Our First Texas Race

Today was the first race Amy and i have gone to since we got here. we woke up at 4:30 and got to the ranch around 5:30. we loaded up five horses. we took Captain, Frosty, Mario, Cutter, and another colt named Popa Top. he was a 3 year old bay quarter horse gelding. we loaded up everyone and helped Martha load up her horse. i road with her Martha in her RV, that she hooked her trailer to. it is quite a site to see little Martha driving a HUGE RV plus a trailer at the end of it. we call it her castle because it really is nice and very big. we pulled into the site and unloaded everyone. we wanted to be there an hour or two earlier so we could use their arena and let some of the younger horses warm up in it and get used to it. the exhibitions started at 9:00. An exhibition is a race that doesn't count for points. its like a wamr up. you pay an amount of money and you can make as many runs as you want or need to. Terrie ran each of the horses three times threw and Martha ran hers as well. at 1:30 the counted races began. Martha ran her horse(i finally found out his name) Cash second. he ran a 15.776 that put her in first for the 1D(the divisions are determined but the time you run. 1D is the fastest then 2D,3D,and 4D) she kept the lead until another rider tied with her time exactly. this is a very very rare occasion. since they tied they split the prize money. Martha also raced Frosty. she did well for her first race, she also raced Mario. she just trotted him though. Amy and i would tack up the horses, warm up the horses, walk the horses out, hold the horses, and un-tack the horses. we probably walked back and forth to and from that trailer so many times it would be un-countable. the open race finally ended and youth began. we waited to retrieve our prize. the races all wet fairly smooth. the only thing that was a down fall was the down pour. it started at a sprinkle, then stopped, then lightly showered, then stopped, then down poured and stopped. the sun finally started to try to come out. when ever it would start to rain people would scatter from the arena and dash to their trailers to put covers over their saddles, tie up their horse to where it was covered, or put them in the trailer. but other than that the day went by easily, it was simply very long and tiring. we finally loaded up and got home at about 6:00pm. we put everyone back in their stalls and put back all the tack. it felt good to finally get home. watching all the runs and paying attention to the riders and their styles helps you learn from taking the good with the bad. after watching Martha race i am reminded of why i idolize. she had been racing almost all of her life and she still has a deep admiration for the sport. it was never just a hobby...it was simply her life.

A Trip To City Arena-1/21

A Trip To City Arena
Today Terrie and Martha wanted to take a couple of younger horses over to the Marshall City Arena. Just so they could see other places and get used to settling in new places. We headed out in the morning and helped Shay (the property maintenance manager) feed the horses. Once everyone had eaten we took them out and groomed them before loading them. We brushed everyone down and loaded the trailer with saddles, pads, bridles, and sport boots( bell and splint boots, they are used to protect the horses lower legs and hoof). Then we loaded all the horses onto the trailer. The City Arena was only five minutes down the road. We pulled in and off loaded all the horses. We brought five horses. Captain, 1 16 year old black quart horse, Tie, an 8 year old chestnut quarter horse, Frosty, a 5 year old quarter horse chestnut mare, Cutter, a 4 year old bay quarter horse gelding (he was Martha’s back up barrel horse, he is my favorite so far.), and Mario. I tacked up Mario and Tie, soon after Martha pulled in with her 8 year old barrel horse (no one knows his name…I guess no one thought to ask…haha) her horse was a little spooky with new situations. I road Mario around for a little bit and then my sister got on. Martha helped us both around the barrels. If you weren’t riding you were holding Cutter. He became our best friend. We put Mario away and tacked up Captain, Frosty, and Cutter for Terrie. Martha left earlier (she had a hair and nail appointment) and left just Terrie, my sister and I. once Terrie finished with his last horse we packed everyone up and headed home. Once we got home we put everyone back in their stalls, hosed off the sport boots, and the trailer. The rest of the day was pretty easy. We rode our colts and then called it a day. Its always good to get horses out of their ordinary surroundings. Let them get out and see new things a little bit. It is all part of the training process. Especially younger horses should get used to new places. We don’t need a racer getting cabin fever now do we?

My First Day-1/20

My First Day
This morning was my first official day on the ranch. Martha wanted my sister and I to start off riding horses for now. She said we would be learning a large variety of other things as well later on down the road. The main guy they has been training their horses is named Terrie. He’s been on horses since he was 7 years old and is turning 60 this year. He had us get on a sorrel gelding named Mario. Sorrel is a coat color, it is a kind of mix between a chestnut (tan) and a bay (brown) almost a little redish colored. He was 8 years old and was used as a cutting horse. Cutting is when horses go into the arena with one calf. They are assigned a pattern to work the calf in. meaning they need to make the calf do curtain turns, run up walls, make circles, and it is all judged on how the horse works the calf, the smoothness of the pattern, they completed the pattern, and of any flaws. Cutting horses are generally pretty bomb proof, meaning you could fire bomb next to them and they wont even flinch. They are also usually pretty slow, but comfy and even. One of the mechanics Mario had to work on was moving forward, going fast. So what you would do with a horse who is pretty slow like that is you want them to like going fast. Doing roll backs is a good way to get them to speed up. A roll back is when a horse does an 80 degree turn by only pivoting one hind foot. It is a good exercise because the horses are taught to really book it when they come around the turn. One other thing Mario had a hard time with was on the backside of the barrel (right before you complete the turn) he would drop his should and cut in too close to the barrel, and so knocking it down. One thing you always want to teach your horse is how to move away from the barrel. The farther you are from the barrel the better. The faster your horse goes the shorter he will get, so the tighter the turn you will have. You also want them to know how to move away from it so that if you get in a situation where you are too close to the barrel you can try to save yourself a little bit. Mario was a very cute and mannered boy. He would be a nice horse for a little kid who is just starting out. Next Terrie had Amy (my sister) and I flip for between two colts. A colt is a horse under the age of 3. Neither one of them had a whole lot of training in them. They were broke, meaning they knew they could trust you on top of them and could walk, trot, and canter, but just needed some fine tuning. It was between a chestnut gelding and a bay mare. The chestnut was named Fred and the bay was named Ruffian. I won the flip so I got to choose first. I chose Fred. We had to pick them while they were on a walker. A walker is a machine that you can use to get a little spunk out of some horses. You put them in a pen. The pen is divided from the middle with gates that move around in a circle. So forth moving the horse. It keeps going around at different speeds until you are satisfied. I picked Fred because he looked very smooth, had a gentle eye, and knew a little bit more than the mare. Ruffian was behind three weeks in her training because she was sick and than hurt herself. She wasn’t as eager to go as Fred and didn’t have as much of a steering wheel. When we first started out Fred and I were doing real good. I was able to walk, trot, and canter him without any issues. I started doing some bending and moving away like I was talking about earlier. You move in a circle and use your inside rain to tilt their nose to the inside. You twist it and move it up a little with pressure from your inside leg to push them out. So they are bent to the inside but moving out. This is some what difficult because they think they are being told to move in, but once you can get them to move out in a perfect circle both direction you can try it at a trot and canter. As I asked for Fred’s canter something must have spooked him. Since he was just a colt it didn’t surprise me, but he reared up so high I thought we were both going to flip over. I tried to turn him because horses cant turn and rear at the same time. But he didn’t know what that meant so he just kept rearing higher and higher. Finally I tried to hop off as he landed. But one of my feet were caught in the stirrup. Now the horse was spinning and moving around while I’m trying to keep up with him on one foot and release my other one in the mean time. Fred spun around once more so fast that it released my foot and threw me back and a I fell. I landed right in front of him so when he landed he came right down and took off, but when he took off he stepped on the left side of my head. I stood right back up and started to check myself to make sure I was alright. I checked my breathing, my vision, if I was dizzy or light headed, and to really calm my adrenalin. One thing someone should always know while riding young horses is never ride alone. You should always have someone there to help in case something like this happens. There were plenty of people in the arena today so we were able to catch my horse and have someone check me over to make sure I was alright, I felt fine but everyone else was worried had a concussion. I took a few deep breaths and hopped right back on Ol’Fred. Some people looked at me like I was crazy but I never fall off and don’t get back on. You have to really. Or else you will grow a fear and you wont ever be able to get your head around anything else. If you can at least get on and be able to walk around happily that is great. Which is what I did. After we unsaddled the two colts we had to groom up all the sale horses. They needed to get their pictures taken to put on the website and try to advertise more. After they were all groomed we took them out and tried to make them stand nicely and put his ears forward. As usual the hardest job is getting a horse to put his ears forward. You get people waving around, whistling, making funny noises, moving something around, all just to make him look. He rest of the day was just slowly closing the place up. Making sure all the stalls had sawdust and water, blanketing horses who were going to be shown to potential buyers the next day, sweeping out the tack room and office, and organizing the bridle and halter rack. The best lesson I learned today was t always be thinking when your on a colt, and know what he does and doesn’t know. Miss-communication is the number one cause of a horse acting up. You can never tell what they will or wont do. Always be on your toes…and not on your back.

My Count Down

My Great Count Down-1/17-18
Our trip started on January 17th at 3:30am. We had all spent the week before packing our lives. I was able to fit 14 years into one duffel bag. We only brought the necessities to get us started. But knowing that what I was taking was my basic life, and it was all going down to a foreign place to me. Somewhere I have never been. To start a new, a new routine, a new way, and life. We left Vermont in the dark at 18 degrees. I gazed out the window and looked at my last green mountain view. Night slowly started to turn into day as we went on. By the time we hit New York it was day, although it was overcast so it was pretty foggy and we couldn’t get much of a view. But as we went through Virginia I started to count down the mile markers and the exits, which was probably the worst thing I could have done. I was the navigator of the trip so I knew where all the major towns were. But while I was counting down the markers I started thinking. I wasn’t counting how far I’ve gone or how far I had to go. I was counting every step closer I got to a knew beginning. And so my count down began. I was practically dead on the ride until we stopped for some breakfast. After that I started to look out the windows more and tried to get a good view. New York and Pennsylvania went by pretty smoothly. While we were in Pennsylvania there was absolutely no one else on the highway. Just my father and I in one car and my sister and her boyfriend in the other car. So we tuned to the same radio stations and were goofing around a little but side by side. We would pretend to be rowing, running, swimming, or flying. Doing stupid disco moves to the music. We “ boogied” out of Pennsylvania and went into Maryland, only for about 20 miles or so though. Then it was west Virginia for again only a couple of miles. But then came… Virginia. That was the longest state for me. I felt like it was never going to end. We entered it in the afternoon and half way through the fog was so thick we couldn’t see in front of us. We eventually escaped the clutches of Virginia and headed full speed for north Carolina. We stopped at about ¾ of the way into north Carolina and called it a night. The next morning we blasted through North and South Carolina. Then was Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. I fell completely in love with Mississippi. I don’t know why I was just fascinated with it. It was so beautiful. The sky looked so big and the land was so majestic. But as we pulled out of a gas station and onto the highway we didn’t see the TWO tractor trailer trucks behind us. By the time we looked behind us there were coming in hot. Then in front of us was another one in the break down lane. We were trapped. We were in a 2000 Subaru against a 400 horse power Peterbilt tractor trailer truck. You tell me who’s going to win here! Somehow we made it out alive. Alabama was like racing heaven. We passed the Talladega tracks. They were A LOT bigger than we thought it would be. You think it was a huge fair ground. Louisiana was pretty boring. a lot of swamp, really open, and a lot of casino’s. I started to loose my cookies a little bit towards the end of Louisiana. I was playing drums with empty water bottles, making up songs about the most random things in the world, slurring my words, saying things that made no sense, laughing at nothing, and really just being wicked bored. Driving for about 30 hours does some serious things to your head. But we finally arrived in the great openness of Texas. The sky was bigger than I’ve ever seen it, the red clay on the ground to me popped out the most, gave everything that southern character, and the people all just seem nicer in general. Compared to in New England, all just happy. But the accents are my favorite. Its funny ho to them the way they do things is normal, as to us it is so much different. But that is one of the great things you learn and see when you are traveling so far away from home and learning to live in a whole new way. The 10 hour trip was 100% worth…but I also think taking a plane would be pretty reasonable as well.