Our First Ride at the New Farm!

Well this weekend we had some really whacky weather and on Saturday we had rain, marble size hail, lightening and wind. But alas on Sunday the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. So Reilly and I decided to go riding for the first time at our new farm in Lockhart, TX. We walked out to the pasture where the mares were basking in the beautiful sunshine... This first photo is Nikki and Kohela.
This next photo is of Prima Bella KA - one of the most winning Straight Egyptian Arabian Mares in the country in both halter and performance. Today Bella just hangs out at our farm having fun and being played with by us and having foals. She is my favorite riding horse because she is so calm and reliable on her feet. And you will notice that she is ALWAYS listening to me to see if I have anything important to tell her.

Oh I have to warn you that the photo quality in these photos isn't the best. That is because I am using a little digital camera and I'm usually either walking around or riding a horse. In both of these scenario's its hard to be still to take a photo... So this next photo is of Reilly walking Brenna to the barn to be brushed. All the mares rolled in the mud on Saturday and were filthy. We just brushed them up and away we went... Finally saddled and up Reilly is having a great time riding Brenna through the big pasture....






















I tried to get a photo of myself, but since Reilly didn't have a camera - all I could get is my shadow! I have alot more to tell you about our ride, but for now I must go to bed! More tomorrow!

Going to Scottsdale for the 2008 Arabian Show

I'm so excited to be going to this years Scottsdale Arabian Horse show! Liz Salmon and I are covering the show for Arabian Essence Magazine and I'm absolutely thrilled. My goal is to get a great photo for a cover of The Arabian Magazine.

Its a beautiful day here in Lockhart, TX and I'm going to be working on training Aspecial Ali, Bellisimo BCR, KA Sultan's Diva and Prima Bella KA. Also going to be setting up the 2nd round pen! The photo I've posted is of the first new round pen which is really top notch!

Teaching Special to Drive

We worked today training Special in the long lines. We let him run around in the round pen with the surcingle to get him used to it. He did a little hopping until he was used to the surcingle, but he then got the hang of it!
We next put Special in the long lines and Reilly made sure that Special stayed on the outside of the round pen.. This was really great as we were able to teach him to turn left and right all from the comfort of the center of the round pen. This worked fairly well although Special kept wanting to stop. Eventually we were able to keep him moving forward even with the pressure of the long lines.

Next we got behind Special and drove him in the long lines. He did a great job. He was particularly good at stopping and backing up... And each time he did his job correctly - Reilly went up to him and pet him so he knew he did a great job! I was so impressed that Special was not afraid of having me behind him and that he stopped so easily with my voice commands and with a little pressure on the long lines to whoa. I don't think it will be that difficult to get Special comfortable with pulling a cart or wagon. I've always thought it would be alot of fun to go for a ride around the neighborhood with one of our horses.

The Different Ways of Training Horses

Reilly and I have been working on getting Special and Bellisimo conditioned. We have very different styles and its interesting to see how effective our methods are. Reilly really believes in trying to form a partnership with the horse and trying to earn a horses respect through native indian methods. I on the other hand use more traditional methods of working on respect. We each worked on lunging Special in the new round pen - which by the way is the best round pen I've ever seen. It is super heavy duty and perfect for a stallion.

Reilly was using the lunge line to move the horse away by sort of throwing the line at the horse. I on the other hand just free lunge using a lunge whip. Special has some really great movement and now that he had gained some weight and muscle is really lifting up in front as well as driving from behind.

Special is giving me a little trouble in that he keeps creeping forward on me... So we will be working on that first and make sure he has his foundation down solid before we work on his actual "standup".

He is really enjoying being out in the big pasture to run around - he loves to gallop and show off.