TAZ-Sunday 3/28

Big boy TAZ gets a spin also. Kirstin has a lot of fun working all of the horses in one day. She does opt to ride some bareback. TAZ is her favorite to ride bareback. He has such a broad back that he is actually very comfortable to ride bareback, even for a guy! Here is the friend of the family on TAZ.

He was amazed that he could ride TAZ with just his legs-no reins needed to steer him around. He has never ridden a horse using leg reining.

Kirstin can't resist the opportunity to ride TAZ. He is so much fun to ride.

Kirstin showing Andy that you can ride TAZ with no hands.

Kryptonite-Sunday 3/28

Kirstin & Kryptonite. Kirstin would love to start using Kryptonite for some of her playday events so she has been practicing barrels with him.



Kirstin & her nephew cowboy Daniel. It won't be long before this little guy is riding on his own.

Rounding barrel one.

Knocked over barrel 2 and toooo lazy to get off of Kryptonite. But as usual Kryptonite is willing to tolerate Kirstin's antics.

Barrel 2 uprighted.

Friend of the family riding his first Mustang.

Kryptonite has really grown a lot since bringing him home. He is looking real pretty, grown a little and packed on a few pounds.

Dynamite-Sunday 3/28

This is Jamie working Dyno on barrels. Jamie has taken claim to Dyno & he to her.

Dyno has been doing pretty good. He is still so young and at times it comes through-he likes to play. He neighs as if he is talking to us. Sometimes, I think he should be called Mr. Ed. We can

be right beside him, talking to him and he will quietly neigh at us as if in answer. Of course, if we aren't paying him any attention, he is loudly neighing at us.

Playday season begins 3/27/10

First playday of the season, Kirstin & Trigger are lead for the drill.

Trigger loves to perform in front of a crowd.

Flag drill.

Kirstin & Trigger taking off running the Poles event.

They didn't get a time on this event, Trigger broke pattern. He gets so excited at the last pole, he thinks he is suppose to keeping running straight, and Kirstin couldn't get him turned before they broke the timer barrier. They had a fantastic run other than that. Kirstin & Trigger also competed in Cloverleaf barrels and straight away barrels. They came in 5th out of 19 in each event. Not too shabby for a horse with no formal speed event training. Trigger has sooooo much heart, I have never seen a horse quite like him. His only desire in life is to please his rider. We were truly blessed when we bought him. He wasn't always like this though. I have seen this horse do a 180 since Kirstin started using him for drill.

Meet Maddie

Kirstin has had Maddie a little over a month now. When she first came to Kirstin, Maddie had no problem being saddled or someone sitting in the saddle, but she didn't seem to have the go forward cue down. Kirstin felt bad because she had to kick so hard to get her going. So Kirstin decided to start from the beginning as if Maddie had no training what so ever. Ground work-Maddie led great, but that was about it. Kirstin began round pen work with her and things started changing, Maddie started to trust Kirstin and really wanted to please her. Here a some pics from the last few days of training.

Last night Kirstin was feeling a little lazy, she didn't want to drag all of the tack out, so she decided to see how Maddie would do bareback. To the best of our knowledge Maddie has never been ridden bareback. She wasn't too sure at first, Maddie knew something felt different when Kirstin got on, but it only took her a little while to get used to it and appreciate the fact that she didn't have to wear that heavy saddle.

Without the saddle, Maddie almost seemed to understand the cues better.

She went straight into a trot and maintained the trot for a long time.

Obstacles are no big deal for Maddie.

Watching Maddie back while Kirstin was riding bareback was the most amazing thing. Maddie is just learning to back, but without the saddle on, Kirstin barely had to cue her to get the back. Kirstin would raise the reins slightly, wiggle her butt and Maddie would back right away-not just one step either multiple steps, softly backing. By the time she was finished, Kirstin barely had to lift up on the reins to get the back. I think she might do a lot more training bareback.

Some round pen work. Maddie really needs this every time before she is ridden. She definitely listens better when she begins with the round pen.

Changing directions.

At a lope.

Job well done, Maddie coming in for her reward!

A good scratching from Kirstin. Maddie loves to be scratched.

In the saddle.

Kirstin has only taken Maddie out of the pen a couple of times. Still working on directional cues, but she is starting to venture out more and more. Maddie has made a lot of improvement since she has been here. She is a sweet natured horse and her age sometimes I think works against her(she's 7yr old) but she is responding well to Kirstin.

Kirstin's brother-the hero

Not really, but we are still very proud of him. Derrick has made the decision to become a firefighter. He is currently a volunteer firefighter and is going to EMT school. He is the guy working on the lady, he is a red hat meaning he is no longer a newbie, promoted to the next level. He really loves what he is doing, esp driving the fire trucks. He admits that there have been some pretty rough moments to deal with, but the good outweighs the bad. The lady is doing fine, it was a pretty minor accident-if only they could all end like this. Makes you appreciate your life even more & treat it with more care & respect when you see things through the eyes of emergency personnel-they have seen a lot.

Kirstin passes her love of horses on to our neighbor's daughters!

Last summer, Kirstin babysat for our neighbor's daughters. These 2 young girls had the time of their life with her. At that time, Kirstin exposed them to her love, her horses. Kirstin was heavy into the training of Tuff for the makeover, so the girls would spend that time watching Kirstin train him. Although the family owns horses, the girls would not have much to do with them other than petting them. Kirstin changed that. They now want to learn to ride and their dad is happy to see them getting interested in horses and hopes that they will stay involved with them like Kirstin has. He says, if only we had more young kids like Kirstin, she has such a passion and drive for what she does and it is so obvious that she loves what she is doing.

Brianne is the youngest, she doesn't quite fit in the saddle yet, but she loves to ride. Funny story, I caught her standing up on Trigger's back and she said that she always wanted to do that but couldn't because her dad was always around. I wasn't concerned as I know Trigger, he is a do anything type of horse, he really doesn't care what you do with him. Trigger is about 16 years old and does a little bit of everything. He loves barrel racing, carries a flag, is the horse that Kirstin uses for drill team, carries little kids on his back and knows they are little & takes care of them, carries adults who claim to know how to ride and will show them that they really DO NOT know how to ride.

Brianne likes to trot.

This is Victoria, she is the oldest of the two. She wasn't real sure about trotting.

Victoria learning how to turn Trigger.

Trotting.

Brianne learning the barrel pattern.

On her own!

Bringing it home! Trotting by herself.

Victoria's turn. Trig knows the barrel pattern and he really wanted to run it, but he stayed at a trot for Victoria.

Victoria bringing it home!

Kirstin is training a horse for this neighbor. It is the first saddle training that she has ever done. Although Maddie(7 yrs) came to Kirstin already saddle broke, she would not move, Kirstin would have to kick & kick to get her moving, she didn't back-not even on the ground, didn't pick up hooves. Kirstin started at the beginning with a lot of ground work. She now has Maddie moving under saddle at a walk and trot, backing on cue and is working on teaching Maddie neck reining as our neighbor wants her to be necked reined. She is very smart and a very fast learner. Pics to come soon.

Vet day

Had the vet come out yesterday to give shots and do coggins on our horses. All went pretty good until it was Kryptonite's turn. The most laid back horse on our place turned into wild man when they gave him his first shot. I wasn't there at the time, but the vet said, "yeah he's laid back, laid back on his houches." Evidently we have found the 1 thing that Krypt does not like-shots. They ended up having to put him into the chute to finish his shots & coggins test. Luckily our chute is 8 feet high as he tried to jump out of the chute. Krypt got finished up and then the next challenge was Kirstin first Mustang Sakari. Sakari has not had a shot since we brought her home, not that we haven't tried, it's just that she hates them and is still very much in touch with her wild side. Fortunately, this time around, the vet tech was very knowledgeable about horses, took her time, and with the aid of Kirstin, Sakari got her first round of shots. TAZ & Dynomite took the shots & coggins like Champs-they didn't even flinch. It has been so rainy here that we felt it paramount to make sure all of the horses had their west nile before the mosquitoes came out. The other horses on the place also received their shots & coggins. A total of 6 horses sure does run that bill up quickly, but they are all protected now.
Kirstin is in the process of saddle training a horse for our neighbors. It is her first official training job, so she is uber excited. The horse who didn't know how to move forward on cue is now trotting under saddle on cue. I will post pictures soon.