This is our overgrazed, compacted field, thus the small windrows. The neighbor baling it sure liked the small windrows, and here I was trying to make them bigger because he said the windrows last year were too small... This picture is me getting the hang of the rake, or hay turner, or fluffer, depending on who you're talking to. We had to borrow it, and it's not the ideal tool for the job, but it got the job done.

I spent 7 or so hours on the tractor today. I think I have the hang of it now. :D It isn't hard work, but it makes your neck stiff and your tailbone sore. I thought I'd be exhausted tonight, but even after taking Benadryl I have an abnormal amount of energy.

Our neighbor started baling on our place tonight. He got somewhere around 160 bales done. That's maybe a third of what we'll get, total. He won't bale the stuff on the other side of the creek because he's not familiar with the ground there. He suggested we load it up loose in the truck and feed it out that way. That would be a heck of a lot of work and not too good for my allergies. We're going to ask our other neighbor. He does round bales so we'd probably give it away, but at least it would be of use to someone.

We' should have enough hay to get us through the winter, all off our own place, depending on how much my neighbor wants for baling it. I might even have the hay tested since all of our hay is from the same source this year. Last year we supplemented with alfalfa, and we may again this year, but only because I have some left over. We also bought a few tons this spring to finish out the winter. Not this year!

This evening we cleaned out the stall we store hay in, and tomorrow I'm going to have my 12 year old drive the truck while I load hay into it. It's a pain with nobody up in the truck to stack, having to climb in and out, but John has his day job to do. :)

I went ahead and bought some of those goofy white 3M face masks to wear while I'm haying, and let me tell you they were absolutely worth the price and the bad fashion statement. I was dying after one pass with the rake when I forgot my mask in the house, but I wore it the rest of the time and was fine, and even did okay cleaning moldy hay out from the floor of the hay stall. If you have allergies, or even if you don't, these things are good to have around when doing work in such nasty air.

Scout didn't have any more quills in his nose. Either he got them out on his own or the camera was catching several white hairs bunched together to look like little quills. His nose looks good today, although he really didn't want me looking at it.

Contest alert! Keep on reading...

"There's something big up there," said John as he was about to start the tractor, getting ready to unload the hay rake.

"Where? Is it maybe a horse?" I asked.

Sure enough, it was Scout, up on the hill. It took me a moment to figure out that he was not inside the fence.

I called to him as I nonchalantly headed for the shed to grab a halter, but he kept moving, kind of agitated. That wasn't like him. As I walked up the hill he kept quickly walking, not coming to me but not running away. Strange, but hey, maybe he was feeling adventurous.

Then I made a discovery and took him to the front porch to request a camera and a couple tools.

The poor little guy.

Look at that sad face! I don't think he was very happy about his predicament, but I'm not sure how much it really hurt, since he was still grazing even with all those quills in his nose. Maybe it was comfort food.

He must have thought he could move the strange, poky stranger just like he does the cat. Didn't work out so well though.

We did get all the quills out. One looked like it probably left the tiniest piece of a tip in there. I hope it doesn't get infected. I don't know what to do now other than keep an eye on it. It looked good this evening.

Uh-oh. Wait a minute. Look here. I think I missed some.

Darn it all. I'll have to get a better look in the morning.

So, on to that contest. I have a couple horse related items here, and if you can guess the exact number of quills I pulled out (not counting the little ones I may have missed), I'll send you a prize! Deadline is Wednesday at 5PM Pacific. But only the first two correct guessers get a prize.

I'll leave you with some happier pictures.

Mustang Days - Show Day

This beautiful Warm Springs mustang is Katya. I never caught her owner's name but she was a really nice person. Katya was very well behaved and had the most beautiful dapples but they don't show up in this picture.

Trotting in Shomanship.

Standing, watching people get their ribbons.

I left John with my horse for a minute and this is what they did.

This belgian mare was beautiful, and check out the neat tail braid.

This little girl was turning heads everywhere she went. I think they said she was a Sicillian miniature donkey. She had the cutest little trot!

Again, standing and waiting at the end of the class.
Tracey told me afterward that we would have placed better if I held my hands in the proper way for Showmanship. Silly rules, but if I play the game I have to follow the rules.

Backing around a cone

I like this next picture, other than that I'm having to pull on my horse. He wasn't paying attention well all day. He loves to look at other equines, especially the long-ears. And you should have seen all the ear pinning he was doing. Of course I'm not going to share pictures of that. :) Behind us is the photographer's table. Check out LorySue Enterprises for professional photos from this year and last year. We really appreciate her being there.

The open halter class. There were even more horses lined up on the other side of us. It was a big class. I think this is the only one we did that we didn't place in. Tonka isn't built for Halter.

Visiting in the arena during a break:

In-hand trail. He looks like a mule!

Love that horsey butt.

Pepper & Katie, after the Ride-a-Buck class.

Soxy's leg was doing so well I hopped on (with much difficulty) for the Ride-a-Buck. She was antsy as all getout, herdbound and wanting Tonka, but we did alright until they called for a lope. She doesn't lope well on her gimp leg anyway, and that's the leg that was kicked, so I didn't lope and I handed over my dollar. It was fun though, and the guy who won was definitely a better rider than me anyway.

See, there's our buck:

So, in the end, we won three 2nd place ribbons in mustang classes, a 4th place in an open class, and a first place in the in-hand trail. I'm not sure on that one whether it was open or mustang. They were supposed to have both classes but we only did the class once so I don't know if they decided to drop one or what. We didn't get to do either of our ridden trail classes so I don't know how we would have done there. We couldn't have loped, but the rest of it was really easy, so I like to think we would have done somewhat well. There was so much confusion and I didn't even watch the other horses do it so I don't know what the competition was like.

When it was time to load up I was a little worried about how willing Soxy would be to get in after her experience on the way here. She just walked right in. No problem. The trip home was blissfully uneventful. I let Soxy unload herself and graze while I went in to unload Tonka. All the sudden there was this deafening whinny - Soxy had stuck her head back in the trailer and was hollering at us to come with her. She's so cute.

In conclusion on my experience with Zaz, he did not find a new home, so he went back with his owner. I hope the trailer trip home was better than the trip there. She has enough room in her trailer to leave a space between him and the next horse, so I think it probably went okay. It's weird not to have him here in his pen. Weird to only have 5 horses on the place. But good.

This morning I went out and "grazed" with Tonka. It took a minute to convince him to follow me, but then we went for a wander in the pasture and I picked grass while he grazed, then I'd give him my grass and pick more while he grazed, and we just wandered around like that. I sat for a while and he ate grass out of my lap. It was very nice to have some good bonding time, and I think he was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't asking for anything more. I really needed that quiet time to get some perspective on how the weekend went. I feel a lot better about it now, and I've remembered it's not about classes and buckles, it's about friends and relationships.

Today I'm going to try to take it easy, since I can't get a hay rake until this afternoon. John wants to try to be home in time to do the raking so I may not even have to do that. Although I do need to learn how to do it so I can pick up where he leaves off when he goes to his real job in the morning.

My family is awesome. A huge thanks to them all for helping me out during Mustang Days, especially since we're in the middle of haying and my mom isn't feeling very well.

I'm still really upset about missing out on my favorite classes (and maybe even the high point buckle??? Probably not, but still I wonder...) because of a last minute reversal in the order of classes. I'll leave that subject though, and start with telling you about Friday.

Friday, I loaded all the horses in the trailer.
We headed out, destined for a nightmare journey with a banging and swaying trailer. By the time I knew blood was shed it was too late to turn back. Soxy's leg was cut up thanks to Zaz kicking the crap out of her. Her nose was skinned and it was obvious from her head-shaking that she'd hit her head pretty hard at least once. She also had dirty hoof prints on top of her rump, so he must have been rearing over the divider.

We got to the arena and nobody else was there, plus the stalls were all locked with a cable. I took it apart and broke in so I could put Zaz up while I treated Soxy. She got a dose of bute and a long hosing on her swollen, bloody leg. It didn't appear to need stitches. All the horses went for a nice long walk, and Zaz was a total angel. That horse. He's got a split personality or something.

I sat and drank my coffee the next morning while the three of them ate their breakfast.
Later, after people started showing up, I was busy doing something, maybe hosing Soxy's leg, when I noticed a couple strangers had untied Tonka from his spot at the rail and were leading him around. I wondered if he'd done something bad an needed to be moved. But no, I recognised them! It was Tracey and her Darling daughter, come to kidnap "their" horse, More Better. See, they had been bidding against me when I adopted Tonka, and that was their name for him. I'm glad I went over my spending limit and beat them on the bidding. He is More Better, but he's my boy.

I don't know if they still love him as much now that they've met him while he was at his most rude. He's been in a mood lately. He's normally mouthy, but he was rudely mouthy and even ear-pinny this weekend.

I love this picture of Tracey's Darling and Bob and Lea's burro, Yuma. She got on and rode him around the little 12X12 pen. He did really well, and it's easy to see that Darling is already a horseman. Burro-man? Burro-woman? Ass-whisperer? Whatever the term, she's good with equines.
I want to go to bed and I have a billion more pictures to share, so I'll save them for another post tomorrow. Before I go though, I'll set your worries to rest about Soxy. Her leg looks much, much better today. The swelling is almost gone and she really doesn't seem very uncomfortable at all.

My men folk. They love their tractor.

Lubing the machinery. Now that's sexy.

My guy cutting hay.

Me cutting hay.

I LOVE THIS TRACTOR! It's so easy, a 7 year old could do it (and does).

Great day. Very busy day. Going to be a busy one tomorrow too. Leaving for Mustang Days in the afternoon. I can't wait!

Started haying today, with our own equipment! Bought a sickle bar mower from the neighbor, and he'll let us borrow a rake. Now we just have to hope one of the neighbors will be able to bale it. Should work out. We're farmin'!

Also trying to do last minute stuff for Mustang Days. Tip: don't buy markers to make posters. Even if they say they're for posters. They run out of ink. I'm going to town now to look for poster paint or bigger and even more heavy-duty markers. And a grease gun and diesel for the haying. :)

Done! Took a while to get the right adjustments for the knots, then I wished I'd added another knot, but I'm not going back to change it right now! It still needed the excess trimmed off in the above picture. And I still need to borrow reins...

I don't know how long we'll use the bosal. I was thinking it might be nice for him since for some reason he just can't stop chewing on the bit. I also noticed that he's teething again. He has that telltale tooth bump on his jaw. I don't know if molar eruption would cause him to be unsettled with the bit, but maybe... We'll see how this goes, and if it communicates as well as I need it to and is less distracting to him, we might just stay with the bosal indefinitely, with some work with the bit every now and then.

Tying a fiador: not the easiest thing in the world.

(Tonka: not the happiest model in the world)

I know I posted about this before, but now I'm at it again, and it's as if I've never done it. I finally got the knots worked out, doubled jug knot, or hackamore knot, at the heel of the bosal, and fiador knot above that. Actually, they're made in reverse order and I just have to guess how much rope to leave in my big loop that will make the jug knot, then try to adjust everything. I have no idea how big to leave the loop that will end up where you tie the fiador on the horse. I'll have to try it on him in the morning. I also need to figure out exactly how the bosal is supposed to sit on him. And borrow some reins...

Can you tell I'm off on a different tangent on "bridlewear?" The curb bit wasn't a good idea. But at least now I know he'll do just fine in one. As well as he does in any other bit, anyway... So now I'm trying bitless. I got lucky and found a good deal on a halfway decent bosal that looked like it might fit. Then I got to the checkout and realized it was hanging on the wrong hook, was a bit more expensive than I bargained for. But I bit the bullet and bought it anyway.

Now I have some things for sale: mullen mouth Myler comfort dee, Weaver roller curb, and Thinline western half pad. All very, very lightly used. Tried them out and they weren't exactly what I was hoping for.

(In these pics I hadn't gotten the knots figured out yet, just had the jug knot and a sloppy knot at the throatlatch, and everything is adjusted funny.)

Poor little Zaz, he got pretty scared today. I saddled him up and he didn't like it and he got to bucking, almost flipped over, then fell down, got up, and bucked some more. Seemed like he was at it for a while, but it was probably only a minute or less. Took me a while to get my heart rate down though. He almost crashed into the fence. Luckily I was able to keep a hold of his lead the whole time and keep him close enough not to hurt himself, but far enough away not to hurt me.
John watched the whole thing, and his take on it totally cracked me up. "You handled it well. I would have dropped the rope and been halfway to the gun." He wouldn't really do that. It scared him though. I wish he'd have had the camera at that point. That would sure be something to watch!
After that I had no choice but to get the poor pony moving again with the saddle on. He walked and trotted both directions. The worst he did after that was kick out. But he was not a happy boy. Once he was a little more comfortable I flapped the stirrups a whole bunch, and when he relaxed I took it off and called it a day.
Next time I think I'll do more prep work with things flapping, flinging, and banging around him before I cinch on the saddle. We hadn't done that for a while and obviously he needed that.
He got his hooves trimmed before our saddling session. Now he's all spiffed up and ready to go to a new home. Or just go home. This kid needs a lot more work, but he's got a bit of a foundation now.

When Scout sees me

It isn't long before he comes running!

I hope it stays that way.

He's not quite big enough for Tonka's britches yet.

Look at that adorable butt!

He definitely got his mama's long hair.

He's decided to try out people training as a hobby.

Isn't this the sweetest, most innocent face you ever saw?
Those eyes, they turn me to mush.

Tonka is still suspicious of dogs.

The weather this morning was dull but not bad. I was looking forward to an afternoon of horseplay so I didn't really do anything with the horses other than visit. Now it's pouring rain. I guess I could go trim Zaz's back feet, since we can do that inside...

Had a great lunch with 3 of the fathers in the family. Now the "boys" are off buying fireworks. They sure do love to blow things up.

So this is our new toy. Not really a toy, actually, although the boys would make you think so. It's gotten to the point where we have to have one of these. We couldn't get all the implements we wanted, but we'll slowly start collecting everything we need. For now we can mow and scoop and go for joy rides. :)

Something very exciting was delivered today. I left my camera in the car or I'd share it with you right now. You'll just have to wait.

Rode Tonka in the curb bit again tonight but my son hurt himself in the middle of our ride (he's fine but he cried a lot) and my parents showed up, so we cut the ride short. Tonka does great in the round pen, but get out where things are slightly more scary and I'm not sure he's ready to move away from a snaffle. We'll see.

Sorry to leave you with such a short post, but we're in the middle of softball tournament and it's been a late night and will be an early morning. I hope they do better tomorrow! My daughter is so dedicated, but a lot of her teammates aren't.

Oh! There was a moose at the game tonight! She decided to leave though, there were just too many people there. Neat (and weird) to see a moose at a softball game though.

Kate asked what kinds of bits I was trying yesterday. The first was this bit, but WITHOUT the twisted wire. Regular smooth mouthpiece. He played with it and tried to get the shanks in his mouth.

The second one was this Weaver bit.

He wore it for a while and then we went to the round pen to try it, since we've never used anything like this before. He did great. He seemed less distracted by this bit and mostly followed my body cues with very very little use of the bit. But he played with it a lot and I can see why they call that roller a "cricket." It makes a lot of noise. I'm going to keep riding him in it over the next several days and see if he settles into it.

Why am I trying new bits again? Tonka plays with and chews on his bit constantly. It's very distracting to both of us. I'm hoping to find something he likes in his mouth, that he will mess with less. And if it distracts him less, I can use it less, because he'll be paying attention to other cues, and if we use it less, maybe he'll be happier and play with it less. I know, I'm grasping at straws. I don't know if this will help, but it shouldn't hurt.

I don't like any of the bitless options, I'd rather find a way for my horse to be comfortable and quiet in a bit. I also will not tie his mouth shut. If he really needs to play with his bit, he can.

Anyone else have a bit-chewer? What did you do to fix the problem? Changes in gear or the way you ride or handle your horse in general? Don't worry, I'm not just looking at the bits, I'm looking at myself as well.

Getting ready for Mustang Days and trying out new bits.

Yesterday I let my dad ride my horse. It was weird, handing over the reins to someone else... He's been ridden by the trainer and my sister, but that was a couple years ago. I didn't know how he'd do for someone with a totally different riding style. They did just fine.




We had a really great ride down the dirt road today. Saw the owls again. On the way back we spotted a very brave coyote. He wasn't too worried about us. Not at all like the coyotes here at home.

Trying out someone else's horse is a good way to get insight into your own horse. I just have to say I love my horse even more now. He's so willing. With Levi you have to really work to get anything done. Granted, we don't know each other well. He does fine for my sister.

Camria (Bella) riding today:

I tried a couple different bits with Tonka today, hoping he'd like one well enough not to chew on it. This is my sister's very nice bridle with a roller snaffle. He still chewed it. But my oh my doesn't he look handsome? (Yeah, I cut his nose off.)

I've had an awful day so I'm going to keep this short so I can go to bed.

This morning I trailer loaded Scout. He was a very good boy.

Then we went to see the movie "Up" and it turned out to be quite a tear-jerker. I was surprised. I liked it but I probably won't watch it again.

Zaz really is a good looking horse. He looks even prettier in person



Today Zaz met the hose. It took a while to get him wet but eventually he realized I wasn't trying to kill him and he stood for it. I finally got to see what his striping looks like when he's wet.

I wonder if he got rained on by some acid rain or something? Some of these stripes clearly follow the areas where rain or sweat would run. Also, the underside of his body is darker. Maybe he just bleaches out easily when wet or sweaty? I'll never know if he was born with this or not, but it doesn't really matter. Here are the pictures:

Very clear striping on this shoulder:

Two wide flank stripes & lower part of belly is ldarker:

Not sure if this area got completely soaked, but I think it did:

The lower side of the neck is dark.

Thin bars above the elbow and you can see the darker front portion of the neck.

A wide flank stripe:

A thick trail of light brown where a horse usually has sweat running when they've worked hard, with smaller stripes in front of it.

He's ear shy. Really bad. And top-of-the -head-shy. Mostly on his right side. We worked FOREVER and got nowhere so finally I went back to something he does well and ended on a friendly note. I did attach this bow to his halter, hoping it would flop around and desensitize him. He looks like a spanish dancer. It didn't help. He's not afraid of or bothered by the bow at all.

Good night! May tomorrow be a better day!

We had a great ride today with the Inland Empire Mustang Horse Club. I'm totally wiped out!



Check out the rocky terrain:

(Most of these horses were barefoot and did fine.)

Would you look at this BEautiful Byootox:
(That there's a Wyoming mustang.)

This one shows rafters on the river and the pretty Arab that came on the ride.

Tonka ears, Raven's sweaty bum, Pepper, Dixie, and a Danny the QH (and you can just barely see the pretty Missouri Foxtrotter):

This is what my sister calls a "sidehill." She can't ride along steep hills like that, they give her vertigo. Add moving water and I bet she'd be sunk. I took this picture just for her. Lovely view, isn't it?

There's that BEautiful black mustang again. She's a stunner. Also Cisco, Dixie, and Pepper.

I think I like this picture best of all. Click to enlarge. It's just good for the soul, pretty horses on a nice trail.

We got lost and had to backtrack and John was tired. (So were the rest of us.)

We were all VERY happy to get a drink at the end of the ride.

There were some very interesting moments. The one that scared me the most was at the end of the ride after we'd left Bob behind (with his agreement, we didnt just desert him) so he could wait for Lea and another person that had decided to walk the rest of the way. Bob's horse came trotting up the trail without him. We stopped her and righted her bosal (she had it through her mouth sideways, poor girl) and then Katie called him to make sure he was alright. Luckily he hadn't been on her. She'd been tied and decided she was just going to leave and catch up to her buddy. Naughty Raven. I really do like that mare though. Some horses you just like right away, and she was one of those for me.

One of the riders caught a branch that went between her leg and the saddle and gouged upward, scarring her saddle seat. She's really lucky her horse didn't plunge off the edge of the trail and that the stick didn't hurt her in a very tender area.

Cisco either threw a fit and threw himself down, or fell down while fighting with John because I'd gotten to far ahead with Tonka. I didn't think Cisco cared that much about Tonka. John was okay, but has a big boo-boo on his hand.

We were pulling a nasty hill when I caught and broke a branch under my knee while getting the back of my neck skinned by another branch that was hiding in a big leafy shrub. I was hunkered as far down over my saddle horn as I could get, helmet forward and eyes closed, because Bob yelled, "Look out for that branch!" I could have done with a slightly shorter horse. Bob was awesome, he went back and cut the branch once we'd all gotten to the top.

Those were the only scary incidents I know of. Overall it was a great ride with beautiful scenery and very good company. We had 6 mustangs, 3 gaited horses, one quarter horse, and one Arabian. Riverside Park in Spokane is a great place to ride. I wish we had something like it here. You can choose to stay on the easy trails for a short ride or rough it and go for a LONG TIME. We went 11.2 miles according to a neat little GPS device. But there are a lot more trails out there.

No pictures today, but I've had a couple of great horsey days. Yesterday Zaz loaded again, and loaded into just the back part of the trailer with the dividers closed. I was thinking even if I can't squash him between dividers for the ride to Mustang Days, I can put him in the back. (He makes that back "stall" look huge.) But I think he'll do fine between dividers too at some point.

In the evening I rode over at my sister's house again. It was supposed to be obstacle work, but we just crossed her little bride and trotted over poles. Mainly we worked on getting his head and body in the right place. He was doing terribly until I changed back to my usual pad, and then still took a while to get down to business, but then it just suddenly all came together and it was so nice.

After another ride in that saddle, I think it is working. What my sister thought was a welt is actually a muscle. I checked my other horses. I'm going on a long trail ride tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. My hiney wasn't liking the saddle after our ride down the dirt road the other day, but I think it's starting to get toughened up to this saddle. It's a Diamond C saddle, custom made in Lewiston. I think she said it's a barrel saddle but I still like it because it doesn't have that barrel saddle horn.

Today every horse got handled except Tonka. Soxy got a bath and a good spraying with fly-spray. Flies love her. Coda got to go eat tall grass with his boy and I trimmed his front hooves. Cisco got saddled and tied to the trailer for a while. Scout just got a good scratching.

Just now I loaded Zaz some more. We've graduated to walking right on up and wedging ourselves into the first spot in the trailer. I even stuck his rope through the Blocker Tie Ring and stepped back by his butt, but didn't leave him because he seemed worried. Could have been the wind coming up and the huge thunder storm rolling in. I'm really, really pleased with this little guy. Someone said they thought I was getting attached? Not really. Well, yeah, but not in the way that I want to keep him. I really like him. I don't think you can put this much into a horse without giving them a little bit of your heart. But I'm realistic. He's too little. I already have enough horses, I don't need any more work, and I can't wait until he's gone so I can start doing all this with Scout. So... yes, I love him, but no, not enough to keep him.

Tomorrow we're driving all the way up to Spokane with our trusty steeds and going for a ride at Riverside Park with Lea and Bob and anyone else from the Mustang Club that wants to come. Actually, anyone is welcome to come, and you don't have to ride a mustang.

Zaz trailer loading:



(Sorry about all the barking)
I should point out that this was the end of about a half hour of work, I didn't just immediately ask for all 4 feet in or trust him enough to stand in there with him. I sent him in a foot at a time, then all four. The first time his whole body went in he turned around, stood checking out his higher vantage point, chewed on a branch, and came out forward when I asked. The second time he backed out nicely and he was pretty much respecting my space, so then I decided I could stand in there and load & unload him. Then I went and got John to operate the camera for me.

Yes, I was giving him treats. Yes, I regretted it a little. His nose wanted to live in my pocket and it distracted him from the job at hand. Even so, he did a great job!

We tried out a saddle today. Had a great ride.

I bet you can't spot what we scared out from under the bridge when our horses went clopping across it.

A horned owl! Look at those big eyes. I wonder if it's young. It seemed too fuzzy-headed for an adult.

Here's my dad filming the owl, riding his horse, Sox.

Bella, the Obnoxious Dog. Naw, she's alright, just very playful. Likes to pop out from under bridges while we're crossing them, high banks, tall grass, etc. and scare my horse. It's good for him, he just doesn't know it. He's getting pretty used to crazy dogs. Sometimes I think he wants to run and play with them. Or squash them flat, hard to tell sometimes.

Breaktime.

Bear. He's a neat dog. I almost ran over him with my horse trailer today. My sister screamed and I stopped and he was fine, but really scared. Hopefully he won't fall asleep under there again.

Where we'd been:

Where we were going, with my dad fixing his stirrups and a tractor spraying the peas off to the right a bit.

I had very high hopes, but I don't think the saddle fit me or Tonka. I'm sore. He had a great sweat pattern but some welts to either side of his spine at the back of his wither.

Zaz made my birthday a good one.

Here he's curious and ready to run:


Curiouser and Curioser:

I couldn't decide which picture to post so you get a bunch:

Neither of these lightweight saddles fit him right, but they were easy for me to swing up there repeatedly. He did really, really well!

What horse-related items do you love? (Include name brands if there's a certain one you like.) A cantle bag? Comfortable riding boots? A specific saddle pad?

Tonka is making progress on getting his head down. We never worked into the lope today but I did a lot of walk and trot work focused on that.

Later I went and got Scout and headed to work with Zaz. They were interested in each other.

I was going to strap this bareback pad on Zaz but it didn't have a cinch on it and I was too lazy to go back and look for one. That'll happen next time we work together.

After a brief session of picking up Zaz's feet, I decided to let the two boys hang out together. I've been dying to see them next to each other, since they're about the same size.

It wasn't all peace and harmony, but there was no real violence either. I think if I allowed them to settle in together they'd become friends and start playing gelding games. But I took Scout back to Tonka. It may be mean, but I want to be Zaz's only friend right now.

Something changed in Zaz today. It was so subtle I didn't notice it right away. Hard to explain, but he felt like a normal horse. Not one that is stiff and afraid and waiting for something bad to happen. Not that he didn't get stiff and afraid at times. But mostly he was looking to me with interest and friendliness. It felt like a relaxed partnership more than it felt like work. It was really neat.

I made a video of Zaz's progress so far. It's pretty long, somewhere around 7-8 minutes I think. So if you don't watch it I won't be offended. It's not real interesting. You see me talking to John but it was hard to hear so I just got rid of the audio and added music. Hopefully that makes it a little more interesting. The second song, "Steal My Kisses," I thought was appropriate ("I've been hanging round you for days, but when I lean in you just turn your head away.") but I couldn't decide whether I wanted to keep it. Then by some lucky chance it ended at precisely the right moment, so I kept it. (Update: the video isn't working. Does it work for any of you?)



This is all pretty basic stuff, but hard work went into all of it, on both our parts, and I'm really proud of our progress. He's worked through a lot of his fears, now he just needs to get more comfortable. The one time you see him kind of blow up, I had made a mistake - the rope got caught in the blanket and flung at his head. My bad, but I didn't feel too terrible. Things happen, and he's got to get used to it.

Tonka looked a little better after his trim today. He has thrush so I need to treat that too. I think his problem with the lope (and the trot for that matter) is that he needs to relax and get his head down and get his body working together. Right now he sticks his head up in the air and hollows out his back and his hind end doesn't always coordinate with his front end. So I'll get to work on that.

Zaz is doing awesome. I might strap a bareback pad on him later today. I'm hoping to rope someone into being my videographer so I can show you what he does now.

If there's one thing Tonka and I don't do, it's lope. I thought it was my fault we were having trouble until I asked him for a lope on the lunge line today. Not good. He was uncoordinated, didn't want to do it and was very stressed about it. So I took him to the round pen. It took a while but he finally got a good lope going without crossfiring. Then I got on and we did it under saddle. That also took a while but we did get it done. Not a full lap around the round pen, but hey, he did it and I was proud of him and we were both hot so I put him away. I'm hoping to work on it again tonight.

He's not totally sound in the front end, I suspect because he toes in, so I wonder if it's even right to ask him to do this kind of stuff. Hard work on hard ground in a circle... But I really want to graduate out of the walk-trot class for Mustang Days. I hope I'm not doing the wrong thing. I feel like he needs to know how to lope under saddle comfortably, even if we don't do it often. I think I'll keep at it and get him going in straight lines as soon as I can. He also needs a trim. Hopefully he'll lose his head-bob after I get those hooves touched up.

I had a hard time getting these pictures sinc Zaz kept wanting to be with me. I had to snap quick. I'm not complaining too much. :)

He's definitely making progress.

Not much time for anything lately... We did go on a nice ride on Monday. Melissa got a picture of me tightening my mom's cinch.

The only picture I took was of Peaches the donkey napping under some trees with the sheep.

My daughter's softball team had a great game last night. They finally won one. It was very suspenseful and exciting. Much better than watching them lose by 10 points or more.

Zaz didn't get any work yesterday. I just went in and petted him until he relaxed. The day before that I took him for a walk and let him eat some good grass, then groomed him next to the trailer. It was a windy day and he was a little jumpy in front of the house where there are lots of things to look at.

I'm not wondering anymore if there really are horses that are stubborn and willful. I watched two good examples of it in the last couple days. They're good horses most of the time, but were having a moment of "I don't want to and you can't make me." Both mares, both in heat, and both herdbound. Mostly it was the herdbound problem both times. One of them was Bella. She wasn't awful, just not being good.

The other night Bella decided she needed to get in with my sister's geldings and cleared a 5 foot fence with no room to get a running start. Not a mark on her. She must be a good jumper. So much for keeping her separate from the mare-breeding geldings until Amy is 100% certain she wants to keep her. Although from everything I've heard so far I have no reason to think she won't keep her.

Oh, I was tagged by Lea to list 6 things about me. Hmm...

1. I am very cranky lately. I didn't figure out why until yesterday. Without getting into details, I guess it comes down to the fact that I don't like not getting my way. How childish...

2. My birthday is coming! I'm going to get a really wonderful chocolate cake from Safeway.

3. My legs don't seem to tan at all, just stay fishbelly white. I hate it.

4. I'm trying to diet but all these ball games are interfering with the making of a healthy dinner. We're at the ball field every single weekday! It's crazy.

5. Troxel's Accident Replacement Program is a lie. The postal service couldn't deliver to the address they have listed. In a couple days my broken helmet will be sent back to me. The company has not replied when I tried to contact them. I think I'll buy a different brand this time. I like John's Tipperary.

6. I love thunderstorms. We're supposed to get some today and tomorrow. I hope they're right!

I discovered something neat about Zaz today, check it out:

At first I thought I'd wet him unevenly, (I was using a soaked towel, not a hose) so I made sure to totally soak the area. What do you think this is? Dun factor? Chimerism? Brindle? I'm not up on all that to even know if they still believe brindle is a color. It sure looks neat! I wish it was visible when he's dry.

We made a lot of progress today, I'll have to tell you about it later.