Getting Caught Up

I swear...I don't really think it is possible to get caught up around home. Once the green is on...it's a continual process of watering, mowing, weeding, cleaning...rinse and repeat. Non-stop all summer long. Some days I wonder what in the heck I was thinking when we bought this place. 'Oohhh, 20 acres...that's no big deal.' Right?...WRONG!!!

Oh well, I love this place. And things are coming along. I just bought a 50-60 foot round pen from a neighbor and am having a different neighbor come and disk up my arena area. I still have my 20 acres of open field to ride in next door, but on the other side of us, the open 5 acres that my neighbor used to have her barrels set up in, well...

Looks like we are going to have new neighbors. I knew that eventually someone would buy that property and put a house up...I just kinda figured it would be another few years. Oh well, I hear they are nice people. Don't know if they have horses or not, but am hoping they do. Nothing worse than a non-horsie person moving into a horsie neighborhood. Guess it doesn't matter as long as they don't start complaining. Although, we are planning on putting up a privacy fence along that fenceline now. That house looks right into my bedroom window. LOL

Speaking of the bedroom...

The hubby and I went tree shopping the other day. Looking to replace the evergreen trees that died. We thought we did something wrong, but almost everyone in the valley lost evergreens over the last year. Even ones that were established and mature. Nobody is quite sure why. But anyway, the hubby and I got caught in a rainstorm that dropped the temperature to the point where it was downright cold trying to shop for trees in shorts and t-shirts, so we stopped at a furniture store I had been wanting to go look in. We needed a new mattress something fierce. After sleeping in my LQ while in AZ and not having any hip or back pain and then coming home and the pain started up again almost immediately...I finally realized it was our mattress that was the problem. It is NOT that I am just getting o.l.d. LOL..

We got a new mattress...And an entire new bedroom set...

MH and I were trying to think if and when was the last time we had a matching bedroom set...And neither of us have ever had an entire brand new set. LOL. The best part was the new mattress worked. My hips and back were decidedly less achy after only one night's sleep. Wheww!!

MH finally found the couch of his dreams too...

There is actually 3 recliners in this couch. It's fabulous. Now we can recline side by side and watch t.v. without squishing each other on the couch or getting kinks in our necks. Sooo cool!

I haven't done much with the horses. Gave Moon and Bugs a couple of days off and then have just been doing light work just to keep them stretched out. I figured as hard as those two have been going, a light week would be good for them. Now we'll be cranking back up. The rest of them are on the list as well. :-).

I have been keeping in touch with Megan. She said Frosty is doing well...

Sheez...He hardly looks like the same horse. Meg has a client horse that she is riding and getting paid for, so that is good. Unfortunately, she called me the other day and was in a bit of a panic...Her pup, Banshee...

Got struck in the face by a rattlesnake. Luckily the snake just struck him and did not inject venom. I knew how bad the rattlers were down there, so when Meg left, I sent a tub of White Lightening along with her. She dosed the heck out of Banshee and got the swelling stopped. The pup is fine, outside of having a puffed up face. Boss man took to calling him Hammer Head...and I said that was a no go. Banshee is and always be my little 'pig face'...

Happy Memorial Day weekend to everyone!! Keep your fingers crossed for Moon and I. I'm excited!! I think I have finally figured out how to stay out of my horse's way and I cannot wait to see what he will do when unimpeded. :-D

A LIttle More Practice

I wanted to take it easy on Moon this weekend...He's been running a lot since February and been hauled thousands of miles. It's only going to get busier for us from here on out...But I still feel like we...read that as *I*...needed to keep the flow going and make one run. I picked one of his favorite arenas to run in...the Rimrock Rodeo arena. We have always done good there and since the barrel racing was coupled with a bull riding event, I knew it would be a good place to practice our new method.

This is the arena that has the funky side gate, where if you have a right hand barrel horse, you have to come in, cross the entire width of the arena and then get turned around to start your run. That feat can be a bit tricky, but it actually seems to work for Moon. It seems to give him a chance to get that adrenaline pump he gets out of the way and he gathers himself for his run. I like the fact that I can ride all the way to the opposite fence and then bring Moon back around and start his run from a little to the right of center. Moon's deadly on that first barrel when I can start our runs from there because he doesn't have time to straighten his body...He runs to and around that first barrel in beautiful shape. It shaves a couple of strides off of the run as well, which never hurts. ;-)

And oh man, did he fire. I came so close to picking up on those reins, but I have learned my lesson...If I just leave him alone, he WILL make the turn and in better form than if I'm 'helping'. He came out clean and headed straight across the arena. I actually moved my hands up his neck and asked him to run a little harder. LOL.

We was about 2 strides out from the 2nd barrel when I realized my error. I had piloted Moon too close to the barrel. I moved my eyes over and if I had kept my outside hand on the rein, I probably could have gave him a little 'check' to encourage him to move over, but I had already dropped my right hand to the horn...CRAP!!! Moon was running so hard, that I thought, well, if I just keep my inside hand down and don't pull up on him, I can probably get him by the barrel, even if the rest of the turn is awkward.

Nope! Moon started to turn and I had no option but to bring my left hand over his shoulder to try to keep him off of the barrel. That didn't work either. Moon tagged the barrel on the backside with his breast collar. Since I know that...that means I didn't keep my eyes up enough to get that one extra inch.

I let Moon finish the run, but didn't encourage him to run. Just let him coast along. Third was good...no urge to sit up and pull on him this time, so apparently we have our groove on there again.

I'm going to try something a little different the next time I run...Since I have such a sticky spot in myself that isn't letting me use both hands effectively at the 2nd barrel, I'm going to try to keep my right hand only on the rein as Moon makes his run between 1st and 2nd.

It's kind of an interesting phenomena....but my left arm seems to be almost immobile when I am running in competition. I've noticed this about myself before. I can get my left hand up to the rein easily enough, but once I get it there, I just seem to sort of set it in place. Without meaning to, I am setting Moon up for his turn a couple of strides too early and that is pulling him too far into the pocket. I am far more mobile with my right arm, so I think if I just keep that hand on the rein until we are almost to the point where Moon needs to start turning, it will keep his body straighter, longer and when it's time, I can sweep my left arm up and ask him for the inside bend. I have seen other girls ride across the pen like that and I always wondered if it would work better for Moon and I to try that. Now that I am not stuck in the rut of  'I have to make this ONE thing work.'...I think it's time to see if it will. Since Moon is actually running across the pen with a straight body and isn't shouldering/dropping into the turn...I think it is just my immobilized left arm that is causing us to tag that barrel now.

No Touchy Da Face

After my run, I took care of Moon and lounged around awhile thinking about how freaking awesome Moon had just felt on that run. I've had winning runs on him and nothing has ever come close to feeling as right as what had just happened. The first year I went to EW, he told me, 'You want it too much. You need to just let it happen.' CZ had also told me that I was wanting it too much and riding too hard, but she explained it in a way that my overly-analytical mind could comprehend. She told me, I was over anticipating things that hadn't even happened. I needed to just sit down a little, relax and feel what my horse was doing. She had watched me ride Moon and had me do a few exercises...to gauge just how responsive Moon was to my body. The fact is, I can ride Moon with just my body. That's how I train a horse. The reins are just a back-up. CZ was impressed and asked me why I worked so hard to control Moon through the reins (during a run) when I had a horse that was so light and responsive just shifts in body weight?

Honestly, I had no other explanation other than EW encourages people to ride the head and the body will follow. Again, I want to make it perfectly clear, I am not bashing EW's teachings!! He got me through a very tough spot with Moon and I learned A LOT from him. It was my own failure to adapt what he was teaching as Moon's running style has evolved. As Moon has gotten more solid, *I* should have felt when it was time to back off and just let him run. It's not that I didn't trust Moon, it's that I got fixated on perfecting what I thought I was supposed to be doing...and I never felt like I was getting it right. CZ's help reminded me that it doesn't matter if what I do is perfect or not...It's about doing just enough so that your horse gets around the barrels.

The next morning, I was up and ready to roll. I was dying to find out if I could replicate Moon's run from the day before...sans the causing him to blow off of the first barrel thing. Could I get a good run by simply riding his body and not touching his face?

Moon warmed up easy and stood quietly waiting for our turn. I'm sure the edge was off of him because it had been a long weekend already, but I was feeling quietly confident that we were on to something here and I think that your horse can always feel that and it helped Moon relax before our run.

I did exactly what I had done the day before. Gathered him up, kicked him off in the correct lead and the instant I felt him lock onto the barrel, I dropped my hands to his neck. This time Moon really ducked to the right and I had to pick my hands up to get him pointed back at the 1st barrel and then relaxed my hands down again (am going to have to work on gently releasing him for the run and not just dropping my hands). He took off like a shot, inhaled the 1st barrel just like he had the day before. This time I kept my focus, but instead of just letting Moon finish the turn, I swept my outside hand up to the outside rein to keep him straight and that of course lifted my hands up in the air. I felt Moon start to get ducky and divy under me. I'm pretty sure he was waiting for the pulling to start, but I caught myself, dropped my hands to his neck and he lined out to run. I know my left shoulder started to stiffen up as we got close to the barrel because I felt Moon stiffen under me and I forced myself to drop that shoulder. Moon started the turn just a hair too early because of it, but he kept moving forward (funny how they will do that when you are not pulling on their face. LOL) and cleared the barrel. He had to regather on the backside (so now I know what was causing THAT problem!! My stiff shoulder going into the 2nd barrel causes Moon to have a stiff shoulder and drops him on the front-end). I kept my hands down and let him have his head. He rolled out of that turn and was flying to 3rd. Again I felt that damn urge to sit up and pull, but I just wrapped my fingers in his mane again, picked my spot and didn't move.

I couldn't even tell you what that turn felt like...Moon was in and out of there so gosh-dang quick that it felt like one blink we were moving one direction and the next blink we were headed back out of the gate.

OMG!!! FINALLY a clean run again.

Moon smoked the run with a 14.927.

That gave us the 2nd fastest time in the race so far.

I was breathing harder than Moon after that run. LOL. He was all like, 'What? See how easy that is when you just let me do my thing?'

I didn't care where we ended up in that race...That run felt absolutely, unbelievably INCREDIBLE!!!

And not for an instant did I think Moon was going to hit a barrel. If I leave him alone, he knows how to get around a barrel. Now I know exactly what another barrel racer meant when she told me, 'Girls would die to have a horse that turned that naturally.' Of course, that was back when I was fighting with Moon to get him around a barrel and it didn't feel so awesome to me. :-/.

And for the first time ever, I'm not wondering what exactly I did that made that run a good, clean run and I'm not wondering how to replicate it. I KNOW!! That kind of run, Moon and I can make happen over and over again...because he's running the way he needs to be running and being allowed to turn the way he is comfortable turning. It feels exactly the way it should. I'm not up there trying to make a bunch of stuff happen that never felt exactly right anyway. That is what was causing my panic attacks. If Moon was on target and felt good, I was pretty sure there was something I was supposed to be doing, so I would start moving my hands around and inevitably messed my horse up. That's when Moon would start fighting me. He was right all along...I was the one who wasn't getting it right....Which is no big surprise...LOL.

At the end of the day...We ended up with the 3rd fastest time and a nice check. Most importantly though, I think that we finally found our groove. That run felt right, not lucky...and that is the key to finally becoming consistent. You cannot re-create luck, but you can re-create something that feels natural.