More Appy pics

She's starting to get kind of shiny and the black spots are now more extensive... as much as a pain as it is I kind of appreciate this winter shedding business, it's like getting a big present wrapped in ugly shaggy fur instead of wrapping paper and bit by bit, week after week uncovering a layer of fuzz until you finally get to the beautiful gleaming summer horse underneath.

It's motivated me to groom her every day, even if I don't take her out of her paddock and I only have an hour to spend I at least give her a good brushing and pick out her hooves.  Good habits...

Appaloosa

When I was a kid I always wanted an Appaloosa.  Now I can't for the life of me fathom why.  I know that I had read as a child that they were difficult to handle and were prone to having scrawny manes and tails, but I still wanted one more than any other type of horse.  Either an Appaloosa or a bay Arabian.  Goes to show how much things change - these days I can't imagine a horse I would want LESS than an Appaloosa or a bay anything, much less a crazy Arabian.  I think as a youngster the idea of conquering a horse noone else could handle was irresistable to me.

Anyhow last week after brushing Starbuck out really well and seeing her in full sun, I noticed that her winter fur and her summer fur are two completely different colours, giving her a kind of mottled look, not unlike a very strange, black Appaloosa.  So here are the photos of my Appaloosa - Thoroughbred - Zweibrucken filly!
Last week:

This week:

Horseback Riding Lessons

Even though it's been a whole week I want to write about Starbuck and my first real riding lesson together (last Thursday).  I was a little uneasy about mixing her up with other horses and their riders but when Marina, the barn owner and main instructor, said she was ready I figured that she knows way better than I do.  So I got to the barn a little late especially since I wanted to longe Starbuck before the lesson and had to run and get her and then tack her up in a hurry.  I tried not to rush but it was difficult especially since with all the winter fur she's losing it takes superlong to brush her.  Luckily the other students arrived even later than I did so I was able to get a head start.

When she was all tacked up I took her out to the big arena where the class would be and longed her for a while.  It was pretty warm and at first she was real lazy, but then I took her over to the scary side and she woke right up.  After a few light rebellious bucks which I countered with lots of changes of direction and hindquarter yields and then a few good laps at the trot and the counter, I felt like we were ready to go.  So I hopped on up (I can mount Starbuck from both sides and from the ground, thank you very much, but I try to use a mounting block to ward off backaches and saddle deformation) and joined the rest of the class.

Marina wisely put us behind Rodrigo, one of the old lesson geldings, and we started to make some 20 meter circles around her at a walk.  At first Starbuck thought that this was an invitation to bite him on the butt and tried to follow him too closely, however after a while I was able to keep a safe distance.  When we went into trot, though, it was another story - she got pretty riled and it got harder and harder for me to keep her on a circle and away from Rodrigo.  "Don't focus on her, focus on Rodrigo!" Marina shouted at me and I looked at her like she was crazy.  Surely that would give Starbuck even more naughty ideas about biting his tail, right?  So she elucidated me, "Pick a spot on Rodrigo's rider's back and focus on just following that spot, and let your body do the rest.  If you're not focussed, she can't focus!".

Hmmm.... Sound familiar?  ADD rider leads to ADD horse!

And she was 100% right.  As soon as I started focussing on where I wanted to go (the logo on Rodrigo's rider's t-shirt to be more exact) she settled down, found a good steady rhythm and stopped trying to misbehave.  So much so that Jose Luis, the teenage boy who works here as a stablehand, even said that she looked like she'd been a lesson horse all her life.  Marina laughed and told him it was kind of a backhanded compliment, but my main goal for Starbuck is that she be absolutely comfortable doing everything we do, so in the end it's not so backhanded after all.  In the end we trotted so much that even MY muscles were sore and I was worried about Starbuck, but Marina told me that she's ready to start doing shorter groundwork sessions and longer riding sessions.  She certainly did work extremely well, have some nice foam around the bit and wasn't too sweaty when we finished, and she didn't seem to have a lot of muscle pain the next day.

Such a good girl!