(Laurie & Dream) My friend Susan Lejonhud, in Hebron, ME., and I had decided we would start off the new year right, by each of us riding our Curlies on New Year's Day!  Dream and I have not had the chance to ride in almost a month because of snow storms every other day meaning major snow blowing and clean up efforts for me.  Dream has only been under saddle since the end of May '07, and is still not confident going out on trail rides alone. We warmed up in the round pen and did a "refresher" of listening.  Then I tried to go out on some of the neighborhood rides we've done before.  The last time we went out into the world there weren't huge snow banks and the road didn't look like it does now, so Dream was not relaxed!  Her pasture mate was screaming at her the whole time, which only increased her hypersensitivity.  First she was distracted by the squeaking of the neoprene on the tops of my new boots against the saddle.  Then she was really distracted and wary of the sounds of snow blowers, and snowmobiles at the neighborhood houses.  She didn't care for the two snowmobiles that went by us on the road!  We ended up spending our time getting over one bogey-man at a time, and going up the road and back several times, where the sanders had been, since there is a lot of ice under our snow here.  It was a lesson filled ride!  I HAD to squeeze in a ride in the morning before the next snow storm started!  Now I have another foot to snow blow!  I would much rather be riding!

(Laura & Billy) Billy and I started out the new year with a wonderful ride around our property.  It had just snowed and the trees were full with snow.  We traveled up into the woods and Billy was so happy to be out and about!  He really enjoyed swerving in and out of the trees.  After the woods, we went down to our river, the ground was not frozen yet, so Billy sunk quite deep into the mucky swamp!  I thought he was going to freak out, but he just plodded through like it was not big deal.  He was just amazing!!  I guess he thought that I needed some kind of payback for getting his feet all dirty, so, he kindly put his head into a pine tree and just shook it like crazy, covering ME with snow!!  That seems to be his new trick - he acts like he is going to scratch his head or take a bite of tree, and instead he shakes his head!  He probably gets a kick out of me screaming!  When we got back to the barn, my son Rylee was shoveling off his trampoline and Billy felt the need to "help" but whisking away any snow that was along the outside of the trampoline.  Happy Riding everyone.

(Michelle & Lakota @ Chestnut Hill Curlies) First ride of the New Year!  Its a lovely 36F outside today, feels much like a spring day out there, with the sun shining and blue skies.  Finally the ice is melted and the mud is frozen so the footing is actually usable!  My goal this year is to work on Lakota's confidence in me while mounted. She will do anything I ask, anywhere when I'm on the ground. But when I'm mounted she is perfect in the roundpen, but out and about she loses confidence. So I hope to have a lot of wet saddle blankets this year, and have her as quiet and relaxed in the yard and on the trail as she is in the roundpen. I went out to gather Lakota, and wanted to try out the new Leather western style Bitless Bridle that I bought with Christmas money from relatives.  Lakota was a little worried leaving her buddies, but she hasn't been out of her paddock since September, and that was to go for 30 days training.  So we took our time walking down to the roundpen, meandered around, sniffed the manure pile (well, she sniffed it, I just watched *s*), looked at a few things.  Then she relaxed and in we went. The wind was blowing a little, chickens and ducks flapping around, goats being obnoxious, and April screaming her fool head off, racing up and down the fenceline.  I wasn't sure if I would ride her today, since it has been so long, and things were all a little on the "up" side, and I'm a big, fat whimp with a brittle old body. We started out with our usual w/t/c free-lunge warm up.  Let me just say, she offered the most BEAUTIFUL collected trot, my jaw was on the ground, I think.  She had a treat and good girl and scritches for that, and every trot she gave me was an instantaneous depart with a gorgeous, floaty collected trot.  Then we did some "follow my footsteps" on the ground.  By now, we were much more relaxed and focused. So I decided to climb on.  She came right over to the mounting block as usual giving me her right side (she's so cute).  She remembered exactly where we left off last fall, and was just absolutely perfect.  I only stayed aboard for about 10 minutes or so, and we just walked around a bit, with me trying to keep my body loose and relaxed and getting my muscles and joints to understand what this all is again. She wasn't turning well from my focus, so we'll work on that, it was most likely stiffness in my body giving conflicting messages, because she would just stop and I'd get those swiveling helicoptor ears.  So I knew she was confused.   Stops were perfect though, and that's pretty important. So we had a nice little 10 minute ride, and I hopped on off, and we called it a day. Soooo, is Spring yet????  =D

(Laura & Billy) Well, I FINALLY found something that Billy does not like - being an Indian pony!!!  Even treats could not convince him that this was a good idea!  Denise sent me an Indian War Bridle to try (see the story under Comanche Tack on her blogsite chocolatecurls.net ).  The mouthpiece is basically a piece of rawhide with a string attached that goes around the horses head and reins I put the mouthpiece into Billy's mouth and he spit it out, I put it in, he spit it out.  He would kind of mouth it, pin his ears a little, and spit it out as I was trying to get the little string around his head.  Finally, I got the coordination correct and got it all done in one swift move!  Success.....I thought.  As I was putting my helmet on,  Billy pushed it out the side of his mouth.  So, here is a piece of Rawhide hanging out the side of his face!  I swear he was laughing at me!  I told him that we WERE going to try this and we WERE going to get pictures.  Out of the pasture we went.  I had absolutely NO CONTROL!!!  He was so mad he was not even listening to what my legs were saying.  He just kept swishing his head and trying to spit this thing out.  I yelled to my son who was playing in the snow "Rylee, go get the camera....QUICK!!!"  In the meantime, I am trying to keep Billy moving in a circle and he is just throwing is head every which way.  I finally just stopped him and waited for Rylee and the camera.  This seemed to make Billy happy.  Billy saw Rylee coming from the house and Billy very quickly walked right up to him and nudged him on the arm, almost like he was saying "Get the picture so I can get rid of this ridiculous contraption!"  Rylee laughed and obliged Billy with a couple pics.  So, an Indian pony, Billy is not.  But that is okay with me.   At least we tried it!!   I hope he realizes that this is not the last crazy thing we WILL be trying :-)  Happy riding everyone!!!