Farm Life
Happy 8th Birthday Boomerang!
Today Chesapeake Boomerang turned eight! If you can’t tell he thinks he’s pretty cool.
Happy Birthday Buddy! I hope you had a magical day!
xoxo
Kyley
Jumping is not in my Skill Set
Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t jump. Well let me rephrase that. It’s not that I DON’T jump my ponies, it’s that I don’t like to jump my ponies. I have nothing against it, at all, it’s just that I like to keep all 4 feet of my mount on the ground.
I’m pretty sure the reason stems from one of my childhood ponies, Oopsie Daisy. With a name like Oopsie I’m sure you can see where this is going. Dear Oopsie (may he rest in peace) was an amazing pony who taught me so much. Oopsie excelled at Dressage and Mounted Games, however he HATED to jump. When I met Oopsie at the age of 10 he had a mild disdain for jumping, occasionally refusing a jump or two like any pony would, but as each year passed he began to despise it even more. To the point where at the end of his career you could barely get him to jump an 18″ fence.
I consider myself a pretty tough rider. I was never one of the kids to burst in to tears after being dumped by a runaway pony (not that there is anything wrong with that – we all know how scary it can be). I was just always the kid that popped up after being dumped into a fence, dusted off my pants, caught my pony, and tried it again. But I think probably after the millionth time of being thrown in front of, onto, or over top of a fence, jumping started to loose it’s appeal to me.
By the age of 13 I announced to the world my mom that I was going to be a dressage rider (this is also around the time I discovered Mounted Games). No more eventing, no more stadium jumping – it probably was a pretty wise decision for the sake of my relationship with my pony, as well as his happiness. I eventually upgraded my quirky pony to 16.3 hand Nitro – my dressage protege. Somehow I traded one jumping phobia for another, in a horse that excelled at stadium jumping – but thought a cross-country fence would gobble him up whole. But I managed to (maybe not gracefully) complete a c-2 pony club rating on him in 2006, complete with cross-country and stadium jumping. I just won’t mention the water jump incident nor the 5 spills at the ditch jump. 🙂
So what exactly am I leading up to? Well the video I am about to show you, and the fact that jumping IS NOT IN MY SKILL SET!
Don’t worry, no horses or people were harmed.
Also, apparently I did not know you were supposed to turn the phone to record video. Sorry for the weird angle, still trying to figure out the iphone 🙂
Atleast we did eventually make it over the fence. Boomerang actually LOVES to jump, unfortunately for him his rider has no idea what they are doing. I’m sorry Boomer, I will try better next time.
Is it Spring Yet?
Is it just me or does this winter feel like it’s dragging on forever? The snowfall we’ve gotten in Pennsylvania seems to just have stuck around FOREVER, making it nearly impossible for me to do any sort of training with the boys in the arena at our farm. Needless to say I have been trailering Boomerang out every weekend to get in some much needed training before the Extreme Cowboy Race.
We’re narrowing down on crunch time and I’ve been taking him to every possible place I can think of to get him better accustomed to new arenas, new surroundings, and strange things. Last weekend we went to an indoor filled with jumps, and a fair amount of snow falling off the roof. It was a scary place – if you’re a horse. Boomer was a little nervous at first, and we dealt with some “young pony” bucking. But in the end I was able to refocus him, and he did some really nice flying lead changes and much improved sidepassing.
Boomer still has a lot to learn, and for a 6 year old Chincoteague Pony (who’s breed notoriously matures late) he still has a lot of growing up to do. But when I look back to 2 years ago when he came to live with me at 4 years of age – I know he’s come a long way. Coming from a Hunter background, living with me was a complete change for Boomer.
Suddenly he was being asked to run – and run fast, perform tricks, and encounter strange equipment on a daily basis. Trail riding was even a challenge for him, as he had difficulty learning how to balance down a hill with a rider on his back. But Boomer has taken everything I ask of him in stride.
This winter has been no exception. I plucked him from a month long break over Christmas, carted him all over the county, and proceeded to speed train him to do flying lead changes, sidepassing, leg yielding, gate opening, rollbacks, and more – all in a time frame that most would say is pretty impossible. But Boomerang did it, and has managed to master pretty much everything I’ve thrown at him so far. I hope that we can continue the momentum and show everyone at the Expo just how amazing these Chincoteague Ponies are. Most people watching will probably have no idea the amount of effort I’ve put into working with Boomerang.
It almost makes me wish I could play a little before video – like how they do on reality tv shows – a sort of “this is where we came from” tribute. Regardless, I know where we’ve come from and how much work it’s taken to get here. And when this competition is all over…..I can finally sleep at night! I’m so exhausted! 🙂
Fuzzy Ponies & Slow Feeder Bags
I know I’ve kinda been missing for a while. Sorry! Things have gotten insanely busy at my shop for Christmas, much more than I anticipated. Meanwhile the ponies were busy selling paintings for Christmas all over the World! It makes me smile to think of all the people out there that will be unwrapping a fun little surprise from one of the boys on Christmas morning.
And speaking of the ponies, the boys have been busy growing hefty winter coats (hopefully not in anticipation for as much snow as we had last year), and cursing me for buying them slow feeder bags to keep their rolly polly tummies under control! hehe. It’s because I love you boys, please don’t hate me. 🙂
The slow feeder bags are designed to make the ponies eat their hay ration at a slower pace. It helps makes their 2-Flake allowance of hay last much longer – thus keeping them from thinking they are STARVING to death when their hay runs out….which trust me, they are not!
Hopefully the Holiday craziness will settle down soon and I’ll be able to get back to enjoying some time with my boys! I know they are anxiously waiting to find out what tricks they will be learning in 2011!! Woohoo!
Night watchman
The farm’s a little safer at night with Super Pony Minnow on duty.
