training

hello! so the other day I met with a trainer who specializes in gaited horses. He taught me how to get Danny Boy into his gait and worked with me on keeping him in his gait. When the training session ended he gave me a homework assignment:

1) Keep Danny on the egde of the round pen or areana when riding - dont let him cut corners.

2) Keep him in whatever gait I ask him to do - making sure he does what I want

3) Make him halt straight on - no turning in

4) Teach him how to do a 180 - without moving his front feet

Hopefully I will be able to work with him on all those things. I still need to get out and see him more, but with the end of the school year around the bend, its a little difficult. He is a good boy, and I love him emensly so I hope I will be able to see him more often.

~Kayla

new farm!

Yay! We finnally moved the horses out to PS2 (paradise stables #2) Paradise stables are broken up into 2 differen farms. The owner wants to buy the farm in between her two properties to make one huge farm....I will let you know if that ever becomes a reality. Anyhoo...Danny and Dante are acting like two grumpy old men. they never leave eachothers side and they dont socailize with the other horses in the field. Right now they are acting like their own heard.

Have I told you that Im riding english in my lessons? Yep, that way I can take lessons with Kelsey, become and accomplished horsewoman, and meet new friends. I havent had time to work with Danny yet, but I am riding this cute thoroughbred named CJ. He is pretty darn cute. He has an amazing canter! When I am trotting though I miss Danny Boys smooth gait. ;)

I need to pull Danny out and introduce him to the indoor riding arena. He has never been in one (that I know of) so I want to see how he does. (freak? calm? curious?) i also need to throw him in the round pen and work on gait cues. (walk = walk, click = gait, kiss = canter) I havent cantered him in a while so I definitely need to work on that. When I get an english girth (maybe saddle) for him, Amanda, my trainer, says i can ride him in the lesson. Dont freak, Im still a faithfull western rider. Its still the best in my mind. English is just another way to ride. I will still trail ride western and ride Danny, (outside of lessons) western.

Hopefully (and I know i finish with this every time) I will be more faithful to updating this blog. <3 Kayla

Sunday is the big day

Ok so Kayla and me are moving the horses to Paradise this Sunday and cant not wait. please pray things goes well the horses do well going to there new place and everyone would be safe. I will let you know how the first ride is next week and how the move went.
that's it for now
~Kelsey~

snow!

wow...3 feet of snow is the most snow that i have ever seen, in my state anyway. I am 5' 10' and the snow comes up above my knee! I keep wondering how the horses are doing but the farm hasnt plowed the driveway. All I can do is pray that my big buddy is ok in all this snow! 3 feet...wow!

Long time!

Hello,
I have not posted in a while! i have been doing well and so has Dante. Dante this past november got (2) abessuss (how ever you spell that ) what we think maybe cause it was his feet were not dried and when they are wet they can get abbessuss easy but the Farrier said his feet were doing alot better.
But now we have a boat load of snow way to much! but it is very pretty. I was feeding today and got stuck thanks to Chris who helped. But I have not ridden Dante in almost 3 months and have alot of trainning to do. The exciting news is WE are moving to a new Barn called (Paradise Stables) i am looking forward to that I'm so excited to be doing a Bombproofing Clinic with Dante to help him so we can do some showing with the new trainer Amanda. The stable is a wonderful place and very pretty and I really am enjoying it. My biggest thing I am concerned about Dante is the trailer I hope it goes well and we have a safe trip over there. (Praying) I am so excited about Danny coming along so Dante can have a pal with him.
Thats the lastest news let you know when we move to new farm.
~Kelsey~

4h

Kelsey and I are in 4H, the back in time club, and we are leading a horse project group. We have such a cute group and I have a feeling we are goin to learn a lot together. I will post a few pictures of them soon (if they let me.)I taught them the parts of the horses. I have a Velcro (very beat up) graph that I will bring each time so eventually they will have it memorized. Any way, I went out to the farm today and blanketed my horse. Danny is not fat anymore YAYAYAYAY!!!! I have been taking english riding lessons at Paradise stables. I dont like it as much as western but it definitly works my legs more and it will give me a highschool PE credit, which is good because just saying that I jump on my trampoline or hike in the woods doesnt count as a credit for the county. Oh well. I have not moved Danny to the new farm yet but when i do i will blog!

HaPpY bIrThDaY

Well I guess it is not reallly his birthday but this is the day I got Danny. And no he does not have a mile long pedigree and NOOOO we do not know his real birthday and YES he was bought at an auction loved, sold again, abused, bought back and sold to us BUT he is such a sweetheart. Other than Trigger (Roy Rogers) he is the best horse any one could ever ask for. I love my buddy!

MOVING!!!

Hey all! Guess what? I'm moving to paradise stables! It is literally paradise there! Its all reaaallly new but the people there are amazing. They specialize in gaited horses which is great because, well, Danny Boy is a gaited horse. Soooo im reallly sad to leave the current farm but ultimatley it will be the best thing for Danny Boy and I. I wish that I didn't have to move. It is sooo amazing to have the farm only five minutes away. We have been looking for a farm for a long time to board at but it was either to expensive, a pig sty, or both. Then we saw PARADISE and we were spoiled. It was so worth the extra 30 minutes to board there. It is AMAZING!!! The rates are unbelievable. I looove this place it is sooo supercalafragilisticexpealadoxious!!! Sorry, I didn't know what to say so I took Mary Poppins advice :)All in all, I'm really excited about moving here.

brrr!!!

I went out to see Danny Boy a few days ago and boy did I wish I had brought a hat, scarf, and gloves. I was freezing! NOt only was it cold but there was a strong wind whipping too! Well, next time I know what to bring. I pulled Danny out and fed him a little bit of grain because we are trying to get him back on a feeding schedule. HIs winter coat is growing in thick and he looks so pretty and puffy. :) I will be going to FL soon to be with my grandparents and to go to Disney World! I will miss all my animals but I dont want that to ruin my fun.

family fun

The Brewer family came out with their four kids to have some horsey time. Their daughters love horses but never has any chance to be around them. They came out to the farm a few days ago and I gave them all 'pony rides' although, there is nothing 'ponyish' about Danny Boy. He was "the perfect horse" that day. He was slow and would stop every time any of the kids started feeling uncomfortable. He was so amazing and patient. He gave double pony rides around the ring, which is quite large, at least fifty times! I felt so bad because I didn't have any treats to give him after such a hard day at work.But I tried to make up for it in love. I petted him, brushed him down, gave him a 'massage' and tried to make him as comfortable as i could. He seemed very happy.

The next day however is a different story. He would not stay on the edge of the ring when my brothers and sister were on him. He kept 'taking off' on them. I wasn't worried. My brothers and sister all have a pretty good seat on him, and all he would do is trot as fast as he could, he is to fat to go any faster :/, towards the gate and then stop. Eventually I had to get on him to make sure he wouldn't take off, run to the gate, or cut corners in the ring. He tried to do all that with me but I didn't let him so eventually he calmed down. It was so nice to ride him again and I hope to do it more often, it is just so hard to find the time to drive, or get my mom to drive, out there...It will be so much easier once I get my licence.