Farm horses

Kahlua at liberty

Kahlua: BG 2008/2009

Kahlua under saddle

Amber's Guys

Dogs

Jeffersonville, IN

Fugly Horse of the Day

Fugly Horse of the Day
Snarky commentary on the breeding of poor quality horses, silly or abusive training techniques, and pretty much anything else that annoys me!
It’s Churchill Downs, not the wheelchair races!
I know everybody’s dying to talk about this one, so here you go. In case you haven’t already heard, the Asshat Queen of 2009, Kathleen Costello, got a Thoroughbred mare named Grand Forks from a farm she had worked at and gotten canned from. The mare’s previous owner, a gentleman named Rick Trontz, wanted to find [...]
I blame Dancing With the Stars for this
In recent years, not only have our TV sets been inundated with has-been celebrities dancing in ridiculous outfits, but Youtube and all the horse sale sites have been similarly plastered with “dancing horses.” In case you’re unfamiliar with the training – and I use the term lightly – employed to teach a horse to “dance,” [...]
Let’s all guess why he is a jumper prospect!
I will bet that you can ALL figure out how they arrived at this brilliant deduction and no, I do not think it has anything to do with his potential (likely unremarkable) size.  I’m guessing it has to do with how he came to be, because it certainly doesn’t have anything to do with his [...]
‘Cause God forbid you sell them before they look like this
Another day, another selfish, egotistical idiot who would rather let her horses starve to death than admit that she’s broke and can’t take care of them. Today our offender is Judy Caton. Judy has some extremely nice Quarter Horses including a very nice reining horse named Meerly Inwhizable. Judy’s web site has gone [...]
Trust: It can go way too far!
Just another typical low-end breeder sale ad, although I will say that this is a nicer filly than I usually see with small children hanging off of it like a set of monkey bars. http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/grd/1462265705.html “We have a BEAUTIFUL Kind and sweet 2yr olf Filly. Full American Paint Horse Assoc Registered. She is currently riden around bareback [...]
Theft – You know it’s going to happen!
Guest blog from Ellen. We’ve talked about this stuff before but you can’t discuss it too much. We see theft stories every single day and often they are heartbreaking – a child’s horse, a pregnant mare, etc. Not to mention expensive equipment that may not be insured. In a five mile circle of [...]
Don’t believe everything you read – or hear!
Guest blog from Monique in North Carolina: My family owned a tack and feed store in a small rural community for about 2 years. So, we would see all sorts coming and going. A friend of ours got to talking to a customer who came in one day. The customer appeared to be in her mid-twenties [...]
Fun Friday Topic: How much better does your horse live than you?
I have to talk about this!  My horse now has an appointment for a massage.  Last week, he went to the chiropractor.   This is to correct a stiff neck from getting cast in his stall.   Now he has a sniffle, so he is being seen by the vet for that.  All told we’re looking at about [...]
Best of FHOTD: Beginner mistakes that can kill your horse…
REPUBLISHING this one from 5/11/09 by request, and because it’s always a good topic! As I’ve posted before, I didn’t get a horse early into my riding career. I lived in the ‘burbs and my mother steadfastly declared that no way was she going to that smelly barn on a daily basis. So horse ownership had [...]
Thank you for having standards!
A reader sent me this, from Kimalot Quarter Horses’ web site, and she’s right, I DO like it. Mare Owner Information Your mare needs to have the following, prior to breeding consideration.  This is a consideration not a guarantee that I will breed the mare. 1.  A thirty ‘30′ day clean uterine culture no exceptions as this is possibly [...]

mugwump chronicles

mugwump chronicles
I am a horse trainer. Not the best, not the worst. I don't whisper,or use special sticks.I strive to be fair.
Maggie Z
I wrote a post on May 18 2008 about the bravest woman I know.


What has always impressed me the most about this woman is her determination. When I first met Peg the fear was so huge she could barely talk herself into trotting around an arena on an old, Steady Eddy school horse. She would talk to her horses in an eternal stream of nervous chatter as she road.

"OK, now trot Slowpoke, trot, there yougo, good boy, good boy, now trot, c'mon, let's go....."


Peg would freeze and go fetal over an unasked increase in speed, even at a walk, she would clench her reins in a panic if her mount turned his head to look at something.

Her problems weren't all in her head. She had an extremely screwed up back. The tension from her fear added to the stressed muscles in her back and she would end up a spasming mess.

She was extremely difficult to instruct. Not from her attitude, but because of her fear. Peg couldn't trust me enough to relax and do the exercises I knew would increase her confidence by increasing her balance.

She was so wrapped up in her fear she couldn't hear what I was saying half the time.

I have been known to run off students and clients. Sometimes I run out of patience. Ahem.

But not Peg. Because she is Horsaii. Through and through.

No matter how great her terror I could see the love shining through her eyes every time she went to tentatively pet her horse.

Nothing stopped Peg from coming to her lessons and trying again. I don't think she could have stopped if she wanted to.

So I buried my impatience as best I could and kept giving her the best I had.

I thought about Peg and her issues a lot and tried to have a plan every time I saw her.

Eventually I had to have two plans.

Because sometimes Maggie Z, the alter-ego, showed up instead of Peg.

If Maggie Z came to ride we could work on transitions. I saw soft hands and a rider who could get through a serpentine without going rigid and falling to the inside.

We could honestly evaluate Maggie Z's progress and where she was with her horses.

But then Peg would come back. After an agonizing amount of ground work she would finally climb up. We would walk her horse, often with me on the ground, around the small arena and talk. We talked about our kids, our jobs, maybe a little about the horses, but mostly not.

I got so I could tell who was getting out of the car. Peg or Maggie Z.

So I aways had two lesson plans.

Peg /Maggie Z and I went from dude horses to her own horses, to horses I helped her buy.
Peg stayed with me through three barn changes and countless adaptations of my training process and what I expected from my students.

Peg learned to explore options without me. She worked on her groundwork and studied the clinicians hard to figure out her place in the horse world. She studied folks I'm not particularly excited about (you thought I didn't know, ha!) and ones I liked. She started to hear me.

I pushed harder, Maggie Z got ticked and Peg cried.

She still came every week, month in, month out. Peg became my friend.

I liked Maggie Z too, which is a good thing, because she started showing up more and more.

Maggie Z started loping circles out in our huge unfenced slide track. She helped shag cattle when we were working cows. Sometimes Peg started her ride and stepped up to do the same, she was starting to feel brave.

Peg figured out that Cougar, the good ranch horse I had sold her several years before, was not only a good cow horse, but eventually, her friend.

She started to show. She started to place. She started to eye the reining pen.

Then I retired.

The client I worried the most about was Peg/Maggie Z.

But by now Peg knew she was Horsaii too. She knew she wanted to keep learning.

She ended up hauling out to whoever she could find with cattle for her to work. If they were good or at least good enough, she kept going. If they were bad she moved on. She started to go to local open arena nights the area clubs offered and got so she could work her horse in a crowd.

She ended up riding with Jeff and Gerrie Barnes at Barnes Ranch.

They are a couple of good teachers and Versatility Ranch competitors who run a straight up riding program.

Maggie Z has just bought a 17 year old well trained cow horse. I think this mare is exactly the right next step for her.

I think Peg is ready to fly.

This means we all can.
Wormer


Mouthy Mondays
Buttercup

I had taken lessons for nearly 3 years, I had begged my parents for a pony since I could talk, I spent my weekends scanning the classifieds for a potential mount and I had begun trail riding with my cousin who owned Buttercup’s sire. My grandmother was mired in a battle with cancer. I was 13.

I met Buttercup on a blustery winter day, we were trail riding in a state park. My cousin was riding her, he said she was one of John's babies and she was 5 years old. She would toss her head, sometimes step into a smooth jog, other times prance sideways- always her head high. More horse than I had ever sat on... she made my trail mount, an ancient chestnut Quarter Horse named Jay Boy look like an absolute dud. My cousin asked if I wanted to ride her... I stared at Jay Boy's mane and shook my head "no" I was terrified of her...
And yet strangely fascinated...

She had been passed around. I heard she was a Christmas gift for a girl as a weanling and was eventually broke to ride but was too much horse, so she was sold to a couple who rode her for 30 days, despised her and tossed her into the pasture. Then my cousin came across her, always interested in John's foals, he bought her with me in mind.He never said a word.

The wheels of fate were turning... I ran home to tell my parents and grandmother about the horse my cousin had... her name was Buttercup, she was blonde colored, she was 5, she was AWESOME.

My parents went to look at her, my Dad patted her neck and said "Yup, she's a horse. All I know is they can kick you and bite you." My cousin asked if I wanted to ride and I dug my toe into the ground and again shook my head no... I was almost too scared to hold her lead rope, no way could I ride her.

She was too much horse I told myself... she'll be like the others, no use getting your hopes up.

Then the letter arrived...

The doctors had told her the cancer was terminal... she had fought it for many years but nothing else could be done. My grandmother set out to make sure her grandkids got what they had always wished for.

In the time she had left she wanted to see her grandkids' dreams come true... So she wrote a letter to her cousin, the one who bought Buttercup. What was said in the letter we'll never know. My cousin to this day has never said what she wrote, says that was between him and her. My grandmother would always say "It's a secret" when we inquired about it and she kept that secret to the day she died.

Fast forward a month or two... it's early on a Saturday. The phone rings. My Mom answers, chats and then runs into my room...

"Get up! Get up! They're bringing your horse down!!"

I sit up and glare... "That's cruel," I say, "if you wanted me to get up, just tell me to..."

Mom stares at me, half laughing, a grin on her face. "I'm SERIOUS. You need to get up now... they'll be here in an hour and you need to figure out where you are going to put her! Wait till your father finds out!!!"

OMG... I, me, Daphne... has... a... HORSE... A real, live HORSE! And she'll be here in like, an HOUR! An HOUR?!

I bolt out of bed, throw on jeans and my boots and head for the barn. We have a 10 stall barn... once a horse barn, recently it had only housed our bottle fed calves.

Today, it would be a horse barn again.

I picked the first stall on the right, it used to belong to Poke, the pony of the former manager's daughter. From here on out it would be Buttercup's... MY HORSE.

There was a flurry of cleaning, there were cobwebs to sweep, a stall to bed down, there was dust in the manger, she would need a water bucket, hay... everything must be perfect.

After all... this was going to be her new home! She would be here any minute...Right then I heard the trailer, I was grinning from ear to ear. My horse was here. MY horse, nobody else’s...

--SquirrelGurl
The rest of the story can be found on my blog: http://myappy.blogspot.com/ or my second blog http://buttercupgurl.blogspot.com/
Thank You
You guys are great. Wading through this emotional mess is tough. As of today I may have some answers.

There is a family with two horse crazy girls. Their parents are willing to let them get horses. They want horses for their family property. BUT they also have the wisdom and financial ability to lease two horses for a year at a boarding facility with the daughters under the tutelage of an instructor.

So maybe, just maybe things will fall into place here. The horses they are interested in are Loki and an OTTB I broke out for the folks who have called me about this arrangement.

If after a year everybody is happy they will buy the horses. This might work out just fine.

It doesn't matter if they go English or Western, Loki doesn't care.

Kidlette took some basic jumping lessons on her and she's comfortable trotting through poles and going over up to 18 inch jumps.

All my horses go in a snaffle and willingly ride in contact with a bit and most of my horses can pass a level 2 dressage test. I know that's not much, but after that our paths split off.

While not excited (I really would prefer to just keep her) I don't have the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach I had when I first wrote about this and asked for your help.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful answers and input.

Even if the lease deal doesn't happen I have decided to bring her in to fill Pete's spot if he goes on to the school. I'll ride her daily then, loosen up her tight spots and truly be able to evaluate where she should go. My yellow horse will have to wait a while (sigh).

I think the comment that came through the clearest was this one....anon. said -"So many of us would be denied great horses if owners didn't think they would ever find the right home, or if no one could care for that horse like they did."

Believe me, I read and listened to every one. Thanks again.
Stuck


Mouthy Mondays
Yo! I'm back! Long week, glad it's over, glad I did it. I truly appreciate the input on stretching and loosening my mare. I'm inclined to lean towards some of the long, slow, dressagey kind of exercises, I liked HOC's recommendation a bunch.
Ruckus Butt almost busted me...yes I do have a lot of opinion and thoughts on flexing and loosening a horse. But I love getting outside input. My mare has more emotional issues than physical, I'm not ruling out the chiro, but I'm going to try riding her through her tightness first.
She has stiffened in defense. My guess is it has to do with the weaker side of her rider (not me) and how she turned a little tightness into an evasion, then on into a locked up fearful mess. By listening (reading) to all of you I get a much bigger picture on what I want to work on to get my girl back on track So thanks. If you want I'll come back to the program I'm putting together for her.
This is a cool story. I'd have posted it sooner, but it was sent to me as a blog link. Pleeeeaaaassssse don't do this to me. It creates all kinds of work for me. I love to share the space, but prefer to be able to cut and paste.



http://gretathehorse.blogspot.com/


I have a barn buddy who is actually a guy. He doesn't go out to the barn for horses necessarily, but more as our junior fix-it guy when the fix-it guys aren't there or need help.

He likes horses. That's about the only horse-related thing we have in common.

He can ride, but only if he has to (and I laugh when he does).

When it comes to carpentry, I can drill a nail in, drill a hole, and use a hammer. Barely.

We both laugh when I'm given the task of driving a nail into some piece of wood. I'm usually only given it because I'm a last resort. And it doesn't need to be done well. I admire his handiwork, he admires my dressage riding. Nonetheless, we have other teenagery things in common: football (he plays, I watch with an educated eye) and school, friends, movies, the like.

So I was excited to show him a bit of my horsey world when we and and his grandmother -a friend of my instructor - made the long trip from Austin to Seguin (near San Antonio) to visit a gigantic tack store. His grandmother and my instructor were to pick up other items for their horses, I went to try out a saddle I had seen online.

We walk in and my jaw drops at the size and selection of the place, and then we all dispersed. They go and look for bridles, and I go on to admire the beautiful tooling of all the western show saddles.

My guy friend tags along with me and asks questions like "who would pay this much for a saddle?" and I tell that someone who wanted to look good and get attention in the ring would.

"God, I miss riding western sometimes. All the tack was super pretty. Dressage, everything is just black."

"So, get one of these! You're looking for a saddle right?" I look at him in horror.

"I'd get disqualified!"

He laughs. "Damn, they're that picky?" I laugh too.

"You have no idea..... oooh, they have an English section!"

I drag him over there. He watches me gaze in awe at the $3,000 Passiers and delicately set them on the plastic horse model and try them out.

"This is amazing!"

"It's just a saddle."

"Just a saddle? It's a Passier! A Passier!"

"Whatever."

I jokingly scoff at his ignorance, remembering that my instructor and I were probably the only ones in the group who realized the amazing-ness of a Passier. I then saw the saddle I actually had intention to buy elsewhere: my Wintec synthetic. I try it on, and my instructor and I gawk, and then go to look at bridles. I, of course, eye the pretty ones with the padding and the crystal browbands. No intention of getting one, just admiring what I usually only see on the Internet or in magazines or on Grand Prix horses.

Guy friend finally speaks out, "Why do you want to get all of this stuff?"

"I don't. I'm just admiring. Greta and I already have everything we need."

"No, I mean, why get stuff like this in the first place for your horse? She's not top of the line."

Why I oughtta....

I could not laugh this one off. My instructor froze and turned around. He had just pushed the envelope. Not top of the line! He knows just how much I love Greta! How much I dote over her and spend an hour-and-a-half after a 30 minute ride just grooming her. Again. I was being a bit materialistic, true, but how could he say this?

"She most certainly is top of the line! Her sire was imported from Sweden!" my instructor says, and lightly pops him on the head and walks away, leaving me to deal with it.

I sigh, cross my arms, and shake my head, trying to give the best "I'm very disappointed in you" look I could give: something I have learned from watching the parental units. Not the best, but I tried.

"I don't care if she had been sired by a godawful-looking grade and then [foaled by a goat] she is my horse and I am allowed to spoil her. Besides, it's none of your business what I do and don't get for my horse. Just stop me if you see me getting one of those wire bits they had over there."

He shrunk away. We didn't really talk much afterwards until he apologized later during lunch:

"Sorry about what I said in the store-"

"I could see where you were coming from." He raised a brow.

"You just worded it very wrongly. What you should've said is, 'I understand you love Greta very much, but she doesn't care whether or not you get her the $3,000 Passier or the $50 used one off of Craigslist. She could care less if you ride her at all. She could care less who her parents' parents' parents were. What she does care about is that you are her human and that you care for her and watch out for her as she does for you despite all of your antics. You do, and that's all that matters. Though nice saddles are great, too.'"

"I don't know if I could've thought that one up...."

"You didn't need to. It was just a personal eureka." And then I went on to sprinkle some salt on the chips.
Mouthy Mondays-Late Again
Hey guys,
I'm getting this cool story about endurance riding up, it says a lot about getting out and getting it done. I may be missing this week, I am a judge for the Oklahoma Press Association annual competition. We judge each others papers, which is really cool, I'm honored to have been asked to be a judge. Plus I'm learning tons reading all these columns.

I'm also drowning. I have so many articles to read, judge and comment on I'm a little freaked. And really short on time, so I'll be gone for a bit, at least until next week.

In the mean time I'll throw out a question. My daughters retired show mare, Loki, is getting ridden again, by me, after three years off.

She is extremely tight and ungiving on her left side. It's hugely obvious in her lateral work and during her spins.

I haven't been on the horse for at least five years, nobody has ridden her for three.

She's sound and willing to work, but really resistant through the neck, shoulders and ribs. This explains a bunch of the trouble my daughter was having with her during her last show season.

Now I'm planning on fixing her issues. What would you guys do to loosen her up? I have all the time in the world to tackle this.....

I have put her back in a ring snaffle, no other mechanical devices, no drop nose bands etc.

Whaddya think?




Mort Again
I rode down to the arena, tired and worried. It had to be late in the afternoon for the show to be completely done. I wondered what time it was. My mind skipped briefly to my watch, sitting abandoned at the back of my dresser and then skittered away. I squinted up at the sun, it wasn't straight up but it wasn't on it's way over the mountains either, so maybe it was around 2 o'clock. I hoped so anyway.

There was a water pump, but no trough. I turned the pump on and twined my fingers into a bowl. Mort drank, taking great gulps from the gushing water that drained my makeshift bucket and soaked me down for the second time that day.

I wiped down his face and belly with my wet hands. He was ganted up and he had wrinkles under his eyes.

I loosened the cinch and let Mort graze for awhile. My stomach rumbled and I thought about how long it was going to be before I ate.

"I sure don't want to backtrack," I told my weary horse, "maybe we'll go out this road and find another way home."

I laid my head on his butt and closed my eyes. I gave him another ten minutes before we headed out.

After an anxious couple of miles we came to a little grocery store at the corner of our dirt road and a main road.
"Why honey, where did you ride in from?" The lady at the counter said after one look at my grimy clothes and sunburned face.
"I'm from town," I said, "I was wondering if you could tell me the best way home."
"Well you're in Falcon now. If you head out this way you'll end up in Black Forest," she pointed North, "this way will put you right in downtown," she pointed West. "You look about done in, do you want to call somebody?"
"No, no, I'm fine, which way did you say Black Forest was?"

I couldn't imagine who I could call. My butt was getting deeper in trouble every minute. I had friends from my riding club in Black Forest and I knew how to ride home from there. It seemed the best bet.

I felt better as we headed North. I didn't have a clue where I was, but I knew I'd eventually end up somewhere I recognized.

Mort's trot picked up and he seemed a lot cheerier. It might have been my renewed sense of purpose, or he might have had an idea where we were, whatever it was he slid back into his easy, long strided trot and headed the direction I asked.


We felt good enough to stop and cause a little trouble.



There were maybe 8 pairs of cattle drinking at a water tank. I came in through the gate and they scattered as we came up to drink.


Mort snorted and played in the water. He'd bury his nose in deep and make waves by pushing his head back and forth. When he felt the cattle edging back in to share the water he would pin his ears at them, sending them back out.

Once I remounted I hesitated before I turned back to our road.


I'd seen the cowboys do it on TV. Herding cattle couldn't be that hard.


I pointed him to the cattle which were still patiently waiting for us to leave them to to the water. Mort pricked his ears and headed towards them with interest.


We walked around them, bunching them up first. They were easy enough to keep in a bunch, especially since we were circling the water tank.

Then I peeled an old cow off the herd. She trotted around the group, her calf snugged in to her flanks.

We trotted behind her, she disappeared into the herd ahead of us.We peel off another pair, then another. Mort was getting pretty good at pushing them out and we both agreed to stay away from the cows who lowered their heads and shook their horns at us.

Then I decided we could hold one out of the group. It took several tries but we finally cut a cow and calf away from the herd. The cow slipped past us, but we held the calf.

Before I could think of what to do next the calf turned tail, whacked through the lower two strands of the barb wire fence and hightailed it.

I ran up and down the fence looking for a gate as the little calf disappeared into the heat waves shimmering above the pale prairie grass. This was not good.

I looked all around and saw no place to go for help.

It occurred to me I could be shot for cattle rustling and trespassing. Or hung. Or both.

With a guilty conscience I hustled out to the road and headed on my way, trying to look as innocent as possible. I never did see the calf again.

By the time we hit Black Forest, Mort was down to a walk. When I finally found a street I recognized the sun was definitely hanging over the mountains. The heat had picked up for it's final blast before the cool evening would take over for the night.

The shade from the thick pine trees gave us a welcome relief.

We walked along the side of the dirt road, finally close enough to home territory to need to stay out of traffic.

I made one last water stop as I came up on Mike Craig's place, Pine Run Ranch. Mike met me in the yard.

"How did you end up here?" He asked.

As I unfolded my day (sans the cow episode) his eyes grew wide. He looked Mort over, ran his hands down his legs and pinched the skin on his neck.

"Go ahead and give him a drink and let him graze awhile," he said, as he loosened his cinch.

"He seems to be in pretty good shape."

"I've let him rest and drink off and on all day," I told him.

"You look about done in too. Should we call your folks?"

"No, no, let's not do that," my words rushed over each other.

I sat in the grass and leaned back against a fence post. It did feel pretty good to sit still. My legs ached and I felt a pretty good saddle sore starting on the inside of one knee.

I visited with Mike until Mort started to pick his head up and look towards home between bites.

"Are you sure I can't call somebody for you?" Mike asked again.

"You know, I think we'll go ahead and finish it," I said.

Mike stood with his hands in his pockets and a worried look on his face while I cinched my horse back up. I noticed my latigo went up another two holes since the far away morning. Mike watched from the end of his drive until we turned around a bend and disappeared in the trees.

I was so tired I kept dozing off. Mort walked on without my help, sure of the way home now. We travelled steadily, Mort's ears were up and his walk was even. We rode by our riding club as the sun began to sink, came down T-gap road, passed Swede's arena and finally, finally, saw the drive-in on Barnes Rd.

Mort whinnied, his voice was raspy and deep, but he found his trot one more time and we cruised in the last few miles.

I pulled off his tack and was grateful I had remembered to fill his water in the early morning. The cool night air raised goose bumps on my arms. The cold was starting to settle on me and I wished for a jacket. I tossed him half a bale of hay before I picked up my saddle and made my way home.

I slid in the door a little after 8 p.m.

"What happened?" My mother's worried face switched gears into pure pissed as soon as she noted I still had both arms, both legs and there was no blood.

"I got a little lost," I told her.

My weariness was seeping through my bones and I went to sit down on the couch. Somewhere in my fog it registered I must have really scared her because she was letting me sit on the couch in my barn clothes.

I gave my parents an abbreviated version of my day. I saw them glance back and forth at each other, resignation and belated worry crossing their faces.

"Couldn't you have called?" My Dad asked.

We don't have a horse trailer! I shouted in my mind.

"I never found a phone," I said instead.

Later, after I had cleaned up and had my much anticipated cold supper I found myself back on the couch, staring into space in a total stupor.

"Have you ever been so tired you felt heavy?" I asked my Dad.

"I swear, my arm weighs about 1000 pounds." I slowly lifted my arm and let it fall.

Dad came over and sat next to me. He unfolded a map and spread it across our laps.

"Let's track this ride you went on," he told me.

"We talked and whispered, my poor Mom had her fill of me for the day, and figured out the route I had taken.

Mort and I had covered a little over 70 miles.

Mort/Water Holes
I didn't think this was going to be a two-parter, but it is.



I was a little stumbly at 4 a.m. Enough to wake my mother. She come around the corner and into the kitchen, peering at me drinking milk out of the jug, with my boots tucked under my arm and a Ding Dong in the other hand.


Her hair was a little messed and she was tucked into her soft over-sized robe. As usual she looked coolly beautiful in spite of her tired eyes.


"Where are you going?"


"I have a horse show today, I told you."


"Why do you have to leave so early?"


"It's at a new arena, I want to make sure I get there in time."


"Wait a minute, just exactly where is this arena?"


Even at 4 in the morning my mother was one of the sharper tools in the shed.


"It's out east," I told her, "Karen told me I could get there by following the railroad tracks from her house."


"Is she going? Why aren't you catching a ride with her?"


"She's taking two horses today so I have to ride."


"I'm not sure you should ride to an arena you haven't been to before," Mom said.


Her eyes narrowed and she frowned a little just like she did when she worked on the crossword.


"I'll follow the tracks and if I can't get there before noon I'll come home," I assured her.


I started edging towards the door, hoping to get out before she woke up enough to notice I hadn't finished my Saturday morning chores.


"Make it ten, you haven't done your housework," she told me as I slid into the garage to collect my gear.


I clumped down the road with my jeans still stuck half in my boot tops, loaded down with my saddle, bridle and show pad. The cool gray dawn felt clean and a little damp as I made my way down the street, crawled over the Molines back fence, through the ditch and across the field to the barn.


Mort's welcomed me with a hungry nicker as he waited, his neck stretched so he could get his head over the top rail of his reinforced corral.


I threw his hay and three-way in his feeder and cleaned and filled his water tub. I groomed him as he ate. Of course he had a huge green manure stain on his hip.


"Stop moving, we're in a hurry," I said as he stepped away from my scrubbing fingers.


He snorted and buried his head into his hay, unimpressed with my anxiety.


Finally, finally he was done and I saddled him as he tanked up at the water tub. Mort knew me well enough to drink deep before we started out this early in the day.


"If you ride your horse right after he eats keep him in a walk until he passes his first manure," a sage bit of advise from a horsewoman much wiser than me rang clear in my guilty conscience.


Her words helped me walk him for the first ten minutes until I couldn't take it anymore and released him into his long, rolling trot.


Mort blasted air through his nose several times as he settled into his mile eating gait. The sun was up in earnest and the dew laden prairie grass began to crackle and rise as the dry heat rolled to greet us.


The swish of the grass brushing against his legs and the light blue of the horizon deepening into a bowl high over our heads invited us to roam the day away.


It was exciting to be heading someplace new and the prairie lay open in front of us. Within a few miles we would be out of town and crossing the big ranches.


Mort picked up on my growing anticipation and he gave a huge leap to the left as a prairie hen flew up under his nose.


I laughed and grabbed the horn as he jumped again in fun. He kicked into a lope and began to speed up. I leaned forward and let him go. He leveled out and ran. The morning was too glorious to worry about a sweaty coat at the horse show.


Several hours later I was regretting our early morning run. Mort was walking below the tracks, his coat sweated white and crusty. He moved quickly, anxious to be so far from home without a clue where he was.


I was feeling pretty much the same. We had stayed with the tracks, so I knew we weren't lost, but I sure didn't want to turn around and ride the whole way back.


Mile after mile had rolled under Mort's steady feet. We hadn't passed a soul. I had stopped and let him drink at a cattle tank. While he drank I stripped his saddle and splashed him down with double handfuls of water.


I had looked around us and saw nothing but prairie. The only sounds were the creak of the windmill and the buzzing flies.


The sun was high and hot enough to dry Mort within minutes.


I took another quick glance around and stripped my shirt. I dunked my whole head in the tank and soaked my arms and chest.


I looked into my sweaty cowboy hat and wondered how the cowboys in the olden days ever managed to drink out of them.


"Ugh," I told Mort, "if it's drink out of this or die I guess we're done for."


I saddled him again and soaked my head one more time before we left. I tied my shirt to my saddle strings as Mort trotted off, the breeze against my bare skin made me shiver. I stretched my arms out from my sides and stood high in my stirrups.


Now it was hours later and the only reminder of our our cool reprieve was the sore a drying bra strap had rubbed next to my armpit.


We crested a long rolling hill and I pulled up. Mort cut loose with a long and lonesome whinny. The empty show grounds spread out below us.


We had missed the whole thing.
Toothy Tuesday (oops)
I can't believe I forgot what day it was, but I did.

Stillearning said: "Unspoken fear can radiate a very sneaky, negative effect; it often masquerades as common sense."

This says almost everything I've ever wanted to say. I want it in a needle point for my wall.

Right next to the needle point which says, "They're all gentle (horses) until you piss them off."

I credit that one to the Big K, he says I said it, I don't know who did, but I love it.

OK, so I don't needle point, but I can dream can't I?

Here's our Mouthy Monday Entry-

Emilie is from another country, you can feel the flavor of her language in the way she writes. I hope she writes us and tells where she's from.


This is a long one, for wordy Wednesday… I don’t have a blog, but I probably should!


This is the story of how horses got into my life.

We had just ended kindergarten and were moving up to grade school. On the first day of class, I was nervous, I was in first grade, used to having my sister around, my twin sister… but since my mom felt we needed to be independent and learn to live without each other, we weren’t in the same class. I was lost without her… and I didn’t want to talk to any of the other kids.

We had a break for a little snack at about 10 am. Then, out of nowhere, this girl starts talking to me, I’d never seen her before, she was new in our school. We exchanged some snacks and were best friends since. I learned she had a horse and got interested in visiting the barn.

Keep in mind, I was 6 years old. So we went to the barn with my new friend’s mom. This horse was great, she was a haflinger and she was an ANGEL! We couldn’t ride her, because mom was a little reluctant to let us get on this horse.

So, in the same year, I guess we had pestered the mom so much, that she brought us to ride… I will never forget the smell, the feel of the horse moving and the leather in my hands.

From then on… I never wanted to be off of a horse. I asked my parents if I could get a horse, I always dreamed of a tall Palomino that I would’ve named AliBaba. So for about 8 years, we rode that horse every day of the summer when we were off from school, and every weekends.

We’d take turns and ride the horse in a large part of the pasture. One day, we were told we could take the horse to adjacent pastures that were much bigger. We put that horse back into shape on a program we had created without even knowing! She was about 20 and stunning!

We always had the occasional fall, but we always made excuses so our parents wouldn’t know that we fell from the horse, otherwise, they would’ve took our privileges! I think that’s where the “be tuff and don’t show pain” came from.

One morning, I will never forget that day… I was 14 years old, in school, I met my friend, as usual. She was beyond sad; I noticed and asked about it. She had brought a picture of Penny (the mare) and told me that Penny was sold. I could barely hold back my tears, I was in High School now and still enjoyed riding as much as I always did.

Her mom never told us why she sold our beloved Penny, but we would have only a few days to say goodbye before she left the barn. She was going to a nice barn, but very far away… I would never see her again. We all had our time alone with Penny to say goodbye and give her one last treat, I cried so hard.

We had been through a lot together from injury to us and to her (her leg had fallen through a bridge while we were leading her over it, her leg was injured and we were far from the barn, we walked the whole way back, that’s another story, she had tripped once and fallen hard, but had only bit her tongue!).

When Penny left, she left a gaping hole in my heart… I never forgot her, it’s been 10 years. I hope that Penny is enjoying old age and retirement, she would be around 30 years old, I guess.
I lacked horses in my life for about 7 years… I was always looking at sales adds and counting my pennies. My dad had bought a land and we could easily keep horses there if we built fence and shelter.

But it wasn’t for another 3 years that I would buy my own. In the meantime, I took care of a lady’s horses, exercised them… she had 8 horses that needed work. So I learned about training, breaking foals, riding wild horses (she had one mare that was 6 and completely unhandled)… I trained her for saddle myself, as well as her 3 year old filly and regularly exercised a 10 year old mare that was already broke. That was the only contact with horses that I had then, twice a week.

I bought my filly (Dandy) from one of my mom’s coworkers that could no longer take care of her. Dandy was 2 the year I bought her. She knew a halter but that was the extent of her training.

I had taken a course on barefoot performance trimming and had studied the hoof mechanism and the best way to trim them and why for 2 years (every day!), I still refer to my material sometimes, to refresh my memory.

Dandy had severely neglected hooves, she didn’t get the minerals she needed, her coat was dull, she was disrespectful and tried to kick me on my first visit, before buying her.
In short terms… I didn’t like her, at all, but figured I would give her a chance, because she was going to auction in 2 days if I didn’t buy her.

I got a fence up in a day and trailered the horse to her new home! She would be alone, but she had lived all of her life alone since she was weaned. I started to work on her training right away, she would not give her feet and I only trimmed one at a time whilst training her, she was impatient, would not stand tied, could not walk on the lead without running me over.

So in a year, I got her from unruly to giving her feet and being patient while I trim them, riding alone on the trails, not spooking for deer or birds taking off. She now respects my space and would never try to hurt me.

She is a solid minded horse! I am now starting to work on her canters at different speeds, she can lope and jog but I have no intentions of showing yet. I want to get her to leg yield and she does a pretty good rollback.

We’ve got 2 other horses, both rescues from the meat truck, a year after Dandy. They are 2 standardbred ex-pacers. One is 16, the other is 18. They were neglected and emaciated.
They are the best ever.

The 18 y/o mare was in foal and foaled a month after we got her. The foal, a little pure black colt, was very tall and leggy and probably lacked good nutrients during his development, eh was feeble and would not get up, he had a deformity to his back or hips. We bottle fed him and cared for him day and night for 9 days, when he finally passed. He was the sweetest foal, but he was very sick.

His death still came as a surprise, since we saw him gain strength and run around. I was devastated and at the same time relieved. We had given so much to that foal and his dam, I was in shreds. I only felt relief to the fact that I could now sleep full nights and would worry all day.
The Standards have finally put weight back on and are now sporting good sized hay bellies. They are on a regular wormer schedule, but I’ve not yet started to condition them. I do not need very muscular horses and prefer to let them fully recuperate from all the trauma. Between all of the hard times, I would never sell one of them. They are my life and will end their days on our farm.

I don’t plan to ever be without a horse again in my life.

I’ve included some pictures of them:

Here Comes The Other Side....


Safety as We Age
My friend Kathy called me last night. She took her good mare Rosie out on a short ride around her neighborhood, or I should say tried to take Rosie out.

Rosie didn't want to go. She wanted to scream and yell at her corral buddy and refuse to leave sight of the barn.

Kathy said she wasn't that bad, but she was thinking about it.

The unfortunate part of this situation is Kathy let her go back to the barn.

"I didn't let her go straight back," Kathy told me, "I rode her past the barn the other way and turned her back before she got too bad."

"She'll give you the "got too bad" next ride," I told her, "she completely won this round."

Which as we all know, guarantees she will be twice as rotten next time.

"I should have made her go, but I got scared," Kathy said.

There are extenuating circumstances here. Kathy is the friend who was put in the hospital by Captain about a year and a half ago.

Captain slung her into an iron rail fence.

Kathy suffered a punctured lung, several broken ribs, a fractured clavicle and cracked vertebrae.

She had a long, painful recovery and came out of her accident with a healthy dose of fear.

Kathy is a hand. Pre-accident she would have straightened Miss Rosie out and continued on her way. Things have changed for my friend.

"I don't think you should have made yourself do anything," I said, "there's no reason to scare yourself and not enjoy your ride."

The fact of the matter is, Rosie's insecurity and resulting butt-head behavior are probably coming off of Kathy's fear.

Kathy has owned Rosie since she was 3 days old. Rosie's about to turn 11. Kathy broke her, trained her and has put hours of solid all around riding on her.

These two know each other inside and out, and the barn sour nonsense isn't really a big problem. They both know it too, but Kathy has very legitimate fear to deal with and Rosie can feel it.

So what to do?

I have had a slow and gradual change in my approach to my horses over the past couple of years. My sense of urgency is slowly seeping away.

I have more fear than I used to also. So I accept this as something I need to be aware of, but not cave to.

Pete is my favorite example lately, since I'm on him most of the time. I went on a beautiful trail ride with my daughter last weekend. We hit some nasty boggy stuff during a creek crossing.

Neither horse wanted to cross the water. Pete never wants to cross water, so I wasn't surprised, but my daughter's horse, Snicket is quite the water hound. He'll crash across just about anything, and is all the happier if he ends up swimming.

When Snicket flat out refused, I decided to step down and look things over.

The kidlet said, "What are you doing? They can ride across."

"I'm over 50 and I can step off if I want to," I told her and I was only joking a little.

Pete and I found a not-so-scary part of the creek and I jumped across. After a second, so did Pete. I hauled my carcass back up on his back and we were ready to go.

The kidlet fought for another 10 minutes or so and finally stepped off. She jumped the creek and Snicket went to follow. His hind legs landed in the creek and he was immediately sucked down into horse gobbling mud up to his butt.

Snicket hauled himself out and was fine, but there was a couple of good points made here.
1. We should have listened to Snicket. He never refuses. He was trying to tell us something.
2. Getting off made everything easier. The horses still crossed, no harm no foul.

I find myself approaching things this way a lot more than I used to. Afraid of the flapping flag in the mailbox? Fine, I'll get down and lead you by.

Don't like the low overhang in the trees? Fine, we'll walk around it.

On the flip side, I do make Pete go by the flag. We don't go sniff it, we just pass it.Then relax a second and go on with our day.

We stop and at least think about the overhang every ride. Eventually Pete decides to go under, it's easier than going around after all.

We're in the process of learning to drag a roping dummy.

The younger, feistier me would have knocked Pete up to it, grabbed the rope and messed and fought until he drug it around.

The older, mellower me doesn't care that much. I end my ride a little closer to it every day. Pete has quit fretting over it. He knows we're about done for the day when I ask him to approach it. So next ride I'm going to pick up the drag rope and rub him with it. I'll do this until I can pull it and move it and he doesn't care. Eventually he'll lope around dragging the thing. It will look great on his sale video.

So will his water crossings, because we're sneaking up on them.

The irony here is this is exactly how I approached things before I carried the trainer label. If I needed to get through a gate, stream, scary place, whatever, I just got it done and continued on my way. If I had to get down I did. My goal was to get from A to B, not train my horse. In the process of getting from A to B my horse ended up trained anyway.

So with this in mind I had a few suggestions for Kathy.
Don't scare yourself. At this point in life we just want to have a good time.
Work the tar out of Rosie in the arena, then get down and lead her out of sight of the barn.
Let her graze awhile.
Lead her back.
Keep this up until one day you (Kathy) don't feel like leading her.
Then ride her to her grazing spot.
Next day ride her to a new grazing spot.
And so on.
Don't get scared, just enjoy the day with your good horse.
My guess is Kathy and Rosie will be riding around the neighborhood in no time.
Num, Yum, Snort, Hey! What's that???!!!
Rebbecca said - I have a 9 year old paint gelding, Junior. He was broke enough when I got him and we've been spending a year working on show finishing for western pleasure and hunter under saddle. Considering I'm an amateur (I do have a trainer, but I want your take on this) I think he's coming along well. BUT he is the mouthiest most ADHD horse I've ever known. He looks all around and gets distracted in the arena whenever a horse comes in or goes out. He will put anything and everything in his mouth and when he's bored/irritated/playful he kind of snaps at me.

Rebbecca has two problems with her horse. His mouthiness and his distractibility.

This gelding is a pleasure, hunter under saddle and maybe, a halter horse.

Each of these events requires standing still, or slow steady movement. None of these events are designed to take much thought on the part of the horse. Nor is there a lot of mental stimulation involved.

Most mouthy, easily distracted horses are also alert, intelligent and athletic horses. This is the kind of horse I like to put on a cow. Once I focus all that bubbling energy I usually lose the problem behavior.

I truly don't know what you pleasure guys do to occupy the minds of your more sharp minded horses, so input would be good here.

I also need to point out I have honest-to-God, diagnosed, severe, ADD. If I was a pleasure horse I would slit my own throat. So if Rebbecca’s trainer is happy with her horse’s progress I doubt he has ADHD.

What I do know is that a mouthy horse should not be given stuff to play with when he's being handled. Be it the end of a lead rope or the back of my shirt.

I have a 2 to 3 foot area of personal space that I want every horse I handle to respect at all times. No horse is allowed to cross into my space ever.

I come out of it to approach my horse whenever I want mind you, be it to love on them or discipline them. They don't get to come to me though.

This simple rule saves both me and my horses a lot of grief.

Have you ever watched two horses (usually geldings or studs) initiate play?

Horse #1 sneaks a quick nip at Horse #2.

Then Horse #2 nips back.

#1 whips back with a slightly harder nip.

#2 squeals and lunges.

The next thing you know they're rearing and play striking and acting like a couple of mustangs.

Next scenario: An owner is standing and holding her haltered horse by his lead rope right under his chin. The horse turns to look at another horse being led by him and the owner yanks on the lead rope.

Then the horse turns the other way to watch a tractor. The owner is pulled again and yanks on the lead rope again.

The horse sighs and stands still for a moment.

The owner strokes the horses nose.

He nips at her hand.

She gives him a small slap.

He nips again, a little harder.

Owner slaps a little harder.

Pretty soon they look like a couple of cheerleaders bitch-slapping each other.

Owner is pissed. Horse is thinking this is great fun.

Does any of this sound or look familiar?

So I keep things clean and direct. I don't handle mouthy horses faces below the eyes unless I'm bridling. Period.

There are lots of other places to pet my horse.

I DON'T HAND FEED THEM! (here we go again)

Between my personal space and my no petting below the eyes rule my mouthy horse never has a reason to touch me with his mouth.

Therefore, if he does touch me with his mouth I can discipline him. Not with a little slap or a bump of my hand on his jaw. I'm going to wack his shoulder or hip with my lead rope and bend him or back him around some.

If a horse in the field doesn't want the neighborhood punk horse bothering him he will lunge, kick and chase, making it extremely clear what's expected.

Every time he touches me with his mouth, I'm going to make a big, dramatic, unpleasant movement kind of thing. Then I'll ignore him.

On the other hand, I'm also going to ignore anything he does which doesn't affect me.

He can wiggle his ears, wag his tongue, shake his head, I don't care as long as his feet stay still and he doesn't touch me.

I give my horses at least four foot of lead rope when I lead them or hold them.

They get to do pretty much whatever they want on that rope as long as they don't touch me or bring their nose past my shoulder. They can't tug on the rope either. They have to keep their feet still when mine are. No grazing.

So they spook and spoof and rear and buck all they want as long as they don't break the rules.

I have noticed the only horses who choose to act this way are either stalled or in a small pen and haven't been out in a while.

I would want these rules clear before I started teaching them halter. Which I don't know how to do.

When the Don't Touch me, Keep your Feet Still Rules are clear I start to expect my horses to focus on me when I ask then to.

So if I quit ignoring my horse and look at him he needs to prepare himself to work. Which may be standing for the shoer or vet. Or loading in a trailer. Or being shown at halter.

If I ignore him he can look around, play with his own mouth, whatever, as long as he follows the rules.

I’m the same way about my horses being distracted. If I’m not working and they aren’t affecting me they can look at whatever they want.

If we’re working they need to work.

I expect as much focus from my horse as I am putting on them, on the ground or in the saddle.

So again, if my horse should be working and he’s googling around, I’ll get after him for not getting the work done, not so much for looking. Does that make sense?

As far as specifics, you’ll have to listen to your trainer, because I don’t know nuttin' about halter or pleasure horse training.
Mouthy Mondays
This is a great story, I felt every uneven step, could smell the pines and hear the bawling calves. Now I'm hoping we'll get the name of the woman who wrote it.....

My wife owns the horse Blue Allen rides (Whiskeys Starlight).

I grew up on the western slope of Colorado and my grandad was a rider for the Taylor Park Cattle Pool riding cows in the high country.

A friend of mines dad owned one of the ranches that belonged to the pool, she has started writing down some of her memories of when she was a little girl riding up in the high country with her sisters and dad.

I think her stories are good and I think people need to read some of them.If you like it and it is not to long maybe it will work for Mouthy Monday.

Let me know what you think.

Thank You.




The Cattle Drives

Operating a ranch in the Gunnison valley had advantages and disadvantages.

One of the advantages was the premium hay that grew with proper management in the irrigated meadows of the high mountain valleys.

One of the disadvantages was the ONE chance, ONE crop to supply the entire winters feed for your cattle. In order for the hay to grow, livestock had to be moved to the hills and surrounding mountains to government permits.

As a youth, I spent more time in a saddle behind cattle the most will see in a lifetime. My sisters and I would saddle up and head to the hills to push cattle. Sometimes we trucked in and sometimes we rode to the starting point of the drive. We were always excited and took great pride in our duty, even when it meant getting a tongue lashing for dropping our reins, or forgetting the lunches..ha ha!

We were way too small to reach up and grab a dropped rein and there was never a rock tall enough to lead the old horse up to and climb on! So it usually meant waiting for Dad to hunt us up and help us out.

He usually wasn’t in the best mood by the time he found us, out of worry and stress. Usually a potty break was the real cause to get off and not be able to get back on. Then the reins would be dropped, the whip and anything else we might have been packing along, left behind. He must have had the patience of Jobe!

I recall having to retrace my steps more than once, trying to find the lost whip or gloves! I’m not sure how many we lost, but it was several. Yes, I admit, there were more even after we could get on and off by ourselves! I recall being really disappointed about going to kindergarten, because I wouldn’t be home to ride old “Patches” every day, play with “Speck” the dog and help grandma make homemade tapioca pudding.

I was however, pretty pleased because my feet had FINALLY reached the bottom of my saddle blanket…meaning I still wasn’t making contact when I’d kick my old horse! It was a milestone for me though! Ha Ha. At that time, your age was measured by your stirrup length and I was definitely getting bigger!


We had the drives on BLM and the mountain drives on Forest permit. My favorite drives were the Forest permit drives. I still loved the dusty trail through the sage brush and the happiness of riding up on the lonely patch of trees and the watering hole on the BLM ground.

My favorite of all was the “early morning drive”. Always the third week in June and most likely encompassed my birthday. The drive was termed early morning for a reason as the morning wake- up call came at 2:30 am. Sometimes we pushed poor Dad to his limit trying to “come to life” at such an hour!

The cattle had a long drive on and hot day and didn’t move well in the heat. It was also important to get the herd past poison patches before they wanted to graze. Dad would have breakfast cooked and ready. While we ate breakfast with blurred eyes, Dad was busy saddling and loading the horses for his “crew”. Lunches would be made the night before and we would head out to the old stock truck with our lunches coats, gloves and yes, sometimes winter boots in tow. YOU NEVER FORGOT THE LUNCHES! I only did that ONCE!

My sisters and I would generally be asleep before we reached the three miles into Gunnison and might wake up to finding us turning up “Guerrieri lane” to the Lost Canyon turnoff. I always knew I had a little time to sleep from that turn before we got onto the gravel road up through Lost Canyon. I’d hear the old stock truck gear way down and I knew we were close to Cabin Creek and close to stepping out into the cold, morning, mountain air.

Keep in mind it was June and a frost at Cabin Creek was not out of the ordinary. When you ride, your fingertips and toes don’t get much movement and on little people they would be throbbing cold within a short time. More than once we’d tough it out as long as we could, then Dad would stop and build a little fire to get us warmed up again.

It was still dark when we started out from the corrals at Cabin Creek and my sisters and I would have get our morning doses of hard times from Mark, Dan or Joe Vader. Mark would always try and strike a deal to buy my old horse and I was simply not going to sell!

We could hear the coyotes as they barked and yipped in the trees on the nearby hills and timbers crack as cows were rustled up out of the beds in the trees. The horses would snort and rattle, anxious at the start of the cold morning ride.

You could hear the saddles creak and the packed saddle bags rub with each stride of the horses down the trail. Glendenning was beautiful, open bright green pasture, surrounded by groves of “quakies” or aspens. We would be passing through just as the sun would begin to peek over the mountain and down through the trees. The wonderful smell of heavy dew on the mountain grasses and damp bark from nearby timber was second to none.

You could hear the forest coming to life as the sun warmed the chilled landscape. The youngest crew and oldest crew always got the “Drag”. That was the tail end of a cattle drive, back with the slow, newer, baby calves and a few old cows and bulls. When we were little, it was the best place for us little “cowboys” as there was always someone close and usually the safest.

We would ride along and listen to the low mooing of the cows to their calves and the bawling of the separated calf from its mother. The old horse’s feet would rhythmically hit the ground with the sounds of the rocks clinking on the horses’ shoes.

Sometimes we would lie back over our saddles and let our heads bounce along the top of the horses’ rump. It was a great view to see the trees and scenery through an upside down view! We would move along until we got to the top of the mountain that dropped off into Hall’s Crossing.

This was a high point as the herd would hit a trot and so did we, down through the trees, whooping and hollering the whole way down. The thick dust would rise and sparkle in the air as the morning sun broke through its curtain. The old cows seemed to know a break was ahead and there would be time to pair up and rest.

One of the hills dropping down into Hall’s Crossing, usually had a black bear that my father felt compelled to chase down the hill! Yes, with me in tow! I wasn’t sure whether to fear loping down the timbered mountain side or the bear we were tailing! He was much more worried about us I’m sure.

If we didn’t see the bear, we could always smell what he’d been feeding on – usually a cow that had died from poison, mountain lupine. When in bloom, it was deadly to cattle. The only way to avoid the inevitable upcoming “gag” was to hold the old horse up until the “drag” was well beyond the carcass, then lope by holding your breath!

There it was, Hall’s Crossing. Hall’s Crossing was wonderful, beautiful mountain valley with a couple of old mining cabins at the mouth of the pasture. As kids, we had reached a magical destination, two old cabins to explore and play in, chipmunks to pester as they warmed themselves in the morning sun and a quick break for a snack and juice!

By the time we’d reached Halls Crossing, the horses were lathered white with sweat and the smell of the sweat soaked leather filled the mountain air. Cows would call to their calves and once paired would begin to graze, the calves would nurse and soon would be bedded down in the cool grass, for a short rest. You could tell when the herd was paired when the bawling of calves had ceased and all was content.

When it was time to move on, the herd would be gathered and crossed at the creek and headed up the steep rocky pull ahead. The crossing was usually a little tense until all the calves had either leaped or tiptoed with their tails in the air, through the water to the other side. The next hour or so was pretty hard work as there was a steep rock face on the right and the thickest willow patch ever and bog holes to the left. Perfect spot for a cow or bull looking for a great place to hide or escape and a terrible place to get into and out of with a horse. Usually it took a good cow dog to win the battle. I

t was here one point just past the willow patch we had a young coyote join ranks with the dogs. He trailed behind the horses with the dogs, panting with the rest of the pack. He followed for quite some time until he figured out he wasn’t in his “place”. We didn’t bother him and neither did the dogs, he moved on when he was ready and was no threat to any livestock at the time. I think he was just looking for a little company.

This part of the trail was full of large granite boulders, some as large as a vehicle, just peeking out of the ground. You could hear the slipping hooves of the cattle scraping and sliding as they worked up the trail. Everyone was alert to the sound of a shod hoof loosing grip on the hard granite surface, it was always a relief to see a horse regain footing. Going completely down with his rider could lead to tragedy pretty quick. Everyone was aware and many times would ride with their feet out of their stirrups to be able to free themselves in case of such an event. I remember watching for sparks from the horses shoes against the rock. Definitely not a place for goofing around and everyone and everything took their time.

Once you had reached the top of this long hard pull you were at the top and the rest was down hill. Some of the most incredible views were to be had at the vantage point on top this hill. You could look out across and see the entire northern Gunnison valley.

What a scene, the mountains on the other side of the valley, the lush green meadows below, mirrored with the irrigation water on top them and the crystal blue sky. There you were on top of it all, taking it all in. You were in the high country now. More pines and less aspens. The blue spruce announced the high country with their pungent smell of pine needles and bark.

If you listened carefully above the sounds of hooves against rocks you could hear the variety of birds and squirrels announcing your arrival as well. Their chirps and calls echoed through the pines and rocky terrain as you dropped down into One Mile canyon. The sounds of the cattle, the rider’s whoops and whistles resonated between the granite walls as you headed down the trail towards Taylor Canyon.

The rock walls grew narrower and the dust was so thick you could barely see the ears of the horse you rode. This is truly when the “wild rags” and bandannas came in handy but it was only short lived and a wonderful reminder you had reached your destination, Taylor Canyon.

What a day’s work and it would only be around 10:00 am. The horses were exhausted and whoever was mounted on something full of vim and vinegar at the start was riding a finished horse at the end.

We’d hop off, tie our horses and dig into our beat up lunches and well shook sodas! Joe Vader was always good for a candy bar and we were always thankful to be on the receiving end! It was the end of a long day and one that was going to happen all over again in a short while! We’d be sound to sleep in a matter of minutes, once we loaded up and headed towards Almont. We might make it passed Harmel’s Dude ranch before complete exhaustion took its toll. As hard as it was to wake that early and work that hard- we were still game for doing it all over the next day!
The Show is Over as Soon as the Gate is Closed/Sonita
I took Sonita behind the show barns and let her graze.

The grass was frosted over and the misty air was heavy enough to puddle in the hollows of her horse blanket. Water trickled down her sides and rivulets ran down her legs. Sonita shook and stomped as if she was covered with flies but never lifted her head from the grass.

This was it. We had one more go.

I stepped back and admired my big powerful mare.

Tall, solid and quick, both mentally and physically, she had given me everything I had asked for and earned her place in the world.

Sonita had made me a trainer.

I tipped my head back until the brim of my hat hit my back. The cold mist swirled around my face and I looked up into the sky.

We had barely squeaked into the finals. We stood in 10th place. We trailed the 9th place horse by 10 1/2 points. We trailed the leaders by 20 points and more. Since the results would come from our combined scores we had virtually no chance of changing our placing.

My horse was sold and my show finished the second we entered the ring.

I felt light and a little loopy. It occurred to me a huge weight had lifted from my shoulders. I had grown so accustomed to packing it around I didn't know I carried it until the burden went missing.

I reached out and scratched Sonita's withers. Icy water ran down my neck.

"Today is about fun," I told her.

"No scolding, no schooling, you can dink as much as you want. You've earned it."

"Good luck Mommy!"

My daughter came trotting out of the mist on her mare. Loki was still in her blanket and my daughter rode with just a halter and lead. Her voice jiggled as she kept a precarious balance.

I noticed she had slipped into my name from her childhood. It was my only clue she was starting to feel the stress of the show.

"Don't get yourself killed," I said, "I'll see you at the gate."

I headed back to the barn. It was time to saddle up.

We rode into the warm up pen. Sonita was calm and alert. I took a few deep breaths and felt myself relax.

The Big K sat on the rail. I paused for a second as we passed.

How are you doing?" He asked.

"You know, it's funny, but I feel just fine," I answered.

"Good, remember to think ahead and have some fun."

"OK."

I leaned over and stroked Sonita's neck as we headed out into the warm-up. She shook her head in impatience. This was a show and Sonita was never in the mood for mushy stuff when she had work to do.

I put her into a lope and settled in. The feeling of lightness was still there and I tuned into the steady one-two-three of her lope as she went to work. She rolled her bit and dolphin bucked a time or two, flicking her ears back to see if I was paying attention.

"C'mon now, step up," I muttered and Sonita dropped her head and moved out.

I focused on the ground in front of us, turning off my brain and melting into my horse. We had done this so many times, in so many different arenas, so many different states. There was no need to think, no need to worry. Not today.

The shimmery silver path opened in front of us. The path I could find only when we were totally alone and practicing in a field. I relaxed even deeper into my saddle and we loped our circles, following the silver path.

The only sound was the steady chuffing of Sonita's breath as she found her rhythm.

"Janet!"

I snapped my head around and looked to the gate.

"You're in the hole!" The gateman checked my number.

I stood and watched the last horse and rider before me finish a respectable run.

The gate swung open and we trotted into the center. Sonita's head was high, but her trot was steady.

We settled in the middle. I rocked back and forth in my stirrups, sneaking a belated check on my cinch. I adjusted my hat and pushed my glasses up my nose.

Sonita stood like a rock, eye balling the judges.

I lifted my head, looked the judges straight in the eye and smiled.

This was going to be a good day.

"Let's go Sonita, this is it."

As we loped off into our first circle I knew we were golden. Sonita was steady, her shoulders were up and there was no wobble.

My silver path opened in front of us.

I wish I could remember the rest of the pattern but I don't. I felt the rhythm of our ride and the sweetness of knowing my horse as well as she knew me. The only sound I heard was Sonita's steady breathing. She stayed so solid in her bridle, my hand, the romel and her grip on the bit were one in the same.

I simply followed the trail laid out in front of us, step by step. It faded away as we came into our last stop. The hollers of congratulations from my friends told me we had a clean run.


I pushed my feet in my stirrups, smashed down my hat and pushed up my glasses. I felt the quiver of Sonita's back muscles through my saddle and up my spine as she geared up for our cow. I waved at the gate man.



She stood frozen, the clatter of her bit telling me, "Hurry, hurry, let's get that cow!"

The dun and white cow blew out and trotted back and forth, looking beyond us at the exit gate on the other end of the arena.

I trotted Sonita toward it's right ear, trying to make the heifer see us, acknowledge us.


With a flash of her white face the cow jumped left and ran, still not willing to see us.


Sonita jumped too, a perfect mirror and pointed her nose at her hip, sending her across the arena.

I checked Sonita lightly, trying to keep her inner Doberman at bay. We didn't want to get this cow running, not yet.

The cow gave us a little trouble as we drove and stopped her back and forth across the short side of the arena. Sonita settled into her work. I let her box a little longer than the judges probably wanted, but hey, this was our day, not theirs.

We finally got the heifer to turn and look at us.

"Get her down the fence!" I heard the Big K shout.

"Fine! Don't push me!" I thought.

Sonita felt the shift in my focus and her head came up, worried.

The cow, free from our concentration, made a break for it.

I put my cow side leg on Sonita and she faded out. We caught our cow and drove her back, almost to the corner. Sonita rocked back and turned the heifer, I pointed my mare at her hip and we started our drive to the fence. As we passed the middle of the arena I pushed Sonita's hip towards the heifer, creating an opening through the corner.

Sonita dug deep as we went through the corner and we stayed with our cow even as she flipped her tail in the air and took off down the long side of the fence.

I sat back and kept my eye on the cows nose. I held Sonita back and she ran stride for stride until we passed the middle cone.

Sonita felt the release of my hand and flew.





The first penalty cone came roaring up at us, but Sonita stepped past our cow and blocked it in one smooth motion.


I felt the cows head hit my thigh and I gave her a quick glance. I couldn't help but feel a tug of satisfaction. The slobber going down my chaps was a point of pride and guaranteed bragging rights.


We came through the turn still with our cow and flew down the fence for another long run, our second turn was as smooth as the first.


By the time we set up for our third turn I sat up a little, wanting to save our cow for the circles.


Sonita shook her head at me, wanting to jump on this malcontent.


We pushed between the cow and the fence forcing her out to the middle of the arena. Sonita was still arguing and we came out a stride behind. I gave her her head, she pinned her ears and flew, catching us up within two strides.



We circled left, changed sides and circled right. Everything was clean and easy, the way it always goes when the pieces fit together.

The judges whistle blew and I dropped my reins and sat up. Sonita circled her cow one more time, not ready to give her up.


I heard my friends yelling, the Big K's "That's the way to do it!" coming through clear and proud.

Sonita strutted towards the gate, as only a winning show horse can, her ears pricked and her tail swinging.

I had no idea how we would come out, I realised I didn't care. The show was over and we had done just fine.

This is a very interesting blog. This young woman is using her head and the help available to her in a way I wish we all did. Is she using techniques I would use? Not always, but that's what makes this interesting, watching her explore things that help her succeed with the horse she has.




http://www.lifewithacrazyhorse.blogspot.com/

I first saw Fox on-line as I was browsing through horses for sale on Trademe as I did on a regular basis. I was smitten. Fox looked like my dream horse. A 12 year old 17hh chestnut Hanoverian x Thoroughbred. And even better, he had a big blaze and four white socks. I wasn't in a position to buy a horse at that stage so I looked wistfully at his photos and moved on. I couldn't stop looking though. Every week I would check to see if he was still for sale. Then one day he was gone. I was gutted.

I kept browsing and waiting till the right time came for me to buy a horse. I never saw one that grabbed my attention like Fox did though. Then one day, nearly a year after I first saw him, he was back on there. I had a deep sense of conviction that he was supposed to be mine.

A month later everything fell into place and I was able to start thinking about buying a horse. The first thing I did was e-mail his owner with a long list of questions. He had mostly been used as a farm hack and had was only just back in work after nearly a year off but the only bad thing she had to say was that he could pull a bit especially when he was going fast. No problem I thought, I can handle that. So we organised a time for me to ride.

The day came and the weather was wild and windy but we couldn't postpone as he lived quite a ways away in Golden Bay. When I saw him in real life, he was better than his photos. He had a real presence. I wanted him.

I knew it was the wrong thing to think, I should be shopping around, trying lots of horses out. But I didn't want any other horse, I wanted this one.

He was a little head shy about being bridled but nothing major. His owner said he had always been like that, just didn't like the bridle being put on. No worries I thought again, I can handle that.

The ride was fantastic. We rode for two hours on Pakawau Beach. We trotted and cantered and galloped and jumped logs. Fox was awesome. His paces felt great, powerful and flowing. His jump was bold and strong. If I hadn't already been hooked, I would have been after that ride.

We organised a two week trial and after some trouble finding a truck to bring him over the hill, he arrived at the place he would be living. I was so excited and couldn't wait to ride him again.
When the dressage instructor first saw him, I was opening a gate on him. She gave me a look and said 'I hope that's not someones fancy dressage horse you're trying to open a gate on.' I laughed and said 'no he's just been a farm hack for the last 5 years'. But inside I was glowing. My horse looked like the real deal!

The two weeks flew by, the decision was already made. Fox would be mine and I would be the proud owner of my very first horse!!
We had about three weeks of bliss hacking round the farm and doing some basic arena work then the first signs of trouble started appearing...
Princess and the Pea
Half Dozen Farms brought up an extremely good point that comes up often around this blog.

It's the issue of sensitivity.

She has an OTTB who is very sensitive. This mare also likes to buck and refuse to give on one side.


This is a very common problem.

Sonita would strike and fret if she got sand in her sport boots.

She would shudder, sweat, roll and generally freak if her blanket was itchy anywhere.

My yellow mare hates sweat.

When she is worked hard enough to have sweat trickling down her face or flanks she flips out, shaking her head, trying to rub her face on her legs, kicking at the sweat on her sides.

She also doesn't like to get her feet dirty or wet.

I was practicing my cutting one day before I quit training. Our cattle were having digestive issues. Cattle always have digestive issues, but this day was particularly gross.

As we were cutting my mare kept blowing up and jumping out of position. This is a horse who normally does a really good job keeping her eye on the cow.

So I pulled up, checked her feet, her legs, under the saddle. Nothing.

I asked my boss to watch her.

I rode back into the herd, kicked out a cow and we went to.

She jumped again and my boss burst out laughing.

Turns out my mare didn't want to step in the digestive issues that were pouring out of our cattle.

I don't call this sensitive. I call it a pain in the ass.

ALL HORSES ARE SENSITIVE.

I admit, some are goosier than others. But every horse I've ever known, dull or sharp, will shake a fly off its flanks. That's pretty sensitive.

We want our horses to respond to the lightest touch. Some are quicker to pick up on this than others.

There are countless ways to try to explain over-sensitivity or dullness. It's easy to label a horse as bad, or abused, or crazy when all it comes down to is a sensitive horse that's been mishandled.

The Big K used to tell me to handle the dull ones with the softest touch and to bang and hang and thump and jump all over the sensitive ones.

A sensitive horse needs to survive out in the world. She needs to deal with an unexpected poke with a spur, a saddle thumped on her back or too much pull on the bit.

In defense of the OTTB, they often are very thin skinned. A metal curry is torture, a saddle pad caked with sweat can drive them to distraction. There are plenty of QH's out there with the same issue. So I get it.

BUT. They still have to cope. These sensitive souls don't get to kick at our feet, run through our leg, trample over the top of us, etc. Because that makes them end up in a dog food can.

The way I handle these horses is not particularly different than other horses, except I decide how I'm going to handle them and become extremely precise.

I use my eternal 1, 2, 3 method of teaching. One is the feather light question the sensitive little souls crave. Two is a sharp demand, not hard enough to start a fight, but very clear. Three gets them in trouble. The trouble keeps coming until the horse does what I want.

If I go to step three I will continue with the cue until the horse listens. I'm ready to deal with whatever the horse throws at me. Remember, she was offered step one and two already. She chose to go to three.

If a horse kicks at my spur I will keep spurring until I get what I want. I know if I back off I will be teaching my sensitive horse to fight.

My horse has too clearly understand my spur means move away and until she does I will continue to spur.

If the horse bucks I'll keep at her until we're loping the way I want.

Angry or frightened horses fall back on old behaviors that used to work. I know I have to fix it again but it won't take as long this time.

Now here's where I'm on the side of the sensitive horse. Once I get my point across I try to help them out.

If you don't want to use spurs then get to where you don't have to. Put them on when your trainer tells you to. Give your first cue with the barest whisper from your calves. Then go to stronger leg. Then use the spurs as step three until you win. Then take them off. Only use your spurs when your mare makes it clear she won't listen. Eventually she'll get it.

When you practice on your own do simple work that you know you can succeed at. Practice your cues with a tiny bit of leg, then more, then spur. She will start to respond to the second cue, then the first.

Help your mare learn she doesn't want step three, ever.

Then when it gets down to a fight she'll remember step three.

A horse is only truly light if she understands the consequence of not listening.

Sonita had to work doubly hard in her sandy boots until she listened.

Then I took them off, washed them out, and began to rotate two pairs of boots so she always wore a freshly washed pair. I put a clean pair on right before she showed, I rubbed and brushed her legs before I put her boots on and made sure the boots were wrapped tight enough to keep the sand out.

I would clean Sonita's clock if she rubbed on me or rolled while I led her, but I would try on countless blankets until she was comfortable.

My yellow mare, the princess, the valley girl, the epitome of high maintenance, got ridden through mud, cattle pens, wet sand, anything I could find to gross her out.

When she fusses over sweat she gets worked until sweat is the last thing on her mind.

Then she gets a bath. I will wash her legs off for her every ride, she likes to be clean. I have switched out her pads to find one that didn't create quite as much of a river trickling down her flanks.

I braid her forelock to at least keep the wet hair out of her eyes.

See what I mean? I try to help my horses with their sensitivities, but not until they understand they have to listen, even when they have to cut through cow goo and have it splash in their face.

If I had enough of a problem that I knew I'd back down, I might get professional help. But I would be afraid my horse would get pushed too much. That the fight would be created and the punishment too severe.

Instead I might try to back track to exercises I knew would work, then start to build back up in smaller increments.

Teach her she has to listen in a non-confrontational setting. Then build up to the problem areas and don't be afraid to fix her.

If it is too much then I would get help.
Random, Idle Thoughts
I have been enjoying sliding out of the office and riding my horse during my lunch hour. I have also been horrified on how out of shape Pete and I are after a year of fun in the mountains.


I can't find my marker on my circles. Pete is absolutely no help.


You have to understand, I always find my markers. I haven't had to look after my first set of circles for years.


Now I find myself wandering all over the arena.


So it's back to school for Pete and I. We'll be doing spirals up and down while hitting our mark with every circle.

We'll be transitioning through trot, lope walk, run and finding our mark.


And so on.


I'm not in a panic, I know it will kick in, but I have sure rolled up my sleeves and am digging in.


Which leads me to my next train of thought.


My colt Leland and my only teaching him things once.


It's obvious to me that Pete and I need to school and build our muscle memory again. Which takes repetition.


But, even though I haltered Leland once and decided he now knew how to be haltered doesn't mean I never halter him again.


It simply means I approach him from now on with the assumption he understands what I want from him.


It has been working just fine.


So when we start our reined work when he's four, he will have been treated this way every time, he will (hopefully) be tuned to the learning process I'm using and will actively seek finding the new thing we're working on that day.


So the first day on a circle would be to let me guide him in a circle.


The next ride would begin with the circle, then I would start to ask him to carry himself through on a loose rein. That would be the new task.


Each lesson would involve something new, but he would still be getting the repetition he needs and I would quit for the day when he was successful with the new task.


I'm starting to realize this is a change in my expectations, of myself and Leland, but not so much my training.


This process of one step at a time has also helped me.


I have talked before about my horses having a built in hesitation that I would like to get rid of.

When I ask for something, be it a lead, a spin or a hip, all my horses hesitate for a brief second.


It's like they're saying, "Are you sure?"

When I saddled Leland and sent him out in the pen the other day he went out fine. He was a little humpy, but it was no big thing.

I made him walk and trot until he relaxed.

He showed no inclination to lope around, but I didn't really think about it.

Until I started thinking about my next step that is.

I realize now he didn't lope because he was unsure of the saddle.

I rewarded his hesitation by quitting for the day, even though we have covered walk, trot, lope in previous sessions.

I should have made him lope too.

So now, our next session will be about moving forward when I say, something I have already covered.

So I've created a back track. Dang it.

I also have found where the hesitation I hate so much begins.Right there at the first saddling.

So this is a real good exercise for me, even if it is a little nutso.

I am truly working on the Sonita story. I'm not holding out, I just want it to be right.
Stopping, Suppling and Snaffle Bits
I got this letter in an email. I edited it down some, but kept the important parts.

Alexis said: I had a question for you about my 9 yr. old gelding, Smoke.
I bought him when he was 5, and he was just serviceably broke.

Fast forward to now--he has a very nice stop, handles himself well and stays collected in a nice frame, picks his leads up and can carry it on any size circle.

It took me several months to get him to soften on the bit, and drop his nose as he stopped, rather than doing a bad impression of a giraffe. I put so much time and effort into getting that soft, collected stop that now, I have another issue to deal with.

When I stop my horses, I always ask them to back at least three or four steps. With Smoke, he stops, tucks his nose, and backs about 2 steps. If I ask him to back any more, he simply tucks his head to his chest. Now, I admit, I like for him to soften through his poll and neck before I back him up, but I'm at a loss as to how to get the next few steps out of him!

Ideally, I would like to be able to lope a circle, ask for a stop, then be able to back him up a foot or so without having to pull on his mouth. He's not doing any thing wrong per se, simply doing what I'd been asking him before by softening his face and poll.
Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hey Alexis -It sounds like your doing a great job of getting your horse going.
I think there is some confusion between you and Smoke on what you want from him and why you want it.
I’m not sure how you got your horse to soften when he stopped, so I’ll tell you what I do and why, and I think it will help.
If I have a horse who is throwing his head as he stops I make sure he isn’t sore before I start correcting things.
Hollowing out and throwing his head will be either a response to pain or anticipation of pain. So if he's afraid of getting pulled on, or knows it hurts to stop he'll give you this response.
If I am working on softening a horse through a stop I work on getting him to soften during the run down, then release him into the stop itself.
I get my horse soft in the face by working his ribs and shoulders, not his face. If his back is up and I’ve got him soft through his withers he’s going to travel soft in the face.
If everything is soft and relaxed he’s going to hunt his slide and travel with his front feet running and his hind end buried, all on a loose rein.
I want my horse to look forward to the stop, not dread it.
So two strides before my stop begins I release all my cues and say “Whoa.”
My hand relaxes and releases the head as my legs come off and quit asking for forward.
There’s lots of ways a stop can go wrong, but I’m going to focus on two problems which seem to most apply to your situation.
The first is if I ask for the stop and, well, he doesn’t. He can just keep going (rare), or he stops hard but then starts moving forward again once he stands back up.
In this case I’ll make him back.
But I don’t just pull on his face. I bump with my legs to get him back.
When I back a horse, I’m essentially bumping him forward into his bit.
My bit creates a wall. My legs push him into the unforgiving wall and he backs to escape the pressure.
In a situation where the horse is stepping back a few steps, then breaking at the poll and sticking, I’m going to look at this as confusion on my horse’s part.
If he’s stuck I take it to mean he has strung out and hollowed out his back. With his neck up and his head giving at the poll he really can’t get moving again until he get’s his body back under control, with his back up and his hind legs under him.
So I would kick him forward into my hand rather than keep pulling back. Then he can step forward, get himself organized and he can back off my legs again.
When I slide a horse like this, or one that hollows out and throws his head I will ask for the exact no pressure stop I described above, then kick him forward into the bridle after he has settled.
I might step him into a spin or two, or just trot some forward circles (depending on his level of training) and then I would go again.
The key to fixing my horse is to consistently allow him to complete his stop before I correct him.
Then I have to analyze what caused the problem and correct his position, either forward or back.

Kel said:I used to ride with an cowboy who started all his horses in a bosal, then to a snaffle and then to the two rein. He was in his 70's when I was riding with him and he said that was the way the old cowboys did it. I find it interesting that now adays that you go from the snaffle to the bosal and that is the accepted way the old cowboys did it. He could make one hell of bridle horse and won alot with them. What is it that you like about the snaffle bit first?

Kel- The most important thing to remember is not all trainers do things the same way, even back in the "old days." If your guy said everybody did it that way, it means everybody he trained with. Trainers who rode 30 or 40 years ago didn't share information like they do now. So there were unique pools of training going on in different parts of the country.

I learned to train from people who will also tell you "that was the way all the cowboys did it," and to their mind it is true.

That being said, I didn't learn cowhorse from cowboys, I learned it from professionals who train for the show pen. They also make lots of money in the show pen. But most of them don't work on a ranch (except Mike Miller, who's about the coolest cowboy on the planet).

The NRCHA (national reined cowhorse association) has futurities for three-year-olds. It's called "The Snaffle Bit Futurity" because most of the horses are started in a snaffle.

The four and five-year-olds are offered the hackamore classes and the derbies, then the bridle classes begin when the horses are six.

So that should explain why I train in this order.

It goes deeper than that though.

I work off a saying, "the snaffle develops soft shoulders and the hackamore develops a soft face."

I truly can't tell you where I first heard this, it's been around a long time.

The dressage guys can probably back me on how the snaffle works through the shoulders.

I want my horses to have their feet under control before I worry about where the face goes.

I firmly believe, from experience and conversation with trainers I respect, that if I have the feet the face will follow.

The hackamore then softens and refines the face in relation to the feet.

Also, after a horse has been in the hackamore for a year he will automatically go to neck reining.

When I turn a horse in the snaffle he will follow direct pressure from my hand. So when I pull left, he will go left.

The hackamore puts pressure on the outside of my horses face, so when I pull left his face is pushed left.

This is how the pressure works in a curb.

So this is why I train in the order I do.

It doesn't mean your old guy doesn't know what he's doing, or that he isn't a hand. But at the end of the day we all train our horses in a way we understand, no matter what the method.

Somebody else asked: Why do you send your horses forward out of a spin, instead of letting them stand?

Somebody else- I don't always send them forward, but going forward and loping a circle on a loose rein is a reward for my horses. I teach them the quiet spot is in their circles as well as when they stand.

A spin is a forward motion. The horse is stepping forward around his pivot foot. If I pull him back he will have a harder time getting around his hind foot.

So if I feel him coming back in the spin I will kick him forward and lope out of it.

If I let my horse stand and rest every time we spin he will start to hunt the rest instead of the spin, which will make him lug on my hand and leg.

If he gets to spin without me using any spur or too much rein he will look to give me a good spin.

If the spin is so perfect I don't need to ask for anything more I let him rest after the spin, but not until it's at least 70% ready to show.

I also drill my with a lope and spin exercise. I lope in a loose circle, I randomly stop, spin to the outside of my circle if I want to keep the same lead, or to the inside if I want to change leads. I do this all over the place. I spin one or two times, then lope directly out.

This speeds up my spins, increases my horses strength and agility and is fun. All without using too much spur.
I only send him forward with my legs, during the spin I sit quiet.

He starts to speed up his spin in anticipation of the lope.
Mouthy Mondays
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/nefelejts/Dante/?actPiggums:



Piggums

by amarygma


I apologized to my husband. I don't think he understood. When I said "I was NUTS about horses as a kid," I think he believed the "as a kid" meant it wouldn't come back. Whoops.

Minnesota's great; it's like I'm an addict at a half-price crack sale compared to Connecticut, where I'm from. I couldn't afford horse-related stuff as a kid (with non-horsey parents), but I can here. After a visit home, when an airline offered us free vouchers and an overnight hotel stay if we bumped our flight until morning, Husband thought I had lost it when I turned to him and said "But, I'd miss my lesson!" I knew I had to pace myself. I had a semester of lessons or so under my belt. And, I needed to practice what I knew before investing in more lessons.

I found an ad on Craigslist: "Beginners to advanced, Five free lessons with a 6-month half-lease: 90 dollars/month." I was sold. Cheaper than lessons alone but with bonus ones! I called the woman up and asked if she had a beginner horse available. She did. I explained my level, I could get a horse from pasture, groom, tack, and safely walk/trot and was learning to canter and do teeny weeny jumps. She mulled over 6 or 7 possibilities. Did I want odd or even days? (Odd, of course, some months have 31 days!) I met her at the barn where the horse was boarded. I was directed to find her at the outdoor arena.

He was a sleek, black Arabian gelding, and they were whipping around doing tight circles. She told me how smooth he was. I got on. We did not click.

He was very responsive, and very small. I hadn't ridden anything that narrow, or jumpy. I didn't feel secure. How did he move so much just walking!? I have wide hips, and I still do not like riding narrow horses, even with a better seat nowadays. I probably could have worked it out with time, but was so self conscious with her watching me. What would I do if she said I was too bad to ride her horses? She said to never fear, she has the perfect horse for me coming back from horse camp. Come on Thursday. I showed up Thursday, still feeling like an intruder, and also kinda dumb. I failed at that horse, how bad was I? With 60+ horses on the farm, I kept waiting for someone to tell me I was unauthorized. I came around the old barn to see the largest horse trailer I've ever seen (to this day). I see her lead a very pregnant, grey Arab off the trailer, handing her over to an old farmer. She spied me. ”There she is, Roger, give her to Robyn!" And she hopped into the truck and drove away with how ever many other horses were inside. Roger handed me a cotton lead.

"Here you go." The Arab mare began to dance around me screaming for the 10 or so friends who just left and at the 60 strange horses around her. I held on, afraid I'd lose her, or she'd run right over me. "What do I do with her!?" I asked, frantic Did someone really just hand me a horse and leave? A horse that's throwing a fit? What do I do with it?

"You can put her in a stall for the night, she'll get a herd in the morning."

"Where?" I creaked out, not taking my eyes off the blowing, dancing Arab. I had no idea where anything was on the property. Which building had stalls? Which stall? Again, why had the owner just upped and left? What if I hadn't been early? Why is she screaming? Roger showed me to a stall, and his wife, the BO helped set it up. For all I knew at the time they were kind strangers.
"You can go in there with her if you want."

"Okay," I followed direction, but honestly was a little nervous jumping into a confined area with a large animal that was obviously upset, stamping in circles and hollering out her little window.

Someone handed me a brush, someone else found the light switch, and I sat with her for a couple of hours until she was calmer.

She was gorgeous. 15HH, typey head, ears alert, neck arched, nostrils wide. She had a large melanoma on one side of her face, and where she had scars on her butt, they grew in as black dots and squiggles. She kept looking at me. Her name was Jessie. Damn. My husband's name is Jesse. I couldn't do that.

"Off to ride Jessie!" "Jessie was being a pill so I had to use a crop" "This bruise? Oh, I fell off Jessie." No, wouldn't do. I showed up to be shown her stuff and to test-ride two days later. Her owner was tacking her up and I was taking mental notes, the differences from my lesson horses in the tack used. No baby pad and numnah, she had just the baby pad. How to bridle at a hitching rail instead of cross-ties. When she showed some resistance at being bitted, the owner punched her in the head.Wait, WHAT!? Yup. "I know people say you shouldn't hit a horse in the head because it makes them head shy but I do and none of my horses are head shy," she offered as a quick explanation.

Oh...kay. I didn't want to argue with someone more knowledgeable than me just yet, but secretly vowed I would not start hitting horses in the head like that. Surely, nobody would make me.

We went down to ride in the outdoor arena again, and I got on. Much better. I felt very secure on her large lumbering self. She refused to trot for me, continuing to stumble around on the rail, so the owner wanted to get on and school her for a minute. I had seen instructors school horses for being naughty before, so I hopped off, figuring she'd just get her to do what I had been trying. Nope, That poor, pregnant horse was galloped around the arena HARD. Stopped HARD, and turned HARD.

I was confused. Was this because the horse was normally ridden Western? "She needs a stronger bit, I'll bring one up next time," she told me, hopping off. I didn't like that. Seemed like the wrong answer.
"Okay," I said, again, not wanting to argue. I got back on and could sense her anxiety. She still wouldn't trot, started this half-walk half-trot stumbly pace. "Kick harder!" she yelled to me. I kicked. I didn't want the horse to be schooled again so instead of the squeezeing and nudging, the gentle cues I'd had to give school horses, I gave her a good kick.

"HARDER!" she yelled again. I gave a desperate fwap, having to raise my feet out almost to hip height to kick harder. We did this several more times. I hated it. Something just seems very wrong about kicking a preganant horse hard. I get anatomy pretty well but it felt like I was kicking the baby. She went into a breakneck trot that was at least wide enough for me to post well, and ignored the bit until we got to the gate where the owner waited.

"I love her, she's perfect," I called out, lying. At least she was slow and smooth. I didn't want her to get into more trouble.

"Good!" She smiled. I wrote the check.

Over the next four months I managed to never set up my lessons. I didn't want to ride that way, it didn't look right, didn't feel right. It looked fast and mean. I figured the horse wouldn't mind either.

Every time I came out, she would be eating. I called her "Piggums." I was in love. I would graze her and groom her for 40 minutes before riding, brushing and grazing her afterwards, too. I think she loved me a bit as well. If I was picking her feet and there was a tasty morsel out of reach, she'd go down on her knee to get it before taking that foot away from me.

I became increasingly annoyed with her owner. I would be told to tell the owner that she needed her feet done, needed a blanket (pregnant and not terribly hairy), and would relay the message dutifully.

Someone at the farm trimmed her feet out of pity for me, the BO found a blanket off one of her horses for her. I, who wanted a horse to learn to post and sit the trot on, and be practicing a balanced seat, found myself spending time getting her to stop when I asked since I didn't want to switch to the harsher bit that luckily never made it's way to the farm.

I just kept turning her into the fence until she stopped making me do that. I used a crop to gently tap-tap her on the shoulder to trot instead of wailing on her, until she didn't need even that, a simple shift in the saddle like the schoolies or a cluck.

I had to convince her that I wouldn't hit her on the head, because she was head shy.

She seemed sad all the time. She'd perk up every once in a while, but she kept burying her face in me, hiding from the world.

I decided to save some money, and discontinue my lease. I switched to a smaller grey, arab mare who was offered to me for a free full lease. A beautiful dressage kid's horse. Very funny, lively, and happy. Happy. It almost didn't seem right. She had her own physical problems recovering from an injury and had EPM years before, but was safe and sound to ride and free made more sense than paying.

She was so willing and smart!

Plus, I didn't have a clue what to do with a foal when it arrived. It made sense. I told myself this. Nobody else rode Piggums, or visited her, but since I ended my lease with her I didn't want to be seen getting her out without paying for the privilege, in case someone told her owner.

I would sneak into her paddock at night, or later her stall to groom her in secret or let her out roam around in the arena, to pet her and love her. I always found a carrot for Piggums. The barn owner knew, as I'm sure she noticed the piles of hair around the suddenly clean horse after knowing I'd been around the night before.

One day, someone left the arena door open to the stall area. I could see her little face pressed against the birthing stall bars, watching me mount the little grey arab. She looked even sadder than normal, her big eyes longing.

I rode on the rail, the little mare needed more of a warmup. I passed the door, and Piggums neighed. As I rode around, she kept neighing. Nobody else noticed that Piggums called out twice for each lap I made in the arena, once as I went past the door, once as I passed opposite of the door. Each time she could see me, she'd call. I felt horrible.

Another day I came out to ride the little mare, and I saw Piggums out in the round pen, with her little black arab baby!

The BO wanted to bring them back into the stall for the night, and asked would I lead Pig while she wrangled the little Piglet? In the stall the BO had me lay on/next to the foal to help imprint since Piggums liked me most and would resent it less, and of course THAT moment was when the owner showed up. "Hi." I looked up.

"Well," she smiled, mildly accusatory "What are you doing there?"

"Ah," I stammered a bit, then smiled brightly back "Here's your baby! She's gorgeous!"

I jumped out of the stall, out of the barn, and hid in the pasture for a bit "looking" for the little grey mare. By the time I got back to the barn, the owner was gone.She stayed long enough for a couple of photos and left. I tried keeping up my visits to Piggums in her stall at night. The foal was a terror. The BO was halter breaking her, to lead them out for the day, and in at night.

"Worst foal ever!" she declared.

“They're normally sweet and lovey. This one's a little shit!"

We picked her up, we laid her down, she was horrible. I stopped grooming Piggums in her stall, the foal had aimed both back hooves at me and clipped me in the kneecap. She bit me. I saw much more of her butt than I cared to.

The owner never came out. They were moved to their own paddock. Piggums hated her foal. She'd let her nurse, but the foal would then kick and bite her and chase her around. Piggums always called for me, abandoning her baby to run over if I so much as walked by. I visited her in the pasture while the foal busily tried to defeat the hot wire fence or strike out at neighboring horses.

She'd put her face in my chest and sigh. Broke my heart. I figured they were leaving soon, mom and baby. Where the owner had her other horses (and two stallions), she could keep them for much cheaper.

Turns out, she was behind on board. Very behind. I looked into my finances.

I decided: If she defaulted and the BO took possession... I would bail her out. I would keep her, and I would make her happy. No more broodmare duty. No more horse camp every summer.

I asked the owner how much for the horrible foal. Five thousand. No way. I waited.

One day I arrived to the farm, and they were gone.

The owner came up with enough money to bail her horses, probably short for board somewhere else, and just led mom onto the truck, with baby following loose, because she couldn't be caught.

The BO had refused to help load, I think hoping she'd have to stick around.

Piggums was gone.

It's been two years. I have a fat quarter horse, who I love. I still ride the little mare on occasion. But some days especially, I miss Piggums. I know where she is, kind of. The owner leased a field, sans any shelter (no shelter no blanket in MN winter) , not too far from the farm. I could drive around and find it, maybe.

Last I heard she was up to 64 horses. She lives in a rented room in some old lady's house, with her teenage son. She buys horses every spring and sells every fall, making money on the ones that go to horse camp.

She told me if she liked the horse, she finds them a good home. If she doesn't like them, then she doesn't care where they go. The last of her horses that she boarded at my farm was so skinny he had ribs and hips popping out like crazy, and people were upset.

I keep track of her website, waiting for the word "liquidation." I'll be there with a trailer and a wad of cash in a heartbeat, but she's one of her "favorite" mares, and not likely to go anytime soon. I've asked her offhand in an email how they're doing, and she says "fat and sassy." But I wonder...
Seat Savers
Somebody asked-Mugwump, will you talk about getting (and keeping) a "good seat" in your next post? I dumped off my new calmer, safer horse the other day when he spooked sideways and it was a shock. Never been dumped over something so seemingly minor. Shook my confidence and makes me want to figure out if I'm doing something wrong.-


To which I replied - I have to let you on on something. Sometimes horses just step out from under you. I don't care how quiet, reliable or trustworthy they are, I don't care if you ride like a burr in a Australian Shepherd's coat.


I have two situations which come to mind. I hope you appreciate this, because this isn't the stuff horse trainers (even retired ones) like to admit to.


I had just started teaching and training at Mark Reynor stables. I was working with a new adult student and I borrowed one of the dudes so I could have a horse to ride while I taught.


This was a quiet, reliable dude horse. I was riding next to the student, explaining a point, when the horse spooked and simply stepped out from under me. One second I was on a horse, the next, my very surprised self was sitting in the dirt.


I admit, when I get to pontificating I tend to set my reins down and illustrate my points with two hands. But c'mon. I was on a dude.


We were walking.


I got back on and continued to give my lesson (I bet she was impressed, boy howdy) but I tried to pay a little more attention to my horse.


The next time this happened I was riding a horse for a new client. He was a pretty difficult colt and this was the owners first time to see him go.


We were walking around the arena, the owners were standing in the middle and I was explaining some of the difficulties I was having and also some of his good points.


Suddenly, the colt jumped and, whack, he was going the other way and I was on the ground. This time, I was keeping an eye on him, thought I had my seat when he jumped and he still just skittered out from under me.


Once again, I'm sure I really impressed the new clients.


So, I guess my point is, sometimes it just happens.


In the mean time, I do have some seat savers, so to speak.


The first one is pretty simple. Ride your horse. If your afraid then longe him first or get somebody else on first or borrow a horse you can trust. But you have to ride to improve your seat. Muscle memory works two ways and it's hours in the saddle that creates a solid seat.

If you have had a scare, riding through it is the only way to work through all the stiffness we create when we're nervous.


Make sure your stirrups are the correct length. The older I get, the shorter I like my stirrups. If I let my legs hang relaxed off the side of my horse my stirrups bump at the top of my ankle bone.


Too long and you'll jam your feet down and stiffen your legs to stay on. Too short and you will pop up and forward. Neither is conducive to staying secure in your seat.


Make sure your saddle is the right size for you. For the most part I run into adults riding a saddle that's too small and kids riding a saddle that's too big. One size does not fit all.


Here's a good article on western saddle fit. http://horses.about.com/od/choosingandusingtack/a/westernseatfit.htm



I'll let you English guys tell us about your own saddles.

Now for some exercises. This takes some trust. I have done these in a round pen, on a longe line with a buddy and along the rail in an arena. A round pen is the easiest.

I'm doing them now, a couple of times a month, and it's helping me keep my seat.

I do these at a standstill, a walk and a trot. I'll lope through these exercises on Pete, but not my yellow mare. She doesn't play fair.

Only do as much or as little as you are comfortable doing.

First I sit on my horse, who is standing in the middle of the pen. I sit up straight. I look straight ahead and I drop my stirrups. I put my feet back in my stirrups without looking. I make sure I don't touch my reins.

I take my feet out of my stirrups.

I put my heels up and down.

I scissor kick my legs.

I relax.

I usually work my horses pretty good first so they want to stand still.

I take my feet out of the stirrups.

I lift my legs straight out to the sides as far as I can. Be prepared for butt cramps.

I hold for a slow count of five and relax.

I try for ten reps. Did I mention the butt cramps?

I keep my feet out of the stirrups.

I hold my arms out to the sides.
Twist at the waist to the left and right.
Keep those shoulders level!!!!

I relax.

I roll my head around in a circle, left to right, right to left.

Now we're ready to walk.

I get on the rail and take my feet out of the stirrups, then in. Out then in.

I drop my reins, extend my arms and twist left and right.

I relax my arms and scissor kick for awhile.

I drop my reins and get my arms pumping like I'm running in rhythm with the gait.

Then I pump my arms like I'm pulling a train whistle.

Then I swing an imaginary lasso. All in rhythm with my horse.

Then I drop and pick up my stirrups while I do the arm stuff.

Then I scissor kick and do the arm stuff.

This stuff works great with a full Ipod.

Try to relax.Then I trot.

Then I lope.

You might as well let rip with a Ki-Yi-Yi because you will already be cracking up anybody who sees you.

It really, really helps.

Yip!

Mouthy Mondays
Hey guys. I have probably 15 stories waiting to go up on Mondays. HOC was right, they read better one at a time so I don't want to double up. You are welcome to keep sending stories, I'll store them, but you can see how bad I am at keeping track of when they come in.

I store them all, I want to post them all, but I mess up the order.
So be warned, you might want to hang on to your stories for a bit, I'll tell everybody when to send more.

Also, I don't know if I already posted this one or read it and really liked it (which I do) so I think I posted it...If it's a rerun let me know, I'll put up the next one.

Now you know what I'm like on Mondays.

This story is a good one. The writer wants to stay anonymous, which I'll always honor, so it has an air of mystery......


I never do any writing but you inspired me to reminisce in an old memory and to reflect on the journey my mare and I have had. Thank you for that.

I wasn’t from a horse family, and I didn’t have much money. I don’t know if it was because of this or my embarrassment over my lack of lessons and horse lingo, but I didn't have very many riding friends either.

I bought my first horse from a barn that was a 20 minute bike ride from my parents house, they wouldn't take me to look so I had to find my own way. I was 14 and after 2 years of saving my part time job money I was the proud owner of a small, green, off the track, chestnut thoroughbred mare - at a barn primarily made up of warmbloods.

Now that I owned her, I realized I didn't have a penny to my name for tack. Luckily some of the older ladies at the barn took pity on me and leant me enough pieces to put together a saddle and bridle.

Over the next year I poured myself over books learning about the things lessons and camp never teach you, trying be a better owner and desperate to fit in. I was still pretty much ignored. I heard it all “green + green = black and blue”, you’re too tall for her, she’ll never made a nice hunter, she’s too small, but I didn’t care.

My parents never did come meet her, my high school friends weren’t interested and I was an outcast among the girls where I rode.

But onward we stumbled, learning as we went about basic care and the importance of patience. After about a year I decided I would try my hand at showing and we went to a hunter show down the road.

My mare stood out with her lumpy braids (my first time using yarn), mismatched tack (but I finally owned it), and me wearing rubber boots and a blazer from Zellers. As the trailer dropped us off I suddenly felt overwhelmed. I sat alone all day holding my mare, listening to kids snapping at their parents/coaches and trainers as their nerves started to get to them. I ate my sandwich and groomed my horse far away from the show rings, as others my age dropped their horse with their parents and went to watch the competition.

That day I learnt what "in the shoot" meant, and that you had to count your striding in between fences, and that it probably would have been nice if someone other then an irritated stranger could have held my horse for me while I took a rushed bathroom break. Our rounds weren’t amazing, we were fast, unbalanced and didn't get our leads. When we were in the line up waiting for the placings to be called, the girl next to me informed me that I was only supposed to use a white saddle pad at shows, not blue and she clearly didn’t think much of my outfit.

I tried to keep positive as I waited for the trailer to come pick us up at the end of the day, I cuddled with my little mare and quietly pulled out her braids. I rubbed her body and legs down as she quietly munched her hay.

As I waited, I started to feel self-conscious of one of the nearby coaches watching me. I knew who she was but I knew she wouldn't know me. Eventually she came over and put her hand on my horse’s side. I expected her to tell me I had put my wraps on wrong or some other correction but instead she quietly said "I knew this horse years ago and she's been waiting her whole life for someone to love her like you do, you’re doing a good job – don’t give up" and then she went back to her group of people.

Ten years later, I still remember that sentence over all of the snags me and my mare ever hit, or the negativity I received from other riders and their coaches as I bumbled around the hunter circuit.

I never got bitter, took my horse for granted or got angry at the people who offered me “pointers” at shows. I also never “traded up” to a bigger, flashier horse. My connection with riding boils down to the love I have for my horse, not the labels on my clothes, the name of my trainer or the number of ribbons hanging on my wall.

Still today, I love that now retired mare, and I think it’s appropriate to say that I had been waiting my whole life for a horse to love me like that, to take good care of me as I made mistakes and to never notice that her tack still doesn’t match.

For that I’ll be forever grateful.


OK, here's another one...I think I got it right this time. This is about a first endurance ride, I could so relate.

I must have been about 14 and my favorite riding buddy at the time was 12.

We found a flyer for an endurance ride at the local feed store. It was over the same trails we rode almost every weekend. We just knew we were going to be a shoo-in to win this ride.

We had no idea what the ride entailed or what endurance rides were all about, we just knew that our horses knew those trails and were in excellent physical shape. We were giddy and excited about our big find and made a pact not to tell the rest of our little group so we wouldn’t have so much competition.

The ride started way out on the outskirts of town instead of at the trail head. It only added a few miles onto the ride itself but since we didn’t have a horse trailer it would add a good 5 miles to our ride. But we figured that if we just rode more and more on the days leading up to the ride and really kept our horses in tip top shape we could do it.

So we planned, rode and did everything a couple of teenage girls could dream up to get in shape for the big event. We made sure our horses were shod two weeks prior, we each bought some light weight saddle bags to carry our food and drinks in and of course we talked about what to wear.

So the big day comes, we get up, are saddled and ready to go by 3:30am. The ride started at 8:00 am but we wanted to be there in time to let the horses rest for a while before we actually took off on the ride.

It was dark outside when we took off down the rode. We figured that the fastest, shortest way to get to the starting point was to go down the main drag through town. It was a large four lane boulevard, shouldn’t be too busy at 4am and after all there were plenty of stoplights.

Finally we get down to the freeway, (yes I said freeway) and we decide that the safest place to ride on a major freeway is in the median or middle. Heck is was all nice and level, with sand and gravel. The horses didn’t seem to care about the traffic and it was getting light outside. You know how when you think about how far someplace is you always think that it is less than it actually is?

Well we rode on the freeway for quite awhile when our friendly local Highway Patrol officer pulled off in front of us. He was a little more than annoyed with us. The conversation went something like this… Officer: “Girls what are you doing riding on the freeway, don’t you know it is illegal to ride horses on the freeway?”

Us: (scared half to death) “No sir, we are on our way to an endurance ride that starts at the Garden Drive exit.”

Officer: “You didn’t see the sign on the on ramp that says BICYCLIST AND EQUESTRIANS PROHIBITIED?”

Us: “No Sir, it was dark when we came on to the freeway.”

I thought his head was going to explode. We were quiet as church mice as he stood there scratching his head. I am sure he was trying to figure out how to get us off the freeway in short order. Then he says “Do you know I can site you for riding your horses on the freeway? Do your parents know you are out here?”


We both start to bawl. Site us, tell our parents, we were dead. Of course no one had bothered to ask us how we intended to get to the big ride and we definitely knew better than to volunteer that information. He finally tells for us to get to the Garden Drive exit as fast as we can and to NEVER, EVER, pull a stunt like this again. We wipe the tears away and thank him a million times over and start back out on our journey.

We had lost time and he expected us to hurry so we start long trotting to the exit. As we approach the exit we are sure we are late and that everyone has left without us.

No one was there. No horse trailers, no horses, nothing. We get our maps and entry material out and we start to look at them. Upon closer examination we realize that the ride doesn’t start here. This is the directions for people trailering into town to get to the trail head where the ride is supposed to start. DUH. We have ridden 5 miles out of our way and have to ride 5 miles back to the trail head. And in a hurry to even make it to the event on time.

Obviously, we can’t go back down the freeway.

We have to ride the back roads. We chose not to take this route because is has a long, very narrow, two lane bridge high over the river. We had crossed it before but it was not horse friendly.

A couple of months before a horse had been crossing it and had spooked, jumped over the railing and died. We vowed that we would never cross it again, but here we were, it was either the freeway or the bridge. We decided to take our chances on the bridge.

We didn’t use the pedestrian walkway and led the horses right down the middle of the road stopping morning traffic. We made it across the bridge o.k. but at the end of the bridge is one of our local police officers.

The conversation was very similar to the one we had with the Highway Patrol officer. He didn’t threaten to site us or call our parents but it was uncomfortable none the less. After a good 10 minute lecture on not riding in places that were not safe he let us go on our way.

By this time we were really late. We had another couple of miles to go before we got to the trail head. So we start long trotting to get there.

We finally arrive at the trail head and the check-in staff looked at our horses like what the hell have these two been up to? When I got the look, I knew right away they thought we were idiots.

We told our whole sordid story and they must have thought we were the stupidest kids on earth.

They checked over our horses and released us to go. By the time we got to the end of the ride, our horses were tired and sweaty and so were we.

They had traveled a good 8 to 10 miles further than any other horse there. And we still had to ride home.

The actual endurance riders pointed and whispered. People that we knew pointed and whispered. It was embarrassing. The vet checked our horses and very nicely asked us what happened.

We regaled the whole tragic story. Tears and all. He told us that even though our horses were tired and that they could use a drink, they were probably in better physical shape that most of the horses he had seen that day. I don’t know if he meant it or he just felt sorry for us. He told us to take the ride home slow and give them a good dinner and lots of fresh water and try again next year.

That was my first and last endurance ride. I have never felt like such a loser horse owner as I did that day. I never wanted to feel people looking at me or my horse that way ever again.

It was also proof positive that a horse will give you 110% of everything they have – and then some
Why I Hate Halter/Mort

Here's my little colt, Leland. I saddled him for the first time this past weekend. Don't mock my fabric saddle. I borrowed it. It's light as a feather. I will never, ever ride in it.

Anyway, you can see how stressed he is. Not even a little.

I was saying hi to my little herd and visiting with my friend who owns the pasture when he sidled up next to me. I put an arm around his back and rubbed on him a little. He thought that was fine. So I put both arms across him and kept talking to my friend. I scratched his neck and his butt at the same time. Leland thought that was pretty cool. He air groomed a little.

"He's decided he's a gelding," I said.

"He is getting friendlier, he almost lets us pet him," she answered.

In case you are new to the blog or don't remember, this is my little colt that I'm experimenting with. I'm trying to train him in clean enough and clear enough steps that I only show him what I want once. Then he should know it.

He is about 2 1/2. I have had him since birth. He has been handled very little. He has never been fed anything by hand except wormer.

I've been loosely documenting what I've been doing with him. I can catch him, halter him, lead him. He trailers, allows other people to handle him, will pick up his feet, stands quiet for shots and worming.
Leland understands he needs to keep his shoulder clear of me and looks up politely when he sees me.

I don't think I've handled this colt more than 20 times.

So far so good.

I let him in the round pen and he sniffed the saddle and pad over. He pawed it a little, then ignored it.

I haltered him and led him next to the saddle and pad. I slung the rope over my arm and picked up the pad. I put it on his back and took it off. Then I put it on his back and slid the pad around.

Leland was interested and calm. I let the pad fall on the off-side.

He looked at the pad, then me.

I picked up the cloth saddle and put it on his back.

I ran the latigo through the cinch ring and pulled on the latigo without committing to cinching him up.

He humped his back a little.

When he relaxed I loosened the cinch, then finished looping it through and tightened it.

When I finally tighten my cinch on the first saddling I go ahead and cinch tight. I don't want a broncy colt to get scared with a saddle under his belly. I don't want to ruin a saddle either. Even if it's a cloth one.

I let Leland go and sent him around the round pen. He trotted with his tail clamped for a few goes, then relaxed. I sent him the other way and quit when he relaxed.

Then I left him in the round pen and messed with the other horses for a little.

I unsaddled him and let him go about 20 minutes later.

So now he's saddle broke.

Doing things this way has showed me some interesting results.

It has created a colt who is interested and respectful.

He just about says, "So what did you cook up for today?" when I decide to show him something.

He is incredibly calm. I can see his little baby brain work when I present a new task.

He has days, weeks, sometimes months between lessons. He hasn't forgotten one of them.

I think it has to do with the idea that each contact has meaning to him. He doesn't try to avoid me because what we do is interesting. He doesn't disrespect me because our contact has been minimal enough to not let bad habits develop from too much familiarity on either side.

My latest concern about my methodology is that so much of his training relies on muscle memory. Which is repetition.

His three-year-old year will be easy enough. He will be learning to carry me and to work a cow. Each lesson will build on the one before, so we should be good.

But what happens when I start his reined work during his 4-year-old year? Circles become perfect through repetition. Strength and calmness during each maneuver comes through repetition.

If I break each step of each maneuver down to it's smallest point, will we still progress enough to be competitive by the time he's 5?

Being able to count on a horse in the show pen depends on having trained his muscles to react automatically through muscle memory. Which comes from repetition.

Hmmmm. I'm giving myself a headache.

Why I Hate Halter

I wanted an all-around trophy so bad I thought I could die. Most of the local clubs offered a high-point trophy at the end of their monthly day shows.

Most of those trophies went to kids with two horses. It didn't mean I couldn't get it done. It just meant I had to do some figuring.

The speed events were not a problem. Not that we were consistent winners, but Mort and I had become reliably competitive.

Hot as he was, Mort wasn't particularly fast. He could place in barrels, flags and 75 up and back, but we were usually beat by at least one or two of kids with faster horses.

He shone in poles and keyhole. His lightening quick agility put him at the top of these two events pretty consistently.

But the morning events killed us. Pleasure? Ha. High headed and quick legged, we pretty much just lapped the rest of the group and were cut pretty quickly. Once in a while we would luck out and be in a class filled with even rougher stock than we were and Mort and I could place. I always entered, it was good for the both of us.

Horsemanship was a little better, but not much, I could ride, my seat was solid, but I didn't have the polish the other "morning" kids had. My weaknesses were glaringly obvious in those classes, but I watched like a hawk and copied the winners the best I could.

Reining was the best. We had that one down. Once Mort became consistent with the Monte Foreman stop, we won the reining every single time we walked in the arena. It was cool. Because we became contenders, I started to make friends with some of those dreaded morning kids. I was able to ride with them and expand my knowledge beyond what I could wrangle out of my friend Karen.

I needed another class though. That stinking Casey Heare was so good in the speed events she could take a day trophy without ever setting foot in the arena before the lunch break. If I was going to take her I needed some points from the morning.

So I decided to show in the halter classes. Even I should be able to pull off halter. All it took was a clean horse and a 4-H book, right?

I worked hard. Mort had a bad habit of moving a hind foot forward when his fronts were square and stepping forward when his hinds were square. But we practiced and practiced, I listened to the advice from the kids who knew what they were doing and got ready to give it a try.

We didn't place. I wasn't too surprised. I held my arms like I was balancing a tray of glasses, I smiled and remembered to keep my chin up.

It didn't get Mort square. He still stepped in and shoved me out of the line up with his nose. He thought halter was pretty boring. He wanted to nose the horse next to him, he wanted to snuffle the dirt. At one point he thought it might be a good time to roll. I was no fun at all.

So he sighed and cocked his hip. I sighed too.

After the class I went to talk to the judge, as was my habit after these classes, hoping for a tidbit of advice I could chew on. I was already thinking ahead to the next show.

"This isn't a halter horse," the judge told me.

"He's narrow chested and his front feet turn out."

"He's thin necked and it's set too high. You need another 50 pounds on this horse, that will hide a lot of his faults. You want your horse to look like a square."

I walked away in shock. I had no idea this class was about looks. I wouldn't have stayed out even if I had. Mort was beautiful.

I took Mort to the tie rail and tied him. I stood back and looked at him hard. My shining, race horse fit, beautiful headed boy looked different.

He was thin. He was so long legged he was a narrow, tall rectangle. Never a square. His feet turned out like a duck. Suddenly he looked shabby. My face burned in embarrassment.

Two classes later the same judge gave us a first in reining. It didn't change a thing. Suddenly the difference between my horse and the others at the show were stark, glaring and painful.

On our long ride home that evening I threw my reins out and let him trot. He stretched out and glided over the prairie. There wasn't a horse on the planet that could trot like Mort. It was miles out before I could sit back and admire the metallic glint of the setting sun against his coat.



Mouthy Mondays
I had a thought. I know, Uh-Oh, she's thinking again. I had a comment about not trusting a horse enough to lay down and fall asleep still holding the rope.

When I'm in trainer mode then I think safety, safety, safety. When I write my stories I'm telling you what I did, but not what I necessarily want to promote as intelligent behavior. Please, please understand I did a lot of really stupid things.

I used to take long rides on Mort. I would stop to take a break. I would lay back and tie one rein around my ankle. Then I would doze. Or eat my lunch, or whatever. Think about this for a minute.

I was self-taught in so many ways. I had already been a trainer for at least two years before I started getting regular help. I learned my craft in an extremely bass-ackward way.

I guess what I'm getting at is, do as I say, not as I write, OK?


Badges Blues N Jazz sent me this ages ago, another one of my record keeping errors. Sorry Blues, there's a reason I'm not a file clerk.


http://trainingbadgesbluesnjazz.blogspot.com/

Summing It Up


Well, I figure its time to sum up what I have got so far in this blog. Of course I will continue with it, I just wanted to sum up the past year in one post. If that's possible.

So, I buy my "dream horse" who was a product of the breeding farm that I had yearned to buy from but couldn't afford. Bought her off her second owner for a steal.

With fresh dreams of training her from start to finish all by myself, and how wonderfully broke she was going to be and how bonded we would be.

Pick her up and shes a body score of MAYBE 2, and skittish as hell.

Do ground work, pony her, lunge her, had her side passing, moving hindquarters and forehand on the ground, hauled her out to show her cows, drove her etc etc.

A warning bell had kind of gone off in my head on how whenever she was left for a few days, it would be like starting all over again.

I chose to ignore it and proceeded to get on her and walk a few steps shortly before she turned 2. Did it a second time, 3 min TOPS.

Then, the third time, just got settled in the saddle and BAM, she exploded into a bucking bronc. Landed on my back, winded.

Was nervous of a repeat performance, so sent her to a friend to put a few rides on her. He had his wife lead him around. 1st ride, great, 2nd ride, great, 3rd ride? BAM, explosion. 1 pulled groin later, she is back at my place.

I continue to do groundwork but am too scared to ride. I would get brave enough to put a foot in the stirrup, and she would EXPLODE backwards, sometimes. Not all the time. September of her 2 year old year, I decided she was to much for me. Traded her off for something else and regretted it the moment she was gone.

Spent four sleepless months plotting on how to get her back. Finally, had to use my credit card to buy her back at a ridiculous price.

Hubby had a HUGE blow out, he hated Jazz and couldn't fathom WHY I would want her back. They said she had 2 months training. NOT. Finally got a hold of their 18 year old trainer who said she had put a MONTH on her AND got kicked in the stomach by her which made her unable to ride for 2 weeks. Hmmmmmm.

More warning bells you ask? Nope, I was just happy to have her back.Got her back on December 24th and put a ride at a walk on her on Dec 30th. Yea, she was still SUPER green. Sent her to a trainer, who rode her for 2 weeks, then did 2 weeks of groundwork.

Trainer told me I should sell before I get hurt on her. I couldn't. I was bound and determined to make the dream come true, and began my blog to keep me motivated. I put approx 2-3 months of just walking and trotting on her and started off with my fear at a 20 on a scale of 1-10 and gradually got down to a 9.

She has bucked me off twice since then, but there are also huge milestones of progress. I don't regret it for even an instant. She can be very light and responsive, as well as witchy and stubborn. She has tried EVERY trick in the book which has made me a better rider.

She turned 4 this month, and although she may not be as well trained as a lot of 4- year- olds, I am extremely proud on how far we have come together and the fact that I have been her sole rider for the last year.

Do I get frustrated? Yes! Of course. When I can go trot the barrel pattern on her one day without an issue, and the next day, a barrel on the side of the arena is a horse eating dragon. Or one day she will lope wonderfully slow collected circles with sliding stops, and the next day she will bolt and go 90mph and have no whoa.

How bout that she will go into a herd of cows with absolute passion, and LOVES to chase them, then the next week she is poking her shoulder out and trying to avoid going into the herd? Yea, I get frustrated.

It doesn't mean I will give up. She keeps me on my toes. Just when I get over confidant, she will try a new trick that brings me back to reality that she is a living, breathing, thinking, conniving creature, not a robot.

I love her individuality, and have NEVER come across a horse like her. She has taught me that it doesn't matter what people think, because riding her in a crowd, I am prepared that she may bolt or buck, and there is no way in hell I am going to look pretty riding her, so its best to give up on any sort of pretense that I may actually look like I ride good: sure enough, if I do think "hey, look how good we look" she will poke her shoulder out and bolt halfway across the arena, there is no way to recover your dignity if your hauling back on your reins and kicking like a crazed woman trying to get that shoulder back, or (God forbid) eating a mouthful of dirt, so, I have learned to accept that.

Thankfully, I have not come off her in public yet, but it is just a matter of time. I am prepared to leave my pride at home when I got to events with Jazz and to just enjoy it.I have had to revise my goals a bit. The dream of riding bareback and being "one with my horse" like Stacey Westfall is not to likely to happen with Jazz. Maybe once she is 30 years old, but not anytime in the near future. So, my goals now are to continue with her training and hopefully have her consistent.

My immediate goal is to do this season of cattle penning with her, and then start doing time only's in barrels next year.

I have purchased a yearling that I will transfer the Stacey Westfall dream to, and already I can tell he is NOT another Jazz. I don't want Jazz to every lose all of her 'tude, because its what makes her Jazz, and why I love her.
Sonita/ Here We Are
Even at two in the morning the barn at a major show is always thrumming. The overhead lights stay on 24 hours a day and time becomes meaningless as the show wears on.


Horses look out into the barn aisles and whinny,to their stable mates, to the horse being led past, to their caretakers, to the huge, confusing world of eternal light.


Restless trainers check their horses and the nervous or flat out terrified ride in the half-light of the show pen.


I slipped into Sonita's stall and rubbed her hip, letting my scratching fingers search out her favorite itchy spots. She tweaked her tail in irritation and moved a step from me. She had pulled most of her feed from her feeder and stomped it into the shavings. Her head stayed buried in the corner.


My mare was sick of this place, we had been here a week, she was tired and stressed. She wanted out of the box stall, out of this noisy world that never let her relax, never let her sleep. I knew how she felt, I didn't know how many more nights I could spend in a motel room filled with the smell of dirty clothes, teenage girls, boots, dogs and assorted pieces of tack.


I leaned against her and pushed my icy hands under her blanket. I couldn't figure how it could be cold and muggy at the same time. The joy of winter in Stephenville I guess. Sonita sighed and shifted her weight from one hind foot to the other.

"Let's get out of here, you wanna?"

I grabbed Sonita's halter and tied it on. She plodded behind me, her head hanging, and lugged on the lead.

The foggy night air swirled around us as I led her out of the barns. Sonita threw her head up and drank in the clean air. Wide awake, she jigged by my side and her tail waved and snapped.

We walked back to the trailer and I dug out an extra horse blanket and my Carhart. Sonita kicked her heels in play as I lead her farther into the fields. When the darkness swallowed us and I could just make out the white of her face I stopped.

Sonita stood and looked at me for a few seconds before she dropped her head to graze. I snuggled into my Carhart and spread the horse blanket on the ground.

I lay back on the blanket and watched my mare graze. A kaleidoscope of images went through my head as I watched her. We had been through so much together. We had come so far. My squalling, nasty, bitch of a mare had gotten it together and channeled her incredible energy into where we were right now. It occurred to me I had learned to channel a few things too.

A brief ripple of fear ran through me, but the rhythmical rip and chew, rip and chew, as Sonita grazed in the dark made it easy to put tomorrow off until tomorrow.

She stepped by my blanket and snuffled my hair, making sure to leave plenty of slobber. I reached out to push her nose away and wrapped my hand around her coronet band instead. I could just feel a light pulse beating slow and steady.

I remembered to wrap the lead once around my hand before I slid into sleep. I dreamed of horses running.

Postcards From Arizona

Postcards From Arizona

The Saturday ride and of course, a WTH thing...










For Grandpa Ron



Dinosaur bones

A video challenge - 9, 12, and 3








Deep Sadness Here Today













I don't know why I do this. It's like wrangling 3 yr olds.











Wade has a better day

Another day in the wild wild west


The days fly by


Where have I been?


The Gymkhana Results are in!!!







Oh Happy Halloween!




In the blink of an eye, my focus changes

Well it was interesting anyway

Great news!

A peek around the house today


This guy has totally got me beat

Power struggles and projectile vomiting





It's officially "one of those days"

All kinds of dog updates




My smoke alarm says I'm on fire.

No luck tonight

Going back for more

Confirmed!!!

Starfish, dog - same thing

All Things Horses

All Things Horses

Almost time
So it is Friday and I am so ready for the weekend!!

Tonight is girl's night out and time for GRANDE MARGARITA'S!!

Tommorrow I am loading up Frankie and heading South to a new trainer's barn. I am staying the weekend to ride and check things out. It will be strange coming home without him. I am excited at the fact that someone will be riding him daily and finishing his lessons. Hopefully come spring I will get the chance to start showing.
I am not running for any officer positions this year and hope to get on with my horsey life again.

Speaking of:

Here is the littlest practicing on his beloved donk "Jane"





He is following in his mama's shoes and is going to be quite the little horseman.
He absolutely adores this donkey! She has been such a confidence booster and perfect lady.

Hope you all have great weekends, will post and hopefully have pics for you on Monday!

Happy trails.....
Still kicking
Oh my friends I have been such a bad blogger of late...... did you miss me???
I miss reading all your blogs.

This working business is really taking it's toll on my other life. Now the time change makes it even more challenging.

The fall colors here are beautiful and I must get some of my pictures downloaded to share with you. It is on my list.

In addition to working full time I have been doing show secretary work at ranch horse shows on the weekends. There is a method to this madness. The extra money is going to put Frankie in training this winter.

I am loading him up on Saturday and we are heading South to visit a friend of mine.
He is a trainer and shows ranch horse. If they get along I will be leaving Frank for a while. I figure someone should be riding him all winter as I won't be. You know I hate the cold as it is.

I know it is short and I will update you as soon as I can.

Happy Fall Ya'll!!!
Cowgirl goes to congress
I spent a glorious weekend at the Quarter Horse Congress!

Hubby and I escaped Friday morning and returned home on Sunday. BFF Susan was good enough to watch the little hell yuns for us, it was the first time away from them together.

Friday the weather was raining and cool but Saturday brought sunshine and pleasant temps. We did some window shopping on Friday and enjoyed a very delicious dinner out together before we returned to the show grounds to watch the freestyle reining competition. For those of you unfamiliar with freestyle reining, it is where the exhibitor creates their own pattern to their choice of music and they usually dress in costume as well. The contestants were very creative in the song choice and costumes. Several of them did patterns to the wizard of oz complete with flying monkeys! My favorite was a fella dressed in a fake belly that did his pattern to the song I'm to Sexy! It was hilarious.

Saturday it was time for serious shopping. Once again I had to do the dreaded boot shopping. I say dreaded because my feet have high insteps and it is not easy finding a boot to get into. After trying on close to 40 pair of boots I finally decided on a pair of Ariats. I mean to tell ya, the fact that they have purple tops did not faze me by this point.

I also invested in a turnout sheet for Frankie, although I have several in my tack trunk nothing would fit the boy. So....... I invested in another. We chose an emerald green one with Burgundy trim, midwieght and waterproof. Good thing as tonight it is supposed to rain and be a high of 49 tomorrow. Ugh!

I found some other little things like brushes and a cow hair coolie holder for my beverages. There was lots of bling there. So much that it hurt my eyes!! I did enjoy looking at the horse trailers and comparing interiors and such. My hub was in truck heaven! I did of course take a visit to puppy row although I loved the little Cairn terrier I would never buy a puppy!

Sunday we viewed some of the halter classes but it was like watching paint dry so we called it a day and headed home. Fun, Fun , Fun a very nice getaway!
Remember me??
Hi All! Has it really been this long since my last post?? Where does the time go? To say things have been busy around here would be an understatement. As I was catching up on reading blogs tonight I see that I am not the only one being swamped by life. I really don't even know where to begin with updating you on my crazy life.


Here's a sampling of what's been going on. My oldest joined the cub scouts which equated into me being roped into assistant den leader. Oh, a job I am relishing NOT! Since he is a Tiger cub he must have a partner do all the scouting stuff with him. Since hubby travels and cannot be counted on for jack #### guess who gets to do it. I spent a weekend camped in a tent surrounded by 300 6-12year old boys who made copious amounts of noise until all hours!! I hate sleeping in a tent! My body was screaming by Saturday afternoon, this is why I have a living quarter horse trailer!! We did manage some fun and he earned his totem and belt loops for archery and BB guns. Oh yeah, I said BB guns.....


I have managed to sneak in some rides on the Frank here and there, no trail riding but some schooling stuff. I hauled him to a county horse park 25 minutes from the farm. It has four arenas and an indoor. He remembered all his lessons from the spring although I have not had him in an arena since May. I am seriously thinking of sending Frankie back to Cory for the early part of the winter to finish his training. I really want to show next year and I don't have the place to school him and I really won't have the time to do it because.......


I took a full time job at United States Equestrian Federation (USEF)at the Kentucky Horse Park! Yep, it is official I started on Monday the 28th. I will be working in the Finance dept, my official title will be remittance processing representative (fancy name for accounts receivable). The benefits are great and it is 20 minutes from the house. It will be quite a change for all of us around here. I am still doing my horse show office business as well and had a show this past weekend in Indiana and another the end of the month in Ky.

I am a busy girl. Much more news but I will save some for later.

Happy trails.....
A few of my favorite books...
Not long ago my pony cousin Pony Girl did a post about books she had found while thrift shopping. It got me to thinking if I still had my copy of Black Beauty so I went looking. Indeed! I do have it, it is not as old as her copy but it is an oldie and still in good shape.






I have several other old horsey books as well. I am a junk collector ya know.
This one has a plain faded orange cover which makes me think it must have had a cover page at one time. It is titled Golden Lady and written by Eleanor Brown.
My copy is dated 1946. It has some lovely little illustrations throughout the book.




The opening page is written like this "In memory of my mother, a gallant woman"
Who couldn't read a book with an opening like that. Here is the title page.









And one of the illustrations of the book







But true to my cowgirl spirit is my all time favorite book, Smoky The Cow horse.
Ever read it? You should. It is true cowboy western tradition complete with a great ending. It is written by Will James and my copy is a beautiful aged blue and it great shape. My copy was published in 1926. Check this out.








Here are some of the illustrations in the book.









What are some of your favorite horse books?
Red Hill Ride
WOW! What a weekend!

I am back from a weekend at Red Hill Horse Camp and ready to share the stories and pictures with you.

Friday morning after dropping off the little ones at school I headed over to the barn to pick up Frankie and Susan's horse Butter. I arrived in the rain to find Frankie a real muddy mess. I had to take the time to wash him off as he was covered in mud and I was not sure of the facilities where we were heading. So after a quick rinse off and packing a few more items in the trailer we were off.

I actually had Frankie load himself this time! Thought I would give it a try so I just stood at the entrance to the trailer and guided him with my hand and smooched and up he jumped all by himself. Cool! Butter loaded with no issues as well and snug as a bug they were in there.





ON THE ROAD AGAIN!



The traveling was easy as most of it was straight down I 75 the camp is in Livingston, Ky about an hour and 20 minutes from my house. The road to the camp proved to be a little more challenging, it was filled with uphills and curves but certainly manageable. We arrived around 1:30 to a vacant camp. In fact the gate was closed and I was doubting if something was wrong. I did speak with the owner just two nights before and assured him we were coming. We opened the gate and found the mess hall, there were trail maps and release forms sitting on a bench on the porch.
We signed the release, got ourselves a map and continued on. We found a very clean well laid out campground. We picked a spot to camp close to the barns for the horses, we unloaded the horses and set up camp.






Here was Frankie's house when we were not riding.


The weather was kinda muggy and we had a few stray showers every now and then but we were not dismayed. Friend Carlene showed up about an hour after we arrived and she grabbed a camp sight next door. After putting out the awning and setting up camp we decided on a short ride. We saddled up and tried to translate the trail map we had picked up earlier. We found the trail head at the end of the camp and proceeded into the woods. The trail was narrow and unfortunately very steep and rocky. We felt bad because Butter was not shod on the back feet. Frankie was doing well and was getting an education on having dogs along for a ride. Susan had brought her two jack russell terriers and her yellow lab along. I never have ridden him with dogs and it took him just a bit to get used to them running ahead, behind and darting out of the brush at any time. All was going well until around 30 minutes into the ride.
Then, on a very narrow trail going downhill Frankie started shaking his head side to side and refused to go onward. I thought this odd as he has never refused anything I have asked of him. I gently encouraged him onward. This was rewarded with a complete blow up! He reared, lunged forward and went into full throttle bucking mode. I yelled for Susan to get out of the way as she was just in front of me and we were temporarily out of control. I mean I'm not talking crow hopping buck here kids but, full throw your a** to the ground bucking. He nearly had me off but I was a hanging by the 4 inch Oh Sh*t handle and lots of mane! As soon as I got him under control and back on trail I dismounted to check tack, surely something was out of whack to make him behave that way! I could find nothing on the girth or breast collar and no welts to indicate stings. I remounted, no easy task since Frankie has seen it necessary to grow to 15.3 hands. We walked on and he started again with the shaking of his head and refusing to go downhill. I knew something must be wrong with his hocks, back ??? This was so out of character for my horse so I dismounted and walked the half a mile back to camp. No easy task since A) the trails were narrow and I had to walk in front of Frankie B) The trails were steep, uphill and down and C) There were rocks to contend with. By the time I got back I had a deeper appreciation for my horse and the things he does for me. I unsaddled him and checked again the pad and his underside, nothing. I gave him some bute and put him in the stall. The three of us girls brainstormed and tried to come up with an explanation to the behaviour. I knew it had to be pain related as Frankie is just as laid back as they come.

We cooked dinner and decided we would try some reflex therapy on him after eating.
Susan brought steaks and fresh squash for dinner, a package of instant potatoes rounded out the meal.




As you can see Dawg the jack russell is patiently awaiting dinner as well.

The owner of the camp, Gene, showed up not much later. We asked him the which trails were flatter since the downhills seemed to be the only thing bothering Frankie. He told us that most of the trails required hills and valleys. He questioned my saddle and saddle pad, if either were something new to the horse.
All at once a light bulb went off in my block head!! This behaviour came about in a lesser degree the last time I rode him at the reservoir, he did not buck but did not want to go down the last hill on the way home. I had used a limpet pad on him that day as well. It is a closed cell, neoprene like pad. I generally ride him in a wool pad. Ah Ha! We felt all over his back and sure enough he was sore on either side of his withers. We did massage therapy on him and decided to try some more in the morning. We went back to camp and made a fire and swapped riding stories.



GIRLS AROUND THE FIRE

I did not sleep well that night. I was torn on what to do with Frankie. Of course I wanted to ride but I did not want to hurt him. Morning came and we found his back much better, he did not flinch at all when we touched him. Carlene did some more therapy and reflexology on him and we did administer 1 gram of bute to him. After breakfast we saddled up with my wool pad this time and headed out. We tried a smaller downhill to start, he was a little off but nothing like yesterday. I still had pangs of guilt at riding him.
The trails were beautiful.





THE GIRLS RIDING AHEAD INTO THE WOODS

We came across an older couple riding walking horses at an intersection of the trail.
They asked where we were riding to? We told them we did not really have a plan that we were just going to ride wherever the trails lead us. They explained that they had been riding the woods for over 40 years and knew all the trails. They asked if we would like to ride to moonbeam rock with them. We all agreed it sounded like fun and off we went. They actually rode at a slow pace and our quarter horses had no problems keeping up with the walkers. The gentleman's name was Bill and he was very conscientious about the trails, stopping to pick up trash and cans the entire way. He told us how it saddened him that people littered and that he usually goes back with his saddle bags full of cans and trash every weekend. His darling wife Ruby, was a joy to talk with and I was amazed that she was still riding at 68 when she told me of her previous injuries. We rode 8 miles through the woods together to moonbeam rock. It is a sandstone rock shaped like an arch about 80 feet up on the mountain.





Here is a shot of it.

We ate lunch there at the rock and talked about other trails. We mounted up, me with the help of a downed tree, thank you LORD! and down the hill we went. Frankie was holding up well and we were kidding around about all the badges he was earning this trip toward his master trail horse status. We rode the trails along a creek bed and Bill told us of how people had lived along this creek once upon a time. We passed the remnants of an old school house and several shacks. Here is one that was in the best shape of them all.



We crossed creeks and a concrete bridge, passed an old cemetery and ended up back where we started. We exchanged phone numbers with Bill and Ruby and promised to come back and ride with them again real soon. We made it back to camp around 4 in the afternoon and figured out that we had ridden around 15 miles that day. We found that we had some neighbors in the camp when we returned. They came over to see how our ride went and asked where we rode. They planned on doing that ride the next day.
The horses were treated to a nice hosing off and lots of carrots. We began dinner preparations, the menu was salad and brats for Saturday night. Gene, showed up again around dinner and we started kidding him that his nose must bring him around.
We reminded him that there was not hot water at the shower house and he apologized and went to turn on the water heater. He also came back bearing gifts, in the form of moonshine! I must confess, us girls did partake in the tradition of having some shine. It is rude to turn down gifts ya know.



Ms Susan trying out the shine.

We had another visitor at our camp that night, a young fellow named Monroe who claimed he was Amish and was not sure if he was going to stay Amish. We teased him and called him Semi Amish Monroe the rest of the evening. It was interesting to hear about his home life and certainly something new to me. I wish him well and felt a little sorry for the confusing time he was facing.

Sunday we awoke to a crisp 56 degrees! A cold front snuck in while we were sleeping.
We decided on a quick breakfast and to sneak in one last ride before we broke camp.
We saddled up and the horses were in good spirits from the coolness. We rode the lowest loop trail which basically went around the side of the mountain. We saw lots of rock formations and some caves along the way. I love this next photo, the way the sun beam is shining right down on my head!




We did encounter a large tree down on this trail and the horses had to walk over it as there was no way around it. Susan's horse refused and I tried Frankie. He had to step over a log that was higher than his knees, no hesitation he just slowly went over it the best he could. What a guy!! Another badge for him! The other horses followed and I was so proud of the boy. We rode for about an hour than headed back to camp. We cleaned up our site and the stalls, loaded the horses and headed out.

We all agreed we would definitely ride here again. Go give it a try if you are in the area!





Happy trails.....
My Donk is tame I swear
Since moving to the bluegrass there have been many changes to horse life around here.
For one the horse and donkey are no longer in my backyard or my care all the time.
Although I do see them everyday and clean their stalls and them some things are not in my control. One thing that is in my control is the farrier. I of course had to find a new one being that my farrier did not want to travel three hours to do two animals unless I agreed to pay him copious amounts of money! I don't blame him.

So..... enter the new farrier Juan Carlos. He has a nice rig, well equipped and seems genuinely interested in how I want my horses done. I made sure I asked if he would trim a donkey before we got started. He was a little apprehensive but said yes he would try to do the donkey. I assured him that Jane was the best little donkey ever and that she would give no problems being trimmed.





Look at her! Does she look like she would hurt anyone???

We ended up having five head to trim and shoe that day, Jane included.
I brought out Frank and explained that I wanted shoes put on the front and that I wanted him at a 55 degree angle. I also told Juan Carlos that he needed to be quiet and gentle since Frank has not had shoes on before and not been handled that much.
He was extremely patient with Frankie and did a great job putting the shoes on.
I need to put on shoes since Frankie had an old injury to his right front and had bad cracking and I was worried that with riding I was going to destroy that foot further. I asked JC if he would like to do Jane next, he declined and said bring another horse out. This happened until the Jane was the last one to be done. I was snickering to myself, knowing that he thought my donk was gonna give him fits when he attempted to trim her.

Finally came Jane's turn to be trimmed, I went out to fetch her.




She looks ready to eat someone doesn't she?

I brought her up to his tools and he again asked me if she had been trimmed before.
Well, you could look at her feet and she that yes she had been trimmed regularly.
But I was amused and said, "OH yes, she is great at it!" JC proceeded cautiously with the trimming, especially the hinds. He seemed genuinely surprised that she stood quietly and gave no problems. I asked him why he wanted to do her last and he said that usually the donkeys are a real rodeo to trim. He exclaimed that she was the best donkey he had ever worked on!

We knew that all along!





Happy trails.......
Why is it that.......
In life that no matter what we have, we want something different?

Human nature?

I wonder if horses think this way? Like does the stalled show horse wish for pasture time to run and play with buddies? Does my own horse wish for more stall time? Does Frankie go on these trail rides packing my fat butt up the hill and wish for Cory's nice indoor arena instead?

Life has been more than busy lately and I wish I saw an end in sight. I long to go and ride the Frank and start his training again. I feel like all I do is run out there clean his stall and knock the dirt off him and then I am off again. I know he misses me, he whinny's and runs to the gate when he sees me. I wish he was in my backyard still most days. Part of the problem is going to be solved this week, the littlest starts pre-school four mornings a week. This will give me time to ride, but where? There is no arena at the barn which leaves paddocks or an open grassy area. Unfortunately the footing is not great in either area and makes me leery to do to much like work on loping and leads. This in turn makes me long for a barn with an indoor arena with footing. I would have to give up having him five minutes from my house and a whole lot of dollars that are hard to come by right now. For some crazy reason here in KY most boarding places are self care. I could handle once a day but probably not twice most days not to mention when I travel to judge or run show offices on the weekends. Hmmmn...... life's little problems. I know things will work themselves around and out eventually so I will just be patient and wait it out.

Onto a better note. Hubby and I were able to replace the mats in horse trailer this weekend. Yea! I have been wanting to do that since I bought "big blue". The previous owners had put a conveyor belt mat on the floor. It was dangerously slippery for horses with shoes and definitely made practicing backing Frankie out really scary. Now I can start that process this week since Hubby is home and the trailer will stay hooked up as I am heading out for a camping trip this weekend!!

Susan and I are heading to Red Hill Horse Camp a place we have never been but have been wanting to try. It is only an hour south of the house so we are off for a weekend of riding. Now off to clean out the dressing room of the horse trailer and start packing!

Happy trails......
Rehomed horse update
Funny how life is....... just the other day I was talking about my older horse Tank that I re homed this past May and I get an update from his new owner in my mailbox.

Some of you may remember my old fella Tank, a big beautiful Dun QH that I had the privilege of owning for many, many a years. When the time came for us to move here to Ky I knew I would have to alter my horse keeping habits and the horses would not be in the back yard anymore. The decision to re home Tank was not an easy one but I felt it the best one for all involved. He was really to old to do the kind of trail riding that I do, which is sporadic and challenging most of the time. I did not have the time to keep two horses fit and take care of the young ins and household.
I felt he still had lots to give to someone wanting a great horse to ride lightly and enjoy his sensible and comfortable style.

Here is one of the last photos I took of him at my house.





He is such a handsome devil and always kept himself in good shape and easy to keep.

I am happy to tell you that his new Mom Linda is enjoying him immensely. Linda is a special lady that rescues all kinds of animals from dogs to horses and everything in between. She does not have a rescue per say but just does it on her own accord and out of her own pocket. Matter of fact her husband Sid said to me when I dropped Tank off that this was the first one that did not need medical attention or weight put on him. She rides him occasionally around her 40 acres and he has a whole herd of friends that he is turned out with. What more could anyone ask for their best buddy?


Happy trails...
I'm home
Well HI everyone!

I am finally back in the bluegrass and happy to be here. It seems I brought the hot weather from Florida with me though. It was 91 degrees here yesterday. We haven't seen any heat here since June, I guess all good things must come to an end.

I won't bore you with the Florida trip details, it is something we must do at least once a year for family sake. I know I sound like an ingrate but man.... the planning and packing and traveling with the wee ones wears me out. Not to mention the ag factor when I get there. But we did manage some fun and got to see my family and I must say my kids adored the beach.

This is what shear joy looks like!





My littlest was content to run and play in the surf and build sandcastles with mommy all day.





Dad and the oldest did brave the surf and had some swimming time, but for the most part we did alot of this.







You will notice there a no pictures of me on the beach. I officially started the plan again today to drop the extra pounds I have packed on. I simply must get back in shape and get riding Mr Frank more often.

Which, actually I did yesterday!

Susan and I headed over to the park by our house for some new trails......

It was super hot and humid and Frank was sweating bullets and the ground was slippery from all the rain we have been having but he was a real gem again.
Such a nice colt he is.....







This is one of the shady trails we opted for yesterday. The big black horse flys were in abundance and Payback was sporting her quarter sheet for protection. Susan has learned the hard way to use this as Payback bucks huge when one lands on her.
Frankie did not seem fazed by the bugs, I did spray him well with the Pyrahna aerosol spray, It rocks!






Here is Susan an Payback in a clearing before we head back into the woods for shade!
We rode for about two hours and called it a day. A very nice relaxing Sunday morning.


The little ones started school today so I am aiming for riding more now. My goal is at least three days a week. Hopefully I can do it and get going on some of the things I really want to work on with Frankie.

Hope you all are having a great start to the week!

Happy trails.......
Note from the road
Hi kids!

I realized today as I sat on the beach that I have been neglecting you. Yes, I said beach. No, there is no beach in Ky that I am aware of. I am in sunny and sometimes stormy South Florida visiting family. It was a last minute trip and one I am glad we took. Life has been really hectic and busy this summer and a nice trip here puts things in perspective.

Frankie is of course back home gorging on bluegrass getting fatter by the moment. That is OK, I have something planned for him when I get home. Another horsey trip!
Not to far from home but a new place to go try for a few days with girlfriends.

So far we have had a pool party with my family, a pizza party also and a beach bash today. They are all heading back South to Miami today and we will stay here in Port St Lucie for a few more days and visit hubby's family before heading out on Wednesday for home. School starts the 10th for our oldest and we must be back on Friday for the big orientation at the new school.

Just wanted to drop a line and say hello from the road. Hopefully, things will resume back to normal one of these days and I can post regularly again. Miss you guys but am enjoying the beach!
As my life churns
Life is just churning along here, busy as usual and not enough hours in my day most of the time. As of late I have been doing the Doctor's office shuffle with the wee ones getting them ready for school days. Who knew moving to a new state meant redoing all your medical records and other such crud. Not to worry they are now enrolled and officially can start school on August 10th, yipes that is soon. I am ready for it as it means some riding time for me and Frankie.

This weekend was a bust booty weekend around here. Hubby and I decided to switch the kitchen appliances out and put ours in here. Not a big deal right? Or so we thought. However, this involved taking all the doors off the two refrigerators and the stoves as they would not fit out the house doors. It turned into a four hour ordeal when all was said and done. But.... I now have my smooth top stove and my bottom freezer/fridge and am rid of that side by side that I detested.

The weekend also brought another round of garden goodies and I put up more green beans than I can describe to you. I need to do another round of pickles this week.

I am also in horse show week here. The IRHA is hosting another show this weekend in Indiana and that means I am swamped with preparations and phone calls regarding the show. Never a dull moment here folks!

I did manage to climb up on the big ole fat creme colored tick I like to call Frankie. Man he is swollen up from the grass here. I need to get some serious riding going here or I will have to dry lot him soon. I had a great phone conversation with Tank's new owner yesterday and she says he is doing very well and is happy with his new herd of friends. I think I am going to try and stop and see him Friday morning on the way to the horse show. I think my poor heart might be ready for it. I told Linda that I may come by and for her hubby not to worry since I will have my trailer with me. She said that was fine but that if I loaded him up and took him she would hunt me down! I am glad she is so in love with him and that he is making someone else's life happy, it truly is the best you could hope for when you re home a special loved one.

Until next time, Happy trails.....
Checking In
Hey people!

I really don't have time this morning to be blogging, but..... I feel like checking in and really wanted to read what you all have been up to. I see it is quiet in blog land, I guess I am not the only one who is crazy busy.

This week was/is a round of doctor's appts for the boys so they can attend school which starts August 12th. Thank God!! I also did some canning and putting up the garden goodies which are coming in quicker than I can deal with them.

I am taking care of Susan's farm while she takes a mini vacation to the mountains.
Frankie is so freakin fat on all the clover in his field, I am thinking of moving him to a smaller paddock today. However, it is right next to Jane and her buddy Payback. I am not sure if this will re instate the negative clingy behaviour he had previously. I tell ya though the slobbers from the clover are enough to drive me crazy, I need rain gear just to be around him lately.

Tomorrow I have the job interview at the horse park and am hoping I get it.
It would enable me to put the smallest spawn of mine in pre school and thus give me some time to ride Frankie without worrying where little people are and what they are up to.

Well, I know it is short but thought I would fill you in on my so called life.
Anyone need any pickles??
Don't spank Frank!
This little thought came about the other night after Frankie gave me another round of #ss padding. You see I was riding him at the farm and working on little things like moving our hip over at the walk and trot, transitions and just stuff in general.
Frank got to gazing around and generally just tuning me out. I usually wear a small spur when I ride him because he is the original iron sides, I mean you could literally bang on him with no reaction whatsoever. Well, I had forgot my spurs and he was being really lazy and as I said distracted by the horses in the adjacent field. I asked him to lope off on the right lead and he missed it, we continued he missed it again then he just would not lope at all. I lost patience, oh I know bad mommy! and decided to encourage him with a rein end. MY MISTAKE! He did not appreciate it and was startled I think, he took off bucking and doing his signature half rear lunge thing for a few moments. Luckily, he does not last long in that behaviour and it was over quickly.

This got me to thinking about the last time he padded my backside and that was back at Tiffany's house when he was having a fit about Jane and I shoulder spurred him to get his attention. I don't think it is retaliatory , I seriously think it is just a being startled reaction for him. Kinda like the other day when the stick poked him in the woods and he went off bucking.

Moral of the story: Don't spank Frank!
How I spent my 4th of July
Hi all,

Hoping you are having a great 4th of July weekend and I hope that part of this fun weekend was spent thanking the people before us that made our country such a great place to live and have our freedom.

I had a very enjoyable 4th! I spent the early part of the morning tending my garden.
Have a look see.







The garden is loving all this rain we are having and upon closer inspection, look at what I found:







Oh YEAH kids that is the first tomato of the season! I can almost taste that yummy BLT sandwich now......

I think this week my green beans and a round of cucumbers will also be ready. Which means get out the canner and prepare for some canning. The weather is supposed to turn hot again, always a joy when you are canning. We have been enjoying some nice days in the 70's this past week.

At nine I headed over to the barn to load up Frankie and Susan's other mare Butter.
We decided to celebrate our Independence and go riding! Frankie had never been riding with Butter but they trailered well on the short trip to the reservoir. We met another friend Becky there with her Welsh stallion Wayne. It was cloudy and overcast with rain moving in for the afternoon but we were sure we could get a ride in first. I was pleasantly surprised to find Frankie was relaxed and stood tied like a gentleman to the trailer even when Susan tied Butter to the opposite side.
We rode the same loop that we did last time we rode there. Becky was having some issues with Wayne and his stud like behaviour, he hadn't been out in awhile. Frankie did well with the exception of one incident. I was bringing up the rear of the pack and coming out of the woods into an open area, Butter got out of his eyesight and he starting rushing through a narrow part of the trail. I am not really sure what happened but my best guess is that he got poked in the side by a stick and combined with his nervousness of not seeing the other horses he went into a bucking frenzy.
I was slightly concerned because we came out on the side of a hill and there was an old fence of barbed wire that he was heading for. I did manage to get him stopped and under control before we reached the fence line. Sigh.... young horses.....

Still I am very pleased at his progress and the rest of the day was uneventful for us at least. You may have noticed the new header picture. It is one from yesterday at a small creek we crossed. Frankie was shaking off when Susan snapped it, looks like he is smiling doesn't it??

Here is a shot of Susan and Butter at that creek crossing.







And here is Becky waiting her turn to cross










We made it back to the trailers in about an hour and a half. Becky decided she had enough riding for the day and chose to head home. Susan and I grabbed a quick little snack and mounted back up. We decided to try the other side of the road trails. It was more hilly and the horses were a little winded being that neither of them were all that fit just yet. We did see lots of these.








No, not the cedar trees although there were plenty of them. Look to the right of that cedar can you see the deer? She was pretty far away but the only one that would stand still long enough to let me snap a picture.

We rode for another hour and then the weather started to move in. One good thing about it was that I got to put my slicker on while mounted on Frankie. A first for him and as usual he was non plussed about it. Baby steps each ride and soon he is gonna be as Susan put it "old reliable". Kind of a nice thought!






Happy trails!
Summer
I love summer! I like the heat, the sun, the pool and all the fresh veggies from my garden. I like canning the goods from my harvest. But dag gone it is sooooo... busy.
I just am not finding the time to sit and blog anymore. I miss reading about your lives and adventures. I miss telling you about my so called life.

But with the boys home and the newness of this place and finding my way around I find the days just fly by. Not to mention I am judging shows, doing show secretary work and planning the next horse show for the Indiana Ranch Horse Association.

I am managing to ride Frankie some and he is being a good guy. He is adjusting to life by himself in the pasture and has hardly given me any antics when I ride him alone. I am hoping to take him South to a friends house with cattle to start tracking them and see how he does.

I have a good lead on a job at the horse park again and am hoping that I get an interview at least. Just part time but at this point I think that is all I could add on to this crazy schedule of mine.

I judge a 4H fair show next Saturday and the IRHA show is the end of the month so things are at a brisk pace as usual. I have a few more judging jobs this summer as well.

Looking forward to the weekend when I can relax and swim in the pool with my little fellas. But first, I must go and set that dratted pool up.......
Ah the joys of motherhood!

Happy trails......
tales from the trails....
I figure I have kept you in suspense long enough for details of the cottonwood patch trip. Still cannot believe I forgot my camera, think I will tie it around my neck as Luanne suggested in a previous occasion where I forgot it. I did manage to grab these pictures from Susan who thank goodness remembered her camera and to actually use it while we were riding.

Friday morning found rain again, I showed up at Susan's at 7am as planned. We had hooked up the trailer the night before so all we had to do was load up and go. Susan had Frankie all haltered up with fly mask on ready for me to load him. Since Frankie won't back out yet we loaded him first than Payback. We set off with Mapquest directions and another version from one of the fellas from Georgia who had been there before, it was estimated at 5 hours. We hit rain off and on down I 75 but nothing major. We had one stop for lunch and ice before we got off the interstate for good. We turned on Ga 2 and headed into what we thought was the last leg of the trip, after 7 miles we determined this was not the Ga 2 we needed to be on. We found a turn around and backtracked turns out we turned the wrong direction,
just in front of us were two horsetrailers. Susan thought she recognized them as Ga riders, they turned off to the right and I kept on straight as my good ole GPS and navigator Susan instructed, this turned out to be the best thing that could have happened on Friday. The road quickly went from paved to gravel with more switchbacks and uphill then I could tell you, seven miles of this folks. Oh yeah let's not forget the two little narrow bridges we had to cross with my dually. Just when Susan started to doubt we were in the right place again I saw the horse trailers off to my left. I made the remark that I was glad I was not pulling a long rig as the roads were narrow and no shoulder just drop offs. We pulled in the campsite at 2 o'clock and several folks were already set up, they actually came in the night before and were out for a ride. Two friends were in camp and we figured out where to park and then got down to setting up camp. Unfortunately, there wasn't any really good place to place a picket line that would have been in the shade so we opted to tie the horses to a hitching post in the shade instead. Frankie never pulled back but..... he did untie himself and payback a few times until we hard tied him. Soon things were shaping up and then we heard a loud bang and horses banging in a trailer. Just after that Ralph a Ga rider came walking into camp saying James'
trailer was off in the ditch with horses inside and that it was BAD! We walked up the road and this is what we saw:









Now kids, if you are going to drive a goose neck trailer..... remember to swing out before your turns or this will happen.

Yes, there were two horses inside. Yes they were down and on their heads. The fellas had to dig out the hill behind the trailer, empty the rear tack, collapse it and go in and get the horses out. They both had cuts and were shaken up but thankfully they were otherwise fine.

Here is a side view so you can see what it looked like








These are the wrecker drivers who drug it up out of the ditch some hour and a half later. The young lady is one of our camp members who could not resist the uniform.
Ya see, I am glad they took that turn and that I got into camp before this happened or we would have been stranded up there on the road waiting for the wrecker to clear it. There was only one way in and out of the camp.

The rest of Friday was spent socializing and eating yummy fish the group fried at the campsite. Frankie seemed good on the post although I must confess I slept little and checked him about every two hours by looking out my trailer window.

Saturday was clear and beautiful when we awoke. The crew treated us to bacon and eggs for breakfast and we decided to split into two groups to ride for the day.
Fast, long ride for the gaited fellas and slow half day for us er quarter horse riding gals. We packed lunches and headed out for the iron mountain trail, a 12 mile loop around the campground with lots of hills and two river crossings. Frankie had already attached himself to Payback in a fierce way and if she got to far away he started his whinnying and antics of jumping around. Ugh.... I decided to make him lead for awhile and give him something to think about. The trail was not real wide and the drop offs were steep, it kept me on my toes since he is such a greenie.
I know it is out of focus but here he is plodding along.










Actually, he was moving out good and enjoying himself until.......this giant flat rock appeared when we rounded a corner. It startled him so that he jumped to the right and fell over the side of the hill. Well kids, I was thinking this could go really bad here or.....
Well, he wasn't panicking or freaking out, he stopped when I asked him to and when I accessed that we could not back up or go forward we just did a cute little 180 degree turn on the side of the hill and popped back up on the trail. Thank goodness he had reining training! Everyone was surprised at how well he handled it, other horses gave trouble with the rocks throughout the day as well. Frankie got over it after that one little incident. We meandered through the woods and I put him in the middle and in the back just to see how he handled it. When his girlfriend Payback was in sight he was fine but let her get out of view and he worried and jigged me around. Our next surprise came when the horse in front of me tripped over a downed branch in the trail, this turned out to be a God send as a big timber rattlesnake was laying on the trail just beyond it. Here is a shot of the noisy fella.










Thankfully, he slivered over to the ditch and proceeded to warn us to stay away with his big rattles. I was surprised how calm the horses were as they passed within 6 feet of him. We could hear the river as we approached it, the shallows running over the rocks was beautiful and the horses were happy to have a long cool drink.










After letting the horses drink and cool off we headed up the other side and found that it was a good spot to park for lunch. We tied the horses and sat along the river enjoying our sack lunches. Frankie was more than happy to stand and rest in the shade of the trees. We finished up our goodies and saddled up for the rest of the trip, we decided that when we got back we would take our chairs and head to the river for our own cooling off. The trail paralleled the river for about a mile or so and it was so relaxing hearing the water and feeling the coolness of the river
a perfect ending to the ride. We did have to cross a small wooden bridge and then a big steel bridge to get back to camp, Frankie handled these in stride as well. Frankie was a worn out fella when we strolled back into camp at 2 pm. After I unsaddled him I sponged him down with a bucket of water and he was happy to see that hitching post and his hay bag!

We set off for the river with beverages and chairs in hand, the water was cold! We sat in the sun knowing just how lucky we were to be there in God's beauty. A short while later the boys came riding up and checked on us, I inquired about Frankie and if he was still tied and they told me he was laying flat out on his side tied to the rail. We all laughed and commented at how well he handled the day but that his little mind was probably exhausted like his body.

When I think about his life before me and all that he had to take in this past weekend I am pretty impressed with the guy!

Happy trails.......
Awesome
That is what the weekend was! It was a five hour trip down there to the Chattahoochee National Forest but well worth it. I am happy to tell you all that Frankie did survive and he did great! It was not without some mishaps for me and others but no one was seriously hurt and all did have a good time. I was so stinking excited to go that I forgot my camera. No fear Susan was armed with hers and she did shoot some great photos. I am not going to tell you the story until I have the disk of photos since it is a must to show you some of the events. Just know that we are back safely and we did have an awesome time and are planning the next trip as I sit here and type!

Happy trails....
It's time
Well, I have had the Frankie out several times trail riding and we have had really good rides each time. I think the time has come for...... ROAD TRIP!!!

Yep, all this busy and hustling and bustling around here has me plain cranky so my solution is to go to the woods and center. Frankie is going to get himself a crash course in camping and trail riding this weekend. Best Friend Susan and I are heading South to meet up with friends from Georgia for the weekend. We are going
here .
We are leaving on Friday morning and coming home Sunday.

This will be the longest haul for Frankie yet, but Payback will accompany him back there. He will have to be put on a picket line when I am not riding. My hope is that this will help him with his pulling back problem and that he won't make a complete *SS out of himself. I think he is ready for this and it should surely help get him in shape and more confident.

Going to dig out my camping stuff!

Happy trails......
I'm riding again!
I thought after the move things might calm down a bit, but so far it is full throttle around here. This past week I did manage to get the satellite TV hooked up and a phone connected. Since I was captive all week I decided to go commando and potty train this very stubborn almost 4 year old boy of mine. We have tried several times with no success, my fault too since I am always on the go. (no pun intended)
But, I am happy to say I think we have rounded that corner this week as well.
Friday was a trip to Toys R Us for a job well done and yes the dreaded Chuckie Cheese adventure..... shoot me now! After that we drove a very sick and fevered Dad
to the Cincinnati airport for a flight to New York. He went against my advice, work calls you see. It is just an hour to the airport but with two small boys it felt like twenty!! We then booked it home, stopped for groceries and shavings for the equines and went to Susan's to prepare Frankie's new stall and paddock. I got the stall bedded and filled the water trough and buckets in the stall.

Saturday morning I went and hooked up Susan's big aluminum stock trailer and thank God she watched my boys as I drove to Indiana to fetch the big ole Perlino man.
Two and a half hours later I arrived and promptly loaded 78 bales of hay into the front of the trailer. It has a cut gate and that was what I could fit in the front section, was hoping for 100 but oh well. I then went to Tiffany's house and loaded up Frankie and all his paraphernalia into the trailer. Despite the trailer being something totally different and this being his 6th time hauled he did great.
I made it back to Susan's by 3:30pm and proceeded to unload him and some hay.
I turned Frankie out into his paddock to let off some steam. The rest of the horses were up in the barn and this distressed him terribly, not to mention Jane started the hee haw express in there. As I unloaded hay he basically trotted the fence and whinnied to whoever would answer.

Later that evening Susan had a cookout and by then he was settling in and relaxing some. Until...... I turned out Jane. Her paddock is across the driveway from him,
he can see her but no contact. He pawed at the ground and paced a small section where he could see her, she could have cared less. By the time I left at 10pm he was worn down and grazing peacefully.

Today after driving back to the airport to fetch said sick Dad who is now even sicker, I decided to go and ride with Susan. So at 2 o'clock we loaded Frankie and her mare Payback and headed to the reservoir to ride. The reservoir is not actually a reservoir it is just county land that may one day be used for that purpose. It is only 15 minutes from the farm. Frankie did well considering that he never had another horse haul with him in the trailer, I don't have slants just an open box. When we arrived at the parking lot there were about five other trailers there. We had seen a deer on the way in and that was only the first of many today. We unloaded and saddled up the ponies. Frankie did his classic pull back on the lead when I was about to saddle him, something we must work on. It is frustrating because he doesn't always do it and he is completely calm after doing it. After that outburst he was fine while being saddled. Susan had daughter Eliza along for the ride today in her buddy seat on the back of payback, she is six. We headed down the road and immediately crossed a concrete bridge with 4 culverts running under it and sticking out the sides like evil monsters. Frankie just had a look as we were passing over them. We found the trail head and went into the woods, it was a single file trail and Payback led. It was nice and shady and the bugs did not bother us today. We climbed some slippery hills and this did give Frankie some nerves but he handled himself very well. The trails were in the woods then opened into big fields,
we saw several deer and Frankie never spooked or acted up at all. We did some water crossings with no problem either. Of course I forgot my camera but Susan managed to snap this one with her Blackberry.




Can you see the topography in the photo? We did some serious climbing today.
We rode for about an hour and a half and when we arrived back at the trailer little Frankie was pooped. He was actually trying to sleep while I unsaddled him. We headed home and he got a nice showering off and some rest in his stall until this evening when he will get turned out for the night. Me I am turning in also, I am sore all over from slinging hay and tomorrow it will be from riding. That's OK, I am so glad to be back in the saddle again....

The mare may come this week for a trial basis to see if she fits my program, she sounds to good to be true so we shall see......

Happy trails......
Here comes the judge
That was one of the first comments I heard from a little girl on Sunday morning.
Funny how wearing a jacket identifies you as the judge. I drove up to Indiana on Saturday evening and spent a quiet evening in a hotel. Well, it was quiet until mother nature produced some violent thunderstorms at 11 pm just in time to wake me up. I tell ya, I needed that time alone to re-center. My life has been a crazy mixed up busy time as of late. But yeah I know you want to hear about the show....

I arrived at the grounds at 8:15 am the show was to start at 9am. The weather had cleared and it was cool and very pretty out. I submitted the office staff my patterns for showmanship and horsemanship and received my judges cards. They bulldogged a fella named REX into being my ring steward for the day. He was a part time farrier and pleasant man to work with. The show was not very large, partly I think since the previous nights weather. It is an outdoor facility and I think people may have been afraid that it was wet. They actually did not even get the storm that I had at the hotel some 12 miles South.

This was an open show put on by a sweet elderly lady that owns the boarding stable where the facility was. Her name was Rosie and she told me that she and her late husband had been hosting this show for over 40 years. She holds the show both days of the weekend with the same show bill both days and a different judge both days.

The show started at 9:15 and halter classes were first up. It was a little unusual as the classes were mixed genders and all breeds of horses. I mean I had 16 hand horses and minis in the same class! I really could not take pictures for you as I was judging but believe me the minis were so freaking cute! I especially loved the little mini studs, they had such attitude and presence. I was so happy to see so many youth competing and they were all very polite and well behaved. I am sad to tell you that no one competed in the mini obstacle class or the at liberty class.
I judged English and western but no contesting or trail classes. There were some pretty nice horses there and in a few classes I did have to ask for some extended work out of them to decide. We did have one mishap where a young girl of around 8 did come off her horse but she was OK just shook up. Made me have a gasping moment though. My favorite part of the day was when I was getting ready to leave and two young ladies of 6 and 8 came and thanked me for judging their show! I was impressed at the manners and poise of these young girls.

I landed another judging job while I was there for July, a 4H fair show. Ooh, ought to be good and hot by then. I am pleased, I really enjoy it and working with the kids.

This week I am trying to get into a schedule here at Valkyre house. Happy to say we are all here except Frankie. I am going Saturday to pick him up first thing. Jane is shedding off nicely and has made herself at home in the new barn. Susan loves being serenaded by her each morning.

BIG NEWS to come.......I am trying out another horse.....stay tuned.

Happy trails.....
Believe it or not...
I am still alive.....

I have been consumed by the ranch horse show and the tallying of results for that plus the big move to KY.

I am happy to tell you I did in fact haul Frankie to the show. I did even manage to ride him Friday evening. He was fresh, we did some lunging then riding and some bucking. He handled the crowds and newness of it all quite well. The rest of the weekend he basically stood in his stall and I had one of the youth kids water and give him hay at intervals. I did walk him around on Sunday during the lunch break and even took him over to the cattle pens to see his reaction. He was non reactive about the cows and generally everything else. The show went well despite rain and having to use the covered pen for every class instead of just the cattle classes.

This weekend is the final push for moving, should be in totally by the end of this week. Thank goodness for that. Today was last day of school for the kiddos so we are focused on getting the rest of our stuff moved now.

Sunday I am judging an open show here in Indiana and I must admit my first mini horse classes. I am curious about this mini horse obstacle at liberty class, should be a hoot!

Promise I will be back to posting more regularly soon, thanks to those of you out there checking on me.

Happy trails....
Stubborn as an ass...
Yep, that's me! Despite my aching back and my need for vicodin just to be upright I decided to ride Frankie today. I know , I know.... but the weather was just gorgeous today and he is doing well again and did I mention the ranch horse show this weekend?

Well, Frankie was quite good today and instead of pounding myself with trotting and loping we worked on other things. We worked on moving the hip without it being a big deal and getting faster in pace. This will come in handy for working gates and lead changes and lots of other things. We also worked on backing and just standing still for awhile. He looks good and is completely shed out and I must say looking buff! Hopefully, I will get a chance to show him at least a class or two this weekend. Since I am running the show it is a tough call, depends on if my help shows up and works out.

Either way we are making progress again and I know separating him and Jane was the right thing to do.

Now if you will excuse me I am off for a Mojito and another vicodin!

Happy Trails.....
Frankie's heart break club
First let me start off by thanking all of you for your insights and suggestions in the Frankie / Jane saga. I want to tell you all that A) I am not mad at him or disappointed. I understand he is a young and inexperienced horse and B) He needs more riding from me. Mostly I was just surprised by his actions as he never has shown any of those characteristics before.

So before one or both of us got hurt or digressed any further, I loaded up Jane on Thursday and took her to Ky. She is now at Susan's in her own little paddock and could not be happier. Well, OK she could be happier if Frankie was with her but that is not going to happen.

It was too late on Friday when I got back to go see Frankie but first thing on Saturday I went over to see him. I had talked with Tiffany on the phone and she told me he carried on for about an hour then settled down when I took Jane away.

On Saturday he seemed relaxed when I brought him into the arena , a good sign.
He stood quietly while I groomed and saddled him. Tiffany's horse Cisco did call out to him a few times and he did answer but did not get agitated like before. I decided to lunge him just a bit to see what shape we were in. He worked well and did not seem to preoccupied with calling out to Cisco. I mounted him and am happy to say he was back to his old self. We had a great ride and schooled for about 30 minutes in the arena.

Unfortunately my back has decided to spasm and flare up from previous injury and probably the moving and the fall last week. So..... I am here with heat pad and vicodin trying to get well so I can ride some this week. Now I am preparing for the ranch horse show this weekend which is a full time job in itself.
Round Two.....
Today was round two with Frankie. I would like to tell you it went better but in fact it was worse.

Last evening I went back over and gave him a bath. After bathing him I tied him in the arena and went to put away my things. He freaked out and started screaming for Jane and pulled back and broke a lead rope. I caught him and decided that we must do something to stop this behavior.

Today when I saddled him he was much quieter as was Jane, I was hopeful. But.... when I got up on him he flatly refused to move forward. I nudged him and bent him to no avail, he just froze up and whinnied for Jane who of course answered. I used my spur ever so gently at first and he just flinched, then he exploded. He did the shaking of the head thing again and then launched straight upward and started twisting and bucking. I took this as my cue to exit stage left. I was not as graceful as I had hoped and ended up in the dirt on my butt.

So, out came the lunge line and we did some work. After lunging for 15 minutes I remounted him and although he was still whinnying occasionally we did get some good work in. I ended on a good note and tomorrow is another day.

I have decided however, that Jane will be heading to Ky tomorrow afternoon and their love affair is over. He will now be pastured alone until he grows up a bit and gains some confidence. Sigh.....

The saga continues....

Pony Girl Rides Again

Pony Girl Rides Again

My Thoughts About Twilight



However, I was thinking about it while driving home from work the other day. In it's own small way, Twilight has changed my life. Goodness, that is pretty profound. In some ways, it's probably for the worse. For example, do I really need body lotion scented like lilac, honey, and sun- the scent the author of Twilight described the vampire Edward smelled like? Um, well, yes I do. It smells really good. Hmmmm....I wonder if the name "Sponge Bob Square Pants" was on the bottle, if I still would have bought it?

New Moon sweetheart treats from another Twilight fan, Patches at her Furry Four Legged Kids blog. Thank you, thank you for the treats!!

I was a late bloomer to the Twilight saga. I had never even heard of the young adult novels when a friend and I went to the movies one night and randomly decided to see Twilight, mostly based on the hype we'd heard in the media.

The movie was unique and mesmerizing from the get-go, and different that the romantic comedies or blockbusters I typically saw. Shortly thereafter, I purchased the book.

My infatuation still didn't really kick up until last spring. I finally finished that first book (slowly) but whipped through the next three in the series within a month and a half. I bought the DVD. The full-on obsession hit me out of nowhere. The movie really brought the characters to life for me. I have not felt this way about anything in the pop culture realm....at least not since I was a teenager.

So, what has Twilight done for me? Let me count the ways.


1. The series has made me re-appreciate trees. I know, how bizarre is that. The books take place in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, they take place in a town (Forks) that I lived in for a short while during my childhood. My cousins lived there for several years after we moved, so we continued to visit them there. When the book speaks of rain, trees, and ferny woods, I get it. The setting for these books makes me appreciate green, moss, rain, fog, and puddles more than I ever thought I could. Those of you that remember this post will get a chuckle out of that. That's my point- I appreciate what I have again. Trees are cool! Hug a tree. You never know what could be lurking in them. Vampires? Mutant monkeys?



2. Its inspired me to start writing again. I have written off and on for many years, and have always found the genre of young adult work particularly interesting to me. Now, all kinds of creative ideas are swarming in my head....



3. Romantic notions. Okay, funny thing- but one of the reasons why Twilight has been such a hit, with fans, women in particular of all ages, is the romantic notion of the "perfect man." Edward embodies the perfect man. He is strong, loyal, devoted,and forever. He would kill or give his life to protect Bella. He's beautiful. He respects her. Given, he's a too little intense at times....I prefer a guy with a bit more of a sense of humor.


4. The bonds that form. I can not tell you how many people I ran into, and keep meeting, that love, love, love this series! We talk about the Cullens and Swans and Blacks like they are real people. It is a common, instant bond. On a weekend adventure with some cousins, we totally immersed ourselves in all things Twilight. It was indulgent and wonderful. Yes, we even took pictures with cardboard cut-outs.




5. This series rekindled a love of reading. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't ever read books. Honestly though, most of my reading in the past two years has been online~ blogs and the like. I really rarely picked up novels anymore. Now, I have a stack of 5 that I'm reading. All at once.


6. Movies don't have to be gory. While Twilight the movie (and the books in the series) do have some violence, they are not filled with gratuitous blood or gore. Less is more. That's my theory and I'm stickin' with it. Sometimes, what you don't show or say, or how you say it, can craft better imagery. The fact the movie and the books are not filled with blood-dripping fang-tooth demon vampires, yet are still liked by so many, speaks volumes to the kind of entertainment many of us are happy to view.

I realize that I probably won't love the Twilight saga at this intensity forever. Some day I will chuckle and say, remember when I thought I was going to marry Edward and that Paint Girl's dog might be a werewolf? Nah. However, I do think a few positive things have come out of this series for me. And for that, I'm a grateful Twilight fan.


My Walk With Bailey
Saturday morning was cold. After scraping thick frost off of my windshield, I drove to the Painted Creek for a late morning farrier appointment.

After My Boy was reshod, I turned him out to finish his morning hay. My hands were cold and Paint Girl's OH has started a fire in the woodstove, but I wasn't ready to head inside just yet.

I grabbed the Nikon and took a walk around the property. Bailey, my- er- Paint Girl's dog, always takes walks on the property with me. Typically, he cavorts off into the meadow or woods here and there, on a secret mission of his own.

The big meadow was nothing but decaying grass, heavy with melted frost and littered with deer droppings. I trod through it in my muck boots, unsure I'd find anything interesting to photograph. Admittedly, I didn't see anything with my naked eye, but knew that along with a long-awaited visit with my horse, a crisp autumn walk was just what I needed to unwind from a few very busy weeks.

Then, I stumbled upon these fabulous fungi. I noticed a lot of mushrooms are growing around the Painted Creek these days. Thanks to a record setting amount of rain this autumn, I presume.

What does Bailey see? A deer? I do not know. We continue on.

The once green and toxic bracken fern is now brown, but still standing strong.

Bailey likes to hide in their tall stems, as he continues his stalking mission. He sees something again.


Could it be my pony finishing his hay in his pasture?

Beautiful, brown stained alder tree leaves catch the overcast light and you know me, I can't help but photograph a few.


Always on the hunt for some bokeh.


Here comes Bailey, running alongside the arena. Ready to keep walking, Pony Girl?


We continue on the backside of the arena, and down along the mare's pasture. We stop along the fence between the two pastures to toss some apples inside.

Within seconds of hearing the crinkle of the Ziploc, a fuzzy Appaloosa muzzle with a snip finds them.


We walk wander into the yard, where I spy hydrangeas, a delightful blend of lavender and blue hues. Goodness, how exciting to find a splash of color left from summer, amongst all the green and brown.


The guest room! I have not stayed in it recently.....I'll have to remedy that. I miss Paint Girl's OH's cooking. There trots a golden horse statue in the window.

I cross the lawn, where I let My Boy graze for a bit after his visit with the farrier. More mushrooms. Look closely, you might notice a few Aussie hairs on these ones. I am always amazed at the details my camera captures when I download photos! {click on photos to enlarge.}


Oops. Looks like Paint Girl's OH left these boots outside a little too long. That happens around these parts.


I hope you enjoyed this chilly November walk with me and Bailey!

Bye bye, Bailey. See you next weekend! I'll be getting hay. Which for some reason, always seems to make you so happy, seeing that truck of hay you want to jump up on!

New Specs For Autumn


















.....Go Together Like a Horse & Carriage....






Many of you guessed Salem as the destination of my recent travels....I think I threw you off course by mentioning spooky and Halloween! Actually, you were quite close, I was in Rhode Island. Providence, to be exact! One of my co-travelers actually joked that we should go to Salem, which she said would be crazy on Halloween. But Providence was old and spooky enough for me. They even have a Providence Ghost tour! And no, I didn't go on it!

I did not get to see much of Providence other than downtown, it was a quick trip and related to business. What I did see, was quaint, and old. Everything is old there! The architecture of the buildings was especially amazing. I have only been east to NYC, so it was great to see another part of the area.

This weekend, my travels include a family celebration. I am hoping to see My Boy tomorrow....I miss him dearly. But alas, weather and travel has kept me from him. I rarely go a week without seeing my pony! Around this time of year, he's probably wishing I'd sell him to someone who lives in a warmer, drier state.....like Hawaii. Here is a picture of me and my pony in sunnier, drier times. Is that a tank top I'm wearing? Sigh.


Have a great weekend, everyone!
Reformed Worry Wart?

Recently, I've been doing some traveling. Here are some pictures, taken on my Sony point and shoot, from one of my trips. Any guesses as to where (state, or city) I was in? And family, no, you can't guess as you know! I will say, it was a perfectly spooky place to be late in October......


Also, I thought I'd add another "Typewriter Tidbit on Life" from that old typewriter manual I bought at a yard sale in September. This one is on worry, and you might have heard part of it somewhere else before. I chose worry because normally when I am to fly on an airplane, I am wrought with anxiety. This time I was actually rather calm, my stomach mostly void of those churning butterflies. The only time on the planes that I got nervous was when we hit some pretty rough turbulence and my adrenaline got pumping a bit.


Now I mostly agree with this tidbit, but wanted to clarify that for me, along with work, any form of keeping busy- such as pursuing hobbies such as riding my horse, or hanging out with friends, does help keep the nerves at bay.

Are you a worrier? Does flying on a plane make you nervous? What helps you keep those stomach flutters away?
Monday My Boy Fix
I missed my horse! As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been busy, busy, busy! And that means little horsey time for me. I was so happy to see my horse today. We had to get him hay from the farm store, then I went out to groom him while he was eating. The downpour from earlier had subsided, and a sharp autumn breeze kicked up. The horses had been a little wired during feeding time (a lot of galloping and bucking) so I tossed a few cookies in My Boy's bucket and entered the pasture. He followed me up to the tree where his hay had been thrown. He was eagerly assessing me, did I have any more cookies?

I picked up a grooming brush and he shied away. Stinker! You'd think he was the wild Mustang on the property. He finally let me groom the dried dirt off of him.

Then, I sprayed some more wound spray on his boo-boo and it stung. The stinker left me again! (By the way, the scrapes scab have mostly fallen off and it looks fine, I just like to keep the new skin moist.)


I realize that My Boy's copper color almost perfectly matches that of dead cedar twigs.

They are falling off their branches left and right in the wind and end up everywhere....in My Boy's tough, blanketing the ground....even suspended in bare branches around the property. I became obsessed with photographing them.


My Boy got a drink of water at his trough, and then he moseyed back up to keep eating. It was nice to hang out with him as the sun lowered behind the damp green trees. I love this time of year, the crisp air and nature sprinkled with shades of amber. If I'm dressed warmly enough, I could spend all day outside hanging with my horse.

Brandy wandered down to the water trough from the back of her pasture and I snapped a picture of her, all fuzzy and dirty. Paint Girl said she'd never have a white horse again. I can surely understand why, but there is also something very organic and earthy about a dirty white horse.

Finally, it was time to head inside and warm up my hands.

Goodnight, sweet spotted boy. See you later than sooner.....
Fenced In
I was sitting in the car a few weeks ago during a fall harvest tour, and I happened to look over at a pasture next to me. There were no animals in it, but I focused on the fence. Some thoughts went through my head and I grabbed my camera and started taking a few pictures.

This particular fencing was hog wire lined with barbed wire, and possibly, a strand of electric wire. I was imagining a horse getting his leg caught in big squares of the hog wire and then as it struggled, being torn apart by the barbed wire. Yes, I have a bit of an overactive imagination.

My Boy's fencing at the Painted Creek is hog wire (the narrower rectangles, not the large squares) with electric wire on the top. He is very respectful of fencing, and even thinks there is hot wire on the parts there isn't. We've had almost no problems with this wire in terms of safety except one- My Boy injured himself recently when he bucked near the fence. He came down on the hog wire part of it with his leg, scraping up his inner hock. Had the wire been barbed, I can only imagine the damage that could have occurred.


The only downfall to this fencing is that without a rail or electric wire on top, it is very easy for a horse to lean it's head and neck over it and bend the wire. I won't mention any names, but a black and white paint mare whose name begins with an "F" has been known to bend a few fences in her life in search for the "grass that is always greener." So no, our fencing isn't perfect for horses, but I would take it over barbed wire any day.


Do you believe in a perfect type(or near perfect) fencing for horses? I've often heard people say that a horse can injure itself in or on any fencing. It seems to me this is true, but I also think you are lowering your odds of injury with some kinds of fencing over others.

What kind of fencing do you have, and if it's not your dream fencing, in a perfect world, what would be your ideal fencing be?

And can someone please clarify for me, is it "barb wire" or "barbed wire"? I have seen it written both ways.....
What a Drip!
Goodness, this weekend was a wet one! Autumn is alive, painting the landscape a fiery burst of colors.

When I first started photographing these trees, their golden leaves were just dripping in a light drizzle.

Then a downpour began. Thankfully, I was on a covered porch!


Even these crows seemed in drenched discontent on their high-wire perch.

Due to this weather, I didn't do much with my horse on Saturday. First, I emptied his grain bucket of water, nearly full after just 24 hours of rain.

Then I gave him an apple and contemplated his new beach-front property. I have no idea where all of this sand ran off from.

The mares no longer live at the Painted Creek. Apparently, it's now "The Painted Lake."

I bid goodbye to the mud-caked equines and drove to Paint Girl's workplace, an indoor stable, where I got to see her work a few horses. I can tell she is really enjoying her new job! Here is a handsome bay 3-year old stallion she just finished longing.


Sunday was slightly better in the weather department. I was able to bring out my horse, groom and clip his mohawk bridle path, and trot him out in the sloshy arena. He checked out the orange cedar needles floating on the arena puddles (and munched on the weeds growing out of the puddles, of course!)

I took a picture of my pretty pony against a scenic yellow tree.

I am so bored with all of this posing already!

My visits to my pony are going to be scattered few and far between over the next few weeks, as I am doing some traveling with family and work. I gave him his fuzzy warm neck a BIG hug and told him to stay out of trouble until I get back!

Typewriter Tidbit on Life

Last week I mentioned that at a yard sale I got an old typewriter lesson manual, maybe from the 60's (I could not find a date.) The picture above, which I took from the front page, says it all.

In honor of my sister Paint Girl's new job, her dream job- working with animals, I have chosen this typing lesson to share from the book.

Lesson 47
Measured Typing

1. Too many people seem to be content to spend their time in just carrying out the purpose of others. They work for nothing but the pay; they think more about the pay than the purpose. Give them the pay, and somebody else can have the purpose, for all they care. In this way millions of people live unhappy lives just because they do not have a purpose.

2. You can and should have a purpose of your own. At the same time you can serve the purpose of another and serve it even better. You can still have the pay and yet be working out your own purpose. Remember that all good purposes tend in the same direction and go hand in hand. Decide now that you will have a purpose; then your life will be the richer.

I think this is so true- we've all probably been there at some point in our lives. Often a necessity, a job is a job, but it is not a passion. It does not serve a purpose, other than to make ends meet. I am excited that my sister is finally working a job that is more than just a paycheck to her. I truly believe she is also now using her God-given talent of working with animals.

Is your job your passion in life? Do you think you are fulfilling your purpose? If not, do you think that someday,you might find yourself there?

The Baby is Here!

Chance was running a loop around her pasture when I first got there. Paint Girl and I walked out and climbed over the gate of her pasture. She immediately calmed down and walked around us, pausing at times. She seemed unsure if she wanted much human contact or attention. However, it was obvious that our presence comforted her.

Hey Pony Girl, what are you doing over there?

My Boy's leg scratch is mostly healed, but there is a huge scab over the worst of it. I felt like picking it off but I washed it out and put antiseptic on it, but left it be to de-scab itself. I took him back and longed him in the arena. He was being lazy and I only had the 14 ft. line so he just trotted about ten minutes each way. He's out of shape! Afterward, I let him graze along the filly's pasture.

Chance grazed alongside him in her pasture. She reminded me of the bird in the book "Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman, wandering around asking other animals and things if they were his mother. My Boy kept eyeing the pretty filly suspiciously at times, but didn't really seemed overly concerned or interested in her. He's definitely confused as to why she isn't a goat! He thought it was pretty cool she's wearing green halter that matches his, though.

Later, I put My Boy away and picked rocks out of his pasture. I ended up taking a little video of him and Chance. Please don't laugh at my Pony Girl voice. I can't help talking to my horse that way, it's hilarious and sappy, I know!


Look how little Chance is in the background! I think she is whinnying.

I think My Boy is looking handsome here. I love that his coat gets a richer copper color as his winter fuzzies grow in.

Congrats Paint Girl, on bringing your new baby home! It will be fun to watch her grow up, and I know My Boy will look after his little sister!
The Property Hunters
For some reason, over the past twenty years, I have been with my parents while they searched, and found, most of the homes or properties they lived on. Maybe I should get a license to become a real estate agent.

Regardless, looking at homes and property is great fun, even if you are just window shopping! There is something about it....the thrill of the hunt. Each place is so unique. And the feeling of finding the potential "one" is so great.

I remember the cottage that looked adorable when peering into the windows from the outside. However, it had had a fire and a woman died in it. The agent had to disclose that information. Um, no, that was too weird and sad. Then there was the funky home where people had kept adding rooms and additions to the place. You got lost just walking through it, like the fun house at a carnival.

On one particular property hunting trip, my aunt, uncle, parents and I crammed into my parents' SUV and set out. It was quite the adventure. While trying to find the last (and best) property, we ended up on a dead end road and could not figure out the directions we had. We called my cousin back home to look up the original directions on the realtors site but even that was fruitless. The road we needed did not exist. And we had no GPS. That day, I learned you can call 411 on your cell phone, give them an address, and they will give you step by step directions to get you to your destination!

There was also the (apparently) abandoned farm with the strange smell. We literally just stepped out of the car and got a whiff. I swear it was strong natural gas odor, but my family thought it was a dead animal in the barn. It was disturbing and we left there in a jiffy!

Last weekend, my parents took me to a piece of land they'd found with some other family members.

So, put on some decent footwear and take a walk with us!

Mom and dad start us off on the tour. The property is a nice combination of thinned out woods, heavily wooded areas, and open pastures.

There are groomed paths in the park-like setting of woods, that has been kept bush-whacked.

You still had to be careful not to trip on the roots and vines that weren't cut all the way- these "nature's hands" tried to reach out and grab your foot.


The property borders right up against clear cut land......perhaps miles and miles of future horseback riding trails?

We walk through the woods and ferns and brush, and find many, many piles of scat from many wild animals. We think this one is elk (it looked more like mushed together pellets in real life, but too big to be deer.)

The light coming through the trees is mesmerizing.

I feel myself getting happier, just being here. It is so peaceful. It reminds me of where I grew up as a child.


We start downhill and come upon a small cleared meadow in the middle of the trees.


On one side of the meadow I find beautiful moss-covered branches on trees. My mom and I collect fallen branches to take home. I'll show you where they ended up in a future post.

We start up the hill on the other side of the meadow. It's a climb! I'm coming through the trees! It's a little hard to climb in rubber rain boots while snapping pictures with the Nikon! I thought the ground was going to be wet, but it wasn't!

I'm almost out of the ferns. Even with two bad knees, my father is faster than me!

Voila! The top of the hill! Mom and dad are catching their breath.

Here, we find the sun's warmth in the open and start peeling off the down jackets!

Beautiful! Acres of open field. Looks like it was possibly hayed late summer.

We continue on through the field and head towards the road, and find an apple tree.

Alas, Rosie was waiting back in the car...and she needed a potty break, so the walk was over.

Hopefully you enjoyed the little tour. Isn't property hunting fun? Do you ever window shop for a new place to live?
Fabulous Fall Weekend
No hairy spiders in this post...I promise!

I had a busy weekend with some of my family. We attended some fall festivals and flea markets.

The morning weather was chilly, yet by the afternoon the sun popped out. As you can tell, we were being blinded here!

Leave it to Dusty Devoe to find a horse to pet! The first flea market was in a horse arena/barn. They had apple cider, pumpkins, lots of handmade and vintage goods....and ponies. How perfect!

I got these unique sheep tea light holders there. My mom and I each got one. The tea lights burning in them are the little flameless ones.


I love fall decor! It even rivals Christmas decor in my book!

My mom bought a carved out pumpkin full of rosehips. We also got scoops of a rosehip potpourri....delightfully autumn!

We hit a church rummage sale in final last hour....the "fill up a grocery bag with as much as you can for $2" hour! I found this book, Rascal, which I remember reading as a preteen. And an old bottle.

I also picked up an old picture frame, a weathered pink short-sleeved sweatshirt, a paper journal, and an old college typewriting textbook. Definitely obsolete. Interestingly, I loved some of the sample paragraphs for the typing lessons and I will share some of them with you on "typewriter Tuesdays" starting next week!

I also got to photograph an old classic truck for a friend of my parents. This was a fun shot I took of me in the side mirror.

I was wearing my pink horsey rain boots in anticipation of a sloshy day, but look at that blue sky behind me!

That was only part of my fun weekend. I'll share more in my next post....
A Worming Trick that Worked!
I went up to see My Boy today, after a week of late work days. I was happy to see that his leg scrapes are healing well. They are big and scabby. The kind of scab little kids get on their knees and would start to pick off. I am already seeing new pink healthy skin under the minor scrapes, but I think the worse one still has another week or so to go.

It was also worming day. Oh boy. This time he needed the boticide wormer that I could only find in a paste/gel, not a pellet form. And lately he'd been snubbing his nose at the gel mixed with his grain anyway (which worked a few times!) I decided to enlist the help of Paint Girl's Other Half.

He hadn't helped me worm My Boy this way for a while. I had him shower My Boy with apple slices. Then he tried to get a hold of My Boy's muzzle while I held him. Paint Girl casually waited off to the side with the paste tube hidden behind her. It didn't matter, he knew. Horses are more aware and tuned-in then we ever give them credit! It was a three-man effort, I tell you.

My Boy would have none of the muzzle grabbing. Luckily, the OH is super strong and we were able to keep him from backing up 100 feet like he does with a vet trying to twitch him. Finally, the OH almost had it, but lost his grip. My Boy is a master at the shaking his head to avoid you thing. Then the OH said, "What if I just stick my finger in his mouth?" So he did and My Boy started opening his mouth and gagging and licking and Paint Girl came up and slipped the wormer in the side and ta-da- easy peasey! Now, whether or not this will work next time is a theory to test, but perhaps this is a new solution to a challenging problem!? I would have made the OH brownies for his help, but it looks like Paint Girl took care of that!

A small blob of wormer ended up on Paint Girl's hand, and another tiny splosh was spat out on the gravel. We made sure to hose it down to clean it up. Paint Girl's pups like to lick up and nibble on anything they can. Horse paste wormer is highly toxic to dogs! The dogs were locked in the garage at the time, but I didn't want them to wander out later and find trouble.

The weather has really changed. It finally feels like fall. I let My Boy lawn mow a bit after the worming experience and leg tending, and he was a happy camper in the late afternoon sun. But I was a freezing Pony Girl in a just a hoodie over a long-sleeved tee! Definitely time to start wearing my down barn jacket!

I just had to throw in this big fattie for Paint Girl, knowing how she just adores those arachnids! I love the striped detail on this one's legs. Do you think it is a female, is she about to lay her egg sac?

P.S. This spider really wasn't that big at all, I just zoomed in the picture and it looks a lot bigger!
Take A Chance
Paint Girl has been sharing the details of adopting a Mustang filly on her blog, starting here. I got to go see the filly and her mother at the temporary holding place she is at, until she is weaned and arrives to the Painted Creek Farm. Which will hopefully be very soon!

There is something so special about a baby horse. Of course I had my Nikon and snapped a hundred photos, a least! Here are some of my favorites. I'll let Paint Girl tell you in her blog how amazing her visit was that day, but I hope these pictures show some of the special moments.

Baby feet.


Stuck. (not really!)

Liberty is in need of a trip to the beauty salon. Hopefully she'll find her special person soon. I wish My Boy needed a sister, but it's not in the cards for me right now.

Paint Girl's OH~ future Mustang whisperer?


Beautiful Liberty. Eleven years wild. I wonder what thoughts roam between those ears.....

Peek-a-boo! Don't you just love those fuzzy teddy bear ears? I mean, now do you see why this baby was so hard to resist?

Chance loves to give kisses!

Chance, meet clover. (Lovin' those wonky whiskers!)


Are you my mother?

A kind, gentle eye.

I think this little filly has a curious, calm nature, but I think she's got a little spunk in her, too! Paint Girl is going to have a good challenge and a lot of fun raising this little princess.

And I am lucky to have my first baby horse to photograph~ can't wait to get her cavorting around her new pasture!

What I'm Loving this Fall

Fall is a time of year that makes you want to cozy up, reflect the season, and reinvent yourself. Here are some things I am loving (or coveting....) for autumn.......

Branches. I can not stop picking up fallen branches and twigs and putting them in vases and jars!

It brings in a simple, bare, elemental look into my house, which I am loving better than any synthetic fall garland I could buy at the craft store. I love the glow of this old brown/orange bottle.

Don't you just love fall fashion? Jeans, knit scarves, warm cozy sweaters, and furry leather boots!



My Boy's Leg Wounds
Who invited these arachnids to live on my fence?

I haven't given an update on My Boy's leg. Which is ironic since I have been spending a couple of hours nearly every day driving to tend to his leg injury, it's been my major focus. He scraped the inside of his hock up pretty nasty on the wire fence while bucking alongside it. I talked to the vet this morning, she said it sounds like an abrasion. Not really a cut, that would require stitches, but more than the typical scratch horses get in the pasture. So far, his leg appears to be healing normally, although as I suspected, I've been "gooping" it up too much. Funny, how we think if we aren't putting goop on a wound, we aren't helping it. I guess I am still a bit of an overanxious horse owner. I am getting better as more "stuff" happens to my horse and we get through it.

For now, I am treating it with Betadine and just keeping an eye on it. The vet said these kind of wounds can take 2-3 weeks to heal, and we are only one week in. It had a little heat in it the first day. I assumed it would swell up as his other leg injury from two years ago swelled like a tree trunk, but there was never any swelling.

All of the black stuff you see running down his leg and around the edges of his wounds is dried and scabby oils, goop, and powder that I'd been applying that have attached firmly to the hair, along with a lot of dirt that stuck to it. As I wash it, most of that falls off.

I had been using a wound care solution w/tea tree oil, and then also some Wonder Dust proud flesh powder. Interestingly, the vet said not to apply the proud flesh powder unless you actually see proud flesh, as you can actually slow down the healing process with it. Not that I'm sure what proud flesh will look like in the beginning stages, but she said someting like pink ballooning flesh on the outer edges.

Interestingly, I have tried to avoid reading too much online as you hear 100 different opinions- use this product, don't use that product, wrap it, don't wrap it....it's overwhelming. One particular conversation thread on a message board I found had a mare with a hock rope burn injury far more severe than My Boy's. It was interesting to read about her treatments, other reader's advice, and a vet's opinion on the matter, which seemed to counter the horse owner's vet's advice. I will include the link here if you want to check it out (caution- graphic pictures.) I think I will just go with what advice the vet gave me, and be sure to call her out if it doesn't look at appears to be healing normally.

It's funny though, how My Boy knows I am helping him. The night of his injury, I saw him a few hours afterward. I brought him out to hose off the dried blood and inspect the scrapes. He didn't flinch a muscle. Over the last week, he maybe lifted his leg and held it up for a few seconds if something stung or irritated him. But he's been a good boy, never trying to move around or kick out.

My Boy mowing Paint Girl's lawn.

And did I mention he's been spoiled rotten? Just to be sure he doesn't only associate coming out of the pasture with leg-cleaning-and-medication-torture, I've been letting him graze on the last green grass remnants of summer after treatment. So he has been a happy camper. I suppose he considers to be fattening himself up for winter. He is getting that fuzzy winter coat in, that is for sure.

Sigh. It figures the summer sleekies never last long enough.

And let me tell you, he is feeling good! The leg is not holding him back at all! He's still galloping around his pasture. Fall is in the air, and horses know it.

Lastly, someone asked about his sarcoid....no resurgence yet. Actually, as his winter coat grows in, the hair is growing over the dry, scaly bare patch of skin (which I'd been coating with sunscreen all summer.) You can see the spot just to the right of and below the ring on the halter. I read somewhere in researching Xxterra that sometimes it can leave a scar, so maybe that is what it did.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that is the end I see of that bump, time will tell!
The Wood Pile
I bought this cool sign for 3.99 over the summer at the Goodwill. I love the simple, rustic look of it. It's kind of "barn at the beach", which tends to fit my style.

I haven't hung it yet because it has awful black paint on the back that marks up any white wall it gets near. I need to repaint the back, but I'll leave the edges black.

It inspired me to make some signs of my own. I have recently become in touch with my crafty, creative side again, which I've truly missed.

While dog sitting last week, I walked the dog down the alley behind the house and discovered all of this wood stacked near the garbage cans. The dog's owners had rebuilt part of their fence and this was the tear down pile. I saw potential. I asked them if the pile was a giveaway and they said goodness YES, PLEASE!

I mostly picked out some shorter, flat planks that just cried out "make me into a sign!" I like the simplicity of the one of two word signs. I've got a good variety of paint. Now I need to round up some fun stencils.

Unbeknowest to me, some of my family members have also been collecting some wood to make signs, too! Creative minds think alike!? Looks like my family needs to schedule ourselves a sign making party........
Crazy
To say that things in my life have been crazy busy is an understatement......I have been pet-sitting for two different families, running back and forth between homes and starting up work again. And then, My Boy goes and kicks the wire fence, scraping and bloodying up his hind leg pretty bad. As Paint Girl's OH said, "Whatya trying to do, make matching scars to the other leg?" Geesh! I had to cancel his farrier appointment, and any plans to ride for a week or two.

This, on top of Paint Girl's lost kitty and her new exciting Mustang adoption news (which you can read about on her blog.) All of this sadness, excitement, and general hectic-ness (is that a word?) gave me the whopper of all migraines!

But hallelujah, its a new week....we'll see whats in store. Hopefully, a sense of routine and no more injured or lost animals, thank you very much! And please, please, no more walking through these every morning on the way to my car!

Seriously, despite a lack of affection for all things arachnid in general, I do feel kind of bad that I have repeatedly destroyed homes they have been up all night spinning! After three mornings of destruction, you'd think they'd have figured out it was time to pack up and relocate, yes?! No. They persevere and rebuild in the same place! You'd think I'd remember the web was there and try to avoid it the next morning, right? No again.

Anyway, I have more to share later this week. Like why oh why, would something like this pile of wood interest me?


In Her Heart
Paint Girl has been very sad that her "angel" cat, Domino, has been missing.

As I drove through Paint Girl's neighborhood today, I scanned every yard and ditch, hoping I'd see that white and tiger-striped spotted cat sitting in someone else's yard. I would stop, call him, he would walk up to me, I'd pick him up, put him in my car, and take him home to her.

As I groomed My Boy, let him graze in the field, picked rocks from his pasture, and cleaned his shed, I kept looking around the property for some sign of the white cat. I wanted to find him.

It didn't happen.

But I did find this heart-shaped rock in My Boy's pasture. A rare find. And oddly symbolic considering the circumstances.

Paint Girl, don't give up hope that Domino will come home. Stranger things have happened in the world of felines.

But no matter what the outcome, although it feels broken now, know that in time, your heart will stop aching.

And it will be there, in your heart, that your angel kitty will forever hold a place.
Fences at Twilight
These are some photos I took at my mom's stable this summer.



The late evening, just before the sun sets and everything is glowing amber, is one of my favorite times to take pictures. It is a good challenge to try to capture the golden bronze light. Often, the sun during the middle of the day can just be too harsh to get good photos.

Everything just looks amazing under this lighting. It was kind of funny. On this particular evening, half of my family was off on a trail ride. The other half were sitting in lawn chairs, "tail-gaiting" at the barn if you will, drinking coffee and chatting, waiting for the others to get back. And I? I was standing in a recently cow-manure sprayed field photographing this old barbed wire fence. No surprise.



I loved playing with my macro (setting, not a macro lens) and the barbed wire.



My camera just wasn't focusing the way I wanted it to, but I got some neat shots anyway.



I adore the sky at twilight.




What I love best about my Nikon is the amazing wide-angle lens, it is so different from that of my point-and-shoot. It really makes the sky open up in the pictures.

It almost looks better in the photos than it did by my real eyes.



Lastly, a photo of My Boy in the late afternoon light.



This time of day is earlier, and it glows differently on the farm, where everything is green, as opposed to my mom's stable, where there are acres of yellowed, dry pastures.

I longed out My Boy today, he was feeling lazy in the late summer sun, and coughing a little from the dust. I power-sprayed (with the hose) one of his turnout halters, and conditioned some of the tangled hairs of his mane, which he's been rubbing on a pitch-covered tree. Next weekend, he gets new shoes on. We have not trail-ridden since we got back from our family trip, but hopefully there are many days of sunshine left to hit the trails. I'm going to make Paint Girl put on her fleece and get out and do some fall riding with me!
Change is In The Air


Maybe it's the way the sun sets differently in the sky.



Maybe it's the fact that my Nana had two boxes of green apples on her porch. Several of which she made homemade applesauce with. Several of which my loveleigh cousin Sares used in merchandising our garage sale items this weekend.



Maybe it's the pine cones, falling to the ground from the trees behind my cousin E's house. Thanks cousin E, for letting me pick up a garbage bag full!



Maybe it's the school kids, going back, or getting ready to go back, to school. {Sorry, no pictures of school kids for you, how about some brown grass in a field, growing over an old fence? i think perhaps even this grass has grown weary of the summer sun.}



And it's not a maybe on this one- my horse is already starting to get that longer, rougher, winter coat. I swear he just finished shedding last year's!

Whatever it is, things are changing. And I couldn't be happier that fall is around the corner- its my favorite season.
Black Beauty

More Trip Photos
I couldn't resist sharing a few more pictures and stories from the trip!

One of the highlights for me was to get to spend time with my "other sisters"- my cousins, or, as we are fondly known in this family, "the cuzettes." We spent a night giggling in our cabin until we cried and our bellies hurt. That was mostly my fault, thanks to a late night Excedrin buzz and the need to spread a mattress beside the bunk bed in case I fell out of the top bunk at night (I didn't.)



These three Sisters, my auntie, my aunt, and my mom, left to right respectively, shared the creme de la creme of cabins. It was adorably cottage with floral Ralph Lauren sheets on the bed, wooden floors, and seafoam green walls. And they had their own bathroom and clawfoot tub, the stinkers!



Speaking of sisters, Paint Girl and I spent almost every waking moment, from the day before the trip, the whole trip, and the drive home, nearly attached at the hip. We got a long amazingly well and worked together as a team, whether unloading hay from the truck or providing support for each other on the trails.



We were SO well-fed, by our cowgirl Chef, Cousin B! We ate BBQ hamburgers, lasagne, homemade enchiladas, and tacos-in-a-bag! Cousin B, post about your tacos-in-a-bag!



Here she is in action, she'll get me back for this photo, I'm sure. She worked in the cookhouse, amongst flies and even a few rodents, and didn't complain one second! Next time, we are simplifying the menu so that this cowgirl can have more time in the saddle and less time tossing the salad. (P.S. Cousin B, I forgot to mention those cake truffles were to die for!)



Cousin E handled this big draft amazingly well. I viewed him like an over-sized Golden Retriever, not quite aware of his own size and strength. If Cousin E was nervous around him, she never showed it. This lady has many miles in the saddle under her belt, Cousin C has taught her well!



It was great to see my cousin Palomino Girl and her mother work so closely together with their two younger newbie trail horses. Despite being a bit rusty, they got these well-tempered ponies back into the swing of being working ponies, not vacation ponies. As a testament to good quality Quarter Horse breeding and exemplary horsemanship skills by both of them, the horses came through, hitting the trails in stride, as well as running our playday events!



Always a photographer at heart, I saw my aunt standing in the doorway of the cookhouse and I shouted, "Don't move!", grabbing my camera. I used my old Sony point and shoot for this one! It's grainy, but it kind of works with the wood and the silhouette.



A Pony Cousins trip would not be the same without Saddle Mountain Rider's recipe~ the Whiskey Slush. Yummmmm!



I have to tell you how proud I am of my horse on this trip. Other than a few minor horsey quirks, he was such a good horse during hauling, while in his little paneled pen, on the trail, and in the arena. It makes a trip so much more enjoyable for me to have a been-there-done-that horse that I can trust to safely enjoy this kind of adventure with!



If My Boy and I look a little worse-for-wear in this photo, it's true. We had such a great time that we literally wore ourselves out. Or maybe it was just all of that dust and wind in our eyes?

Until we ride again, Pony Cousins!


Shining Stars
Everyone on our Pony Cousins horsey trip was a shining star in how they handled their mounts and rode the trails and arena events. Despite cooler temps and windy weather, the ponies were surprisingly on their best behavior~ except for that Yellow boy, on one particular ride- he was a bad pony and for that he got a timeout and a workout to put him in the right frame of mind. But oh goodness, Saddle Mountain Rider looks great on this handsome golden boy, doesn't she?



Paint Girl will share the tale of her battle to retain her crown as Rodeo Queen. Her little speckled mare galloped her hiney around those barrels and poles.... ironically, this little Pinto mare was originally purchased as a yearling by her previous owners to be a gaming horse, but was never trained to be one~ only to find her true calling later in life, I believe!



Cousin E got to ride Joey, the gentle giant. The first time she brought him to the hitching post, without his corral mates, I got an eye opening regarding the massive size and strength of a draft horse. He was anxious and not happy to be alone (as most rental horses tend to be a bit herd bound.) Joey was pulling on the lead rope as E was trying to tie him, about knocking her down. I suggested we not tie him and just hold him at the post for fear he might pull the whole thing up out of the ground. And then he began to paw impatiently and it was like a dinosaur shaking the earth- after two swipes of his massive hooves and there were ditches next to the hitching post. But he was great under saddle. Saddle Mountain Rider rode him on the trails, too. He was slow and steady and happy to be the caboose of the group.



The Desert Rose has hardly done any arena riding on this little Tennessee Walker/Morgan mare, who is a young 5 years of age. She has been mostly a trail horse, through and through. We didn't know she had the spark in her to tightly turn those barrels the way she did! How did she do in her quest to be rodeo queen? You'll have to check out the Desert Rose's blog in the coming days to find out!



We all adored this P.O.A. mare, Katie. Horse Dreams found the perfect match in her. She was mellow and steady to handle on the ground and on the trails. Her only fault was sneaking up on other horsey's hineys, and she got a warning kick from Yellow which knicked her leg a little, but she was fine. I really loved her spotted coloring, of course! So did My Boy, I swear every time we walked by her his head did a double take!



My auntie, A Cowgirl's Grace has been learning to ride the King, a grand 25 year old Missouri Foxtrotter, also a trail horse deluxe. King is great on the trail but can be impatient to deal with on the ground and is very attached to Little Lady, suffering from pretty severe separation anxiety anytime L.L. was five feet out of his range. This posed some challenges both in the arena and on the trail, which my auntie dealt with amazingly well! She earned some silver spurs for dealing with the King! But isn't he a handsome boy? I just think he looks so regal! Oh, how fitting, since he's the King!



Cousin Jamie got to ride Jordan. Jordan was a rental, and previously had been a huntseat pony and was learning to neck rein. He was a nice pony to ride, and had some arena skills. She gamed him in our rodeo and he was a well-mannered boy and super sweet to work with on the ground. When Jamie was brushing him, he'd nod his head vigorously up and down, almost like a tic. She'd stop, and he'd stop. We could only guess that he was really enjoying that brushing session!



Dusty Devoe and her copper pony, Dusty, looked like a whole new team in the arena this year! All that work with the snaffle bit has paid off, Dusty is finally more broke in the bit and responding well. I am always amazed at how brilliant that pony glows, like a freshly minted copper penny or a shiny red Irish Setter!



Palomino Girl got to ride Okie, her Oklahoma State University 5 year old Quarter Horse gelding, in the gaming events this year. They were competing against Paint Girl/Brandy, and the Desert Rose/Little Lady for the title of rodeo queen. Okie has a nice long stride and a big heart. Here they are practicing the "champagne ride." Palomino Girl is smiling because on this year's trip she is not with foal-er, pregnant- so this year, she actually got to sip some of that champagne!



She Who Rides Many Ponies got to ride Blue. Blue is an older Arabian who appears to have been picked on a bit in the catch pen, due to his many knicks and scars. He was a sweet boy and great on the trails. He tried his best in the arena and I believe at one point I looked over and Betsy was loping him around! He flagged his tail in proud Arabian spirit whenever she rode him!



My Boy was so good on the trails this year. All of the trail riding Paint Girl and I have been doing this spring and summer has really paid off. When Paint Girl's mare got a little nervous on a trail ride and we had to switch up our order, My Boy even led the troops home! He didn't spook or hesitate at anything! Here we are doing the roping event during our trail course challenge. I have never thrown a rope from my horse, just swung it around him from the ground. He didn't flinch.....and I didn't rope the steer head either. As you can see, I was close, though!



So how did My Boy and I do during the rodeo events? This year, to break up the competition and give everyone a chance to compete for crowns no matter what their expertise, skill level, or comfort zone, we divided into walk, trot, and lope categories. My Boy and I participated in the trot category.

Our combined times in pole bending, barrel racing, and the keyhole events were good enough for us to win Rodeo Princess, for the trot group! I was so proud of my spotted boy! But watch out Rodeo Queen 2009! My Boy and I might be moving to that lope category next year. That could be interesting since going fast is not my horse's forte (unless he's running from me in the pasture when I go to catch him) but I think I'm up for the challenge!



P.S. Why isn't this princess wearing her tiara? Well, last year's princess forgot to bring it back, so I believe it's in the mail!

Adventures in Horse-dom

Adventures in Horse-dom
I spent more time on my photography blog talking about horses I figured it deserved a blog of its own. So here we are!
Poor, tired, pony
So I had a lesson to make up from the other week and I knew I wouldn't be able to make to my regular lesson tonight so I figured when I did my make up last night,we'd just do an hour private instead of a half-hour private and handle both lessons at once.

I started the ride with the crop in my hand and I think it helped because he didn't seem to start out the lesson going, "oh hey she has a crop that means go fasterrrrrr!".

Kieran was also very good last night about standing for mounting (after getting a couple remedial classes on it ;) ) and waiting until I was ready to go before walking off from the mounting block (when I asked him to). Even so, we still did some work walking and halting and asking him to back up and even asked for a halt from the trot and then back into the trot a couple times.

Still didn't get the wonderful canter we got last Wednesday but did manage to canter a couple strides in both directions. A lot of it is me, every time I ask for the canter, I seem to collapse in on myself and pull my legs up out of the stirrups and hold too tight on the reins and obviously there's no way I'm helping Kieran do his thing. I told Christina it was frustrating because I remember I used to be, you know, good at this. But that was on well trained school horses who already knew what I was asking for and I think Kieran's done the turbo-take-off thing just enough that I'm getting defensive (but not in a way that would actually keep me in the darn saddle). Just need to remember to breathe and push my heels down into the stirrups and sit up straight. Anyway, after we managed a decent canter departure in each direction Christina had us go back to trotting. Trotting weaving patterns around cones. Trotting over poles. Sitting trot. Trotting in two-point (argh). By the end of it, it was obvious Kieran was getting tired and it was all I could do to keep my leg on him to keep him moving.

He's also furry enough that he was sweaty all over so we spent a while walking together after.

But all in all, it was still an improvement over Friday's lesson. Kieran was obviously in a more cooperative frame of mind and Christina said I looked about a hundred times better and more relaxed last night than before. So I'll still call it a win. :)

Unfortunately, I've got a lot of work to get done over the next few days so I'm pretty sure I won't be getting out to see him again till Saturday. Bleh.
He Keeps me Guessing
So after the wonderful lesson we ended up having last Wednesday, Friday wasn't nearly as good. Neither of us could really get it together. We had the beginning of the lesson start the same as it had on Wednesday and then...I was tense (and I have no idea why) and couldn't get my knees to relax and I'm sure none of that helped him out. And mostly...it just wasn't pretty. So we ended up doing a lot of exercises to work on me instead of on him. Christina also thinks I should probly remove the knee blocks on my saddle since they just add too much bulk there. I think she's got a point because right near the end we took them off (and he didn't even flinch at the sound of velcro ripping, good boy!) and I did some more trotting and it did feel easier to keep my calf on properly and my knee from pinching. So there was that at least.

Got back up to the barn on Sunday and spent some time cleaning up my mudball of a pony. He'd gone in Christa's lesson earlier that morning, but they didn't have time to really groom him (just got the important, saddle-area bits) so I worked on the rest. That afternoon, we went on a short trail ride (and note: he stood at the mounting block) and then I spent some more time really getting in there and currying the dried mud off his legs.

So what does he do right after I put him back in his field?

Walk around (like a dog) until he gets the muddiest spot he can find and rolls. Even rolls all the way over to make sure he gets full coverage. ;) I expected it, but still. *sigh*

I did get to watch him playing halter tag with Rocky, though, and that was cute. Christine had told me they played but I so far haven't been up there (or outside, I guess) at the right time to see it. I'm glad he's got himself a buddy in the herd since he's the one who tends to get picked on (the pony HATES him.).
Cantering breakthrough
So tonight was lesson night for me and Kieran. It was also my first ride in my new jointed stirrups from horseloverz that I got for like $16.90 during their dollar days a little while ago. They're heavier than my other stirrup irons but I think I like them. They also seemed to help my leg. Christina mentioned it seemed to move a lot less tonight than I've had a tendency to do before and asked if I'd been riding more since the last lesson but really? I haven't ridden all that much recently (argh). So I'm attributing it to the stirrups (and leathers that are even).

Anyway, when the lesson started, Kieran's brains had flown off somewhere. Didn't want to stand quietly for mounting. Didn't want to stand once I was on so I could get myself together and get both feet in the stirrups. Just plain wasn't as cooperative as he normally is. Which...Christina pointed out something I tend to forget because he usually is so good: he's still a young(ish) horse. He's still pretty green. He's going to have these moments.

So we spent the first several minutes of the lesson walking then halting. Walk, halt. Walk, halt, back up, halt. Walk, halt. Walk halt, back up, halt, walk. You get the idea. Once he was listening again and his brains were back in his head, we started the lesson proper.

Trotting was mostly in big figure eights through the ring and trotting over poles set in the center. Nothing terribly exciting that needs writing about or terribly different from things we've done before. He did fine.

Then Christina hands me a crop. And tells me we're going to try cantering. Remember how excited I was just to get a few strides out of him in there? Yeah. So anyway, I've only carried a crop when asking him to canter so right away he knew something was up and his energy level went up (I think, for a while at least, I'm going to start carrying a crop all the time so he doesn't anticipate "oh, she's going to tell me to go faster! I'll go faster!"). He also knows which corner he's typically been asked to canter in so even just on our first trot around, he tried to go turbo trot there and then had to bring him back down, etc.

Anyway, our first several tries weren't pretty. I probably got in his way a bit and we're starting to think that going to the left is his weaker side. Got a few canter strides out of him but then coming into the next turn he'd drop back down into a trot (Christina says he kept stopping because instead of looking up through the turn my gaze was getting drawn downward for God-only-knows-why). So then we tried going right, which....we hadn't actually done before. Still took a couple of attempts but then he got it and we managed to continue the canter for one and a half times around the ring. I'm pretty sure he would have kept going, really, but I figured by that point he had it and asked him to trot. Good lord, he's so amazing. I really love his canter and once we got it that last time it felt really good (previously the turns were a little scary). Of course it probably helped I had it together too, sitting up straight, leg on, looking up, and so on. :)

Anyway, Christina says he has no excuse to not canter in there now. ;)

After that we did a couple more of the trot-over-the-poles thing just so he doesn't get the idea that once he's cantered it's the end of the lesson. Or that once we start cantering we're going to keep asking for it.

Then Christina went to help the next student get ready and I spent a while walking him around cooling off (he was steaming in the night air, kinda cool looking). I may have sung to him while we walked (the acoustics in there are pretty good!).

He also got plenty of treats for being such a good boy.

I think I'm going to go treat myself now (fudge!).

Night, all!
Riding tonight. All bareback, all the time.
Did manage to ride tonight (I was at the barn last night and brought Kieran in and groomed him and all but didn't end up riding.). Didn't feel overly enthused about fully tacking up so I rode bareback (as did Hanna on Rocky). Mounting was a teensy bit interesting. Christina had mentioned they'd been having a bit of trouble with him standing at the mounting block recently on Sundays and indeed he did the same thing to me tonight.

Remember, I'm trying to hop onto his back on my stomach from the mounting blck and then swing my leg over and sit up properly. Twice he stepped forward a few steps while I was still laying on my stomach. A couple times he started moving before I even got that far.

I just got down and backed his ass right back to where he started. After a couple repetitions he figured it out and stood quietly and I finally managed to get on and go. Yay. Not sure what they're doing with him/about it on Sundays. May have to sit in and watch.

It wasn't a terribly exciting ride. We did a lot of walking, a couple of pivots on the forehand, and some trotting. Tonight we just tried to keep trotting at a steady pace all the way around the ring. He likes to speed up as he goes (especially if there's another horse in there for him to "catch up" to). Once we got pretty much all the way around the ring, I called it quits for the evening. Probably we rode for about a half hour.

Lessoning should happen tomorrow and, it being a holiday, I'm planning on spending pretty much the whole day in the barn. Assuming it doesn't rain TOO much, maybe I can get some pictures while I'm there.
Pony visits
Went up to the barn last night but didn't ride. I guess I could have, but nobody would've been down in the barn (just up in the house) while I did and with there having been a riding accident this past weekend there, I'm feeling a little leery of riding alone right now, despite that I have yet to find anything to make Kieran really spook. So I just took some stuff up with me and paid for board and lessons for the month.

Kieran now has a shiny new halter, and a himalayan salt like we'll see if he likes (I've been feeling like maybe some of his urge to taste everything might be related to a mineral deficiency or something and figure the salt lick can't hurt, plus might keep him occupied in his stall instead of spending time spreading his poop around), and the barn has shiny new leadropes. I also got some new hinged stirrups (that are HEAVY) so we'll have to see how they go.

Anyway, after I put his stuff away and chatted with the folks up there (and tidied up his messy stall), I went out to the pasture to visit my pony (ginger snaps in hand). I just know he was wondering why I came out to give him cookies but didn't bring him in to do anything. I figure it can't hurt to go out sometimes and not make him come in to work. I really don't want him to associate me with only that. *shrug* I do feel like I should have ridden, though, because I'm not going to be able to get up there again before Monday. Bleh.

Still, it was nice to walk out in the moonlight and visit my sleepy pony and pet his quickly-growing-thicker coat. :)
Gettysburg Trail Ride!
So it was a sort of last minute decision made Saturday night that we'd (some of us from Gentle Giants) would go trail ride up in Gettysburg on Sunday for a bit of a change of pace. The original plan was that we'd leave by 11am. We joked that meant we'd get out of there by noon. Due to a loading snafu and subsequent last minute change-of-equine, we left the rather later than that and ended up getting to the park, getting the horses groomed and tacked up, and got out on the trail at about 3PM. Theoretically this was plenty of time still for the approximately 2 hour trail ride loop we thought we'd be making before it got dark and we were supposed to leave.

The start of the trail was really nice. Lots of nice open paths and pretty scenery. Of course, there were also SEGWAYS [not that Kieran cared] and COWS [not that Kieran cared]. But then we got into the woods heading toward Little Round Top and suddenly there were many patches of deep mud (horses were sinking up to their knees and hocks). Now, Christine had called ahead of time to the park to ask about trail conditions and she'd been assured that despite recent rain, the trails were good. Obviously, somebody didn't think about this section of it.

Eventually we made it out and kept on trucking and really, despite that, it was a nice ride. There were even plenty of nice open spots for some trotting. If you're in the area/within driving distance, I'd totally recommend heading out there to ride the trails. Just make sure you get there earlier than we did! ;)

But as the ride went on, the sun got lower and lower and lower, the moon higher and higher, and everything around us darker and darker. And here we were, riding on an historic battlefield that in many ways is essentially a mass grave on the day after Halloween on the night of a full moon. We were so hardcore. No ghosts were seen, though Laura claims her cameraphone wouldn't take any pictures (my camera worked just fine right up until I filled up the memory card and it was getting too dark for pics anyway).

There was a point where we were riding along with a corn field on the right and woods to the left and Rocky spooks about something in the wood to the left. Kieran gets looky (though I think only because Rocky spooked) and later Kelly (guy riding the big dapple grey mare in the pics) said something about how in that section he thought he saw something off to the left but then when we looked a second time there was nothing there. So there's your possible ghost-sighting.

Then as we got near to the place were we'd parked, we had to pass once more by the cows and Rocky (who was leading) steadfastly refused to go first. Beacuse OMG cows-in-the-dark were going to eat him dontchaknow? So Kieran got to lead for a bit and you know he was just like, "dude, what's your PROBLEM?"

My pony had a lot of firsts today, really, first time seeing Segways, first time seeing cows, first time crossing a wooden bridge, first time riding through deep mud, first time riding on a haunted battlefield, first time riding at night....and hey, he passed with flying colors.

Really, except for the mud and the cold as the sun went down, it was quite the enjoyable ride. I only wish I'd brought a heavier jacket and I woulda been just dandy.

And there are, of course, pictures.



Plenty more may be seen here.

And video! Go here.

I'll probably just embed the vid when I get home but that'll have to do for now.
Too much anticipation!
I recently sent an email to Kieran's former owner asking if she might have any baby pictures of him. They got him when he was 3 months old. She says she'll get some together for me and send them.

I can't wait to see them!
Cantering in the indoor (and the rest of the lesson was good too)
So last night we had an hour-long semi-private lesson (another horse and rider in the ring with us). I kind of like switching it up so sometimes he has to ride with other horses (which also means we have to work on rating gaits because when there's another horse, he tends to trot faster and then I have to work at slowing him down so we don't constantly pass/run up their rear end) and then sometimes he has to ride alone, both of which are good experiences for him. Also, with the semi-privates, sometimes he has to stand in the middle of the ring and wait while the other horse and rider do something and sometimes he has to go on the rail and ignore the horse waiting in the middle.

Anyway. Christina had me start out the lesson with no stirrups and do some posting at the trot which...I wasn't terribly successful at. Or at least I don't feel like I was. I couldn't really get the rhythm down. Eventually, she let me pick my stirrups up again. I'm kind of convinced they're simply too long (I have 'em on the shortest holes) as when I post or do two point, I'm not really clearing the saddle (and I know you're not supposed to be way out of it, but I feel like to even get out at all, my leg is going kinda straight). I'd just make more holes but the stitching is coming loose anyway so I just should get a new pair. Anybody have some dark leathers (havana or black. Preferably black) that are 54" or so?

Apparently when I start out a lesson (it seems to get better as we go along and I think a lot of it has to do with me not riding as often as I should lately so I haven't built up the proper muscles) my leg moves A LOT. Especially when posting. So Christina kept having to remind me to keep my calf on. I kept feeling like to do this, I needed to bring my heel up and do something funky with my feet. Whatever it was, it wasn't correct. So then I had to stop and do it correctly before I could feel like what it should be feeling like. And then whenever I go up to post I have to remember to keep my calf on because apparently my leg goes "out" instead and Christina says she saw a few inches of daylight between my calf and my horse. By the end of the lesson, I think I'd worked it out and gotten it down, but I know I'll have to do it all over again next week, ugh.

We also had to go around the ring once in two point which....well, my heel dropped a lot more for it but it was just hellacious to stay up. I couldn't find the right spot which is another reason I think my stirrups are too long as I know in the past (in other saddles, on other horses) if I brought up my stirrups a hole or two it got easier to balance. Though in my case it also got easier to balance when Christina told me to bring my hands forward. I think I had them still about the spot on his neck where you hold them normally (maybe a little forward of that) and when I brought them up more, it did get easier.

We also did a little bit more of trotting a weaving pattern through cones, and trotting cloverleaf-esque shapes in the indoor (trot down centerline, turn left at C, left again at E, cross X, turn left at B, go back down the centerline, then turn...basically, whatever direction Christina called out :) And don't forget to change diagonals!) with trot poles down the centerline.

And before I got too tired from that, Christina asked if I wanted to try cantering Kieran. See, he can canter under saddle. I've done it out on the trail, and did it a tiny (crappy) bit at Saddleview. But I hadn't been able to get him to do it in the indoor (except on the ground, on the lunge line). It's kind of a small ring and it's pretty difficult for a lot of the horses there to pick a canter in there under saddle so we rarely do it. I'd tried it with him a few times but it just wasn't seeming to work. We'd come out of a corner, I'd sit and bring my outside leg back, he'd speed up, but he wouldn't canter.

Christina figured it was at least partly because I take my reins up shorter when I prepare to canter and because he can't really lift himself into it yet (still needs to pull himself into it, we think), he'd go to stretch down and hit the end of the reins and...basically I was keep him from going up into the next gear. So I gave him a looser rein, held a crop (didn't even have to wave it at him) and again, nice working trot around the ring, come out of the corner on a long side, sit and bring back outside leg. Hard. (He still doesn't know "outside leg means canter" so have to do it more exaggeratedly than "normal"). He managed to get it a few times, just a few strides down the long side, but he did it! He has such a nice canter. Now we just have to work on steering. ;)

Of course, most of what we do will still revolve around walking and trotting, but it's nice to know I can get him to canter in there if I want to.

Discussed with Christina that maybe it would be good for us both to do a few private lessons on the lunge line. He lunges pretty well and then I can more ensure I'm focusing on giving good cues with my leg and seat and not having to rely on the reins as much.

Also, after the lesson, Christina hopped on Kieran, just to see how he goes (she hadn't ridden him yet.) and she really liked him. Said he felt really comfortable. :)
Just some pictures:
Kieran's stuff is taking over my house. :)



Also: Doesn't he look handsome in his new cooler that came too late for me to use it for the show at Saddleview? ;)


Blargh
I haven't been up to see Kieran since last Wednesday. I could've gone on Friday but I had stuff I really needed to take care of at home. It's highly unlikely I'll get up there tonight. Maybe I'll be able to squeeze in time tomorrow between work and my class in the evening but I'm not holding my breath.

Which means I likely won't get up there again until Wednesday. Bah. I said I wasn't going to be one of those horse owners who only comes to see their horse once a week. I've just got way too much stuff going on right now, it seems like.

Of course, the renaissance festival will be over this weekend and after that I can get up there on weekends again, which will help. And I should be done with class in December so once all that is past, I'll have my weeknights free again.

Just. Bah.

It probably doesn't help that it's getting dark so early (and it's only going to continue doing so) and it just went from "oh maybe this is autumn" to "oh HAI THAR WINTER, IT BE COLD NOW". I've been sucking down the hot chocolate and soup and put the warming mattress pad thingy on my bed last night and at least when I do go up to the barn I'll have a new (to me) pair of winter Mountain Horse paddock boots to keep my toesies warm.

Anyway, I guess I need to figure out better time management methods for the, uh, time being.

It would probably be easier if he was boarded closer to me (my drive is nearly an hour, round trip) but what with takings lessons on him for the time being there and the barn having an indoor (hence why I wanted to board him there through the winter) and me liking the folks he's with...I don't plan on moving him before spring. Of course, the fact I like the folks he's with is a big part of my time suck when I go to the barn. We always end up talking. Or I'll be like, "hmm, stalls need doing, let me do that..." and suddenly my plan to drive up, bring the boy in, groom and ride and toss him back out turns into a much longer to-do than I'd planned on. Oops.

I should put up the nice pics I got of him in his new Rambo Newmarket cooler. He looks so handsome in it! (I may be biased).
Trotting Cones and other adventures
Figure I should get right with posting about tonight's lesson or I won't remember what all we did and why it was cool later. (For the record, last week's lesson was bareback and I was not as sore as I expected I would be the next day. Woo.)

Anyway: Tonight! We threw a lot of new stuff at Kieran, partly to make sure all this riding he's doing in the indoor stays interesting (he has a long winter of indoor riding ahead of him, and I don't want him to get sour to it) and partly a lot of the exercises we had him doing were with the aim of encouraging him to start using his hind end more and not travel as much on the forehand.

He took all of it without batting an ear. Just "...uh, this is what you want me to do? Okay! Here goes!". He's so awesome that way. :)

Things we did:

Trot poles: something he's done before, but I need to work on squeezing as we go over them so he doesn't slow down and looking forward instead of down at the poles.

Very very very low pole on a jump standard. Can't even call it a jump. Did it with crossrails and a tiny vertical. Mostly with the idea toward getting him used to going between the standards and giving him something a little higher to trot over to encourage him to pick up his feet. I did better at looking ahead with this (don't ask me why the poles on the ground are so much more interesting, LOL).

Weaving through orange traffic cones: Something he's never done before. We did it at the walk and the trot and he got the hang of it pretty quickly. I was actually surprised at how easy it was for him. Of course, in the future I'll have to remember to change my posting diagonal with each change of direction but Christina didn't get after me for that tonight. :)

A few turns on the forehand: I'd done a bit of this with him before so he got it pretty quickly. We did a couple along the wall and then tried one away from the wall which wasn't quite as pretty, but it just means it's something we should work on more.

"Rollbacks" at the trot. Basically heading down at just about the quarterline and then turning toward the rail in a tight turn and heading back the way we came. Also done first at the walk and then at the trot. Something else I was surprised at how little trouble he had (he used to stop/slow in the middle of 20 meter circles) but he didn't stop at all tonight. An exercise that was definitely intended to encourage him to really use his hind end for pushing.

Oh, and Christina had me drop my stirrups while warming up at the walk and "post" without stirrups. Then do two point without them along the long side of the arena. That's so my legs become less dependent on the stirrups as I have a tendancy to brace. But I have to say I feel so dumb doing this exercise because I don't feel like I'm actually getting out of the saddle (because I'm not, and you really can't, especially at the walk) and I figure I have to look dumb doing it. But hey, if it helps, I'll do it. :)

All in all, I was amazed at how much we managed to cram into the lesson tonight.

(I also have to say I'm kinda glad I switched to Christina even if my original reasoning was just for scheduling purposes, I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere now instead of just getting on and trotting around for a half hour. Of course, it probably helps that I'm riding Kieran with her and so a lot of it is focused toward his milestones so when we do something new with him, it feels new to me.)
Ribbons for Kieran!
We went to a local schooling show at Saddleview Ranch in Urbana, MD yesterday and rode in three w/t flat classes and three w/t/c flat classes. Kieran was a champ, and even placed in a couple (which I, honestly, was totally not expecting unless there were less people in the class than there were ribbons. =P ). His best ribbon of the day was a second in the green horse w/t/c class and the one my first thought was when they called us, "wait....was that a mistake?".

The cantering was just a ... 'well, let's see how he does' thing. We haven't done a lot of it and I can say for certain our transitions weren't pretty (he doesn't know "outside leg behind the girth" yet so to get him to go involves a lot more kicking than it should) but once he got into the canter, it was nice, so long as I could keep him going. Of course, now he has to learn leads (and so do I).

I wouldn't have signed up for the english equitation (also w/t/c) class if I'd realized they'd have everyone line up on the rail and canter one at a time down the centerline. Except it wasn't "just" canter, it was "canter left lead, then a simple change, canter right lead, stop, back up five steps, then get back in line". Needless to say....we didn't do that. I'm not sure if that's typical for a class like that or they did it because there were so many people in it and they didn't want everyone cantering all at once.

Anyway, there are a bunch of pics I can post, but here's one I like of us about to turn a circle.


Hee :D
My instructor said last night that Kieran was "unusually well-balanced" for a horse of his size and training.
Great lesson tonight!
Kieran was about a hundred times better tonight than last week. Even without another horse in the ring it was much easier to keep him moving and I didn't have so much trouble keeping him to the rail (as I did when Rocky was in there). We walked, we trotted, we did big circles and figure eights and cutting across the ring (so we weren't just going around and around and around) and he did really well, especially on the circles. Which was actually something I remember really having to work at with Rurik, keeping him going for those. Kieran was a bit of work too but it felt more like he was just getting tired by that point and he's not really fit yet and it was more work to trot through them than to slow down and walk so I can't completely blame him. ;)

Either way, it really felt like we got some good work in tonight and Christina said not only did he look better but I looked better too, so yay! :)

Of course, maybe a different saddle helped, as well. I rode her in her Duett because we wanted to see how it fit him since that's ultimately the sort of saddle I want to get (she has the companiona trail, I want the companion foxhunter, ideally). So it really seemed to fit him well (better than the first saddle I tried on him and nearly bought so...I guess I'm glad that didn't work out?) and I felt really good in it too. So yay there as well!

Hope everybody else had a good horsey day. :D
<3 my Pony
Lunged Kieran again tonight I also got to ride him a bit while Hanna rode Rocky. Amazing how having a second horse in the ring suddenly means I don't have to work very hard to keep him moving but instead of to work to keep him from poking his shoulder out and trying to cut across the ring to get to the other horse.

He's a good boy, though, and when the shoulder thing didn't get him anywhere, he eventually settled down and worked pretty well. He even stood fairly patiently in the middle of the ring while Rocky cantered around the sides.

I took a little video with my cell phone of him lunging but I'm having a heck of a time convincing my computer to let me upload it.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Christine had mentioned maybe wanting to take up lessons on Wednesday nights so I told her I'd be fine if she wanted to do a shared lesson with me (means cheaper for both of us) so Kieran has to work with another horse in the ring. I kind of miss doing group lessons.

And I think I got the video working...it's pretty terrible quality but it gives some idea of his movement.



Lunging
I didn't get to ride Kieran yesterday, since nobody else was around the barn, so I just brought him in and groomed him up (yay, he wasn't a dirt/mudball this time!). I still haven't found any "itchy" spots for him though sometimes I think I've almost got one when I scritch behind his ears or rub with the rubber curry on his belly and his hip.

Anyway, after that, we went into the arena and, since there was already stuff set up (jump standards as "poles" to weave through, two barrels sitting near each other for some reason, ground poles to trot over, etc) first I just walked with him around, through, and over everything in hand just for the hell of it. Then, I dragged everything out of the middle of the ring and put him on the lunge line.

He lunges pretty well, but I think he probably just did a lot of work at the trot as that's what he's really good at but asking him to go from a trot to a walk usually gets him to go from trot to halt instead, though that could also be an artifact of his training with Carey since she spent a lot of time putting brakes on him and did a lot of trot->halt with him. Even when I'm riding him in the ring, I really have to work to get him to transition into a walk instead of stopping. So we did some of that and I also asked him to canter and it became obvious that was one thing he really hadn't done on the lunge line. I only had him go around at the canter once each way, mostly to see if he'd do it but I didn't want to overdo it since he isn't used to it.

After that, I had him stand ground-tied while I picked out the arena and then it was more scritchy time before I let him back out to his field. He's a good boy. :)

Assuming everything works out today, I plan on going back up to see him this afternoon. Whether I ride him or not still depends on whether anybody's in the barn (that's up in the air) but I'll at least work with him some more on the ground because I figure it's still working with him to reinforce that he has to do what I tell him.

It's actually funny to me that it seemed like he'd trot forever without a lot of encouragement on the lunge line but it's much more work to get him to do it under saddle. Of course, on the lungeline he only has to carry himself around. ;)

Anyway, even if I don't ride him today, I'll be riding him in my lesson tomorrow and Christina asked me if I minded if she used him for someone's lessons on Sunday which...I don't, really. I know the rider and I know she's not going to screw him up (nor would Christina put someone on him that would) and I can't be up there on the weekends right now anyway and I figure it'll be good for him.

So that's where we are now.

Maybe if we just do lunging today, I'll try and take video at the same time. :)

And, I don't have any pictures from last night but here's one of Christine the day she lunged him not long after I got him:


Lessoning on Kieran
So now we figure we're going to have to work on getting Kieran's brain back a bit. Mostly because, while the big trail ride last weekend was really good exposure for him, he didn't really have to listen to me. We were going with the group and I wanted to go with the group and he wanted to go with the group so I didn't have to do a lot of active riding and he didn't have to do a lot of active listening. So we come to last night's lesson. Still working on getting him to trot all the way around the ring without trying to stop. And he definitely made me work for it and for now we're working him without a crop.

There was a lot of squeeze, "Trot." .......squeeze harder "Trot!".............kick! "Trot!!". And he still sometimes kinda lurches forward if I goose him on that third try so I spent a lot of time with my hands in his mane to keep from accidentally catching him in the mouth.

And of course, once we start trotting, he wanted to go say...five strides and then stop. So then squeezesqueezesqueezekick! until finally we got him to make it all the way around the ring without breaking gait once. At that point he got to walk and rest and then we spent a little time working on bending: asking him with one rein, seat, and leg to bend inward off the rail, then switch and go outward back toward the rail. He did okay going left but to the right it was about impossible so I think we need to work on that. It was interesting to see him go from being testing-obstinate-teenager mode with the trotting (he knows how to trot on the rail, after all) to "I'm not really sure what you want me to do but I'm trying to figure it out!" mode with the bending. It was neat to see him try even if he didn't quite get what I wanted him to do yet.

After that, we had a few minutes left to walk around and Christina had me drop my stirrups and work on posting without them at the walk. Which, yes, you don't have to get all the way out of the saddle the way you do with stirrups but geesh, it still hurt! Ow.

All in all, though, Kieran was pretty good for a greenie. :) I'm planning on swinging up there this evening after work and before class to ride him a few minutes as I don't want a week to go by without him being ridden again and otherwise the soonest I could probably get up there is Monday. Though I guess I could technically do weekend nights after faire or something, if somebody could be in the barn then.
The Eastern Shore Trail Ride: or how I learned to love my pony and fell into the Chesapeake
So okay, the title is misleading. I already really <3 Kieran but this past weekend? Pretty much clinched it for me. This past weekend, I went with some of the folks from Gentle Giants to the Eastern Shore Trail Ride down near Machipongo, VA.

Weekend recap, going to be long:

So Friday, some of our group left at like, 9am for the four hour drive down there to stake our claim on a spot (we were given to understand it was mostly a field so there were spaces for lots of temporary corrals but our horses high line and we needed good trees to put them on and...we had nine horses, mostly drafts, to do it with) and set up the high lines and stuff. The rest of us couldn't leave till later because Christine was working the night before (she's a paramedic in her "day job") and wouldn't be home till nearly 8am anyway and because the kid going along with us had to go to part of a day of school first. ;) The original plan was to leave at about 11am but uh....I can't think of one time we've EVER gone on a camping trip and left as early as we said we would. After packing up everything took longer than expected and we had a last minute change of plans with how we were hauling the horses and one of the horses had a bit of meltdown getting on the trailer and picking up said kid from school....we left around 2:30 in the afternoon. We then proceeded to hit gobs of Bay Bridge traffic. Long story, but the short of it is a trip that took the other group exactly 4 hours took us nearly 6 and we didn't get there till after dark. Luckily, like I said, high lines were already ready and we had a nice spot to camp and get the two big trailers into so no big deal, get the horses off, set up our tents in the dark, and so on.

We were told for Saturday morning originally, we had to be out on the trail by 8:30 if we wanted to get to the beach before the tide was too high (I think that's the way it worked) then someone came around and told us 9:30 would be okay. We told them we were still going to pretend we had to be out by 8:30 so we'd actually get out on time. =P We probably would've been out that early but one of the other folks with us got a call that morning from her farmsitter that one of her horses' legs was all swollen up and stuff and I guess she was afraid he'd fractured something. So then she had to decide if she was going to stay and ride (and have the farmsitter deal with the vet and wait to see what the vet said before deciding whether to make the long drive back, just in case it was something actually much more superficial than a fracture) or pack up her stuff right then and head back to MD. Well, she ended up deciding to drive back home, just in case, because she knew she wouldn't actually be able to relax and enjoy the ride if she was worried about the horse back home. Which, we told her we could pack up most of her stuff so she just took what she needed, loaded her horse up, and got on the road. Apparently that drive actually took longer than she expected because got a flat on her trailer. There is a story in there about how she got to the Wal-Mart tire and lube place and they said something about how they could sell her a tire for the trailer (or something) but they couldn't put it on for her. So she unloaded Chessie (big Belgian mare, used to do weight pulling contests. I'll never forget hearing someone at the York County fair last year say "that's one big bitch" when she walked by) and said, "fine, here hold my horse while I do it." They put the tire on for her.

So by the time all that happened, we didn't get out of camp till like 9:15. I have to say at this point I was concerned as Kieran was not the same horse I rode earlier in the week out in the trails by the farm. Of course, he was in a new place and with a new group of horses and everybody was excited so it made sense that he would be too but still! Not that he did anything bad, he was just a lot more "up" than I was expecting and of course if he was behind another horse, he had to be right on their ass and trying to go fasterfaster. So then I stick him in the front and OMG I can't go fasterfaster anymore because I have to look at everything. *facedesk* Still, he stayed in front pretty well until one point where another group of horses passed us (and once they got past, they went cantering/gaiting off into the distance). He did not like that and I ended up having to stick him behind another one of the horses for a while.

Then there came a point where we had to cross a road and ride alongside a soybean field for a while. Three of us crossed the road, the other five got stopped when a car that was passing by turned out to have someone in it who knew Christine (had actually adopted a horse from her a while back) and they got to chatting. Unfortunately, the two of us in front had two now-impatient horses who wanted to walk on down (after another group we could see in front of us) and the person behind us had a horse who wasn't a fan of being stuck in the middle. And the two of us in front were all annoyed that the jackass in the car was holding things up (we didn't realize at the time he was somebody they knew, just that he'd stopped and was talking to everybody back there) but even then....seriously? Uh, anyway, we got moving again finally. And I have to say, this was about the only thing that really disappointed me with this trail ride: the pictures on the site only show the beach part, really, so you think most of it is beach, but you actually have to ride seven miles before you get to the beach which...if you're just walking, which we were, that's like at least 2 hours before you get there.

By the time we got to the beach, Kieran had ended up back in front again, and it was interesting to see him when the footing suddenly changed to sand and then to actually get him down to where the water was. I know he was thinking, "wtf is this?" But he did it! And then we all went wading a bit in the water and trotting along the beach (there are pictures at the end!) and had a pretty good time. Unfortunately, because it took us so long to get there, the tide was fairly high which meant that though most people who got there earlier were able to wade out to some sandbars and stuff like that, there wasn't much of that for us to do, but it was still neat!

Then it was an hour or so to the lunch site where we got to get off and stretch our legs and give the horses a break. I was really glad of this because my stirrups were all discombobulated (I was riding in a borrowed treeless saddle with my own stirrups so I hadn't adjusted them before I got on and got moving and didn't realize until we'd tried trotting on the beach just how discombobulated my stirrups were because the stirrup bars on treeless were lower than "normal" and somehow they were uneven and anyway, my right one was much longer than the left and my left leg had been aching the whole time). So I got a chance to fix them better and that helped.

On the way back, we came to a really nice flat, open spot (bordered on two sides by tomato fields) where we actually let the horses open up a bit and tried a canter. It didn't last long but it was a hell of a lot of fun. I remember thinking, "okay, the trainer told me he has a nice canter, but I've never cantered him before. OMG. What if he does a happy 'weeee!' buck when we go? OMG, sit back sit back sit back!!!". He was fine and he does have a nice canter. I was ridiculously pleased. The rest of the way was a pretty nice leisurely walk back and I rode a lot of it with my feet out of the stirrups on a long rein. A nice change from the morning!

I was also really happy to see that Kieran didn't seem overly winded by all the riding nor did he get sore . He was tired enough, even, that night to lay down (I know because of the manure stains that were on his butt in the morning) while on the picket line which led me to state he had become a real high lining trail horse now. :)

The next day we planned on leaving earlier but...it didn't happen. We still left about 9:15, hah! But we found a better order for the horses to go in, it seems (one of the horses had been jigging in the back most of the way on Saturday but stick him in the front and suddenly we had a nice pace that everyone kept with instead of bunching and spreading out and stopping and starting to wait on folks and stuff). Kieran stayed near the front of the line most of the way (I did stick him all the way in the back for the last leg of the trip home on Sunday, just to see what he'd do. He was fine). Anyway, this meant it definitely seemed like we got to the beach faster (which, with less stopping and starting and all, we likely did). This time, we spent more time out on the water and actually went cantering along in the waves and waded out to a couple of sandbars and trotted and...it was really a lot of fun. And then the group split in half, some went back to the beach, and a few of us stayed out on a sandbar, intending to canter along it and then join up with the rest of the group. Well, we did start cantering but the horses veered shoreward (to get back to the rest of the group of course *facedesk*) a little too much and ended up plunging into deeper water (not deep water, I could stand up in it without it coming much over my stomach, as I, uh, found out). Which led to some interesting acrobatics that had me come off into the water (best. fall. ever.) as well as one of the other riders (who unfortunately lost her glasses). Horses were okay, riders were okay. And we waded back to the shore, got our wits back together, got back on, and all rode back home. No lunch break after the beach this time but we just moseyed on back. I actually once again rode Kieran without my feet in the stirrups and on a really loose rein.

Once back and after lunch there and taking care of horses, a couple of us packed up and went ahead and came on home (the others were staying till today just so they could take their time but kid that was with us needed to be in school today and I wanted to get in to work for at least part of the day so I didn't use up all my leave).

And that's the story, in a nutshell, though I'm sure I left stuff out (like one of the horses slipping off the high line twice to go grazing elsewhere, or everyone's agreement that Caladhin's canter is horrendous, or how we kept trying to figure out what the two Swedish girls were saying when they weren't talking in English...). So anyway, Kieran was amazing and took to the whole thing like he'd been born to it. :) It got brought up several times over the weekend, "aren't you glad you bought him? Do you think his former owner would be kicking herself is she saw this?"

But here, have pics! You deserve it, making it this far.

These were taken by the professional photographer they had there at the beach on Saturday. So yeah, they're watermarked. Some of the others also took pictures but I don't have them yet (as they haven't even gotten home yet by this time. :) ) so those'll have to come later.










Christine said I was humiliating Kieran by putting that fly bonnet on him. :) (there were, actually, far less bugs than we were expecting there to be)









Anyway, I was kinda disappointed professional guy didn't get any good ones of me and Kieran but oh well, some of the other folks' look to have turned out pretty well.

These are ones I took at lunch on Saturday.




Yes, I put the bit keepers on, then realized I had them up too high, then didn't have an easy way to get the screws off the bridle to fix them so I just slipped them off the bit for now. This will be fixed.



So there you go, should be more pics later, but hopefully this will suffice for now. :)
First Trail Ride on the new Pony!

So, Kieran's been off at the trainer and doing incredibly well. As I mentioned in my last post. She rode him all over her property (both alone and with other horses) and he did fine. She got him going w/t/c and stopping from the trot. I went out to ride him there for the first time last Friday. Just did a little walking and trotting, but he felt really good and I was pretty stoked.

Didn't get to ride at all this past weekend, had plans for yesterday but it was raining and she only has an outdoor area to ride.

So today, she carts him up to Gentle Giants for me and I had it in my mind we were going to ride in the indoor. But no, she says, "lets go out on the trail on the property!" and I say, ".....okay!".

So we went out on the trail, and to get there we had to pass scary black tarp on the ground (he didn't care), horses in the field very interested in him (okay, so he cared, but he still listened when I said we had to pass them by), lots of various large parked machinery things (nothing he was worried about) and then we were into the woods. We saw some deer not a minute into the trees and he barely flicked an ear at them. :) We stepped over trees and went through a dry creek bed, he both led and followed, and even went alone away from his trail buddy for a bit and he was just fine and dandy. He tries things, like, "hmmm, this is the way back to the barn, will you let me go that way? No? Uh, okay, we'll go the way you want...."

Anyway, he was really good and I'm really pleased.

I'll be riding him in a lesson tomorrow and I'm pretty excited about it. And then this weekend is the big Eastern Short Trail Ride camping trip!!!
Trainer wants to steal my horse!
And I feel all validated as a horse buyer/owner.

So you saw my post yesterday about Kieran. Here's more about the call I got yesterday evening:

So I was on the phone last night with Christine and she asked me, "did [trainer] call you yet?" and I'm all, "uh.....no? OMG WHAT HAPPENED?" and I'm envisioning like she's going to be all, "take this horse out of my sight, he's dead to me, I can't believe you bought him," and that he threw her or something.

No, says, Christine, she had received a text from the trainer saying something to the effect of, "I want to steal [my] horse." So now I'm laughing because...you know, that's obviously a good thing, so to speak. But she doesn't have any more details yet. So after we get off the phone she calls the trainer to find out the scoop (with the promise that she'll tell the trainer to call me right after). Well, unfortunately trainer is having a lot of phone problems lately (seriously) so they didn't get very far into the conversation but the basic gist is that he ground-tied yesterday for tacking and went w/t/c (they've only trotted up till then) without fuss and had no trouble turning or stopping (the thing she'd told me last time I talked to her was that he needed work on his brakes) and that she (trainer) thinks I made out like a bandit with him.

Unfortunately, I have work and class today so I likely won't be able to go see this for myself so soon. I shall have to see about tomorrow though!

Eeee!
My New Baby
















Let the time get away from me
And I've got no excuse for it! I'm not going to recap the last few months, but I'll talk about what's going on currently in my horsey life.

So one of the horses I've been riding a lot in my lessons lately is Rurik. He's about 7, a handsome-looking Percheron, and up until just I guess a year or two ago, he still had all his man parts and was living in a pasture with his mom (never "weaned", LOL!) and some other horses. He ended up at Gentle Giants and they started trying to train him.

Emphasis on trying, as he really hadn't been touched before then. He might have been an adult in body, but he wasn't in mind. Right after I first started volunteering there, I watched them spend a training session just trying to get him to stand still and accept a saddle pad. I heard about some of the explosions that occurred when the actually managed to get a saddle on him. He ended up getting sent out for several months of professional training. That was last summer. This year? You wouldn't know it was the same horse. Last August I never would have dreamed of riding him, but this year, he's become the horse I ride most often.

So anyway, he's technically been adopted but he's being boarded at the farm until a couple of other things are worked on (trailer loading, for one) and in the mean time, his owner allows him to be used for lessons. Last month, a few of us went up to a schooling show near Frederick and I showed him in a bunch of equitation classes. We came out of there with a fifth, a fourth (my first two classes, back to back, when I was all nerves), and three seconds (my later classes after I'd relaxed :) What a world of difference the afternoon was from the morning!). I was very proud of him as not only did he more or less listen (he kept wanting to speed up at one end of the ring and I had a hell of a time convincing him to keep a nice trot through there), he handled the moment when someone on a horse that was WAY too much for him practically ran up his rear-end. So yay!

And I guess, since I talked about Molly in the previous post I should mention that she did end up getting adopted by the lady I mentioned and that lady loves her a lot. She came on a trail ride with us and Molly was all fat and sassy and looks GREAT so while I'm sad she's not mine, I'm happy she's in an awesome home.

And on the subject of making horses mine:

There's a neat spotted draft at Gentle Giants I had thought might be the horse for me. He's good looking and intelligent but came in completely untrained. As he's been going through training it's becoming more and more obvious to me that as much as I think he's kinda cool, he is not the horse for me. He's pretty reactive and while I'm sure there are people who'd like that...I'm not one of them.

There's also Blue who...well, I took her on the trail camping trip we went on this past weekend and she's probably a lot of the sort of horse I should be getting. Calm and level-headed, generally friendly, and fairly attractive. But I don't feel that spark, you know? I could certainly like her but she's not my first choice there.

My first choice, lately, has been Monty. I tell people if Monty where proportioned exactly the way he is but only about 16 hands high instead of 18+, he'd be perfect. He's friendly and gorgeous without being flashy (bay with a star) and he's good on trails and generally willing to do what you ask, if not highly trained. Except that he's got some sort of foot issue that makes him ouchy on hard ground without shoes. Not completely a dealbreaker but shoeing a horse that big is pretty expensive when I could likely find a horse who can do what I want without that problem.

I'd been hoping to adopt from Gentle Giants but...well, despite there being a glut of horses there at the moment, many of them still need training or I'm just....not interested in. You get the idea.

I did tell Christine this weekend that one of GG's lesson horses (Tabitha) is actually exactly what I need, I think. She's been there, done that, doesn't spook at anything, does as you ask, is amazing on trails, is a little flashy, is kind and interested in people, et cetera. Except she's over twenty and Christine would never adopt her out anyway. But you know, if she were available, I'd likely have been all over her way before now.

So that brings us to Bridget. Bridget is a 15 year old TB/Percheron mare I found on one of the horse advertising sites. She appears to be everything I'm looking for. Quiet, sensible, mid-teens (neither too old or young), presumably sound, not too big, well-conformed, uncomplicated, and capable of doing the sort of riding I want to do (trails, general hacking about, small schooling shows at w/t/c, some low lever dressage. Lots of flat stuff as I'm not into jumping.). Oh, and the price is within my "okay, I could pay that," range. Of course, she's been on the site for at least a month now and since she does appear to be really nice and for a good price, I have to wonder why she isn't sold yet.

Well, anyway, I'm going to see her on Friday, so maybe I'll find out.

Maybe the only reason she hasn't been sold is she's waiting for me. We'll see.

And I'm sure there will be pictures when I get back. ;)
Private lessons & horses we love hopelessly
My first private lesson ride saw me riding Humphrey again. Not a bad ride, lots of serpentines and Laura yelling at me to keep my toes forward and not drop my inside shoulder. Also Humphrey was getting kinda...something. Very head-tossey, though Laura said if he wasn't doing anything else to just push him through it and ignore him so that's basically what I did. Otherwise, it wasn't too exciting.

My second lesson was done mostly without stirrups on Jezzie. Jezz is a Morgan cross with a very smooth trot and canter. It weirds me out because I'm used to bigger gaits on bigger horses. They don't feel like real gaits to me.

Anyway, because she's so smooth, Laura had me working on her posting down the long sides and sitting on the short ones. But I still had to keep my calf on her to keep her moving. Can I say ow? I was definitely saying it then. Ow. I need to work on strengthening my legs, I think.

The third lesson was last Saturday and I was on Caladhin. 18.1 hands, approaching 2000 poounds, lazy, gorgeous Percheron horse. Plus, the far end of the arena is scary to him so he really likes to cut corners there. Soooo...lots of leg to keep him moving and on the rail. Got to keep my stirrups this time (thank God) but it was still a lot of work. By the end, though, got a few nice circles on him trotting where it felt like I wasn't having to fight him to make things work.

There've been a few other riding experiences in there.

Saturday, I also rode Molly out in one of the fields. She's pretty lazy in the ring and I wanted to see if that carried over outside. Luckily, it doesn't, so we spent a lot of time walking and trotting around. The field is a bit hilly and I wanted to work on getting her more fit that way.

Of course, the first time I asked her to trot up the hill she surprised me by breaking into a canter. I didn't know she had it in her! :) We came back down after a few strides and that was that. I don't really want to actually canter her until she gains some more weight/muscle. (she came to GG with probable EPSM and then she had a colic episode for nearly a week and dropped weight from that).

Also rode my first spook on her. She spooks sideways. Nothing too hard to handle but I hope she doesn't make a habit of it because I'm not sure if the lady who is supposed to be adopting her can sit it. I have a sneaking suspicion lady in question liked her better when she'd hardly trot at all.

But now she's recovering and feeling better so I think she'll be perking up even more as time goes on. I have a terrible kind of hope that lady decides she doesn't want her after all because I really, really want to make her mine.

Oh! We also took Molly on her first big trail ride yesterday in a group of seven or so horses. Just walking (but she wanted to trot for the first half. By the end she was pretty pooped even though it wasn't an overly long ride) but still fun and nice scenery. No spooks (save for a little jolt when another horse tried to make a break for home near the end). And then at the end we sat out with the horses and hand-grazed them. Very peaceful.

On a not-riding subject, the Belgian foal at GG jammed my ring finger on my right hand somehow while I was leading her yesterday. Didn't want to go through a door way and she pulled back. Not sure how she got my finger but it's swollen and bruised and hurts if pressure is put on it. Not broken, thank goodness, but it makes typing interesting. Or much of anything, because I'm right-handed. Never realised how much I use my ring finger for stuff. Ow.

That happened before the trail ride. Had to ride Molly with the reins between my middle and ring finger instead of ring finger and pinky. Probably would have been easier if she (and I) neck-reined, lol.

GG went up to New Holland today. I want to go peek up there this evening and see if they brought back anything new.
So that fall finally happened...
I've been telling people recently that since it's been about a year since I started re-riding, I felt like I was coming up due on an actual fall. I'd really only come off once since I'd started riding again and it totally didn't count because I landed on my feet.

Until last night.

I went up to Gentle Giants to ride with a few other people but I wasn't sure who I wanted to ride. Christina suggested Humphrey, a horse I hadn't ridden before, actually one of the Thoroughbreds that are there (he's both getting re-worked by Christina and being used as a lesson horse). Before she'd started riding him a couple months ago, he'd been basically out to pasture for about two and a half years. I've seen him ridden a few times and I'd thought about doing so myself in the past so I figured....why not?

The first half of my riding I did in a saddle and we were just fine. He's a little looky and a little nervous but it wasn't a big deal. Once we did walk/trot/canter (actually managed to get him to go both ways cantering, but he was obviously more reluctant to go to the right cantering and it took a few tries. Remember: he hasn't been worked a lot up till recently so they're still trying to get him fit) a bit and by that point they needed the saddle I was riding in for someone who was going to take an actual lesson. So I hopped off, took off his saddle, and got back on bareback. I probably wouldn't have done this except his trot had been relatively smooth when we'd been going earlier so I figured we'd be okay. I wasn't planning on cantering him again, after all!

For the next few minutes, trotting with him was pretty iffy. He had cantered and now he was like, "but why can't we go fast again?" and it took some work to bring him back down (I mentioned Thoroughbred, right?). Still, not too bad, and finally we were just walking around. I was thinking of getting off him pretty soon, actually...

When my foot knocked against the arena wall as we went by and it scared him. He spooked, stone dust hit the metal wall too, he spooked further and I, previously very relaxed and loose sitting on his bare (slick!) back slid right off. He went one way, I went the other and landed on my back. Ow.

Then he stood there staring at me from a few feet away like, "OMYGODWHYAREYOUONTHEGROUND?"

Luckily, I didn't injure anything, though I'm sore but I don't think I'll be riding him without a saddle any time soon. I actually think if I'd still been in the saddle, I probably could've saved myself from falling (all the way) off. Though it's possible me hanging on him would've spooked him more so maybe it's a good thing I wasn't.

Either way, I had my fall, now I shouldn't be due for another one for a while.

In other news, next weekend I'm starting private lessons at a new barn. I'd already been planning to ask to work more on no-stirrups and last night is really just more incentive to do so (yeah, I know I'm crazy).

So the next few weeks should have me making updates like, "OWWWWW my legs are sooooore *whine*". Can't wait!
Whee!
Once again, all sorts of stuff to talk about, it's been a while. I'll just focus on the last couple of weeks thought.

Monday before last, I rode at Columbia on Handsome. Let's just say it wasn't my best lesson ever though Kristy told me a lot of it looked to be me being too tense and getting frustrated with myself because things weren't going perfectly and really, I looked fine if I'd just relax. Near the end, I started to get to that point, but still, I felt like I could have done better.

This past Monday, I rode him again and our ride was about a million times better. One of Handsome's little things he does to entertain himself in lessons is to vary the speed he's moving at. Not change gaits, just...slow trot faster trot slow trot faster trot, and so on. That didn't happen so much, or maybe I was just more aware of it and able to keep him at a steadier pace. We also did a little jumping and that was also much easier, though I still only got him to canter out once. I still haven't really gotten "keeping leg on" while being up in two-point. Too much to think about all at once!

The lesson ended on a notsogreat note, though, when one of the other riders fell going over the jump. She probably would have been fine if she'd hit dirt but she hit the standard instead and it knocked the wind out of her and, I think, she sprained her ankle. Will probably find out what all exactly happened tomorrow when I go in for the Monday lesson.

---

Also, Tuesday before last I went up to Gentle Giants and rode Treadway who I believe I've blogged about before. Also not one of my better rides on him. I was riding in the dressage saddle they have (in anticipation of a dressage lesson I took today) but the stirrups were too long (on the shortest hole and wrapped twice and still just a bit too long so I kept pushing my feet forward in them) and the way the saddle is, it encourages one to sit up more on their crotch. Which, I guess, is better for dressage, but on Treadway?

See, he used to be a fairly highish level eventer and his owner taught him to go faster or slower based off of her seat. So if you sit back on your seatbones, he'll go at a reasonable pace. But if you tilt your pelvis forward? He starts speeding up. You don't even have to have leg on him. So basically, Christine said it looked like he was running away with me (at the trot), though he did break into a canter once (the first time ever with me). It ended up being a fairly frustrating experience.

This past Wednesday night, I went back up to GG to ride but took Big Red out for a spin instead. It was kind of nice to ride a horse you have to use leg on to get to move. :)

Thursday (New Year's Day), was a big New Year's auction up in Thurmont that Christine wanted to go to in hopes of finding a draft or two who needed saving. It turned out there were no drafts at the auction (out of ~100 horses), but there were a few draft crosses (or, as near as we could tell, they looked it). There were three horses we ended up figuring we'd try and bid on. 1) The most adorable drafty large pony (small horse, actually) thing I've ever seen. 2) Something that looked liked a cross between a Clydesdale and a Standardbred. 3) A possible Fjord cross.

We ended up with the first guy and the person we were bidding against is a known horse dealer who likely would've been hauling the poor pony up to New Holland on Monday. Anyway, he's fat and fuzzy and possibly blind in one eye and probably about twenty but he's the most willing little guy ever and has a funny gray patch over the top of his neck.

Christine ended up not going for the Clyde cross because, if I recall right, she was worried it wasn't actually sound. The Fjord ended up getting bidded to out of our price range and went to what looked like a good home, so that's good. :) One of the last horses of the night, however, was this poor Thoroughbred mare that nobody seemed interested in and Christine took pity on her. The mare's only 12 and her racing name was Our Sister Gina (OSG). She goes w/t/c, auto changes, and jumps! Somebody put the training into her so it's kind of amazing she ended up where she did.

The same goes for the Big Grey Pony (BGP). He goes w/t/c, is completely unflappable (so far), and if you point him over a jump, he'll do his darndest for you. It wouldn't suprise me if he was somebody's hunter pony or something once upon a time. Another one we can't figure out how he ended up at auction because he's just that awesome.

So anyway, both new horses got ridden yesterday. Laura the instructor rode OSG and was very impressed with her. Nick the farrier already is in love with her and it's likely that they'll be adopting her.

I got to ride the BGP and I am in love with him! If you'd asked me what kind of horse I wanted even a week ago I never would have described this one (save that he's grey) but he's just so cool.

And then today. Today was the dressage lesson. I'd won it back early in December at a silent auction GG held during their wine tasting fundraiser. The lesson was donated by Hilary Moore. And she was gracious enough to come out to GG to give it instead of making us haul Treadway out to where she is. I think that's kind of awesome, personally. :)

Anyway, I've talked before about how riding Treadway is complicated, even though he's a great guy. So we explained about his history to Hilary and I explained what I was looking to get out of the lesson (that I've been riding a while but at a place that does a lot of hunter/jumper stuff so dressage isn't really emphasized but it's something I've been interested in and want to learn more about). She started me out with Treadway just getting him to walk relaxed (because generally, once he gets going, he wants to get moving and then I have to hold him in with my hands....or so I thought) and then to walk->halt transitions and back up to a walk again. She had me do this by just keeping a light contact with the rein and instead squeezing with my seat and upper thigh (but keeping my calf off!) and eventually? He stopped! Once he held still, I let him walk again and we repeated till he would stop reliably. He learned that I had learned his language, more or less.

Then we did it in the other direction. Once that was going well, she had me move him up to the trot and then we worked on trot to walk transitions. Then, once he was reliably listening to me, she had me rate my posting so if I sped up posting, he'd speed up trotting, if I slowed my posting, he'd slow his trot. It was the first time I ever felt a horse do that (it may have happened in the past, but I wasn't looking for it so I can't point to it as an experience). Finally, after we both seemed relaxed and in control, she had me take him up to a canter and then do canter->trot transitions. This was more difficult but not as bad as I'll admit I anticipated. Once we'd done all of this both directions, she went out of the middle of the ring and hand me go from walk to trot to canter in both directions on my own initiative. That is, she wasn't telling me when to do it, I had to decide to do it myself. The idea being how you know you can go to a lesson and you think you get it (this goes for just about anything) but then you get home or try it later and it doesn't work how you remember? This was was my chance to try it "on my own" and then ask questions about what worked or didn't.

It wasn't as successful as it was when she was in the middle of the ring, but we weren't terrible either. It's just a lot of work to have to do all the remembering of what you're supposed to do at any given time! :) Plus, we were both getting tired by that point so that made it more difficult too to get things done properly. One thing I noticed is it became harder to use my leg and I started relying more on my hands which didn't help things. Still and all, we ended up on a pretty "up" note and I'm pleased.

Oh, most of the time she also had us going in a large circle around her instead of up and down the long straight sides of the arena. This partly helped rate his speed and also required me to work at getting him to bed, so I also had to remember to use my inside leg to push him "out" while using my inside rein to bring his head in just a bit. Also probably the first time I've really used my leg to try to move him somewhere side ways (so to speak) and it didn't cause him to speed up.

Anyway, it was a really good lesson and I'm glad I took it. Though it does look like someone is thinking about adopting Treadway in the relatively near future so I don't know how often I'll be riding him, it's all stuff I can use with other horses, I think. I mean, my big reason for wanting to learn more about dressage is to learn to ride more quietly and I definitely manage to accomplish that with Treadway today. :)

Lastly, I ended up at the end of the day getting the BGP out of the field and bringing him in to get groomed. He can't get really clean until it's warm enough to bathe (and I'm disgusted somebody ran him through the auction ring without cleaning him up first) but I was able to get some dirt off him and clean out his feet and make his tail not-tangly. I really adore this guy and am thinking I might want him for myself.

Though Christina the instructor also mentioned that they (or she at least?) was hoping one of her students (a little girl who's been taking lessons on the lesson pony there) would want to adopt her (or rather, her parents). I can't get in the way of a little girl and her first pony but I can keep my fingers crossed that they can't end up getting him, right? :)

And after all of that? Have a picture of the BGP's adorable face!

Saphira the Former Amish Logging Horse

Saphira the Former Amish Logging Horse
Saphira is my 16.3hh 1600lb Belgian Draft. She was formerly an Amish horse, and then a yee-haw trail horse. She is overcoming fear issues and is in training for a dressage career.
As Per Request
As requested, this post is going to be before and after Saphira pictures.
Here she is the day I went to test ride her. Yes, I know I am not wearing a helmet. I was not planning on riding her. I only went to look at the Belgian draft to make my friend happy. Her feet we nasty. You could smell them when she walked by. She had not seen the farrier in quite some time. But hey! It was all due to the mud we've had this year.....




It is certainly funny looking back at the pictures of her. She had NO bum. He mane was pathetic looking, her tail was still non-existant and she still had guard hairs. This was sometime in early July.








This is Saphira last week. Her mane has grown considerably and although it will never be long and thick her tail has also grown. I would love to see it get at least below her hocks. Also.... her hoofs are in better condition. She is due for a trim, but they look much better than in the first picture. If you are looking closely enough you will also see that her front feathers are missing. Winter in New England is horrible so I shaved them to prevent snow balls clinging to her legs and scratches from developing. Her back feathers will most likely be taken off when she is trimmed this weekend.

Saphira was a little stiff in the neck Monday so I did not ride her yesterday. Instead we had some old fashioned bonding time. I brushed her (I know she will just roll in any mud she can find today...) I stretched her neck out and we walked around the property. Nice little change of pace, even if she blew at everything. I was going to spend time braiding her up nice, but one of the other drafts at her old barn split a good three inches of his hoof off up to the coronary band and we had to wait for the vet for him. He is okay, ended up needing stitches and is on stall rest for a week and a half. Very scary.

I will go this morning to look at her again and possibly stretch her out some more.

Looking at the pictures I still cant believe its the same horse. I cannot wait until this summer when she sheds out to that lovely gold color again. I wonder if she'll keep all her new dapples? The best thing about her winter fuzz... Her scars are barely visible now.

This is a completely different horse than I brought home.
Settling in Nicely


Saphira has been settling in nicely to her new home. She has a dry paddock with horses right next door. We have figured out the she is testing the barn owner to set limits. She knows that she cannot kick her trainer or I, but when the barn owner tried to put the leg straps on her Saphira let out a good one. The response was, "Thanks for the warning, I was ready for it." I was almost shocked. She has been so good with us, that I forgot she is a tester. Saphira likes to test boundaries with people. She has pushed people around for so long with her size and gotten away with it, that it will take much longer than a few months for her to get over that.

The new header picture is of Saphira's first day in her new home.

I have already ridden her twice there, and today will make it three times. She is definitely much more pushy than she was at the other barn, but she is still settling. She thought that the door back to the barn in the indoor ring was very scary, so we spent a good 15 minutes working on trotting a straight line past it rather than sideways neck craned looking at it. She is looking good, and will be working pretty hard in the upcoming weeks getting into shape. Even though the above picture is fuzzy, I think she looks pretty good. Today we will work on moving consistently through the ring and dropping her nose in a little. However, she was very lazy Thursday and I am horribly out of shape, so we will see just how hard she works. I am limited by how long my legs last lol. Saphira is a tad... Fat, so it takes an awful lot of leg to get her moving when she does not want to.

Saphira will be getting her hooves trimmed in the next week, as soon as her farrier is feeling better. She will walk the mile down the road to the stocks as I she is still difficult to trim. Hopefully by next year we can do it without the stocks.

Saphira's training for the spring show season has begun.
Moving Day!
I am all settled in the new house, so it is time that I make good on my promise to myself. Saphira is moving up the road from where she is to a new barn today. I will have access to a HUGE indoor ring with mirrors and an outdoor ring when the weather improves this spring. Not a lot else to write about it, but I truly feel this is the best thing for her. I think she will settle down immensely being worked consistently.
What was wrong with Saphira's Craigslist ad
So, I have been horrible and have not updated in a while. I am moving this weekend (closer to where I board Saphira) and I adopted a puppy last weekend, so between potty breaks every two hours, packing and trying to work with Saphira... I have been very busy.

Sad to say I have not ridden her since our trek to the indoor, but hopefully soon I will be moving her so she can be ridden almost daily. We will not be going to the show this weekend as planned, I am not sure I can shirk moving duties without the wrath of my DH coming into play. But that is ok, we will work hard all winter and Saphira will begin her career as a dressage horse in the spring.

I wish I had saved the ad on craigslist that Saphira was advertised on, looking back now... I chuckle about it. And since that is usually when Saphira is misbehaving, the chuckling is in between breathing and some trucker language.

Anyways, Saphira was put up for sale about a week after she arrived in New Hampshire. She was listed for $800 (about 600 more than her former owners paid for her) It was said that she clipped, bathed, trail rode, w/t/c, was ridden bareback, you needed stocks to do her feet, trailers, and a complete love. As stated before, I did not want a draft horse. I am used to riding Thoroughbreds and Paints, and that is what I was looking for as a dressage prospect. A friend of mine was home all week with her three kids (5, 6, and 14) and on the weekends... We go out for horse time without them. Over the course of a month Saphiras' price was dropped from $800 to $200 or best offer. Finally I decided that I would go take a look at her just for something to do.

She was led up to the house (I did not get to see her paddock area or barn) with another horse. She was already tacked up (did not get to see how she behaves with the girth or the bridle...) and wouldn't let me near her. She was very nervous. The young girls holding her tried to put a metal folding chair next to her to mount up, and Saphira was NOT having it. That metal chair is scary, and loud and had NO business being near her. As she continued to get worked up my friend went over to help, because they clearly had no idea what they were doing. (I somehow ended up holding the 24 year old saddlebred she was with) Eventually she calmed down enough for the girl to mount up. The saddlebred was taken from me and was led in front of Saphira. I was told she does not go anywhere without him) I watched her walk her and trot her up and down the road, she looked a little sore. As she walked by me I could smell why, thrush. Watching her fidget and get nervous in my head I kept saying, "nope. This is not the one for me. No freaking way."

Then it was my turn to get on. I pet her for a moment, let her sniff me and then mounted. Her buddy went back to eating grass. I got a few steps out of her before she decided that she was done and wanted her buddy back. I was working on getting her to take a step forward when her owner said, "I'll just bring him back, that's the only way she'll move." In my head I was thinking, "is he coming home with me to? I need to see how she will be with him no longer around!" The thing that was tugging at my heart, was she TRIED being good. She settled VERY quickly. To go from one extreme to the other that quickly.... And something was tugging. I emailed a few days later and picked her up the next weekend.

Bathing.... Isn't so bad, she likes it. Clipping... She was roached at one point so that is not too bad... But her lip is ticklish so she gets rude about that. Needing stocks to get her feet done? That would have been well and great if she WENT into the stocks. The first few weeks she would go in, and out, in and out, in and out. And eventually she stopped rocketing in and launching back out. Now she goes in quietly and will stand. She still has some problems with her feet, but she is alot better. When I went to look at her I ran my hand down her leg to check for hottness, sore spots etc, and she tried to bite me! She was very touchy about her legs. I can now brush them almost all the way down to her hooves. In the stocks we can put her galloping boots on, her bell boots on and brush her feathers usually with no more than a lifted hoof.

Her trailering sucks, the fastest she has gotten a trailer since I have had her was the day we picked her up. I think she just wanted to get the H3ll out of there. We tried the nice route... We stood for hours with grain. Saphira is an alpha mare. You cannot be nice to her. What you need to do to get her in the trailer, and I know this sounds horrible: is stand behind her with a whip. Thats it. Just stand there and let her know its there.. Then she will hop right on. Otherwise... Your skiing back to the barn and she is TOO big for that.

So for a few weeks Saphira would not take treats... I have never seen a horse like that, now she will take one or two but is still not a huge treat horse. No biggie, I don't want her too mouthy. She will stand for attenion and even seeks it out. She would not allow herself to get affection for quite some time. Now when she is feeling particularly needy she will block the paddock gate so I cannot go out and buries her head in my arms.

She is still quite the B17ch going out sometimes, and coming back in. But she has learned that when going into her stall, she has to come all the way to the door and drop her head for her halter to get taken off before eating. In the mornings, she puts it on for you. Sometimes she is of course TOO helpful and it is impossible to get on, but she is NOW a love.

I think this is a long enough post, after I move I will hopefully have more to update on.
Oh so tired.


Well yesterday our ride to the indoor flaked out, so we walked a mile up the road to the indoor. Surprisingly Saphira was much better behaved than I thought she would. The cars didn't phase her, however the big oil truck was a little scary (I don't blame her lol), and so was the soda can that she stepped on. We were only at the ring for about thirty minutes but she got tired... we trotted for a bit and cantered once around the ring (she is incredibly out of shape). I think I may end up moving her there for the winter so I can have access to a ring whenever and really get her moving.


The way home she was super! Had nothing to do with the fact that she was just too darn tired to do anything. :-P However.... There was a flag. The flag was blowing in the wind (very windy) and was not scary walking towards it. The flag was not scary walking under it. THE FLAG WAS VERY SCARY ONCE WE PASSED IT! Was a little funny thinking back at it.

So Saphira has today off so tomorrow I may actually get to post more about her former life, EPSM, and other draft related maintenance topics.
To trail ride? Or not.

I don't know why, but for some reason I thought that at least one thing Saphira's former owners had told my was true. I do not want her burning out and getting bored in the ring. Right now she loves everything about it, and I want it to stay that way. So yesterday when my plans to truck her into a giant indoor fell through my friend and I decided to take Saphira and the resident old broad (from now on being called rob) out onto the trails. Summer, the rob loves trails and is a good security blanket for Saphira as she has truly been there and done it all. My friend and former riding instructor rode Saphira because I still lack some confidence, especially since we had no idea how she would react. We found out quickly. My little girl is extremely barn sour. We made it as far as the hay field out back before she started getting very rude and backing down hill. Then she threatened to go UP. Not quite our idea of what we had wanted to do. One more strike for people in the bad sellers category. I think I'll make a post about the difference between good sellers and bad sellers sometime soon.

So instead of risking going on the trails like that, we just rode around the big paddock. (That is way too much horse to have fall over on you.) Soon we will hand walk her on the trails to get her used to them. In the paddock, my friend CANTERED her! This was the first time we cantered her since having her and she looked good. She had the right lead, she was balanced... My friend told me that she hardly felt like she was moving and it was one of the best canters she has ridden in quite some time. Not QUITE what I expected to hear about a draft horse... :-) But I suppose I will take it. Hopefully we will be going to a ring today to work her some more, and again on Wednesday. There is another small fun show this weekend and if all goes well we will put her in walk/trot equitation, pleasure and walk/trot green horse pleasure. She enjoys showing she it will be fun. So far the weather looks to be cooperating she hopefully for this show we will do the complete bath, mane braid and tail braid.
Working Her Own Mouth

Saphira did indeed get her strenuous workout yesterday. By strenuous I mean mentally and physically challenging. She has been on the vertical under saddle but still needs some work coming onto contact. By bringing her head down more she round up her back and push with her hind quarters rather than pull with her front as most drafts do.

Saphira sometimes avoids the bit and puts her head straight up in the air, she is figuring out that bringing it down is what I want. The way the tack (poor mans tack lol) is set up is that with her leg movements she is essentially, working her own mouth. She is learning that massaging of the mouth means bringing your head down, and when your head is down the pressure stops. All things that are easily worked on in the saddle as well. Excuse the poor picture and video quality, but I don't multi-task well and used my phone.

She only did some slow trotting for about ten minutes as I have not done this exercise with her in quite some time. Saphira is not stupid so she figures things out quickly, but it still stands to reason that she does not routinely use her hind quarter muscles for this so to avoid cramping and over fatigue building up to longer times is best. She will get there, but I won't rush her.

This weekend Saphira is going to a huge indoor ring five minutes away to start working on her dressage test. There is a low level schooling show in Mass in November that I would like to bring her to. We shall see how she does. I don't expect any problems but if they happen there is always the spring. I think I'll see how she does on the trails to the indoor. Saphira has been on trails before but not since I have had her. She is a much calmer, usually more relaxed and self confident horse now, so she should not need to "follow another horse" as before but I think I will bring the resident "old lady" (24 year old paint mare) to show Saphira how it is done.



Saphira lunging, she saw me trying to multi-task and decided that she really did not have to trot through the mud.
Back to Business as Usual
Saphira made the fugly blog! I pulled the website up to check it and walked away while it was loading. walking through my dining room I thought I saw a picture of Saphira but shrugged it off as a horse that looks like her. I came into the living room and there she was. My first thought was literally, "Oh no why am I on the fugly blog!" :-) Turns out it was nothing but good. Thank you fugly for bringing light to these big beasties who most certainly will pour their hearts out for you once you have earned their trust.

Yesterday Saphira most certainly let all of the attention get to her head. She put her halter on all nice like usual but then she came charging out of her stall and tried to pull me out to the paddock for her breakfast. (Very diva like.) She got yelled at like normal which usually gets a quick response. She is like a child, she hates to be yelled at and usually puts her head right down and looks at me and say, "I sorry mommy. I'll be a good girl." She is very sensitive that way. But not today! She is famous! She doesn't need to listen! Didn't I know she was a champion?! So we had a discussion, and since she was still very wired.... She got to lunge before breakfast.

She quickly figured out that it was much easier to just listen to mom so she could eat breakfast. I was going to give her the day off, but sometimes she needs to be reminded that people are not to be dragged around.

Today I lunged her for a few minutes and she was once again amazing. We had a nice slow trot going and she only had to be pushed out into the sides that she thought were way to icky with the mud. Saphira is very verbally oriented. She listens to you and responds quickly. We only did a few minutes as she was such a good girl and worked so hard on Sunday. But, she did have to work a little as she is such a dream to handle when she can blow a little steam off. Whoever thinks that all drafts are slow plods have not met my girl. She can get very very hot if left to sit in a paddock.

She is a dream to ride, she now works off of my legs and body weight. Coupled with voice she is picking everything up quickly. She LOVES to work and not only gets cranky when she does not work, she gets jealous when she can see me working another horse. This can be problematic now that we have two large drafts in training for undersaddle work. She is the first, but the second is a 18 hand PMU foal who I dream about doing piaffes. He is a lovely thing to watch. But she does not like it she does laps walking around the paddock, stops and looks at me for a few minutes telling me exactly what she thinks about me and then continues laps. I chuckled about it for a while once I figured out what she was doing. (this was after I had lunged her that day)

Tomorrow she will work her large draft bum off and work in side reins again. She is going to try her hand at the trails this weekend I think, and now that I have found an indoor ring big enough for her to get some serious work going for use during the winter she is going to be schooling for the spring dressage season. An indoor ring with a door is also perfect for trying her canter, not something that we have done yet. She was cantering at her former owners, but was just following along with her herd mate in front of her not lisentening to what her rider was asking. But we want a door just in case she feels the need to go out of the ring.

Here is another picture of her from the show Sunday. I was enjoying the ride talking to her the whole way around to keep her focus on me and to pay attention to what we were doing. (The crackle of the announcers was a little scary) But I think this is just a lovely picture of her.


Reserve Day End Champ of Show #1
Did not braid and all as planned, the weather was miserable. This week I will give her another bath and braid her up all pretty and take pictures with all of her ribbons.



Saphira was AMAZING yesterday. This was only her second time in a ring, and her first time with that many horses. I went to this show with ZERO expectations. I only wanted to have her take a trailer ride and get exposed to things. And she gave me her all. She was so proud of herself and so happy in the ring, I had even the judges and secretaries telling me that they loved her. They did not believe me when I said she has only been working consistently under saddle for the last two months.

The weather was horrible, and she did not want to go into the mud so we got a second in our command class because as we were supposed to be trotting, no amount of leg kept her from walking. :-) In our first class of the day I was just trotting her around talking to her, trying to get a nice rhythm going and to try and get her to relax. She spooked for a moment at the crackle of the announcers but her spooking is just looking at them and moving sideways a step. I was having so much fun in my first class ever on a horse that is all mine that I was disappointed when they called us to lineup for ribbons. To save time they had combined the juniors and the seniors classes, but were judging us separately. I didn't mind, it would take a whole lot of horse to make my horse not stand out. :-)

After the juniors were finished came crunch time. I was just scratching her special spot on her neck happy with how we did. As fourth and third place were called I was thinking alright we didn't place, no biggie. Then second place was called and the Belgian QH X next to us moved. I looked around and no one else was there! My jaw dropped and I was petting her! I won y first blue ribbon on my own horse in her first class.

Our next class was walk/trot pleasure. I'd been joking with everyone that they only reason I keep Saphira is that she makes up for her horrible manners on the ground the second you get on her back. I think she is an enormous pleasure to ride, would the judges think so? They did. We got first in that class too. We hung around until the end of day, while my friends 24 year old girl Summer did the speed games. She does not know she is 24 and we are not going to the be the ones who tell her.

At the end of day awards we were called, Reserve Senior Walk/Trot Champs. I was told we would have been the Champion if we had gone into the Showmanship class,but due to a last minute trailer change we had a trailer Saphira was not familiar with and it took her a little longer than expected to get over her fear of ramps. I was okay with it, as this was all part of her big learning day.


Long time no post

I have slacked horribly at this blog. I apologize in case anyone actually reads this. We have done quite a bit of trimming of the horrible nasty feet. They almost look good! Saphira has been trucked to an indoor riding ring and surprised us all. SHE WAS GOOD! Because of her stellar behavior she is going to her very first schooling show on Sunday. She is entered in the walk/trot championship series. I am not looking to place, but will be happy if she enjoys showing off and is a good girl.

I have discovered that milk jugs are very scary. Scary enough for a 16.3 draft horse to try and jump over her stall wall to have a sleepover with the horse next door. Solution? Fill it with grain and put holes in it.

The picture is of Saphira decked out in her new show clothes. I cannot wait for Sunday, but first must come Saturday. Saphira will be getting a bath, a running braid, and a her tail all braided up now that she has a tail to braid. Her fun show name will be Miss Behavin.
Those Scary Stocks
Not too much to report, but on Wendnesday we did not get her feet done again. She has been getting very.... "Pushy" about not going into the stocks lately. She is not stupid, she knows that going in there means we are going to work on her feet. So instead, we got her into the stocks and just brushed her. She is very sensitive with having her muzzle touched so we just pet her. Nothing but softness and love. We backed her in and out a few times, just so she would associated the stocks with good things as well. Saterday all bets are off, and we are going to get two more feet done.
Draft Sized Baby Steps With Trailers
So this weekend we made little steps at getting on the trailer. Driven by her stomach she got on completely once! I thinks he may have stepped on a rock when she got out and hurt her already hurting hoof, so she was much more hesitant about getting on the trailer. She did think about it... She keeps lifting her foot as if to start loading, and then changes her mind. She has a battle of epic proportions going on inside her. On the one hand, she REEEALLLYYY wants to make us happy. Her heart is saying, "YES! Do this for them! They have food and will pet me!" But at the same time, something deep down inside her is whispering back, "NO." She really thinks she is going to get hurt.

I decided that we will continue the trailer lessons after we have successfully cleaned out as much thrush from her feet as we can. This will probably take another week or two, if we did the remaining three all at once she would be waay too uncomfortable.

Had a busy weekend... The 4-H show that I wanted to bring Saphira to was on Sunday, and sadly she did not make it. She was still too ouchy on that front hoof to justify bringing her to a show. where the grounds were so rocky. I had a good time regardless, and there will be plenty others to start bringing her to eventually.

I have also been looking into what happens at the American Warmblood inspections. There isn't a whole lot of information that I can find, so if anyone knows what they look for and how to prepare for the in hand breeding mare inspections let me know!
Week 4 Day 6

Saphira has been home for a little over a month. her feet are still a desperate work in progress. Wednesday we discovered that she has massive bruising, and so she will not be accompanying us to the 4-H show on Sunday as planned. Instead, we will spend Saturday trying the impossible- trimming and treating all four hooves! Up until now we have only worked on the front but have discovered that her thrush is MUCH worse than originally though, so we are going to do the back breaking work of wrestling with all 1600 pounds of Belgian to get her feet up. This would not seem to be as stressful as I make it out to be, but for some reason she is PETRIFIED of picking up her feet. She refuses to stand on just three legs and will instead lean her windpipe on the stocks so that she is roaring when she breathes. I have been sent a link to a clinic in September that Chris Boyer from Cherry Croft farm is putting on for "problem horses." If he accepts Saphira, we will make the drive to Rhode Island to see what he can do with her.

She has turned around amazingly already. What was once a horse who was so "herd bound" that the only way she could be ridden or handled was to have her "buddy" with her, is a horse who would much rather be where the people are and just needs some coaxing and a reminder or two of what she is supposed to be doing. I have only been on her twice since she has been home, and those were just little walks around the round pen. She handled that like a dream, and is still working on coming into contact with the bit while being lunged. As a pulling horse, she uses her front her to "pull" herself forward instead of pushing with her engine. (hind quarters) She is now starting to do this and using muscles she has never had to use before. Once her feet are taken care of and in good shape she will go back into training and her body will really begin to change shape.

Spazfilly

Spazfilly

Back on Track
Finally! Sunny skies, dry pastures, and a pony with four working legs. Our treatment for Halo's leg went quite well. Either the kick wasn't as severe as we feared, or early treatment prevented it from getting worse. I have more pictures from Day 2 of the injury (October 29). Even on this first day, I think the swelling looks much better.





The white goo is just Corona ointment I put on there to protect the hair in case of any drainage. Overall, there didn't seem to be too much drainage. Each time I went out, I hosed the leg, disinfected the wound with iodine, and then applied Corona. The barn owner took care of giving her bute and antibiotics with her feed.

By last weekend, the swelling had sunk into her knee. We did some walking that day to see if it helped with the swelling. It seemed to a little bit, but I didn't want to push her to do too much.

As of yesterday, she's swelling-free, and perfectly sound on the leg. I worked her lightly last night, and she was a very good girl! She's become great about saddling up, and there was no bucking with the saddle on the longe line last night. I think she likes her new saddle better - that or she's just getting used to wearing the saddle.

Speaking of saddles, now that things are looking up, hopefully I'll have some more under saddle reports soon! My dad was kind enough to get me a leather hole punch for my birthday, so I've now adjusted Halo's sidepull to fit much better.
A Little History: Smot
Since Halo is injured and I'm worried about her, I've decided to finally post a blog on a different topic to keep my mind off it. Let me introduce (drumroll please) Mo!




Mo (formerly called Smot) was my second horse, and the first horse I trained myself. I bought him as a wormy, lice-infested, underfed yearling, and trained him from the ground up. He wasn't even halter broke when I bought him.

Now he's a stately middle-aged gentleman at 14 years old and about 16.2 hands. He was foaled in 1995 on a Thoroughbred breeding farm in Estacada, Oregon. His pedigree is viewable on allbreedpedigree here: Mr. Cornell and I was able to get some interesting information about it from a message board I frequent. This is what one of the members said:

"That is a beautiful pedigree! Lots of older names you rarely see anymore, especially up close. Broodmare sire Bupers is a half brother to the mighty Buckpasser, who was one of the best conformed racehorses ever. Sire El Granada was a half to G1 winner Tap Shoes, and his sire Forli is one of the most influential racehorse sires of the 20th century. Basically, your horse has a lovely classic pedigree for a racehorse, although not a particularly fashionable one."

I sold Mo in 2004 after leasing him to the same woman for two years. She has given him a wonderful home, and has been kind enough to let me visit him over the years. Unfortunately, life has taken its toll on his legs as you can see from this conformation shot:



He has always been over at the knee, which hasn't bothered him much, but his hind legs are a little worse for wear. His pasterns are dropped on both sides, which could either be from DSLD or from both of his suspensories being blown out (after I sold him). He's also had some major accidents through his life, including one that hospitalized him for a time (immediately after I sold him). It was a freak accident where he hurt himself in the pasture. The dropped pasterns make him look posty in back, and he's definitely stiffer in back than he was as a youngster. At some point I'll have to scan some photos of him to do a comparison of how he's changed over the years.

Despite his accident proneness, Mo is a horse that will always be very dear to me. I love Halo, but no horse can quite replace where Mo is in my heart. He has a sweet, goofy personality, and has always been willing and eager to please. In the time I owned him, he was always a barn favorite, though a bit of a troublemaker. He used to take off other horses' fly masks and then chase them around with the fly mask in his mouth!

I miss Mo dearly, but enjoy visiting him when I go home to Oregon. The pictures in this post are from September of this year. I put a buyback clause in his sale papers, and I've already told his current owner that I'll gladly take him back if he becomes too old/lame to be ridden any longer.



Until then, he has a wonderful home, and I'm lucky to have known him.


October: Month of Leg Injuries
I got a call from the barn owner today letting me know that Halo managed to get herself another wound. It appears that she got kicked in the forearm. The wound is small, but there is some swelling, surely to become more over the next couple of days. Unfortunately, if it continues to swell, it could easily become infected and essentially turn into a puncture wound.


Spunkiness and Setbacks
I worked Halo for the first time in a while last Sunday. We've had a lot of rain since I returned from my trip to Portland, and the barn has been a muddy mess. I saddled her up and took her to the round pen for a short longe lesson. The outdoor arena is so soaked it's impossible to even go out there right now, and about 1/4 of the round pen is also a mucky disaster. Despite the space restrictions, she was raring to go. Unfortunately she decided to have a buck-a-thon with the new saddle, so we got to work through that. I pushed her forward until she gave me a nice canter in each direction without crowhopping or bucking.
Bareback Odyssey
So far, you may have noticed that I'm always riding Halo bareback. I think I've touched on the reason before - I have three saddles, and not one of them fits her properly. My previous horse was a thoroughbred, so he had a very narrow, high-withered profile as opposed to Halo's mutton-withered roundness.

While I was in Portland, I stopped by Portland Outdoor Store. They usually have massive numbers of saddles on consignment, and this trip was no exception. I fell in love with a Passier close contact saddle and a brown Crosby dressage saddle, but neither was meant to be. They may have fit me, but I was on the lookout for something that would fit Halo.

Amazingly, I came home with a saddle for $25! I doubt it will last me very long, as it's already got a hole in one panel. But the billets and tree are completely sound. It's a no-name all-purpose saddle with a nice wide tree. Despite being hideous, and nothing I can show in, I think it's a good choice for Halo right now. I will be able to trail ride in it with no worries of destroying anything since it's already in such bad shape. Anything she does to it won't matter in the long run. Plus, it's hard to say no to $25 for something that is still sound for work, even in bad condition.

I got the saddle cleaned up last weekend and took it to try out on her. The first two pictures here are of her in the "new" saddle.





It's sitting a little too far forward in these pictures (Halo's downhillness doesn't help), but you can see that she's got plenty of room in the shoulders and clearance over the spine. Below are two similar pictures of Halo in my Crosby close contact saddle (which I dearly love).





You can see that while she still has clearance over the spine, this narrower tree is digging into her shoulders even without the weight of a rider. I also don't like how the channel looks as though it doesn't provide enough room for her spine.

I'll get more pictures of her with the new saddle, girthed up and all, once we've had some more time working with it. I did work her in it last weekend, and for the most part she was good. She's been off work for a couple of weeks, so it took some extra work to get her focused and tuned in to me. After longeing, I decided not to get on her, but to spend some time flapping around with the saddle, leaning weight into the stirrups on both sides, and smacking the panels with the stirrup leathers to accustom her to noise and torque on the saddle. The only thing she didn't take well was me putting my foot in the stirrup and hopping. It caused her some alarm. Of course, since I've only been riding her bareback, I've used the mounting block to get on. Having my foot bump into her elbow was a completely new sensation for her. I'll be spending extra time working on that over the coming weeks until it becomes commonplace. While I prefer to mount with the block in the arena, it's easy to imagine a situation on the trail where I'd need to get on from the ground after falling off. I sure hope that doesn't happen, but I want to be prepared!
APHA at Last
Halo's breeder and the APHA finally came through for me - I now own a registered filly! I received her papers in the mail yesterday, and am as proud as can be. It was worth the 9 months of toil. Now that she's officially in my name with the APHA, I can register her with other associations like PtHA and PHBA. I don't know if I'll bother with PtHA since she's solid, but I am almost definitely going to register her with the PHBA as well. It will give her more show opportunities, and hopefully a likelihood of finding a good home when and if I ever sell her. In the meantime, the other thing that will bring her a good home is good training.
Hoof Trims and a Few Pictures
Last night I went out to trim Halo's feet. We had a nice three solid days of rain over the weekend, and she's been standing in mud, so her feet are nice and soft. I got her legs rinsed off and gave her her badly needed trim. I managed to do all four feet in one go, which is unusual, but my back is definitely punishing me for it today. I'm headed out of town again this weekend, so it was necessary to get it done before I left. She was pretty good given that she hasn't been worked in a while.

I have some pictures to share today that were taken by a friend of the barn owner who was visiting from Denmark for a few weeks. Photography is a hobby of hers. She wandered up to the arena one night when I was working Halo and took some nice shots. Unfortunately I was dressed in my typical hobo barn clothes. At least Halo was looking good!









It's funny, both horses I started myself have liked to mouth my feet when first learning to go under saddle. I think at this age they tend to explore with their mouths. No biting is allowed though!



I want to yell at myself to sit up straight!



I really need a saddle!

Although I'm going to be out of town next week, the good news is that I get to see my former horse, Smot (now referred to as Mo), while I am in Oregon. I hope to get some pictures and do a blog feature on him. He was the first (and only other) horse I started, and he is incredibly special to me. I think the term "heart horse" is a little cheesy, but if I had to apply that term to one of my former horses, it would definitely be Smot.
Another Late Update
These pictures were taken the weekend before Labor Day weekend. I keep forgetting my camera when I go to the barn, but Casi was with me today and was able to take some shots of Halo under saddle. Saddle such as it is, anyway. I have an upcoming post planned to catalogue my saddle woes, and hopefully get some helpful input.



Here I'm asking her to turn back toward the rail with my outside leg and inside rein. I like the bend that she has here. She's getting much better at following her nose, though she's still far from perfect.



This is only our third or so time trotting! This is a super lazy trot, but as you can see, it's very easy to sit. She's stopped tossing her head during the trot for the most part. I think longeing her with the sidepull on helped her get used to the sensation of it on her face at higher speeds. Still, it probably could use to be shortened a hole. I'll put her in the snaffle soon, but she's got some teeth coming in right now that I don't want to bother.



And here is the latest naughty behavior. You can see from the lines in the dirt that this is the end of quite a string of going backwards. She does that when she decides she doesn't want to do what I ask. I won this battle, but could have handled it much better. I need to quit worrying that she's going to rear, and make her turn so that it's harder to back up. I've had some time to reflect on why this happened, and I'm hoping I can handle it better next time.



No workout would be complete without a stop to smell the plastic flowers!




Poor Halo. I think she's embarrassed.



And every good pony needs a good head rub once she's done working.
So Behind!
I'm so behind on blog posting, and at this point I don't even have work to hide behind as an excuse. I've been going to the barn, but I seem to be consistently forgetting my camera. Plus it's tricky to take pictures the times I'm actually up on Halo. My camera is rather bulky, and an accident would be all too likely.

The latest news is that Halo and I have now had our first couple of trots. We've only gone about halfway around the round pen at a time. Sometimes she tosses her head, which I am attributing either to annoyance with the sidepull, or that I may be slightly off balance. I'm still riding her bareback, so she's extra attuned to what my weight is doing on her back. I have to say, though, the first time I felt that trot I almost laughed. It's smooth as smooth can be.

She hasn't given me any real trouble since I've begun to get on her with more regularity. We're always keeping the sessions very short, and I stop and get off once she does everything I ask quietly. For example, we'll usually walk around once or twice each direction, trot halfway around each direction, and then practice whoa and back. If she's good, I get off. She does sometimes resist a little bit with backing up, but she's improved by leaps and bounds since I first started working with her on it.

Speaking of leaps and bounds, I did something very stupid this past weekend. Fortunately nobody got hurt. Because Halo has been so good, I thought it might be okay to let Casi get up on her and just walk around with me leading her. Halo apparently decided otherwise. She's never given me one bit of trouble with mounting, but the minute Casi got her leg over her back, she backed up and hopped a couple of times, tossing poor Casi into the dirt! I felt terrible, as it was completely my fault for thinking it would be okay. I am sure that something caused her reaction, whether it was the feel of an unfamiliar butt on her back, or perhaps the mounting block, which I was reaching down to move when she decided to jump backwards.

Casi and I were both a bit shaken, but once I established that Casi was completely unhurt, I got back up on Halo. Let me tell you - I was a little nervous about it! However, Halo was perfectly obliging and quiet as always with me. I hope I am not developing a one-person horse. I think once she's greenbroke to walk-trot-lope, I'm going to have to see about having some other experienced riders take her for a spin to make sure she doesn't get too locked into only having me ride her.

I've considered sending her off for a month or two of training, but I'm honestly afraid to do it. Besides the cost, there are so many horror stories about things trainers do. And there's no way to know it all since you can't be there every minute. I definitely would like to work with a trainer as she gets further along, but I don't think I'm comfortable sending her off to school by herself.
Ok, Ok, As Promised!
I know I keep promising updates and failing to deliver. My latest excuse is that my work schedule has changed. I'm now working 10-7, which is better in some ways and worse in others. I'm still adjusting, and trying to figure out what I can fit in during the morning hours before I go to work.

The Best View


The view from Halo's back early this morning. More to come!
It's Been a While
Sorry for the lack of posts! I've had three sessions with Halo since my last post, so I'll try to summarize what we did. The weekend before last I took her on a trail ride. It was my first time ponying her off Taz. I think poor Taz was a little bit annoyed having to mind the baby, but he was very good about it. We had a moment or two of naughty behavior on Halo's part, but she settled in fairly quickly and kept up with the group. Taz likes to walk fast, and apparently so does Halo - we ended up leading or being close to the front for most of the ride. Unfortunately it has been so incredibly dry here that the ground is splitting open. The fields are barely safe to ride in because they are riddled with cracks. We kept our pace at a walk due to that (and because one of the other riders was recovering from a recent surgery). It was a great opportunity to take Halo out, and I'm glad we kept to the walk.

The last couple of sessions I've had with her have just been basic longeing. The horses are back to being cooped up in their dry lots now that all the grass is dead, so she has a lot more energy. I'm also getting paranoid that she's getting overweight, so keeping her fit and exercised is as important as ever. Her legs don't need any extra stress.

I took some new conformation shots:









I think her neck shows the most dramatic improvement over the past year. She went from looking very ewe-ish to having a nice shape to her neck. It's still a little shorter than I'd like, but those bones are the last to fuse - she may gain a bit more length.

She's still noticeably downhill, but she's been see-sawing quite a bit over the past year. She'll never be uphill, but if she makes it relatively level, I will be happy.

She's well-balanced overall, but still light on bone in her legs. Her feet also do not look as good as I'd like. She's as sound and happy as ever, but these pictures are reminding me that I need to bring her toes back. It's getting a lot harder to rasp now that her feet are so dry and hard. I worked on them last night, but it's going to take a few days to get them where I'd like them.

Halo also looks almost like she's a tiny bit back at the knee, but I don't think that's the case. I think her ridiculously long pasterns are making her appear that way. She does have very long, weak pasterns, which seems odd. To my knowledge, that is not a trait present in her immediate bloodlines.

Any commentary is welcome!
Flying Dirt
It seems that pastures are all gone for the summer, which means that Halo and her friends are now confined to their dry lot. Despite the heat, that means Halo has exponentially more energy! I took her out and longed her last night with the bareback pad on. She was very hyper, and wanted to go, go, go. She did buck some at the canter, but I pushed her forward. Fortunately, it didn't take much cantering in the heat to decide that maybe listening to me so that she could stop was a good idea.

After 15 minutes or so of that, we moved into the round pen. I took off her halter and did some free-longeing work. I wanted to see if I could get her to do rollbacks on the fenceline. Sure enough, she can roll back. I had her do it once or twice each direction and then stopped. I don't want to push the issue since a) she was very good about it, b) it was hot out, and c) it's tough on her hocks to do a lot of that. I didn't get the best pictures, but it was beginning to get dark outside. Still, you can see all the dirt she sent flying.



This second picture is really odd. I think I caught her post-roll back at the point where she was launching out of the turn.



And here she is as I'm sending her out at a walk to cool off a little bit.



After this I slipped on her sidepull, did about five minutes of walking/steering from the ground, and then I bit the bullet and jumped on. I wore my helmet this time! We worked on the very basic concepts of walk, stop, and back. We did some turning through the middle of the pen, but mostly walked around the perimeter. As long as she was moving forward where I pointed her nose, I stayed completely off her face. I want her to have a relaxed frame. I think too much contact was a mistake I made with the first horse I started. He was very well-behaved, but didn't stretch down as easily or as much as he should have. Hopefully I can avoid that pitfall with Halo.

She was fantastic! She had typical baby moments of wanting to toss her head while backing, but she quickly figured out that if she lowered her head and backed I would immediately release pressure. We only backed up one or two steps at a time - just enough to let her know that she was doing the correct thing. Then we'd release and stand for a few moments before picking up the walk. To keep things clear, I tried to pause between each thing I asked of her so that each action was definitive. We would walk, whoa, wait a moment, back, whoa, wait a moment, and then walk again. As I said before, she was wonderful.

Afterwards she got hosed off and walked for a little bit, and then got her dinner. She was a happy filly, and I was a happy horse mom.
Perking Up
So far, so good with Halo's recovery from colic. This weekend she looks much more like her fat and happy self, and doesn't have that sucked-up look she had when she came home from the clinic. She's eating well, and drinking like a fish, and overturning water buckets whenever she has the opportunity. I think she misses having a pond in her pasture.

I trimmed her feet last night and she was miss fidgets about the whole thing. I decided if she was going to be that fussy, I might as well put her on the longe line for a few minutes and see how she was moving out after the trim.

We had some guests haul in to use the arena last night, and Halo was in high gear showing off. She pranced around on that longe line with her tail straight up in the air like an Arab. Goofy filly. I let her canter a few times each direction to work some of the punk out of her, and then quieted her down and made her listen. I focused on having her obey my requests for transitions, even if the gaits weren't her prettiest. We only worked for about 15 minutes, but she was sound as could be and very energized. I get the sense that this is the kind of filly who is going to need to have a job.

I forgot my camera, so all I have is a blurry iPhone pic, courtesy of Casi:



After all that she still had her tail up a little bit!
Honeymoon Pictures
Not much going on with Halo this week since she's still recovering from her colic. She looked great when I saw her on Tuesday, so I'm feeling a little more confident that she'll be okay. The real test will be this weekend when she comes off the meds she's been on all week. She's back out in the normal pasture now, but I've been slipping her some alfalfa and a bit of hand grazing when I come out.

Here's a few pictures from our honeymoon! I managed to find horses, even 2,500 miles from home.

Huey was the amiable Percheron who took us on our carriage tour in Victoria. He was very perky and always eager to hop into a trot across busy intersections.



I found a horse at the Butchart Gardens! They're installing a carousel soon. One thing I haven't grown out of since childhood is my love of carousels...probably because I was always afraid of bigger rides.



We went over to Vancouver one day. This picture was taken at the harbour and I was very happy with how it came out. I miss the mountains already.



And near the end of our trip we went ziplining!




Ziplining was a big stretch for me because I'm scared of heights. After the first couple of ones, we figured out that if I go off backwards I don't get scared. It's looking down at the ground off the platform that makes me feel terrified and sick. In the end it was pretty fun!
Quick Update
We saw Halo yesterday, and she was doing better. She got out of the hospital Friday night, but went back in on Saturday. Argh. The bills are definitely not good right now - I may be selling my vintage Circle Y show saddle to help recoup some of the costs. I don't need it as much as I need a healthy horse!
Good Thoughts Needed
Apparently summer is the season of trips to the vet. Halo is spending the night at the Elgin veterinary clinic tonight. She has gas colic, and we're very concerned about her. Unfortunately, I'm also still out of the country on my honeymoon. Please send your best thoughts to Elgin that the little girl will pull through just fine and be on her way home tomorrow. 

In the meantime, here are a couple of our wedding pictures. I'm on the left in both shots.




Agitation and Allergies
What a week! I apologize for the lack of updates. I'm leaving for Canada on Thursday to get married on Saturday, so things have been hectic to say the least. And, amidst all the chaos, Halo managed to get case #3 of random swollen lymph node syndrome.







These pictures are from last Monday, and it's clear that she's very swollen on the right hand side. I first noticed the swelling when I was out on Sunday.

As of last Thursday, the swelling had gone down a bit.





Last week I put warm compresses on her swelling every time I went to the barn in hopes of drawing out any infection that might be present. However, the lessening of the swelling makes me think that it's unlikely to blow out. I was a bad horse mom and didn't go to the barn this past weekend, but I checked in with the barn owner and she's about the same. Argh. Hopefully I will make it out before I leave on Thursday, and I have a friend who may check in on her while I'm gone.

The vet was out last week and said that he does not think it is Strangles, but to continue monitoring her condition and to call him if anything changes for the worst. Through it all she's still continued to act like her normal perky self, so I doubt it's anything severe. I feel confident that it may be an allergy to something growing in the pasture.
Summer is Here
The heat has arrived in Texas with a vengeance! It is this time of year that I begin moaning to Casi about hell, and how close we must be living to it in order for it to be this hot. Fortunately Miss Halo is more heat tolerant than I am, because yesterday night it was her turn for a workout.

As usual, I cobbled together an odd assortment of tack for her to wear. I decided it was time for her to have something on her back, but I didn't want to use my english saddle since I'm still worried about it being a poor fit. All the synthetic western saddles were in use, so this was the solution. It actually worked out well. There's not much weight, but it does give her the feeling of the cinch. Also, it's a good thing for her to wear if I decide to get on. Strange as it seems to some people, I do like to get on babies bareback at first.




We did a brief longe workout - just enough to have her walk, trot, and canter on command both directions. She was very well behaved with only one or two bouncy canter strides. Of course neither of us counted on me being a moron and not checking the cinch one last time! As Halo made some lovely counter-clockwise canter circles, the bareback pad began to slide around her big round barrel. I said, "whoa!" and she stopped on a dime, the pad completing its slide over onto her right side. Poor confused filly! However, you can see from her reaction that it was not of any concern to her. I got her readjusted and snugged up between fits of laughter. I am SO glad to have such a mild-mannered baby horse!





After our brief longeing session, I got on for a few minutes. Casi led us a couple of times around the arena, and then we walked independently for a few more minutes near the gate. She's pretty good about steering and following her nose, but the go button doesn't work very well yet. I imagine I may get up on her 1 or 2x per month and do a little bit of walking. In those sessions, when I have an assistant, I'll have someone lead while I teach her the leg and voice cues for forward motion. When I don't have an assistant I probably won't ride, but from the ground I can do long reining to work on voice commands. In fact, I think that is what I will plan to do for our next session.



Halo got a warm water rinse and a mane and tail bath after her light workout, and then we took her height and weight. The baby is now a tiny bit shy of 14.2h at the withers and 14.3h at the hip. She weighs approximately 850lbs. At the end of July last year she was 13h at the withers, 13.3h at the hip, and weighed about 575lbs. I can't believe how much she's grown!

I've been using a height/weight tape to chart her progress, but at some point I plan to do a more accurate check with the following formula:

• Measure girth in inches
• Measure length in inches (point of hip to point of chest)
• Multiply Girth X Girth X Length, Divide by 300, Add 50
• Example 70" x 70" x 65" = 318,500 / 300 = 1061.67 + 50 = 1111.67 lbs.

This formula is accurate to +/- 3%.
Riding Lesson for Casi
We made it back from our weekend out of town in the early afternoon on Sunday. Though I didn't expect to make it to the barn this past weekend, we ended up going out Sunday evening, and Casi had her first riding lesson on Taz! While he is being leased in my name, his owner indicated that it was okay for me to put Casi on him as long as it was only in the arena, and she was supervised. So that's exactly what we did.

Casi is mostly interested in learning some basic control and a good seat so that she can ride comfortably and safely on the trail someday. I'm hoping maybe by the end of the summer we can go on a trail ride - I can ride Taz and she can ride one of the barn owner's horses. I put Casi in my dressage saddle last night for a few reasons. The first is that it's easier (in my opinion) to learn how to post the trot in an saddle. Secondly, the seat one uses in a dressage saddle is the most similar to western (longer stirrups than used in jumping). And finally, the last reason was because I was too lazy to deal with getting my brand new latigo attached to my saddle.

We got Halo and Taz both out, groomed them, and tacked Taz up. Halo got a lesson too - in patience. We left her tied while Taz was being ridden. Up in the arena we worked on some basics of steering and halting at the walk. Casi learned about how to use her seat to rate the horse's speed, and how much directional control can be had with the leg. Taz is the perfect horse for these basic lessons because he moves so well off leg and is very responsive. One of the things I was most proud of Casi for is that she has a very natural sense of balance (probably learned through mountain biking). I never once caught her bracing on Taz's mouth for support - her seat did all the hard work. If anything, I kept having to tell her to shorten her reins a bit.

I had her walk on the rail, using her inside leg and outside rein to move Taz away from me. He likes to cut into the center to come visit, so Casi had to frequently remind him to stay on the rail. They were doing wonderfully by the end of the lesson. I also had her walk between two ground poles to work on steering, and then I set up a cone between the poles and had her halt at the cone and back up. If anything, she whoa'd too soon the first time! I told her that was great, as it's always better to have a horse stop sooner, rather than later, when asked.

At the very end we did just a little bit of sitting trot, with and without stirrups. At first Casi said she felt like she was more likely to fall off without the stirrups, but was surprised when we trotted that her seat actually felt more secure. Ah, the wonders of stirrupless riding! So next time I will have her work on a little more trotting and learning to post, as well as reinforcing the basics learned this week.

After Taz's light workout, we took him back to the hitching rail and cleaned him up. His owner asked me to put hoof dressing on him when it's been dry out, so we took care of that today. After letting him graze for a few minutes, we put him and Halo out for the night and headed home with the moon rising in the east.


No News This Weekend
It has been a quiet week this week, and you won't hear much from me through the weekend, either. I made it to the barn on Tuesday to work with Halo. A few girls were out in the arena taking a lesson, but we had the adjacent round pen to ourselves. I kept the workout simple since it has been a while. We stuck to walking, trotting, and cantering on the longe line. I didn't tack her up - just wanted to give her a brief workout to get back into things. I also set up trot rails on either side of the pen and had her trot and canter over them. It made her more aware of where she was putting her feet, and slowed her down a bit from her sometimes bombastic canter.

After longeing, we did some brief showmanship. We went back to the absolute basics of just walking, halting, and setting up. I've been neglecting my showmanship terribly, and it shows. I want to get back to where we were earlier this spring. She's started routinely walking ahead of me a little bit, and it drives me nuts. More summer goals! I've been working on a list of goals for the summer, so I will try to get them posted soon and chart our progress from there.
Trail Riding and Exciting News
There is a new horse in my life!



His name is Taz, and he's a 1996 Quarter Horse gelding. One of the boarders at my barn is heading to Oregon for the summer (lucky!) and wanted his horse to be exercised while he was gone. I've managed to work out a partial lease on Taz from June to August. While it will be a little rough on my budget, I think it will be extremely beneficial to me to have a horse to ride this summer. It will help me get in shape for riding Halo, and I will also be able to pony her on trails myself so that the barn owner doesn't always have to do it.

Taz is a mellow gentleman, but he is also very athletic. When I tried him out I enjoyed his nice big gaits and forward movement. Although he usually goes western, and has for many years, he has lots of potential as an English horse. I had a blast riding him in my dressage saddle. He moves extremely well off leg, and needs only light contact on the reins. Yesterday we went on a morning trail ride with some of the other boarders. It was my first time on a trail ride in a very, very long time (not counting the cattle drive). Taz is going to be a good trail horse for me. I have some confidence issues on the trail that result from many bad childhood experiences, and I would really like to start working on overcoming those issues. Sunday was a great start to that. The only thing that bothered Taz was one spot on the road where there was a horse-eating power pole, but we made it by after sticking close to one of the other horses. The only thing that bothered me was a big ditch we had to ride through, but I got off and led him through this time. There will be opportunities to challenge myself later as I become more accustomed to riding him.

We rode around the edges of many hay fields, and cut through areas of grass where the stalks were higher than my head even up on Taz - and he is not a small horse!



Now the next project is to set myself some summer goals with both Taz and Halo. For once I'm actually excited about summer despite the hot weather!
Under the Weather
Tonight I planned to have a liesurely evening at the barn, perhaps reading one of the books I just got from the library as Halo grazed serenely nearby. It was not to be so! When I pulled into the barn driveway I didn't see Halo in the field. I grabbed her halter and headed out to find this:
Cow Pony
Halo had a big day last Sunday, and so did I . It's taken me a few days to write about it because I've been mulling a lot over in my head. I can't say that I have everything sorted out, but perhaps sharing some of my thoughts here will bring clarity.

Sunday afternoon we arranged to go on a "cattle drive" with the barn owner and some other random people. We hauled 8 horses out to a neighbor's ranch, including Halo. It was Halo's first haul away from the property since she arrived in November. I'm proud to say that she was a very good sport about the whole thing. She loaded easily, and though she was a little bit nervous once everyone was loaded up (six horses in a trailer is a LOT), she was very well-behaved.

When we arrived at the ranch it turned out that we had an extra horse. Someone may have canceled their ride because the sky was looking stormy. It was good luck for me, though, because it meant I got to ride! I rode Choctaw, a big, rather cranky sorrel gelding I'd ridden back at the barn once before. He is best buddies with Rafter, who is the barn owner's personal horse. Halo got ponied off Rafter while I rode on his other side, and we headed for the cows.

The cattle drive was simple - we were just moving the cows from one pasture to another. They were eager to go because the ranch owners took off ahead of us with their vehicles to open the gate, and the cows probably thought they were getting fed. Either way, it was great fun chasing the cows! I worked on a cattle ranch the summer after my freshman year of college, and while I have chased cows on a four-wheeler, I've never done so on horseback.

Halo ponied very well off Rafter, and gave the barn owner almost no trouble at all. She was even out there cutting cows next to Rafter! It was funny watching them move in sync - she remained perfectly parallel to him at all times. I was amazed by her lack of spookiness, and how quickly she relaxed into the ride. It was a big contrast to one of the other horses under saddle, whose owner could not get him to walk for anything. He was so wound up that he jigged for the first hour of the ride. I hope Halo's calm demeanor translates to her under saddle work someday.

After we got back to the barn from our ride, we took the horses up to a small paddock in the front for a drink. The grass was waist-high or taller in some places, and the horses were in heaven! I got off and gave Casi a chance to ride for a few minutes while I minded Halo. Standing by the water trough while everyone's mounts got a drink, the barn owner encouraged me to hop up on Halo. This is where things got interesting.

I had a mental debate with myself about it for several minutes. I'd mounted her maybe 3 or 4 times total so far, and 3 of those times had been simply getting on, and dismounting a moment later. The fourth time we did actually walk about five steps. But it was only five steps! Who knew what she was bound to do if asked for more? And, most importantly, how ready was she mentally and physically for me to jump on her back in a strange place?

I can't even say what made me decide what I did, but in a moment of stupidity, I decided to go ahead and get on.

It took me a couple of tries, but I was able to jump up onto Halo from the ground. I rested my belly over her back for a few moments and then swung my leg over. I could feel my heart hammering in my head and my nerves come alive - all those physical symptoms I get when I'm doing something stupid or dangerous and I know it. The barn owner kept Halo by Rafter's side, and I grabbed a handful of mane. To add to my many bad decisions, Casi had my helmet on, so I wasn't wearing one. All I needed were a couple of toddlers to plop on in front and back of me and I'd have the perfect moron Craigslist ad.



While some part of me felt that I was surely attempting to win a Darwin Award, I couldn't help but have my chest swell with pride for Halo. She was so, so good. She ponied alongside Rafter the short distance back to the area where the trailers were parked, and we took some pictures. Then the group of horses headed across a small field to the ranch house and we were completely free. I thanked the gods for their benevolence and myself for the steering I'd already installed on Halo from the ground. We stayed by Rafter's side.



Up at the house, everyone stopped to let their horses eat some grass while we talked over the fence to the people up at the house. They were having a small gathering, and there were quite a few people there. Five dogs were in and out of the pool, running around like idiots. Halo whinnied a few times to who knows what, but stood calmly with the group...at least until Choctaw backed up several steps and kicked her square in the chest! I could see it coming, but Halo didn't. She teleported sideways, leaving me behind to land on my hands and knees in the dirt. She stopped and looked at me with a quizzical expression as if to say, "what are you doing down there, mom?"

I was a little bruised, but completely unscathed overall. Mostly I thought, a) that's what I get for getting on her out here, and b) I hope she didn't just learn how to dump me. I reassured Halo that everything was okay, and got back on her up at the fence. I didn't consider the accident at all her fault - she reacted in a completely normal submissive horse way to being kicked by Choctaw. Fortunately, when I got back on she was just as placid as she'd been before the kick, and once I was reassured that she was going to stay calm and not feel the need to dump me again, I dismounted and led her back to the trailers.

Here are the things I've taken away from the experience:

1. Next time I do anything on her back, I WILL be wearing a helmet.
2. Falling off really isn't so bad when you're that close to the ground!
3. It's actually good to fall off as a reminder that it isn't the end of the world. It had been a long time since I'd fallen off, and it was inevitable at some point anyway.
Tails to the Wind
Last Saturday I knew a storm was due at some point. It was a warm, quiet morning at the barn; Halo and I were alone.



After a successful longeing session I brought her into the covered round pen for some in-hand work. Glancing at the sky I noticed that the clouds were darkening in the west. They began to roll angrily on the horizon as I took off her saddle, and I decided to make the walk back to the barn to put it away in case of rain. When I got back up to the arena, the wind picked up. The balmy morning turned suddenly cold as wind sliced through the pen. The clouds were closer now and I could hear horses whinnying in the far pastures. And before we could get out, then came the rain.

From the first strike of water against the aluminum roof, Halo blasted around the pen, whinnying, bucking, and carrying on. We could see her friends in the mare pasture running for cover as sheets of rain poured out of the sky. Halo was clearly agitated that she couldn't be with them as they jostled for positions under the run-in shed in their field. I started to worry that she was going to hurt herself. She paced the fenceline at a trot, rolling back at each end and whinnying her distress. Her face got pelted with rain that streaked down over her shoulders and back when she paused to press herself against the gate. I knew I had to stop her.

I picked up her lead rope and stepped out of the center of the arena, shivering a little in my thin t-shirt. Halo paid me no mind but a flicked ear in passing as she continued to call out to the other mares. I hoped her training would hold as I stepped square into her trot path, cuing her to stop with my body language. Neither of us could hear a thing over the deafening crash of falling water all around us. She passed me once, twice (slowing), and then stopped. Her eyes were wide and her head held high as she braced against the rope to look back at the mare pasture. Preparing for the worst, I led her off at a walk.

We slowly circled the pen. By the second circle I felt her relax into the familiar pattern of footfalls that our boot prints and hoofprints made in the sand. She flicked an ear toward the mares, but lowered her head to walk on with me. The rain showed no sign of letting up, and the arena where we'd longed minutes ago was already an inch deep in standing water. Hoping for the best, I stopped Halo in the center of the arena and petted her neck. My shirt was damp with rain and I was truly shivering now. A fine mist of water was making its way into the arena, and the wind drove the rain several feet into the pen behind where we stood. Halo turned her tail to the wind and cocked a back leg. I followed suit, and hunkered down to the ground for warmth. The horse that had been charging around out of control a mere five minutes ago stood quietly over me, shielding me with her body.

We stood there for an indeterminate length of time, turning slightly over time as the winds shifted from the west to the north. Despite the thunderous onslaught from the sky, Halo stood quiet and vigilant above me, unmoving and rock steady.

In many ways, this was a turning point in our horse-human relationship. By choosing to stand quietly with me, she accepted me as part of her herd for the duration of the storm. And by kneeling down in front of her, I trusted her to stay quiet and protect me from the worst of the rain. I am not usually one to get overly anthropomorphic with my horse, but I do feel that she trusted me too. I don't expect that she always will (especially when confronted with scary horse-eating objects on the trail), but I do hope to earn her continued trust over time. We have many obstacles ahead, but this was a good, if unexpected, start.