negotiate?

Oh, and thanks to Wendy for letting me know the Comments feature was not properly configured! I think I have it fixed now, but let me know if you have trouble commenting.

Karen

New Horse(s)!

We had a new arrival yesterday...and he made sure to make his presence known with the ladies; he spent the first hour or so prancing around showing off the the mares on the other side of the alley and making lots of noise. The mares were fascinated. Pete is a dark bay gelding, with a big white face, hind sock/stocking and some white on his neck/jowl. Very neat colouring. He is here for some finishing work and to be introduced to dressage. We will also be working on is catchability as he is a little sceptical of being caught.

Kaitlin also brought her new gelding down to the arena so I could meet him. He is a very pretty bay and he makes Kaitlin look tiny! He is close to 16.3 hands, but also quite thick in his body; definately a warmblood. He looks like a nice athletic horse, that just needs some consistent work and training. It is odd to see Kaitlin on such a big horse! She sure has a nice string of potential jumpers now!

If anyone knows someone looking for a fairly cheap TB mare, started under saddle and nicely built, albeit small at only 15.2 hands, I have been contacted by a lady I know who has one needing a new home. THe owner has some health issues and was taken advantage of by a trainer (who took her money and didn't do the training) and I would like to help her out. I hope to find the time to go look at the mare and possibly free jump her in the next couple weeks.

Karen

Blogging

I am still trying to learn all the options available on Blogger. So far it is better than the Yahoo blog. I really like my new fishies on the lower right...put your mouse over and left click to feed them! I will play with some of the other options as the weeks go by.

Have any of you hit the "Next Blog" Button at the top? I usually get a blog in a foreign language, and sometimes it is something disturbing like vaquero/rodeo. Sometimes it is just some family's blog. Has anyone come across anything intersting?

Karen

Website ideas and photos Welcome!

So I am planning to redo the Hillside Website this month, and so I plan to be taking lots of pictures! If you don't want you or your horse's picture on the website please let me know. Don't worry...I won't use any embarrasing photos, I just want to make sure all the photos are of our facilities, horses and/or clients, and don't want to feature the same few horses over and over again. If you have a photo you took that you think is website worthy, send it my way!

I was on one local website recently and realized that none of their photos were actually of their facility and most (if not all) of the horse photos were stock photos! No...that doesn't raise any red flags about what your place is really like when you can't even use your own photos...

I have a good idea of what I want the site to look like and contain, but if anyone has advice, requests, or imput it is appreciated.

Karen

Happy Canada Day!

How was your Canada Day? Rob was sweet enough to haul Carole and I to the Blackfoot Trail to go riding. I took Dexter so that he could get out without being at a show. This was actually my first time ever hauling a horse to go trail riding, and my first visit to the Blackfoot, but hopefully we can get there more. We went in the morning to beat the crowds, getting there around 10:30, and proceeded to tack our horses up.

I had Dexter's saddle on, and then heard Carole behind me saddling Tonka...and realizing her saddle didn't have any stirrups! She had taken them off to put on a saddle she had on trial. So we both looked at the two other trailers in the lot, thinking maybe someone would have stirrups and leathers, but they were both off riding, and we didn't really want to go back without riding...so Carole rode for the 2 and a half hours without stirrups! I am sure she will feel that tomorrow...

The ride was fun though. Dexter's walk is faster than Tonka, so poor Tonka bounced Carol by jogging although I tried to slow Dexter down. We went up and down hills, through fields, and over bridges. Dexter was hesitant at the first bridge, but good at the second. It was nice to have a brave horse like Tonka with us to help Dexter out though. Dexter's biggest fear wasn't the bridges though...it was the trees/logs that were cut and placed so the cut section was pointed towards the trail...no idea why that was so frightenning. He was also concerned by one of the groups of riders we met as we went past a swamp. For a moment I was worried he was going to back into the swamp!

By the time we got back to the trailer the parking lot was full of horse trailers so we had been wise to go earlier. Both horses are horses were sweaty, but acted like they would have been happy to keep going. First thing they both did when they got home though was roll and then go prancing off. I am hoping that means they enjoyed their day too!

Karen