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Life with Stitch and Cole!

1K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  Rideordie112 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey all!

I decided to start this journal to document my progress with my two geldings, Stitch and Cole. I figured that this would be a good way to keep track of my riding lessons, horse shows, and day to day barn shenanigans.

So I have quite a bit of background. Most of it about my barn, my barn really isn't your typical boarding situation and is a key part in my journey with my horses. So I don't feel I could tell you guys about them and our life together without some context of who we are!

I'm 20 years old, and from Northern California. I have been riding since I was nine years old, and basically grew up at the same barn. My barn is nothing fancy, really. We don't have lots of stalls, or an indoor arena, but its a good place. A place that really truly cares about the horses and the students who take lessons.

So I moved to California when I was nine from Maine. I took the move horribly, I had trouble making friends in my new school, my parents were working all the time and I was sad and lonely in my new environment. My mom told one of her coworkers about my current state and she suggested that we give her neighbor a call. A woman in her 50s, who rescues horses and hosts summer camps for kids to help for the costs. The very next week was my first day at camp and let me say I was immediatelynhooked. I found a solace and peace in horses even from a young age that i struggled to find in other places. During the week long camp, the BO, lets call her Jan, had apparently taken a liking to me. She offered me to come back once a week and help her with chores. I quickly obliged and became her shadow. We quickly became close, and to this day she is one of my most cherished role models and friends. I even made friends at the barn as well! There were three other girls who Jan had also taken under her wing.

Eventually, she taught me how to ride. She taught all of us. We each had our "own" horse of Jan's that we called our project horses. We could go to the barn whenever we wanted as long as she was home and could watch us. We did everything for our horses by ourselves, and I mean everything. I have learned so much and experienced so much from this woman! Over time Jan's barn evolved! She started hosting official lessons, us original girls became "Interns" and we worked for her. We went to shows, team pennings, barrel races, gymkhanas, trail rides, trail trials, sortings, any place Jan could take us and our project horses she did. Her 15 horse strong herd of rescues turned into today's 5 pastures with 40 horses total, consisting of rescues turned lesson horses, kids project horses, and personally owned horses. Us three original girls became a close knit group of 11 who grew up to each other, and to this day, are either still with Jan, or they're at college and their horses are. Today we are officially a non-profit rescue/lesson barn!

Most children who take lessons from her eventually get their own project horse, and from there they can lease either that horse, or one of her other ones. And that's the great part about what she does. Every old horse that comes through this barn, no matter what their background gets to experience love and kindness. I rode many horses at the barn and went through multiple projects until Jan decided it was time for me to least my first horse.
An Arabian gelding in his mid teens named Cabari... I leased him for about half a year until eventually Jan gave him to me on my 13th birthday! He is also still alive today, and still with me. But I'm choosing to include him in this because this is probably going to be his last winter. He's getting to the point where it would be kinder to put him down. As hard as that thought is, an even harder one is deciding when the time is right. Even with Jan's guidance and advice, i'm still worried that I may make the wrong choice for the horse who gave me so much. He seems happy. His eyes are still bright and he still is energetic and he scarfs down what food he can chew, he even gives lead line lessons once or twice a week. But hes not putting on weight, and hes having more trouble getting up and down.



By the time I was 14 I had became enamored with English riding. Jan, who is a true die hard Texan was not happy. But regardless, her and one of the trainers at the barn helped me get set up with a trainer. She even loaned me one of her trailers (and still does weekly!) so me and my dad could haul Cabari to my lessons! Flash forward a year and a half and I was now showing in hunters, jumpers and even some low level cross country! (Lucky for me in Cabari's life before we came together he was another child's all around English show horse). When i was 15 we decided It was about time for me to get my own horse! I wanted a horse that excelled at jumping, but that was versatile enough that I could still ride western and dabble in other things at the low level. I didn't really get quite that. I ended up with Stitch, a 6 year old 16.1hh, green broke, hot headed TB/Paint Horse cross. I only found him because one weekend the barn went to a local team sorting, and the man who puts them on out of his own arena, showed me him and said he was for sale. I felt awful for him. Poorly muscled, could've used some weight, covered in flies, had scars from spurs, terrified, flew away from any pressure under saddle, carried his head so high he could hit you in the face with it, flinched if you looked at him too fast. He was just a wreck. But what really got me about him, was he tried. He tried so hard for me, a stranger on his back. And he learned quickly. His mind was exactly what I needed. Brave and honest. I mean this is what I've been preparing for this whole time right? A true project. A vet check was done that day, and he was home the next.
Here is little me and little baby Stitch right after I test rode him!


Since then we've had a long road! When he first came home it was horrible. I was so discouraged. He never offered to buck/rear/bolt, but he was a mixture of green and a level of totally screwed up from bad riding and poor handling that I had not experienced before. And I had grown up riding some snotty horses. Stitch taught me the importance of utilizing and seeking resources. I worked with three different trainers not including Jan, I trailered to lessons and sessions with these trainers once a week every week, and I was at the barn every day working with him. Once I got my license, this turned to twice a week, I started riding in the park, going to shows by myself, attending clinics (He's been in a Buck Brannaman Clinic twice!) and conferences. Anything that I could. I took bits and pieces of all of this information (even some from the forum!:love:) and found what worked best for my horse.
And the result I have today is everything I have ever wanted. Stitch has been a solid show horse, staying competitive and winning even at rated shows! He's a trooper on the trail. Nothing scares him, he'll go out first, last, alone, doesn't matter. You can ride him western, work some cows, go team sorting, go to a trail trial, go swimming in the pond. We even won runner up for Rodeo Queen in 2013. He is my heart horse. I'm proud of him because when I look at him I see all the hard work I put into him, I see all the successes, and failures and things that worked and things that didn't. I see all the tools I've picked up since then, I see who I was before and who I've involved into today as not only a rider but the woman I am.

In 2014 my world stopped spinning. Stitch had a bad pasture accident, he spooked, attempted to jump the fence and then suffered a completely rotational fall over it. Almost breaking his neck. And then, after this he ran around the entire neighborhood, on main roads and everything like a mad man. He couldn't be ridden for 8 months. This was devastating, but we worked through it. 2015 I spent reteaching and solidifying everything that he knew before. This year we started him back over fences again, and so that's where we're at now. Going to lessons weekly, and some local shows on the weekend!
But we're not out of the woods yet, Stitch has some confidence issues that we have to overcome. And I have some of my own. Getting back into lessons and showing it was thrown right in my face how out of shape and rusty I am. I have a lot of cleaning up to do in my riding, and the way I ride greatly effects Stitch. He is not a forgiving horse. If you look down, he will stop. If you hang on his face, he'll quit, and I wouldn't hold it above him to buck you off for that too. He's the kind of horse who requires his rider to ride him correctly. Right now we're schooling 2'6 and showing 2'3. Previously we showed 3 feet and schooled maybe a little bit higher but that is as high as I ever intended to go so we're going to document the journey of getting back there
Here's some recent pictures of him! Wish I could share some action shots with you, but my cell phone got stolen recently :(




In March of this year, Jan brought to my attention another potential project horse. A 14 year old 16.1hh Chestnut TB. Cole was an ex- A circuit show horse, but his owners were selling him has a husband and general riding horse because he apparently started bucking people off at shows for "no reason". So I test rode him (He's trained BEAUTIFULLY), got him vetted, decided he was a steal and brought him home to see what he would do. I let him settle and rode him on strictly on the flat, in the arena and out on the trail for a couple months; and then I got some chiro work on him, got him cleared for jumping by the vet, then I tried to jump him one day at a lesson with my trainer and nothing happened at all. I've been showing him up to 3'3 ever since. He's never offered to buck once. I assume they were causing him some sort of pain. So this was just an extremely lucky find, their loss my gain!
So although this journal will probably be mostly reconditioning Stitch, Cole will surely make an appearance as well. He goes to a lesson with me once every other week and I ride him 3-4 days a week!



Thank you guys so much for reading my long introduction about how I got into riding and my three horses!

Today I had a riding lesson with Stitch, and a crazy day storm proofing the barn for a big storm we have coming up. I'm going to write up a little something about that either tonight or tomorrow morning!
 
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#5 ·
Thank you! It was a crazy time. We didn't see what happened, we only saw Stitch and some other horses running around the main road at the top of the hill the barn is at the base of, and then the damage to the fences. That is the hypothesis formed by the vets who treated him.
 
#6 ·
Today was a long day at the barn! I had a jumping lesson in the next town over at 11am. You'd think that isn't too early, but I'm really bad at doing anything during the winter. Especially lately I've been in a rut since it started getting cold. My sleep schedule is also messed up from working late and then having to stay up late after work to do my homework. So due to circumstance my morning was bound to have some sort of problem.

To go to my lessons, I borrow my dad's truck and my BO's trailer. It's a pretty straight shot from my house, down the freeway to my parents house, and then right down the road to the barn. So I'm lucky there. But I ended up sleeping through my alarm and waking up at 9:45 instead of 9:00. As soon as I realized what time it was, I started panicking. There are always things I have to do at my parents house before I leave. My parents are the best, I may have moved out but they kept my room the same for when I stay over, and I keep a bunch of horse stuff in the closet; so I planned to just change there.

So I jumped out of bed at 9:45, feed the cats and run out the door. By the time I get to my parents house, it's now 10 and I have a 20 minute drive to my lesson! So I changed really fast, sorta brushed my hair but not really, grabbed my dads truck and headed to the barn. As soon as I got there I immediately started hitching up the truck to the trailer. Our farrier is there, and he's parked obnoxiously close to the trailer, but I deal with it. Then he starts trying to strike up conversation with me, when obviously I am busy. But he doesn't seem to care. (Note: No one really likes the farrier, we have a shortage of good farriers in the area, he does a good job but he's lacking in the personality and manners department. He made small talk with me about my horse Cole's feet, who was next on his list to shoe while I was gone. And while I appreciate the interest in my horses well being I was already SO VERY LATE.

So now that I have the truck hitched up, I did a quick safety check and then threw my tack inside. A little sloppily I admit, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Next was the hard part, actually getting the horse. The way my barn is set up, is that the barn itself is connected to the stalls and the arena. Inside consists of two 12x12 stalls and a lot of space for hay. We totally transformed it into one big stall that we use for storing boarders and kids who are leasing horses tack, then there is an area for lesson saddles and tack, and then a smaller tack room for the BO and trainer's stuff. Walking through the barn you directly enter an area where we tie and groom etc, but then at night can be closed off and used for horses. Lining this area is 6 stalls, three on either side each with their own run. And then there is the arena. There are 40 horses, so everyone is always turned out unless they need to be out. The barn is in a private residential area (Not many houses though. Many also had horses), and my BO has arrangements with her neighbors that allow her to use parts of their land. With that we have 6 pastures. One at the end of the property, two down the road and across a creek, another one farther down the same road, and another a bit farther down and at the top of a hill, and the last one is behind the neighbors kiwi plants! How do we catch and bring in these horses you ask? We use a Bobcat! All of the horses are trained to trot slowly behind the bobcat while someone sits on the tail gate and holds their lead rope. Stitch was in the pasture at the base of the hill. Someone else was using the bobcat, and the overflow from the creek was too high to walk through so I decided to take the trailer to the pasture. I have done this before but it's always a little bit scary because you have to go over a small bridge.

So I got Stitch in the trailer right outside of his pasture :cool:. But to turn around and go back the other way you have to either back up or use this one family's driveway (It's a circle). We as a barn have a weird relationship with them, one of our pastures is right next to their house so they let us run their hose out there to water the horses in exchange for their children taking riding lessons every once in a while, or whenever they feel like coming. But its always a gamble on if you can drive the trailer through their driveway. Sometimes they get mad, sometimes they don't. I'm not the only one who uses the BO's trailer so i'm sure i'm not the only one who has used their driveway to turn around either. I tried to back up, but I was panicky because of how late I was that I gave up and used the driveway :-|
Hopefully they don't care, but whatever.

I ended up getting to my lesson at 11:15 which was bad, but it could've been worse, and I texted my trainer ahead of time and she was very understanding about it; but unfortunately we did have to cut our lesson short because she needed to take her car in for a tune up.

Stitch was really good. It took him a little bit to warm up since I hadn't ridden him in a week prior due to a mixture of cold weather blues and pouring rain. We did a lot of no stirrup work and two point- which I really need to work on. I feel like i'm getting stronger and stronger but I still struggle to hold my two point. It's not that i'm getting tired, i'm just not balanced enough. My previous trainer never really made me do two point or no stirrup work, which now that I think about wasn't a good thing. In due time I suppose?

After that we did a lot of trotting to get Stitch moving and supple. He has a tendency to trot real slow and get lazy and then have a hard time staying on the bridle because he doesn't have enough impulsion from behind, and sometimes can be a little dead to my leg. To remedy this, a couple lessons ago my trainer gave me a crop for when Stitch ignores my leg. We cantered in both directions and worked on bending. This is new since Stitch's accident, but he's gotten in the habit of counter bending while cantering on his right lead only, and I don't know why but we're working on correcting it. I don't really think that is something i'm causing, but when the rain lets up i'll post a video. It's only on the right lead, and only around turns. And he doesn't fight you when you try to correct him, but its a repeated thing.

After that we did some jumping. We started with trotting some 18in cross rails, then we cantered and moved up to 2ft, then 2'3. We normally school a little higher but I kept screwing up. It was pretty discouraging. I would look down as we were approaching the fence and Stitch would just stop. Obviously this is my fault, but it's harder to catch then I thought because I don't notice when I look down. And when i'm riding my other horse he doesn't really react to me looking down. I really need to practice that, I wish i had someone who could come and watch me ride and tell me when i'm looking down!

After the lesson I headed back to the barn, parked the trailer then gave Stitch his grain, threw his blanket on, braided his mane and put his tail in a tail bag. It's supposed to pour rain for the next week :)shock:) which is gonna suck, but we really need it here in California. After that I took Stitch back to pasture and went to catch Cole. Cole isn't all that great about trotting behind the bobcat, especially when I'm alone and he has to be a little more self sufficient. We've been working on it a lot though, and it helps if there's hay from that mornings feeding left over in the back. I got to the pasture and he was all the way at the back of this 40 acre field, and there was no way I was walking that in 40 degree weather so I took the whole bobcat in the pasture and got to off road a little bit!:happydance:

The trot from Cole's pasture down to the barn is probably about 1/4 mile. And its a feat to get him to go the whole way without stopping, but lately he's been a star. I shouldn't have let my guard down because lo and behold Cole stopped abruptly, so instinctively I dropped the lead rope and stopped the bobcat so I could grab him. Well he decided that he was going to stop in the middle of the creek overflow we have to cross, and not only that but he was going to start walking down stream as well. So I had to go grab him, and I was soaked! When I got back to the barn I had to tie him up for a minute and take a breather, phew I was mad!

After that we had a good ride. W/T/C both ways, I set up some Xs with some barrels and popped over those and then it started raining. And I mean pouring. It wasn't supposed to start until tonight, we were supposed to have all day to rotate the pastures that we needed to, but mother nature loves her surprises. So I jumped off of Cole, quickly groomed, braided and blanketed him and then headed out on the bobcat in the rain. This time it was me, the BO and 3 other girls. We had three pastures to completely rotate before the storm really rolled in

We normally rotate pastures every now and then, mostly to let one get green while the horses munch on another one. But we have a couple that just don't have suitable shelter for the rain. And these two just happened to be the Moody Mare field, and the Proud Cut gelding field. A total of 18 horses! By this point lightening and thunder was starting so we were all literally running around like wild people trying to swap these horses around. People were on foot, someone had the bobcat and were transporting horses that way, another girl was riding her horse (who happened to be in one of the pastures that need moved) and ponying others. It wasn't pretty, but we were getting the job done. It took us over 30 minutes to swap both fields and feed and water the new ones. By the time we got back to the barn we were all drenched.

I ended my barn day with my friends sitting around the BO's firepit out on the back porch. A crazy day, but a good one!
I took some pictures, I didn't get many because I was rushing around so much. But I got the boys new halters, Cole's isn't pictured because he drug the brand new rope straight through the mud after dragging me into the creek so I want to clean it up first. But it's green with polka dots, I felt the polka dots matched his silly personality. And of course, Stitch looks good in blue:love:



Also at our lesson today Stitch wore his nice black polos that I made him last night and two of my trainers other students wanted to buy a set! I make polos and fly bonnets and sell them at my local tack store, so Stitch and Cole are always my models! (If anyone needs any polos or bonnets i'm your girl!)


I don't have any new pictures of Cole today. The one I posted in my introduction post is one I took today. But for fun here are some pictures of our pastures.
This was the pasture today when we had to get all the horses out before the rain

And here is the same one back not to long ago before it started to rain. And on the other side of the road by the green trees is another one of our pastures.

Every year this wreaks havoc on my horses feet. Stitch especially, he constantly pulls his shoes off. Barefoot is not an option, and neither is staying up at the barn during the winter. I've talked to the farrier about this, because he will get shod and then literally the next day the shoe is off and his foot is all torn up. So I'm thinking it may be time to find a new farrier? His current farrier is just the one the barn uses for the lesson horses, and I can call my own if I so choose. If anyone has any ideas about that please do share.

We have a great view in our little corner of paradise so just for some fun here some views of the barn, the pastures and the country around it.
This was taken standing in the entrance of the barn looking towards the neighbors


This pond is about a miles ride from the barn


Stitch and I exploring the creek bed about 700 feet from the barn!


This picture features Cabari in his younger days. Me and a friend found this cute little area in the back of one of the pastures.


Thanks for reading my first entry. Even though besides being late it was a fairly typical day for this time of year.
 
#7 ·
I love your journal already! Such a great story (minus poor Stitch's accident) I'm so sorry to hear that happened to him, but it looks like you got through it and I'm sure he loves you so much because he's in such great care! :) You never gave up on him! So happy! They are both so cute. Jan seems like a great person as well. Very fortunate to have that for sure.
I love the pictures, looks like a beautiful area! That's so cool you make stuff too, awww! That halter looks great on Stitch! Definitely his color. So beautiful!!!
 
#8 ·
Yea, I'll follow along. You write very well. As to the problem with the shoes, that's a tough one because you jump. Since good farriers are hard to find, you might just do some research on your own about how to best trim your horse so that the shoes will stay on. Here on this forum is a wealth of information, just start searching for what you want to know to bring up past discussions.
 
#11 ·
Thank you!

And that is a good suggestion. Although one I am wary to try, I would have to learn literally everything. I don't know nearly enough about the hoof right now. I think next time I go out to the barn I'll take some good pictures of Stitch's feet and post on the forum
 
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