good teacher

My day started like the days before at 4.45 am with feeding Fire, Bluey and Twister. Then get all the stuff for Fire from the tack shed and get him ready for riding. He is always so pissed when I groom him while he eats his breakfast :D The next one was Mojo. She was nice and quiet while I got her ready. As soon as I wanted to lunge her in the outdoor arena she started to play her little game.... She reared up pretty good and tried to impress me ! WOW, I am scared now !!! If she wants to scare me she has to try something else then that. Bandit could scare me with that but now I just got after her for that, without emotions ! Just crack the whip, push her forward and stand behind her girth... She clued in pretty fast this didn't work on the left side.... but on the right side. This is her "trained" side and she is pretty fast ! Holy... ! But I learned with a little help from Birgit how to prevent that ! :) After this lunging session I was pretty tired ! Hard work and not even a piece of breakfast in the belly.
My next teacher was Machlon. I try since a longer time to get him in a frame which never seemed to happen... til today ! Hell, I worked so hard on this horse today ! I was sooooo tired afterwards again. Now I know how I can get him in a frame. I only need some practice in this case and of course muscles.

still hot and dry...

It's still hot and dry here. So dry it's not allowed anymore to make a campfire :( We start at 5 am til about 11 or 12 am. The hot time in the afternoon we have off. At 5 pm we have to be outside again to feed the ponies. I will bake white chocolate chip cookies ;) in the afternoon and have to get supper ready so we can ride in the evening.

hot hot hot....

Since a few days it's extremly hot ! Between 36 and 40 C. We started today at 5 am with horse work. It was soooo nice and cool til about 8 am. We have a siesta now til 5 pm and then after the lesson I will ride Machlon. I hope it's not sooo hot anymore at this time. This is a good way of work. I am so lucky to have my room in the cool basement :)

kids horse camp

Friday til Sunday were the kids horse camp here at the farm. Everyone of us had a part theory and riding to do. I had to talk about feeding/feed, bedding and anatomy in the mornings and in the afternoons I was in the round pen and let Machlon thru an obstical course while a kid rode bareback. The kids had to ride over a 'grill', play broom polo, ride a figure 8 around two barrels, bag jumping with the horse beside them, ... all this when the sun was shining and it was 36 /37 C in the shade ! Crazy but funny ! The kids were pretty keen to learn all kind of stuff around horses including anatomy. Yes, it was fun ! In two weeks will be the next kids camp....

trip to Jasper

On Wednesday we went to Jasper and Jasper National Park. We took this day off 'cause it was pretty hot and we wanted to have a break before the kids camp on the weekend. Birgit, Alana and I went to the Athabasca Falls (pic's) and to the Angel Glacier. Both was unbelievable nice. The one bad thing were all the tourists ! There were soooo many of them in Jasper. We stopped at the ice cream shop and enjoyed a tasty ice cream :) Then we went to two gift shops just for the fun of it. I am not used to so many people anymore ! I was a bit shocked ! Unbelieveable how fast you can get used to something...! After the two gift shops we headed home again to feed the ponies.

an almost lazy day

Yesterday, was my day off but I had to help unload the trailer full of hay bales. This time there were 100 bales on the trailer which I unload myself again and put on the elevator. After this pretty sweaty job I headed for the shower and continued my lazy day. I really need a lazy day from time to time or I am grumpy.

a normal day at a farm

The started with feeding, cleaning, let horses out in the field,... doing chorse. It was just Alana and me, Birgit and Marc slept in 'cause they came home late last night. It was no problem for us, we are kinda good team. Then after breakfast the horse work started. Alana and I had to help Birgit with Miho. We rode all together in the arena to get Miho used to the scary corner. He did pretty well. Miho is a good boy, a brat sometimes :) I had a good ride on Machlon again. I can trust him so far that I can ride him without my safety vest in the arena. Since my totally crappy ride on Bandit at the clinic in June I have a hard time to trust the horse I ride. And this make me sooo mad ! Where is my patience ? coolness ? I used to have no fear on a horse, I am just careful... Birgit told me I will ride Fire (!) on the lunge line just to get my confidence back. Oh wow ! He is a great horse ! I really look forward to this ride :) Then Birgit wanted to ride Fire after lunch and told me to get him ready. He was so cute, he talked to me ! I really like it when he talks, that sounds sooo cute. And he was a good boy when I groomed him. He just tested me a bit but not more then the other horses do and finally, he really enjoyed it. Now, it was time for the lessons. The two studens were 30 min too late ! GREAT ! After get Cody ready and put the first student on the horse, it was time for cleaning tack and doing chorse.

barrel race Valemount

My first barrel race was a bit of a shame ! Machlon and I only made it to the first barrel at the rodeo in Valemount. I don't blame Machlon I totally understand him. He doesn't know me, doen't trust me enough to perform in an arena he doesn't know and also when there are so many people. I was suppost to start with Cody but I decided to change the horse 'cause Cody couldn't focus anymore and only screemed when he couldn't see his buddys. NICE ! When he can't focus while we warmed up how can he focus in the race ?!?!

training day

We had rain the whole week and so we were busy in the house. Alana and I worked on the games for the kids camp today morning. After a trip to McBride (buy groceries, hang up flyers) we saddled the ponies and went to the hay field. We had our last training before the big day tomorrow. BARRLE RACE ! We must be crazy to sign up for this with horses which never did this before... Well, it was my idea to go which means I must be crazy ;D I just hope Cody behaves tomorrow and won't play his little game "blow throu the outside shoulder". He was sooo mad today :) 'cause I reminded him on his manners. Cody showed me he doesn't agree with me so he rear up a bit and bucked but I stayed on the horse. After this little show he could behave pretty good even he was still mad. I almost had to laugh... poor Cody. :D

hayday and more..

Today was my day off which means I could sleep in. I really needed it 'cause we came home pretty late last night. We were at the ice cream social with dance. It was so delicious all the cakes, ice cream, pie's and other sweets. :) Then today we got the call to pick up the hay bales. It was pretty hot and soon we had hay everywhere... I am glad I took the anti allergic pill ;) When we were done with all the hay Alana and I went to the neighbour's place to have a look at his horses. He showed us around on his property and sure we had the chance to see the horses. Nick has a nice property with access to the Fraser River. NICE ! I love that. Alana and I can train one of his horses if we want and earn some money. I look forward to work with this horse.

practice, practice, practice...

We are pretty busy practise for the barrel racing Sunday next week. I had a good ride on Cody today again (the one yesterday was pretty crappy and so frusturating). Cody tried to blow throu the shoulder again but I had a whip this time and could talk him into the direction I wanted. So we had a few good "goes" around the barrels in the trott. I will practice a few more times and then I think we are good... It's not so difficult ! I only need to have the control of Cody's left shoulder and the rest is peanuts ;D besides I am nervous...

july 1st

Today, July 1st is Canada Day. I only work this morning and then we will go to town. At 10pm is the firework. I really look forward to that. I am pretty curious how the Canadians celebrate their national day. Is it like August 1st in Switzerland ?? We'll see....
Yesterday we did some barrel racing. I rode Machlon. He sure loves it. We don't have the correct frame yet... and I decided to start at the Valemount Rodeo in 10 days at the barrel racing. :) We still have 10 days to practise. I will ride Cody. Birgit will ride Machlon and Alana will ride Bandit. I think it will be fun even we won't win. It's just for the fun of it. Hell, I am already nervous !!! We will wear a nice top, jeans, cowboy boots and cowboy hats. Unfortunatly, they won't let us wear a helmet. I think this is totally stupid ! Birgit asked if we can wear helmets and I guess she didn't get an answer yet... we'll see....