Lake Dennison

Ah, yes, another goal attained. Saturday I got out of work, showered and boogied to the barn to go with CB and Sereele to Lake Dennison to ride. Woo hoo, a ride and no sleep.....should be interesting! =) Socks actually loaded very nicely on the trailer but just as CB was putting up the back bar, he shot back and scraped his leg down the ramp. UGH! We were sure that there was going to be a fight but sure enough, he walked back on the trailer like it was his job. WOO HOO!!!!!
We arrived at Dennison and unloaded and both "kids" seemed ok with the horses that they saw nearby. We tacked up and off we went. CB walked Miss Sereele for a little bit and then hopped on. The road to the trails were a big rocky and Socks and his tender little feet had some problems but he dealt with them pretty well. Then, we got to where the trail started. YAY! What a beautiful place to ride! It was so nice out, not very hot but very sunny. We trotted quite a bit and neither horse was in the mood for naughtiness. YAY!
We came out along a trail where there were about 5 people on horseback enjoying some adult beverages. As CB came out of the woods, one of the guys asked her if she was a warmblood!!!! Say what?!?!?!?!?!? Sereele has put some weight on but jeez! ;) We got a chuckle out of that one for sure. So, onward we went. Socks got a bit "up" but did ok and was listening to me at least. Sereele was very good and I think she only tried once to be "naughty".
Then, came the dam.......Sereele was scared of the area. I stopped Socks as he was started to plow ahead without her and he kept looking at her and then where she was looking as if to say "What am I supposed to be scared of too?" CB got her to go onward and up the hill we went. It was a bit rocky so we just walked. At the top of the hill, was a long log on the side. It was a bit pitted and rotted but nothing too scary. Socks seemed fine with it until Sereele got nervous behind him and CB commented that it was an alligator. ALLIGATOR!!!! WHERE?!?!?!? Socks immediately decided that that was true and that it was going to eat him alive!!! He was trying his hardest to take a wide berth from the "alligator" but on the other side of the trail was a mushed up piece of log that was equally scary. So, we serpentined through it and CB got off and led Sereele past the horse eating alligators. Oh man!
We continued on, both horses doing ok after their run-in with the fake reptile. However.....we took a different turn and CB wasn't sure where we were. UH OH! We continued on....not sure where we were going but at least it was in a forward motion. Hee hee. The trails were great so there wasn't even a grumble from either horse or rider. Eventually, we did find our way back in not much time. YAY! We had to pass a little dog who had never seen a horse before and was nervous......and we had to pass some people fishing that was kind of scary for the two equines but other than that we were good. CB decided to try to canter and actually got a few strides out. YAY! Now, it was my turn.....the last time Socks and I cantered, he crowhopped a bit and scared me a bit....ok, a lot but it was also in the ring and this was a trail where he's much happier. So, I found a soft spot where the rocks weren't bad and asked for the canter and did a few strides myself. How invigorating!!!! He was great and not even an ear back! YAY, more demons conquered!
We got back to the trailer and untacked and gave the kids some beet pulp (Socks favorite). He was savoring his, Sereele ate all hers and then tried to eat some of Socks'.......he was all "Oh no you didn't!" Ha ha ha. What a face he made at her! He even took his bucket with his nose and scooted it closer to him! Ha ha ha! Sereele got some more from her mom but it didn't have sweet feed in it so she wasn't impressed.
So, we loaded up the kids and again, no arguement from either equine about getting on. We started to go and realized nothing went wrong with this trip. It was then that CB stopped the truck and we decided to check the tires....one must be flat or something......this trip was going too well! Well, nothing was wrong and we got home, unloaded and set the kids free in their pastures. I was tired but had a great time. We attained yet another goal of going out and about. YAY! Next, we ride with Lou and Bec maybe and then, just maybe, we could try a hunter pace or something like that....ah yes.......more goals to reach for!
We'll get there......in the long run! =)

Sand Pits!!!!

Ok, so, I took the dogs for a walk down in the sand pits for CB last Friday. I forgot how nice it was there so my suggestion for the next ride was to go there. YIKES! All went pretty well. We went in from the trail off of Linden St. and on to the aquaducts and then the road and the dreaded railroad tracks. Aside from the deerflies (aka bugflies....apparently, I have renamed all species of blood sucking flies as such, hee hee) the ride wasn't bad. We got over the tracks and headed into the trail to the first water obstacle....the Jersey barrier barricaded river. Socks was a bit of a turd refusing to go down to the water but with some persistance and "the bat of truth" we got to the river. He snorted like a mad bull but walked through it nicely so Sereele wouldn't get upset.
Now to tackle the stone path up.......again, Socks was a bit of a turd (seems to be the word of this blog entry) and almost stepped in a hole but made it up. We went along the aquaduct nicely after that and then....over the river and into............the sand pits!
I forgot how much fun going through there was!!! I haven't been in there since I rode Zak! Both Socks and Sereele were excellent! There were a few parts where the "bugflies" got a bit nasty but other than that, we had fun. Towards the end, there must have been a nasty bugfly on Sereele as she hopped on one back leg and CB jumped off thinking something was caught on her leg. Such sensitive creatures we have.....(rolls eyes).
The ride back through the wooded side of the sand pit was fun and the trails are so nice. It took much less time on horseback than on foot with two dogs that's for sure!
The going home was much easier too...no snorting like a freak at the river and NO TRAINS...YAY!
We did, however, run into a tight spot where a Verizon truck pulling a pole was coming up behind us. They were great and slowed down and passed us slowly. There are nice people in this world!!!!
We got back to the barn feeling great. Both our horses were awesome and now we have conquered the sand pits....time to go past those now to the unknown across the street!!!! Woo hoo....lofty goals that we will meet soon I hope!

Back in the saddle....riding lesson time!

So, Claudia came back for our second lesson. Time to kick butt! She also brought her daughter Corinne to ride Sereele for CB. Socks has been learning quickly but gets easily frustrated with ringwork. Not too much fun when he gets that way too. =(
We worked on learning that one leg on means to move around it, and two means go. He has a hard time with this concept but did relatively well. Corinne LOVED CB's saddle and Sereele looked very nice going along. Claudia suggested a bit change for Sereele and it made a big difference for her. It was good to show CB what Sereele will do if pushed to do something she may not be too crazy about doing. She handles things well and never really did anything naughty at all. We did have a scary moment when Corinne was going across the middle of our riding ring and Sereele fell to her knees and kept scrambling across! She looked like a large gray crab, poor little girl! She got back up no worse for the wear but poor CB was understandably upset and worried. After seeing her girl was ok, the lesson continued.
Claudia wanted me to canter today! OMG!!!!!! The trotting was going pretty well and he was having some really nice moments. She told me to ask for the canter and Socks proceeded to crow hop/buck about three times before departing fully into the canter. What a jerk! So, she had me ask again, same corner and same crow hop/buck except only two times. What a jerk! I had to ask a third time, and, you guessed it, he crow hopped/bucked but only once. What a jerk! Ha ha ha. I'm glad he finally did something naughty and I got through it. I was still shaking like a leaf when I got off of him but I felt redeemed. I plan on having more lessons as soon as the weather decides to cooperate. He hates them with a vengeance but it will be good for us......in the long run!

Carver!!!!

Ok, so, we've been a bit lax in our postings....hee hee hee. So, CB, Sereele, Socks and I made the big trek down to Carver on June 6th. Unfortunately, it poured out on the Friday that we were supposed to leave so CB and I got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to head down. OH MAN! Kids loaded on the trailer well. We decided to see if Socks likes the drivers side better than the passenger side. He's been having little meltdowns lately. It worked well and both Sereele and Socks traveled well.
No one told us that Myles Standish's Boy Scout Camp is in the middle of nowhere in Myles Standish Forest!!!!!!! We got to the main gate and drove down these non-descript roads for what seemed like forever. Roads to nowhere!!!!!!! Finally, we came upon the campsite and Becca guided us in past the mucky, boggy parts so we could park next to them for the night. I'm also forgetting to mention that it was still very overcast, windy, and cold there.
We unloaded the kids, made up their pen for the night and they settled in okay. WHEW! Now, what to do....should we ride, should we wait for the sun that was promised? We ride! We all tack up and get ready to go down a separate trail from the main one that they mapped out. It was too many miles for Sereele so we figured we would go out on our own. Unfortunately, Roo was a bit of an oaf and was misbehaving. Becca tried to ride him too and told us to just go without her.
So, off we went down this beautiful sandy trail. The horses were pretty relaxed and I even used the hackamore on Socks that day. His steering was a bit of a problem so we went with the bitted bridle the next day. Ride was great and CB and I really enjoyed it. We did have a run-in with a terradactyl (aka a turkey) but other than that, the ride was pretty uneventful. YAY!
We got back to the camp and were chilling out, CB and I were enjoying a beverage and apparently they went straight to our heads as we were hysterically laughing at Sereele staring at us. We also though Socks pooping was too funny. Yikes, we need sleep! Ha ha ha! We also were laughing at all the people that belonged to the riding club sponsoring the ride. At the meal times, they all had trays to bring to the "mess hall"! It was like watching hungry zombies in action. Very weird!
We all ended up going to bed rather early....I was exhausted not having a lot of sleep prior to leaving. My work schedule is fun like that. UGH!
Morning broke and it was time to go out and ride again. Once again, CB and I had a good ride. We followed the trail markers this time and we did the 10 miles!!!! Woo hoo! The sun actually peeked out too. The trails were very nice and I had a good time!
Time to leave.....packed up our stuff and loaded up the crew. Once again, they loaded pretty well and Socks again traveled okay. YAY! We made it alive through our first camping trip.
Our only bad tidbits were that both Sereele and Socks are complete klutzes and kept tripping constantly and at one point, Socks fell to his knees and sat there, contemplating life or something, before he stood back up and went on his merry way. Weird! AND, I have a strong dislike for portapotties! Ha ha ha!
It was a good time.........next time hopefully the weather will be better!

Trash day

yesterday chris and I decided to ride at 9:00 as she had a baby shower and I had jessie's graduation party later. it rained the night before so I figured the woods would be soaking wet and buggy and muddy, so we decided to do the 5 mile road loop. mile hill road and green street are so quiet and it was early enough there wouldn't be much traffic. hahahahaha. what a nightmare. sereele was nervous anyway, but was good as usual. until we came upon our first trash can piled up about 10 feet high (really!) with trash. that was almost scary enough for her to fall down at the sight of it. I got off and she cat walked past and was fine. we made it down linden pretty well, looping away from all the garbage cans. one big noisy truck pulling a trailer uturned in front of us, but no big deal. she saw her reflection in some big windows on a house that sits right on the road and apparently thinks she is pretty scary looking:). socks was taking a bad step here and there so chris was worried, they just got shoes on thursday. all was fine until a 4 wheeler came scooting out into the street and past us, but they were pretty good about that. then a huge garbage truck was coming towards us and we had a steep cliff on the other side of us. the guy actually turned off his truck and coasted slowly by! very nice. then going down green street we heard an extremely noisy vehicle coming up behind us fast an no where to go. we made it to a drive way in time for another garbage truck to barrel ass past us. this one scared them. ok. than ANOTHER garbage truck poking along toward us trying to be nice, but actually going so slow and noisy that socks said, "I've had enough" and chris scooted him backwards to a driveway. this upset sereele so I had to follow and probably pissed off the garbage guy. phew. we start walking again and a guy tells us to wait a minute and he will get his truck and trailer out of here and not scare the horses. so glad he did, it was the noisiest trailer I've ever heard. so then we just had to go past one attack dog and then the woman who let her dog out of the house to "sic" us and we were home free. I think. I may have blocked some things out. Oh yeah, crackers the dog tried to eat us also, but that was nothing. probably doesn't sound bad, but it wasn't a fun ride:). both horses were actually excellent, got scared but never freaked out. Then we made up for it today. went down linden to the main trial and up the ledge trail to north lookout and around and out at MW. Sereele was the best she has ever been. felt like a normal horse, no nervousness or skittishness. just perfect. she is moving so much better in shoes, no ouchiness, tripping 90% less. and her brain was calm. very happy with our ride today!
Indy leaves tuesday for a 2 month lease with option to buy. making me sick to think about it, but when I see him staring at me when I take out sereele, it breaks my heart. I hope this woman has a nice place and loves him, he deserves the best.

Sereele's first ride off the farm

Chris and I took Socks and Sereele to Stow today! figured a nice relaxing quiet ride on good footing since Socks threw a shoe and Sereele is very ouchy on the rocks. When we got there, there were 2 other horse trailers with horses getting ready to head out and bikers and hikers and dogs, oh my! so I started off leading Sereele, a black dog came around the corner and scared poor socks, he's never seen a dog before you know. then a bike, all fine. Sereele was totally calm so I got on and we rode around for about an hour. Sereele was amazingly good. I think socks spooked more than she did. we passed the horses a couple of times and they were both fine. of course socks wanted to meet them, but he controlled himself. we trotted quite a bit (for us) and they were both tripping and gimping, can't wait for shoes thursday. we had a few good laughs at sock's expense, like when again he almost went head first into a tree and got mad when some people didn't pat him. Sereele went first and second, was brave and not hyper at all. I almost got us lost, but figured it out and got back to the trailer and let them graze for a few minutes. then went to load and Socks was an ass. had to get the trusty broom out and beat him. not really, but we both wanted to. he finally went in and sereele hopped in. Socks was pawing on the way home and all sweaty when we got here. sereele didn't sweat (anhidrosis still). so now our newest worry is why socks is not happy in the trailer. he was out of hay, hopefully he just got himself worked up about it.
We have a lesson with Claudia monday! will be good for all 4 of us. I am SO happy with how well sereele is behaving and handling everything new. next adventure is overnight camping at Myles standish in 2 weeks!

The Show!!!!

I've been in such a fog that I forgot to post about my escapades at the dressage show on the 3rd!!! Loading in the trailer was relatively simple, took two tries to get Socks on and voila, he was on. Sereele got on nicely as well. Everyone traveled well although Socks was a little bit sweaty when we got to Weston but not too bad. Got signed in, got the kids off the trailer and both Socks and Sereele were pretty "normal" and not completely losing it like he did at my last show. YAY US!
Got him tacked up with the help of all my grooms.....Lou, Becca, CB and Mary. You gals rule!!!! Socks and I ventured into the practice ring with about 4 other horses in there. He was a bit "up" but calmed down and even had some really nice moments. I only practiced for about 10 minutes or so. Socks tends to have meltdowns so I didn't want to push him. Sereele was great and they didn't even call each other that much if at all. =) CB did up his hair just before the class. He looked good.........
My first test was up and I was the very first rider in our first class.....UGH! All in all, he didn't do so badly. He didn't spook at the judge and was ok with all the crap going on on the outside of the ring and in the woods. He did, however, decide that circles should be egg shaped and tried to elongate our first circle..bad boy....and my correction was less than stellar but we managed to not leave the ring.
I was third for the next class so the pressure was off a bit. I was horrified to see that there was a lady riding this beautiful Friesan that was clearly beyond walk/trot level but whatever....I was really there to get Socks out and about and if we won something..........well bonus! He did try to leave the ring in our second test and again my corrections were very obvious but hey, we got through it.
We got a 52 and a 54, not great but certainly not horrid for our first time back in the ring with only about 2 weeks to prepare.
As I was leaving the ring, it started to rain......what timing! Socks didn't want to go back on the trailer but eventually, he decided that was a good idea. Sereele was good and went on too. Wasn't a bad day and I definately would like to go to another show this summer!!!!!!