August 29, 2006

I finally ponied Tonka! I think we did pretty well considering none of us had done it before. He lagged a little behind where I wanted him, but not always. He did really well when we turned toward him, but not so well when we turned away. Soxy did not like doing it. She was very mad about it, swishing her tail and pinning her ears. Luckily Tonka isn't too easily intimidated. Then she kicked him! He went out toward the end of the rope but he stayed with us while I got Soxy stopped and spanked her! She didn't do anything like that again, and no more tail swishing. you know, she may have ponied horses before. Supposedly she was a Forest Service horse (no US brand though) and if so you'd think she'd have had a pack horse or maybe a pack string with her at some point. But maybe not, or maybe she's just a grumpy mare. They don't recommend using mares to pony horses for that reason. But Soxy is a pretty even-tempered mare most of the time.

Next time I'll take him out in the pasture so we're not stuck in a smaller area constantly maneauvering. And when we've got it down we'll move out into the world. What fun!

Soon we'll be working on trailer loading and tying. I can't wait to be able to haul him places!

August 23, 2006

I know I haven't written in too long. I don't have a lot to write about Tonka, since we haven't really been doing anything. He is becoming more comfortable with me going up to visit him, and rubbing him all over. I think the time off has done a lot of good, just to make him feel less pressured. Not that he was being exactly evasive when I'd visit him, but he was a bit tense. I did "force" him to wear a fly mask the last couple days. He doesn't like it. By force I mean I insisted, without a halter or any restraint, that he do something he doesn't like. And he did it. He is a good boy. The flies are bad enough that their eyes were looking irritated if I left the masks off. Not his, but the other horses', so I figured it was time for him to get used to it.

On a non-mustang subject, we have a new horse! I was looking for a horse for John and an opportunity came that I couldn't pass up. Unfortunately she probably wouldn't be good for John at this point, but she would be great for both of us to take lessons on. And a wonderful trail horse for me. Her name is Danni, an 18 year old Thoroughbred mare. She raced as a youngster. She lived with one family until she was 15 and then with the people I bought her from. She was a 4H horse, did some dressage. Her girl is going off to join the Marines. When I went to try her out we went on a 2 hour trail ride and played around in a deep pond. Lots of fun. We'll be going on the same trail this Saturday, only going a longer route. I can't wait. Katia's going to go with me on Soxy, who is now Katia's riding horse. That is, if we find a way to deal with Danni's hooves before then. One of her front shoes came off, so I took the other off, and the guy can't come to fix her up until next week. I thought my appointment was for today, but it's for next Wednesday. So I'm going to go out and buy her some Easyboots today. It must be a sign, NO SHOES! I was going to go against my beliefs and have her shod just through the fall, so I can ride her without worrying, then transition her to barefoot. Now I'll just have to make the transition sooner, if the boots work.

One of the pictures is of Danni hopefully sneaking up to Tonka, wanting some of his grain, while he edged his feed pan backward, not wanting to share. The other one shows her in the background. She's a sweetie, and she fit right into our herd here. Tonka loves her.

August 23, 2006

I know I haven't written in too long. I don't have a lot to write about Tonka, since we haven't really been doing anything. He is becoming more comfortable with me going up to visit him, and rubbing him all over. I think the time off has done a lot of good, just to make him feel less pressured. Not that he was being exactly evasive when I'd visit him, but he was a bit tense. I did "force" him to wear a fly mask the last couple days. He doesn't like it. By force I mean I insisted, without a halter or any restraint, that he do something he doesn't like. And he did it. He is a good boy. The flies are bad enough that their eyes were looking irritated if I left the masks off. Not his, but the other horses', so I figured it was time for him to get used to it.

On a non-mustang subject, we have a new horse! I was looking for a horse for John and an opportunity came that I couldn't pass up. Unfortunately she probably wouldn't be good for John at this point, but she would be great for both of us to take lessons on. And a wonderful trail horse for me. Her name is Danni, an 18 year old Thoroughbred mare. She raced as a youngster. She lived with one family until she was 15 and then with the people I bought her from. She was a 4H horse, did some dressage. Her girl is going off to join the Marines. When I went to try her out we went on a 2 hour trail ride and played around in a deep pond. Lots of fun. We'll be going on the same trail this Saturday, only going a longer route. I can't wait. Katia's going to go with me on Soxy, who is now Katia's riding horse. That is, if we find a way to deal with Danni's hooves before then. One of her front shoes came off, so I took the other off, and the guy can't come to fix her up until next week. I thought my appointment was for today, but it's for next Wednesday. So I'm going to go out and buy her some Easyboots today. It must be a sign, NO SHOES! I was going to go against my beliefs and have her shod just through the fall, so I can ride her without worrying, then transition her to barefoot. Now I'll just have to make the transition sooner, if the boots work.

One of the pictures is of Danni hopefully sneaking up to Tonka, wanting some of his grain, while he edged his feed pan backward, not wanting to share. The other one shows her in the background. She's a sweetie, and she fit right into our herd here. Tonka loves her.

Pics of my boy and his new feet. Hopefully in before and after order...

August 4, 2006

Tonka got a good trim today! I am happy with this new trimmer. The trim is funny looking because he takes the breakover back so far and the hoof ends up kind of square. But he's made a lot of lame horses sound. He worked really nicely with Tonka, basically doing what I had done wiht him. Taking it easy on him for the most part, but when Tonka took his foot away (only once) or backed up too much trying to avoid having his foot picked up, Don (the trimmer) made it harder on him by backing him up longer and faster than Tonka wanted to go. He really liked Tonka's big feet, said he'd like to see domestic horses with feet like that. And when I told him Tonka's name he said, "Awesome." That's another thing I liked about him, he asked the horses' names. Well, the horses he liked. He really liked Lyric and I think he liked Tonka. Or maybe just knew he needed more understanding. But he raved about Lyric. Loved his hoof quality and his good-boy personality.

My preparatory work on Tonka didn't make him perfect, and I'm not sure how much it helped, but Don was really appreciative that I had done it. I think he gets a lot of customers who won't prepare or even reprimand their "babies." Yeah, I love my horses but I also require them to be handleable! Apparently he had someone who thought he was abusing their horse by backing it up the way he did Tonka. Whatever.

Anyway, I'll post before and after pics tomorrow. No time today to take after pictures. Sigh. I am so exhausted lately. So much to do, so little time and energy to get it done.

Happy Trails!

August 3, 2006

More footwork today. He did great! I am very pleased with him. No trying to knock the stand over or take feet away or anything. No worries about the trimming tools. Just one thing, he moves his hindquarters away when I approach them. I think it's a mixture of me inadvertently asking him to move (I'm not very careful about my body movements sometimes, especially when flies are bothering me), and the fact that he's still a little uncomfortable with his back feet being picked up. But he's not doing anything really wrong. I just hope he doesn't do anything worse for the farrier. It's always different with a new person.

I should have time this afternoon and tomorrow morning to fiddle with him before the trimmer comes at 12:30. I can't wait to see his new feet!

This guy that's trimming for me is supposed to be really good. He wasn't accepting new clients for the longest time, but has shrunk the area he's working in so he can stay more local, so he's now accepting clients. I am so glad. He's a Gene Ovnicek (sp?) follower, and very pro-barefoot, although he does still shoe using Natural Balance methods (www.hopeforsoundness.com), but only if he thinks it's really necessary. I'd rather have a trimmer that follows Pete Ramey, but we don't have any of those around here, and I really think this guy will do well with my horses. I'm very excited to see how the oldsters improve. Soxy should do better with her breakover back, and Coda, well he's got such messed up damaged feet I'll be surprised no matter what. One front is probably navicular and the other was torn partially off at some point in his previous life, so it's all weird. Anyway, I'll try to remember to mention how that goes.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

I haven't written much lately, I know. I really haven't done much with Tonka. I worked with him a bit today, just to work out the kinks from too much time off, and get some more hoof trimming practice in. Just a couple circles to get his attention in some situation, I don't remember what, caused his leg with the splint to hurt. So it's obviously not healed. So I toned it WAY down and started working on his feet. With splint boots on, although I'm not sure that really helped. I only worked on his front feet because the kids got bored and wanted to go in. And we had to take a break in the middle because Liam got shocked by the fence. Poor kid, it really popped him.

I picked up the feet, fiddled, rubbed, patted, flexed them out away from his body, then brought it around through my leg like the farrier does to work on the bottom of the hoof. Fiddled more. Brought the hoof forward over my knee. Got the hoof stand and did some minor rasping. Brought the hoof around between my legs again and pretended to nip. I was very careful to occasionally obnoxiously "accidentally" bump him under is belly. That's where they seem to jump and misbehave the most, when you goose them.

He did very well.

I'm off to play Backyardigans with two very sleepy boys.