A Long Over-due Update

Wow, it's been a while. Three months, to be exact. The Christmas decorations are still up (does that make me a redneck?). I guess that means it's time for an update. Where to begin?

These past few months have been crazy. So busy! Classes started in January and this semester may be my busiest to date. I am taking two equine classes; that sounds fabulous, but they are so much work. Not only am I on campus all day, I have so much work to do out of class. On top of that, work is as busy as ever. So I have been getting plenty of horse time, but zero of it has been with Sonny.

Since I haven't done anything with Sonny until recently (and I will save that for another post), here is the last three months of my life in photos.

January snow. 

Sheldon and me in January. 

My sister got married in February! Snowshoe, WV.

My pretty roses for Valentines :). 

Sonny love! 

London and me at the beginning of March. 

Our first trail ride of the year. 

Tilly, a filly I work with at school.

Spring break with my boyfriend! 

New York City! 

NYC :) 

Good News, Bad News

Bad news first: school started today.

I am not thrilled about it. Especially when I was lucky enough to spend my entire summer hanging out with my Sonshine. Ugh, getting up for class, even though it was 2 hours later than normal, sucked way worse than getting up to go see Sonny. But I have to get it done. Have to. Not an option (at least I try to convince myself that is the truth).

I don't have class on Thursday, and only 1 hour of class on Tuesday and Friday. Monday and Wednesday I have to be on campus from like 10-4, but that is totally survivable, right? Please tell me it is.

When I got out of class I went straight to the barn and got to ride with three of my boarders: Eliza, Katie and Rachel. We started out in the arena and went on a really great trail ride. So happy to have them around to ride with! Sonny did fabulous, of course. He trotted AND cantered on a loose rein out on the trail without going full speed ahead. Yay :). We also played with contact at the canter today. It was BEAUTIFUL and felt so wonderful. I need to get pictures or videos. Today I did notice that when I played with contact at the trot he lost his impulsion. Definitely something to work on. In general I think I have been lagging in having him be responsive lately. I need Juli to get back from Colorado and give us some motivation!

Good news: well, the best kind of prize is a sur-prize, so I think I will wait ;). Stay tuned!

Sonny and his best bud, D'Art. They adore each other
so much, it could give you a cavity. 

The New, the Fun, and the Exciting

The new:

We have boarders! Yahoo! Our first boarder is the fabulous Eliza Farrell. Eliza is a fun, talented young lady that has so much going for her. Maybe that is part of the reason she is surrounded by so many handsome men?

Photo by The Perfect Pear Photography

Meet Ardie, Peter, and Trace. They are all thoroughbreds and are all so well behaved! Absolute gentlemen! Eliza does eventing and works with a Thoroughbred adoption program, New Vocations. She will be bringing three more horses in September, all of which I can’t wait to meet!

Our second boarder came yesterday with her impressive gelding, D’Artarian. Although I just met his owner, Katie, for the first time yesterday, she is a very sweet, hard working girl who was a joy to be around. Sonny thought the same thing of D'Art, who he absolutely adored and is thrilled to have as a pasture mate!

It was love at first sight!

The fun:

Things have been awesome at the farm! Sonny LOVES his little slice of heaven! It's so great to pull up every morning and see him already outside :). What makes it even better: he hasn't been going to the bathroom inside! I taught him to pee in the pea gravel and he poos outside. So I rarely have to clean his stall now. Major win!

Eliza, Katie and I went on a trail ride yesterday and had an absolute blast! We rode down to the paylake, over around a horse farm, and through a path into a corn field where we found a cool, old barn. Definitely pony pal status ;). We had a really great time and Sonny even enjoyed a good gallop on the way home! So much fun!

Katie, Eliza, and me!

The exciting: 
Things are really starting to fall into place at Shady Acres Farm! Out fencing is done, our hoop bar is up, major work is being done on the bathroom, lounge, etc. and the stalls are looking great! We currently have the four boarded horses (Adie, Peter, Trace, and D'Art), Sonny, and a little mare named Ginger (more about her soon). Tomorrow we have an older guy coming who belongs to an absolutely wonderful couple that just got into horses. Then in September, Eliza is brining three more horses and we have a half-arab coming.
I also feel like I am confident enough to do my level 3 online and freestyle DVDs. I will probably be uploading those soon, so stay tuned! 

Updates

Lots of time spent with Sonny lately. Great progress with the bit; he is much more willing to take the bit and is much more quiet with it in. I have noticed that the past few days he hasn't given me very many happy faces. Nothing worse than normal, but there for a minute I was totally blown away by them and now they are gone. Hmmm, I am going to have to look into that.

Yay, yawning.

Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (Liberty, 15 mins) can you say short, sweet, and successful? had to take grain down to Sonny tonight and just played around for a second. I put his bridle on and he took with bit all the way into his mouth without a treat for the first time ever! not only that, he didn't chomp! success! took the bridle off after a minute or two. plays for a second ay liberty. tested to see if he still recognizes lifting the same leg as me. he definitely did :). will have to expand on that...

Mon 18 Jun 2012 at 12:00AM

Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (Freestyle, 60 mins) Another great time with Sonny, today! Playing online a bit in the indoor. It was hot and buggy so I kept it short and sweet with lots of sideways and some really great backing (the better your horse goes sideways and backwards the better he does everything else!). Put on my bareback pad and rode outside since the wind was blowing and it was actually nicer than inside. Sonny followed the rail like a superstar today. Had some really great trot AND canter without blasting around the arena. Our downward transitions are definitely improving but still need a lot of work. Today, for the first time ever, we did canter-back up-canter transitions with arms crossed. Woo hoo! Fast track here we come!!

Mon 18 Jun 2012 at 06:35PM

I have about 2 billion projects going on right now, which is leaving me pretty scattered. For one, I am getting really serious about studying/preparing for the fast track, but more on that later. Not only have I been doing physical labor on the farm, I am also responsible for social media, including designing the website. That has been my latest endeavor, keeping me pretty busy.

Sonny's 'poor me' face :(.

I guess my point is, if you see a lot of random posts in the next few weeks, you'll know that it's just what my brain happens to be set on at the time. Now, back to Head First HTML...

My little girl laying by me while I sort through this
huge book! The perfect company. 

Updates

I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to do a whole lot of anything, just a little of everything. I haven't been able to spend any time at all with Sonny, which is dreadful, but the time will come.

First and foremost:
I see the light at the end of the tunnel! I have finished 2 of my 3 classes for this quarter. I have been so lucky to have two classes that have optional finals, which meant with one class I didn't have to go the last two weeks and the other class I finished today. That means I only have to take one final, on Wednesday, and I will be done for the summer! I am beyond excited!

Things with the horse farm are really coming along. I am absolutely thrilled about it. Our accomplishments so far include:

• Cleaning out the stalls (Not just pitchfork style, literally digging them out)
• Power-washing the whole barn (who would have guessed that under all those cobwebs and dust there would be good-looking stalls and even windows?) 
• Tearing out all the fence (and I mean every last piece)
• Filling the fence post holes (what a joyful job that was...)
• Mowing (it actually looks like a farm now, rather than a jungle) 
• Tearing out bushes, laying plastic, and mulching (getting fancy now, eh?)
• Removing the giant pile of concrete that came from Sonny's stall (thankfully, that wasn't my job) 

When I first took on the job, I was a little nervous. The barn was so rough and out of shape I worried that it would be mission impossible. After seeing everything today, I am thinking that the future looks very bright :). 

A bright, bright, sunshiny day at Jesse Peters in 2011.

In the Direction of Dreams

I hate to admit it, for fear of jinxing myself, but lately things have really started to fall into place.

It started with me being chosen as an ambassador for the Parelli Horse and Soul Tour. It was a heck of a lot of work, but I sure did enjoy it! It was such a great opportunity for me to meet Parelli people in the area, but more important introduce Parelli to more people. It still shocks me how many people haven't even heard of it, and I am thrilled to be a part of helping spread the word. Anything to make the world a better place for horses and humans!

Along with that, I got chosen to volunteer at the tour. Even though I have met so many wonderful people as an ambassador, I hope being a volunteer only adds to my list. After all, the seventh key to success is support, and I think that will really come in handy on my journey to becoming a Parelli Professional.

School also seems to be falling into place. I just found out that I only have 3 semesters left. Still seems like a long time, but thats actually half of a year sooner than I should graduate. I was thrilled to find that out considering I switched my major not too long ago. So happy that all that worked out!

Last but not least, I have been offered an amazing opportunity to run a boarding facility! This is why I haven't posted much lately: I have been working hard to get everything sorted out. The facility isn't that old (about 15 years), but it hasn't been taken care of for at least the last 7 of those. It needs a lot of work, but we are making progress!

The best part: Sonny's soon-to-be new home! There are two main barns that run perpendicular to the huge indoor; about 20 some stalls in each. But, there is a really, really old barn closer to the house. I mean it is old; it used to be a milking parlor! But, There are huge doors that open out to the outside, and once they get all the new fence installed it will be connected to a little paddock. So Sonny will be able to come and go as he pleases! It has been my dream for so long to have a place where he has the option of being in or out, and it is finally happening! I can't believe it!

I still have two more weeks of classes left and a lot of work to do, so my posts may be more irregular than normal. I have a lot of work to do this summer and am going to be very busy, but I may just be on my way to living the dream :).

Beyond Busy

I have been so busy that I am not going to be able to go play with Sonny today. Tomorrow doesn't look so good either. Or the next day. Or the next.

For school tomorrow I have an exam, two quizzes discussion posts due. Then I have to work. Thursday and Friday I will be at Equine Affaire all day long. Saturday and Sunday look a little more promising, but I work both days. It's days like this that make me wish I was back on the cruise ship!

So, if you don't hear from me in a few days, you know what I'll be doing. Hopefully over the weekend I will be able to post about all the great things at Equine Affaire! If you aren't aware, Linda will be giving demos on horsenality and GOC! I couldn't be more excited :).

Have a great week, everyone!

Crusin'

Carnival Freedom

I am not sure if I mentioned it or not, but for the last week I have been on a cruise!! I went with my boyfriend, Stephen, his whole family, and my best friends, Melissa and Evan!

It was such a great time. We left out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and went to Key West, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica!! I will probably post more about it later, but this is my horsie blog so I don't want to go too off topic.

I went and saw Sonny on my way home last night. Thankfully, he is still in one piece! He looked much bigger last night that I remember (he probably said the same about me after all the cruise food I ate!).

For now I am trying to catch up. Classes start tomorrow, I have to go back to work tomorrow, and Melissa and I have a lot of parelli things to do this week! Guess vacation is over....

Stephen, Me, Evan, and Melissa in Key West, FL.

Updates

Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (Freestyle, 60 mins) Last night I re-watched some of the level 2 freestyle DVD. This really refreshed some things in my mind...like playing with indirect to direct rein turns. So Sonny and I played with some foundation things and it went so well! We had wonderful transitions today, including walk to trot and trot to walk transitions from phase 1! Then we worked on indirect to direct rein turns. He is great at indirect, but tends to just round his whole body and walk in a circle rather than do a direct rein turn after an indirect. I made a few mental notes about Pat's turns: really watch where your weight is bend your elbow for the indirect then straighten it for direct. I played with that then really broke down the turns. I went slow and paused after the indirect, straightened him out, then asked for direct. WOW what a difference! They might not be as fast and spiffy as Pat and Vision's, but they were a million times better today! Going back to the foundations for a refresher always helps us get our good better and our better best!


Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (On Line, 30 mins) Didn't do a whole lot with Son today since we have been doing so much riding lately...wanted to make sure he had a chance to breathe! We played with the spanish walk for a while. He knows my command to bring his leg up, now I am focusing on the walking part. It is a slow process for both of just who are just learning!


Well the wedding is over, so one less thing to worry about! Our riding has been going MUCH, much better! But, I don't want to push it. I would love to play with carrot stick riding everyday, but right now I don't think we know enough to play with it everyday and him not get bored. So, yesterday we mixed it up with some spanish walk! Considering tricks are one of Sonny's favorite things, I am hoping to teach him lots of fun stuff in the future!  

He looks so dashing in our Parelli saddle.