APHA at Last

Halo's breeder and the APHA finally came through for me - I now own a registered filly! I received her papers in the mail yesterday, and am as proud as can be. It was worth the 9 months of toil. Now that she's officially in my name with the APHA, I can register her with other associations like PtHA and PHBA. I don't know if I'll bother with PtHA since she's solid, but I am almost definitely going to register her with the PHBA as well. It will give her more show opportunities, and hopefully a likelihood of finding a good home when and if I ever sell her. In the meantime, the other thing that will bring her a good home is good training.

It's funny to see the old picture I took for Halo's papers back in February. She's grown up and filled out so much since then.

Hooray!

Hoof Trims and a Few Pictures

Last night I went out to trim Halo's feet. We had a nice three solid days of rain over the weekend, and she's been standing in mud, so her feet are nice and soft. I got her legs rinsed off and gave her her badly needed trim. I managed to do all four feet in one go, which is unusual, but my back is definitely punishing me for it today. I'm headed out of town again this weekend, so it was necessary to get it done before I left. She was pretty good given that she hasn't been worked in a while.

I have some pictures to share today that were taken by a friend of the barn owner who was visiting from Denmark for a few weeks. Photography is a hobby of hers. She wandered up to the arena one night when I was working Halo and took some nice shots. Unfortunately I was dressed in my typical hobo barn clothes. At least Halo was looking good!









It's funny, both horses I started myself have liked to mouth my feet when first learning to go under saddle. I think at this age they tend to explore with their mouths. No biting is allowed though!



I want to yell at myself to sit up straight!



I really need a saddle!

Although I'm going to be out of town next week, the good news is that I get to see my former horse, Smot (now referred to as Mo), while I am in Oregon. I hope to get some pictures and do a blog feature on him. He was the first (and only other) horse I started, and he is incredibly special to me. I think the term "heart horse" is a little cheesy, but if I had to apply that term to one of my former horses, it would definitely be Smot.

Another Late Update

These pictures were taken the weekend before Labor Day weekend. I keep forgetting my camera when I go to the barn, but Casi was with me today and was able to take some shots of Halo under saddle. Saddle such as it is, anyway. I have an upcoming post planned to catalogue my saddle woes, and hopefully get some helpful input.



Here I'm asking her to turn back toward the rail with my outside leg and inside rein. I like the bend that she has here. She's getting much better at following her nose, though she's still far from perfect.



This is only our third or so time trotting! This is a super lazy trot, but as you can see, it's very easy to sit. She's stopped tossing her head during the trot for the most part. I think longeing her with the sidepull on helped her get used to the sensation of it on her face at higher speeds. Still, it probably could use to be shortened a hole. I'll put her in the snaffle soon, but she's got some teeth coming in right now that I don't want to bother.



And here is the latest naughty behavior. You can see from the lines in the dirt that this is the end of quite a string of going backwards. She does that when she decides she doesn't want to do what I ask. I won this battle, but could have handled it much better. I need to quit worrying that she's going to rear, and make her turn so that it's harder to back up. I've had some time to reflect on why this happened, and I'm hoping I can handle it better next time.



No workout would be complete without a stop to smell the plastic flowers!




Poor Halo. I think she's embarrassed.



And every good pony needs a good head rub once she's done working.