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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

More Razz...and Belle

Well I braved the cold and snow again to go ride my pregnant horse, I got to get as many rides in this month as I can so I can give her a break and next fall she will just come back as good as now (I hope). We rode indoors again, however there was another piece of plywood torn off the ceiling of the arena and it was snowing inside, so of course the horses didn't want to walk over the snow eating monster till we had a break and stood on the snow, then they always wanted to head towards it!

Razz is improving so much at the lope, today we got at least two full revolutions each direction without slowing down, and when I asked her to stop, WOW it was now!, she popped me up outta the saddle, I was sitting back, but it was such a hard stop I couldn't stay there. I guess she does know how to stop hard, she just was getting used to me and me to her, cause every time now its way way better.

Jardi rode Princess again and she goes into the lope so much easier now and doesn't even try to slow down or stop until she is asked too. I am gonna ride her on Friday (weather permitting) and hopefully she will listen to me as well.

When I bred Belle this spring, it was kinda spur of the moment, I had tried riding her and shes so scared, so I had Jardi ride her and she was just afraid of everything, the same after 2 weeks as the first day, so I called up my neighbor (where I bought her) and asked if he was still breeding mares, cause he told me I could bring her up sometime to get bred for free. (I really like her, she is very sweet and nice confirmation, if I would rode her with more confidence when I got her, I don't think she woulda ended up like this) Anyways he says bring her up tomorrow and we will look at the stallions and decide who to breed her too. So I went up the next day and her dad was in the close field with 3 mares cause he's like 21, so we just kinda ignored him and went to look at the other two. One was a really really nice red roan, but they just got him this spring at 8 and didn't know him that well but he seemed a little rough with the mares. So we went and looked at Joe, a four year old outta a AQHA champion. Joe was stepped on as a baby and broke his knee, but seemed healed up so he was started, but they were afraid he'd break down if rode to hard so they never gelded him and thought they'd see what he was like. Well so far in his first breeding season, hes a little timid around the mares and wasn't afraid to come up to us in the pasture, so I decided that's where Belle should go.
Anyways long story short, I got a letter from AQHA saying I needed to do a DNA test on Belle before I could register the foal, I had no idea about this, so I just agreed and sent the info back and have been waiting a month or so for the test to get back. I got a letter from AQHA and I was so excited about the test finally getting her I never looked at the outside so imagine my surprise when this fell out!



A few years ago I joined the horseback riding program and at the same time I joined the all breeds program. I never had many horses be for this year (except the Belgians) who weren't registered quarter horses so the all breeds program wasn't getting much attention, until this fall I could add in all the hours on Princess and Razz and I guess I finally made 50 and never noticed, but was kinda disappointed even though those were a hard 50 hours to get, never mind I have over 300 in the regular program. I also joined the paint horse Ride America program that is similar except its not any paint horse, the record stays with the horse, so its kinda neat to keep track of hours a certain horse has. I have only started with Razz's (It kinda feels like cheating cause I am entering her hours with the paint and the all breeds QH program) I just started hers in December, so she only has like 8 hours so far, but she will get more.

They are saying the weather after tomorrow is supposed to be above average for two weeks! I can's wait, except if its too warm I might be getting mud. I was getting a little worried about the horses in the pasture cause the snow was getting kinda deep in certain areas and I don't want Gypsy and Belle losing weight, but I didn't really want to bring them into the corral yet, so the warm weather will be a blessing for us both. I wont need to worry as much and they can still get exercise without losing weight.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!

Shirley said...

All AQHA mares have to be DNA tested before you can register their foals; same with the stallions. Who is Joe's sire?
So you have 2 babies coming this spring? That's going to be fun!
If your mare is stopping so hard that she pops you out of the saddle, she is probably bracing her front legs; a great way to fix that is to back her up a few steps on every stop so that she starts to anticipate the backup- it frees up the front end and makes for a smooth stop. It's great that she wants to stop hard!

Crystal said...

your welcome Kate, and Shirley we are actually having 3 babies this spring, Gypsy is also bred. Joes dad is Chuck Manness' Howard.
I do try to back her up everytime, and at slower gaits, she almost starts backing up before I ask, but not at the lope yet, but we will keep trying.