8 pounds

The amount of weight I lost according to my weigh in this week at school. That's in one week thanks to food poisoning. I'm pretty excited. I still want to lose 30 more pounds. The first 8 were really easy. Tomorrow starts my 6 weeks of morning work outs. I spent the weekend thinking to myself, "What in the hell was I thinking?" I'm sure I'll enjoy it when I lose the weight. Rome wasn't built in a day.

I need to apply that same thinking to Denali. Yes, I'd love to have a horse that I can ride now. My friend gave me a really good way to think about it. To quote Ophie's Mom (my best horsey friend) "Let's get you and Denali both sound and working together for 3 months before you make any decisions." I agree.

Tonight I worked on "Operation Ride A Horse" (Formally known as Operation Ride My Horse since she's still on stall rest.) I rode my trainers Morgan mare. She's technicality a pony, but she feels and moves like a horse. I like riding her, she keeps me honest. It was a good lesson. I do really like my trainer. I know that I've been very frustrated with her, but she's what I need for the moment. She helped me take Denali, a wild and insane TB into a calm, cool and collected TB. I just need to get working with her!!

Today I took Denali out of her stall. She was a naughty, naughty girl!! I took her to the little turn out grassy spot, but apparently the grass was not as inviting today. I watched her for a few minutes to make sure she was going to be calm, and as soon as I turned my back she started to buck and jump around! I turned and ran towards her and as soon as she saw me (I kid you not) she stopped dead and started to eat grass. I think she knows she shouldn't do that. She did it again and I took her back into the barn. She didn't look off, or like she did further damage, but she is fired from being off the lead rope for now.

Wednesday night I go for my interview for the working student position. I'm excited for that. I love playing with fancy warmbloods. I'll never own one. Plus I like learning. Speaking of learning have you ever heard of the breed "Georgian Grande?" I think I want one... a properly bred one.

Thanks everyone for your comments! I really appreciate having you as my readers you make me feel better. I'm not sure what I would do if someone was mean to me.

Happy 30th Honey

Today is my husband's 30th birthday. I want to first wish him a very happy birthday! He's a wonderful guy and I'm very lucky!

Yesterday we had our second "training" lesson with Ms. Denali. I wasn't sure if we were going to actually get a lesson in because my trainer was just starting with another owner and her young QH. I decided I'd work on the lunging we did yesterday, and if my trainer had time then we'd work and if not then no problems.

I got Ms. Denali groomed and ready. Did a little trim job on the mane. Her mane grows SO fast, it's ridiculous! We went out into the areana and my trainer was doing flag work with the young QH (he's 3.) Joe thought that the flag was on fire, so of course Denali was convinced she was going to die.

It was the best lesson I've ever had with Denali. Ever.

My trainer flapped the flag and I lead Denali around the arena. I picked a spot, and focused and confidently lead her around. She was like leading a fire breathing dragon. She was so worked up! I wish I had a picture with her head in the air, and her tail straight up, but I don't. Boo. I kept getting yelled at (not yelled, but you get the idea) to not look at her, but it was so hard because she looked so neat prancing around. I got my head back on and lead her around the arena. She slowly calmed down and started to relax, at one point I told her "good girl" and apparently her entire body relaxed and she let out a huge sigh. I heard the sigh, but did not see her relax. I was too busy being confident and not looking at her. My trainer was very impressed with us. It was a good feeling.

At one point, my trainer took the flag outside and touched things that Denali and Joe hate (i.e. the trailer) I wasn't paying attention and Denali jumping forward to brace herself and landed on my foot. My trainer asked me if I wanted to stop, I said, "Nope, I'll walk it off." Nice bruising though right? :) It's a much prettier color today!

At the end of the lesson I gave some slack on the lead rope and my pony just followed me. She didn't try to run me over or lead me. She followed me. When I'd stop, she'd stop. When I'd turn and face her butt and simply say "back" she'd back up. It was AWESOME! Lol, oh the simple things in life!

Now for the bad news: After our lesson I took Ms. Denali outside to eat some much deserved grass. As I was leading her I noticed she was walking funny. I asked my trainer to watch me lead her and she had a very VERY noticable limp that was not there when I brought her in. :( Her right hind is very swollen and hot. It looks like tendon. I ran cold water on it for ten minutes then wrapped it with a polo wrap to help with the swelling. I mixed up a "dinner" of Bute and Rice Bran. She was only using 3 legs when I left. Poor baby! I'm at work now and have been getting Text Message updates. It's still hot, but the swelling went down.

In other news, I signed up for a 5 week weight loss/weight lifting course! It starts at 5:50 am, so not too excited about that, but excited to get buff, AND loose 30 by 30.

Anyone else find it ironic that BOTH Denali and I are off of the left hind?

Lesson 2

My in-laws left yesterday morning. It was fun having them around, but it's also nice to get back into my schedule.

Yesterday I had a headache from the time I woke up. I almost called and canceled our lesson with our trainer, but I didn't. I said no more excuses, and if I had to drag myself to the barn I was going.

We worked on lunging and getting Denali to listen to me. That is going to take some time. Even when I was lunging her she'd have her ear on my trainer. After a while I got her ear on me but she seemed confused, after all I'm the fun food lady who doesn't ever make her do any work. By the end we were working well together, but I think it took a good bit of time before she got it that I was actually making her work (*gasp.*)

For a bit my trainer stood directly behind me and literally moved my arms for me. That helped a lot for me to understand where I should be in position to Denali. D did a really good job for me, and by the end I would call it a success. We also worked on "Whoa" and she started getting that by the end. She's been a little lackadaisical about it, but started to get it.

We're doing a lot of things over again with Denali because I want to review what I'm doing with her.

Pony Catch-Up

Like I said in my last post, my life has been crazy. My in-laws are in town, and I mentioned that, but what I couldn't mention was the reason they were here. On Friday I had a surprise 30th birthday party for my husband. I must say, he was shocked! It was fun, of course it rained, and of course I didn't have a solid back up plan (it was in our back yard) but we put up tarps and made the best of it. There were at least 40 people in our little, tiny Seattle house. It was fun regardless, but I ate WAY too much food! I spent last week driving around and picking everything up to make the food and then hid it at the neighbors houses. I took off work on Friday and spent the day getting everything organized, and cooked. I think it was a success.

In other pony type related news, I may be a working student again. A local rider is looking for some extra help. She rides Grand Prix, and just moved back to the area. She does training and judging all over the United States (or so says her website.) She is looking for someone who is interested in working in exchange for lessons, board, or training. I would be most interested in lessons, since I think I'm going to keep D where she is for the time being, plus I'm pretty sure I could never work off all the board. I would need to work all day, everyday. I'm pretty excited about meeting her. This week I'm really busy, and then she's flying back East to go to a Judges training so we're going to meet next Wednesday, May 5th. I'll keep you posted on that.

As for the Sweet Denali, I haven't been out since last Tuesday. I'm a horrible, horrible horse owner currently. Her lessor hasn't been out either, and I'm not sure if she's done with leasing or not. I haven't had time to talk with her. I took my in-laws out to meet their "granddaughter" and warned them the entire time that she would probably be really worked up, and would run around a lot. I gave the speech about staying away from her butt, and if she freaks in the cross ties to duck into a stall.

so....of course after all of that she was an angel!

She was really happy to see me, and just wanted her face brushed. She was really itchy apparently. I think she scratched her face for 10 minutes (she brushes her own face, I just hold the brush.) Then it turned her out in the arena and she didn't do anything, no running, no crazy antics, nothing. When I went out there with her she walked right up to my shoulder. When I walked she'd walk, when I'd stop, she'd stop. She remembered everything from our "showmanship" lesson last week. It was fun to show off something that I remembered. She's so smart.

My in-laws leave tomorrow, then it's back to "Operation Ride My Horse."

Easier Said Than Done

This week is crazy. Insane. Yesterday at work one of my kiddos had what looked like chocolate on his pant leg, "Is that Chocolate?" Student rubs his finger on the chocolate, "Hummm....Nope, that's poop." Ugh. Seriously! I also found shit in one of the garbage cans. It has been a crazy, crazy week!!

Yesterday I ran out to the barn for our lesson. I was suppose to have a riding lesson yesterday, and a ground work lesson today. I found out that my mother in law (who's amazing) is coming in today, not tomorrow, so I had to choose what I wanted to do. I decided to work with Denali.

We had a showmanship lesson. I was really nervous and kept getting afraid that she'd freak out, I acted brave which is a new thing for me, but by the end I realized how silly my fear was! It was a good feeling. I learned a lot about how to work with her. One thing my trainer told me was I need to watch my tone of voice. I get high pitched when I get excited. I know that, so I worked hard on keeping my tone of voice calm. She seems to like it a lot more, I guess it reassures her.


My trainer did some flag work with her, and she didn't budge at all. I did learn to pick up on some of her body language and how to read her. It's been about a year since we've done groundwork so I think it's really good for both of us.


Operation 30 by 30 is going well. I did drive by Top Pot donut yesterday and made the mistake of stopping. Seriously, I think they're addictive. They (yes they, :( ) were SO good. Sigh. I ate healthy the rest of the day. I've been running every morning since Saturday. I didn't go yesterday because I needed to get my broken tooth fixed, but I went this morning in the rain!

Operation Ride My Horse, is also working well. I have some obligations this week but will get back to the barn hopefully this weekend to work on what we've worked on.

Operation New Amazing Saddle is on hold. I have a jar that I'm seriously going to keep change in. I'm sure I'll get to 2,800 in no time! Donations welcome!! :)