Canterith with no Saddleith!

Despite all of the bad events that have happened lately today actually ended up being one of my favorite days out of this month. Let's begin shall we?

The sun was out today and the temperature ended up being around a whopping 40 degrees with almost no breeze, so warm! I took my littlest brother down to the barn with me but he only played his PSVITA in the car until the end. I went out to get Ava. I have been leaving her halter and lead at the gate lately so we can start connecting before the halter goes on (don't want to jinx it but she has also become easier to catch since I've done this). I then went out to the outdoor arena and practiced some Parelli. The Friendly Game, of course The Circling Game, Porcupine Game, Yo-Yo game and few other things. She was being very good and I stopped before things could get worse (we have all Summer for her to be naughty but for now I'd rather not deal with it). We then ventured inside and did a little more lunging just to make sure she didn't have any "fresh" in her left. I then tacked her up with our western saddle pad and bareback pad on top and then I got on. I felt so much more secure with the pads on her. We walked a little but then we moved up to trotting and then cantering! Today was the very first day ever cantering her bareback! It felt awesome, I almost cried, I was so happy. Also surprisingly, I felt more secure cantering bareback than in a saddle... Which is weird. Anyways, we cantered both ways and then we cooled off, I love riding bareback but I don't want to sore Ava's back. After this my brother, Ava, and I all went on a walk around the barn and down the long driveway towards the highway, Ava did so well. I think the walks really help her and I know she likes them too. It was a great day at the barn.

On our way home I stopped by the tack store to see if they had the dewormer I was looking for but before I could look at them I got mesmerized by the saddle consignment section. I looked for a bit but didn't notice anything that stood out until I was about to turn away I noticed a saddle at the end of a clothing rack. I looked at it and thought to myself "this is the one," even before I barely looked at it. It was a beautiful saddle and looked perfect for Ava and I. The only thing I was dreading was the price tag... I just knew that the world wouldn't let me get such a wonderful saddle at a price I could afford. I looked at the tag and the world surprised me, it was only $275! No, that is not a typo! My heart leaped. Also, not only do you get the saddle but you also get two very nice Australian saddle pads, a complete bridle set, an Australian girth, a nice halter and lead, as well as a breast collar! It almost sounds too good to be true right? That is what I keep thinking but so far this is no dream. I of course took it for a trial and will hopefully try it out tomorrow. I am so stoked and truly feel like this saddle is "the one," as silly as that may sound. Anyway, I will of course keep you lovely people updated and let you know as soon as possible how the saddle worked out.

Bare Ridin' and Walkin' in the Sun

As of Saturday I have told my self to either not ride or only do a very slight amount. Nowadays riding makes me too mentally tired (or so it seems). At night after a day of riding I would have much more trouble falling asleep, I become panicky and anxious. Now even the thing that I love most in the world is becoming difficult on me... The reason I brought this up is because this happened again after another day of riding, even after only a few minutes of it. Although, I definitely enjoyed myself, we rode bareback! Ava was really good for me and wish I could ride bareback forever. You can definitely tell Ava likes bareback over wearing a saddle and I don't mind one bit, it is so much more fun! We even worked our way up to a trot and even did some 360's, she was a real good girl.

Yesterday I went down to the barn not really knowing what I would do... Then when I arrived I saw that no one was there! I was stoked, I decided to take Ava to the outdoor arena for a bit. She didn't do much when I let her free so I put her halter on and we worked on The Friendly Game and a little bit of lunging, she did really good especially for being outside. After we were finished I grabbed my hat and walked her around a different part of the barn, at first she was a little dragony but actually she handled herself well, at the end she had her head low and her eyes were soft.

It is was so nice having the barn to myself! When I was about to pull out of the driveway I noticed far across the street there was a man jogging on some kind of road. I went to investigate. After I found where he was jogging I noticed that this would be a perfect trail riding or jogging spot for Ava and I! It was a nice dirt road (no concrete!) and it was pretty flat too. So I decided that this will be Ava and I's goal for the summer, to take a trail ride over there or even take Ava on a jog with me!

Sitting, Reading, Waiting

With no mood for riding at the moment I grabbed my book Horses Never Lie by Mark Rashid and headed down to the barn. I hadn't started reading it yet because I have a current obsession with Beautiful Creatures but today I decided to begin. The weather was decent, slightly chilly with a breeze but sitting in the loafing shed soaking up sun definitely made it better. I ignored the horses, I'm also working on my Undemanding Time with them. They were all frisky because there were some new cows in the back pasture that were supposedly trying to spook them. I opened my book and was hooked the moment I read the first sentence. Rashid did a great job writing this, I love how non-fiction can be written in a story kind of way, it is my favorite. I am not sure how long I read for but it must have been at least thirty minutes (for Undemanding Time the minimum requirement is 30mins) and the only reason I left is because someone was going to drag the pastures. It was a very nice time and definitely lifted my spirits for the time being.

As I was leaving I was still ignoring the girls but then Ava started to move in weird direction and ended up following right up next to me. Even Poco came over for a hello. I gave both of them some strokes and scratches then told them goodbye. For all the people who don't believe that natural horsemanship really works then well, your loss... I definitely believe in this "fluffy bunny foo foo bullsh**" as I've heard it said before, it, without a doubt, works. I am a believer! I don't care what no one says, horses never lie!

I'm Still Here

These past few weeks have been quite stressful. I ended up not going to the sorting clinic last weekend. Instead I took my brothers and I out of town to visit my grandfather whom is in the hospital. They found that he actually has lymphoma and they will be starting chemo very soon. We are praying he makes it through okay. My mother, aunt, and grandmother have been with him almost the whole time so I'm in charge of keeping the household afloat until they return. My life feels quite empty right now, after losing Wolfie and now having my grandfather in the hospital is almost too much for me to handle. I am just hoping that everything ends up okay...

As for Ava I rode a couple times but I'm just not feeling in the mood for it anymore. She is doing fine on her training and is basically doing everything I ask, it is just me that doesn't want to do any riding at the moment. I think I just need to stop riding for a couple weeks and just take a break, for some reason riding has also been taking a ton of energy out of me, more than it used to... Nothing is the same anymore and it is slowly driving me insane. My BO will be disappointed that I'm not riding for a while but I don't really give a crap what he thinks anymore..

Anyways, I hate to sound depressing all the time but things are hard right now. Hopefully with the weather getting nicer things will slowly start to turn around, we'll just have to see.

Sorting Event!

Although my heart is still broken I am slowly, very slowly starting to come back around. I am trying to keep myself distracted so I thought I would write something for you guys :)

I went to The Ranch on Tuesday and worked with Ava. She just wanted to run and run on the lunge so I let her, only, my way. I made her do lots of changes of direction, it didn't take long for her to realize that I meant business if she was going to be all race horse-like. When she finally ran out of freshness I walked her around quite a bit to get her breathing back to normal. I didn't ride for very long since she was already out of most of her energy but we did have a successful ride. She is becoming much softer in the mouth and is learning to keep her head in a certain position. We also worked on take offs and downward transitions, they are coming along nicely.

After we were finished with our ride I groomed her off and covered her with her cooler (which I am loving by the way!). Then I went over and asked one of the boarders about a sorting event that was coming up (she mentioned it to me the other day). It sounds like a lot of fun and it is only $40! She also said that I could most likely get a ride over the event too, which is even more perfect. The next time I see her I'm going to tell her I want to go and hopefully my ride will come through and we can go. I truly do not expect anything from Ava if this works out. All I can picture is her acting like a fire-breathing dragon and prancing and rearing and all that horrible stuff. So if she for some miracle behaves then I will be happy but I don't expect it. Anyways, I will definitely take lots of pictures and hopefully I can somehow get someone to take a few pictures of me as well!