Day 1 & 2 Working with Cherokee

I didn't get a chance to post how cherokee did yesterday so I am just adding it in here today. I worked on a couple of parelli games with her because there are things that I like about parelli but there are also a lot of things about parelli I am not sure I agree with. Anyways, She did well with the Friendly and yoyo games. She wasn't too sure about me touching her legs but I knew she's at least been clipped before and by the end of the session was letting me touch and pick up her feet. I worked with her on walk/trot/canter commands in the round pen and she did very well. She's very in-tune with my body language and positioning. I like her movement, I would go as far as to say it's better than D's. Really low knee action and flicky in the front, she's a little fast in the back but with training I am sure she would be a caute little mover.

Today:
Started with the friendly game and she did great, She did move around a little while I was playing with her back legs but overall not bad at all. She got the yoyo game pretty much perfectly! I would bearly give the rope a wiggle and she backed away like a champ. Did more round pen work and I don't believe she knows the difference between walk,trot, canter, and whoa yet but she does them all. Also when I bend over while she is trotting and say whoa she stopps so I am proud of her. I tied her up and spent about 20minutes brushing her, cleaning her feet, pulling her mane and what not and she did a great job! I want to try taking her into the area tomorrow and lunging her on a lug rope and seeing how she does. That is all the update I have for right now. I also think if the lung rope goes well. We will work on some de-spooking training.

2010 Show season Cost(s)

I spent about an hour last night calculating out how much the 2010 show season is going to cost me. Excluding CSHA State and GNG (Gold N Grand) it totals out to about $2,335.05 for the whole year (doing 18 shows). I know GNG is going to bump that up at least another 3 or 4 hundred bucks and state will add another $200.00 so I might hit the $3,000 point by the time ALL the shows have been added up. I'll make a list of the shows and the dates once I get a little more information on that. I am also hoping/planning on getting a nice western show saddle off of eBay to have around for when I do find those Eng/West show series.

On a side note: My neighbor and best friend's little paint filly is turning four next April. Being that he has little horse knowledge and I have been talking about wanting a new horse to work with he said I could work with her. Her name is Cheerokee after her mom who is Apache. She's a CAUTE little thing and my hope is that if I work with her the rest of this month and all of Decemeber I can pop her into a halter and showmanship class at the NCAA series in January since they have a Novice Horse catagory, maybe a ridden class or two if she's doing well but I'm not going to rush things since there are a ton of shows to pick from next year.

Last note: Check out my profile for a link to the HorseForum! It's a great site with a lot of fun horsey people to talk to and TONS of topics to talk horse about!

CSHA region 18 buckle - Year End Banquet.

I've given D a little over a month off to just be a horse and hangout in the field. I am going to start conditioning him for next years show season after Thanks Giving. I am so fare planning on doing the NCAA buckle series BUT I'm also not 100% sure either because you have to ride Engish and western to qualify for the buckle. Well you don't have to but if there is someone who does ride both then you don't have a shot at winning. I am working on a budget so I can see how much showing this year is going to cost me. I am also going to be competeing in Amature classes this year so I will be getting my Amature card. I hope this doesn't sound like a show off but mom told me "I am tired of buckles that say OPEN on them" lol so I told her I would do Amature this year. I will be posting a list of shows sometime next month or maybe in January once I have a list of shows I plan on attending. Our region is having their Year End Award Ceremony on December 5th this year. I am very excited to see what they will be handing out, I will do my best to take a ton of pictures. I also finally got the CSHA Region 18 buckle that D & I won back in August. It's smaller but VERY pretty, Oh and Bailie will no longer be showing D. Enjoy the pictures!

A little more exciting news is I got a new truck to haul my trailer with next season. It's a 1993 1500 Chevy Suaburban, the gas makes me cry but I am planning on using it strictly for shows.