Brilliant!

Kokanne was amazing today! We had much better luck picking up the correct lead and he's jumping was outstanding!
Except for the four stride the whole course was different today, we had one rail down because the turn was weird and then a second down later because he hadn't realized that it was bigger until we go there. Once he gets going he was a great jump and some where along the line I got used to his weird low neck hunter style, and now we do quite well together.
He's also starting to change my opinion about Quarter Horses! I don't hate  them or anything, I just don't really care at all about them because they aren't exactly great jumping horses, but Kokanne isn't the big stocky chunky type either, originally he was breed to be a barrel horse. His name screams Western horse (or some what red neck owners) as I can't think who else would name their horse after beer. But what ever, he was amazing, a bit of trouble having to much momentum for a turn, but we made it over and left the rail up, so it worked in the end.

He's such a tool in the barn sometimes though. He deliberately stomps on the edge of my plastic grooming box to send everything in it flying and he's pulled down blankets and stomped on them too. I didn't see the blanket bit, but another girl in the barn did and said she's never seen a horse do anything so deliberately. Not sure what all that's about but oh well. Also, only 2 Diesel stops today! Are they possibly going away....? No, I've probably jinxed it now.

#14

On a not horse related note: #14 Smile is complete! A delightfully sinsiter/creepy painting of the Cheshire Cat on my bedroom door. I love that cat :) Will have to touch up his eyes so they aren't so flat looking, but he turned out miles better than I thought he would at the start. You should go see him on DA :) the link will take you right to the page

Marty!

We're pet sitting for my aunt and uncle over the holidays, this is their 1 year old lab Marty. Storm has actually tolerated him and his antics better than we thought.

Had a jumping lesson with Kokanne last night and finally have video, except my camera isn't brilliant at taking video so I won't post them.

Over all the lesson was really good, the last time up the four stride was really good, just needed to leave him alone enough to do it properly. The grid was better than I anticipated it to be, but he kept drifting of the right. He didn't ever run out or stop, but it was just something we needed to work on but never totally fixed. The single diagonal was always good though! So that was fun. I should try harder and actually get a photo of him for you. We also had better luck picking up the correct canter lead most of the time. Less Diesel stopping too, still was some though. Wish I knew what it was about. Anyway, he also seemed less rushy when it came to jumping, so maybe he's rushing last week wasn't a super big deal? Another lesson on Saturday, we should be doing the same thing as Thursday, so hopefully we can really build on it, and have a bit more luck.

Kokanne

Worked and rode Kokanne on Saturday and he was miles better than last week, we re did the same course as on Thursday, which is from K's new book "50 ways to torture your lesson students". The course isn't really torture, the torture is trotting jumps. I hate doing that, it's the bain of my existance.  Kokanne did well enough though.
The usual problems of picking up the correct lead (usually the right) and my own inability to feel when he's got the wrong the one. How do you tell? She says its wrong, but doesn't tell me what to feel for. Must figure that out.
He had some really good jumps last day too, which was great, however he's been getting a bit rushy getting to the jumps the last while but we don't know why. I thought maybet he crop made him nervous, but you can't ride without it because if he knows you haven't got it, he will stop somewhere along the center line and not move, not matter what. Usually brushing him with the crop is enough to get him going again without actually hitting him. But K doesn't seem to think that's what it is, so we'll see.

Last uni exam tomorrow, thank god! Equine Science, should be okay I think. Mostly general health will some stuff about parasites and what not. They take waaaaay to freaking long to post the marks from the finals though. Except for French and English, they've all been multiple choice, and since the computer is what marks them and all that, they should have been up along ago. I would like to know asap what's going on with stats, are we redoing 141 or good to go to 252? Best be up by the end of the week because the uni shuts down on the 20th or something and it would be nice to know long before 252 starts...

Back to riding!

Finally got back to the barn after a very long week!

Last Thursday with Kokanne was...disappointing, to say the least. Can't be to upset with him I suppose, the lines on their own were really good, but we had a tight roll back turn to the right and he just couldn't do that. No matter what we changed over the line and the turn, it was to hard for him. He's not a show jumper and he never will be, he's not athletic enough to do the turns because he has some scare tissue on one hip (which is also why he has a super weird canter), so it's the hunter ring for him. It's just frustrating when your like 3-4 strides out from the jump and you can feel him stiffen and you know no matter what you try to do he won't make it over (or even try). Stuff like that always makes me feel like such a bad rider even if there's nothing to be done about it because it physically isn't possible.

I rode Shawn yesterday and he was pretty good over all. A couple run outs and some not so nice jumps but that's because we didn't have enough canter. The lines over all where really good, and he has such great form over them (most of the time) and it makes it more noticeable what I need to work on; better core and keeping leg still over the jump. K has some big dressage trainer she used to ride with coming up to the barn to do a clinic, which would be an awesome experience, but we'll see, I don't really have a dressage appropriate horses to really make the clinic worth it... So we'll see but I can't decide, its kind of expensive to do without Rocky. He's not the dressage horse either, but better than Kokanne or Roxy I would think.

Procrastinating...

a most unfortunate time of the year...

Have not died, it's finals week at uni and it's a most terrible hell, with little time for anything other than studying and drinking energy drinks (cause they are soooo good for you... but i figure every once in a while isn't so bad) however with out them I would have bombed the psych final and fallen asleep during it haha...ahh uni, such a treat!

So, thank you Monster, for not letting me fall asleep in the exam and staying up enough to get as much studying done as possible.

At Last!!

At long last! The first term of uni is over, the only sad thing is that now it's exam time! Saturday is the first of five. French should be okay, Equine Science-fine, stats/psych/English...mmmm yeah, we'll have to wait and see. But there's not enough hours in the day to get all the studying done. But shall just have to think of Scotland and Australia, that should make it more bearable...I hope.

Spencer

Spencer is one of the new horses at the barn, his owner hasn't been able to make it out the barn lately, so I got to ride him on Saturday.

He's...different. He's half Cob (section D), a quarter paint and a quarter Arabian, but he looks all Cob. He's a got a lovely trot, which they are breed to have but his canter is kind of weird. He has a proper canter and a four beat "canter", we stayed well away from the four beat, but apparently its good for his owner for some reason.

Jumping was okay, he's jumped 2'6" at his old home, but hasn't done a lot of jumping since coming here. He doesn't have a nice jump. He likes the long distances but sometimes he will change his mind and get in short or he'll chip etc. it's always a surprise with him. So there was a lot of really ugly jumps and he's got such an awkward canter and it throws you back so it makes it harder to get forward and not have ugly, awkward jumps. But over all he was a lot of fun! I wouldn't mind riding him again but he's in a lesson on Thursdays before me and his owner should be back out next Saturday.

Kokanne III

Overall he was pretty good this Thursday but he's still doing that weird thing where he just stops and refuses to move. In the end K gave me a crop just to have and right when he knew you had it he was better. Only had to brush him on the hip with it when he refused to move.

Jumping he was really good, the course was a bit more complicated, but he still did really well. Got a bit wiggly down the 6 stride but still made it.

But I waited to long to write this so I don't remember much other than that.