Smokey is MINE!

I signed the paperwork, and Smokey (aka My Full Metal Jacket) is now mine! :)

Trail Ride

Yesterday, I took Smokey out on a trail ride with a couple others and it didn't go so well.  I was having reservations about him last night, until I realized that trail riding isn't really what I want to do.  I want to do reining, try showing, and learn on a horse who knows all the maneuvers.  That's what Smokey is.  If I want him to get better with trail riding, I can have the trainers take him out and get him adjusted to life outside the arena.  For now though, I think he's perfect.  I rode today in the arena and I remembered why I want him.  He's the most fun horse I've ever ridden.

I told my trainer that I want him, and made an offer.  Hopefully we'll be signing paperwork tomorrow and I'll be able to call him mine. :)

In other news, my mare still hasn't sold.  She's a real sweet girl, so I'm hoping she finds a good home soon.  Someone is coming to look at her on Saturday, so if all goes well she might be sold this weekend.  We shall see!

I am back!

I haven't been doing so well at keeping up with this blog. I need to do better at that!  I've been back down in San Diego, and this last week I rode a LOT.  I actually have great news to report - I am getting a new horse.  If everything works out financially, he should be mine soon. :)  Here he is:

His name is Smokey, and he is a 10 year old fully reining trained horse.  He's ready to show next season, which is awesome.  He's about 15.1 or 15.2, and the most beautiful color of minimal overo that I have ever seen.  He was born, trained, raised at the ranch that I'm at, so everyone knows him very well.  My trainer thinks he'll be a great match for the way I ride.  Riding him is like a dream.   He's so sensitive and he responds to my every move.  We had some great lead changes yesterday that were so fun.

My mare still hasn't sold, despite dropping her price a bit and putting up ads all over the tack stores in San Diego.  I'm really hoping she sells soon, because that would make this purchase far easier on the wallet.

I will keep you all up to date on Smokey.  I'm going out to ride him today and I can't wait! :)

A busy week of riding!

This week I spent a lot of time riding, and my muscles certainly are feeling it today!  On Tuesday and Thursday I had lessons, and Jaina had a rough week.  She was ridden by her trainer on Monday and was a bit naughty, so he had to really get after her.  Her mouth was a bit sore on Tuesday, so when I rode her she was tossing her head quite a bit.  I probably should have used a less harsh bit, but I definitely took it easy.  Yesterday we worked on a lot of softening, bending, and circling.

I can ride Jaina now almost entirely one handed, which is great.  I've never owned a horse that can neck rein before, so this is all new and fun to me.

I've dropped her price down to $3,000 (from $3,500) and I'm really hoping that someone buys her soon.  It  would be awesome to have a couple months break from paying board and training around the holiday and get back into it next year with a brand new finished horse.  Jaina and I were supposed to be going to a Cowboy Challenge event tomorrow, but San Diego decided to rain for the first time in months.  Oh well, I probably wasn't prepared for it anyway as I haven't practiced on the obstacles in awhile.

I'm about to head out for two weeks of travel, first to North Carolina and then to San Francisco - so I probably won't be posting here for awhile.  :)

Two new Gunner yearlings!

This weekend my ranch had two new Gunner yearlings delivered from Texas.  Colonels Smoking Gun is one of the leading reining stallions, and he's deaf.  The two babies we had delivered are not deaf, and they're adorable.  The filly is smaller and looks more like a Gunner, she has the big white face and blue eyes.  The colt has better conformation, is bigger, but is less flashy.

I can't wait to see how they grow and mature.  They're some of the nicer horses we have at our ranch, and their new owner is such a lucky woman!  Here are some pics of the babies. :)

The filly

The colt

My first post here!

I started this blog because I realized that there are literally no blogs out there about the equestrian sport of reining.  It's not like it's obscure or anything, I mean, it's in the World Equestrian Games and it's actually quite massive in scale in the United States.  Either way, I'm still new to it and thought I'd share some of my experiences with the world in the form of a new blog.

Right now, I'm in a weird transition point because I'm selling my mare to move up to a more finished reiner that I can learn on and hopefully show next season.  My current mare is a 6 year old grade QH that I bought to be a trail horse, but then moved her to a reining barn for some basic training and got hooked on the sport of reining.  It's everything I've ever wanted in a horse discipline, and I am obsessed.

Right now, I ride about 3-4 times a week when I'm in town (I work up in San Francisco for one week out of every month) and my horse is in full training.  I take lessons with my trainer at the fantastic ranch Rancho Los Amigos in San Diego, which is close enough to the Pacific Ocean that I can ride to the beach, and close enough to Mexico that I can see the dividing wall.

Welcome to my blog, and I can't wait to write more!

Me doing a mini-sliding stop on Jaina