Back To The Usual

By Neversummer October 7, 2025 Uncategorized No Comments

Here I go again.

Rode Sunshine every day for a whole week. Hauled him to a clinic. He did great for all of it. And now, nothing. Haven’t touched him, or any of the other horses since the clinic.

My dad is out and we’ve been going hard on a remodel project. I come up for air long enough to get the bare minimum of my work done and to keep the house from crumbling completely around us. And food of course. Then crash into bed at night exhausted.

Soon. Soon this will be done and I will be able to get back to my horses. I miss them!

Trick Training Clinic

By Neversummer September 27, 2025 Rusty, Sunshine No Comments

Rusty and I, and Sunshine, and my daughter. got to go to a trick training clinic today!

How exciting was that. Clinics for anything close enough that I am willing to make the drive are rare enough. A clinic focused on tricks and close is unheard of. So we immediately signed up.

The guy, Ryan Bulkley, trains differently than I do. That is to be expected. But in his videos he was using treats to reward his horses. That and the results he was getting were all I needed.

It was a lot of fun seeing the cowboy hats and generally ranchy bunch that made up the crowd. They seemed to be a mix of working ranch and rodeo, the much more normal local horse crowd than me. And they seemed to all be interested in what was being said and in actually working on some tricks with their horses. No one balked at feeding treats.

We started out teaching horses how to move away from pressure. Then transferring it across the body to ask the horse to come towards us. Then backing, all sorts of basic body control. I really can’t even remember what all we worked on. It was a LOT. Not sure I can even remember the highlights. It was a long day and my brain is fried.

He teaches the bow out of a  stretch, or parking out. I was sure my horses wouldn’t be able to do it that way because when I’ve tried they want to do Spanish walk. But we were getting the stretch today! His method there looked like a ton of fun and we will keep practicing, see if we can manage.

He let people practice giving cues on his horses. My daughter enjoyed that greatly.

Sunshine and Rusty were both wonderful. Sunshine was mostly on his best behavior. At lunch Rusty got a bit far ahead of him at the same time as he discovered the flag flying over head. He had a small meltdown. Or maybe a rather large one 😆 I got to show off the Sunshine that I’m not willing to ride to people. It was good to have someone, anyone, else actually see this version of my other wise wonderful pony. For his first time away from home doing horsey things with many other horses around Sunshine did wonderfully. He stood on the pedestal, got close to sitting on the bean bag, stood tide nicely, and managed a bit of Spanish walk despite being a bit worried about the whole thing.

Rusty was as perfect as ever. He tried his best to do as my daughter asked. He’s used to me so a different person asking was confusing and stressful for him. He starts breathing loudly when stressed. But they figured out some nice pivots and sidepasses. Rusty demonstrated fetch and Spanish walk. He happily got all four feet on the pedestal. He provided a seat for both of us when our feet got too tired to stand any longer.

It was a great day all around. There was an absolutely delicious lunch. The location was gorgeous. The people were all so very nice. I’m sure I’ll think of lots of things tomorrow that I wanted to say but forgot because I’m so exhausted from the very long day. Guess I’ll say them tomorrow!

 

Bus Stop, Again

By Neversummer September 25, 2025 Jerry, Lady No Comments

It’s amazing how difficult it is to get the kids pickup up with horses.

I had plans, hopes, dreams. Then we had a week of rain. Not going to complain about that. Also not going to ride clear to the highway in it. Aside from that it’s been cold, or windy, or hot, or just plain too busy. This is supposed to be fun. I’m not going to torture us all by being tough and doing it despite discomfort.

Yesterday things finally came together. It was warm but not hot. And not particularly busy.

The horses came in happily. I got everything saddled and we were off. Jerry got to stay on a line. When they came in happily I let her through the gate loose and she left to find some good grazing. I wasn’t going to mess around with that. The girls have this whole thing figured out and lead beautifully. Rusty was having trouble with his breathing. Yay. So we kept it to a sedate walk. The vet said exercise would only help his lungs and not to quit working him when he’s having trouble. But that didn’t mean he was up to anything but a walk.

We got to the highway minutes before the bus got there and with no drama. It was a pleasant change from usual.

The neighbor boys who had been over to ride last weekend came and petted the horses, drooling jealously over my kids getting to ride home. I think that makes my kids appreciate me picking them up a little more. Nothing more fun than having your friends envy you.

As we all plodded towards home the kids got their horses together to whisper secrets I wasn’t supposed to hear. My son had fun trotting ahead. His little mare, Lady, is an amazingly good horse. I really can not over state how very good she is. She trotted along in a halter, towards home in the prettiest slow collected jog stopping immediately when asked and standing quietly to wait for the rest of us.

Jerry was, is, great too. Her rider never wants to go above a walk though so she doesn’t demonstrate it as clearly. Except by happily going along at a slow walk. Well behaved but not near as flashy.

My son decided to get off and walk the very last little bit home. He got to the trailer to tell me that he had acted sad and Lady had cuddled up to him to comfort him. Once again, the perfect little mare.

 

Kids

By Neversummer September 22, 2025 Jerry, Lady, Rusty No Comments
Boy did we have a busy weekend. SIX kids here at one point and all of them wanted to ride horses. Except mine 🙄
A couple I had invited over in hopes of it encouraging mine to want to ride. The others we were thrilled to have, but hadn’t invited with the same intent and didn’t know they were going to want to ride.
Rusty got saddled along with the mares the first day. Three horses, four kids. It worked because mine didn’t want to ride. My son refused to even come out and play, which also made life much easier. My daughter was fine not riding but helped manage horses and children, which made life much much easier! She was amazing. And did hop on and ride with the others.
They played monkey on the barrel, where you ride down and pick up someone off a barrel, ring on cone, ride down and drop a ring over a cone. I didn’t want to leave them long enough to go find a flag or a bucket. Instead I set up a pole pattern, with barrels, and barrel pattern.
They had fun practicing then I timed them. Lady was giving the most gorgeous slow collected trot for her inexperienced rider. Jerry introduced her rider to a love of gaiting. He wanted to do more and more of it. Rusty does not believe in going fast. He takes offense at being rushed. The more his rider encouraged him the slower he went.
The next day my daughter and her friend went out for a ride. They started around the buildings. Once I was sure they weren’t going to be run away with as soon as they turned towards home I said they could go farther if they wanted. Maybe down the driveway.
They disappeared. I wasn’t too worried but they were still gone. The other two kids had gone home but my son’s friend who had missed riding the day before was wondering when he would get his chance to ride. He looked very sad. I texted my daughter, where are you?!?!
She sent back a selfie. They were way off away from the house and truly making the most of being turned loose on their own. The poor boy would have to wait.
Then their parents called. They were going to be picked up shortly. One hadn’t ridden at all yet and was sad about it. The other had disappeared on a horse an hour ago and I didn’t really know where she was. Maybe don’t send kids to my house 🤣
I called my daughter asking again where in the world were they!! Once located I drove out to them to drop the brother off. The girls had decided what horse he got to ride and exactly how this was going to go. My daughter scooted behind the saddle and let him ride her horse home in front of her. They made it home at the exact same time a parent got there to pick them up.
At least I had found all the children.
It is so important to encourage children to love horses as much as we do! That next generation of horse riders needs to be brought along. Encouraging that made the stress and exhaustion of it all worthwhile. Getting my daughter out on a trail ride willingly alone was worth it. We need to make plans for the next time!

Back To The Usual Routine

By Neversummer September 17, 2025 Sunshine No Comments

I got Sunshine worked every day for a week!

That means I’m on a roll and going to stick to this. Right?

Or not. One day of proceeded a weekend off. Which lead to a week of bad weather and busy days and here I am back to his usual schedule of getting worked a few times then being left sit in the field. Luckily he has a good mind on him and can take the sitting. I really want to get him worked though!

Oh well. Going to enjoy the cool weather and rain while I can. Although it has thwarted my plans to pick up kids from the bus with the horses too. That and being so busy. That’s just how life goes though isn’t it.

Making Progress

By Neversummer September 12, 2025 Sunshine No Comments

After a week of working and ‘riding’ Sunshine every day the weekend came. It came a bit early. My son had the day off school Thursday because why not. The school thought it would be fun. We have a four day school week. Work week too since my husband works at the school. So everyone was home today and we have been running all day.

No Sunshine time. Oh well, he deserved a break after the grueling week he put in.

So, instead of a daily training update, which I’ve been a bit too busy to get to anyway, here is a compilation of a few of his rides. All six or so of them that he’s had.

I should edit video with the sound on. In one of these, if you make it past the whole minute of walking slowly in circles of the first ride, my son had a timer set and orders to come see if I was still alive. He did, I was, I asked him to reset the timer and come back again later. I would have edited that bit out had I listened 😆

Looking back I also should have made the first ride bit shorter. No one needs to see a horse calmly walk in circles for a whole minute. If you are watching you might want to skip the first bit 😉

The second piece was his second ride. My first solo sit. Was a lot accomplished? No. What was accomplished was a huge leap in confidence. A small sit without incident is really a big leap forward.

Then my back went out. So there was a day of so off riding and a back brace once riding was resumed. I kind of like it. It’s like a corset, gives me a bit of a waist 🤣

This isn’t every ride. The first two and the last two actually. But I think there is a difference from beginning to end. We got forward all by ourselves. I am now very comfortable on his back. That comfort is important for me to begin making actual progress. Can’t wait to see what our next ride brings!

Forward Movement!

By Neversummer September 10, 2025 Sunshine No Comments

I rode this horse today. The one with head in the air, snorting, and spooking at everything.

It is an important distinction because although it is still Sunshine it is not the same Sunshine as usual.

Sunshine is a very good boy, quiet, willing, brave. Most of the time. He is still young, still high strung, still sensitive and spooky. Sometimes .

It rained a little bit last night. The wind wasn’t blowing yet when we got started and it wasn’t cold. Not sure what had him on edge but he was flighty and jumping from everything from the time we started. We walked in the scary direction to graze, like we have been doing. Everything to the north has been terrifying for a while now. So we go into the scary and hang out, grazing on the good lush grass there. It has been working nicely. Today it was awful again.

Not awful enough not to graze, he is after all a Morgan.

Then we went into the ‘arena’ ’round pen’ whatever you want to call it.  It is neither but is kind of serving the purpose.

That was slightly less scary but by than the wind was coming up. We worked on targeting the cones again. He is having trouble finding forward and I am not going to start swinging ropes or in any way hazing him forward from his back. There’s that whole thing where my ’round pen’ has some serious issues like cement pads and sharp jutting corners. Then there’s also the thing where I don’t like to fall off.

So we’ve been practicing targeting cones. He walks forward to a cone, I reward him. It works great, from the ground. From his back he needed more time to think. Yesterday he didn’t get it at all. He had time to think, let it sink in, over night. Today I was determined that we would just sit and hang out until he got bored and wandered off. I was tired of pulling on him and he didn’t seem to be enjoying our ‘rides’. Lot of emphasis here because there are lots of words that don’t mean the things they are supposed to.

I got on and we sat. He stood stiffly with ears pricked staring intently in the scary direction. Grass that way swayed in the ever increasing wind. The dog wandered about. Cats did cat things. Sunshine walked off!

Into the tall weeds around the edges.

I was not thrilled. He was doing good though. So I clicked and rewarded him for the steps he gave. Then pointed his head back into bare dirt.

Then he walked off beautifully! We walked to the next cone. He got a cookie. I sat wondering if I should get off there before he decided to spook for real from the wind. We hung out. He took a couple more steps. I got off. Not exciting. More like riding than what we’ve been doing. Still something real colt starters would scoff at and mock. But, I still haven’t gotten hurt. We’re both getting more comfortable. Sunshine is doing great. I’m pretty happy with it for only being six rides and throwing my back out completely somewhere in there. Yes, in days gone by I would have been doing all sorts more things by now. But I’m old and broken. It doesn’t matter what young me would have done. We’re doing what’s best for me in the here and now and I’m happy with our progress.

 

Wind

By Neversummer September 3, 2025 Sunshine No Comments
I was so looking forward to ‘riding’ Sunshine again today. Planned my whole day around it.
Now I’m sitting inside listening to the wind howl outside thinking that maybe I don’t want to do this today after all. On days I can not find time to work him I sit around feeling sorry for myself because I want to be out playing with my horse.
On days I could work him I think if reasons why it’s too much work 🙄
Yesterday the wind was blowing. Just enough to put him on edge. But he was perfectly behaved once we got down to it. Today the wind is really blowing and I’m not sure trying to ride would be such a good idea.
While I get some work done on the computer and try to decide, which I will hopefully do with him saddled and getting some groundwork work done, here is our ‘ride’ from yesterday. He is such a good boy.

Fear

By Neversummer September 2, 2025 Academy No Comments
Fear is a completely personal experience.
Something that terrifies one person is simple and fun for another. We can in no way judge if another person has the right to be afraid.
I knew a guy once who spent a lot of time telling me I was chicken. I didn’t like, and still don’t like, riding horses who were likely to buck. The first ride on any horse is terrifying to me. It didn’t bother him. That meant I was chicken, scared of everything. According to him.
We went to Colorado and rented jeeps to drive the logging trails in the mountains. It was the funnest thing ever. Those tough little jeeps took to the narrow, steep mountain roads like goats. What does that have to do with me being chicken?
That same guy, the self proclaimed brave one, the first time we came out onto a ledge with the mountain going straight up and straight down above and below us, he nearly cried. He wanted to go home. He was determined that he was going to pick the jeep up and turn it around himself since there we no place to turn it around. He was terrified.
Suddenly when it was something that scared him he wasn’t so brave anymore. The rest of us were having a blast and refused to ruin the whole day to take him back to the hotel.
When faced with scary horses I hadn’t cried and begged to go home, but he had still considered me chicken. Just because it wasn’t something he was afraid of.
All things in life get met with this same very personal scale of fear. Our fears are our own, other people can’t judge them. But we also aren’t allowed to judge other peoples phobias.
What does this have to do with horses?
I’m working on those first rides on my young guy. Yes, he has been perfect in every way. But, I have years of experience with horses who weren’t perfect. Of horses who blew up when it seemed like everything should be fine. Of horses who had been ridden without trouble then suddenly found the spot they weren’t fine anymore. The fear has long since been embedded into my mind.
I will go at my own speed. I will face my ow fears. I will not cower in fear on that ledge demanding to be saved, to not have to face the thing. I will face it, but no one else gets to tell me it’s fine. If they do it will be pointless and even counter productive.
This doesn’t change for any one person or any scary thing they are facing with their own horses. No one else can tell them it isn’t scary, that their fears are groundless, that they have to face their fears and get it over with. Fear doesn’t work that way. Forcing someone into a situation that leaves them terrified will make the fear worse, not better.
Far better to back off to the point it isn’t as scary, where it is manageable. Stay there. Work there. Allow ourselves the same grace we should be giving our horses. Once that point of comfort becomes easy to face, then push forward a little farther, just until we are facing our fears, looking them in the eye, but not close enough to touch. Stay there are repeat the same stage, until that gets comfortable. Slow and easy steps like that will build confidence and get us face to face with our fears, allow us to stare them down, far easier than running straight up to them will.