Sky

[katie muise]

Name: Sky (some may know her as ebony, or ebony sky lee)

Sky is a 6 year old mare that was born on Feburary 27th 2004. Her father is Legend from timberline appoloosas, and her mother is a newfoundland pony cross named beauty. She has had 5 owners as far as i know, and that is including me. She came to me on April 1st 2009.
I did not start a training log when i got sky so here is some things about her.
When i got her i could not put a saddle pad on her back.
She did not tie. (she ripped a hitching post out of the ground 3 times..)
Wasn't the best with her feet.. but was tolerabe.
She was pushy with me when leading her.
Was very nervous of everything, even when she was turned out which was 24/7 unless the weather was unfit for the horses to be turned out.
She would not let me put a halter on her.
She did not respect my space.
and had little ground manners.

After doing some work with her that spring she was still very .. nutty.. she acted kind of crazy... all the time.
By July i believe it was, i was riding her at the walk, but she bucked me at the walk. She still would not let me put a halter on her, unless i was the only one there and i had food for her.. and it was very rare that i could get a halter on her alllllll summer so she did not get ridden much at all. And when she did she would act up. My dad rode her one day while i rode the pony and he threw her off twice.
I went to camp for a week in august and when i came home she still was halter less because every time we did manage to get the halter on her (like i said not very many times) she would break it, or manage to get it off .
In September Tetley arrived. For those of you who do not know Tetley, Ruth and Kevin of Cache Rapids Stable are the owners of him. Tetley came to me for me to ride him and work with him, where he was a green brat.
Anyways, Tetley never met Star and Sky until a month+ later because he stayed at the barn while Star and Sky were on pasture down by the river.
When Sky finally met Tetley, i don't know what happened, but Sky changed. I don't know, how or why, some people might think im crazy but she changed. That week i was in the barn with all three of the horses. I was brushing sky i believe and she was being rather calm. One of her halters were hanging up on tetleys stall so i went over and got it, walked right up to her and put it on her. I was in soooo much shock that i actually had a halter on her that i had to get my sister to come see. So me being a dumbass didnt do the bucle up correctly, and the halter was off not 3 minutes later.. In my head i was thniking "lovelllyyyyyy, now what the **** am i supposed to do ... . So i grabbed the halter off the floor walked up to her and put it on her again. There was a smile as wide as Canada on my face after that! when my dad came home he didnt believe it. And was amazed that I had a halter on her because of how horrible she was all summer about it.
After that, her attitude towards everything seemed alot calmer, so i was more comfortable with riding and working with her.
She now goes w/j/l under saddle from riding her this winter, but still needs alottttttt more miles. She is not as spooky as before, but is still neverous of certain things. Her steering needs lots of work as well as her transition between gaits could be quicker.

Today I took her for a trail ride by herself! We usually take her with another horse so she isn't as nervous, but she has been doing good lately so I decided to try it!
We rode for an hour, working on whoah-walk-jogg transitions while on the trail.
She usually prefers to not step in slush, mud or water, but today she went through the slush and mud, but jumped the puddles.. an improvement on the slush and mud part! haha
She had one spook at a piece of snow i believe it was. Whatever it was was falling through the air and she moved away from it when she saw it. Nothing major.
She was breaking into a jog without my command, so whenever she did i turned her in circles immedietly. After about 5 times of this happening she finally realized "oh, if i walk when i am supposed to, i wont have to turn in circles all day".
Overall it was an improvment ride, and better than the last!

katie

[katie muise]

Took sky out for an hour again and she did Excellent!!
I rode her to the a big flat field where they go on pasture in the summer and rode her walk/jog. We did walk jog whoah transitions, praticed steering at the walk and trott, did some bending circles praticed more steering and transitions then called it a day!
She only tried breaking into a jog once today and I turned her in circles as soon as she did and she didn't do it any the rest of the ride.
Another little spook today. Someone hit the side of the barn, and she herd it and kind of made a jolt, but just minor!
Then I went home a took tetley for a bareback ride!

Katie

[katie muise]

Took Sky out for two hours today and she did pretty good!
First i did some desensitizing with her using a feed bag. Then i did some leading using pressure and release. She is getting less nervous of things as the days go by. A car passed though the drive way while i was praticing leading with her and she just perked he head up.
I took her for a little trail ride after i groomed her for 15 minutes then tacked her up and she did pretty well! We just did walk today because the ground is pretty greasy with everything melting, and sky isnt the most cordinated horse .. aha
Then i came back home and called it a day because she was listening well and paying more attention than usual.

Katie

[ariana]

yah pony

[katie muise]

March 8th!
Forgot to write that day^ so i will summary that.
Did more leading with sky because sometimes she is pushy with it. Led her up to "scary" object, such as ropes, because she was terrified of them a few months ago, and just decided she was okay with them one day ,.. dont ask..., also orange ribbions tied to ropes, the kind people mark the rabit snares with. I also walked her around the shed when dad was using loud power tools in there while building his sled, and she was a little nervous about the noise, but no spooking so that was good. Did pressure and release while leading and shes starting to catch on to lowering her head, and staying beside me when i lead her instead of trying to pull ahead of me.

The weather has been crap lately. We went from beautiful days that you could wear a t-shirt out, to this weather we are having lately... freezing cold with wind ... yay...
But today was a little nicer out so i went out with the horses.
Sky is weird and wont drink warm/room temperatureish water. She prefers the cold water from the brook. Usually she just stands on the grave in front of the water because she is frightened of it.. or so i thought! But today she walked right out into the brook with me, its only up to her fetlocks but its a start! She was very relaxed about it so i am happy about that!


I probably wont ride her today because i want to take tetley for a night ride when it gets dark.

[ariana]

yahhh ! Brandi needs to come out so I can get her used to water AHA ...sounds like sky is doing really gooodddd !

[katie muise]

Well first you would need to get her use to the trailer to get her out here , but haha thanks:)

[katie muise]

I was skidooing all day on the mountains with the famjam and a bunch and it was about 5:30-6:00 when we got back, and abby(dog haha) was home all day by herself so i decided to take her for a drive in rhino before i went for a ride. When i got back, i went up with the horses.
I was sitting on the fence while they were all at the other end, and i called out to sky and she perked her head right up and started towards me. When she was about half way to me, i clicked to her to see if she would jog to me, because the other two do when they aren't lazy but i had never tried to see if sky would, and she did haha. After that i was just still just sitting on the fence, while they were there eating hay. I was going to take sky for a a ride but noticed some pieces of wood around the pasture from when the fence was built so i decided they needed to be picked up haha so i did that, and while i was doing so the horses were running around and playing. It was the most i have even seen them play EVER.
Sky was running around bucking and doing a million different "gaits" of hers haha. She was running/hopping like she was a top notch dressage horse. and then tetley right along side her doing the same. It was so funny to watch. When Tetley is in the mood to play, he does the bounciest lope you would ever see, he hops through the air. Literally. and flings his front legs way ahead of him while he is "bouncing". My mom was walking past the barn and saw the horses playing while i was watching them so she stayed and watched. She picked a good day to come see the horses because she got a good laugh out of it! by the time the horses were tired out from playing, and my sister breaking the fence gate it was too late to ride, so i will probably ride sky tomorrow

[katie muise]

Did a little work with sky today!
She was perfect to catch as usual. Did some leading with her and shes did excellent with it.
Figured i'd try the spray bottle with her filled with water again. Last spring/start of summer, she would not stand for it. She was very nervous about it and would shy away alot. Today it took under 2 minutes and she was standing PERFECTLY to be sprayed all over. I was extremly pleased with this. I also rubbed her over with a rope, and tossed it over her back a few times as she was terrified of them last spring/summer. I just do that with the ropes usualy each time i do work with her just so I know she is still fine with them and not being nervous of them. I also just did the usual, picking up feet, moving away from pressure and lowering her head. Today she did very well with her groundwork and i was pleased!

katie!

[katie muise]

Im a bad mother and i havent ridden much at all the past week because i have a headcold.
I was riding with ariana friday and saturday. Rode nipper and gunner and had a very sore throat and my voice was going after being out in the cold haha.
I was going to ride tetley today but then i got called because two people wanted to come see the horses haha, so i went out and they wanted to see me ride one of the horses so i just grabbed the side pull and rode star. I also put it on sky .. its very adjustable lol, and sat on her for 5-10 minutes, and she stands very well. I didnt feel up to going for a longer ride and doing some work with her or tetley because my head was pounding from a headache so i went inside. Hopefully tomorrow i'll feel a bit better and will be able to do some undersaddle work with sky.

katie

[katie muise]

Im finally over the flu and the weather has been getting on my nerves so much i just went out and rode in the freezing cold, snowing weather we have
I was going to take Tetley for a ride but decided to take sky instead.
I groomed her for about 20 minutes then rode for an hour.
She did excellent today and i was very pleased. We were only working on steering, walk-on and whoah today because the ground is a bit greasy from the melting snow that has been falling.
She was realaxing a bit more today until an idiot kid from stephenville decided he was going to fly around the field i ride on his dirtbike , sky was a bit nervous of it and shyed away from him. It was realling annoying but he left right after i gave him the finger.. It was either that or me start yelling. and just getting over a head cold and having a sore throat, plus not wanting to frighten sky anymore i decided i didn't want to yell.
After that, she calmed back down and relaxed very quickly.
Her stopping is comming along well, today i was just leaning back in my seat and commanding "whoah" and she was stopping. Instead of the usual doing that + pulling back on the reins.
Her steering is getting softer each time we ride and she is bending her neck left and right better since i have been doing more circles with her.
Her walk-on command is come along way from her standing still and not wanting to take one step even if there was another horse ahead of her gone on. Now she responds to the voice command extremly well.
Oh and i rode her without any of the other horses there because she pays more attention to what she is doing.
I was also VERY VERY pleased when a helicopter flew RIGHT above us... flying pretty low to the ground! and she didn't spook! Just kind of looked around because she didnt know where the really loud noise was comming from haha.
All and all it was an excellent ride.

Katie

[katie muise]

im very bad at updating this.
monday we took all three of the horses out for a trail ride. sky was good, spooked at a quad.
yesterday we took all three of the horses out for another trail ride. i rode sky this time. she had her second experience in the river. the first one was last year and didnt go so well... she got scared and bolted UP the river. yesterday she was walking through the river really well. she was relaxed and the other horses were not in the water, i just took her in it herself and she walked on like she had done it a hundred times, i was very pleased with that. then when on of the other horses was being a brat and tried to turn around and go home along with the other, sky stood for me and didnt follow. we did walk/jog the whole time, and led part of the way back and she did excellent. it was an awesome ride and she is progressing really well

[katie muise]

Went for a trail ride bareback this evening. Ariana took star and i took sky. She did really well!
We only walked, but she was stopping awesome and turning well! I was pleased

[katie muise]

I am TERRIBLE at updating this.
I took tetley out for a ride and when i got back, i tried my new saddle on her (shellys old silver supreme)
Then i took her for a little ride, not very long because it was getting cold out.
I also led her around (from the ground) some "scary" objects. Once she knew they wern't going to hurt her she was fine with them.
She did very good today an i am very pleased with the progress she is making.
Just a side note, my sister took star out for a ride and i had sky already out, and once tetley realized he was there all by himself he had a fit. He was squeeling like a little kitten, bolting around and squeeling some more. Once i brought sky back he stuck right by her side and is still right next to her now.

[katie muise]

monday, i did more leading practice, and leading through a course of "scary" objects. she did excellent! if she wasnt sure about one of the objects i just let her take her time, but usually when i showed her the noice it makes (hit it) she was fine with it and walked on my not thinking twice about it ever again. she has calmed down alot more and seems to want to be worked with as before she would just want to go back in the filed with star and bolt around with him

also on saturday, tetley left to go back to CRS, and the full rest of the day star and sky were calling out to him. when i went to the fence to see them, they would look out past me and all around me for tetley.