90 Degrees... what!

Yeah it was hot...

Kat and I met at the barn to ride, I told her it's good that we have each other to keep us accountable cause on the really hot or cold days, it's easy to bow out.

Got the boys, tacked up and got on. Henry was a little fresh so I hopped off the lunge him a quick min but he was dead so I got back on after like 2 min. Guess he was just testing me.

Went to work at the trot- as he wanted to raise his head and ignore me, I closed my leg and sent him forward. After a few laps both ways he gave up and hacked really nicely. Did some shoulder in he was great!

Moved onto some cantering and working on him staying balanced and constant in his pace. Softened my hands and make him carry himself ... bingo good job Henry!

Then I moved onto some counter canter. Henry was awesome going left (on the right lead) and not to bad going right (on the left lead)... really he was awesome both ways but stronger going one way- obviously :)

Cooled the boys out as they were really sweaty.. Kat and I chatted :)

Nicku came by and said hi on her way out to grain her boy.

It was a nice quiet (and hot) night at the barn haha!

Lesson tonight, off tomorrow, lesson Thursday, idk Friday and lesson/hack for me Saturday.

Come back weekend!

Friday Henry had off and got turned out to bask in the sun :)

I spend a lot of time Fri/Sat/Sun watching the Rolex 3 day on USEFNetwork.com ... totally could never see myself doing cross country but so fun to watch!

Saturday I got up a bit early to watch the above while B slept in. Once she woke up we headed to the barn to watch Henry's trainer ride.

They worked on a loan vertical and turning over it - riding it on a circle.

He was a good boy!

Sunday was a day off for Henry as B and I went to visit the hubby. Two more weeks and this school/training is over and he will be back home woo hoo!

Since I loved the way that my hot pink polo fit I bought two more at the AE outlet this weekend, navy and blue/white stripes.

Hack tonight, lesson tomorrow, off Wednesday, lesson Thursday, idk Friday and lesson for me Saturday.

Most important!!! Go check out Hillary's contest! Yeah for winning things!!! And she has a GREAT blog ;)

The lone oxer

Thursday I had my private lesson... aka lets really push Karley lesson. Haha! Don't get me wrong it's good for me and I like it- still scares me at times!

There is a Chris Cox clinic at the barn this weekend and there were a ton of people riding inside.

I grabbed Henry, tacked him up and headed down to to big arena. As I was walking down I notices that they were just finishing putting the jumps away. So I headed back up to wait for my trainer to see where she wanted to ride.

She got there just as I was getting back up to the barn and she said to ride inside.

It was hard so she had the guys drag it- while I was flatting lol. Thankfully Henry didn't flinch an eyelash or care about the tractor following us clanking around :) Good boy!

We worked on some lead changes and they were much more spot on, thank you Henry- it's less work for us both if you cooperate!

Jumped and X oxer to warm up... then it got bigger...

A lone big airy oxer... it actually wasn't too big to start with but it grew- I don't know why I was surprised lol!

We worked on straight to the jump, straight after the jump, dropping my hands and closing my leg to the jump, forward forward forward to the jump (I have to have more pace to the larger fences) and lead changes after the jumps.

I heard the famous one more time a bunch- id like to think that I was doing a good job so she wanted to see my mad skills over and over lol!!!

We both got a GOOD workout and were sweaty when we were done... LOTS of walking to cool us out.

Hose Henry off and had my trainer pull his main while I cleaned tack and we chatted ... it was nice!

Friday Henry got turned out and Saturday he will get a trainer ride cause I am not able to find a sitter ugh!

I've been watching Rolex and wishing I was there- all of y'all who are there I am jealous!

Hot pink ftw

I had a SA-WEET outfit on. In efforts to keep professional and look the part/respectful while riding I wore a new polo- hot pink from AE. It fits great and the color is so fun- everyone kept saying "Karley where are you I can't find Karley"... told my trainer that I was helping her out so she didn't lose me since there were three lessons going on in the big arena at once ;)

Lesson last night which ended up being a private lesson.

I got Henry, tacked him up, lunged him outside in the really big round arena and got on.

Trainer was talking to the BO so I started hacking around on my own. He was a little lookie as no one was in the arena but us initially but I pushed him forward and he got over it. 

Trainer came down and we cantered and did lead changes and then ... jumping. There was a liver pool in the course SO I was a little eh but Henry doesn't mind so I shouldn't care.

Started out warming up over 1 back and forth.

Then we did 1 left lead to 2 left lead to 3 right lead to 4 a few times.

Then we did 1 left lead to 2 left lead to 3 right lead to 4 right lead to 3 left lead to 6 and 5 a few times.

After that we broke it down to 3 left lead to 6 and 5.

Then right lead to 6 and 5 a few times.

Then 5 to 6 a few times and ended with a good trip through 6 to 5.

Henry was good.. Trainer said I did well (thank you Jesus).

Cooled him out a bunch.

Untacked, hosed and vetrolined, gave treats, cleaned tack, took him to graze, grained and kissed him good night.

Wednesday off, Thursday lesson ... idk Fri/Sat.

It's Spring!

They have opened up both ends of the indoor arena. One end is always open and other has a sliding door... it's open :) Henry didn't seem to mind it which was nice, I rode as if it was always like that.

Not a person was at the barn when I arrived, thankfully Kat was on her way.

We tacked up, I went to lunge but the round pen was SO HARD so I didn't do much, hopped on and got to work.

Henry was actually pretty lazy.

Hacked around and worked on staying in the frame, bending nicely around my leg and keeping a constant pace- he wants to speed up down the long sides at the canter.

I also worked on some no stirrup work at the sitting trot, posting and canter. I also worked on picking up my stirrups when cantering without them... the slightest touch of my leg- Henry takes that as a go fast now, ugh!

I will continue to work on that and no stirrups because I need to get stronger and I have to start somewhere.

He was really hot and sweaty as I did a lot of work so Kat and I cooled out and walked for a bit.

Cleaned up, hosed off, grained and put the boys away..

Lesson tonight, off tomorrow, lesson Thursday.. idk Fri and Sat.

Down to 99... Hmmmm

So I am back to 99 followers LOL... aye that was short lived.

Sunday I ended up turning Henry out and cleaning the WHOLE house and doing ALL the laundry. It sucked but needed to get done.

 Hack tonight, lesson tomorrow, off Wednesday, lesson Thursday and IDK about Friday and Saturday.

Lastly... I saw some LOVELY bracelets that I would love to own, so I sent the links to my hubby. Mothers day is coming up so I thought it was a perfect timing, here's to hoping he remembers :) I would like them in white, black or pink...

http://www.pinklette.com/

http://www.pinklette.com/

Change or plans

So my babysitter texted me this am about an hour before I had to leave for my lesson saying she couldn't come- ugh.

Henry got turned out instead...

Got some premiums in the mail so I have been dreaming about horse shows.

Make sure to enter the contest at She Moved To Texas :)

Sunday will be turn out or a light hack, we will see how the day pans out!

Contest Results and This Fab Friday!

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest and shared your fav product! I loved hearing all of them and will def have to try some that I haven't tried before!

Drum roll please....

The winner is Jen at Cob Jockey. Email me your mailing address so I can send you your Vetrolin shine :) karleychall @ yahoo (dot) com

Friday Henry had a trainer ride. He was really good since well I had two lessons- yesterday and the day before. There wasn't anything to write home about cause he was good.. they worked on the same jumps/course that I had done the two days before- just the jumps were a whole up from where I did them.

I think I will just hack him around tomorrow since he had 3 jumps in a row unless my trainer says otherwise. Sunday he will get a nice LONG turn out to eat lots of grass!

Two great lessons...

Both were hard but worth the effort...

Wednesday I ended up having a private lesson. Hacked around as the kids finished up their lesson and then we did some lead changes and then onto jumping.

This was our challenge lol

The vertical on the left was put down to an X to warm up.. back and forth and keeping him straight. Then we did the oxer off the right lead, around to the left lead to the back vertical, 5 strides to the two rail vertical. We did this a few times to get it right, more then once lol!

Then we did the double bar vertical to the oxer... around the orange cone. Holy moly it was hard!! I was told to try for 6 strides but it was rough! A few times Henry saved our booties but I also had to ride ride ride him every step.

We did the vertical to vertical and it was much easier and then went back to the double bar to the oxer.

HARD WORK ha!

Thursday I had my normal lesson.

Ran Henry around in the big arena/round pen. He can haul ass!

Hopped on and went to work while my trainer and her friend walked around and gave me instructions. Basically just going through the paces and then it was the grand ol lead change time. Our big arena is really big- and straight down the long side is a long way... today the lead changes were a challenge. Henry anticipated and then was just wiggling all over and keeping him straight was my battle... we worked through it.

Onto jumping...

Warmed up over 1 back and forth.

Then we did a combination of things...
One course was: 4, right lead to 5, left lead to 1 to 2, left lead to 4, right lead to 6.
Another was: 4, right lead to 5, left lead to 1 to 2, right lead roll back to 3.
Another was: 4, right lead to 6, right lead to 4, left lead to 2 to 1.

There were others but I can't rem them all ha!

Again a hard lesson but good lesson. I am sore!

Trainer ride Friday and lesson Saturday.

Extra Extra Read all about it!

Contest time!

So here is the deal...

1. Leave a comment with the ONE product you can't live without for your horse. I know there are probably many but pick one :)

2. I will put all of your names into a pot and have a random person draw the winner.

3. I will then ship you my favorite product for Henry, well one of my fav's as I have many... Vetrolin Shine.

4. I know Smartpak doesn't ship to Canada so I will send you a gift card if you are in Canada ... then you can go buy some! :)

5. Contest Ends 4-19-13 at 12:01 pm PST :)

Ready...

Set...

GO!

100.. it's contest time!

First things first- my ride last night.

It was windy windy windy!!!

Kat and I got our ponies (she is leasing Magic now woo hoo!), tacked up, I did a quick lunge but it wasn't helping so I just got on and we went to work.

Shortly after we started riding some other people showed up and we aren't really sure what they were doing with their horses but it was a lot of noise and perplexed both of us.

Went back to hacking. Henry was really good despite all the wind and chaos... he scooted a few times down by the open end and where all the wierd noise was but i just ignored it and pushed him forward and he was awesome.

I did a lot of cantering- all the way around the arena, random circles big and small and in not the normal halves... when he listens and is collected while cantering he is so nice to ride- I mean he is nice to ride all the time but he feels SO fancy when he is all put together! He even behaved when there were some wild horses in the round pen.

The wild horses mentioned above came in the arena right as I started working cantering with a long loose rein... I thought for a min that I should gather up my reins but decided to give Henry the benefit and see how how acted. He was awesome!! One lady even chased her horse around the arena and repeatedly wacked it with the lead rope (I guess it was acting bad but I wasn't really paying attention) and Henry took it all in stride- GO HENRY!

Cooled out, untacked and groomed, grained and put him away.

Tuesday maybe a hack (trainer moves lesson), Wednesday lesson, Thursday lesson, Friday off, Saturday lesson.


I will do a separate post for the contest :)

99....

Oh man so close to 100! I might now have the patience to wait till 100 to do a contest... but so close, come on 100! Ok so maybe I can wait till we hit 100 followers OR 25,000 page views...

Nothing exciting to report. Henry got turned out Sunday for about 2.5 hours. He ate all the grass he could get his poor starving self to. They finally made the rest of the turn outs and there are two of good size now (ok what I think is good size is probably nothing to the rest of the world cause our options suck lol) and the rest are small so I was excited to get him in the one biggest one.

Hack tonight, lesson Tuesday, off Wednesday, lesson Thursday and idk about the rest of the week cause apparently his Friday trainer rides aren't happening...

Been day dreaming about shows... in the next 6 weeks a lot is going to change with hubby's work so we shall see what I can make work/squeeze in :)

Yep I would like to have all my rides like this!

Thursday and Friday's lessons were very similar ... just Friday I rode better then Thursday :) Both were great lessons, hard work but I felt SO good after them.

Started out with a high high horse on Thursday so Friday I made sure to really really really tire him out.

So both lessons went a little something like this...

Hacking around, working through the issues of the horse eating benches and plastic chairs... then onto some lead changes... then jumping-

1. an X
2. Vertical
3. Oxer
4. Wall
5. Wall (kinda)
6. Box

Started going back and forth over 1 to warm up. Stopping not far after the jump and also getting the change and going through the corners... keeping Henry on his toes!

Then we did a whole bunch of different combinations of courses with all the jumps. I had some troubles when we did the oxer to the vertical, idk why but I did but was able to work through it. I kept getting deep spots- don't know what my issue was.

Henry jumped everything really well and was a rock star so I can't complain.

Saturday Henry has a trainer ride since hubby is working so I wasn't able to ride. I joked with my trainer that he was going to be awesome Saturday cause I put in some hard (but good) rides ... They jumped the same course as above, the jumps were just up 1 or 2 holes. He was great as I expected haha!

Going to the barn next to ours tonight to watch my bff run barrels :)

Henry will get turned out to graze tomorrow- rough life! lol

Agree to Disagree

Tuesday I had a lesson... it ended up being just me in the lesson but like 3 other lessons going on in the same arena... good times! :)

Hacked around on the flat with my trainer adding in things here and there.

Then we moved onto jumping...

 Warmed up over the vertical back and forth. Then did the X (left lead) to the oxer- he stopped the first time. Trainer said I rode for a stop, I didn't' feel like I did- tried to steer cause he was trying to dodge out left or right and def had my spur in him. Came back around and he jumped it... then we did the vertical to the X to the oxer (off the left lead)... then did more of the oxer and really getting him forward forward forward to it.. then backing him off and adding the extra steps.

It wasn't a bad lesson but I hate that he stopped... Onto a new day I guess.

Cooled out, untacked, groomed, loved on, grained, grazed and took Henry back to his stall.

no pictures please, I am eating...

Wednesday I just turned Henry out and let him enjoy the awesome weather!

My lunch...

Lesson Thursday, lesson Friday and trainer ride Saturday.

Suit & Tie

Empty barn... contemplated riding. Decided to ride... btw I love listening to music while I ride- I keep one ear bud in and one out so I can still hear other things if needed.

Got Henry, groomed, tacked up, lunged and hopped on.

He was really really fussy with his face- I wasn't even using a short rein or being busy with my hands. Took about 5-10 min for us to work it out and then he was pretty good.

There were some kids who had shown up with their mom playing on the chairs and just jumping up and down. He did pretty well with that which was nice.

I worked on our canter departures from a walk and trot, with contact and without, him really listening to me- even whoa's with no contact on his mouth just me sitting deep and saying whoa.

By the time I was done (about 40 min ride) someone had shown up for a lesson with one of the new trainers. I cooled out while the kiddo got started.

Untacked, groomed, pulled a little mane, blanketed, grained, grazed, put him away and gave kisses.

Lesson tonight, off tomorrow, lesson Thursday, trainer ride Friday and idk about Saturday since hubby works.

5 More Weeks

Friday I wanted to ride but ended up being at work longer then I planned so I had about an hour before I was to pick up B so I took Henry to the BIG round arena... he was WILD but I only got video after the race was over lol.

Going Left
Going Right

Floating... aka high horse! :)

Saturday I just turned him out since I had B and hubby wouldn't be home till the evening. I was going to attempt to ride and bring lots of things for her to play with but since there was a pony show going on I didn't want something to happen to her with all the commotion going on.

Sunday  we went out to breakfast as a family and then I met Mona to ride. The ponies had taken over the indoor arena so we weren't sure where to ride, were told we could ride out side so we tacked up, I lunged and we headed down.

Henry wasn't bad per say but his brain was not there and his head was up. I couldn't get him in a good frame to save my life and he was really pogo'ie... I tired to canter to get him to go forward and relax but if I touched his mouth at all he acted like I was ripping his face off. Drama Llama!!! It was almost like he was so confused about everything in his world shirnking (all the ponies). He wasn't spooking or scared of them but just confused lol!

About 5-10 min into our ride we were kicked out of the outdoor and told we could go inside... lots of walking all around haha!

He was still a bit frazzled in the indoor but settled in finally and I got some great work out of him. Worked on frame and then loooooooose reigns, then back to contact. Soft canter and good departures as well.

Cooled out and walked F O R E V E R with Mona talking.

Gave Henry a quick rinse of his shoulder, legs and saddle area with some vetrolin.

Grained, grazes, filled his water and gave kissed.

I'll be back up there tonight to blanket.. supposed to be 43 tonight.

Hack Monday, lesson Tuesday, off Wednesday, lesson Thursday, trainer ride Friday and hopefully a lesson Sat if I can get a sitter.

5 more weeks till hubby is done with this new job training.. it's been the longest 22 weeks of my life!

Sheesh.. I'm finally back!

I am sooooooo behind!!! I will catch up on your blogs, promise!!!

Monday I hacked. The pannels were removed from the half wall on the open end of the arena- Henry knew something was different but I reminded him that I was in control and after a few (hundred) times by it he was over it lol. I worked on lots of transitions and smooth smooth smooth!

Lunge right

Lunge left

Selfie

Henry grabbed the whip when we went into lunge and proceeded to avoid me as i tried to get it back from him- crazy horse!

Tuesday was lesson night. Got Henry, groomed, lunged and got on. Honestly I don't remember much other then my eye sucked in jumping- no bueno!

We jumped everything but 5... I was the master of bad spots and knocked down rails. Thanks to Lyssette for playing jump crew.

Wednesday I had another lesson since my trainer will be gone Thur- Sun. We used the same course and added in fence 5. Henry and I were WAY better and even worked on some lead changes on the straight line - SO hard!

Henry is excited for the lesson!

New boots! :)

My eye was better and he jumped great! He and I were both super sweaty so I took a long walk around the property to cool him out. Then gave him a bath :) LOVE a clean horse!!!

Also I got a new coat and keep forgetting to show it to you all! Got a great deal on it and it seems to be a nice coat :)

Henry also got his 'toes did' Wednesday night.

Turned out today, hack Friday and prob lunge Saturday since I have B and hubby won't be home till the evening.