Dude and I

So uh..thought I might as well keep track of both our progress. :#

5.24.10 (yesterday)
So, got to the barn around 16.20, and Mendi (BO) got home early, around 16.45 or so. She came up to the top barn around 17.00 and got the fan set up at the back of the aisle between the stalls and got the horses fed..I accidently fed Lucky the half scoop of sweet feed that was suppose to go to Toby instead of her senior, so she was a little more hyper than normal. ;-; I still feel bad. >.<;; She said it wasn't a big deal though..
So, I went to go put Dude's bridle on, which took about 5-8 minutes or so, because I wanted to make sure I didn't hurt his ears or get shoved into the wall again. ;-; I finally got it on and walked him down to the cross ties. I tacked him up, minus tightening his girth nice..Mendi helped me with that. I think I'm going to try to do it with my other hand tonight and see how that goes, and if I can get it tighter that way. The bolt on the right stirrup ended up popping off, and we couldn't get the thing to come far enough out of the stirrup so Mendi had to go down to the house and try to fix it. The stirrup ended up really wide (and they're already extra-wide stirrups D: ), so we have to cut it a little and redo it sometime this week..
So-Mendi worked on his sidepassing a bit, he's still not too great going to his left..so that needs work. I worked walked him around the round pen while Drew was using it with Toby (since he was an ass yesterday and tried tossing him) and then he let me in. I worked on trotting, I got both a slower trot and a working trot; I worked on posting and sitting for both of those. And then we decided to go on a trail ride. :#
We went down the rockslide (had to make sure Dude didn't slide into Skippy, or Skippy probably wouldn't have been able to get back up. ;-; )
We came out at the other end of the hay field and walked along the side and up the hill. Btw-"we" is Mendi, Drew, Lucky's rider (can't remember her name. D: is sorries) and me..we stopped at the bottom of the second hill and waited till they were..mostly calm and we ran them up the hill. I'm actually rather proud of myself, since last time I ran, I wasn't very balanced at the gallop, but I was almost perfectly balanced (from how I felt) and I'm pretty sure my feet still stayed up by his girth. :3 The grass felt funny on my legs. XD
Then we came back and hosed down Skippy (who didn't run, coz he's older and he probably would have died. ;-; He did really good on the trail though, coz he wasn't huffy almost at all), Dude, Lucky and Illusion.
Skippy and Izzy were taken back down to the run-in. I went down to feed them..since my mum had been waiting down at the bottom of the driveway for 20 minutes. ;-; But I ended up not being able to coz Drew had flipped the hay holder thing (sorry I can't remember the name. *facepalm* and it's too heavy for me to get down alone..so I waited for him and we took it down and called the horses in to eat..We didn't let them in though, coz Skippy tried rolling, and ended up too close to the fenceline where he got stuck last time, and wouldn't get up. ;-; He just kept looking at himself like: I'm 'bout to die... ;-; So, we called Mendi down, Drew went up for the tow rope so we could pull him up from right beside the fence so he wouldn't get caught in it. Mendi, Lucky's rider (I still sorry D: ) and I flipped him over, so his feet/legs wouldn't get stuck in the fence when we tried gettin him up. And we all (Mendi, Latonya [Mendi's mum], Adario, Drew, Alija [don't know how to spell it]) ended up pushing him up and finally got him standing and we went to feed him. Then we locked everything up and finally got in the car to hear my mum hollerin' at me because Mendi asked for my help. >.o;; Skippy was down for a good 45 minutes, probably a little more. Mendi said sorry and thanks, I said sorry..does she not understand that just because I don't own the horse, it doesn't mean that I can just leave it to die at the bottom of the hill??? I thought it was just plain rude and inconsiderate. I was there, I helped, and it would have taken a lot longer since everyone that she could have called was either working or sleeping. >.<;;
But yeah..that was yesterday. I do feel rather accomplished, I worked on my seat and position the whole time, I didn't just slack off coz I got sore. :3 Mendi was impressed, or atleast she looked it. Lol
I'm going again today..I don't think I'd mind another trail ride, or possibly some work on poles/stakes and barrles, since the show on saturday is a gaming show, and Dude has never done any of it, let alone been to a show. ;-;

4.25.10 (yesterday)
I feel damn well accomplished as of yesterday afternoon. ((:
I felt that my seat was better, at w/t/c and then our little gallop at the end.
We went for a trail ride for about 45 minutes, on all the newer trails (I did get a few ticks tryin' to latch on D: but I got them off before they got the chance..). We had to be careful on a lot of the parts, because we haven't went out and cleared the trees on either side of the path, so the paths are rather tight and it's easy to get them caught between your legs or bump into them. ;-; I ended up getting my knee shoved into a thicker tree, since Dude thought it'd be nice to let me get hit since I accidently kicked him twice while he was pissing (didn't realize he was, since I kicked him before he started actually peeing, and he didn't stretch out. O.O)..
So-we went up the rockslide (trail hill with rocks all down the slope) and we cantered up that ( ;-; my stirrups need a hole shorter I believe, because my ass is already sore, coz it was rather bumpy. *dies*) adn then when we got to the trail head we waited for everyone (Mendi, Drew, Shayan [Lucky's rider, got her name now. :3] and me) and then we ran up the hay field back to the outdoor arena adn then down to untack. :3
I was balanced, heels down, etc etc on the whole trail ride (minus the one part where Dude went the opposite way when we were crossing the creek and made it harder on himself *rolls eyes*).
But so-after we untacked, hosed them down and turned them back out we waited for Alaija and Adario to get back, and then we went on a quick hay run over to a farm a little ways down the rode because we were pretty much out of hay. ;-; We got 25 bales loaded up in the truck (Adario, Alaija and Shayan had an attitude about it coz it was hot. >.>;; ) but we took them back, baled them up in our loft (I'm surprised at how Alaija and Adario were trying to bale them. ;-; They were horrible, pretty much just tossed willy nilly. I mean, you live on the farm, you know you ought to do more work than you even do, you ought to work your horse more, etc etc and you can't even correctly bale 25 (split between 5 people, so 5 freakin' bales) bales? I find it pathetic..but I held my tongue and didn't say too much, other than they bale like shiit.) ;-;
But see-I felt accomplished when I got home. I tacked up on my own (mainly, since Drew thought he'd mess up my girth and unclip my cross ties before I had this bit and reins on >.o; I'm not even going to ask him today when we go), stayed balanced, and did w/t/c, spins, turns, leg yields, and backs with Dude; and all with very little attitude, and a good bit of cooperation. (: Oh, and only 2 minutes [3 tries] to get his bridle on.

Listen..the date for the last one was suppose to be 5.25.10, not 4.25.10 XD

5.26.10 (yesterday)
So..I tacked him up before Mendi got back from work and hopped on at 16.40 to get him warmed up, since she had a lesson at 17.00 so we were suppose to be tacked and out of the way. I warmed him up, just some circles along the edge of our indoor and some spins, backs and I attempted a sidepass..but he kept turning his forehand too far over, so after two-three steps I was like alright. ;-;
I waited in the indoor for Mendi and her lesson to tack up, and then we went up to the outdoor to go out for a trail ride. Dude figured he'd stay back today though. >.o He backed, sidestepped and reared up twice, so I kicked him and pulled his face to the side to make him power walk the indoor, I did two circles with him and tried to take him back out and he tossed his head and sidestepped again, so I spun him and had him go the other way; he walked out of the gate nicely this time. :3
We started down on the trail, lost Bandit and Kaley in the field somewhere (the dogs), Bandit ended up goin' back down to the barn and Kaley was chasing things in the woods, we found her about half way through our trail. :3 Our trail was a good 45 minutes, almost an hour. We got up to the trail head and Drew and I decided we would walk down around the hay field and run up through, Mendi and her lesson went straight back up the hill since she had her lesson and didn't want her running yet. Told us to be careful and started walking back. I turned Dude's head and kicked him with my left and he started tossin' his head and sidestepping into the trees, and then reared. ;-; I ended up yanking his head back around and kicking him with my left to get him to go back down and follow Drew (since he had already started walking over on Sox). He calmed down after we got about halfway to the first hill, and we ended up running the second hill, Drew had to stop Sox though-since he turned into a hyper mess as soon as we took off, even though he was calm before. O.O; Dude had a great transition back down to a nice, strong walk.
Drew ended up hoppin' in the round pen with Sox, because he was being an ass and started freaking out and wouldn't let Drew close the gate back up; I walked around while he cantered him in there. I would have taken Dude back down, but as soon as I took him to the other side of the outdoor where the gate down to the barn was he started acting up. I had him stand (barely) and then spun him and took him back down to the other side by the roundpen, since Drew was about done. I jumped in the round pen on Dude to work on our trot. He gave me trouble closing the pen gate, wouldn't stand still after I stood him next to it. E.o We worked on that both ways twice, I tried getting him into a canter once, but he refuses to canter in the round pen..refuses. >.<;;
It took me about 10 minutes to get him out because he was pawin' at the damn fence and wouldn't stand still near the gate, and I refused to get off that horse just to open the gate back up. Finally got it open and went down to untack him. ;-;
Then I went down and fed the three down in the run-in. Skippy's gaining a little more weight and muscle, but his hip bones are still there and his topline is crap. ;-; He gets double saddle pads and nothing more than a trot, but I still don't think he ought to be ridden, not really my say though. :/
But I think I did good last night, and I believe I handled his act ups quite nicely for how I've been told/shown adn how I think they ought to be handled. :3

5.27.10 (yesterday)

I went out to the barn around 16.00, hungout with Drew in the bottom run-in while he worked on his drainage ditches, and I cleaned out the tub.
Drew left to go get his haircut, I went on up to the top barn to wait for Mendi to come back so we could ride. I read my book for a bit while I sat on the bale in front of Toby's stall, he ended up getting a drink of water and then putting his head right over me. ;-; Just because I wouldn't rub his face. >.<;; I see how it is. Lol
Then I mosied back on down to the bottom barn, checked that no one was stuck in the damn fence again, and layed down in some hay and continued reading. :3
Erin and her mum ended up coming, let the dogs out when they went in the house to look for Mendi, who still wasn't back yet. ;-; She was about to come down and get Skippy to work with him, but I ended up grabbing him since I was down there and brought him up to her. I do find it funny that she refuses to walk the boy without a lead rope. He doesn't even need a halter on, he follows you like a puppy. I walked him up with my finger just touching his halter, so I could grab it if something spooked him or such. :# I had texted my mum so she could come get me in 20 minutes, but I texted her right after to say nevermind, coz I was going to ride Toby since Erin's mum was there..she tossed her phone in her purse and didn't even get the text, so I didn't get to ride. *facepalm* I ran down to feed the horses, since I had 10 minutes and ended up running back up to the top to make sure I told Erin to feed Skip a whole scoop of senior, since he wasn't down there to feed. Then ran back down, Sox ended up gettin' about 1/4 scoop of Tunie's food because he pushed her out of the way. *headdesk* I chased him out, then I put Tunie and Izzy back out in the field, locked everything up and went home. ;-;
Got in a fight with my mother because apparently if I say anything that isn't a direct answer to her question, then I'm disrespecting her, even when I already answered her damn question. >.<;; Tried tellin' me I wasn't coming to the barn tonight. Yeah, okay. *rolls eyes*
But yeah..no ride for me, no work for Dude..I have a feeling he's going to try and be an ass today. ;-;