Apricot Brandi (a.k.a Brandi)

[ariana]

Still no riding, weather is the shits ! And it rains like everyday so even plan B is out I did some leading stuff (backing, stoping, turning) but that's about it. I also groomed her the other day which she did great for ! Today I dewormed her I was told that she was awful and that we should put it on bread with molasses or something like that, but I was feeling pretty good and just did it with the syringe. IT WORKED ! Mom held her halter so I could put it in and I put it in with no problem then just tilted her head up and down it wentt. She was so great for itt, although a little pissed at the end at me, she was still great

[ariana]

Today was BEAUTIFUL and I used it to my advantage ! Brandi has eaten all the grass in her pasture and our laen needed mowing so I ride her home. The flies were magety and she kept stomping and moving a little when I was grooming her. I can't blame her, they were even bothering me ! Then I saddled/bridled and I will have to work on her bridling as she is getting bad with it. I rode her and she put up a fight in the beginning so off we went trotting and then loping cause she was still fighting at the trot. After the loping, she was perfectly calm and relaxed. She listened great and I did some whoaing practice which is WAY out of touch but she was doing it after about 5 tries. Her backing up still seems to be the same thoughh. That's about it !

OH, she is VERY interested in Allee Poked her head right down to Allee's height to sniff herr , ahahaha.

[ariana]

Today was pretty much perfect. I rode her in the bareback pad and her bridle which I was figuring was going to be pretty bad cause my balance sucks, but it was awesome ! She bridled perfectly, just needed to go slow and she was fine. So I hoped on and we did some stopping, turning with both reins, and backing up. All were wonderful ! She was stopping nicely and she did it a few times with just my leg. Her backing up is almost to the point where all I need is my leg (I just need to work on her backing up STRAIGHT) and her turning has greatly improved as well. We did some giving to the bit and she did it right away.

After all of that I did some trotting and she listened to the rein and she was going at a nice , slow pace which I loved as my balance wasn't the best

All in all, it was an amazing ridee !

[ariana]

Rode again today and she was fantastic ! We started off with steering with two reins (getting ready for neck reining) and she responed really well. I have to pull hard sometimes, but that's to be epected. Then I did some trotting and she was doing really well, a little fast , but it'll come in time. We did bending and she responded right away ! I only had to do it twice on each side and she did exactly what I wanted Seeing as I was doing this all in my back yard I had to go on a little trail down to the softball field to do some loping and boy was she energetic ! She was booting it around, which I didn't mind cause she had a lot of energy from not being exercised good in the past few weeks. After about 3-5 laps she was down to nice, smooth, CALM lope. I switched directions to work her other side and she did great then. She needs work for steering at a lope, but it's managable OH, and she's catching on to my cues for leads. I only had to fix it twice at the field and I asked her to lope on the trail which she went on the lead I indicatedd so I was happy !

[ariana]

Took her straight down to the field and when we got down there I found out she was afraid of the baseball pits so I got off, walked her by it until she would go with no hesitation, then trotted her by it, and got on after. Took her to the other one to see how'd she do and she shied away form it at first, then was perfectly fine !

Now came the work:
1) Worked on two-rein steering, which improved after about 5-10 minutes (still needs a lot fo work though)
2) Then did trotting and getting a nice, slow pace out of her which I got once she realized that if she didn't go fast she didn't have to go in a circle
3) Bending came next and she was great for it. At first she needed about 5 circles before she gave to the point that I was happy, but after that she gave right away!
4) I wanted to lunge her at a lope so I had brought along my lunge line and out she went. I only had my lunge line cause that's all that would fit in my back pack and it was a struggle to get her to lope. I was expecting that cause I've never done it before (never enough room) and I didn't have a whip. However, she did do two laps for me which was awesome and she didn't pull that much to my surprise.

She's doing really well with her bridling and when the bit goes in, she lowers her head down so I can put the top around her ears And she's starting to understand when I put my hand on her poll, that she has to lower her head !

[ariana]

Rode Brandi down to her pasture and she did really well. We just walked the whole way and she was steering really well. She shied away from a garbage bag so I walked her by it again and then she was fine !

[ariana]

*Yesterday*
Went up and she has a sore so I put some wonder dust on it and then I picked out her feet and put Hooflex on them and she was a doll ! She stood for everything and just let me do what I wanted. Then two little girls were like creeping their way over and just stlaking us basically so I asked if they wanted to come over and they came up. Brandi was a gem and didn't even care about them, HA. They got helmets and I gave the two (and a third came after) pony rides. It was bareback so I was a little nervous but it went really well. Brandi didn;t even care about them bumping their legs on her side when they got on (by accident of course) and she was really chill and relaxed bringing them around ! I was so proud of my girlll <3

[ariana]

Yesterday I worked with Brandi in like 2 weeks ? I rode her bareback to the field (her sore is still not healed) and she did great! She bridled good (still needs work with putting her head down, but better) and she stood for me to get on. She was listening really well and even did some neck reining for me !
Here's a list of hwta we did:
- she went through water when asked; there was hesitation, but she still did it
- when we got the field I lunged her and she was awesome at a walk,trot. listened to my commands, slowed when asked, and stopped when asked.
-then we went to loping. This was only our second time EVER loping on the lunge line and I was expecting the worst. I hada crop so I just kissed, whipped it on the ground once when she didn't lope and she was off ! She also kept going without me having to keep at her with the crop. She pulled quite a bit at the lope, so I just tried to correct it and she seemed to be doing better.
-worked her on the other side and she was harder to get to lope, but eventually did it.
-after lunging, I bridled her, packed up the stuff, got on her, then headed back.

Overall she did awesome for not being worked in weeks and I'm so happy with the progress she's made in the past few monthss

[ariana]

Haven't done ANYTHING with her at all in weeks, literally. She's just been eating, getting fat. So, today I was going to ride her up to the house , but there was a warning for thunder/lghtening tonight so I just put her in the pen after I had some fun

I hopped on her bareback and she was great.
-Stopped with just my leg (on a dime might I add)
-Gave to the bit wonderfully
-did well with her two rein steering

then I wanted to have some fun, and apparently she wanted to too. . .

I asked her to lope and she bucked, quite a big one too ! Then she followed it with a a stride in a lope and another buck! Surprisingly, I stayed on and actually didn't even slip at all. Then I just got her back to a walk, went around for a bit, then got off. I ran her around and she was so silly, bucking and shaking her head when we first started going! She got her silliness out then just ran/trotted around for a good 20+ minutes til I finally cooled her out.

[ariana]

She's finally aled enough to ride and Emily came up to ride which I think Brandi did pretty good for ! I lunged her with emily on her and she responed well to Emily's cues except when it came to slowing down, which I had to help her out a bit Then we did some loping and she was hard ot get going, but she did pretty good for not being ridden in a long time. We were just working on the rider's balance at a walk/trot so she got quite the workout !

After the lesson, I rode her home which she did not want to do and fussed for a bit, then when I made her lope for a while she realizd her fussing wasn't getting anywhere. We made it home safe and sound.

She was munching on the lawn for about an hour, I took out a tarp, pinned it to the ground so it wouldn't blow away, then got my pony. I had her walk over it which she was a little unsure of at first, but it only took two tries to get her to just walk on over it. After that she went on it no problem, so I went to trotting over it, which only took three tries until she would just accept it and go over it with no fuss. After that I took off the weights so it was blwing and rustling, but not moving totally away. Then got her to walk over and she was hesitant the first time, but after did it willingly, took about 4 tries to get her to trot over.
I moved on to it flapping and having it rub her, which she would jump away from, but after about 5 times of rubbing it on her shoulder, I was able to rub her everywhere and then eventually put it on her like a blanket with her just standing still , calmly. I decided to end it there and put her out to eat.

She also got to meet all my three dogs which she just sniffed then walked away. I was so proud cause she hates dogs, so this is an improvement !

[ariana]

Did another lesson today. I got a chance to ride her/work with her before they arrived so I did a lot of trotting and got it down to a nice slow jog after about 10 tries. I went on to loping and she had trouble with picking up her right lead, but the third try she got it ! Her left lead came as soon as I asked, even went from a walk-lope! Emily then arrived, so I put her on the lunge line and out we went trotting, working on the rider's balance. Brandi listened considerably well. She walked when I asked (with a few mistakes here and there) and when Emily asked for her to trot, she went right into one! Then I let Emily take the reins and have full control which went well. Brandi was hard on the mouth when we got near the gate, but she fought through it and Brandi listened up. Her stopping was pretty bad, but by the end she stopped when asked too. Her backing up was good as well.

After I let her munch for a bit at the house, I went back to some bomb-proofing stuff. Took out another tarp and did the same thing as yesterday. Today she had no fuss walk/trotting over it and having me put it on her, I even walked her around with it on her. She had a little scare went I would twirl it by her legs or next to her, but after a few minutes she calmed down and never even flinched.

After the tarp I got two balls and a bucket (I'm doing a game with her tomorrow ) She flinched at first with me throwing the ball in the air and catching it, but after she was fine. I threw it into the bucket from beside,infront, and under her, she didn't care ! I got on her and threw the balls in the bucket and she didn't move an inch ! I'm so proudd of my babyy

[ariana]

Am I ever poud of my ponnyy ! I just worked in hand with her today and she was simply amazing I gave her a good grooming and she stood for EVERYTHING including her feet, then I brushed her face and she just stood there, halter only aroun dher neck and not being held or tied on! I did some trotting, trying to get her used to going at a slow pace and she aced that as well,along with speeding up when I asked. After trotting, I did some lunging cues for turning direction and I was totally shocked when she did it imediatly when asked seeing as we haven't done it in weeks. . .the time just kept getting better and better.

She was doing so well, that I just HAD to try to see if I could get herto side pass from the ground. I had wached a Clinton Anderson video of how to do it, so we headed off to the line of fence. It took probably about 10-15 attempts to ge her to understand what exactly I was asking, and then she did it! The only thing now is that she'll do it with just me swinging the crop at her shoulder, but she leaves her hind end behind so I have to swing it at her bum so she's lined up I tried to get her to do it to the left, but that's her bad side, so she wasn't budging and so I ended it off with one last good side pass to the right and a couple of handfuls of shreddies

[ariana]

She did good todayy, listening well when I rode her. When another person rode she didn't listen to steering very well because they need ot work on their steerin so I guess she was a little confusedd Did some more sde passing to the right, and she's getting that she has to get her hind end to keep up with her front! I tried to go to the left, but she jsut won't do it that wayy, so I'll try that on a day where I'm feeling confident

[ariana]

Rode Brandi down to another pasture a few days ago and well, it was an adventure. . .

We started out with two hestitates and one full turn around, then she was good to continue until we got to the bridge...she did not want to cross it. I did want to have a big scene happen because 1) she had already slipped once and 2) there were cars coming ! So I hopped off and lead her across and she was fine. Then I hopped back on and we walked along the road and even did some trotting ! I was so proud of her for being so well behaved. She only spooked once and a horn beeping, but after that they didn't bother her.

When we got to the "new" pasture, we came to some problems and I ended up having to tack her all up again, and go to another pasture we had lined up as this one wasn't fully thought through on the other person's part. She was a gem (although a bit anxiuos) cause there were other ponies there and she hasn't seen other horses in like months, ahaha. So, we walked/trot/and loped to the other pasture which was awesome and then we settled her right in and she was fine.

In the end, it was a 2 1/2 hour ride and she was a gem. Loves the pony I do

[ariana]

Dissapointing ride today....but it was mainly my fault as I haven't ridden (actually riding to train her) in literally weeks. So my expectations were a little high.

Anyway, we started off with her not wanting to stand, but I fixed that quickly and she stood. She didn't move while I groomed her except trying to put her head down to eat. Then came the saddling which she shied away from the pad at first, but after that she was fine. She didn't stand when I first got on so in circles we went ! Then I hopped off when she was standing, and tried it again...not a step !

List of things we did:
Bending- stubborn at first , but within the 2nd and 3rd tries she was giving right away.

Slowing the trot: FAIL. She was WAY to hyper and full of energy that I just let her go at the faster speed.

Loping: She did great with steering and getting on the right lead

Backing up: NEEDS LOTS OF WORK. I think she totally forgot what I was asking, so we'll need to freshen up on that

Trot-Walk Transistion: Lots of work as well. We were getting it towards the end, so there's hope.

Stopping: Perfect

Two rein Steering: Pretty decent...needs work though still, but it's not a fail.