i can't keep track of 2 journals so..
i'm moving to mymangotree
which is my personal journal.
but i have made a custom friends group for pony entries.
so if you'd like to be added to that group, leave me a comment.
i will most likely add you! thanks. xx
somehow mum talked me into giving 13 year old owen and my brother, riding lessons on mooka. so owen came around at 2pm today, and felix, him and i went up and caught the mooka pony and i taught them how to groom and saddle up etc. owen got on first and i taught him the basics. then i let him experiment by himself in the big paddock. i don't like to step continually unless either 1. the horse is getting yanked around and being ridden in a painful kind of way 2. the rider is in danger 3. the rider is really very confused. otherwise, i'm a believer in experimenting and praciticing over and over until you figure it out. mooka is a great teacher. felix and owen were like "he's so stubborn" "he won't go where i want him to" "he WONT go". =D haha. but they figured it out and were soon trotting around and having fun.
tinto and mango were going CRAZY in the next paddock. galloping in huge circles, leaping, bucking etc. we were all yelling "show off!" at mango cause she just is! she's such a prancy little thing, and when she slips or trips she gets all angry and embarressed and does a huge buck/leap kind of thing just to pretend that she's actually really 'with it'. ha ha! tinto came flying up at one point and when she was level with us she did this massive buck and then flipped over and landed upside-down. it was HILARIOUS. but i felt so sorry for the poor baby, she's such a little galoot. she scrambled up and went galloping off in shame. i went and checked her over. she was fine. *shakes head* they are too crazy.
omg. I LOVE HER.
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sat in the paddock today for like half an hour with tinto and mango and just chatted. mango is so. so. cute. she was practically in my lap, snuffling around at everything and trying to steal the halter i had. oh and i found out that her favourite place to be rubbed is her chest. hehe. i caught tinto and groomed, saddled and then mounted in the 2nd paddock. walked her to the dirt corner and then did walk and trot circles for about 30 minutes. no canter today. practiced collection through transitions. she's in the habit of coming out of frame when we do any transitions at the moment, so that's what i worked on. i was really happy at one point where we went: halt, walk, trot, walk, halt - all in collection. it was only once, but i'm quite pleased. she's so good to work with now. i love her incredibly. she's so cute and shy and wanting to please! ♥
need more riding pictures!
quick update... horses have been locked in 1st paddock up until today, been loading the float full of hay every day and miracuosly, it's vanishing. woohoo! i also put a bucket up the very front with some chaff in... all gone. ^_^ so they've been going inside the float and eating, which is great. not sure WHO exactly... really hoping it's mango! and yeah... need to ring judy soon about weaning. farrier's coming soon. *stresses*
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pictures
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today mum helped me get the float into the 1st pony paddock. tinto must have either thought that there was another horse inside, or that i was going to take her somewhere, 'cause she went absolutley crazyyy! so of course mango joined in. they were pelting around and trying to round up poor mooka (who really can't be bothered wasting all the energy escaping something that is of no harm to him). so i finally coaxed the ponies out of paddock 2 and locked them in paddock 1, with the float. let down the ramp and put a huge pile inside, then left. i'm hoping that tinto and mooka will venture in and out to get the hay, setting an example for mango. my aim is to get her to judy's before the farrier comes. haha, i so don't want to go through with that drama again. 
( photographs )
wow, i havn't updated for ages! i guess it's time for some more photos and news, lol.
mango has grown into a little cyco. she makes me laugh so much! she's the cheekiest, craziest, strangest little thing ever. she does the BEST mad-bucking-leaping-gallops, but i never seem to have my camera with me when she does, which is so frustrating! i'll have to be on high alert from now on... =P she's in serious need of being weaned. she's 210 days old, and feeling her power. tinto and mooka are the ones who should be teaching her how to behave properly, but mooka's such a softie, and seeing as tinto is a first time mum and has no other experianced mares to 'explain' child care to her, she just doesn't know how to act. so of course, mango is the boss - and she knows it. the way she pushes those two poor horses around is unbelieveable. quite hilarious actually... but it's got to the point where i think she could turn dangerous if she doesn't get put back in her place. my plan is to take her to judy's place (my old riding instructor and friend) and leave her there for a while. she'll be put in with some mares who have had experiance with dealing with foals, so hopefully she'll learn how to be respectful. now i just have to work out HOW to get this ball of energy onto the float without being killed. =D at the moment i'm feeding her out of a bucket that hangs on the fence (she was terrifyed of it to start with, so funny). soon, i'll hang it up inside the float and put some feed in, then let her go in and out as she pleases. then judy will come and help me get her inside, and she'll be carted away to boarding school, mwahaha. >=D
tinto is pretty fed up with her child who has not yet stopped suckling off her, which is understandable... and is coming along nicely under saddle. at the moment i'm just working on collection in walk, trot and a little canter, and lots of transitions. she's not doing too badly with jumping either. she's such a gun. i love riding her. she has so much power and energy.
mooka is well, although he has dierreha at the moment. he gets it every year with the new grass coming on. he's up to date with worming... just needs more dry feed, so i've got him on that. oh and my brothers friends have suddenly become interested in riding. so he was a very polite gentleman and let four twelve-year old boys get on him and have a short ride each. haha, they loved it. currently feeding - 1 cup gumnuts, 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup soaked copra, 1 scoop oaten chaff, 1 scoop lucerne chaff. minus the gumnuts for mango.
how sweet. ♥
computers finally working properly again, so here's a photo post.
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unicorn stables
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jude was saying how mango's got that 'pizaz' that some horses just dont have. yeiw!! oh i'm going to be away for 2 weeks (QLD!) so that's why i wont be updating. ;] x
so on wednesday judy came with her two friends who are into horses and wanted to come and watch mango being worked. all 3 horses were in the round yard, so i took tinto and mooka and tied them to the outside and judy began to play with mang. just keeping in time with her front feet. when she walked, judy would walk, when mango stopped, she'd stop. it only took like 10/15 minutes and and mango had walked right up to her and she could rub under her chin and on her face. it took hours to do that last time. so obviously me working with her this often has made a difference.
a few times there mango laid her ears back, and when she did that judy sent her away with more energy. when she got to stand in front of her, she'd take her chin in one hand and kind of rock it really gently (you could hardly notice) until she softened. she then proceeded to work around to mango's wither, so that she could be in haltering position. mang didnt think much of that! =P but she got there in the end, holding her under the chin and asking for her head to come around to her shoulder, a nice softning excercise.
she then rubbed her with the rope and put a loop of it over her face, then took it off. there were a few times that she could have put the halter on perfectly, but it's important that she didnt 'betray' mango's trust, if that makes sense. finally she put the rope around her neck. mango was nice and quiet for her. she led her around like that for a while and then walked around to her shoulder, but nope, she doesnt like that. she pulled back a few times and jude almost lost her but no quite.
she asked me in to have a go and she guided me through what i was doing wrong. i need to be able to take up the rope really smoothly, walk to her shoulder not holding her back, but blocking her so she cant block me. when she stops moving around, i stop to reward her. then i start up again. soon i could stand beside her wither and pat her all over. did it on each side a few times. she pulled back once, but i managed to go with her so it didnt jerk on her. did a few other things and then let her go carefully and everyone clapped lol.
i know that alot of this probably doesnt make sense, but i'm just writing it as notes for myself. ;] oh, farrier came on thursday and did tinto and mooka but not mango. judy and i decided that it would be more damaging to her brain to get them done, than to her feet if they were left undone. they're pretty good anyway. =]
been too busy to update to every time i've worked with mango, so i'll do it all now. since thursday i've had 4 training sessions with her. on thursday i put tinto and mooka in kate's little yard and followed mango around with the halter, just being with her. she was pretty relaxed about it all... she came up a few times to sniff me all over and say hello, but i didnt make alot of progress in that hour. on friday the round yard had arrived! =D it's so damn good, i'm really really happy. so after dad, mum, felix and i put it up, i got mango in and tied tinto and mooka outside, in their paddock - about 100 meters away i guess. looking back, i should have let mango settle in to the new situation before trying to work with her, she just got really spooky and went trotting around working herself into a sweat and whinnying. i couldnt get near her so i took mooka in which calmed her down alot (good old moo man ^_^) and i was able to get a little closer but still nothing great. it was a pretty bad session really, just frustrating for both of us. but oh well, you live and learn.
on saturday, mum drove me to unicorn stables at 1pm. tiffany and caitlin were there, wooh!! =D havnt seem those girls in ages. we had lunch and then caitlin went and got changed and judy, tiff and myself drove up the hill to get get brandy and her 1 year old foal, sage. both gorgeous buckskins. jude told me that brandy was the horse she wanted me to work with. she's been giving people a lot of trouble lately, apparantly she's been bordering on dangerous... the people who handle her either are too wishy washy or agressive, and she doesnt respond well to either of these methods. she's also really hard to catch because of previous owners tricking her with food and trapping her to get the halter on. but we did manage to get her and sage in the end and we led them out of the car windows. i took brandy. she pulled back once and i let go of the rope so she could go back, but was still holding the end, so i just reeled her back in. =P got them down to the tie up, and i groomed brandy. tiff was with her QH x banjo, caitlin with her 3yo morgan x tb, cassi and judy had sage. we led them down to the round yard and judy proceeded to teach us about softness... it was really interesting and i learnt alot. at first brandy was coming into my space and was a bit bargy, but judy said she was looking really nice and soft after a little while. i spose we experimented for about 30 minutes and then put them away in their paddocks. tiff left and caitlin and i just hung about and then we noticed that cassi was walking down the road grazing, we were like "what the?". =P she jumped the fence. caitlin caught her, and we found there was a tree down on a part of it. so i got a halter and went to catch brandy. and oh i'm so proud! i caught her first shot, she didnt even attempt to walk away! =D so that was saturday.
on sunday, i put mooka, tinto and mango into the round yard at about 10am and left them there until around 1pm, to let them settle in. came back and they all were doping around looking happy. =] i did some of the softning work i did at unicorn stables, with tinto and mooka and they responded well. mooka knows what i want when i ask for softness, but he kind of ignores it... probably because he's got the 'quiet horse syndrome'. cause people kind of take his quietness for granted and cut corners. which i have been guilty of... but i made him a promise that i would never take it for granted again. ♥ and tinto... hmm, tinto. she can be a very needy horse. as soon as she gets either confused, upset or challenged, she'll walk right up to me, straight into my space and just stand there needing to reassured. and that's not such a good thing. i want her to be brave by herself. so i worked with getting her to stay out of my space. =]
mango was next. it's always hard to describe what i do with her. it doesnt sound like much when i write it down, but it's alot when i'm actually doing it. i made sure i kept in time with her front hooves, staying in the space i would if i was going to put the halter on, and i followed her like that for about an hour, and stood with her like that when she stopped. she came up more this time, and she let me work her much closer.
and today! was better than yesterday, in terms of mango boo. she walked to me about 6 times, and i scrubbed her under the chin and down her neck, on her shoulders and her rump. i gave her the rope and she chewed it around a bit. i put a loop of the rope over her face and got her used to that. she was nibbling my fingers too... i better watch that, it could turn into biting. after an hour, i transfered the ponies from the round yard to the house paddock and mucked out. stacked the ute with hay and drove it down for them. then mixed their chaff feeds and that was it. phew, long update. oh, sorry i havnt got any photos... well i do, but i cant upload them cause computers being a [beep].
judy's coming tommorow!
