I MADE THAT MYSELF: DIY Saddle Pad in English or Western Batwing Baroq...

I MADE THAT MYSELF: DIY Saddle Pad in English or Western Batwing Baroq...: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++      I enjoy sewing and designing things with my very limited ...

Feed Bag Totes- DIY

Save your old pretty feed bags and sew yourself a feed bag tote in under an hour.

The inside

From chicken, dog and horse feed bags.  The pretty ones make great bags

 

I made this one this morning in about a half an hour from an old Strategy feed bad from purina.

The Safe Choice and chicken feed bags with the pretty chicken pictures made great bags.  Thought I would share.......SEW EASY.....

September 3rd, First Group of Horse Sessions. HA1

Horsin Around Horse Day on Semptember 3th 2012 at 12PMish

(In between the Rein Rains Session 1)

Mom's N.Hogan Farm

Attendees include: Horse "Doc"

Mom Powell, Kendra Sulesky, Alicia Kent, Kathy Klump and

Searcy Deshler (The Master ;-).

Reluctant Zak and all the kids of the kids.

We set off out to Mom's paddock with a western saddle, a lounge line, a bridle with snaffle and eventually the hackamore headstall. Doc was haltered and brought into the far side of the round pen.

Kendra attempted to see if Doc had ever been lounged or could grasp the concept of being directed around the ring. He picked it up a little but had clearly never been lounged before and got a touch confused.

They gathered up Doc and saddled and bridled him and he didn't seem to care for the snaffle bit at all and didn't mind the saddle at all. He just didn't seem to care for it the snaffle, but Kathy, the youngest and most limber was voted first to mount. She did it, bless her heart and she and the horse did just wonderfully. We discovered that he did not neck rein nor did he back up at all. He simply has not been taught and he was showing more discomfort with the bit as Kathy rode. We decided to try the hack on him instead, (even though Mom (Pat) , the owner of the horse does not want to ride with a hack) we asked her to let us just attempt to ride him with what he was used to be ridden with per the instructions from where he came from in the spring). He calmed straight away. He was much more relaxed and responsive with the hack. From the ground, he was very much more relaxed and smooth with the hackamore head stall. Alicia, Kendra and Searcy all noticed directly that he was much much more responsive and so did Kathy, whom was on his back.

Kathy circled in both directions and tryed to get a small trot out of him and he didn't want any such thing but she was successful in getting him to trot whilst stating (he is wearing me out). Very hard to get from walk to trot with Doc though we did discover that he was kicking up the same back leg every time that you asked him to do more work. We found that we believed that a prior somewhat recent injury to both of his hind legs (perhaps a month old) was the cause of some of his kicking out. He was a tad sore in the hind ankles. Everyone agreed that he would be less likely to kick up at his belly as he healed further.

Mom mounts the (her) horse and is riding in the pen for the first time in eleven years. She really doesn't like the hack but what Kendra and Alicia learned from watching him in bit to watching him in a hack is that sometimes you have to reteach the owner rather than the horse. He just loves the hack and was very very relaxed verses the bit. We learned while mom was riding that Doc has a built in stop button. He has a whole lot of stop in him but this could be due to his hind leg injuries. Not sure until the next session at moms farm on North Hogan.

At this point I believe that Searcy got on the horse and road him around the areana and started direct reining and he was much more responsive still proving to us all that he had never learned neck reining prior to this day. What we did was to instruct mom on how to teach him how to neck rein using one direct rein and the other laid upon his neck into the direction that you wish to go.

Driving with your seat on Doc helps greatly in getting him to go forward verses kicking him with heavy heal. We also noticed that voice comands helped a little with forward as well.

True Story.

Session 1 a great success for all but mostly Mom and Doc.

Lesson Learned: Always have a young limber 20something to get up there first.

You don't have to retrain the horse if he is already dead trained in something different.

Doc Rocks~

Horsen Around 2 is at Alicia Kents on Scenic Drive on September 25th at around 10 to 11AM if you are interested in attending. Get with me for further directions. If you want to come, you can contact Alicia directly at alikent@embarqmail.com for exact address. This could be the making of something really great locally and who does not love a picnic?

This is going to be great. A great way to learn horses and each other. All welcome and all fun. Bring a covered dish because we like to eat after we work!

 

There are no pictures from our first group session.  That stinks!~

　

　

　

　

　

Horsin Around Session 2, Ali's Farm Sept 25, 2012

Horsin Around "HA" Session 2

September 25, 2012 10:00AM-2:00PMish


Together We Grow in the Rein

Host

: Alicia Kent/Scenic Drive/L-Burg

Attendees: Sadie, Palmer, Ali-oop Kent, Kendra Sulesky, Patty Powell, Kathy Klump, Gail Fantetti, Searcy and Sue and one Phantom Micheala.


Goals: Riding Sadie/hands on, learning the horse, Halter riding verses Hackamore or "Forever Bosel" as Pat calls it. Getting the horse to lead, tie and follow it's leader. Also in Ali's gated farm, to get the horses through a gate without killing oneself.

Palmer in the round pen via Kathy to lunge and OBEY and stop being such a brat, and it


went as follows:

Everyone arrived right around 10AM and unloaded the food. Gail brought donuts and muffins which were up for the early attack. It was raining a touch and a little chilly but that didn't stop these horse gals at all. We hit the pasture at about 10:20 and got the ball rolling by putting a halter on Sadie and attempting to get her out of the "Gate thingy" for lack of a better word, and with the three of us, Alicia, Kendra and Searcy, we proved unsuccessful at pulling out just one horse from the paddock and along came Palmer as well into the yard, so if three of us couldn't successfully get out one horse thru the gate thingy, then you know that one person can't possibly do it alone. First note of business is, Ali, Get a real gate by the hitching post! Kenny said she will help and Searcy is offering up her help as well to get that gate in THIS WEEK. That's right. THIS WEEK!

So..........Patty got kicked by Evey because Palmer was on the loose and Evey refused granny's Pick up tactic. Searcy rescued Grandma Pat and took Evey to the pool deck with toys and safety. Great, give the kid a pool and lock her in there at 60 degrees.

Most of that was uneventful because Palmer just moseyed around and not freakishly run amuck and he was put back to paddock behind the gate thingy thing.

Before you knew it, Sadie was saddled and reined up and Alicia was mounting her new mare in record time. Kathy was on the ground for Ali's first mount of the day on Sadie and lead Alica's horse around ever so slightly. Alica was using reins hooked to a halter and riding in a western saddle. It almost looked bazaar because I don't know to many people that ride this way. It really seemed as if you wouldn't have any stop power but Alicia did get her to stop and maneuver where ever she wanted to go with some real effort and sometimes seemingly no effort.

Alicia was a tad on the tense side and squeezing with her legs and Sadie took off with pretty much high headed gusto. Kendra directed Alicia to loosen the " leg grip go signal" and breath and relax. After about three times of Kendra asking Alicia to relax, Alicia finally did and you could see rider and horse both relax at the same time. It was really awesome to see Sadie and Alicia, at the same time go, "Oh, ok, this is alright, no biggy. They fell relaxed at the same minute. You could see it with the naked eye. How cool.

We did determine that Sadie also didn't know much about neck reining as we saw with Pats' horse in Session 1. She is more of a plow type reiner, not that this can't be taught further if we get some real head gear on her. We put on Searcy's Hackamore, (pat's bosal) and she did seem to toss her head a little with this but that may have just been because it was a touch to small for her head size and to old of a head stall to adjust it to the right size.

While riding in the Hack, Sadie did seem to respect direction a little bit more but also tossed her head around which made Alicia a tad nervous but this is to be expected. Sadie does back up and she does know voice "wohas" and there was never any need to test her "Giddee Up" command by voice, for forward was never an issue with Sadie. She does have some go in her. Gail and Sue both believe that Sadie is possibly pregnant and Gail even saw the baby kick. Gail yelled, "I saw it kick" and everyone looked thinking that Sadie had kicked and we missed it but she was referring to the baby on board. "The Baby just kicked" she said. We all got a good laugh out of that but then who knows for sure?

Kendra got in the ring and demonstrated how to teach a horse to lower their head which was quite beneficial because Sadie responded straight away and Kenny showed us all where you put small pressure on the neck to get the horse to lower the head. Searcy stated that she has always tried putting pressure between the ears and without any response, never got her horse to lower its head for the bone between the ears. Now we all know that the pressure is behind the ears a few inches down the neck. Kendra demonstrated the move over and over and Sadie responded every time with a lower and lower head. She didn't like that to much but it didn't hurt her and she lowered her head every time!

At the mention of baby, Alicia realized that Sadie had yet to be wormed because Sue asked when her last worming was and the people where Alicia had gotten Sadie had not wormed her either, so this was a good opportunity to get her wormed while Alicia had some help. Alicia had the reins as a lead rope and kept getting tangled, so Searcy went with a lead to simplify the deal and asked Gail and Alicia to hold on while she changes the lead. At this point Searcy was standing in front of the horse (shame on her) with Gail and Alicia flanking the horse on each side when Gail went ahead with the worming and the horse revolted resulting in Searcy taking a horse nose boxing her in THE EYE! Thanks Gail! With Searcy writhing in pain and her eye swelling quickly, Alicia and Gail went on about their duties and wormed Sadie. Everyone laughed at poor Searcy.

There were some demonstrations with the horse giving to the handler. First with Searcy and then with Gail in the ring, Sadie did give her neck left and the right to Gail on each side. Very nice. Also a quick lesson in starting and stopping on the ground to control a horse that doesn't want to stand.

After the worming and ground handling lessons, they pulled Sadie out of the ring and took her to Alicia's newly constructed hitching post. Gail wrapped the lead loosely around the post and Sadie took to it as if she he been tied before. She didn't act out or appear fearful. She backed up to the resistance of the lead and came right back to the hitching post. She knew how to tie. That was also great to find out. They left her tied for about 10 minutes, maybe fifteen and Gail got Sadie Popped in the eye on the hitching post. Sadie did not freak out or frenzy about the self afflicted wound and stood quiet at the hitching post until they decided to take her to the front paddock with Ollie. Gail went with Alicia to show Alicia how not to get killed while turning a horse into a field and also restated that she needs some "real" gates. Gail returned and poked Gunner the Dog in the eye with her finger. She only had about five or six people yet to inflict in the eye. :-)

Kathy gets a lead rope and halter from Alicia and pulled Palmer out of the Paddock and into the round pen. She had brought her chained Lunge line and a long whip and started by taking short circles with Palmer and then into bigger more relaxed circles. She started on the counter-clockwise direction first and Palmer did so willingly and with little effort or fuss. He spent a few moments looking for the other horses and then the horse directed his full attention to Kathy. Great to see that communication once she had it completely.

Kathy then switched the chain over to the other side of the halter and put him in the reverse direction of clockwise. With this direction, Palmer showed much more resistance. He kept refusing forward motion and stopping near the gate. Alicia said that his last trainer didn't work him that way due to lameness on that side so that is why he kept refusing Kathy. What we learned is that he is a brat and just didn't want to go that way because he had gotten away with it in the past. Kathy tolerated none of his childish behavior and quickly cracked the whip to show that she did mean business. He kicked out a few times in tantrum but went where she told him to. It was pretty funny and I caught a short clip of it on video from the links below. The first one he is kicking out pretty much saying...."no, I don't want to do it". Kathy did a remarkable job despite everyone gabbing around the outside of the pen about Palmer being a brat. It was a very good lesson for us all and another successful Horsin Around. Good food, good wisdom, good meeting Sue and Gail and all in all a very good time.

By the way, Alicia learned to lunge and a lesson with a chain lead but we should have stated that you never, never tie a horse while you have the chain over or under the nose or chin. Alway remove the chain from that hold before you tie the horse or the horse could get hurt if something happens. It is always a hands on training aid.

Kendra went to Alicia's house on the following Friday and Alicia and Kendra put up an eight foot tube gate on wooden poles. Thanks to our horse session, everyone is motivated to do more with their farms and their horses. Pictures included!

Next meeting at Kendra's farm on Pekin road in Lebonon , Ohio. 10amish Sept 23...Tuesday



Horsin Around "HA" Session 2

September 25, 2012 10:00AM-2:00PMish


Together We Grow in the Reins Rain:




Host: Alicia Kent/Scenic Drive/L-Burg

Attendees: Sadie, Palmer, Ali-oop Kent, Kendra Sulesky, Patty Powell, Kathy Klump, Gail Fantetti, Searcy and Sue and one Phantom Micheala.


Goals: Riding Sadie/hands on, learning the horse, Halter riding verses Hackamore or "Forever Bosel" as Pat calls it. Getting the horse to lead, tie and follow it's leader. Also in Ali's gated farm, to get the horses through a gate without killing oneself.

Palmer in the round pen via Kathy to lunge and OBEY and stop being such a brat, and it went as follows:

Everyone arrived right around 10AM and unloaded the food. Gail brought donuts and muffins which were up for the early attack. It was raining a touch and a little chilly but that didn't stop these horse gals at all. We hit the pasture at about 10:20 and got the ball rolling by putting a halter on Sadie and attempting to get her out of the "Gate thingy" for lack of a better word, and with the three of us, Alicia, Kendra and Searcy, we proved unsucessfull at pulling out just one horse from the paddock and along came Palmer as well into the yard, so if three of us couldn't sucsessfully get out one horse thru the gate thingy, then you know that one person can't possibly do it alone. First note of buisness is, Ali, Get a real gate by the hitching post! Kenny said she will help and Searcy is offering up her help as well to get that gate in THIS WEEK. That's right. THIS WEEK!

So..........Patty got kicked by Evey because Palmer was on the loose and Evey refused grannys Pick up tactic. Searcy rescued Grandma Pat and took Evey to the pool deck with toys and safey. Great, give the kid a pool and lock her in there at 60 degrees.

Most of that was uneventful because Palmer just mosied around and not freakishly run amuck and he was put back to paddack behind the gate thingy thing.

Before you knew it, Sadie was saddled and reined up and Alicia was mounting her new mare in record time. Kathy was on the ground for her first mount of the day on Sadie and lead Alica's horse around ever so slightly. Alica was using reins hooked to a halter and riding in a western saddle. It almost looked bizzaar because I don't know to many people that ride this way. It really seemed as if you wouldn't have any stop power but Alicia did get her to stop and manuever where ever she wanted to go with some real effort and sometimes seemingly no effort.

Alicia was a tad on the tense side and squeezing with her legs and Sadie took off with pretty much high headed gusto. Kendra directed Alicia to loosen the " leg grip go signal" and breath and relax. After about three times of Kendra asking Alicia to relax, Alicia finally did and you could see rider and horse both relax at the same time. It was really awesome to see Sadie and Alicia, at the same time go, "Oh, ok, this is alright, no biggy. They fell relaxed at the same minute. You could see it with the naked eye. How cool.

We did determine that Sadie also didn't know much about neck reining as we saw with Pats' horse in Session 1. She is more of a plow type reiner, not that this can't be taught if we get some real head gear on her. We put on Searcy's Hackamore, (pat's bosel) and she did seem to toss her head a little with this but that may have just been because it was a touch to small for her head size and to old of a head stall to adjust it to the right size.

While riding in the Hack, Sadie did seem to respect direction a little bit more but also tossed her head around which made Alicia a tad nervous but this is to be expected. Sadie does back up and she does know voice "wohas" and there was never any need to test her "Giddee Up" command by voice, for forward was never an issue with Sadie. She does have some go in her. Gail and Sue both believe that Sadie is possibly pregnant and Gail even saw the baby kick. Gail yelled, "I saw it kick" and everyone looked thinking that Sadie had kicked and we missed it but she was refering to the baby on board. "The Baby just kicked" she said. We all got a good laugh out of that but then who knows for sure?

Kendra got in the ring and demonstrated how to teach a horse to lower their head which was quite benificial because Sadie responded straight away and she showed us all where you put small pressure on the neck to get the horse to lower the head. Searcy stated that she has always tried putting pressue between the ears and without any response, never got her horse to lower its head for the bone between the ears. Now we all know. Kendra demonstrated the move over and over and Sadie responded every time with a lower and lower head. She didn't like that to much Kendra and it got on her nerves but it didn't hurt her and she lowered it every time!

At the mention of baby, Alicia realized that Sadie had yet to be wormed because Sue asked when her last worming was and the people where Alicia had gotten Sadie, had not wormed her either, so this was a good opportunity to get her wormed while Alicia had some help. Alicia had the reins as a lead rope and kept getting tangled, so Searcy went with a lead to simplify the deal and asked Gail and Alicia to hold on while she changes the lead. At this point Searcy was standing in front of the horse with Gail and Alicia flanking the horse on each side when Gail went ahead with the worming and the horse revolted resulting in Searcy taking a horse nose, boxing her in THE EYE! Thanks Gail! With Searcy writhing in pain and her eye swelling quickly, Alicia and Gail went on about their duties and wormed Sadie. Everyone laughed at poor Searcy.

There were some demonstrations with the horse giving to the handler. First with Searcy and then with Gail in the ring, Sadie did give her neck left and the right to Gail on each side. Very nice.

After the worming and ground handling lessons, they pulled Sadie out of the ring and took her to Alicia's newly constructed hitching post. Gail wrapped the lead loosely around the post and Sadie took to it as if she he been tied before. She didn't act out or appear fearful. She backed up to the resistence of the lead and came right back to the hitching post. She knew how to tie. That was also great to find out. They left her tied for about 10 minutes, maybe fifteen and Gail got Sadie Popped in the eye on the hitching post. Sadie did not frenzy about the self afflicted wound and stood quiet at the hitching post until they decided to take her to the front paddock. Gail went with Alicia to show Alicia how not to get killed while turning a horse into a field and also restated that she needs some "real" gates. Gail returned and poked Gunner the Dog in the eye with her finger. She only had about five or shix heartbeats yet to inflict in the eye. :-)

Kathy gets a leadrope and halter from Alicia and pulled Palmer out of the Paddock and into the round pen. She had brought her chained Lunge line and a long whip and started by taking short circles with Palmer and then into bigger more relaxed circles. She started on the counter-clockwise direction first and Palmer did so willingly and with little effort or fuss. He spent a few moments looking for the other horses and then the horse directed his full attention to Kathy. Great to see that communication once she had it completely.

Kathy the switched the chain over to the other side of the halter and put him in the reverse direction of clockwise. With this direction, Palmer showed much more resistance. He kept refusing forward motion and stopping near the gate. Alicia said that his last trainer didn't work him that way due to lameness on that side so that is why he kept refusing Kathy. What we learned is that he is a brat and just didn't want to go that way because he had gotten away with it in the past. Kathy tolorated none of his childish behavior and quickly cracked the whip to show that she did mean business. He kicked out a few times in tantrum but went where she told him to. It was pretty funny and I caught a short clip of it on vidoe from the links below. The first one he is kicking out pretty much saying...."no, I don't want to do it". Kathy did a remarkable job dispite everyone gabbing around the outside of the pen about Palmer being a brat. It was a very good lesson for us all and another successful Horsin Around. Good food, good wisdom, good meeting Sue and Gail and all in all a very good time.

　

　

　

　



 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVkius1zqlM&feature=share&list=ULbVkius1zqlM

　



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdQbZGphGMI&feature=share&list=ULmdQbZGphGMI

Horse Sessions @ 3 at Kenny's in Lebonon, Oh.

HAha Session 3

Kendra's Farm

917 W. Pekin, Lebanon, Ohio

Canter the cantankerous.

Attending Members.

Kendra S, (the host) Mary Lou Statt, Kathy Klump, Gayle Puckett, Gail Fantetti, Kathy (gails friend and now ours too), Patty Powell, Alicia Kent, Sherry O'Terry, Evey, Searcy Deshler and Jordan and The Dirty Dutchman (Duddles) and an ever present Maggie and a handful of chickens. And then almost Ante Jenny. No phones in the round pen.

Picture it. 10AM/all present and accounted for and on the spot (except Sherry, she was late) on Kendra and Jay's beautiful farm and introductions made and food pouring in. That is an early "YaahhhHoo". coffeeeeeeeeee

We head out to Kendra's barn at about 10:30ish and Jordan is out of the stall before I even had my camera out. Oh wait, Searcy, Gayle and New Kathy stayed outside and started a private smokers club, that is why they missed the dawning of Dutch to the cross ties for the saddling. He was being put back into the stall by the time they made it inside and almost everyone agreed that their horse would roll if they stalled them with a saddle in tack. Dutch didn't roll on his saddle and was a perfect gentleman.

Then, Kendra brought out the horse for working, Jordan, and cross tied her and began tacking her up. She was also such a good girl. She didn't show any real signs of distress by being cross tied or tacked up even though she hasn't had much handling in the last few years due to babies all the way around. Jordan had a baby and then Kendra soon reproduced one herself. "BREEDERS". So, easy to say the Kendra's cantankerous horse has been kind of pushed to the back of the line for a while, due to baby making. Kendra's main goal was to canter her horse and had she gotten dumped or killed, there would be plenty of people around to feel sorry for her and call the paramedics if need be. Her mare was actually wonderful for not being worked with that much for the last few years. Just a great horse in the round pen for Kendra.

Right out of the jump with Jordan in the pen being free lunged in saddle, everyone stated to notice that she was a little sore in one leg. Kendra had detected a slight limp in her mare earlier in the week but figured Jordan would work it out due to her rarely ever being lame. As soon as Kendra started her around in the pen, almost everyone stated that they thought Jordan was not sound in the front. Kendra worked her in the other direction and she did seem better and more sound in the opposite direction. After Jordan got a small work out in the ring, Kendra put a snaffle bridle on her and mounted her mare. Yay so far. She worked around in the ring and nearly everyone noticed her being unsound again. Kendra's main goal was to get her mare to canter and with little coaxing, the mare was in a very light canter on the more sound side. It was so light that Kendra wasn't even sure if Jordan was cantering under her. Must have been pretty smooth. Jordan didn't throw much fit at all and little to no head tossing in anger. There was a moment when Jordan got really light in the front out of frustration, and seemed like she might either go up or perhaps toss out a small buck but Kendra rode her out of that and Jordan was a real peach.

Kendra cantered her fussy mare without incident and met her goal of remaining in tack while doing so.

MaryLou gave Kendra a lot of positive reinforcement when Kendra thought that Jordan might buck and that really helped Kendra relax and breath. Loosen the reins a little and again, relax.

With Jordan in a short workout due to not knowing if she was hurt in her front leg, The Dirty Dutchman, "Dutch" was pulled into the ring with Searcy in Saddle. Kendra and MaryLou were calling out direction with the private cues that Dutch knows to go from walk to canter. It was really quite remarkable to ride because he went straight to it when given the correct cue. What an awesome gelding. Just awesome. He does the every horse thing of trying to stop by the gate or barn on every pass. He is really determined to do that on every pass. We saw that happen at Pat's farm with Doc and at Alicia's farm with Palmer. They fuss at the gate every time. Sounds like an issue for the horse club since every ones horse seems to be doing this. Kathy was asked next up in the saddle just "to feel" this ride because Dutch "Duttles" is such a smooth little mover. Kathy also enjoyed her time on "Mr. Perfect Dutch" and cantered and walked around the ring a little bit demonstrating some of the western collections. I thought the collection information was really quite helpful. Kendra turn on the hunches and also worked on leads a little with Dutch. He was wonderful and for Kendra's grand finally, Kendra performed a reverse pivot on Dutch. '-) That was caught on film ! Mary also demonstrated a punish and release in order to get Dutch to stop jerking his head around. "let him punish himself with the head toss and when he gives, then release to reward. It was the also what we worked on with Sadie at Alicia's. Another common theme. Head tossing horses.

At this point Evey was getting a ride and she road around the arena with Kenny on the ground and Kendra had Evey back up Dutch a little bit to see if Evey remembered how to do that. Little Evey backed up Dutch and then forward again. Good job Evey.

Alicia mounted Dutch at this point and was wearing Gym shoes so Kendra thought she ought now put her feet in the stirrups due to safety reasons and also they were a tad to long. Alicia had a great seat even without the stirrups. She cantered around the ring and worked on neck reining a little bit and also getting him from walk to canter with the cues. It all went wonderfully and Alicia and Dutch hit it off wonderfully. After Alicia's ride we took the horses back to the barn to put them back into the stalls and talk about our lesson and gear up for the food. Pat asked Sherry OTerry to tell a horse story because Sherry didn't have horses but she must have a story. She told of a time when she was a child and stayed with a girlfriend that had horses in which one was due to foal the night of her stay. Her friends father told Sherry that she could name the horse if it was born while she was overnight and sure enough, Sherry got to name the horse and she picked, "TINKERBELL" for the foal. To this day, her friend Kim is still mad at her. Good story Sherry and funny too. Note to self, don't give that kind of freedom to Sherry OTerry over your life or your animals or for god sakes, children.

Over the years Searcy has became accustomed to calling Dutch, "Duttles" and this seem to really upset Pat but no one knows why and within that conversation it came up about Pats goat "Dudley" and also of his demise. Searcy was telling of the tombstone that young Zak, Sireha and Cody had made. It said, "This was the got. His name was Dudely. He is Dead. The dogs ate him". Sherry thought I said frogs ate him and she screamed, I guess because he was buried next to the pond she heard frogs. So sherry thought that the frogs ate her goat and the laughs were load and a lot. Sherry will not go to Pats farm because of her goat eating deadly frogs. Too Much. Gail also stated that she quit weed eating around her pond because Pat said that is where the frogs live, so that came out of horse sessions 2. Gail will not weed eat around her pond and her frogs live on, albeit, nicer frogs than that of Pats pond. HEEHEE

We walked up to Kendras house and started bringing the food out to her patio. Chairs and food and more food and so on. All of the food was so delicious and one was better than the next. The big hit of the table was a tie between the chicken tortilla soup and the Tomato Basil Tort. Such good healthy food and everyone rolled away from the table to eat even more desserts. We talked as we ate, about the food and about training horses. We all learned that MaryLou is a "Slappy" trainer for she said that she was going to or thinking of "Slapping Kendra off of her horse" at one point in the day. Just a little heads up if you make a mistake out on the trail with MaryLou next to you. You will get the smack down, slap off.

Pat, for the first time on her own called the hackamore by its name "hackamore" and not a bosel. That got everyone's attention and even some ooos and ahhhhs. We also learned that Pat is afraid of the internet. Very, very afraid as she put it at the table. Also that she wouldn't get it until she gets old........................

Kathy sat with Evey and drew a horse on the etch-a-sketch. It was quite good and I have a picture of it to live on in history. It looks as if she drew Dutch by the rump she gave her drawing. :-) Kathy also said that Kendra's saddle stirrups were shortened to midget size people and we all looked at Alicia. HEEHAW.

That is about the all that I have on it. If anyone can remember anymore that I may have forgotten, please put it in and back at me. My notes are not long or enough and say about three times..."you are not the boss of me" so whatever that was about, I don't remember.

Food....
.Gails Brochette pie.
Ali's cheesecake cupcakes
Kathy's brownies
Moms Kenny Pumpkin Pie
Gayles Soda/Water express
Searcy Potato Salad
Kenny's home made bread coupled with Chicken Tortilla Soup and Salad
Cookies by Kendra and COFFEE~~~~~~~!!!!! Thank sweet Jesus for that!
Alicia got her Christmas quilt from Searcy.....Let the record show.


Next meeting November 16th "Friday" at 11:00AM in Aurora, on Lower Dillsboro Road. Will send a map later to Gail Fantetti's farm.

Horsin Around Session 4 November 16, 2012

Horsin Around Session 4- Gail Fantetti's

Double Gailyes, Triple Kathy's, Quadruple the fun!

We all arrived between 11:30 and Noon with our bounties of food and goodness and everyone wearing huge smiles of good will and intent.  G. Fantetti was such a great host and really has such a wonderfully laid out beautiful home and farm.  A good time was had by all...........................
Host: Gail Fantetti
Goal:  Getting to know Buster back from Kim's farm.
Attending:  Not in order of importance.....
Fantetti (duh)
Searcy, Gayle Puckett, Kendra, Alicia, Pat Powel, Judy, Kajia, Evey, Kathy Klump@#2, Chris Voelker, KAthy Reilmam, Kim Yelton, Lynda, , Buster, Spirit and BamBam and one big goat.
 Noted:  Fantetti had coffee hot and ready for the people as they arrived and made even more when she ran out.  Everything about Gails house was warm and country cowboy/cowgirl all the way down to the cowgirl coffee cups.  How cool.  Her bathroom was so western cowgirl and her toilet paper holder was a curb bit.  I loved that and heard others mention the outhouse bathroom with a real toilet as well.

Everyone headed out to the barn around noonish to check out Gails barn and horses.  We had an absolutely beautiful day for our gathering for it was brisk and sunny as we walked down to the barn together with mounting anticipation and talking to one another as if we were all old friends.  It really was a great group of people as we would all soon learn.
Buster was pulled out of the paddock right away and saddled up before you know it.  In the mean time Judy pulled out Spirit (the gray rescue arabian) and lunged a little.  Gail also lunged Spirit but wrapped the whip end around Spirits leg and she laughed like the dickens.   Spirit ran off with the whip dangling from the ankle area.
 Judy pulled out her clicker to show us the affirmation on clicker training and reward.  She had Spirit eating out of her hand in just a few minutes.  It was pretty good to see though I thought it worked in the opposite direction so now I know.  It was somewhat like the Pavlov experiment..  She would click her clicker and then Spirit would lower the head and touch her hand and Judy would reward the horse with a small treat.  Spirit will work for Cheerios!  It didn't take long.   What Judy did not realize is that she also trained me in lowering my head for Cheerios but she came off no Cheerios for me.  Poor Searcy.
Judy also works at the Lebanon parade every year as a volunteer at one of the sign up booths or something.  That was pretty crazy for she lives in Indiana and works in Kendra's neck of the woods once in a while.  AWESOME!
     Judy also took her pony and demonstrated with her  trainer friend, Clinician Andy Marcoux at  the Equine Affair.  That is a great goal and a dream met in Judy's life.  Wish we could have caught that at the equine affair.  She would have made us proud.  That is a big deal.  I believe that it was one of her ponies that drive.  GREAT JOB JUDY.  The word of the day that Judy contributed was "Whoopty Doo".  I have been saying that every since.   Judy was quite a delight to have around and a pleasure to listen to.
Kim climbed onto Busters back and rode off into the paddock with little effort.  He was great and acted as if he had been ridden every day since he had returned to Gails house from his training session at Kims farm.    Upon Kims return on Buster from the paddock she sat up there for a while and spoke from the horsetop and someone realized that he had lost his buck strap from the back line of the saddle.  Everyone was on the hunt when Alicia finally pulled it from her pocket and returned it to Gail.  I suppose she was going to put the stolen buck strap into her sock drawer with all the brownies that she used to horde when we were children.  I could always find chocolate in Alicia's sock drawer and now I suppose missing odds and ends from other peoples saddles.  We were all proud of Alicia for returning the stolen part. '-)
Believe it or not, we had a second Kathy Klump.  Kathy Klump #2.  Wow, whoda thunk.   Kathy #2 put out an invite to ride on the trails at her farm when we all get to the point to travel to each others place with our horses.  A personal goal of the group colletively.  Gathering with our horses.  How fun.
Bam Bam is pulled from the paddock by G.Fantetti.  BamBam is a large draft mix with a built in line that looks like a saddle on his back.  The first thing that Fantetti did was hit BamBam in the face with the saddle.   I don't know how she did that but she did.  BamBam took one from the team as if he is used to being knocked in the face with different things.  After pulling the saddle off of BamBam's face it made its way to his back and it didn't really seem to fit so off it came without incident.  NOW, it is time to put the bridle onto the horse and this is where hilerity ensued.  The bridle went on with pretty much ease but then Gail tried to get the rope halter off from undernieth the bridle by unhooking the knot and pulling it thru but the nose band was stuck under the bridle straps.  She said that she knows that she has seen people do it this way before so she is attempting to do this too.  By this point Kim, Chris, Kathys, the sisters and their mother and the Gayle are all laughing out loud.  I heard Kim say that Gail was going to have to start over and remove the bridle.  Bambam is chewing on the halter with the bit in his mouth and someone says......"HE'S EATIN IT!"  BamBam ate the halter.
 At this point Kim helps Gail remove the bridle and then pried the halter out of BamBams teeth (he had a flossing) and Gail was to put the bridle back onto BamBam.   She switched her hand to better grip the leather and yes, she poked her horse in the eye.  She said" AAAHHHHHH, I POKED HIM IN THE EYE!"  That is three horse sessions where Gail has poked or crushed something.  I think that everone laughed so hard that some were rolling on the ground.  Gail said that she has never poked things in the eyes, ever, until her recently.  Suuuurrrre.
BamBam was saddled and unsaddled due to fitting issues and Kim, again, Kim, Jumps up on his back and rides off to the paddock.   BamBam tried to have his way with Kim but she wasn't having any of that.  She got him corrected straight away and off to the trail and back.  We then took Bambam   and Buster off to the round pen where we got some great pictures and Fantetti rode her horse for the first time since he returned from training at Kims farm.   She looked splendid on her steed and did quite well and way more relaxed than anyone had thought she would be.  It was talked about her natural relaxed state among those hanging on the side lines.  She looked like she had been up there over one hundred times.
Searcy on BamBam and Gail on Buster, they rode around and talked about what and where they had all been.  One horse tried to bite the other so Searcy figured she would stay clear of Gail and her wild ways.  At this point Gail dismounts Buster and Searcy posed for stellar photos ontop of Bam.  They looked really quite natural and good together if I do say so myself.  Alicia took great pictures with Searcy's camera.  Way to shoot it Alicia.
Kajia takes over BamBam after Searcy dismounted, (finally) and Kajia rode Bam around the round pen with great ease.  It was determined that everyone wanted BamBam.  I know I do and he had a built in saddle line.  How awesome is that?
When it is figured that Fantetti had met her goal of riding Buster, we all headed back to the barn, where Evey road Buster.  She did great on an unknown horse.  Quite good with her mothers guided hand.
Horses up and all are hungry and heading back to the barn.  We headed to the house for the feast in little groups.  Kendra had to go back to get a stuffed giraffe or something and fetched Searcy's coat......Again and we hit the house with hunger.
It was a day of Salads,  Chicken salads, garden salads and Gails Bruschetta pie.  Homemade bread and cookies of all sorts.  Pumpkin Pie and much much more.  Banana Cream Pie, Turkey Salad,  Buffalo chicken Dip.  Spinach Salad.  WOW...Food was plentiful and good!  We ate like queens.
That is it in a nut shell, there are many other things to say about the session but I was asked not to put it in, such as Kathy Klump 2 put her friend Chris V, (which most of us met that day) on a strange horse of hers.  Strange to Chris that is and Chris told Patty and I that she had to be buzzed in order to get up there.  She asked me not to put that in.   That all started because Pat said that she doesn't enjoy riding other peoples horses.  She there you have it.  Chris might have even said "tanked" to ride a horse she didn't know.   Sounds like a great recipe to me!!!!!  TEEEEEHEEE and HEEEHAW.

Farriers that everyone uses.
Dave Swartz-Said to be good with the horses
Mark Franks- Expensive but the best and has taught many of the locals.  Pricey!
Tommy Lingrich.  Trained under Mark
Ty Bowel-  Also trained under Mark but a very good farrier but also pricey.  Enjoys a farm where he can knock out many horses verses two or five like the most of us have!
Jim Bray.  Don't know anything about him other than he is a farrier.
All is well that ends well.  Hope to see some of you at Pat Powells on the 15th of December at her farm at 11741 North Hogan Road, Aurora Indiana 47001 at 11AM.
Much Love and great hanging with you all.  good times!

By the way, Linda lives in her barn, Wayne Barn builder style with her two mares, Memory and Sadiea.  She wants to hold a session in the spring where we bring our horses.  I am sooooooooooooo In on that!  She may even have some hay for sale.  Who knows.