Clinic, Winter and My Birthday

Last weekend, I went to a one day clinic on Saturday, it was by a local reining trainer that I had heard of but never really met.  He is not that far away and he holds clinics fairly regularily throughout the summer and so we thought it would be fun to go.  I was thinking I would take Kali cause she is my least broke horse and she has some reining training, so even though it was a basic horsemanship clinic it would be nice to have somewhat similar training.  But when I went out in the morning it was dark and cold and Razz come first up, if I had rode her at all this summer I woulda taken her, but I did not have enough time to ride her down for the clinic in one day.  So then I went to get Kali and she was on the far side of the slough, so I thought maybe Bailey but she was all tense and acting really weird and so Jessie it was.  I kinda wanted to take her anyway cause she is the most in shape and I didnt know how much he would make us do.  So off we went to pick up Char and Terra and we got there and he said it was such a nice day that wwe would use the outdoor arena.  its bigger and brighter and it was so nice I spent most of the day in my long sleeve t-shirt, pretty nice for the end of October.

We started out by telling who we were and our horses and what we wanted to work on, well a lot of them rode with him for a while so he knew them and thier horses and so it was just us 3 who really had to explain, he said he knows Doug, likes him and has even bought horses off him, so that was kinda nice, kinda helpful when he knows what we are doing and what stage we were at.  We started working on collection at a standstill then a walk and trot then eventually at a lope (for some of us) Jessie has not done collection in a while but as soon as I asked she just gives, she is just so easy she just does whatever you ask.  I had a hard time getting it with one hand and so he helped me by saying to scoop the reins and lift farther forward rather than just back.  It seemed to work and we got a lot with very little pressure at all speeds.

The after lunch (of lasagna!) we worked on stops and rollbacks, mine and Chars horses were the most broke there and so we even got to do synchronized rollbacks, that was kinda fun.  We are not used to loping out of a rollback but our horses did it :)  He was saying they don't do a full rollback in a pattern cause its easier to get the right lead if they don't and he also said its not a penalty to pick up the wrong lead as long as you can change back before going around a corner.  I didn't realize that.  Interesting.  Anyways after all that I asked about lead changes cause I could not get Jess to do one without her slowing down to a trot then picking up the other lead.  She will not counter canter either (which is fine with me)  and so he walked me through it and still nothing, so he asked to get on her and I didn't really want him to but since I wanted to make sure it wasn't me (Bailey and Razz and even Kali will do a flying lead change no trouble so I couldn't figure it out)  and he got on her and was surprised how sensitive she is, lol.  Made em laugh cause he always says to put my leg in her and I never really did but then he could see why, no need!  Anyways he said she doesn't move her hip, and I said she does but you have to put your leg farther back, and then it all made sense, we always make her move her shoulder for cutting so she automatically does that first which causes her to change in front but not in back and so I decided I am OK with that, I don't need to mess her up for cutting just for lead changes, she always takes the correct lead so we quit worrying about it.  Whew its not me, lol.  I wouldn't have been surprised if it was, I have never taught a horse to do a flying lead change, they just usually do it but I guess I musta been teaching them without realizing it.

We just decided to go one day and I am glad cause Saturday night Sunday morning it was sure a weather change, it rained then snowed and more snow.  Wasn't very cold, just around freezing but sure not t-shirt weather.

 It was East Coulee breakfast so we went to that and visited with a whole bunch of people around there we don't see very often.  Then home and since it was my birthday I did a whole lot of nothing :)  Until I decided I needed a cake so I made myself one.  I picked my favorite box cake, spice, and mmm was it good.  We didn't have icing but that's OK I liked it anyways.  I never made my favorite meal cause that's too much work (ribs and spaghetti), Neil was gonna take me to Red Lobster but we didn't wanna drive in Calgary on the first snowy day of the year so we had smokies and intense dill Doritos ( I love those!) and cake.  We will go to Calgary another day and have lobster, my mouth is watering just talking about it.

No pics of the clinic, no one to take them and LaTonne asked if the blizzard would affect prices, I doubt it will right away, at some point we might see some change, but more recently was the news that Tyson wasn't buying anymore Canadian beef and so that will probly affect us more, but they only want finished cattle, so not sure if that will be immediate either, and since the rules are so weird (it only has to be fed for 3 months in the US to be considered US beef with COOL)  it may not matter at all, have to wait and see.  I feel glad to be sold our animals and we arent worrying about it yet.  Still watching to see what is happening but not worried yet.