Back in the saddle with some new stuff....

Oh, yippee!!! I am back in the saddle again! I rode Gilly this morning and it was great! My shoulder and arm are still somewhat sore but me knee did well, still can't bend it all the way but it is working enough to ride.....I am really happy about that.

I also ordered some new horse stuff for me! A new helmet (yes I got it yesterday so it was on my head when I rode today)

This is my new helmet a Troxel Legacy Gold GPS III and I love it!!! Great fit nice look and I am going to wear it all the time when riding. I was looking at my old helmet last night and it has a crack in it??? How did that happen? I never fell off when wearing it, but yet it has a star crack the size of the end of my little finger on the side. Guess it's a good thing that I got a new helmet.

I also ordered some new half chaps, the others I have are Ariat All Terrain chaps that go really well with my all terrain Ariat boots; I wanted these to go with my Ariat paddock boots. I also got some stuff called Sit-Tight to spray on my saddle seat to keep my butt in place......hey, know what...IT WORKS!!! I was able to sit Gillys bouncy trot today!!!

I don't have any pictures of me and Gil on our ride today but we did ride. Up and down the road, did some trotting and some fast walking but no cantering, yet. On the way home we rode through the hay field where I fell off, he seemed pretty nervous and we just walked. Even Pokey running in the field above the road made him nervous which it hasn't in the past. We rode on up past the house to the next neighbors and another Blue (devil) Heron flew out of the creek in front of us a little way up the road. Gilly just stopped and looked at it but didn't shy. He was a really good boy today and we had a nice ride!!!
Tomorrow we will take another ride then Sunday it's the horse show. Gilly will be busy taking in all the sights and sounds that he has never seen before. What fun; I don't know if I will ride him there or not, it depends on how he responds to all the activity and there will be a lot of little kids running around there. But I will take pictures anyway, stay tuned!!

Still waiting to ride.............

This picture was taken two weeks ago, when I could still ride. My knee is still giving me fits, even though I am icing it and putting "Sore No More" on it. I can't straighten it all the way nor bend it back very far.....like walking up or down steps....sideways one step at a time! Very frustrating, but it seems to be a little better than yesterday. I really want to get back in the saddle.....probably NOT by the creek at a canter though, dang Blue Heron! He had to pick that moment to fly up in the air and Lucy felt obliged to chase him; she always does that and there is no way she could catch him. One of these days he is going to drop an unexpected deposit on her head for that!!!

Any I am still going to the horse show on Sunday even if I can't ride. Gilly will enjoy all the sights and sounds and other horses there. Kim and I will have fun; hope to have a lot of pictures to show from it; stay tuned!!

After the fall...........again!

I have no pictures cause no one was out to witness this fine dumb-ass event!!!

I was riding Gilly this afternoon, we did cantering and he was doing fine. I had the western saddle on, just because I like riding it for a change from the English dressage saddle. We were having a great time cantering through the hay field on the way home, our field. We had cantered a little way and he slowed to a trot. I asked for a canter again and he responded then............a Blue Heron flew up out of the creek across the field from us. Lucy came tearing from up on the road bank and behind Gilly leaping up into the air trying to catch the bird. I was cantering with one hand on the reins and the other on the saddle, I turned my head to look at what was going on. Then Gilly started to run faster, threw in a little buck and next thing I saw was the ground coming up at me! I went off on the right side but somehow I hit the ground on my left side, my T-shirt and pants were covered with grass stains. I laid there for what only seemed like a minute or so trying to see if anything was broke and if I could get back up. I did and started looking for Gilly; I figured he ran toward Kim's house since we had just passed it shortly before. When I got back up onto the road, I limped down to see if I could see Gil. There he was standing on the opposite side of the road, looking scared. I called to him and he started walking to me. Thank goodness and thank goodness there aren't many cars on our road. Hadn't seen on for two hours.

I tried to get back on but the saddle had slid way back and sideways, so I decided to walk back home and hang on to Gil if I needed too. We made it back, I unsaddled him and put him back in the field. Hobbled to the house to see what I had done to myself. Couldn't find any bruises but lots of grass stains, and boy am I sore!!! My right knee hurts, both hips, my left shoulder blade.....nothing hurts bad enough to make me think it is broken. But I knew if I didn't do something that I would be so stiff I couldn't walk. Mike was out weed eating so I started raking and picking up the weeds. Pulling weeds in the flower beds, slowly though. As long as I kept moving I didn't feel too bad but if I sat down for any period of time I started to get stiff. I had taken some Ibuprofen as soon as I got back into the house to help with the inflammation.

After supper I got into our big Aqua Glass jetted tub to see if that would help with my sore spots. After I got in I was hoping that I could get back out!!! I did but the stiffness is creeping in and I am hoping that I can get out of bed in the morning.

I am so mad at myself for not holding the reins with both hands and making myself sit deep in the saddle and maybe I wouldn't have gotten bounced off. I hope that I am not too stiff in the morning because I want to get back on Gil again.....I swear I think I am going to invest in a Velcro seat cover so my butt will stick to the saddle better!!!

Gilly goes to the fair.............

Well, OK not really but we did go to the fairgrounds. The fair isn't until the until the end of August but we wanted to go so Gilly could get off the farm and see some sights. Since he has done so well at trailer loading Kim and I decided to take him for a ride. First we walked him all around the grounds, he saw lots of horses, horses with wheels (sulky racers out practicing) he wasn't to sure about them and thought he might like to trot along too. No, Gilly we are just out for a walk. The thing that scared him the most was two little kids, about 5 and 3, they came running toward him and he about jumped out of his hide! Gee, mom those little humans more fast and scared me!!!

After walking him around Kim and I had lunch. I had packed a picnic lunch for us. We tied Gilly to the trailer, he had his hay bag to eat out of. He stood there resting one foot munching away. There is a bike path right behind where we were parked and there were many bikers riding that day, he would turn and look but wasn't bothered by them at all. Gilly also has some of our lunch, apple and a piece of bread, he was happy.

Picture above was taken before I started riding him around the grounds. There was another horse working in the arena close by that he was keeping an eye on.

We rode around about half an hour before we went into the arena to check it out. Gilly was looking at the shadow on the ground of the big lights. They made a funny looking shadow and he wanted to step really high to get over them! The only other thing he was a little leary of were the orange cones in the corner.

Here we are cantering..............

Here we are barrel racking, see how fast Gilly's feet are flying.....hardly touching the ground! LOL Yea, right!!! No, really we were just walking around it using leg yielding.

Walking toward Kim as she was taking pictures.

Walking past the announcers stand, he wasn't concerned by it at all. I have seen some horses in shows that are afraid of it and will shy away. We won't be showing but it's fun to just come and check out everything. The next horse show will be July 12th and we are planning on hauling Gilly here so he can see more horses and more excitement......more small humans too!
Gilly loaded up really well, I was afraid he might not want to go back in. He didn't get in far enough so I just touched his hip with my finger and he stepped up so I could fasten the butt bar and he was ready to head home.

I got to drive Kim's truck home pulling the trailer, my first time! It was fun, a little scary especially going down the steep hill (gravel road) going home. I just drove really slow and we were fine. Kim has the nicest trailer, I still wish I had one.....sigh.....maybe someday! I can use her's anytime but still I would like to have my own. The neat thing about her trailer is from the dressing room you can open a door into the part where the horses are. Makes it much easier to tie them up after they are in the trailer and secured with the butt bar.

Having a dressing room wasn't on my list of priorities for a trailer but......it sure was nice to be able to pack all out stuff in it. A 7 gallon jug of water for Gil, his bucket, saddle and tack, to bag chairs for me and Kim, the cooler with lunch and other stuff! Nice trailer....I love it!

Next week it's Lacy's turn to go for a ride!!

Me and Gil cantering

OK, here it is, are you ready for a good laugh? A video of me cantering Gilly and Vicki instructing me. I really don't like posting pictures or videos of me, ugh, but I am doing it anyway. Maybe with all this riding I will lose more weight, some has already come off.......a lot more to go, poor Gilly.

I rode him for two hours yesterday, both of us got a workout and both of us were tired when we got finished.....heck I'm still tired today. Riding him is a lot of work; he is pretty lazy so you really have to work to make him go. It really helps to have a ground person who knows what they are doing. Trying to learn all of this dressage is hard work so someone telling me what to do is a really big help! Wish I had an instructor everyday.

Still in the hay field, wish I could turn this into an arena. Would have to shorten it up so the gas well wasn't in it though. I figure I can ride in it as long as I am not tearing up the grass.....I'll have Gilly tip-toe! LOL I'll just pretend I have an arena and make that work, he doesn't care where we are. He did like the shade along the fence line where we stopped, me too!

Cantering in the field

Here is Gilly doing a medium trot; he can do much better but was really tired from all the work we did today. Lots and lots of cantering, some 20 meter circles at the canter. Me on him, wow! He is a hard horse to ride because of all the suspension he has and trying to ride a trot or canter in a circle has been hard. But today I did pretty well, we need a lot of work. Where we were riding today we in our hay field, Gilly needs a lot of room to move the round pen is not the place to work. Since I don't have an arena we thought we would work in the hay field since we cut hay last week....nice. Haven't told Mike that I was working in there but I don't think we will hurt it.
I have some video of me riding him at the canter but need to edit a lot out before I post it. I am not a big fan of watching myself ride, ugh!!! And I do have some still pictures too.
The field we are in is right by the road to our house and there is no fence. I still can't believe that I am cantering him without a safety net so to speak but he is doing really well. When you set down in the saddle and stop moving he stops too, good boy!!! Oh, how I love this horse!!! :-)
~Jane and Gilly~