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.