May 2nd/14 Kizz picks it up a notch!

My friend Robyn brings her mare Bambi home for the first time ever,  and is so happy to have her home.

Not long after her mare gets home she wants to go for a ride (bigger balls than me yup lol)

We agree where we will meet, I come home and tack up and head down the road.. Coby and Dream BOTH yell to him as we leave (Our winter boarder filly left just that week so she's feeling  lonely!)


Kizz amazes me and is super well behaved and trots off to the right down the Maple Ridge Rd . He is very hyper and we barely hold it together, but the spooking at mail boxes and such is gone thank goodness!

He is great the whole way down other than he is super hyper! At one point he picks up a canter but bucks a little with every stride so I pull him back! brat!!

 I'm holding him back ,and am basically in two point the whole way as I can't even post to his trot! We canter a bit at the bottom of the hill and he is perfect .. it takes us less than 30 minutes to meet up with my buds down almost to Kaaren's...

They end up behind me as we miss on the trail  (I came down much faster than they expected ;) haha )
and when I turn and ride up to them I'm happy to see them !  Kizz is too, we have never went that long on the road before all alone without meeting someone.. He seemed to be wondering where all his buds were!

So excited and happy for her! we meet my friend Robyn with Bambi!! yahoo!!

Kaaren's daughter- Breah & Magic, Kaaren & Odin and Robyn & Bambi

We head out on the trail and Kizz seemed to be worried about Kaaren's dog "Riley" even though he didn't mind/notice her once the last ride out we did !!

This is the 1st time we have rode with 3 other horses... he's quite excited and I have to hold hi back the whole time and one rein stop a couple times... he bouncy canters some too... what a terd! I'm feeling blisters coming on my ring finger on my right hand!! :O

We don't ride a whole lot longer as Kaaren has to leave to go to work, and I don't really think I should go too much farther as that was quite a long but fast ride down the road to meet them and I have the huge Maple Ridge hill to go back up to get home..

So Robyn and I split up at the cross roads where she heads to her house.. Kizz whinnies to her mare and her mare whinnies back but Awesome horses that they are , they both behave and move along good for us!!

I make my way home , Kizz is still super hyper and we canter or trot most of the way.. when we get home he is sweaty but not as bad as that first ride ( I think the deep snow had him worried the last ride) and he seems to cool out quick after we get home.. Was a GREAT ride!!!!! (especially for our second ride out of the year!!)

Next up is a clinic we will attend a coupe hours away with another friend Amanda and her beautiful war horse "Bronwyn" This is my first Clinic ever and I 'm soooo nervous !! hope I don't make a fool of myself ,  I know I have horrible habits and haven't had proper instruction since I was ....12 maybe?!?! I NEVER rode English since I was 9 ... I post horrible..

Hopefully the clinic coach (Mitch Barbour)  is pretty forgiving .. but Since I've heard he teaches kids camps with much success I have faith he will put up with me!! :)

little Ava lee gets some riding on Dream her mini mare

It's still too much snow on the trails for me to pony her and her Mini out on trails so we take some nice warm days and lunge her mini mare and she rides some.

She's having a blast and such a trooper!

 Even though these rides aren't as much FUN as she'd like, she sticks to it!! can't wait to take her out on trails and see how much fun she has!

April 18th /14- first Spring ride out on trails!!!!

April 18th -Our first conditioning ride of the year! Not quite on trails but close - at least we are outside!

I haven't rode since April 4th! So I'm a little nervous. I don't know how hyper he is going to be and how he is going to act leaving home and leaving Coby - who is probably going to whinny like a fool! Meeting up with Kaaren on Odin & Robyn on magic at the ditch off the camp road!

We tack up and head down the Maple Ridge road !
Kizz leaves quietly and sweetly! Coby doesn't whinny at all! Kizz and I walk slowly down the road. He is looking at everything like he's never seen it before. Haha spooks at a few mail boxes and garbage bins and even gives me some little bucks twice! But we push on. I get to the field at Tim's to go down to the camp road. He is hesitant to walk on the snow /ice that cracks when we step on it but goes ok. Until we get to the bottom of it where the snow is fairly deep and we sink quite a bit. He won't go on (and it's a long road so I figure that doesn't look fun) so I text Robyn telling her I'm heading home and won't be meeting them.

She replys and says they're right there and to wait they'll head up to meet me. Kizz and I wait. It isn't long until he hears them. He tries to go ahead and meet them but sinks a bit so he gets nervous and shakes some. So I talk quietly and wait. When they get closer we go out onto the road and head towards them. It is only a few feet and we stop sinking so bad! How nice! We meet up and decide to go out onto the rail way and go a ways.


The railway is great footing! Not sinky at all. Just a hard snow. We meet up with some cross country skiers and the horses take offence. Kizz is pretty good other than he is hyper to go go!

Haha them we turn and head back. I go always  along with them past my trail to the camp road. He is super hyper. I trot along with Kaaren (both horses doing super slow canters trying their best to be fast but behave. Haha) then I go ahead and kizz isn't happy to stay behind magic he wants to pass. So after we are all walking I do pass and trot ahead. He isn't so excited to race then haha

We turn and ride back to Kaaren and Robyn and say our goodbyes. First time ever kizz has left horses on the trail without a backward glance even! He didn't care at all!

We made our way home a lot more relaxed than going down! He whinnied and acted silly at the road right at home but I turned and rode away each time until he was quiet. Only one trip and he was good!

Sooo glad our first ride of the year went so well!! I didn't expect the bucking on the pave but it wasn't too bad we survived. And the racy attitude I expected so that was nothing new. He went through a little deep snow the first time ever and left horses on trail to come home the best he ever has!!

Yay for a great first ride of the year!!!

Robyn ahead of me on Kaaren's horse Magic, and Kaaren up front on Odin

Kizz after we get home :)

Feb 8 - April 6, winter indoor riding after our winter break!

After our winter break !

A Picture of my daughter riding her gelding coby over the winter in the indoor :)

Kizz running with his ladies the first day at Dena's 

So we haven't rode in 3 months ..

It's time to get back at it! Kizz is getting rolly Polly too! (And me! I've put 10lbs back on since we quit!)

I have our apha gelding over being boarded since Nov 8, so that my daughter can ride in the indoor. It's so cold and bad weather a lot (even though she would ride in any weather!) I get cold watching her and we don't stay long.. I decide I'll switch the horses and ride kizz for a while. By time he comes home, I can start right out on trails!


Saturday noon time comes and we switch horses. They both trailer perfectly :-)

Kizz gets there and runs a bit with his new buddy Bambi (my friends horse that was here in the fall) they get a long great. Dena - the barn owner tells me Kizz runs around and plays all afternoon!

That evening my friend Robyn says we should go ride. I figure I might as well get that first ride over with! Especially since he ran and played all day. Maybe he'll be a little more relaxed ha ha

So we meet over there around 8 and tack up the horses. We take them to the barn and I lunge kizz a bit. Walk a bit one way then a little jog. Then the other direction. He seems nice and quiet so I mount up. He is great. We walk around doing some bending and warming up. He is hesitant to walk along at a nice pace. He keeps stopping and slowing and picking up pace. He won't stay out along the wall at all. But he is well behaved. After a bit I ask him to trot and we trot around a few circles. He is good. We do the other direction and is good. He doesn't bend in the corners at all. Either from being so fat and round or because he just needs the work. Whoa is perfect. We have even rode along a wall or straight line since he was started to saddle there years ago!  Dena (barn owner) is impressed with how he's doing :-)

Ride goes great! Robyn decided to head back to the barn and when she rode out he got very upset. He started yelling and turning on me. And dancing a bit. But he didn't rear , buck or take off on me.
I do lots of turning and switching directions and keep him moving. He starts to calm a bit. Then we trot a good few circles and he is good. I whoa and he stands quietly. So I decide it's a good time to quit. I dismount and we walk back to the barn with Dena. I untack and give him some love then head home.

What a great first ride!! Can't wait to see what he's like tomorrow night. I hope to ride enough that we get some progress with him riding alone and getting a better work ethic from him. And get into shape enough to canter around!

We need to get prepared for our first  50 coming -early June!! If we are ready , it'll be great. On our at home trails! If not we can always do the 30 mile LD. But we are hoping to be ready for the 50!




Our next ride - tues night
feb 11/14

I get there with Robyn and haul the horses in and tack up , kizz seems quite hyper ! But when we get to the arena and I get on he isn't too bad.
(He stands quietly for me to mount )

We do lots of bending and walking. Then I trot some. Each direction we trot around the wall. Trying to stay along the wall and bending out in the corners. He does a little better than Sat when he inverted on the corners.

At the walk he doesn't really stay between my legs he walks all over the place and doesn't stay consistent speed. He walks slow /fast/ stops/. Even at the trot we don't get a good consistent speed.

He gets nervous when Bambi trots away from us he's scared she's going to leave us alone. He also gets a little racey when we trot and she comes up by us or passes us. But when we are walking or standing and she passes trotting he's fine.

All in all a good ride. We don't ride long it's freezing out ! We ride 30 ish minutes only. I check my tracker and we only did 1 mile! Haha! Long way to go! Rode 33 minutes only

Our 3rd ride -Monday

Alex takes me over. We meet Robyn there. I tack up and we head to the arena first alone. He acts foolish jumping around and being nervous. I just lunge him and wait for Robyn to come over. Then we ride for quite a while. After he is warmed up pretty good, I ask for a canter each direction. He's quite willing to pick it up but is fairly discombobulated both directions and racing quite bad. But we do a good circle each way.

Then I work on slowing down his jog and bending in the corners. He doesn't  keep a very good pace. We whoa and back and do some leg yielding and lateral work. My son Alex comes back and sits on the tractor and watches for a while.  After a while Robyn leaves and I stay back and ride kizz alone. He whinnies and spins around some but isn't too bad. We work through it and then when he is quiet and good we head to the barn. Alex turns off the lights for me so I ride back and dismount at the trail to the barn :-)

Good ride!! About 2 miles I figure lol
He's fairly sweaty too!


Our 4th ride - Wednesday
Feb 19/14

Robyn & I meet at the barn and tack up and head over. We ride quite a while walking and bending and such. I then trot around working on keeping a consistent pace. Bending in the corners. We work on a few more things. I realize kizz is moving better off my leg and outside rein than he ever did. That's nice! We have a great whoa and back. We canter again a circle each way. He drops it before I get a chance to ask him. I have to do to the right twice. But his left feels much smoother than last ride. We do some more trotting. Robyn rides out and I stay in riding. He acts up but only whinnies once and calms much quicker than Monday. :-) yes! We have a good ride and I feel he has progressed some! We get over 2 miles this ride! 50 minute ride.


Our 5th ride
Friday feb 21

Rode over from the barn to the arena through the snow tonight. Soooo makes me miss trails!

Walked and trot well did some bending , backing. Lateral work. We picked up both leads cantering. Kizz decided to buck all the way across the arena when I was trying to get his right side lead. I got him stopped and trot around another circle then asked again.


Right lead not so great but we got it after 3 tries. He seems pretty unbalanced. I think that might be why he started bucking I was off to one side a bit as he was racing and throwing me to the side.

I'm sure we'll get stronger soon. We both need a lot of work!  Rode out if the arena first tonight. He didn't mind at all leaving Bambi. Guess him being left behind is his worst problem.


6th ride
Sat feb 22

Another downer :-( I stupidly thought we were over these.  Maybe never ??
We have a horrible ride today :-(

Kizz was perfect during the first part of the ride with Robyn & Bambi. (Shawna rode too a bit) we walked and trotted around and got both leads one circle each. Then after Robyn decided to leave we kept riding as usual. He wasn't too bad until Robyn put Bambi out in the pasture and she yelled a few times. Then kizz started whinnying and spinning worse. They whinnied back and forth a few times. Then Bambi stopped (the other mare got turned out and she wasn't alone)

But kizz was still bad. He spun around and whinnied and through his head and trot very fast looking out the door. We rode another 30-45 minutes. He was quite sweaty! I was worried he wasn't EVER going to be quiet so I could quit !

Alex arrived and watched a while. Finally I asked Alex to get me a crop (I sometimes pop him with it when he's screaming to get his attention !) Kizz finally started quieting (as soon as I got the crop he didn't tell again. I didn't push it!! I just did one or two more circles and dismounted. Then I untacked and lead him around waiting for him to stop steaming :-(
He was bad again in hand. Yelling and ignoring where I was walking and getting in my space. :-(

I decided Kizz and I need to do some more ground work. I decided from now on I'm going to do some ground work before riding each night  !  I plan to make some obstacles  to lead him over and through next ride.

Wish me luck next ride is better! I'm thinking I'm always going to have to deal with kizz's herd bound issues so I might as well stop feeling so hurt by his reactions, keep my cool and just work through them each time. Like a friend Amanda said "it's nothing personal"!



Wed feb 26
7th ride back

Started back to boot camp last week. Feels so much better to be getting some exercise ! I'm still sore from Tuesdays work out but kizz has had Sun, mon and Tues off. It's time for me to go get over that bad ride. I always feel so down after a bad ride :-( I NEED a good ride tonight please !


My friend Amanda came over and went to the barn with me. Robyn is already there and we Walked the horses  over.

 I start out with some ground work first. We lunged. Walk,jog and canter each direction briefly. He was super quiet and good.

I ran the lunge rope all over his body. I layed it over his back all over his neck and wrapped it over each leg too. He was perfect. I whipped the lunge around my head in a circle in the air all around the front of him and at each shoulder. He didn't budge or look worried at all!! (I've never did this with him)

I treated him and then went and saddled him up. I added a training fork to his reins to see if it would encourage him to drop his head some. At first you could tell it felt strange to him (even though I had them very long. Barely engaging ) but he's very sensitive to these things normally. So I figured he would notice it for sure.

We walked around warming up doing circles. Then we trotted around and did some smaller circles in the corners (he usually lags and stops when we do smaller circles ) he did great!! He was perfect and quiet. We picked up his right lead first. He raced a bit going into it but he picked it up fine. We only did half a circle or so. Then we did the other direction - and did at least one full circle and he was a bit more steady than he's been. Maybe gaining some balance ?

We picked up both leads the first try! Great !
He is very quiet and good. When we stop he stands with his head low and relaxed too!

Robyn and Bambi leave , we walk on and do some small circles walking. He is A1. Doesn't whinny , doesn't spin around, barely even looks her direction!!! I'm so super amazed. I have no idea why but he is the best he's been EVER!! I only do a few circles and get off. Even when I'm on the ground gathering things and such, he's perfect!! We walk back the barn, untack and head home

I'm so so super surprised at how he was tonight I'm almost worried!! Is he testing me or playing games with me to make me think I'm crazy?!?

Hahaha I'm pretty sure my friend Amanda thinks I'm completely nuts since everytime she's around kizz he acts like a perfect gentlemen.


8th ride
March 1

Met Robyn at the barn tonight and tacked up the horses. Walked over to the barn and lunged kizz a bit. I was trying out a new haf pad with the strange bottom so thought I'd be safer to lunge first ;-)  he seemed fine and quiet. (He wouldn't pick up his canter either lead though. But didn't seem sore. Just seemed very lazy )

Got on and rode around. We jogged (actually jogged for real!) around quite a bit! We did some lateral work and he basically side passed for me across the arena. He's responding really well now that he knows what I want. He turned on haunches excellent too.
We worked on walking 10 steps them trotting 10 steps over and over. He started to figure out what we were doing by time we quit.

Robyn left the arena first. He half whinnied a couple times but walked around in circles quietly. He was excellent. We did a few small circles and backed up a few times. Then we rode to the barn. He was perfect !!!

We did 2 miles tonight. Surprising since we sat in the middle of the arena and watched Robyn ride most of the time lol he was super quiet. (I Didn't try to pick up a canter at all )

Rode 80 minutes.

(Was super sick so no riding for me)

March 8 9th ride (day ride )

Had a great ride! Kizz was great! Walked , bending , side passing, cantered each direction (he semi bucked one on the left lead. Have video  )

\

After Robyn left we rode longer he was great when we quit. Not long at all.
Rode a little over an hour


March 10 , Monday evening
10th ride this year!

Walked and bending lots. Whoa, backing, turn on haunches , lateral work. Was really dusty so didnt do much trotting. Just a little and each lead canter. Left lead again he did a little buck. But was fine after. Kept the right lead up longer and better and got him out on the wall somewhat. Got off and walked over a mat while Robyn went to barn. He wouldn't do his back feet for quite a while but finally did. :-) was nervous of the lunge whip. :-S
Good ride. At least an hour ride.

Friday March 15
Rode kizz around lots of walking bending. Did some bending in around pylons

We trotted around and over a pipe a few times he did great!

March 21 & 24
Good rides

Rode a few times a week for the last few weeks, had a great time riding with my friend Robyn!

Brought kizz home April 6
snow is HANGING ON  in the fields.. ..... who knows when we will get out on trails :(

Nov. 20th .... a year ago today

It's exactly a year ago today, Kizz and I do our very first Trail ride.. a tiny short ride, but the first one and we got it done.. and it turned out to be a GREAT year for Kizz and I .. so amazing!!

What a bumpy ride it has been! But truth be told, it has been a treasure!! When I think back on how far we have come it is amazing to me!! My goal for this year was to just ride Kizz out on trails with another horse and survive!!  Not only did we do that , but we became confident enough to do trails alone!! We even got 53 ACTRA (Competitive ride miles )miles in the Club this year!! HOW exciting is that! I'm so super proud! : D

I can only imagine what we will accomplish next year!!! So here is to another year of the roller coaster ride of  our "Trail to Happiness " !!!!

Kizz and I Dec 2012 (our second ride out)

Nov 2, 2013 (happily riding bareback out in a field -Just riding him-walking through a field was a fear of mine!)

Nov 17, back to tough with Kizz lol

I finally get some warm winter riding boots, so excited to try them out.. Its busy around here getting prepared for winter and It's hard to get time to ride.. I'm sick on Saturday, but I plan to ride out as soon as my husband gets home on Sunday as I'm feeling better.. I wear my new boots around the house to break them in, they're awesome!!

I'm also super excited later, when I see these pics of me.. I can really tell I'm getting down in weight!! yahoooo!!! 

Robyn comes early and heads out, I tack up Kizz while waiting for my husband to get home... He waits in the wash rack all tacked up while Robyn & Bambi ride out, He IS NOT happy!! He whinnies and  yells for them. A bit later Chris arrives so I go mount up and head out. He is pretty hyper to go and we catch up to Robyn & Bambi fairly quick. We ride along together a bit, but it's apparent that both horses need to ride alone!! Kizz keeps bucking on me when I hold him back from rushing to catch up to Bambi if they get ahead of us any little bit!! Her mare keeps whinnying for Kizz too :(

We  decide to split up.. I head down to the mowed trail while she rides up on the ant hill road a bit. Both horses whinny back and forth and Kizz is at his worst!! The same as he was back on my "worst" ride where I walked home along the pave :(  He has himself in such a tizzy he is foamy with sweat :(

He whinnies and spins on me (luckily no bucking though) but we push on and get down to the logging road.. We trot all the way down the logging road to the clone road. Then we walk all along that to cool down a bit. We turn after a while (he is being good) and he picks up the pace coming back towards home. But I make him walk until we get to the logging road where we pick up a nice canter. I don't have to hold him back as he isn't rushing to bad and is a good boy. We slow down and trot a bit, then walk the rest of the way home. Coming down the access road he whinnies (getting replies from Bambi) and unlike usual lately when I get grumpy about it, he still keeps it up :( 

We make it home safe and sound though and I realize that as bad as he was, I wasn't nervous or scared. So in all it's a good ride I figure! We got through something I not long ago would have been scared of!!

we end up doing almost 7 miles :)

I decide from now on, I can't ride out with Robyn.. which is sad, we both have horses here.. both want to ride and usually end up going on the same day and cant' even ride together.. ugh how stupid!!

but it's for the best since when she takes her mare home  in the spring we can't ride out together anyway, and will just have more problems with our horses.. we will have great fun this summer meeting up on the trails though!! can't wait for warmer weather, late summer nights and lots of riding YEAH!

For now it's riding by myself in the cold to keep Kizz going a bit, and enjoying riding with my daughter over at the indoor.. it's looking to be a good winter! I've started back to winter boot camps and am feeling great!!!

My Daughter starts riding full time!

A little post about my Daughter Ava lee & her gelding Coby! We boarded Coby out at an indoor for the winter so that my daughter could spend the winter riding him. She really hopes to do trails next year on him!

Here he is settling in over at Dena's .. he's the horse on the left.. although it's hard to tell he looks so much like the appaloosa gelding (his new buddy) Wander!!

She's been riding some since she was 2 and more when she was 3, than she did this year, as I've been so busy with Kizz!! So I'm excited for her to get lots of riding in now! She's riding a few times a week, and her and Coby make such a good team! they're doing great!

first ride in the indoor

I had to buy her some new winter riding clothes.. me as well!! we never usually ride in the winter!!

here she is giving Coby a well deserved pat! 

She works on staying out along the rail, and whoa. So far. ! So excited to see how well they do over winter :) The lady that owns the barn is going to coach her some as well! should help, it's hard learning from "mom" I think!