An Awesome Weekend...and a long overdue update

I know, I know...I have been awful about blogging, but lets be serious...who really thought I would keep up with it? Things have been quite busy around here, lots of changes and fun things to share.

Big news...baby horse Monroe is no longer my responsibility. I sent him back to his true Mom to finish his training. It was a really hard decision, but I think it was the right one. While I truly enjoyed playing with him, I also felt like it was time to work on my own riding. I have not had a lesson in at least 8 years...so I decided to make this a priority. It is really hard to keep yourself in shape when you are focusing on training a youngster. So...Monroe went home. :( I do miss him a lot.

Luckily I recently found a new project. I know...it doesn't take me long :) So, her name is Rosette. She is a 12 year old Canadian draft mare. Her owner is one of my clients and a trainer. She is really excited to have me ride Rosette and give me lessons too! So far it is really working out and I am enjoying actually having lessons. Things are slowly coming back to me from back in the day when I knew what I was doing. Rosette is a huge sweetheart and great to ride. She is teaching me a lot because she forces me to ask her to do things correctly. Once I do, she goes beautifully.

The other intesting thing is her breeding. She is a Cheval Canadian draft. I had never really heard of the breed but I did some research. The Mounties of Canada used these horses and they are not very common. They are used for all kinds of things like driving, dressage, eventing, fox hunting, etc. I like the look of them because they are strong like drafts but a little lighter boned.

Sharkster and Chuck are doing well. They were completely unfazed by Monroe leaving. I guess three really was a crowd! I wonder if I should rename the blog? Ah...whatev.

Tim and I had a great weekend. It was definatly needed as I had a sucky week. Full of euthanasias, dental work (on me), random emergancies, and whining. But thats all in the past now and I have fun weekend stories. Saturday we took the pups to the Dog Beach and it was fabulous. The beach is really long and narrow so it makes it ideal to let the dogs off. They were both so excited. It was great to be able to let Missy off too. There were other people/dogs there but they were far enough away. It was a little overcast at first but warmed up by the end of the day.

The best was watching Coop dig for the ball in the sand. He was so into it. Loved it!!!

Then Saturday night we went to a great new Greek restaurant. It was delish!!! Lamb for Tim and Lamb pasta for me. Apparently we like lamb...(think Lamb Schank)

Sunday I had a great lesson on Rosette in the morning. While I rode, Tim cooked. We had his company's unofficial work barbecue. The barbecue was a lot of fun and Tim made killer ribs smoked with rosemary. We had lots of food and good beer actually made by the guys from his office. It was nice to finally meet some of the guys Tim talks about. Oh and we took Cooper with us. Of course he was a hit with all the kids. He was a very good boy. So after the party we took him over to the dog park. That was fun and very funny. Leave it to Coop to be the one dog who runs to every single person in the park and basically ignored all the dogs. I mean he would sniff a few here and there but really they were just in his path to the next person. He had a blast and was wore out by the end of it.

So that was the weekend. It was great!

(there you go Dot and Ma...just for you guys :)

I Have Not Forgotten!

I know it has been weeks since I last wrote, but its been a busy couple of weekends. Mom and Dad were here and then we went up to the bay for the 4th! We had a great time and enjoyed lots of food :)
Things around the farm have been good. I am excited to finally say that we have our first tomatos starting today! We have been enjoying a lot of squash and zucchini the last week or so. Tim is getting good at adding it into any meal. I am looking forward to being able to eat our first tomato though.
Alright, horses. All three boys enjoyed a nice bath when Mom and Dad was here. It was a whole family affair. Too bad the camera wasn't charged...we even had Tim and Dad out there sudsing them up. It was fun and nice to do together on a hot day. Monroe was lame for over a week so he was off. But, we have overcome that and I am now riding him! He has been a very good boy. Tonight was definatly his best ride ever. Here is a video from last week, right after I started getting on him.

Since this ride he has gotten much smoother and more responsive to my commands. I am starting to use less voice commands and more riding aides as well. Hopefully he will stay sound and we can keep going in this direction. Tomorrow we are going over to Don's(client/friend) to have our first ride off the property. It will be great for him to have to be somewhere else.

Everyone else is doing well. The dogs are happy we are back from the weekend. But I don't think it really phases them at all. They probably get away with a lot more when we are not here :).

Whats up with Monroe?

Well, even though I haven't posted for awhile I have been working with baby Monroe. We have come quite a ways actually. He has become very consistant on a lunge line at walk, trot and canter commands. He has improved on the long lines as well but we definatly still need some work. Thanks to the help of Tim we also started desensitizing him to weight on his back. I was surprised that he was a little jumpy the first time we walked forward with me laying on him. But he recovered well and by the end of that session he was fine. I have to say Tim did really well too. He did not overreact and he just listened to my directions.
Today (Thursday) I sat on Monroe for the first time!!! He did really well and I am glad that his voice commands are so strong. He walks and halts very consistantly just based on my voice. I even had Tim let go of him for the last few minutes. He did well, but steering still needs adjusting. We only had one issue...we were in a halt and I asked him to walk and clucked...no response...I asked again...no response...I repeated myself and squeezed more than I had been...we launched forward and probably had all legs off the ground...Tim yells "Shaaannnnaa" queitly and I very easily calm baby boy down. So not too bad right? We have a lot of work ahead of us...but it is rewarding watching Monroe mature so quickly. Pics next time!
P.s. I was wearing my helmet!

Family Fun

Yes this is a very late post about our great weekend with my family. My Mom and Dad and Gram and Zaid came down last Friday...oh and Lydia too :) We started the weekend off with a great lamb dinner on Friday and just enjoyed the view from our house. It was Gram and Zaid's first time here so it was really great to show them our place. We also spent a lot of time petting and feeding the horses. You know the fastest way to anyone's heart is carrots right?
Saturday the boys headed to Chumash casino for a little gambling and us girls lounged around and relaxed. Gram kept Missy and Cooper company while Mom and I worked Monroe and cleaned up after the horses. We were shocked when the boys came home and Tim had a wad of cash...he won $450 in a poker tourney!!! Awesome!!!

Then we all loaded up and headed to Roblar winery for some wine tasting. We lucked into a deal on the cooking class and dinner for that night and enjoyed ourselves despite the ditzy cook. We have all been wanting to partake in these cooking classes so it was a fun thing to be able to do together.

Sunday the boys went fishing at Lake Cachuma and the girls lounged again. Mom and I gave Chuckles a much needed grooming and walked him around the neighborhood. In the meantime Gram and Cooper became fast friends :) We then went out to lunch and did a little shopping. Ahhh...shopping...it was great! Thanks Gram for everything...it was such a treat!

Sunday night we went out to dinner at Grapalo's and even saw Bo Derrick!

Monday came much to soon! Back to work for us and back to the bay area for the fam! Thanks for coming down guys! It was so nice to have you here!! Hope we can do it again soon!

NEW BED!!

Well...I know I haven't checked in for awhile and this one is going to be super short. I am really excited about our new BED!!! We got a king size memory foam and all new sheets over the weekend! Thanks to Carol and Warren for helping us out!! The bed just arrived and I put the new sheets and comforter on!! Very pretty! Here are some pics for those who are interested :)

Just For Fun

This is from the other night...apparently these two do get along once in awhile. In fact Monroe is now eating at Chuckles spot. Still figuring out the pecking order.

Training Update

Monroe worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend! He is doing quite well and is responding to voice commands with greater accuracy each day. We have added the kiss command and he struggles with that a little. I think it would help if I had a lunge whip to reinforce my commands. Instead I end up chasing him around until he picks up the canter. Sunday he was much better though. We also were granted permission by my friendly neighbor to use his little sand arena. This will make things much easier on me especially when I am on call. I will still trailer him over to the arena once in awhile as it is good experience.
Here's a short video Tim took of us at the beginning of our session on Sunday. It's not great and he got better as the session went on...but this gives you an idea of what we do.

So there you have it. Not too exciting, huh? After the boys got to graze together while we finished fixing the fence. All in all...great weekend :)