Photo by Texas

Texas took this for me this morning. Love my girl.

Back In The Saddle

I'm such a proud mama. After three weeks of medicine and rest for my girl since discovering her arthritis, Jade finally started to look like she was feeling pretty dang good. I've been straining my eyes to see if she is off, just even slightly. With new comfy shoes, an injection, and some horsie tylenol, she's feeling and looking great. 

So, I decided to start her back up to her normal routine, slowly, per the veterinarian's suggestion. I lunged her for a couple days, just barely making her sweat.

And then, I just decided to get on her a couple days ago. 

We walked. We trotted. We loped. We pretended like no time had passed since the last time I rode her. 

No buck. No sass. Just lots of good moments. She's softer than when I left her. She's stopping real fast like a sink when it's clogged.

This is big stuff, folks. One year ago, I got bucked off this gal within seconds of getting on her. We've come a long ways, with ups and downs. My little filly has turned into a horse. This about right considering she just turned 5 years old at the end of May. 

She may have arthritis in her foot, but with her heart, anything is possible friends! We will see what she decides to do. In the meantime, we be ridin'.

X-Rays

Jaders. Looking all confused at the vet a couple of weeks ago.

Xrays. :(

New shoes.

I've started lunging Jade to get her started back up slowly to her exercise routine. She's had a little over two weeks off. I guess we will find out what happens. She has been tearing up the pasture as of lately, so I hoping she can tear up the barrels soon, at least for a little while. :)

Pretty Princess

This girl puts up with so much lovin' from me... AND Texas. She gets it from both sides.

What a lucky girl. :)

Supervising

Hey Booty-ful

Oh hey.

Hey booty-ful.

A Video Journey

Jade is coming along. I took her to a race again last night to get her time, and she gets faster and smoother every time.

I was inspired to have a short video journey of Jade and her barrel racing. I'm not going to go into great lengths here, but here are a few videos of our journey.

This first one is the day I tried her out, almost a year ago, when she was just turning 4 years old. She could barely pick up her left lead, and the girl who had her was letting her drop her shoulder into the barrels which made for a little bit of a rough turn.

Trying out Jade - May 2011

This next video was taken a little over a month ago. It was the first time I took Jade somewhere to lope through the barrels away from home. Considering all the distractions, she didn't do half bad.

Jade's 1st time only Loping Barrels

Finally, this is a video from last night. This is Jade's 4th outing loping through the barrels away from home. We have lots of improvements to make in our turns and approach, plus I let her go at her own pace - I didn't even push her.

Jade's 4th time only Loping Barrels

This last one she clocked a 20.4 second run. Nothing special compared to the typical 17 seconds the top girls run at rodeos. Considering I am just letting her go at her own pace, and still trying to get her turns super smooth, I am happy.

This Is My First Trail Ride

Hi. My name's Jade. This is my first trail ride.

Waitin'

Waitin' with the ponies. Waitin' on Texas.

Morning Coffee

"Where the heck is my morning coffee?!"

One Morning

One morning, a couple weeks ago, Jaders and I got saddled up to work some beef cows.

She's the cutest.

She puts up with me being an over loving mama.

Curiosity

Ya know what they say.

Curiosity killed the cat.

Well, not yet. 

Home Away From Home

Moved the ponies into the partial pasture by our house last night. Their home pasture needs a rest.

I sure do love having my babies right out the window. :)

Ridin' Dirty

This weekend is the prestigious Oakdale Rodeo. Our hometown rodeo that is notorious for being either BEAUTIFUL or POURING DOWN RAIN. Guess which is happening this weekend?

This weekend is also home to a huge annual spring barrel race, Youth Championship, and Futurity through the local barrel racing organization. Texas and I took our ponies over to the arena the other night to ride the horses around. We had no idea what was in store for us as we pulled up.

Needless to say, there was a bit of wet ground. 

Lots and lots of mud.

Jader's first time (to my knowledge) riding in knee/ankle deep mud. It was a good character building experience for her, not to mention a dang good workout.

I'm feeling for all those ladies entered up in the rodeo and the barrel race this weekend. I contemplated entering Jade in the Futurity as it's my only chance to run her locally in a Futurity as she is only eligible this year. I really feel like she's been coming on strong the last few weeks and really getting the hang of things (or maybe it's me that's getting the hang of things and she's saying "FINALLY DUDE"). But, I think it's God's way of telling me to give her some more time to come into her own. I don't want to run in the mud this weekend, especially on my girl who is just getting used to the barrel racing gig.

So, stay tuned folks, I am hoping to have Jade running in barrel races by May as there are some good races going on. But for this weekend, I will be the spectator, thanking the high heavens that's not me out there skating around the arena on my beloved.

Kiss It

My nose. Kiss it.

Obligatory

Obligatory Jade post.

Carry on.

The Many Faces of Jade: Post 1

It's true. I have a problem.

Jade Becoming A Barrel Horse Part 1

So, I have taken it very slow on the barrels with my sweet girl. When I bought her, I didn't think she knew enough of the basics of just being a broke horse, so I decided to take some time off away from the barrels. We focused on lateral and vertical flexion, collection, and asking her to use all of her different body parts.

In the past month or two, I have decided she is right where she needs to be to start hauling to neighborhood jackpots to get used to the sights and sounds. Maybe even run some barrels.

Last night was her second outing this year. I wanted to get her really comfortable in the arena, but they had a lot of girls wanting to do the same thing, so we all got put in a bit of a time crunch. I dealt with what I had been given, and Jade definitely surprised me with her easy going personality. She wasn't quite so sure of the shadows on the ground right before the timing light, but besides that, she had a pretty first two barrels. The third barrel was rider error - I had moved her too far over to create a "pocket", and misjudged how far over we went. Jade humored me though and started turning when I asked her, and we both kind of worked it out around the last one. 

I'm looking forward to next week when she's more comfortable in the arena. Hopefully, I will have more time to work her in the arena. At the end of the day, I will love my girl. She tries her best to please me, and that's all I can ask for. :)

A Morning Moving Cows

Sometime last week I took these pictures on my phone.

Texas and I did some cattle roundups. 

Moved lots of girlies and some boys around. Actually, Texas and Romeo had a square off with one of the fellas. I think it was more play than fight, but still interesting to watch my two boys tango with someone twice their size.

Minus all the "bull", it was a lovely morning. Working with my boys and my love.