Welcome!

Hi!  This is Dakino and this is my second blog!  My first blog is called Horse Crazy (previously Horse Lover).

I am an intermediate rider at Garrod Farms, and I am in search of a lease horse.  I take lessons every Saturday.

This will be primarily a blog with hardly no pages, so scroll down and read all the old stuff I had to write.

As I say:

Live. Laugh. Love. Ride.

Sorry…

I know I should’ve told you earlier but you probably noticed.  I don’t post on this blog anymore.  I felt like I was wasting time…Thanks for all you guys have helped me along the way, but if you really want to read about me and other things please visit Horse Crazy…It has everything…My horse life and informational things:

ilovehorsies.wordpress.com

If you have any questions, please leave a comment, email me at daiko.clam@gmail.com or fill out the form here.

I might come back and leave a few notes, but as for now this is it…goodbye everyone and thanks for all the help.

-Dakino

Cisco

Today I rode an intermediate horse named Cisco.  He is a beautiful brown and white paint with a black and white striped mane (natural!)  He is a speedy little guy.  My friend (riding for 4 years??? Not sure) told me good luck with a smile.  I smiled back and I knew what she meant.  I’ve seen Cisco and he goes crazy…and I mean crazy!!!!  I got on him and I had to shorten my reins…a lot before I got on him.  You get the point.  After a while with the trainee fumbling with the old stirrups leathers, the stirrups finally felt right…

I got in the arena, walking two laps each direction and then finally, letting him jog.  Three laps jogging of each direction (dialogue to me: “Good Ivana…”) but before I could finish my last two laps, Christina said, “Everyone walk…clockwise.”  In the right direction, I stayed in the direction.  We loped.  I felt his speedy lope go BOOM! Scooping was hard.  After everyone loped, we did side passing. Cisco was extremely good about side-passing.  We did jogging, posting no stirrups which was hard…on Cisco.  Then we picked up our stirrups and extended the jog.  Cisco wasn’t good about that because he likes jogging really fast with short strides.

Loping second time was different.  For fun, Christina asked, “Arabians lope…” and etc.   Finally for my turn, she said, “Cisco, lope.” … :O  So I let him out.  He went out.  “Make him walk, make him walk….” I sat as heavy as I could.  “Lope on the correct lead, sit on your left seat bone.  Sit like a rock.”  Left leg back, weight on left seat bone…loosen give him a little more rein and sound of a kiss…all happened fast and he went off.  “Let him lope.” I gave him more rein. “One, two,  one two…” she counted out scooping motion.  “Slow him down.” I pressed my heels down and checked and relased.  He slowed…kind of…

So we went off.

Later we did a thing.  Christina put out poles in a ninety degree angle and we had to walk in parallel to one of the poles, turn on the forehand until we a re parallel to another pole and side pass to the end.  I did pretty well.

 

Later I helped wash paint of my friend’s lease horse…Cody!  So I ended up with colorful hands…. I don’t feel like writing that much about the washing.

___________________________________________________________________

Announcement that has nothing to do with this post:

So my other blog, Horse Crazy has CRAZY views….so it would be awesome if you guys have never visited Horse Crazy to go there and read all the informational stuff that I have written…via link:

HORSE CRAZY

So that is it….see you later!

Horse Crazy

My other blog, Horse Crazy…well you can scratch off the Horse part…I’m going CRAZY!!!

I mean like really, I am getting hundreds of views (FOR THE PAST 2 DAYS (I know that’s not enough)) and this blog…well isn’t doing well!  I’m getting lots of support there, so please support this blog!  Thanks!

Special Horses

A/N: Thanks EvaJoy for this idea!  Visit evajoy’s really cool blog here

  Right now my favorite horse is a TB (Thoroughbred) named Jetta.  He is dark bay and is one of the taller horses.  He has no markings.  He is really special to me because for some reason, he responds to me better than other people.  He won me two second places in the Playday show.  I don’t have any pictures of him (yet! I will try to get pictures up soon!).  He used to be a race horse.  During camp, one of the counslers showed us a tattoo on the inside of his lip that all race horses get.

He’s a horse I’ll never forget.

__________________________________________________________________

Another one of the horses that effected me a lot is my summer camp horse, Star.  He’s one of the horses that listens to me most.  In summer camp, you build a bond with your assigned horse that no other horse has (okay maybe not but not in the camp!)  Here’s some of my adventures with Star:

♦  ♦  ♦

I got a summer camp horse called Star.  He is an adorable chestnut with no markings but a star.  He is hard to bridle and doesn’t drink from the trough.  On the first day of loping him he kept breaking down, but a couple days after that, I could keep him in the gait.  But another problem came a long and that is that he tends to pick up the left lead.  I had to give him a lot of left leg on hind quarters…

I also found out that he was an amazing barrel racer/pole bender.  He is awesome at it, but it creates another-small-problem.  When we’re loping in a circle, he leans in the turns a little bit too much, but it’s not a big deal.  So I’m in the group where we lope all at once.  So our counselor split us into two groups, ones who can lope all at once and ones who can’t.  And I happened to be in the group who lopes all at once! 

Star is an excitable horse, he loves picking up the pace.  He has a very controllable speed so he can range from a slow western jog, to a fast working trot.  But he loves to lope really fast! He is definitely a favorite.

♦  ♦  ♦

One of my stories is when we won the pole bending competition…three times.

So when my counselor announced we were going to have a small competition in pole bending, I had no idea that I would learn that my horse is a champ.  So the first two times, we did it in groups.  I won.  in both.  I learned that Star was just awesome about turning around the barrel.  Now the tournament.  People started naming the horses that would probably win, “Rimrock, Wiz, and Star.”  It was one vs. one.  I won all my competitions until the last one was a dead tie.

My heart raced.  What was I going to do???

We did it again.

I quickly maneuvered him left right left right around the cones.  He did it job by doing a swift turn around the  barrel at the end and I won.

♦  ♦  ♦

I won a simon says game again because of Star.

After a lengthy game of just three of us, my counselor said, “Simon Says pick up a lope.  We had extra rules like no breaking gait.  I was nervous.  It was my Mr. Speedy Loper, Star and Mr. Slow Loper, Seabiscut.  I asked him to lope.  Without doubt, he sped up and I got stuck behind Seabiscut.  He was mostly between the rail and the horse.  Almost without thinking, I turned him, he swiftly changed sides and I loped on in front of Seabiscut.  Seabiscut broke gait.

__________________________________________________________________

So those are my lengthy stories of some special horses.  Without doubt, all the horses I know are special to me.  They have all pressed hoof prints into my heart.

Jupiter

I rode Jupiter.

I didn’t do so well.

So I got on Jupiter, adjusted stirrups and went in.  The stirrups turned out to be too long.  I did warm up.  His jog is really bumpy.  Christina noticed that most people had their toes out (including me)

My boots were really uncomfortable when posting.  No…the stirrups.  So we had to ride through two closely set poles without knocking them over.  The first time, Jupiter stopped and went, no way am I going through.  A little coaxing and he walked through.  Jogging through, he turned and I had to circle him and go through.  Then we did lope around.  Jupiter has a funky lope.  It is really speedy and it kind of goes up down up down.  He did it the other direction and I knocked a pole.  Jupiter got kind of spooked by the pole. I split my reins and circled him through and he jogged through clean.  I held him back before asking him to lope.

He threw in a buck before we started loping.  I didn’t feel it because his lope feels kind of like a buck even though he is loping clean.  I didn’t do so well.  Christina made us do extended jog without stirrups and I…well…with his bumpy jog I was relieved when we could walk.

Jupiter is a light chestnut with a star. (leg markings?)

So that was a short post.  I’ll get a post up with pictures.

THANKS for reading!

Enjoy the rest of my blog!

Feel free to roam and comment!

Travis/Trojan

Author’s Note:
Sorry this post is short and choppy, i had to redo it after it didn’t save!!!! 😦 I rode Travis quite a while ago.  It was on the day that I could move to intermediate!

Another two lessons at Garrod Farms…

Travis

Travis loping

Travis is a funky boy.  He is a color I’ve never seen.  You could say he’s a really really light chestnut.  He has a flaxen-ish mane.  He has a joppy jog, a quick lope and he loves speeding.  We did a normal lesson that day, nothing new, nothing special, but Christina had me halt from the lope.  Travis has a rounded, chubby look.  He has a short neck, short legs, he has a short look in general.  He has socks on all legs (?) And has a blaze.  He has to be one of my favorite horses! 😉
I can’t wait to ride him again!

Trojan

Trojan, who loves his spacing.  He will pin back his ears anytime a horse comes to near.  He is brown with a cresty neck and his neck is really round at the top.  He has socks on hind legs and a blaze and a freckle.  He is slow at the jog, lazy in general and is okay at the lope

So for the lesson, we did normal warm up, walk three circles each direction, jog three circles each direction, three small circles.  Yeah, that warm up wasn’t so good.  Trojan kept breaking into a walk every time a horse came some whatley close to him.  So I ended up being the last one to finish my warm up.  Then we did transitions and turn on the forehand.  It would be jog, halt, turn on forehand to the other direction, jog, halt, turn on forehand the other direction.  Then we did sidepassing the the left.  I actually just learned how to side pass. For this to happen, I had to split my reins.

Then we loped.  The first time was okay.  We side-passed the other direction which was better.  Eyes up, sit down leg on one side and make sure his head is in line with his body, was all Trojan needed to side pass.  But the second time we loped, he did a funny lope that was in between a jog and a lope.  I had to keep going kick, kick, kick…

So we finished the play day so we’ll be doing different things instead of practicing patterns.

New Changes

I’m trying out more new themes and pictures…so don’t go crazy when I do about themes.  I am okay with the theme I have now, but I hope you guys don’t go crazy!  This isn’t my favorite theme….ummm….so that’s about it for now, you’ll see from me tomorrow!

Posts

Sorry I haven’t been posting very often

Earlier, I got this really cool post done about two horses I rode, but the Internet died on me and it kind of just…you know went gone.  I’ll try to get more posts up because I think I have more faith in myself!  I think I’ll get one up tomorrow, and maybe another to make up for it!

PS-pt 2-The Show

Author’s note:

sorry this is late!  Enjoy!

I arrived there nervous…

CA Speed Barrels

I signed in and everyone got called to the bleachers.  They had an intro and soon it was the show.  I watched the novice go.  The novice could only do walk, jog.  I signed up for open class which is walk jog lope.  Soon my class was called.  In my class there was the girl, the one who always won.  But I relaxed.  I was here to ride and have fun.  Who cares if I loose.  I mounted Jetta for CA speed Barrels and we lined up.  I petted him.  I knew he would do well with  me.  For some reason, he had a connection with me and would do anything I asked.

I watched the people in my class doing jogging only and I smiled slightly.  I knew I could lope the whole thing.  So when it was my turn, I took a deep breath and went in.

“Looks like it’s Ivana on Jetta!”

I asked him to lope.

“She’s loping!”

I loped the whole thing and when I came back, the crowed cheered and I asked him to go faster.  I won second place.

Barrel Racing (Cloverleaf pattern)

I was riding Jetta-again when I had signed up for Raider (that I’ll later regret.)  Again, I was the first one to lope.  I had the ride of my life back, but problem is, I just didn’t go fast enough.  I regretted holding him back around the first barrel…

Again, I was the first one to lope, and I loped the whole thing.  I was less than a second away from winning first… :O

I won second.

I was elated and my last class was one of the last patterns.  We sat and watched all the others.  I soon was walking through the dark, orange lights coming from the main arena.  Shadows wouldn’t cast because it was too dark.  I talked to friends up there and soon it was my turn.

Quadrangle Stake Race

How I regretted my choice when I entered the arena.

I’ve only ridden Raider once.  Soon would I know he is one of the worst pattern horses (he’s really good rail class horse!) I went in at a lope, my instructor sitting at the rail.  The first turn was good.  Raider stretched to lope to the gate.  I split my reins and pulled him back to the pattern.

“Big kick.” my instructor said.

I gave him a kick and the cue, but he wouldn’t go so I slapped him with the reins and he went off.  I made sure he was on the right lead for the last two poles.

I really regretted my choice after thinking I should’ve picked Travis instead.

I won fifth (last place)

After Show

I watched the carrot race and then left.  I admired my ribbons.

I now have two firsts (one of them everyone got a first it was for best posture) two seconds, and one fifth. I hope to win more firsts!  🙂

I hope you enjoy reading my kind of weird article.  This will probably be the last Play-Day 2011

 

PS-pt.1-Preperations

Author’s Notes:

Hi!  I’m back again with more information!

PS stands for Play Day Show

I am having a show called play-day where you choose some pattern (three if you want) and you race against other people!  This year I am  choosing barrel racing, CA speed barrels and quadrangle stake race.  I picked Raider, Jetta, and Jetta.

I have created a new category called Horse Show and I’ll be filing horse show things in there!  I also created a child category called Play-Day 2011.  Enjoy my stories of preparation!

Prep-Boots

I started my preparation by cleaning my boots.  I don’t really have any proper cleaning materials, so I used Paper towels and a tooth brush! 🙂  I was scrubbing as much dirt off with the tooth brush it felt like my arm was going to pop off!  I was scrubbing and I decided to try using paper towels.  But by that time, I had gotten most of it off, but wiping it with a paper towel got more off.  So I wet the paper towel to clean the heel and the base (since leather does not go well with water!) I scrubbed it, but it didn’t look much different.

My boots story isn’t much, so let’s hope cleaning a helmet is more entertaining!

Prep-Helmet

Cleaning my helmet wasn’t any more entertaining.  I took the tooth brush and prepared to scrub it, but I realized that there wasn’t much dirt to wipe off.  I had cleaned it after camp.  So I just scrubbed some cracks then took a wet paper towel and wiped it.  I sprayed it with lysol….thats it…