Tag Archives: horse riding

“Dancing” with Horses!!!

It has been super cold here in Casper Wyoming this winter! We have been bringing the mares and our boarder boys in at least every night-trying to get them outside during the day. The wind is BRUTAL! I am pretty sure it is blowing 50 mph right now as I write this!

Hubs was trying to help me before his surgery by getting all the horses in the barn. One lone pregnant mare, Holly, would not let him catch her. He called me to complain about how naughty she was. I thought no prob I will catch her when I get home-I am always able to catch her if I take my time! (well I have to admit that I thought it may take me five times as long as he let Holly WIN-but I didn’t tell him that)!!!

So with HUBS watching from outside the fence I try to shut the gate at the end of her run to limit her area of running from me. The pen had a huge snow drifts throughout one side so I couldn’t close the end gate-so I am becoming less sure of myself. Holly has never kicked at me but with a drift blocking her from running from me I didn’t know what she would do. Hubs is still watching from outside of the pen thinking that there is no way I am going to catch her-which I love to tell you that I proved him wrong. I just took my time! After I get a hand on her shoulder the game is over and then she becomes a different horse. She has the most amazing ground manners when she being led, tied up, trailered, etc. She has been ridden before but it has been over 9 years since she was ridden (we bought her strictly for a brood mare). When she is loose-she can be a snotty little thing!

Got me thinking about it being part of their game! Zoey, my main riding mare, likes to run around me for about 5 minutes and then just “lets” me catch her. SERIOUSLY it is very annoying sometimes.

Every other mare is FANTASTIC to catch and can’t wait to be with me or Hubs when catching them-RIGHT in your business even if you aren’t catching them but are near them. I love each and every one of their different personalities, there little quirks-some great and some that need to be worked on (but we all have that whether we are humans or horses)!!

Alisha (aka Wild Woman of the West)

P.S. I wrote this mid December. Sadly Holly lost her foal. She is now at her “boyfriends” house for another try! Her first baby at our place was Frosty (now named Little man at his new home). We are excited for a full sibling to Frosty hopefully next year!!!!!

P.S.S. We would LOVE for you to like our facebook page! www.facebook.com/wildwomanofthewest.

Go Pros, Snow and Horses!

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Tonight I really wish I owned a Go Pro camera. The boyzees, Princess (our cow dog aka feeding partner) and I went down to the barn to do chores. It was after dark, the moon was full and bright and we were all a little tired from the week. The boyzees each had sport practices tonight. At the barn we needed to feed, fill waterers and move hay around for the next week-we had been putting off moving bales of hay for quite a few days!

Diamond, our 7 month old filly is now full time in a pasture-we never stall her because of what we thought was muscle probs. We now think maybe she just needs to be in a large run/pasture always! We have been hauling water by bucket fulls for a while as she is in a large run with a shelter that is no where near water or electricity. So tonight we moved a large water trough and started hooking hoses together. Four VERY LONG hoses later we had the hose long enough to reach from the water spigot to the water trough. Little side note: HUBS had to fix a hose and he thinks this past summer he had a great reason to put two female ends on one hose. So the boys and I are in moonlight only (we finally broke down and used the flashlight on the cell phone) to put the hoses together. After a long laugh we figured it out and got the hoses organized.

I do think the horses were all wondering what the he** we were doing laughing, hollering and carrying on. That Go Pro would have come in handy tonight just because it was all funny to the boyzees and I!!!

We also moved had to all the pastures to make feeding (especially in the mornings) a little easier on HUBS!

Boyzees and Hubs think I am a bad driver. EVERYTIME the snow (currently from the night before last) drifts I seem to get stuck in a snow drift in my one ton truck. All the males in my household think it is me. So driving back up to the house from the barn took three tries-which gave the boyzees a good laugh when they told hubs!

Tonight I am thankful for the laughs and memories I made tonight night with my boyzees. It was the absolute highlight of my day! It just doesn’t get any better!

So horses are watered and fed and we all are sleepy…Have a GREAT evening!

Alisha (aka Wild Woman of the West)

P.S. We just exceeded 22,500 likes on facebook. What a journey we have had in the last year! I have really enjoyed getting to know you and just having fun! Visit our facebook page at facebook.com/wildwomanofthewest.com

P.P.S. Save up to 80% at our outlet western store. Your favorite western brands for less!!

P.P.S.S. Does anyone own a Go Pro? How do you like it? What do you use it for? I was thinking I should get one. Lots of uses-spying on the horses when I am gone at work; wearing on my head while I feed with the boys to capture laughs and memories with them; and I am pretty sure the boyzees could think of ways to use it too!

I call it BARN CROSS FIT!

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snow

All this snow has been GREAT as we really needed it. It adds lots of animals related work! I actually LOVE when the horses are in the barn in their stalls-it seems like I get more one on one time with each of them as they aren’t all in a group. I have gotten to pet them more, brush them more, talk to them more and just be around them more (yes the snow day helped)! One other thing I do more is clean the stalls. This morning I spent well over and hour-which I really enjoyed-cleaning stalls-AND subsequently getting a work out. Mucking out stalls, hauling hay and wood shavings gets my heart pumping! I joke with my friends that doing all that is FREE (well maybe not since I am paying for the horses, hay, etc!) cross fit as it is life and it is EXERCISE-EVEN IF IT IS NOT AT THE GYM!

I cleaned my main mares stall and had to share a pic as she is “stall trained” and a very “clean” horse. She poops and pees in one area and it is super easy to clean her stall. Not so much for other four of them!

The cats were soaking up the hot sun as I cleaned the stalls and fed everyone.

This morning the boys stayed home from school (I thought it was going to be worse than yesterday – WHICH IT WASN’T) so they helped me with the horsies after they fed their 4-H piggies and goats.

After chores (and I went to the office) the boys sledded and sledded and built jumps and sledded some more! HUBS said they had a FREAKING blast outside-which made me feel slightly better that they didn’t play video games all day, but did some sort of exercise! LOL!

The sun is HOT so now we can bring on the MUD!!!!!!!

THE GREAT HUBS!

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Is your HUBS a pessimist or an optimist? My HUBS is a diehard optimist to the freaking core! He is so optimistic sometimes I get annoyed at him. I however am a complete pessimist (I do try to hide this fact as much as possible as it is NOT something I am proud of). This is something I consistently fight now to be. I actually joke that a pessimist is an educated optimist!

The fact that hubs is an optimist is what really grounds me and evens me out. If you hadn’t figured out by now I am VERY HIGH STRUNG and ENERGENIC. HUBS is WAY more CALM! He reminds me a lot NOT to go negative but look on the positive side. Sometimes I make myself find one positive thing out of a situation I see is negative-mostly due to him reminding me to do so (LOL)!

One of my most favorite things about HUBS beside him being a FANTASTIC DADDYO, is how much he loves the horses. He completely understands my obsession and supports me in it. OUR horses LOVE him and can feel his patience (as they know I don’t have a lot) and calmness (another thing I lack-LOL).

I found this picture/saying and thought, “THAT IS EXACTLY HOW MY HUBS IS!” I might even take a pic like this (if I can coax HUBS into it AND it stops snowing in the near future!).

He does whatever he has to do to help and take care of the horses. He gets worried when a foal is about to be born and taking too long like me or when one seems to have a belly ache, etc and just has a genuine interest in them partly because I do…I am one lucky Wild Woman of the West!

And the cowgirl rides again…

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My little lady is my horse girl! She would rather ride her quarter/pony Sage them to play with her dolls. Any opportunity to ride she is there!

Earlier this week she had an opportunity to ride. Some other little girls were at our house while their dads were riding. I was just going to take turns leading the girlies on Sage.

The two older little ladies (mine and another one) wanted to ride by themselves. They both know how so I let those two ride by themselves. In between their rides I would lead the smaller little lady around the arena. After about an hour and a half my little lady rode for the last time-she rode to the other side of the arena.

She was having a blast I turn around the corner on my eye I see the 19-year-old pony/quarter horse bucking…with my little lady on her. I was running toward them yelling: oh sh*t, oh sh*t…

(Side note here her horse riding teacher trains her to ride two-handed on the rains and not use the horn so she didn’t grab the horn).

SO A RECAP: One buck, two buck, three buck THEN my little lady is on the ground. That pony bucked 3 times and my little lady stayed on without holding the horn. WHAT!

My little lady landed on her belly-dirt all over her body! She was fine; just a little rattled. As she was crying and I was hugging her very tight! I told her she had to get back on—-

There were other people in the arena that helped me coax her back on.

After a prayer that she wouldn’t be fearful she got back on—then I RAN inside with her—and gave her a warm bath!!

The part that is so amazing is she didn’t have fear—-she wanted to get back on HER horse! And she didn’t want her trainer to be mad at her horse…

Another proud mama moment!

As she lay next to me about that night–I couldn’t let her sleep in her own bed after the bucking incident–she said, “Mommy are you disappointed in me?” I asked her why she thought that??? I was amazed that she was thinking that!

My little lady thought that since she didn’t stay on, I would be disappointed. How does a four-year-old grasp that concept?

I explained her over and over again that night that I was so proud of her that she was such a big girl!

And I also told her the next time if it ever happens that she needs to grab the saddle horn!

A couple days later when it was time for her training lesson I was even more proud that she got back up on that horse and had no problems the entire lesson.

When she was done with her lesson I had a toy zebra waiting for her she fell asleep with her arm around that hard zebra last night.

Ever since then the zebra now goes everywhere with her—Walmart, the barn, kitchen table, bathroom…

What a GREAT little lady I have. She amazes me daily!

Thanks for reading!

Alisha (AKA Wild Woman of the West)

P.S. Thank you for LOVING our facebook page. We should hit 6000 likes at the beginning of this week! We love that you share our pics and contests with your friends!

P.P.S. FUN BLING ALERT! For the month of April we are having a fun contest. Check it out here: http://wildwomanofthewest.com/livin-country-bold-and-brash-contest/

Horse and Rider Fun!

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We take off at a dead run…headed for the left WHITE barrel…almost there…THEN MY MARE ZOEY JUMPS 6 FT (felt like more) TO THE RIGHT. Yes she was SCARED of the freaking white barrel. I AM A MAJOR BARREL RACING AMATEUR! Haven’t gone to many barrel races, but do different exercises in the barn that I learned from barrel clinics. We have only ever been somewhere – barn included – where the barrels were dark blue or black.

This particular incident happened at a barrel race-thankfully in exhibition (yes I went home after the exhibition). However, I am happy to report that I stayed on her as she jumped sideways and I made her go around the barrel-IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Barrel one was TERRIBLE, barrel two was SLIGHTLY better and she actually went around barrel three with a little PRIDE.

I thought to myself, “It was ALMOST PERFECT in my arena”, so when I saw this post on facebook I knew this is exactly what happened to me.

Why? I know what you are all thinking-because I am WAY more relaxed IN MY OWN ARENA! I was as high strung as a rider could get that day. I hadn’t run barrels in front of anyone for a LONG time so I was super nervous!

After getting over the embarrassment and wanting to crawl UNDER my horse to hide, I did see some humor in it. My horse friends and I have laughed about it this week-and I have promised them that I will try again. So everyone will keep me to this-I will go to more than one barrel race a year.

My little lady thought I did GREAT-which made me proud of her. I would have told her the same thing if it would have happened to her-and I presume someday something like this will…

Until next time…

Alisha (aka Wild Woman of the West)

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