Our New Tack Room (f/k/a Living Room)

We took Jay's saddle to Jessica's on Sunday and determined that it fits Copper nicely. Without stirrups (irons, if you will), there was no riding being done in the saddle, but we at least knew it fit.

Sunday was a most excellent day because JAY RODE COPPER!!! We have video, Jay just needs to edit and upload it, but both he and Copper did so very well. I'm proud of both of them.

After his lesson, we went horse shopping to get things we needed for CMD. Important things like stirrups and silly things like feed bags and water buckets. Jay found a cute consignment tack shop in Longmont and they were awesome  to work with. Since we had his saddle in the car from trying it on Copper, they suggested we bring it into the shop so we could try out blankets and stirrups to find the right combination of what we needed.

He chose some nice endurance-type stirrups and a pad thin enough to use under the saddle. The ladies at the shop were kind enough to not only put the stirrups on the saddle, but adjust them to fit him. Oh! And he was able to find the exact rein he's been looking for for almost a year.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

We picked up some leather conditioner and are working it into the leather every few days. This saddle is going to ride completely different than the western saddle Copper has been worked in, so Jay's going to take it to Jessica's and have her start him in it.

We've been living with the saddle in the living room for a couple of days and I joked that it was becoming our tack room, but last night *my* new saddle was delivered and now the living room is really a tack room.

Jay's saddle was the first one I'd ever purchased, but the one I'm riding Skeeter in doesn't fit her well, so I ordered a new Wintec synthetic saddle for her and it came last night. I had to unbox it, but until I know it fits her (I'll try it on her tomorrow or Friday), I'm not taking all of the protective coverings off.

(We're using the broomstick to turn Jay's stirrups)

I made a tactical error in buying my new saddle though - it's black.  Everything I own is brown, so I guess that means I need to buy Skeeter a new black headstall and reins. :)

We do actually have a tack room, but it's easier - for now - to have the saddles in the house. We can continue to work leather conditioner into Jay's saddle and I can continue to admire my new one. By Friday, the living room will be back to being a living room.

Jay's 4th Lesson

Since Jay and I have such weird opposite schedules, there's not always someone available to video his lessons. The weather has also slowed down Copper's training, so though he's been at Jessica's quite a while, not every day is a work day.

For Jay's 3rd lesson, Jay got to work in the round pen and on the lead line and then got to lean over Copper bareback. That lesson happened before we went to SHOT Show in January. Then the weather and work schedules screwed everything up again and Jay wasn't able to get to his 4th lesson until February 13th - almost a month later. I, unfortunately, had to work, but Jay was able to talk his brother into going to video tape his lesson.

Things are going well. Jay's a bit tentative around Copper, which makes Copper nervous, and it starts a whole cycle, so Jessica's suggestion is that Jay act silly around him - do random things when they're leading. You know, be obnoxious like Grandpa Bill.


(Warning: the wind noise is really bad, so watch with the sound off.)

At the end of the lesson, Jay stepped up into the stirrup! Copper has been ridden by Jessica and her student, but Jay's getting closer and closer to his first ride too! It's pretty exciting to see the progression.

On Monday (2/22), Jay had another quick lesson, in which Jessica had him doing all of the work with Copper from beginning to end (no video). They ended the session with Jay sitting astride Copper for the first time. I'm so sad I wasn't there to see it (stupid adulting). He's got another lesson scheduled for Saturday - maybe he'll get to take a few steps at that point. I'll be working again, so I'll miss it (again), but I can't wait to hear how it goes.

Jessica and Jay have decided that Copper is going to stay at her place until the morning we leave for Colorado Mustang Days. Jessica thinks it would be too much stress for him to go home for a week, only to have his world uprooted again - plus that gives her an extra week or so with him.

CMD is coming up so fast! Jay's decided to do his classes in-hand with Copper and I'll ride in my classes, unless we just fall apart. The beauty of the open CMD classes is that everyone understands the point we're starting from and is so supportive. We're both just going for the experience.

Work Day

Last week, Jay and I attended a Justin Dunn demo where we were finally able to get our hands on one of his bitless bridles. We've seen Justin demo in the past, and it was good to get a refresher on how he does things. I find them remarkably similar to what Julie does with her horses - it's all about the ground work and controlling their feet. The difference is Justin calls his a "5-part series" and uses it to check in with his horses.

His 5-part series includes: back, left, right, ground-tie, come to me. Since we got to watch it over and over so many times that day, we were reasonably sure we'd be able to do it at home.

We waited a few days until we both had time to work together. We were reasonably successful. I've been struggling with Skeeter's circling work. After Julie's clinic back in May, I finally figured out how to get her to circle left, and we've been stuck there ever since.

Jay worked with Copper for a bit, but couldn't get him to circle either direction. Copper just keeps wanting to go backward and will not take a step forward. All we need is one step for him to figure it out, but he just doesn't get it.

I was working with Skeeter, still struggling with circling to the right, and getting frustrated.

Jay and I decided to switch horses. I mistakenly thought that since I could at least get Skeeter to circle left, I might be able convince Copper to go left. Yeah, I was wrong.

I had no success with Copper, but Jay did with Skeeter. Our Freaky Friday switch-a-roo worked wonders for Skeeter. I don't know what he did, or how, but now Miss Skeeter can do the entire series: back, left, right, ground-tie, come to me.

Back. She doesn't like it and it take some persuasion, but she'll do it.

Come to me. She's good at that because she's a pocket pony.

After we called it a day on trying to teach the 5-part series, it was time to fit Copper's new bridle to him. He has a huge head. Huge. But knew it, but we didn't really know it until we put that bridle on.

We adjusted it as big as we could, but we're still going to need to punch a few holes and order a new browband.  I think, once we get it adjusted properly, he's going to do very well in it. Copper's a sensitive boy who always wants to do right, so I think he'll do very well bitless.

And ... tomorrow's a big day for Jay and Copper! Copper's title inspection is scheduled for tomorrow evening - in two-three weeks Copper will be Jay's horse free and clear!

Tag 8120

Yesterday was the big day.  Jay, his mom, my mom, and I loaded up and headed down to Canon City.  Jay had a list of horses he wanted to look at, thanks to Amanda who runs the Canon City Mustangs page.

Jay's list was just a starting point; he wasn't absolutely in love with any of the horses, but thought he could start looking with the list and go from there.  We learned from our first trip to the prison that their inventory list had notes on each of the horses, so with a list of numbers, the guide could look up which pens the horses were in.  It turned out that the numbers really just guided us to the pens, and while we looked for the listed number, only one of the listed horses made the finals.

Pretty quickly, Jay found a dark bay 3 year old with the cutest "poofy" forelock.  He was darling and really, really liked Jay.  Definitely a consideration.  The drawback was that he was 3 and still had some growing to do.

A few pens later, another dark bay with a wide heart-shaped blaze picked him out.  He wasn't overly friendly with Jay, but showed interest and kept his eye on Jay the whole time we were in the pen.  Contestant number two happened to be one of the numbers we had listed.

In the 5 year old pen, Jay was immediately picked by a flea-bitten grey gelding who was sweet as pie.  So very sweet, but severely cow-hocked and unable to do what we want to do with him.  Someone needs to go adopt that boy and make him a grandkids horse.  He has the perfect temperament for a kids horse (or a very small adult) and it broke my heart to leave him behind.  Truly, if we had space and time for a third ungentled horse, we would have adopted him in a heartbeat for all the nieces and nephews.

There was another couple with us who had their own list, so we took turns going to the pens we each wanted to take a peek in.  It was in one of "their" pens that Jay's horse found him.

We walked into the pen and a big sorrel looked up from across the pen, ears up, and started walking toward us.  I hoped he had chosen Jay, but Jay was walking right next to the male from the other couple and I couldn't immediately tell which one the horse had chosen.  I hadn't realized I was holding my breath until the other guy walked right past the sorrel and I could breathe again.

The big sorrel stopped and let Jay walk right up to him and pet him, but then two dark blue roans introduced themselves to Jay, taking his attention away from the sorrel. 

The "test" that any horse that Jay chose had to pass was that other people had to be able to go up and touch/pet it.  Jay's mom and I walked up to the roans and loved on them for a bit.  The darkest of the blue roans was definitely a front runner, but he was a bit pushy and did not make the best impression on me when he pawed me with his hoof.  We already have one paw-er, we do not need a second one, but if it was the horse that chose Jay, we'd just work on it.

We quit loving on the roan and looked back to see Jay and the sorrel.  He was letting Jay rub on him, up and down his legs, both sides of his neck and back and was eating it up.  I knew it was going to be a toss-up between the roan and the sorrel and it was going to be a tough choice, or so I thought.

Jay stepped away from the sorrel, who just stood like a statue and looked at him, while I approached.  The sorrel allowed me to touch him all over and stood like a rock star.  After making sure other people would be allowed into the horse's space, Jay came back to join us.  Mom, Jay's mom, and I stepped back and let the roans re-join the little love-fest Jay had going on with the horses.

Jay was still loving on the sorrel, with the roan right next to him when he said, "I like this one."  Mom asked him, "compared to the 3 year old, who do you choose?".  Without hesitation, Jay answered, "this one".  Same answer when Mom asked him about the second horse on his list, again without hesitation.

When asked to chose between the roan and the sorrel, the answer was the same, "this one."

We were done.

Jay's heart horse had found him.

Copper Casanova

"Copper"

Jay's heart horse

Is he handsome, or what?

Copper is a 4 year old gelding from Adobe Town, Wyoming, who was gathered in October, 2010.  My best guess is that he's about 15.1h and 1050#.  When he comes home next Friday, we'll put the tape on him and see how close my guess is.

Three Wake-Ups

That's it.  Just three more wake-ups before we had back to Canon City for another prison break.

Shoe's on the other foot this time. Jay is the one hoping to get chosen by the perfect horse, and I'm just going to look at and pet the pretty horses.

I'm sure he'll get chosen by a great horse and in about a week, Skeeter will have a new brother.

Is it weird that I can't sleep with excitement, and it's not even my horse?