Cisco and Dixie

Enter Dixie and Cisco! (Dixie pictured at left)

They are mom's horses. She's had them for years, I rode them when I still lived at home. They are both Spotted Saddle Horses (SSH for short!) In fact, I broke Cisco out. Okay, wait, I don't like that word...I saddle trained him, there, thats better.

I actually did just about all his training. We got them both when I was about 16 or 17. Dixie was to be my mom's riding horse, and Cisco was a 4 month old colt sold with her as a bonus! She was also supposed to have been bred back. (These people popped who knows how many foals out of this poor mare. My mom says she remembers there being FOUR of her get there still at the place we bought her from!) But she didn't take apparently. She was about 15 or 16 at that time.

Anyway, I was a typical horse crazy girl that loved being out with the horses messing with them, so I was his 'trainer'. Gosh, let me see if I can dig any pictures of us up.

Here's one! This is one of the first times I sat on him, (he's 2 here) and the retard that I am, I just climbed up out in the open with no thought of it! GEEZ, idiocy of youth, lol. I got off right after that. At least I was smart enough the next times to do it in the round pen, lol. I have a neat picture of that but can't find it! Anyway, he WAS comfortable with me bouncing on his stirrup and laying on his back, so I did do some preparation, lol. (man look at those ugly jods and boots!! agh! Theres the dr cook bitless bridle, lol, very useful little thing!)

So! Fast forward to last Saturday! The night before I talked to her about riding the next day, and she thought it was a great idea. She's always trying to get me to come over and ride since she has no one else to ride with. The niece, her granddaughter, likes to ride, but she can't handle Dixie, and is not experience enough to make Cisco do what he knows how to do, but won't if you aren't persistent about it, lol. And I also don't think I'd trust her out of the round pen on him, you know the riders that you know do fine in the arena, but you would be really nervous to see them on the trails?? Thats her. She just doesn't have enough experience.

Anyway, sorry for all the needless information! I do get carried away so easily. So early that morning I dropped the husband off with my dad at the Mcdonalds, they were going to work on a rental house of my dads. And then I drove to the mothers! Got there and get out and I'm like, gosh, its breezy today! And it was a little cooler then I had originally thought, lol. But I was like, oh well, it will be okay. Heh. ;)

My mom says the same thing I was thinking when she meets me at the door. "Its windy today! Yesterday would have been the day to ride!" It had been really nice Friday, but work, alas, got in the way.

So we head out to the barn to put her rabbits out in their 'play pen' (they are soo cute btw!) And I got Dixie out and started brushing her while my mom got the van and loaded the tack up. She keeps it all in the car garage since the barn has no tack room walls so the dust gets on EVERYTHING. Then I had to go back to the truck and get my bitless bridle, I felt like I'd need it that day, I usually ride her in a bosal, but last time she didn't do too well in it. Thank goodness I made my husband go to the inlaws and get it that morning even though we were late, cause I was REALLY glad to have it!

I also went to get his cowboy hat I had planned on wearing, but it is a little loose and with all the wind I would never have been able to keep it on my head. That picture of Dixie above is her going "what is on your HEAD??" ;) She has some really cute fuzzy ears!

So as we were brushing, la dee da...BAM! Both horses FREAK OUT. They are zeroed in on something outside the stalls, like they've just see a mountain lion! (the stalls that are right in front of them, open out into the pasture)

Both my mom and I are like what?? We look and look, see nothing. But they are both snorting and jigging and still staring out the door. So my mom goes out there to figure it out and is gone forever it seems like. I untie Cisco and make him put his head down, walk him in circles make him back up. He calmed down a little bit. Finally my mom comes back with some bags of trash, like a soil bag and something else. So! Apparently the wind was blowing them around and they thought they were monsters! Who knows!

Is this not one of the cutest pictures ever?? My mom is 5'6, not sure about Cisco, but he is in the 16h+ range, definitely!

Anyway, they were still antsy for another five minutes or so, and my mom and I are like, we might not get out of the round pen today, haha. I was a little disappointed, but I knew we still would have fun so I got over it.
The horses finally calmed down and Dixie proceeded to doze while I groomed her up the rest of the way and got her tacked up. The bitless bridle fit her pretty good, had to let it out a bit though, apparently Daisys head is smaller then her's, lol. She does have a cute little head! :)

The mother and I had one little yelling fit over a misunderstanding with the saddle pads on Cisco, lol (don't ask) but other then that we got along GREAT the whole day and had a lot of fun. (I was with her from like 8 to 9 that night, go us!)


So we finally got settled and headed out to the round pen, which connects to the barn as you can see in the picture to the right. (Cisco is sporting a novell headstall in case your curious, in a really ugly glaring orange!! Not a huge fan of it, but it does the job)

So we walked them around in there for a bit getting them loosened up, mainly so we could get their cinches tight enough! Cisco especially is a chunko!! But also to get them using their brains out there before we hopped on. Man , my mom looks like an midget! lol.

Another funny picture of my mom and Cisco

So we finally got everyone cinched up and ready to go, I had to hunt around for something for mom to use as a mounting block, finally settled on a chair. Got her on and stirrups done, and then I got on! Now, usually Dixie is a wormy thing when you try to mount, she will back up, move sideways, etc, unless you kind of bend her head to the side and hold it while you get on. Which is what I usually do. Today, I was just very quiet and calm with her and she did back up a little but then I put my foot up there and just hopped a bit, and then she settled and I swung up. AMAZING! My mom and I were like, wow! Yeah, for Dix Dix!

There we are going around! Hehe, I set up my camera on *drum roll please* listen to this: a trash can, with a bale of hay on top, and then a cat carrier on top of that (thats what the mother totes the rabbits to their play pen in, lol) and then a cat dish on top of THAT. It worked great! Hopefully I'll be able to upload a bit of it, it really is quite funny to watch. We both get to racking in there (well, attempting to, we're probably doing more of a running walk or really nothing that has a name!) and then Cisco trips and its pretty amusing.

So anyway we had a lot of fun in there, Dixie was a bit sporadic, she likes to dive this way and that. She's NEVER heard of a straight line, lol. But I'm okay with it. She is a REALLY fun change of pace. And I never feel unsafe on her. Cisco was lazy as usual, and you can see him swishing his tail and acting annoyed when she makes him go faster, lol.

One of my moms dogs, Ditzy, she is half chow half aussie
and a sweet girl (although a bit ditzy ;)

So mom got tired of that pretty quick (she's a trail girl big time) and asked me if I thought I could handle her outside. They were both acting pretty good, but Dixie wasn't real responsive to my reins, so I said she's a little heavy in my hands, or something like that. And mom said well its up to you. So I asked her how he was dong and she goes, well we'll see when we get out there! Lol.

So I got down (much easier for me to get on and off then the mother! :) ) and opened the gate, walked her through the barn, and opened the other side. I got on her in the barn knowing it'd be MUCH easier, she turns into a rocket after you leave the arena. She had parked herself at the tie spot, lol, guess she was hoping we were done! So it was easy to just hop on her without her moving.

And the fun begins!! They were both pretty wired up out there. Looking this way and that. Oh whats that over there?? Oh, lets walk faster! Haha, but both did a really good job considering the wind storm etc. They haven't been on a trail in way over a year. I was really quite worried about my mom though, she really really does NOT need to fall off. Specially off that giant! So I kept asking her, are you okay? Is he okay? Lol, I wasn't worried about me at all. Dixie is fast and a bit sporadic (we went from one side of the road to the other in half a second quiet a few times, did a few spins, lol) but totally manageable. I was very thankful for the bitless bridle a good many times. She did well with it. And it doesn't tick a horse off and make things worse when you have to get up in their face.

So we went down their gravel driveway and cut across a neighbors field, went through their yard a bit and then tried to go back down the driveway a different way to go back home, but a car came out of the house we had just been at and totally wigged the both of them out. Dixie would have been fine, but Cisco was not happy and I didn't want to risk mom getting hurt so we walked back up the way the car had gone, and went back the way we came. They settled down but of course Dixie started her OH WE'RE GOING HOME routine of her fast running walk thing and "no I will not just plain walk, thank you." ;) I tried for a bit to get her to walk but then just gave up and went along for the ride. At least its smooth! I let her get away with a few things, shes so old and it doesn't hurt anyone, so whatever.

Here's a few pictures we took of each other along the way :)



And a video! I warn you, if you get dizzy easily, don't watch it!! ;) It has a highlight of me dropping the camera (which was attached to my belt loop for just this reason) to stop Dixie from heading home, lol.


So we made it back in one piece with no mishaps! And were very proud of ourselves! (we had so much fun watching the video after we got inside)

I worked with Dixie a bit outside the barn making her mind and not just walking her into the barn and getting off. Once she was doing better I got off and loosed her cinch and noseband and then walked her in.

Thats Dix over there saying, "stop taking pictures and get my saddle off woman!"

So there you have it! If you made it this far HUGE CONGRATS for you! I'm so sorry I get so long winded. Have a great day everyone!