Hey there.
The name is Reba, and I started this blog to make note of my and my mare. A little bit about me I suppose is that I have been riding horses for almost 9 years now. I started 3 months before my 11th birthday, and I will be turning 20 in Novemeber. In those nine years(It does NOT feel that long ago!) I have ridden quite a few different horses and breeds of horses, including but not limited to, Saddlebreds, Quarter Horses, Paints, Paso Finos, Appaloosas, and Morgans. The number of each breed that I have ridden is uncountable with how long it has been.
When I started, I started at Lakona Stables, Owned by Lori Glickman. She was great up until we found out a few little problems. I learned quite a bit though, that is for sure. She made sure to teach her students to groom their horse, tack up, and ride out. The few years that I was with her, I rode American Saddlebreds. On my 11th birthday (3 months after starting out) My parents (both lovingly, yet slightly unthought out gift) bought me my first horse. An American Saddlebred named Lost Kingdom, aka "King" I owned him for 5 years. At about year 3, we noticed that he was getting a bit off, and found out that he was foundering (A foot complication where a bone will pop through the bottom of the hoof) Thankfully we found out pretty quickly and were able to help it. Year 4 he was on recovery, and when the vet gave us the okay (around the middle of the year) my trainer(No longer Lori due to issues, We were at Stone Creek Stables, Owned by Dennis V) Said that instead of riding, we were going to teach me (Since King knew how) to Drive. Well let me tell you, That was quite the adventure for both me and King. About 4 months later, me and a girl at the barn got in a fight because I was shareboarding a horse, and she was going to show the horse. I had no say which I was mad about (Stupid young teen rage) Well, long story short, my trainer said that I had to leave the barn. King did good at his new barn, he was happy to just be bareback ridden every now and again with LOTS of grooming time. At the end of that 5th year, we saddly found out that he had Laminitis (a side effect of horses over using three of their hooves to keep pressure off of one) and we had to put him down.
For the next six months, I refused to even think of buying another horse, and had almost given up completely on horses. I loved to look at them, I just hated the pain it brought me to think of "Replacing" King. Now I know I can never replace him. Back then I wasn't for it. So Finally on that sixth month, my parents took me to go see a Quarter horse Gelding by the name of Colten. By this time, I had done some research and found that I really wanted to do Barrel racing and this gelding looked like what I wanted. He truly was my dream horse in looks. Smokey black with a WIDE blaze that extended over one eye, giving him a half blue eye, and he had a brand on his hip. Sadly, he was not what we were looking for under saddle and we then traded him for my real second horse Clays Taris N Jose or AKA "Aero" I basically trained this gelding. He was VERY Green broke when I got him. He knew how to walk and trot... he knew WHAT the canter was, but just didn't like to do it, so he didn't. He would just trot faster. I took a few months to myself (With out a trainer) To just get to know Aero and to get him to where I wanted him to be before I took him over to who is NOW my trainer, Colleen Berry, At Winner Sircle Stables (No I did not spell "Circle" Wrong.) Aero was great for two years, but sadly ended up having Arthritis in his right hock, which may have been the cause of him not wanting to go as fast as I needed.
After Donating Aero to a Theripudic riding center, about a month later, my trainer said "I have this mare up north that my trainer is selling, shes young, shes trained, and I am going up there this weekend with an empty spot coming home, do you want me to bring her down?" and so I said sure. At first I wasn't sure I wanted her, but when I saw her and test rode her (About 6 times) I fell in love with this dainty 4 year old 15.2 hand mare with so much energy she didn't know what to do with herself. I bought her 4 days after her 5th birthday and have owned her ever since. This little mare is PC Peppi 1126. (Yes, 1126 IS part of her name) I had to do a little bit of retraining myself with her because she was just crazy. She had NO concept of "Stand" so we spent an entire week on just standing in the middle of the ring, on the rail, in the corner, and of course while we were getting on and off. She just did not know what to do with herself. She still has her boughts of not wanting to stand because shes excited but we have improved dramatically. She has boosted my ego quite a bit and I am more then happy with her.
I now work with her, as well as a few other horses here and there. While at Colleens I helped her many times with her training horses, be it riding them for her, or helping calm a young one down by just walking my mare next to them while she was riding. Soon I will be moving her to a new barn where I will see her a little bit more, and be able to work a bit more with a few issues we are having. I will also be able to start my joint training with "Livin In Fast Forward"'s Owner Kathryn. We will be training horses, both young and old to behave nicely, and also we will be giving lessons to both young childern and adults.
Any questions, feel free to ask!
