Amigo is staying !

I found out FANTASTIC NEWS !!
Amigo is staying for another four months I am so happy we have a better chance of purchasing him in December then we do now. . !!
I am so excited I love him !

A picture of Amigo's new royal blue haulter.

This is Amigo's beautiful new royal blue haulter. He doesn't look impressed in this picture but I think he likes it as he looks very handsome in his pasture.

Amigo going over a crossrail and a vertical

While I'm at it I miswell add some more video's of Amigo's journey to the horse he is today. I have to admit right now before I get advice, that the vertical was a very horrible jump. I didn't know if he would go over it so all I was conentrating on was to look up. The landing was bad as I realesed way to early but at least the reins were still long.

A video that won't be staying on for too long.

This has nothing to do with Amigo but we were supposed to ride him on a sunday and this is a sunday so I guess it means something. I will be taking it off later it is just there for somebody to view. Enjoy it is two humpack whales that were VERY close to the boat. They are an amazing animal !

Sharp looking Amigo

There is Amigo all braided and very sharp and handsome. This was just after I got my placing's as I can see the jumps as crossrails and the were highered alot more for the more advacned people at the time.

Amigo going over the blue crossrail.

Some pictures of the show

I can't remember if that was us doing the first or second course.

Showing with Docsal Amigo.

Amigo's steering has gotten spactacular. Right now you could rank him as a completely fixed horse if you saw him from the very beginning. He jumps well and has a very beautiful extended canter as before we got him he had been quite the dressage horse and won champion in most of them. Coming up in September if we can stretch the lease untill December Alissa has some show's we can bring him in. Speaking of shows his show name right now is Docksla Amigo but once I purchase him I will call him Adios Amigo as once he exits the ring it is a cute name for Good-bye friends. :D At the last day of Pony Camp there was a show held for all of the kids who particpated to show off what they learned while the rode. I was very happy to show off my stuff because it was the first time my mom saw me jumping since the fall and wow she was proud. And I was proud of my horse. I have pictures I will upload later.

facing fears

Amigo did get alot better over the weeks of jumping. It tooks us awhile to get him to jump over a cross rail going towards the woods. We had to put ALOT of leg on him as at times I could feel him starting to refuse the jump. So just as we were about to go over I kicked him with my right leg as he almost said "I'm not going to do it" But I said "Yes you are"
Alissa started to set up courses. They were very fun as it kept Amigo concentrated and he seems to like them.
My favourtie jumps are the verticals, as for some reason he likes to go over them better then crossrails, plus the higher I jump the more I like it.

It has probably been a year now since I fell off of a horse while jumping the last jump in a combiniation. I had fell and hit my head then decided I wasn't going to jump anymore.
Since Amigo entered my life I decided I'd try doing it after presisting myself I should go western because I loved riding that syle for my whole life in Alberta. But from my sister's view Amigo had a smooth jump and a lovely finish, so she got me interested in doing it again.
So with alot of nerves I brought him over a crossrail and it went fairly well. After a week of going over cross rails on my own, Pony Camp started and Alissa got me into doing little jumps at a time, the second day she got me doing 2'0 going over cross country jumps and that day was the day I started to like jumping again. I had a great horse I could work with and I knew I could trust him so we were a perfect match. Amigo gave me the confidence I needed to start jumping again.

This is us just finishing our landing.

This is him actually refusing. I personally don't think I was prepared for this jump. And Amigo here knows it he is very sensetive to this thing. If I'm not ready he has free will I don't have to jump it !!! But I brought him over it another three times the last time was perfect so I called it a day.

This pictures actually turned out pretty cool because of the colouring and the position he is in, even though he had just refused it !

Yet again very blurry but you can still manage to see him landing. Later I found out the camera was on the wrong setting.

Some pictures of end results.

These are blurry but I'm sure you'll get the point that he's jumping. :D

Tonight.

Today was a GREAT RIDE !
Amigo had a rough start as I think he had way too many good days and I was waiting for a bad one to come. But it actually didn't turn out bad. While I was on him I brought him over a cross rail then he decided to run out on me. For some reason my mind went blank and I just didn't steer it was a weird moment. He ended up running himself into the fence at the end.
I then turned him into some circles to get him collected before the jumps then I started the course again. The first jump was basicly a pole on the ground but raised up on one side. The second was a crossrail then I went for the oxer and guess what happend there. !!!!!!
He took off right after the jump,
All I'm thinking is AMIGO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Instead of him taking off again I turned him as sharp as possible ( some people call it a jumpers turn while your still on a course)
He skidded a bit but regained himself and then slowed down and I brought him over the next jump. He then knew okay I get it I'll be GOOD. As he knew he wasn't getting away with his foolishness. I jumped the course a couple more times he was still very fast after the oxer but I just turned him to the next jump. After all of that fun riding for the day it was all worth it when he jumped the tires. Here are some pictures of the results of him finally being good. :P and listening.

Amigo's problem.

After the lesson with Alissa, we were aloud to ride Amigo on our own. That was the fun part as we hadn't ridden with just our friends there was always an instructer nearby.
One of the first rides Amigo of course like some horses decided to test me. He took off but I regained control and caught him within a few seconds. (Thank goodness)
Then later on throughout the lessons we later found out that he really did not like to listen to the reins. He would try to get away with things and trot out to the other side of the ring where there was other horse lessons going on with younger kids. So once we started cantering we had to canter on the circle for a couple of months and that was HARD ! As a couple of times he almost ran over our riding instructer. And Alissa would say you steer that horse and make sure that he doesn't get away with that. Our arms got so sore at some times where he would just canter completly off the circle as it was very hard to keep him on it in the first place. After a couple of months cantering on the circle and telling him that if we say left YOU GO LEFT, you go left not right. :P The following months we started cantering him around half of the ring as that was the space we had he had done beautifully and less the 3 weeks after that we started bringing him over very,very small crossrails. But then we ran into another problem, he really enjoyed refusing them.

More pictures of our lesson

Amigo sticking out his tongue. :P

Part 4

After a couple of weeks of him being there, we had our first lesson before we rode him by ourselves that went well and not so well as it was my second time riding in awhile and the sit trot hurt the butt as well as I kept making him go faster withouth knowing.... but things did get better eventually. Here are some pictures of our first lesson together, well it was kind of like a second lesson as Alissa made it into one the time we tried him out.

Some pictures

part 3 the waiting. and there he is !!!

We didn't know how long it would take for us to come to a decision, and if the owners agreed for us to lease him. It didn't take very long for us to decide but on the owner's part it did.
They said it was fine but it took months for Alissa to get ahold of them again to say that we would lease him. More weeks past and still we had no luck reaching them. Finally by the time Alissa did, they said a huge sorry and said they misunderstood everything we wanted so as soon as that was delt with, Alissa made up a time to go get him when she went to train Splash again. The same night she got him we had a thing called Pony Club going on at the barn as that is where it is held every Monday night. So of course when we got there, that is where my sister and I headed to. Amigo looked great and was settled into his new home for 6 months (the duration of our lease). I must say he was glad for the attention as most of the time he was locked up in a stall. We had our weekly Pony Club meeting and then we went outside to grab him to brush him down as he was quite dirty. Here are some pictures of him during his first day there.

part 2 for the first of Amigo

After I got home that day I explained everything about him. What I was expecting and didn't see. Telling them how handsome he was and that his face was beautiful. I told them that he was a quarter horse. ( My favourtie breed).
Things came very slowy and waiting was a major part in tyring to see him again.
We finally got a date to try him out. When we got to the barn he was at I showed my sister to Splash the horse I saw the last time I was there.
There was a horse that was 30 years old and it's owner still road him bareback. The people that were sitting around talking with us told us that we could open up his stall and take him out to start to groom him before we tacked him up. He had a nice groom and he is A VERY friendly horse and a polite gentlemen giving us hugs and such. Before we touched him with a brush we had to show him first so he knew what it was. It was quite cute. Alissa then came and we tacked him up. He accepted the bit very easily, to my surprise as some previous horses took forever to accept it. He was verry iffy to put the saddle on as he hadn't been ridden at all throughout the winter months as his owner hurt her shoulder and couldn't ride again . Alissa got on Amigo first to make sure he was alright to ride that night. He started to take off a little bit and he was hard to mount. ( I hope my parents didn't see that. :P) Once Katelynn got on he was still "don't mount me with that mounting block) For some reason he just didn't like it. Katelynn brought him over some trotting poles and he jumped them to our surprise. He did very well that night . Then it was my turn. Alissa had me trotting on the lunge line first as I hadn't ridden since summer. Then I was trotting on my own. I was a little nervous at first as this was a new horse. But he was very good and listened to my commands. Once it was time to get off we brushed him down again and said our good-byes untill we didn't know how long.

The beginning of Amigo in my life

For the longest time, my sister and I have been looking for a horse to lease.
We had thought of leasing some horses at the barn but nothing seemed to appeal to us.
Then we tried outside the barn to a place where my sister rode for the winter as she had a friend who owned a pony that would let her ride. We then came across a pony named Owen. He was black and had a stripe going down his face. At the time our parents weren't really ready to lease a horse. But we still tried and came across a very small pony named Dolly. She looked very sweet but later found out she was half wild. So didn't work out either. Then our riding instructer Alissa, told us she found a horse that she knew from helping a lady break him in one winter.
His name was TADA !!! Amigo !!
On a wednesday during school hours, we have this class called co-op. My co-op supervisor had no time to take me in that day so I went with another classmate to Alissa's for the day as her co-op placement was there. That was my lucky day. Alissa was going to a barn to train a horse named Splash a very handsome paint horse. Amigo also lived at the barn.
The minute I saw him, the grounds were not very suitable at that time as it was early spring. I tried to coax him over but there was a big puddle seperating us apart. As I tried to get him to come closer he stretched his neck a little bit but then pulled back, probably thinking. I don't know you I'm not stepping in THAT huge scary looking puddle to see somebody I just met. So eventually I went back into the barn to watch Alissa train as it was apart of learning for this program I was in.

Amigo going over an an oxer again.

Here is a video of Amigo and I going over the oxer.

Whoops I'm sorry the last one I accidently put the same picture here is the actual one of him going over the crossrail. :P

Amigo going over an oxer for his first time.

Today I am going to add pictures of Amigo and I from last night.

Last night we had a lesson and it was our first time doing an oxer. It stood at 2'6. The first time he jumped it he didn't pick up his feet high enough so he scared himself, so once I brought him over the second and third time he refused it because of that. I did get him over the fourth try going over it and he went over for the rest of the lesson. What a good boy. :D

Introduction

Hello everyone. I have just created a blog today, and so far it is alot of fun . Soon I will share the story of a horse named Amigo, a horse that I lease untill September. I have had him for six months now and it is a huge joy to have him around. Hopefully by September I will have enough money to purchase him with my parents help. I will be adding pictures as soon as possible.