SETTING THE BAR: Flame is on fire!

SETTING THE BAR:  Saturday - The horse community sometimes confounds us. Those shopping for a horse often do not read the ads fully and ask the most inane questions that, had they read the text, would have saved them gas and time. In our case we have a VERY detailed ad, videos and this cool journal. When a family comes to meet Annie they are, in theory, armed with as much information as possible. It should be enough to decide if heading out to our corner of the world to meet a horse is the right move. Still we have to sift through these “families” who come out and have either unrealistic expectations, are looking for something completely different than what the horse is, just “tire kicking” or try to low ball us on the asking price. It really gets annoying. We get why many sellers to an extensive Q&A before ever making an appointment with a potential family.

Yesterday was a breath of fresh air!

Horsey Saturday started at 6:00am with feeding and baths for all the equines. By 9:00am we were off to the arena to do some training and meet a potential family for Annie. Upside: The family had read the journal, read the ad and watched all the videos. They were informed and had realistic expectations. Downside: Annie was the first horse they saw and they did not have many other prospects and a rather loose timeline of acquisition. Sigh.

Annie certainly set the bar on what to expect with her level of training and at her asking price! We ran through the more “flashy” groundwork exercises like Backing, Side Pass Along the Fence, Ground-school circles. Lateral Flexion, Hind and Forequarter Yields and some Long Line work. As usual Annie was a rock star. When we had the potential family members work with her (this is always a unique situation because no one every pays complete attention to how we tell them to do groundwork) Annie really did a nice job figure out what the hell they were asking her for and adapted to the “crazy accents and lazy cues” she was getting. Then the under saddle portion of the morning arrived I rode first as Laurie spoke with the family about how best to communicate with Annie under saddle. We went through a variety of exercises and transitions. She did really well (as usual) for me. Then the family rode Annie and she once against impressed us all with her ability to adapt and trying to figure out the “unclear” cues she was given. Annie ROCKED it. She gave her best again and rose to the challenge. All sorts of positive things were said and the family seemed to like her quite a bit. She, once again, set the expectation bar pretty high! Could not be more proud! Laurie then did the “cool down” ride showing off how well Annie adapts to new riders and situations.

Then it was a short trip home to grab lunch for all the critters (humans too) and the final prep for the evenings activity!

By 3:30pm we were loaded up and heading to Lodi, California and the beautiful IT Ranch for the G.S.H.C. 2016 Pizza Party & Night Ride! Lots of new horses, bright lights in arena, music and more definitely brought up her energy level. Laurie was her human for the evening and overall they did really well. After the “cowboy handshake” and some trotting around the new to her horses she was a rock star. She had some energy which we used to move her training forward but the two ladies really did some damn fine work together!

It was just about 10:00pm when we are wrapping up the 2016 Pizza Party and Night Ride at IT Ranch in Lodi! We all at well and got ample saddle time as we listened to some great music! This is what G.S.H.C is all about...FUN, fellowship, laughter, learning and oh yeah...FUN!

We were having such a good time we forgot to take pictures!

Tired, sore, and a bit dusty but deeply satisfied. It was a good day.

We are meeting another family tomorrow. Whew!

Sunday – Weather was GREAT! Enough breeze to keep the heat from being too oppressive. We loaded up all three horses and got to the arena to meet another perspective family and get saddle time with all the horses. A “tree birds, one stone” kind of day. Funny thing was that an impromptu Golden State Horsemanship Club “Spur of the Moment Ride” broke out! Three of the group’s members showed up as we were unloading the horses. Good times as always.

Annie performed well on the ground and under saddle! We went through a variety of ground exercises and talked about how these relate to under saddle work and how they help establish communication and respect in the horse/human relationship. Laurie worked with the some of the family on the exercises and everyone got along really well. One of “magic moments” for us as students of the horse is seeing that connection created between two personalities. It certainly makes all the hard work worth it. Everyone did great work.

Then came the under saddle portion of the day! We saddled up calmly as always and as I rode through some exercises Laurie was talking about how we cue and ride.  At one point while loping Annie hit a patch of really hard dirt with a tough weed cluster growing out of it and tripped, almost going down to one knee. We recovered quickly (I stayed in the saddle) and continued on at the lope. So proud of her (and glad I didn’t hit the dirt in front of the nice family). Then the family members rode. Annie adapted and did well for them. The primary human looking for a horse was a “soon to be sigh school sophomore” who seems to be a naturally gifted rider. That was just plain fun to watch! They did really well together and looked good together too! Once again, a very favorable impression was made and a bar set for other horses to exceed. Love that! All the “interested” verbiage happened and we left it up to the family to discuss it and get back to us. We let them know about the other showings we have had and about the upcoming workshop we are doing. We will see.

We then got to work with our horsemanship club friends before the last family (a second ride appointment) arrived. Annie got a break while we worked with Argent and Ronan. Always a good time!

The Ride #2 folks had another great session. We reviewed some ground work exercises (some of the cool ones because they are cool and fun) and then reminded them of how we cue and ride. Since this was a second ride we did not ride first. Everything went well! When it was all said and done we were told that they were running into a small snag as to the housing of a potential new horse but that they would get back to us A.S.A.P as we made them aware of the sentiments expressed by the other interested parties.

So it was a long day, a fun day and one we hope inspired good feelings in everyone involved.

We have decided to take a break from showing Annie for a bit. We know it has to be tough on her mentally and she has been doing SO very good that we do not want to burn her out. Plus we have a really fun workshop coming up next weekend that Annie would enjoy being a part of. This next week is going to be all about refinement and having fun in the learning process. We have been working really hard up to this point. A little bit of a mental break is in order.