Mustang Saga

2012-01-24T18:03:00.000-08:00

Poor Cimarron. He doesn't quite know what I'm up to when I'm taking pictures. It's not as apparent in this small size, but his eyes are pretty worried.
He looks kinda fat and dumpy when he's just standing there, but you should see him in motion. His gut pulls up and his body is organized and smooth. He's a good mover.

And as you can see here, he wants so badly to be a good boy.

I didn't ride today. Not feeling real great, think I have a minor flu or something. But we did some ground work and he was much less "up" today. He realized that there is a slower speed than trot. He was afraid of my brand new flag (cheap short whip + a square of ripstop nylon from the fabric store + electrical tape = better than Brannaman's). Not sure if it was the color or the crisp new sound of it. So we worked on that some. I really felt better about our work today. It was more relaxed. I don't need him on a hair trigger and I think he's starting to realize that. Probably just out of practice since he's had so much time off.

Other than that, I made two very scary trips down my driveway today. One was on the way home from visiting Cimarron. I slid partway down the steep part of the driveway. Then when I went to leave again I got almost to the top, lost my grip, and slid VERY FAST, backward, halfway down the hill. It was NOT FUN. 4 wheel drive isn't much help when you're not getting any purchase. I'm glad the ruts held the truck on the driveway and I got to dry ground before I hit the telephone pole at the bottom. I did not try going up again.

Then I spent a lot of time spreading livestock salt (it's all I had) on the driveway in the freezing cold wind, trying not to fall down. I hope tomorrow is less terrifying.

Now I'm going to go enjoy that downtime I thought I'd have more of today, and hope I kick this bug by tomorrow morning.

2012-01-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

Finally I got a picture of Cimarron to share with you all. Sorry for the poor quality. He's a cutie though.

I was finally able to get out of my driveway today. It was so nice to see the outside world again. And the sun was shining too. An absolutely beautiful day.

I spent some time on ground work and warm-up with Cimarron. He's a pretty high energy guy. He's also pretty spooky and goosy in the arena, but then we went for a walk around the neighborhood and he didn't act silly at all. He did have his good buddy leading the way though, and I think that makes a difference.

We were going to go ride the area we'd just walked, but I ran out of time. I did get in a little riding. He's going to need a lot of work on softening, but he's a pretty good boy.

I can go up there and ride any time I want to. I had been really looking forward to having him here at home but then the mountains of snow came. And actually I really like the idea of an indoor arena with dry footing to ride in. So it's a good thing.

I took this picture a while ago and forgot about it. Yes, it is a vending machine where you can buy nightcrawlers and other live bait. There was another one next to it that wasn't out of order. Only in Idaho. :)

2012-01-21T21:50:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post a picture of my new headstall. (Yes, I'll admit I fiddled with this picture a bit too much.) It's pretty. It has brass. It's thick and chunky. It has ties at the bit ends, no screws. It's almost exactly right. It's not the quality of a custom made headstall, mainly because of the leather. It's a bit stiff and shiny... Or maybe it's just too new and needs to be broken in. I did oil it. It's made by Billy Cook and I think I ordered it at Horse Saddle Shop, they had the best price by far. And it is almost exactly what I wanted, something that would match the serpentine (actually called a running W) that goes around the edge of my saddle. I like the way it's done on my saddle better. It's simple and no frills. The headstall has a kind of fleur-de-lis looking thing in the serpentine. Too fancy, it ruins the simplistic lines.

Did I ever mention I'm pretty darn picky?

2012-01-21T14:33:00.000-08:00

Spring is coming! My horses told me so. Tonka and Soxy are shedding, just a little. I love that they start doing that every year right when winter seems at its worst.

Yesterday we had a little break in the weather and the horses really enjoyed it.

I cleared them a space to stand around the trough, and Scout had fun playing in the big snow pile. Then he found that it's a good place to itch his head.

Tonka wasn't overly cheerful. I think he just wanted to take a nap while he was warm and dry.Ribbit.
Today I had planned to go ride Cimarron, but we couldn't get out of the driveway. So John spent a couple hours plowing the deep slush and compacted snow (I'm sick of plowing so I decided to bake instead) and now I think we might be able to get out, and maybe get the car out so we can take it to town and get tires. I hope so. I want to be able to go where I want, and most of all, go ride!

2012-01-16T21:02:00.000-08:00

Today was a very good day.

2012-01-11T20:50:00.000-08:00

I guess I'd better check in. It's been a while!

Last Friday I got to take Scout out on another trail ride. We had another colt along, I think it was his second trail ride, and two broke horses. The broke horses are there for support and we all stop and do whatever a rider in trouble needs. Same as how I ride with others but this is a new group of girls and I really enjoyed riding with them. Scout was pretty nervous, and we only rode for an hour but by the end of it he had calmed down. I was impressed with him for walking through puddles with frozen tops and over little runnels of water without having to look at them for a long time first. After a good look at the first puddle he marched on through the rest. He's a good boy.

Monday we didn't do our lesson, we each had our reasons. My reason was my elbow. I don't know what I did to it but it's all inflamed and I can hardly dress myself sometimes. When I'm doing ground work and a horse pulls on me even a tiny bit it really sets me back in the healing process. I know Scout and Cimarron are both going to pull on me, so I thought I'd give it a rest. Then I found out our lesson for next Monday isn't going to happen either but we might be able to fit one in later in the week.

I've been offered Cimarron to keep here and ride all I want, they just need him back for hunting season. Yay! I can't wait to share him with you all, he's a pretty good looking guy. I don't have any pictures of him, darn it. It's killing me to wait for him and not even have a picture to look at. Sometime next week he'll be here.

I topped off my excitement about Cimarron by ordering a new headstall with some Christmas money. It should match my saddle pretty well. I'm hoping it gets here fast. Then today I went and spent some money I'd gotten from selling other tack, and replaced my stiff, uncomfortable chinks. These ones are so supple, and they're a weird kind of leather that's more grippy. It reminds me of pigskin but I think it's too thick for that. They're not fancy but I like them the way they are, and I can actually bend in them! I love them. I got them at Indiana Harness in Spokane. The price was already pretty affordable for good chinks, and I traded in my old ones for more of a discount. I looked at the ones at two other stores in Spokane and there's no comparison. Now, you could probably go to Post Falls and get something a lot fancier for twice the price, but I'm not a very fancy girl. :)

That's about all my horse news, other than a short ride at home where I discovered how small Scout's comfort zone is in terms of leaving his buddies. I'd say it's about 100-200 feet before he gets jittery about it. We'll gradually build on it without blowing his confidence.

2012-01-04T20:01:00.000-08:00

Just some pictures.

And look who greeted us when we got home:

Looks like Tonka thought he'd try on another color today.

2012-01-04T07:42:00.000-08:00

I went up and tried out Cimarron yesterday. He's a good boy. Gorgeous too. He's half kiger, half QH, and lived his first three years out on the range, so he may as well have been wild. He's got a skepticism that reminds me of Tonka. Worried about the mounting block, dots of light on the floor, a wheelbarrow that had moved. Nothing serious but at first I was wondering if I ought to ride him at all. It's been a couple months since he was ridden, and even then he's just sort of an extra horse, not much time spent riding in the last few years. I've heard stories of him bucking so that's in the back of my head too.

But after doing ground work and liberty work in the round pen I felt safe enough to climb on and try him out. He's not real responsive to my leg asking him to move over, and he had opinions about certain areas he didn't want to walk. He had a nice stop, a great one-rein stop, a good back up, and he's real comfortable to ride. Short coupled and stout. He's pretty cool. If I was still looking (and could afford him) I might ask if he's still for sale. I'll ride him in our next lesson, if he's not too boogery about being in the arena.

Then I came home and it was so nice out I had to get Scout out for a short ride. He was relaxed and mellow. I think he was enjoying the nice weather too. We worked in the field and did a reminder lesson on all the maneuvers he's supposed to know (he was very responsive) and then did some walk trot transitions. Surprisingly, his upward transitions were great but his downward were kinda sloppy at first. Normally he's lazy and it's just the opposite. Then my lovely, smart boy in the pasture decided to eat under the fence and get himself shocked. It was a loud snap! And of course he ran away and stood there snorting for a while. Even though this happened right behind us Scout didn't react too much and we went back to work.

Today is even nicer than yesterday. It's 43 degrees already, and the sun is bright. We're going to hit the trails with my sister. Good fun. I think Scout will enjoy the break from the arena work.

The leads I had on a couple horses didn't go anywhere. It's weird, these sellers that sound pretty motivated but then don't follow through. But that's okay because I don't want to add another horse right now. I'm still hoping Bella's lameness will pass, and even if it doesn't she might be okay for walking on the trail, which is what I mostly do anyway. And I'll have Tonka to ride in the summer (fingers crossed) so I think we're good for now.

Happy trails! Maybe I'll have some trail ride pictures for my next post.

2012-01-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

It's funny, just as I decided I wasn't going to get a horse, a couple good leads came along. We'll see how that goes...

Today I rode a strange horse. She herself is not strange, she's just strange to me. She's a very nice girl, a grey anglo-arab named Madrid, who belongs to the trainer we've been taking lessons with. It was good to have a horse to ride, and eye-opening to ride a horse that doesn't know how I work. As I didn't always know how she worked. She backs to different cues, for one thing. It led to some talk about how we ride, and the importance of knowing WHY we ride how we ride. My answer would just be, "because that's how I do it." Which isn't a very good answer, when you want to analyze what makes the most sense and is most effective.

Then, quite excitingly, someone started firing a gun in the outside arena. Apparently it was mounted shooting practice. Only nobody warned us and certainly our horses weren't expecting it. The first group of shots caught us standing still and nothing super exciting happened. A while later the second group of shots caught Scout as he was feeling rather "up" anyway, and was trotting around the arena and had just turned his back to the source of the noise. He went "leap" and John didn't go with. Or something like that. I didn't see it because I was busy shutting down my mount, who was right next to the source of the noise. Despite the unplanned dismount John and Scout were both fine, just a little rattled. My sister went out and kindly asked them to hold off on the shooting for 15 minutes so we could finish up without any more excitement. Everyone mounted up again and we finished on a good, relaxed note.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to go ride Cimarron, a nice kiger cross who also belongs to the trainer. He's kind of just an extra horse, not her personal horse, so I can borrow him more long term. He doesn't get ridden much but he's supposed to be a pretty nice horse.

Oh, and as to why I didn't ride Festus, my brother in law's horse - he needs some work before I'd trust him in a strange setting with a group of strange horses. Not much stop. Some brace, but it's not terrible. I just would definitely want the stop more reliable. If I could go over every day and ride him it would probably be fine, but that doesn't seem very doable right now.

So anyway, I'm having some horsey adventures riding horses that aren't mine, and it's very fun and interesting. But it also makes me appreciate the communication I have with my own horses even more. It's just a difference of dialects, but even that can cause some long pauses and miscommunications in the middle of a good conversation.

2011-12-29T10:06:00.000-08:00

I've found a horse to borrow for the lessons for now, so no big hurry on finding another, but of course I'm still looking. He's my brother in law's horse, and absolutely beautiful - I'll have to post a picture of him. If I remember right he's a Percheron Morgan cross, but might have some QH in there as well. He can be a lot like Tonka in that he gets worried and his energy level can get to be a lot pretty quick, but he's not a light horse like Tonka. He thinks leaning into pressure is the right thing to do and he takes a lot of softening work. But he's a total love and one of those curious, into everything type of geldings. I think it will be fun to play with him, and I'm really grateful to have a horse for the lessons.

In other news, Blue was neutered the other day. We've been having a spell of heavy rain, which I didn't even think about in terms of it affecting the surgery, but it means he can't run around outside. I have to take him on a leash so he doesn't get his incision wet. Ugh. He's got way too much energy to be a leash only dog. He's so stinkin' positive about life, it's great (and also a bit annoying). I put an Elizabethan collar on him when he was trying to lick too much, and it doesn't slow him down or depress him one bit. Every other dog I've had has gotten really sad and dejected with those things. Blue just trots around same as ever and rams the dang thing into the backs of people's legs. The other dogs can hardly tolerate him when he's wearing it. But I haven't had to put it on him much.

Alright, back to work. It's amazing how messy this house can get with four humans and four dogs in it. We're babysitting my mom's dog too. He mostly stays out of the way though.

2011-12-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd just put this out there and maybe the universe would help me come up with a solution.

I need a sound horse to ride. I'd be happy to borrow one for the winter, or maybe buy one. Maybe one of you near me knows someone who is looking for a good situation for a good horse? I'd prefer one that is at least started but an older beginner friendly horse would be great too, especially if I'm buying the horse for keeps. That way my kids could ride when summer comes and either Tonka or Bella are well enough to ride.

I would be sad that I found Grace a new home and couldn't start her, if it wasn't for the fact that I think she's with the person she was supposed to end up with.

Bella's lameness seems to be getting slightly worse with work (very gentle work). Or maybe I'm just more bothered by it the more we work. I think she will heal, but I don't know. It's a front foot or leg issue, not related to the stifles. (I think it's founder related but could be a splint). I'm trying some different things but I may decide to take her in for a lameness exam. I just don't want to spend a lot of money for an iffy diagnosis.

Scout is still fine, but John is riding him. And of course Tonka is laid off for the winter and Soxy can't work anymore. So I'm horseless. :(

Any other time I'd wait this out and not ride (and I may still do that) but I want to be able to keep doing the weekly lessons with John and Scout. And if I had a seasoned horse to ride we could get out on the trail some too. This winter has been so mild. No reason not to ride (except today with pouring rain and howling wind) if I only had a horse.

2011-12-24T22:50:00.000-08:00

2011-12-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

The dogs would like to say Merry Christmas.

But I think they would have preferred to say it without headgear.

This is probably the nicest picture.

But I think this one is my favorite. It doesn't look as funny in this size but Huckleberry's buggy eyes cracked me up when I first looked at this one.

They gave me the cold shoulder more than once.

And Huck looked Goofy more than once.
(enter Sir Chaos trying to be good)

But of course India was a sweetheart about it all. And she'd make an excellent Max.

Then we have Blue.

"It's killing me!"

"No, I'll kill it!"
"A little help here?"
(Still stuck around his neck)
But in the end youth and determination conquer all.
May you feel youthful and joyous this Christmas eve.

2011-12-23T22:08:00.000-08:00

The Cold Shoulder

Stay tuned for this, and more, on tomorrow's edition of Mustang Saga.

2011-12-21T07:22:00.001-08:00

I've lost all track of what day it is. But then I saw a wordless Wednesday post on Life at the Rough String and all is well. Breaks from school are like that.

Yesterday I went up to Mountain Ridge Horse Rescue - mountainridgeanimalrescue.org - and took pictures of all the horses. Cyndi will have to post them somewhere, or let me know where she wants me to post them, but I'll share with you my favorites.

Mandy used to do some sort of rodeo. She's an older horse but she is still rideable. And pretty, too!

(The roofing on the ground behind her is in an alleyway outside her pasture. No junk lying around in the pastures. They still have a lot of material to build new shelters for the horses.)

These two mares are new to the rescue. They were strays. You can see why the meat buyer wanted them. They need a diet. The lighter grulla is pretty skittish but the darker one is touchable.
This guy is Raji and he was probably my favorite of all. He's sensitive and sweet and kinda spicy. :) He reminds me a lot of Lyric. And he had that gorgeous floaty Arabian trot.But as much as I liked the horses, I wasn't tempted to bring any home, which is a good thing.

I have to admit that the words "horse rescue" usually make me cringe. But this place is nice. The horses have shelter, the fencing is tight and safe. The horses are not wading in mud and there's no junk lying around. They have several separate areas with just a couple horses in them, as well as a bigger pasture with a group of horses. So nobody gets bullied too much. It's a good setup.

This morning when I went out to fill a trough I found the pump running for no reason. There was no water on in the house and hadn't been for a while. So I immediately thought there must be a broken pipe under the house. But from all the peepholes I have of the underneath, I can't see any wet or even damp. Which is nice because I was expecting a lake. All of my faucets, washer, etc. are giving out water in a normal flow. So what's up? Last time I went out and tested it the pump would run for about 30 seconds and then stop, then start again, etc. Which is making me think there must be a leak if not a completely broken pipe. Which is not good because you can't really get under our house. I need a camera on a long pole or something so I can look further under. I guess our only option would be to cut through the floor to get to it. Not great. I wish they'd planned the foundation better. What a bummer.

BUT I am so glad that when I need water I do have it. I just have to go outside and turn everything back on every time I need to run water.

2011-12-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

I just realized I forgot to blog about our day. John and I had the riding lesson all to ourselves. So he and Scout got some wrinkles ironed out and Bella and I got some good advice regarding bits, resistance to the bit (or bosal) and in general I had a lot of little questions answered about how to structure things for a horse of Bella's mental type.

Bella was a rockstar today! She did so well in the arena. There was no super nervous introduction period, and I didn't feel at all unsafe mounting up after limited groundwork. I am still a little worried about her soundness, but nothing has become serious so I'm going to keep up the careful work.

I was thinking to myself tonight that we sure do have a broken bunch of horses around here. Not broke, but broken. But we make do and get along the best we can with the limitations that are handed to us.

Speaking of broke horses, poor Katia wanted to bring her friend over to ride with her, but we only have the one good kids' horse. It'll be nice when Scout and Bella get more steady and trustworthy. John just read that and he thinks Scout would be fine for Katia to ride but I'm not so sure. Maybe in an enclosed area.

2011-12-18T14:24:00.000-08:00

Katia and Soxy went for a ride again and this time I got pictures.Soxy's health is pretty good lately, and she seems to enjoy these short, easy rides around the property. Katia said she gets really excited when she gets her out.

I caught her about to ask for a stop here. Soxy's face is so sweet.

Then I rode Bella in the new bit and it was pretty clearly not her favorite thing. So I asked my mom for a nice, plain comfort snaffle for Christmas. Scout is using the one I bought before and doing very well in it. I'll just continue in the bosal with Bella until the other bit comes.

We've had a visitor in our field every day lately. Hunting for mice, I guess. I never knew they did that until I lived here. I love herons.

This little guy was just begging me to take his picture.

2011-12-17T20:44:00.000-08:00

The weather was absolutely beautiful today. I think it was in the 40's, the sun was shining, and there was just a slight breeze. An excellent day to rake up the last of the leaves in the yard and put the snow shovels to work scooping leaves into wheelbarrows. I kept thinking to myself, "I can't believe it's the first day of Christmas break and instead of snow we're shoveling leaves." Just doesn't seem right.

I also struggled with the mower. I still haven't gotten the sledding hill mowed because the darn mower won't start. I've charged it and it tries to start, but then it just makes a funny noise. So I charged it again and got the same result. Then I gave up. I think the problem may not be the battery. Or maybe we need a new one instead of trying to charge this one. I'm no mechanic, that's for sure.

The horses all got their midwinter dose of Zimecterin Gold today. They didn't love it but it must not taste that bad because they kept following me around afterward.

I did some groundwork with Scout, just worked on crisp transitions and that's about it. He was being really lazy for John last week so I thought he needed a tune-up. He'll only do as much as he thinks you'll make him do. Lazy boy.

Bella got to try a new bit. I actually ordered it special for Tonka right before I found he's not rideable. It's a Myler comfort snaffle with a low port. He's always liked bits with a low port. I think maybe it gives more tongue relief? Anyway, Bella got to try it today, and the jury is still out. I just did groundwork while she wore it and then asked her to respond to it from the ground. I'll probably ride her tomorrow morning. I'd like to find a bit that will work for her, for the clearer communication they give.

Other than that I went out and just loved on Bella and Scout a couple times.

Well, of course I did do other things like play with my kids, play with the dogs, and make soup. It's been a good day.

Katia shocked me by asking if she could ride Soxy this evening. So she went and got her out and off they went bareback and in a halter, looking so relaxed. I love to watch the two of them ride around. I wanted to get a picture but my camera was dead. Meanwhile, Tonka was throwing a big hissy fit in the pasture just like he did last Monday, rearing and striking and squealing because his mare was going out. Dork.

Tonight I got a wonderful update on Grace. She's been worked with every day and has had her hooves trimmed and made a 1/2 mile hike to the indoor arena where she did a lot of new things including jumping, and encountered a couple mules and another horse working and was completely unfazed. What a horse. And what a wonderful owner. She's just the type of person I wanted for Grace. I love that she's getting right to work and getting her trained.

Oh! And I haven't had a cup of coffee since Wednesday morning. Yay me! I'm drinking tea instead. I've gotten a couple nagging headaches but nothing terrible. Eventually I'll cut out the tea too.

2011-12-16T16:18:00.001-08:00

Busy, busy, busy here with all the goings on. Wednesday Bella went to the indoor arena for the second time. She was still nervous but got over it after a while and we did some basic riding at the walk. Figure 8, circle, one-rein stop, normal stop, walk on, back up. All that. Not very exciting to read about but an excellent step in the journey.

Yesterday was an interesting and somewhat busy day at the spay/neuter clinic. Lots of really neat dogs and cats came in. Everyone is so proud of their animals. It's nice to see how much they're loved. Blue went with me since he got out of the fence last time I left him at home. He sat quietly in his crate all day and everyone admired him. Of course that meant he had more energy later. :)

I ended up having to drive back into town and do a bunch of shopping after the kids got out of school so they could get gifts for their friends. So it was a long day and much busier than I'm used to.

Today I took it easy. Kind of a day off before Christmas Break when the kids are here making messes all the time. I touched up the trim on 3 horses, did dishes, laundry, and a trip to town, but other than that I just loafed.

There is a horse rescue in Davenport, WA that is in need of help. They have plenty of hay and all that, the problem is that there has been an unexpected change in circumstances and there is too much work for one person to keep up with. She needs to adopt out 10 horses and find someone to help with the daily chores. Here's the website: mountainridgeanimalrescue.org. They have more horses there than are listed on the website but she's having trouble getting them posted, so you might call and see if they have what you're looking for.

2011-12-14T19:11:00.000-08:00

2011-12-12T21:44:00.000-08:00

It started innocently enough.

But then I gave him water after midnight.

And it all went downhill from there."Rrrrawr!"

And then we had a little training session and they all got to share a bit of leftover chicken.Blue's ears don't really stand up, I just kept catching him in that position.

We had another good lesson today. Bella had never been to the arena before and she'd never been around that many horses working, being flagged, coming in and out of the arena, etc. So as I expected there was a lot of tense breathing on her part, and some goosy-ness, but she didn't freak out over anything.

We worked on sending and proper positioning of our bodies while the horses circle us. As the trainer explains it, when the horse is moving around and we aren't asking for a change, we should be pointed at the saddle, where we would be sitting if we were riding. Makes sense. When it comes time to stop our bellybutton points at the hindquarters. I think this naturally happens for us (Bella and I) because I stop moving and she passes to the point where I'm facing her hindquarters, then she disengages and stops to look at me. It really is nice to have a sensitive horse rather than a dull, luggy one.

Going back to the send, she talked about how important it is for us to send our horses into the circle so that they walk forward and we come to the saddle not by human movement, but by moving the horse. We should not try to sidestep or chase our way into the right spot. The horse's feet need to move, and if our feet move the only direction we should be going is forward. If we back up or move sideways we're giving up space to the horse, or even just confusing the horse and ending up with the wrong results.

We passed the test on that one and she suggested we work on walk-trot transitions. This was an excellent exercise to give Bella something to do so that she could come to terms with the scary new surroundings. Before long she was licking and chewing and her ears weren't flicking back and forth trying to take in every little sound. We need to work on the downward transition on her right side. It wasn't going as smoothly as I would have liked since I was having to ask twice and use my rope to back up my request, but we did end it on one that she did very well.

Next we worked on moving sideways, basically a sidepass on the ground. This one she didn't do as well on the left as she did on the right. On her right she just floated sideways. It was beautiful. On her left she'd back up, move her hind end, move her front end, move her hind end again without crossing over, get crooked, and get kind of flustered. We were doing this with her nose pointed at a wall, or in our case panels that stunk of cattle and had distractions attached, so she wasn't focusing well. Although it was interesting how none of that bothered her when I was on her right side. We'll work on that one some more here at home too. And I'm hoping to make another trip to the arena this week some time.

When the others mounted up I did some "friendly game" with the flag and then got on the mounting block and got her in position and did some more, adding in some rubs and bumps with my legs along her shoulders, flank, and rump, and some slapping and flapping of the saddle. She wasn't worried about that at all and it gave her time to watch the other horses moving around.

She was very wide-eyed and worried about the other riders. When they started trotting it was especially scary. When they had done some other things they came and circled us, making the circle small and large again, going in both directions at both the walk and the trot. Eventually there were three circles around us. The outer circle was one horse who needed to trot very quickly, then the inner two circles were going opposing directions and different speeds. All of this was a lot to take in, but she settled into it pretty well. I stood with her and reassured her, which means a lot to her. She needs someone to put her nose on and ask, "Is this okay?"

When they went to work on indirect rein and hind end disengagement I mounted up and we just stood and watched. I made sure we had lateral flexion in case we ended up needing our one-rein stop. I moved her feet around some, doing what the others were doing, but mostly I just let her take it all in. Then the trainer noticed I had mounted up and she asked us to move around with the other horses. I was absolutely not ready to be in a group of trotting horses, or rather, Bella was not at all ready for that. So we just walked around with John and Scout and then got close enough to pet each other's horses.

It was an excellent experience for Bella, and I was so proud of her. What a girl! I was also extremely thankful to the others for taking the time to help us out. It's so good to have a group of people to depend on and to have fun with.

When I got home there were eight bald eagles right next door. As far as I can tell from my pictures, they were all adults except two. Pretty neat. They were eating something large and dead. Probably a deer, since it's not calving time yet.

This picture has 4 of the adults, but one is hiding. They were all "talking" to each other in loud peeps and squeals. It was pretty neat.

And here's my only equine photo of the day.

Tonka, who through a big squealing, rearing fit in the pasture when we brought "his" horses home. He's not in their pasture, so he had to throw his fit from afar.

Well, it's been a big day and so now I bid you goodnight!

2011-12-11T00:30:00.000-08:00

Bella and I had a good ride here at home today. Nothing spectacular, just working some more on the basics, and not much trotting because the footing is firm and she's a little sore in her front feet. I don't know if it's from the founder last year or what, but I'll be watching it closely and I'll definitely be more careful about putting her on grass next year.
She was a little difficult to take photos of in the round pen because she was following me everywhere. She's a sweetie.
This little fella came up and stole my hat while I was riding. He was quite proud of his acquisition.

2011-12-10T09:44:00.000-08:00

The After-Bath-Crazies

Poor blue bird toy. His guts are all over the place.

Do your dogs get all silly after a bath? I love it! So entertaining. But hard to take pictures of such fast moving objects.

2011-12-09T15:58:00.001-08:00

This was the scene that greeted me today when I got back from taking Grace to her new home. They were looking for their buddy. :(

But it really is a happy ending and a very happy new beginning for Grace (new name pending, I'll keep you posted). She'll be worked with a lot and there are trails and an indoor arena right down the road. She won't be a neglected pasture pet and she will have lots of love and the best care. I couldn't have found a better home for her.

On another note - maybe I need to cut back on the horsey groceries a bit. Scout and Bella are looking pretty stout. :/ (They do have their coats all puffed out in the cold though, so it's not all fat.) Can you believe that gargantuan creature is her wee baby? He sure has grown!

2011-12-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

I thought I might take a moment to talk about our ride yesterday, since I actually have a moment at the moment. :)

I hauled Bella over to my sister's and she rode surprisingly quietly in the trailer. I thought it might be because she wasn't shut between the dividers. But (to skip ahead a bit) she didn't ride home quietly at all. So I guess she still doesn't like trailering. And I think using the divider might be better than not using it.

Anywho. We did some work on the line, then I moved her around the round pen some. Lakota, my sister's highly offensive POA (other horses just don't like him - he's actually a really nice horse) was tied to the outside of the round pen, and the two of them had words. So we corrected both of them with a sound, a waved flag, or a request for movement whenever they responded negatively as Bella went around.

Then we did some desensitization with a very noisy flag, and then out came the rattly hula hoops. SCARY. Bella is interesting in that she can deal with scary things better when she's standing still than when she's moving. I think because she's not actually dealing with them, she's just "checked out." That's why it's a good idea to sack out at a standstill and also in motion. Eventually she came to accept the hula hoops more, so I went and saddled her up.

We did some walk and trot work that was really great. She is a more forward horse than Tonka and it's going to take some time for me to get used to that. She had a bit of a challenge keeping her mind on task with Amy's horses in the pasture nearby. Her movements were always better in that direction than away. Just another thing to keep in mind and work on. Eventually Amy rode Lakota into the pen and that was really great too. We worked at opposite sides, circling, reversing, circling, reversing. Then Lakota stood in the middle. Bella tried some snaky-necked, ear-pinned nastiness but I corrected her immediately, and so did my sister. She only tried it 2, maybe 3 times before she quit. I want to make sure I have a well behaved horse around others. That behavior can't be allowed.

The weirdest thing came at the end. I'd stopped her after a long time just walking in circles around the round pen. She likes to be moving forward, so that was good for her. When I moved my hand up her neck in preparation to dismount, she rocked forward, so I thought she thought I wanted her to move out again. But no, she kept rocking back and forth in this wavelike motion. It was really a weird feeling. My sister said that is a letdown of endorphins and it was a really good thing so just sit and enjoy the moment. After she stopped I continued to sit and Bella started breathing deeply and licking and chewing. What a neat thing. Weird, kind of dizzying, that swaying. I've never known anything like it.

While we were riding she never once pinned her ears or snaked her head around at me like she wanted to bite. She never really seemed to be irritated about the riding at all. That is a first for her. We're moving forward! Yay!

You might have noticed I moved back to the bosal rather than a bit with her. I had been thinking I shouldn't baby her and she should learn to ride in a bit. But her attitude change was not a good thing with the bit, and I think at this point I ought to set us up for success rather than force her farther out of her comfort zone. In the future I may try a bit again but she's made it pretty clear she doesn't like them so I may just leave her bitless.

It's nice to have such a great ride to make me feel more inspired and excited after finding that Tonka can't be ridden for now. I needed that.

2011-12-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

Bella and I had a wonderful ride today! The best yet.

2011-12-06T12:38:00.000-08:00

Today's horse work had a couple of big ups and downs.

First I worked on trailer loading with Grace. I put a bucket of grain deep in the trailer as a reward if she did decide to get in. I've found that grain doesn't work to bribe a scared horse, so that wasn't my intention, I just wanted her to have a great experience if she got in there. Lo and behold, I walked into the trailer and she walked right in behind me. She really wanted that grain. She was afraid to back out so I got out to give her room, and when she was finished with her grain she turned around and looked at me. She didn't try to get out, she wasn't stressed, she was just taking in the scenery. When I took her lead and asked her to come out the step down was big and that kind of surprised her but wasn't really a big deal. What a horse!

Then I got Tonka out and saddled him and we worked for a little bit but he wasn't with me, he wasn't happy, and I was afraid he was going to come out of his skin so I got off and we went in the round pen. When I asked him to trot off I saw why he wasn't doing well. He's lame. At first I thought it was the leg that had had the tendon injury but when I looked closer I saw his hind end was all wrong. His EPSM is really bad after our work yesterday. So I walked back to the trailer totally dejected. I think I'm going to have to retire him, at least during the winters.

So tune in tomorrow for progress on Bella. I hope she's sound enough to be my riding horse.

2011-12-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

Today John surprised me by saying Yes, he did want to go to the lesson with me. Yay!

John has never done a lot with Scout other than pet him and lead him from place to place. But Scout will be his riding horse so today they had a lot of firsts. Scout hadn't been to the indoor arena before. He was a pill to saddle and unsaddle at the trailer. He needs more standing tied time. Then we went inside the arena and he was a little looky-loo but not bad. I showed John some of the groundwork we'd worked on in previous lessons and then handed "my" colt over to him.

Eventually the instructor got there and we decided we'd done enough ground work that we could mount up and get started. John had a great time on Scout, and Scout looked like he was really enjoying himself too. And John loved my wonderful lovely saddle that doesn't fit Tonka. Glad he can enjoy it. :)

Tonka was pretty reactive today. Worried and a bit herdbound. It resulted in a big bolt right toward Scout's butt. I couldn't get him stopped. He's always shut right down for me before, but he was in a special place today. As I tried to stop him I watched Scout's butt getting closer and closer, with my husband on board, and I was so afraid Scout was going to freak out and get John hurt. But he just stood there. He must be pretty used to Tonka's quirks. Tonka stopped when he got close to Scout, and we went back and worked out the kinks. It was funny because we had just been practicing our one-rein stops, and Tonka had done really well, but not so much when it mattered. Goof.

It was a really good lesson, although it was kinda short. Some things were explained to me in a better way than I've heard them before, so I actually understood what the point was. I might write more on that tomorrow. I'm too tired to try to figure out how to word it tonight.

Scout and Tonka both got tired toward the end of the lesson. Tonka's back-up got stiff and unwieldy, and Scout fell to his knees from the trot. So we decided to hang out in the middle while another lady worked with her horse in circles around us. It's fun to see other people make progress too, and to see their horse go from worried and challenging to relaxed and happy to do what's asked. And so quickly and easily, with no fight, just a little thought and work.

We got home and we were both pretty excited by how well it had gone. John has never ridden a horse as well trained as Scout. Well, not one that was cooperative anyway. So his experience was really great - finding the buttons and how to push them and feeling a willing response. I enjoyed seeing them work so well together. And I really enjoyed riding my own horse, even if he was a bit squirrely. I can't wait to keep up the good work. I'll be working with Grace this week too, but I'm going to make sure I keep Tonka in work so we can build on his conditioning and maybe make it all the way through the next lesson.

2011-12-04T20:53:00.001-08:00

I think (*knock on wood*) that miss Gracie has found a wonderful home. I don't know if it's tempting fate to talk about it before it's all settled, but I'm so excited I had to share. I'm not excited that she's leaving, I'm excited that it seems so perfect. I have all week to work on trailer loading and I'm taking her to her new home on Friday. The lady is SUPER excited about her, which of course makes me SUPER excited. She has mustang experience, she wanted a mustang, and she loves curly horses, and it just all seems to be so meant to be.

No horse work today for me though. I just had to feed and water and get going. We went up to Spokane for a nice dinner with my parents, who I haven't seen in quite a while. My mom just recently got back from taking care of my Grandma. Grandma is doing great and will be able to get a new heart valve through arthroscopic surgery (a very new thing) soon. I am so glad she doesn't have to do open heart surgery. She just doesn't bounce back very well anymore. But the new valve ought to make her feel like a kid again. I hope. Speaking of my grandparents, they just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. They're awesome.

That's about all I've got. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

2011-12-03T21:23:00.000-08:00

It was bitterly cold today but I got a lot done anyway. I've had this fencing project that's been undone for a couple years. I finally had to revise my plan for how to finish it so I could do it by myself, and I finished it today. Yay! It looks so much better. Actually, now that I think about it, there's more to be done, but the part I wanted done, the part that looked the most trashy, is nice and cleanly finished.

Then I got the truck charged up and started. I don't know what's going on with it. I'm crossing my fingers that it was a one time thing, but it's fairly similar to something it did last year and it ended up having to be fixed.

After doing some housework I finally got to go out and play with the horses. Tonka was standing out in the pasture looking uncomfortable so I left him alone. I went out to the other group of horses and haltered Grace, then petted her and let her go.

When I got Scout out he was a changed horse compared to yesterday. He gave me a small amount of attitude but he did everything I asked. And then I realized something. Maybe he wasn't giving me attitude. He was doing it on his right side, the side with the bad eye. He kept turning his head in toward me and bobbing it up and down as he trotted on a circle. Not in an, "I want to offer to come in," sort of way. It looked naughty. Maybe it was naughty. But I'm also wondering if he was just trying to see me better by getting his left eye on me. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and just ask him to continue on. We'll see what we see next time I work with him.

As I was about to saddle up I got a call from a very nice lady who is interested in Grace. She has mustang experience, is specifically looking for a mustang, and is very interested in taking her. After we talked I sent her a video and we'll see. She was supposed to call back tonight and now I'm getting worried. I had high hopes...

Grace was awesome for her video experience. First I just asked her to trot around the round pen at liberty to show that she's sound. Then I did some basic body control and asked for her feet. I wrapped the lead rope around her hind feet for the first time and asked her to lift them. No problem. No kicking or over-reaction. Eventually I picked up her hind feet with my hand for the first time. What a good girl! And her hooves are in remarkably good shape for being left alone for so long. She's going to make someone a really good horse.

2011-12-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

Today the weather was absolutely beautiful. I got to work with both of my boys. Sorry, no pictures. :(

I tried a different Myler bit with Tonka, and he didn't like it. He wasn't bad, but it was clear it was a distraction rather than a help. He's been working really well in the basic Myler comfort snaffle and this was similar but with short shanks and a roller. I'd like to try a Myler bit with a little tongue relief or low port, I think he'd like that a lot. Or I just need to get another regular comfort snaffle, so that I have one for each of the boys. They both like it much better than a regular snaffle.

I don't think Tonka's muscles were doing very well today. He was pretty resistant and tail-swishy about backing up, which is only a problem for him when his EPSM is a problem. So I cut that short and we did some other stuff. It may have been because I hadn't fed him his supplement in the morning like I normally do, I fed it after our work instead. I hope he feels better tomorrow.

I got Scout out for the first real work session since his stall rest. I decided his hooves needed a touch up and while I was doing that I found a big abscess exit tract in his heel area on his right front hoof. So it looks like his lameness was from an abscess after all. Unless it was just a coincidence, but that seems unlikely.

Recently I've noted that Scout is bossing both of the mares he lives with, and I wondered if that was going to have repercussions in our work. Well, he was sure a handful today. More sluggish than usual and then more attitude when I asked him to toe the mark. But I was happy to note that he did not seem lame in the least. Eventually, after a lot of groundwork, we did some relaxed riding. We worked mostly on the backup, and he did well, then not, then well, then not. It was weird and frustrating. At one point as I asked him to back up he slipped in a patch of mud and fell to his knees. That was a fun position to be in. I could feel him thinking about what to do, and I really hoped he wouldn't decide to lay down. I gave the reins a slight upward pressure and he got himself back up. Good boy!

When I was done I fed them an extra meal because I'd given them a light breakfast. Scout was a turd! He was pinning his ears and heading for the hay I was holding after I'd dropped the first pile. So I didn't drop the second pile until I had told him (more than once and quite firmly) to go away and he finally went to eat with his mom. Then I fed the other two piles and he didn't bother me. I'm going to have to pay closer attention when I feed. He's got a lot of thoughts going on in his head when I'm just getting through my chores, and I think he has me pegged as a push-over.

So it wasn't really fun work today, but the weather was nice and it was good to get time with both boys for a change. We have a lesson on coming up and I'm hoping John will go with and ride one of them (I'm starting to think he better ride Tonka for now). So I need to make sure they're both in a working mindset.

2011-11-29T12:23:00.000-08:00

Isn't he somethin'?

I don't mind if you don't agree, we all have different tastes in horses. But for me, he's just got that special something. I sure do count myself lucky to have my dream horse right here at home.

You may have noticed how good he's being in the picture above. I "tied" him there with nothing but the power of our combined minds and I wasn't sure if he'd stay put, but he did, through saddling and unsaddling and all my dinking around. Even with Scout rip-roaring back and forth in the pasture right in front of him. Good Tonka. He does know how to ground tie but he also knows how good grass is so he doesn't always stay.

We rode for a full half hour today. I rode while waving the flag around for the first time. You'd think after all these years I'd have done that before but it never occurred to me. We did circles, leg yields, blah, blah, blah. Then we went up and down the driveway a few times. It was pretty exciting stuff. When I rode back toward the horse trailer he thought he'd like to keep on going out over the hill, so we did. On the way back his hind end was slipping out from under him, which could be a sign he was getting fatigued or might have just been the mud. Either way, best for him that we be done at that point. We have to take things gradually.

2011-11-29T09:06:00.000-08:00

Grace had visitors on Sunday but they didn't seem very interested in her. I didn't feel that great about it either and I realized it was because if she finds a home I want it to be with someone who is really excited about her. These people didn't seem too taken with her, and maybe just didn't like mustangs. That's okay. I can wait. I haven't even really advertised her, and I don't have high hopes of finding her a home in this economy. And I feel okay with that right now.

Yesterday I rode Tonka for about 20 minutes at a nice relaxed walk. He didn't take one misstep. I'm going to ride again today if it kills me. I should ride Scout also but we'll see. I'm sick again. But the weather is really nice for this time of year so I'll take advantage of it as much as I can.

And that's about all I've got. Boring, I know, but there isn't much of interest going on here. I think I'll go sit down again now.

2011-11-25T20:17:00.000-08:00

Miss Gracie was a very good girl today. First we just walked around together, friendly-like. then she met the flag, and we did some lunging. She did much better today than yesterday, when I didn't have a flag. Yesterday she was being a bit of a pill about wanting to go back to Bella instead of walk forward in a circle. Today that didn't happen and we had a lot of restful thinking and licking and chewing between relaxed circles on a loose lead.

Oh, and yesterday she got her front hooves trimmed. All she needed was a good rasping. She was amazingly good for it. I had done some preparatory work about a month ago and she obviously remembered it.

I took her out for a walk and got some new pictures of her.

She also got to check out the trailer. She was very curious and relaxed about it. I didn't let her get in. I think I want to take the front divider out first, to make more room. This trailer is barely wide enough to turn around in, and if she does panic and turn I don't want either of us to get hurt.

Wee Mister Stinky got a nice soothing oatmeal bath today too. He's so crazy after a bath! I really ought to get a video of his munchkin growling and rolling and flopping about. It's fun.

2011-11-23T21:10:00.000-08:00

Today I made a trip to Spokane for horse supplies and ended up coming back with almost nothing. I did get the vitamins for the horses though. Unfortunately Scout is too picky to eat the HorseGuard that we have locally, so I have to travel to get Equerry's. Actually, I like having an excuse to look at tack and stuff so I don't mind making the trip. I did drool a bit over some headstalls and a Myler bit but my son dragged me through the stores so quick I didn't have much time to dream about what I can't have. I was pretty bummed that they were sold out of black oil sunflower seeds though. They have an excellent deal on them right now.

When I got home I took my Tonka out for a little fun. Chipped the mud off, with most of it flying in my eyes. I also had a flag to play with. He does what I want nicely but rather slowly. I'd like more precision, better attention and less sloppiness. The flag definitely helped. What I really want is a lighter flag. The Buck Brannaman flag is awesome but I can't afford it. A lightweight dressage whip would work if I could find one. *smacking forehead for not looking in Spokane*

When the wind got worse and I had to brace my body against it I took him to the barn and chopped off his toes. He needed a little trim. I left him there in Scout's stall and run, with Scout and Soxy next door in the pasture. I'll move Scout out tomorrow. I'm going to try Tonka and Soxy together since they're both "special needs," and the other three in the other pasture.

Speaking of the other three, I have a family coming to look at Grace on Sunday. It's odd because I only posted her two places and one of them was a nationwide group on Facebook. The other was this blog and I know none of you are looking for a horse. But one of my more local Facebook friends saw her and passed on the info to a friend who is in need of a horse.

So over the next several days Gracie is going to get a crash course in hoof handling, trailer loading, and a refresher on basic manners. All the stuff I should be doing anyway. And I'll find time for my boy too. Maybe he can practice trailer loading in the new trailer too. Scout is the only one who has ridden in it so far.

Oh, and going back to "special needs" Soxy, she's doing spectacularly well! I hardly ever hear her breathing loudly. She doesn't eat hay anymore, which is kind of a bummer for the bank account, but she loves her warm wet meals morning and night, and she still chews on the dry grass in the pasture. She just spits it out though, since it just balls up in her mouth.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Hope you have a warm and cozy holiday with lots of good things to eat. And a warm, fuzzy horse to snuggle. :)

2011-11-22T20:46:00.001-08:00

Benadryl is a wonder drug. I don't know why my egg allergy has come back stronger than ever, but after eating mayo today I wanted to die. I guess I shouldn't complain too much, it's not like I really was dying or in need of a trip to the hospital. But I was very, very glad when the Benadryl kicked in and I started to feel human again.

I had no time with Tonka today. He exercised himself (and his pasture mates) plenty, so at least he got his conditioning in. He was having so much fun prancing around the pasture all covered in mud.

Speaking of fun, I turned Scout out into another pasture with Soxy today. To say he was overjoyed would be an understatement. The acrobatics! Twisty-turny bucking, high kicks, running, jumping, rolling - the whole works. He doesn't seem to be lame. I couldn't find any swelling in the leg. Yay!

Between him, the dogs, and my son I was surrounded by the overflowing exuberance of young boys. It was fun. They sure can make a person happy.

2011-11-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

I got to ride my horse today! MY horse, my Tonka. It's been a long time. 114 days. That's like, a third of a year.

We did some groundwork, grooming, sacking out, saddling, more groundwork, bridling, more groundwork, and then I climbed on. And I was HOME. I've missed him so much.

Everything was done at a mellow pace, with just a bit of trotting, and when I rode, it was only for 10 minutes at most. We'll build from there.

With Scout convalescing and Bella not quite good enough to be messing with riding in bad footing, I figured now is the perfect time to devote my time to MY boy without feeling guilty about leaving the others alone.

On that note, if anyone knows anyone who would be interested in adopting a young mustang mare, send them my way. Grace has got to go. John has absolutely no time for anything outside of work anymore. She'd be just $25 for the reassignment fee. I don't want to send her back to the BLM corrals. Here in Idaho I don't think they even try to find them a home, they just put them back in with the other hundreds of horses in holding. Grace leads and is respectful of fences, and she's about 14.2 hands. She's a gray horse so she will go through all kinds of fun color changes until she is white.

2011-11-18T08:53:00.000-08:00

It's Friday. Snow fell all night and it's a beautiful, bright morning. The air is still and I was able to wander around outside without my gloves on for the first time in a while. What a lovely day! (I think I'm starting to feel better now.)

I love our black walnut trees in the snow:

Still some walnuts hanging on:Beautiful:
Playful:

And a crappy pic of Scout, still in his temporary enclosure this morning.
Good boy!

2011-11-17T13:03:00.000-08:00

Scout got the go-ahead today to come off bute and try a bigger area. And none too soon! He was starting to rearrange the panels in the barn, and I'd caught him taking off at a run and having a bucking fit in his little 12x16 stall. Not enough room for that kind of nonsense in there.

As I expected, he became a fire-breathing idiot when I let him out. He ran, fell, bucked, and then just ran right under the temporary fence I'd set up for him. I hadn't turned on the charger yet. My bad, I know better than that. Anyway, he was fine, still enclosed in the regular fencing. He had a good graze while I went and plugged in the fence. When I put him back he was a bit of a jerk. Stall rest is not good for manners in a youngster. But he's calmed down now and is quietly eating his hay. That's a lot of exercise for a wee man who hasn't been out in two weeks. I'll check his leg this afternoon. Hopefully no harm has been done.

All this excitement when I'm not feeling well and should be down for the day. Not that I mind. It's good to see him out in the air again. I'm going to go sit in front of the TV and maybe even take a nap before the kids get home. Bella will have to take the day off. I'm sure she'll be heartbroken. :)

2011-11-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

AHA! Apparently I've been working on getting sick. Tonight I feel awful. It's kind of a relief though, to know it's just a bug. I was beginning to think there was something really wrong with me mentally.

Scout got to come out of his stall for the first time in almost two weeks. We went for a little walk. He was kinda high spirited but not as bad as I'd feared. The leg still has a very slight swelling in it (I think) but I couldn't see any lameness at the walk. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a video of us at the trot so I can see how he's moving. It's hard to see, not having help.

Bella and I played a bit today as well. I had planned on saddling her up but ended up just doing naked groundwork :) and going for a walk. We went in and out of one of our ditches, through the narrow and the wide, the deep and the shallow, just to work on being mindful of our choice of steps and not rushing. She never once tried to jump or get ahead of me. She's such a nice girl. Altogether too sensitive sometimes, but that can be worked on. I found a broken old rusty T-post half buried out in the field, and when I threw it over the fence she startled pretty badly. So I practiced my javelin hurl for a while and did some waving and silly stuff that would have looked pretty stupid to anyone who happened to be passing. In her defense, it was a cold and windy day that would have had any horses' nerves up. Normally she's not quite so jumpy.

We have lots of snow coming. Or not. Depends on which weather site you look at. Currently it's snowing but it's supposed to turn to rain. And it's very cold and windy. Blech. But I have been getting out with the horses, if only for a little while. That's a good thing.

2011-11-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

A question on forelocks:

I realize I'm a bit vain about my horses' manes. I like them as long as they'll naturally grow. I figure they're there for a reason. Defense against flies, maybe warmth. I think the forelock may help protect from the sun too. But Bella's is so long and fine that it's constantly getting into her eye and sticking. Her eye gets boogery and you can hear the lids slapping together as she blinks to try to clear it. Every now and then it actually wraps around her eyeball. So I've considered trimming it. Would you? Or would you just braid it? But if it's braided why have it at all?

Which I guess brings me to the next question, since I think I may want to trim it - how do you trim it and keep it looking natural? Would you cut it in a V shape and then use thinning shears? I'm no hairstylist but do know that I definitely don't want her to look like that one stooge, the one with the bangs. Moe?

Today I put it in a ponytail. Then eventually I braided it because the ponytail still got in her eyes.
I haven't had the time or the drive to work with her since last Wednesday. Lame of me, I know. Today I just got her out and played for a half hour. She seems to be getting a bit of a work ethic. Me, not so much. She'll never get there if I don't. I need to quit making excuses. But with the weather the way it is, it's hard. Why yes, I would like some cheese with my whine, thank you very much. :)

I feel so much better when I get out and play with a horse. I wish I knew why I have so little energy, even for something I love so much.

But! Onward and forward. This lethargy will pass, and so will the winter, and I have many years ahead to play with my fuzzy friends. I saw a pretty wall plaque the other day that says, "If you're lucky enough to have a horse, you're lucky enough." And I am. :)

2011-11-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

Bella and I did some more ground work today and it was good. Tonight I went out and gave her an apple and a little massage and scratched her udder for her.

I had a lot of fun with the dogs today. Took Huck and Blue through the bank drive through. They said I have to bring them in next time so they can pass the pup around. :) Then went to get a coffee (I try not to splurge but my coffee at home had a dead earwig in it.) and the coffee lady in Potlatch is so awesome. She gave them each 3 big treats. So now Blue is learning the joys of the drive-thru. Huck knows the drill so well he's alert and drooling before we even get to the window.

Then we went for the puppy's second shot and wormer. He's almost doubled in weight! And thank goodness, the heart murmur is gone.

I'd kinda like your opinion here. It's a long story but the point at the end is this question: Is three an unreasonable number of dogs? Mainly I'm just kinda ranting though...

There's this vet that I can't stand and my dogs don't like her either. A few years back we had a couple emergencies and couldn't avoid her. At the time, we had a rescue dog, Ben.
He was a super lovable chocolate lab who had lived his life in a filthy kennel and had bad mange and was kinda old for his age. I spent hundreds of dollars on getting him well, which isn't really the point, but it's part of the story I guess. His days here were filled with happy running and playing with the kids, and lots of love. Eventually his knees gave out. The cruciate ligament snapped. This vet had the gall to rub it in my face that we "couldn't afford" the surgery for him because we had "so many dogs." That wasn't the case at all! Even if I could have afforded it I wouldn't have spent thousands of dollars to put him through surgery and rehab for both knees. Or even one. It just wasn't even a consideration in my mind.

Now, every time I see her in there, she greets me super cheerfully and makes some sort of jab about all my dogs. Like today, "She's always getting puppies! She just can't help herself!" Excuse me, but this is my second puppy...

And - We only have 3 dogs! We've never had more than three dogs. Is that a lot of dogs? To me it's the upper limit, but it's reasonable. Certainly not hoarding or anything. And the fact that we're in at the vet with them and current on everything shows we're not neglecting them. Besides, look at how healthy they are. Well, besides India, but she's just old. She gets daily meds for her arthritis, plus several arthritis supplements my vet recommends, and they get some of the best dog food on the market. And they all get plenty of attention.

Maybe she thinks we still have the dogs that have died over the years, and the strays I've brought in to scan for microchips. I'm about to the point where I'm going to confront her on it. I know I should just let it pass but it also wouldn't hurt to nicely point out that I don't have fifty thousand dogs. And it might make me feel better. She really ticks me off.

2011-11-09T10:47:00.001-08:00

Today I remind myself to be thankful that I have another horse to play with.

Isn't it silly? Ridiculous? I have an old arthritic horse with a sinus tumor who can't breathe, a younger lame horse with EPSM and a healing severe hoof abscess who just recently recovered from a DDFT injury, a young horse who is now painfully lame and on stall rest, and so I'm trying again with the horse that had to have stifle surgery and then foundered. What the heck is wrong with my luck? What happened to the idea that mustangs are tough and hardy? Of course Soxy's not a mustang but the rest of them are. I think horses may as well be made of glass.

I'm not including Grace in my count because she's not really mine and I'm not sure she's a permanent resident here.

So anyway, back to Bella. She's a challenge, in a very mental sort of way. She's sweet as long as I don't ask her to do anything. She gets resentful when I ask her to work. She was downright pissy under saddle yesterday. But she's so darn sensitive any amount of pressure sends her up the wall. I find myself really thinking hard and wondering what is the right thing to do with her.

Something that the trainer said to me last week keeps coming back to mind. If a horse thinks you are on the same level in the pecking order, or lower, it will resent being asked to work or told what to do. What an eye opener that was. Here I've been all concerned about my horses' feelings, and feeling bad myself because they didn't seem to like working with me. And then this new information is stated and I'm thinking, "Wow, that is so obvious, how could I not have known that!"

Which in turn takes me back to when I was watching Keith work with Scout and it made me realize I was making way too many allowances for Bella because she's so emotional.

So I'm going to do some Bella Boot Camp. She's going to be asked to toe the line, and if she has to get emotional about it that's just what's going to have to happen. I'm not going to be mean or super bitchy, but I'm going to ask her to do what I want, when I want and come down and end on a good, relaxed note. Sounds so simple. But I think she's going to have a hard time with it. So am I. Like so many of us, I'd much rather just be her friend. But I don't want to get hurt because she thinks I don't have a right to ask her to walk out when I'm in the saddle.

Which brings me to yesterday when we had a nice working session in the round pen. I saddled her and bridled her in the Myler comfort snaffle. I had been riding her in a bosal, you may remember. That was just another allowance to keep her mental discomfort level down, so I decided she's going to have to ride in a bit. This is a wonderful bit too, all my horses have loved it. She liked it too, settled down and quit mouthing quite quickly.

Ground work went very well and she flexed and gave to the bit very nicely while I was on the ground. When I got in the saddle she did well, except she had a hard time giving to the bit and backing at the same time. This was tough for her in a halter as well, when she was learning to lead. No big deal, just stuff to work on. But when I asked her to walk out she felt comfortable enough to start tossing her head and I felt her body bunch up under me. I don't like that feeling at all. I stayed on and walked her around, did some more work on giving to the bit, then did some more ground work, then got on again. Same attitude. I think what I need to do is push her up into a trot. It scares me though, the idea that she may buck. So I'm going to keep doing ground work and building respect for now. It shouldn't be long before I'm in the saddle again.

I'm not upset or complaining about Bella, I actually think it's kind of nice to have an "Aha!" moment that gives me things to work on and think through. We're both going to grow. Constantly growing, with all there is to learn and do with the horses. It's good stuff.

This all must be very boring to read. But it helps me get my head around it.

2011-11-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

The vet just left. No definite diagnosis but the problem seems to be either down in the joint or around the sesamoid. I guess that's better than high in the tendon. It could be the suspensory ligament. He may have just twisted the joint. He might have a bone bruise, and he might have a fracture of the sesamoid but he thinks that's unlikely because of the amount of improvement we've seen so far. I'm supposed to call him on Thursday with an update. We can do x-rays if we need to at that point. But for now the treatment is stall rest, ice 2x daily, and bute. Basically what he told me to do anyway but I feel better now for some reason. I guess it's just nice to have some information.

I just read that one of my favorite bloggers is in the process of passing away. She's been fighting cancer and met every challenge head on, but suddenly she's slipping away. I "met" her online many years ago, long before I got Tonka, on a mustang forum. She's a wonderful, brilliant, caring lady, a talented artist, a horse lover. She'll be missed. I'm glad she's not in pain but I really wish things could have turned out differently.

2011-11-06T19:44:00.000-08:00

Well, today was discouraging. Scout's swelling went down quite a bit. Enough to feel the lumps on his tendon that show this is probably not an abscess. If it is a tendon injury, and I'm pretty sure it is at this point, it's much worse than what Tonka did this summer. I'll call my vet in the morning.

This afternoon I put Grace in with Tonka and Bella for the first time. I took Tonka out initially, to try to control the chaos. They had been living right next to each other for about a week, so they'd had time to hang out. Which turned out to be a great thing, because it went over with very little drama. Bella let Grace know she was in charge, and they settled down to eat. When I let Tonka in, Bella kept him away at first with just a little posturing. When she let him approach they simply said hello and that was it. Later they decided to tear around a bit, but I think it was just in fun, or maybe something spooked them, but they weren't fighting.

We raked about a ton of leaves out of the yard today, but we took a break in the middle to play with the puppies.

This picture cracked me up:
India loves apples, and it's an all you can eat buffet this time of year.

Big fart, little fart, and old fart. :)

2011-11-05T19:58:00.001-07:00

Scout hasn't improved yet. The swelling is worse today. I'm hoping to see a draining abscess next time I go out there. But all these worse case scenarios keep going through my head. I'm a worrier. But I'm doing what I can, for now. If nothing resolves by Monday then we'll have the vet take a closer look. I'd hate to have them do a bunch of diagnostics just to find out it was an abscess after all.

On a brighter note, Blue is so smart! He's not quite 9 weeks old and today I started teaching him a few things. He learned "sit" and "shake" today. We started heel but that will take time. He's just following the food. He LOVES food. Goes totally gaga over it.

I've been doing a little groundwork with Bella and Tonka, hoping I can get to riding them again. It's pretty ridiculous that I have 5 horses here and not one I can take out for a ride.

The weather should be nice tomorrow, so I hope to enjoy lots of horseplay! Hope you all have a lovely Sunday too.

2011-11-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Scout gave me a scare today. I found him pointing his right front foot in front of him. At first I hoped it was my imagination, but nope, he wasn't just shifting his weight. Then I found one of the wooden hay feeders torn to bits. Boards with screws sticking up strewn about. Crap.

I scrubbed his hoof, didn't find a puncture. Checked his leg, it was swollen up to the knee but I didn't feel any irregularities. He reacted to pressure but I think he thought I wanted him to pick his foot up.

I called my vet and in the course of describing the problem realized I'd probably overlooked the obvious because of that torn up hay feeder. I think it's a hoof abscess. Last Tuesday I noted that he was toe-stepping, specifically on that foot. I attributed it to hoof pain because of the newly removed shoes. I rode him Wednesday in Easyboots with no problem. But now it's much, much worse. The heat and swelling seem to be the worst in the heel bulbs. I exfoliated the sole and still did not find any sign of a puncture, bruise, or anything of the sort. (His heels were slightly bruised when I removed the shoes but that was old bruising.) I also found that he walked better over time as we headed from the pasture to the barn. I'd think that might be indicative of an abscess, since movement is supposed to help. But maybe I'm grasping at straws. Abscesses are great, I like them. Because once they rupture the horse is fine and dandy. What I don't want is a puncture, infection, or tendon injury.

I'm following the doctors orders and soaking in Epsom salts and warm water twice a day, with bute twice a day, until Monday. If an abscess doesn't rupture I'll probably have the vet out to see if it may be a tendon or a puncture.

Meanwhile poor Scout is stallbound, to keep his hooves clean and just in case it is a tendon and not an abscess. He liked it at first but when he saw me out in the pasture playing with Tonka he did some banging on the gate. I think he's getting bored. He dumped all his water and scattered the few things I left in reach of the gate. He's pretty predictable that way.

2011-11-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

It's puppy picture time! I worked at the spay/neuter clinic today and came home with a headache so no horse work. (Shh, don't tell anyone, but I think I may be allergic to cats.)

Rawr!

This moose is Huckleberry's favorite toy.
I won't be offended if you laugh at poor little goofy Blue.

And here's Huck at the same age. He was kinda silly looking himself. And wall-eyed too. So hopefully Blue will grow out of it. And if he doesn't, so be it, he'll be cute. But I'll want to call him Igor.

2011-11-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

Today Scout loaded in the trailer with his saddle on for the first time (stirrups tied up of course). He wasn't very comfortable about it. I need to do some trailer loading practice. He wants to walk into me, and I want him against the wall on his bad eye, which he doesn't want to do. So, practice makes perfect.

I also used Easyboots for the first time today, on all 4, and he went a lot better than he did yesterday. He was toe-stepping for the first time in his life. I think having shoes on set us back. Unfortunately he's right between sizes for Easyboots - 2's are too big and 1's are too small. Irritating. But for our purposes today the 2's worked.

We had the opportunity to go to another one of the group lessons, and it was a lot of fun. I think I really need this. I hope we can make our schedules match at least some of the time.

My notes for today:
Groundwork at liberty:

Need to be able to turn to the outside or inside (I've taught him to only turn to the inside). Need to make my cues for each type of turn more obviously different. It's kinda hard working in a round pen that's bigger than what I'm used to. (Excuses, excuses)
SPANK HIM when he's bad. He kicked out at me today as I was sending him off in the round pen. The trainer said, "He'd love to kick you right now" and I disagree with that. If he wanted to kick me, he has plenty of opportunity every day to do that. He's flipping me off, not punching me in the face. But either way, it's rude and not the kind of relationship I want to build. So I need to REALLY get after him when he shows attitude, every time. This could lead to more of a can-do attitude instead of the "Jeez, this is boring and I hate it," look.
Speed it up, expect more, and expect it NOW. (Same theme as last time)
On the line, we did some prep work for our later riding work - turns on the haunches. We were working on our "send." We'd back the horse, and if we're sending to the left (my left, Scout's right) we'd lift the lead (direct rein) as the horse's right foot was leaving the ground, making it easier for them to move in that direction. Both ways, of course. He did it, but we need to do more homework on this one. He's so lazy, I need to get some life in him to make it go better. (Same theme as always)

Riding:

Walk, trot, turn on haunches into the fence (this is where the liberty work turning into the fence will pay off). Leave the turn at the same gait you went into it (hah! - again, more homework). To turn on the haunches into the fence to the right, direct rein with the right rein, follow with an indirect left rein and a push of the left leg. Trot off in the new direction. I'm not totally sure about that indirect rein though... Maybe I made that part up.
We did some serpentines, way more complicated than I've done before. All my appendages are attached to Scout's appendages and my legs got tired and I'm not sure we got anywhere... The idea was to have all 4 legs equally reaching through the turns. My direct rein moved his inside front leg, indirect rein lightly and my outside leg pushing at the front of the girth to drive his outside front , and my inside leg back, pushing his hind end out. Something like that, anyway. That's not much to remember is it? And then to feel whether it's going right? Gah! They worked on this last week so didn't spend much time on it today. That's what I get for being behind.
Turn on the haunches starts by backing, and I need to get Scout backing with his face vertical, not behind the bit. Basically it's the same as what we did on the ground - back, then direct rein to the side as that leg is leaving the ground. Then, building on that, push the outside leg to push his outside leg over. Then, building on that, take another step back and repeat. Eventually we would be just rocking back between steps rather than backing again.

These are the keys to starting to get collection. A turn on the haunches requires that the horse be on his haunches. When he's on his haunches he's able to get collected and have his athletic ability available for use.

Tonight I got Tonka out and did some of the groundwork with him. It was really nice to see that his muscles aren't all bound up and he's moving pretty freely right now. He's a good boy. I wouldn't mind taking him for a ride, even if it's only for a few minutes. I'll see how he feels over the next couple days.

2011-11-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

I really have not been spending enough time with the horses. But I did get a ride in with Scout tonight. He's still a good boy. He did a little bolt when we spooked an owl out of the trees but it was understandable. I'm just glad he didn't step in one of the holes we were standing right next to. Other than that it was a great ride, with progress made.

Huck says, "Yay! I found my kid!"

Huckleberry and Blue are playing a game right now that involves Huck flaunting a bone and Blue racing back and forth and pouncing. It's pretty cute. They just ran all the way across the house together, Blue going "pit-pat-pit-pat-pit-pat" and Huck going "thumpa-thumpa-thumpa." I'd like Blue to go to sleep so I can go feed without his help. But at least they're being entertaining while they're being inconvenient.

Speaking of feeding horses, what times of day do you feed? Do you keep on a strict schedule or are you more lax about it? Why?

I don't keep on a schedule but I do my very best to space their feedings 12 hours apart.

2011-10-31T15:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Huckleberry was more than happy to hold the bucket, but the other boys weren't quite as obliging. I did manage to get a couple quick pictures before they lost interest.

Funny how they're such dorks, except when I want them to be.

2011-10-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Self portraits of a ride are so uninspiring.

Looking ahead:

Looking back:

Yesterday Scout and I had a wonderful ride here at home. We started out in the round pen since it's been over two weeks since our last ride, and I wanted to work on some homework from that lesson a couple weeks back. I also rode him with chinks on for the first time. You never know when they might get scared of something new flapping and slapping around. He didn't mind them though.

Eventually we went out of the round pen. I opened and closed the gate from his back for the first time. We'd opened it before but never closed it, although I know Keith did gates with him. Closing it is harder, I think partially because he's thinking he's free of the round pen and wanting to go do something more fun. Which we did. Lots of walk trot whoa in the field, and weaving around trees, facing a scary tiny bird in a pile of newly cut branches, etc. Basically we just dinked around but it was a lot of fun. I need to ride more often. I think I'm out of my horse funk now, only to be thwarted by this puppy!

Which is what happened today. I had intended to ride with Easyboots and rain slicker, since he's never done either and we have a big ride planned for tomorrow. But everyday work and the puppy being awake and very interactive at the wrong time meant that I just tried the boots on him and flapped my slicker all over his back. He was fine. But I'll ride him in the round pen before we go, if we go. The weather forecast is looking a little icky and Melissa is worn out from all the work she did today, so we may not go. Either way, I'm going to find a way to ride. :)

2011-10-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, I promise my next post will be about horses. But for now I have more doggie pics.

Sometimes this is how Huck feels about his little brother:

And sometimes this is how he feels about his little brother:

"Play with me!"

I totally love the look on Blue's face in this next one.
You might have to enlarge to see how funny it is.
Very hard going for a little guy.

Awww. Now that's my good dog.

And here's my good horse. I wish I had more time for him.

2011-10-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

There's nothing quite like rolling around in the grass with your dogs for a good laugh. Good pictures too.

Which one is your favorite?

#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

#5:

#6:

2011-10-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

At 1 a.m. when I'm making a trip outside for puppy potty, and then we come back in and he just won't quiet down and go back to sleep, I wonder what the heck I was thinking.

But today when I took him in for his wellness exam and found out he has a heart murmur I realized how attached I already am. It's probably nothing to worry about. Sometimes their heart grows faster than the valves.

He's a vicious little goober.

He's getting stronger every day, and is more like a little dog and less like an infant. I have a crate for him to sleep in and he's gone in voluntarily 3 times today to take a nap. But the poor guy sounded like I was killing him when I stuck him in an empty trough to keep him contained while I was with the horses. Puppies sure can ki-yi.

Tonka hurt himself last weekend. I don't know what he did, but he peeled back a thick hunk of skin under his jaw. He keeps breaking it open and making it bleed again. I'm mostly leaving it alone to heal but I'm keeping an eye on it and cleaning it now and then. It definitely hurts, and it's hot and slightly swollen. No pus. If it doesn't improve by next week I'm going to have to have it looked at. I'm not sure how deep it is. Dang these accident prone horses.

Soxy's thrush is hugely improved. One hoof still has a wet nasty pocket. The rest just need to stay thrush-free and grow a new frog. I was soaking, medicating, and wrapping them with diapers and duct tape but now I'm just cleaning and spraying it with Thrush XX every day. That stuff stinks! But I like the spray, it's easy to apply and I like that it's a moisture barrier. There are so many products out there these days, it's hard to know what to choose. If this doesn't work I'll try one of the purple products. Fungidye or Thrush Buster. No Thrush hasn't worked very well for me.

They're sure keeping me busy. Tomorrow I'll pull Scout's front shoes. Did the hinds already, and boy was that a chore. I wish I had some nail pullers but hate to spend the money when I may not shoe again, and if I do I'll have a farrier to do the work. Those shoes just didn't want to let go. Keith did a good job putting them on. I'd been afraid they'd come off since Scout's hooves are soft, but that sure wasn't a problem. Hopefully the fronts will go better.

Now I'm off to try to get some sleep before the little beastie wakes up again. Hopefully by the next time I post he'll have a name. Right now we're trying out the name Blue. If his eyes don't stay blue and his coat loses its silver hue it won't fit, but oh well. He'll be Blue Berry Jones. Huck is Huckleberry Finn Jones or Huckleberry Fiji Jones, depending on my mood. My first special dog was Harpo Fiji Jones, and he was a lot like these Aussie boys. I think he was part Aussie. I wish I had a good picture of when he was young. Here's one just months before he died at the ripe old age of 17. He was my ring bearer.

2011-10-20T17:05:00.000-07:00

This little puppy is so stinkin' cute I can't stand it. But he's wearing me out too. He's a lot like a human baby.

Huckleberry goes back and forth between really wanting to play with him and not liking him much. He's jealous sometimes. He definitely does NOT want to share his toys. And when he saw the pup chewing on my fingers he thought he needed to reprimand him. But he's doing really well with it, overall. I think he'll love his little brother a lot more when they can play together. I guess that's a lot like having human kids too.

I like this picture. Doesn't it look like they're on a secret mission? "Be vewy, vewy quiet..."

I don't even know what to say about this one.

Awwww

More awwwww.

Play?

Sweet little bean.

India doesn't mind him at all. She does the same thing she does with all dogs. She really wants to play and gets the cutest look with her ears perked up, but she doesn't play. She's afraid of getting hurt.

Awww, again. Do you think he's looking into the future? I wonder what he sees.

I also really wonder what his name is. We all can't seem to agree on anything.

Bashful brothers.

Whoops! Fell down.

I didn't go to my group lesson today, and unfortunately won't be going back at all. Darn it. My sister tells me it was a great lesson today and they did some bodywork. Oh well, I can't do everything.

I had an opportunity to volunteer at a local low-cost spay and neuter clinic so I started that today. Wee pup went along and had to live in a crate all day, except for loves from the staff and a couple potty/meal breaks. He did fine. I had a lot of fun too. Only one dog, and about 20-22 cats. I was on the waking up end, waiting for them to be awake enough to pull the tube out, clipping toenails, massaging and warming them up, moving them, etc. It was fun and the staff are all really nice. I'll get to learn more and help out more as I go more often. Good stuff.

2011-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

We have a little brother! There was a wee girl I liked but not as much as I liked this guy. Katia and Liam agreed. John hasn't met him yet.

Puppies are hard to take pictures of at night time when you don't want to blind them with a flash.

In this next picture you can kind of see his silvery hue on the tips of his fur - it almost makes me want to name him Griz. And you can see the cross on his neck. Or maybe it's a bird?

Now you see how small he is. He reminds me of the fuzzy caterpillars I used to play with when I was a kid.
Here's their mom and dad. The dad has some age on him. I think Huck got a little bit of both of them, but mostly takes after his dad. Definitely has his dad's build and coat, but not his eyes. The dad reminds me of my old dog, Harpo. And boy was he friendly! I don't know where Huck got his protectiveness, because both his parents were very welcoming. I'll have to find out what I did wrong and not do it again.

Here's a neat autumn pic of Bella.

And now my wee baby's awake and I've gotta go. :)

2011-10-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

Today was a sick day. Blech. Yesterday I came down with a fever in the afternoon and today I took it easy as much as I could. Watched a lot of TV. But had work to do, of course. No rest for the weary when you have horses to take care of. Luckily most of my horse work happened during a good spell. This is a weird bug, I'll feel pretty good for a little while and then it hits me again like a wave. Not bad, really, but I'll be happy when it passes. Katia stayed home with me too, so that was fun, aside from the sickness.

Today was our anniversary. We'll do something fun tomorrow. Tonight we're just reminiscing about how great our wedding day was. :)

I'm hoping to get some riding in tomorrow too, and I really need to pull Scout's shoes. Soxy needs some attention too. Yesterday I found a pretty nasty case of thrush hiding under her frogs. I got it cleaned out today but it's going to take some time and special attention to clear it up. I feel really bad for not noticing it sooner. Poor old girl. On the up side she seems to be feeling good, and she's loving the extra groceries she's getting now that the grass is gone. She gets to stand in the stall with no fear of Grace while she eats all her goodies. Grace stands outside looking very jealous and frustrated that she can't get in there and steal it.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

2011-10-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Scout and I went to a nice little group lesson today. My sister took Lakota, and a lady I know took her absolutely gorgeous mustang, and another lady with an older gaited horse. A great group. The instructor is the wife of the guy I tried apprenticing with a couple years back.

I think the idea behind the lessons is "western dressage" which I take to simply mean riding well - with consciousness - moving toward a goal of making ourselves into better riders to make it easier for the horse to learn to move correctly and comfortably.

Today though, we just did some ground work and some walk/trot and backing.

I'm going to take notes every week and probably post them here. I'm not going to go into detail because I think that'd be boring, but if you want me to clarify a point you can ask me in the comments. And this isn't meant to be advice to you, this is specific to the unique needs of my horse and myself. But maybe it'll be interesting or thought provoking.

I'll start with Interesting Tidbits:

"What I want to see are polite responses to polite requests."
Most horses are left handed, therefore have a harder time on the right.
We all learn conflicting things from different instructors, trainers, riding buddies. We need to constantly ask, "Why?"

On the Ground:

When sending, step forward, not back or to the side.
Get my energy UP. Have intent.
Phase up quickly when needed. (This is specific to Scout, who is a bit lazy and over-desensitized.)
Expect more (Again, the laziness and my tendency to let things slide.)

In the Saddle:

Back with his face vertical, not behind the bit.
When backing, having one rein slightly higher can help.
She does not have us alternate reins, but we do ask, release, ask, release, if the horse is doing right. Just a simple curling and loosening of the fingers.
Ask with rein and seat at same time. Keith had told me to ask for softness before asking for the back. So we needed to adjust.
She doesn't think legs should be used when backing.
Release only when the horse has it right.
Once he's getting it consistently, then start adding longer duration (more steps back).
At the trot - keep reins loose and ask only for 3-5 strides, then go back to walk. Do this a lot. It will help him relax into a nicer trot.
While walking in circles around the pen, to pick up a soft feel, ask softly with the inside rein and leg rather than both reins. This is hard for us because Keith did so much lateral work with Scout, he thinks he's supposed to get right up against the fence and stop, as you would when opening a gate. So I need to tone down my ask and keep him moving forward, and use my outside leg to keep him off the fence. That'll take some work.

Proud Moments:

Scout did SO well standing still while we all listened, discussed, and watched. He didn't paw or fidget hardly at all. He seemed to enjoy watching the show. :)
While we were backing, after she saw that he was behind the vertical, I worked on releasing at the right moment to encourage him to be vertical, and she complimented me on my soft hands and good timing. :)

One last interesting note - Scout is a slow processor, which I knew but... There's always a but... I sometimes need to give him more time in between things to process what just happened.

Speaking of big "buts" - It kinda sucks to pay someone to tell me something I already knew. A lot of it I knew I did wrong BUT was too lazy to fix. So it's good to have someone making me toe the mark, since obviously I'm not getting there by myself. And it's really great to have a really detail oriented pair of eyes watching and helping me along.

2011-10-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

2011-10-10T18:05:00.001-07:00

Today was a recuperative day, I actually watched some TV. Going to start making my way through McLeod's daughters again. Good show.

I also spent some good quality time with Tonka. He got his sheath cleaned, some mild exercise, and a hoof trim up front. He's got a nasty abscess that's broken out on his heel bulb, and when I picked up his hooves I found a lot of dead sole that needed exfoliated and a bunch of nasty thrush. So now his hooves are cleaner than they've ever been. After taking out all the dead material with my hoof knife I ran some peroxide into his hooves, scrubbed with a brush, repeated 3-4 times, and then rinsed with water. I considered buying some something else to try, but I already have this and I'd like to see how it works. I think just cleaning it out every day will take care of it.

It was so nice just spending time with my good boy. Just wandering around with him is so much more refreshing than spending time with any of the others. Tonka is my special one. I love them all, of course, but I often wish I didn't have to divide my time between them.

2011-10-09T18:46:00.001-07:00

Thank God for wide open spaces and blue sky! I just got back from a little trip to the land of rain and moss and it is so good go be home again.

My grandma is getting stronger, Grandpa looks great, and I'm feeling better about how they're doing. Plans are going ahead for them to make the trip down to their house in Yuma for the winter. Wish I could join them!

The horses look good, Huckleberry about wiggled his butt off when he saw us, and I think John is happy to have some noise in the house again.

All is well. :)

2011-10-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today Huckleberry totally cracked me up and impressed me with his smarts at the same time. I was picking apples and he watched me veryclosely , looked into my eyes as if asking permission, and then he very carefully picked himself an apple. I laughed and continued my work, but it didn't take me long to realize he was picking and dropping more apples. So I told him he better not pick them if he's not going to eat them.

He obligingly ate his apple

and then just kept me company without picking any more.
I filled this feed bag and another with apples.

Earlier in the day I'd patrolled the perimeter of the biggest pasture and fixed a couple breaks in the temporary fence, then put the boys out there. There's a lot of grass out there and I think Tonka will do better on real grass as long as it lasts.

I went back for Bella but she just stood there thinking about whether she wanted to come to me. (Earlier in the day I'd sprayed her with a spray bottle - how dare I!) So I left her alone in the small pasture. She spent a good amount of time today running around calling for the boys. Oh well, she doesn't need 24 hour grass anyway.

I got this bright idea to make soup and sourdough bread bowls. Then I decided to triple the bread recipe because I just happened to have triple the sourdough starter. I left for several hours and came home to this:

I'm glad I hadn't tried to fit it all in one bowl...

Liam and I made a pie. I wish I'd saved the last recipe I used. I don't think this is near as good.

Here's the finished product on the bread. Well, all of it except a pan of rolls that's still cooling. That round loaf on the left is as big as my head.

I think we're going to be plenty fat enough to start hibernating soon.

2011-10-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

Today I spent a lot of time staring at and feeling Grace's belly. I just don't see any sign of baby movement. Her teats are all shriveled up with just a bit of a pooch in front of them. But from the shape of her belly I'd swear she was "in the family way." She looks matronly, gravid. But it's mostly downward. She looks a little plump from the front but you can't really see her belly from behind. It would probably be 1000 times better if I took a picture rather than trying to describe it, huh?

As we were working on fence today (finally going to brace the corners correctly) I had ample time to watch the two mares. Soxy doesn't eat much hay. She chews and spits it out quite a bit, then wanders off to eat dry grass and weeds. Then she goes and eats poop. Yeah, I know it's gross but they get great probiotics that way and maybe it's easier to chew and digest? But to get to the point - what if Grace is simply fat because she's eating most of the hay I put out for TWO horses? I suppose I could separate them and start feeding her the regular amount for one horse. I definitely don't want to put her on a diet because what if she is pregnant? But ensuring that she's not eating way too much would be a good thing. And then I could get Soxy going on some more chewable feed. Not that she's too skinny or anything, but she will eventually be if I don't supplement her.

That's it for me today. Maybe I'll get some Gracie photos tomorrow so I can share with you what I'm looking at.

2011-10-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

We opted not to do the poker ride. Partially because of angry wasps on the trail and partially because I got to thinking Scout was not ready for that many horses and riders. So we went on a different ride with just 4 riders, including us. It was a great ride. We saw a lot of good new stuff and got to deal with a lot of wind in the grass. Scout is a fast walker and he made some improvement with slowing down and staying slowed down when I asked. We still have a lot of work to do there though. And I passed 100 hours of riding! I don't know if that's really a lot but I like it.

A couple big balers that made a lot of noise.

Here you can see another baler in the distance - there were four working that field. Bear and Melissa and Rosie are the real subjects of the picture.
I love this picture of Bear, he reminds me of the crazy hyena from The Lion King. But a friendlier version.

It was very dusty!

I figured out what this is! It's been bugging me since our ride at Heyburn when one stung Tonka. It's called a bald faced hornet. According to one site on the internet anyway...
At the end I dismounted and walked. It was Scout's longest ride yet, with the least amount of rest, and even though his pace was still pretty quick I could tell he was tired.

2011-09-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

I sure do love my baby horse.

Today we rode through farmland, but first had to cross a highway and pass a bunch of scary farm equipment and *gasp* yards and gardens. He was nervous at first but calmed down for the most part. The entire ride was a little scarier for him than riding in the woods though. I think because there's so far to see and so much to take in.

The first 3 bridge crossings I was on foot, but I rode over the last one and it was totally fine. He worries about what's under the bridge, and the first wooden bridge surprised him with its sound. I also dismounted to cross the railroad tracks but I probably didn't need to, they didn't bother him a bit.
The first time he crossed this bridge he was a little worried about the white railing. Isn't he a handsome baby?

There were these cute little tracks along the road for quite a ways. I think they're raccoon. What do you think?

This is a picture from yesterday. I love the view upward in a teepee.

Tomorrow we're going on a poker ride. I'm a little worried about having Scout around a bunch of horses and the nerves that go along with a big ride, but I think he'll be okay. I'm more than happy to walk if I have to. Or even call it off at the trail head if the riders are too crazy. Luckily it's a marked trail, not a guided group, so we don't have to ride with anyone we don't want to. This ride tomorrow (as long as I get in some saddle time and don't walk too much) will put me over the 100 hour mark for riding this year. Yay! I think that's pretty good considering all the time Tonka had off this year.

2011-09-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year when the horses start letting go of dead hoof they've been hanging on to. Here's Bella's hoof from the side, and you can see from the break that there's a lot of extra hoof that needs to come off. My hypothesis was that all the small black cracks would be gone when I was done. I was right.

From the bottom. Wow, what a lot of fun to be had with my nippers.
And a few minutes later, but not done. I had to pick up Katia so I hurried and didn't take more pics.

And yes, I know it looks like I neglect her hooves horribly, but I don't really. I don't pare out all of the rock-hard dead material throughout the summer, so now it's all coming out at once. And her hooves do grow pretty fast, so I admit I should be more on top of it than I am. I do what I can, and so far nobody is the worse for it...

I spent most of my day with Liam's class. What fun! Really, I'm not being sarcastic! I only wanted to pull my hair out once or twice. Mostly it was a blast, and I really enjoyed getting to know them all a bit better. They only got to do the small zip line but the other activities were super fun too, and some were very challenging. It was neat seeing the kids go from, "I can't," to actually doing it, several times, and being so proud of themselves. Here are a couple pics of my happy boy.

I'm off to bed so I can do more of the same tomorrow. Good night!

2011-09-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Do you ever, as you're falling asleep, dream that you're tripping over a branch and jerk violently to catch yourself, only to wake up and feel a little embarrassed? I've done that as long as I can remember. Did it once in math class, must have been my junior year in high school. I don't think anyone noticed...

Well, last night as I was falling asleep I dreamed I was riding Scout and he stumbled and I (in reality) flinched so hard I bent my fingernail backward and tore a bit of skin out of my knee. Weird. I don't dream about riding. When I didn't have horses I used to dream about them, but just as I was about to ride they'd turn into people, or something else would happen to keep me from it. I can't remember a dream where I've ever been riding. Until last night. Must mean Scout's a special boy, right? I hope so. Because I see in him the possibility of a spoiled brat bucking because he wants to do things his own way. So I think we need to work a lot on ingraining automatic responses to cues, like the walk trot work I was doing yesterday.

Today I didn't ride, again. Life gets in the way. Kid woke up with pink eye so I had to take him to the doctor. And his class is having a huge awesome outing over the next two days, which required a lot of preparation. They're going camping! All the 3rd-4th graders and the kindergarteners. Ought to be a pretty exciting time. They'll be doing all kinds of fun activities. Luckily he can still go even with his eye, since he will have been on antibiotics for 24 hours by then.

So, that's about it for me for the next few days, I guess.

2011-09-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

My sweet Tonka.

I rode Scout today too. Walk trot walk trot, etc, etc. Nothing interesting to report. Sometimes that's a good thing!

2011-09-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

I don't have any new horse stuff to report, been too busy for horses...

I just thought I'd post a couple very brief book reviews.

DO NOT ever read Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss. Horrible. Not that she's a bad writer, she's an excellent writer, but it was depressing and very disturbing and I sure don't need that. I never put a book down in the middle, I even struggled through and finished Twilight, but this one I took and tossed in the trash, half read. I wouldn't even re-sell it to the used book store, don't want to subject anyone else to it.

On a much better note, I'm reading The Help. I love it! I haven't been able to put it down unless I absolutely had to. Which is a large part of the reason I ignored the horses this afternoon.

That's about all I've got!

Oh, the quote thing! I keep forgetting about that.

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
-Helen Keller

2011-09-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

Buddha

2011-09-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

Scout had a little wreck after I rode him today. That colt... He's so mouthy, has to taste and bite and chew on everything. He was tied at the trailer and reached around to bite his stirrup, but he bit a little too deeply and it got caught on his lower jaw. He probably could have dropped it if he'd just flexed his head in to his shoulder but of course he didn't. He tried to pop his head up, found himself still caught, pulled back a little and swiveled his butt around so his belly was on top of the trailer hitch. I pictured him eviscerating himself. But he stopped and stood totally still, and I got to him and wrestled the stirrup off of his teeth. Then I walked away until my hands quit shaking, and let him stand there and process what had just happened. Hopefully he learned his lesson and won't do it again. Yeah, right...

Before that, though, we had a great hour long ride around the place. He was a bit herdbound, so when we were done I lunged him at a trot for a while right next to Bella and Tonka, then tied him to the trailer. He hung out quite still for a while, resting. I went in the house to get a drink and cool off. Luckily he waited until I was back out there before he had his little wreck.

I finally dug out Huck's paperwork and called his breeder, on the off chance she'd have some puppies soon. We're in luck! She has a litter that should be weaned in about a month. When the time comes we'll be going to pick up a sister or brother of his.

Question: What are your thoughts on female vs. male? She said her female is more protective, and I don't want a dog that's any more protective than Huck is. She thought we might want a female though, so we don't have tension between the two males. I don't really think that will be an issue, since we neuter our dogs. I was kind of thinking maybe females are more cuddly and attentive? What do you think?

I asked her to just observe what they're like, and tell me which one is more cuddly, less bold, and of course I don't want the most active dog in the litter. She called Aussies "the lazy man's herding dog" and I think that's a pretty apt description of my Huck. He spends most of the day sleeping on the couch...

I'm so excited I don't know how I'm going to stand the wait!

2011-09-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

Today I took a walk with my good horse for half an hour. He was so mellow, kind of not himself. I hope he's feeling okay. Or maybe he heard me saying how proud I was of Scout's bravery. :) His tendon still appears to be fine, and since he's been in the pasture and able to move around the EPSM isn't as noticeable. I need to start working him a little every day now. I'm not sure how I'll find the time.

Scout had the day off because I just couldn't take enough time for two horses today. He and his mama did get in a couple good gallops following me and Tonka as we walked around their pasture. It's fun to watch them feeling good and moving out, and I love the sound of thundering hooves.

I looked at a boxer puppy today. I thought she was the bees knees but Huck wasn't so sure. I think they would have been good buddies off leash. Huck tends to think he needs to protect me or claim me when he's on the leash. But we decided we can't spend that much on a pup right now, so I tonight I told them I can't take her. I've been thinking a lot about the boxer my grandma and grandpa had while I was growing up. She was such a sweetheart and quite the (large) lap dog. She loved the whole family but my grandpa was her favorite. They'd sit in his big recliner and watch westerns together.

Tonight was "curriculum night" for my son's class. It was really neat. He goes to an Expeditionary Learning school and they put so much thought into how they teach. It's very interactive. The kids are very involved in what they learn, and have to really think about it. They can't just memorize facts. They ask hard questions and collaborate to find the answers. Tonight the teacher had the parents break into groups and learn about an aspect of Expeditionary Learning, make a poster about it, and teach the rest of the "class" of parents about what they learned. I had to speak in front of a group! Ack! But I lived through it, and I didn't even make a fool of myself. I'm so proud of me. The school is so good at teaching kids courage, and I got a dose if their teaching today too. :)

While I was listening to how they do their routine for math, I was struck by how it's the same as working with horses. They start on a familiar problem, something they already know. Then they work on new stuff, really digging into why and how it's done, and different ways of looking at it. Eventually they go back and reflect on what they learned, and then they start over in the same way the next day, building on the foundation they started the day before. I have often thought it would be utterly fascinating to get a group of child educators, horse trainers, and psychiatrists together for a meeting of the minds. Just to sit and listen to them would be an amazing learning experience, and very, very inspiring.

Tonight I had to turn my fog lights on to see the road right in front of me because of all the dust and smoke in the air. I like the saying, "Every time you eat you participate in agriculture." Right now though, I feel like every time I breathe I participate in crappy farming. I don't think there's any legitimate reason for this many farmers to be burning their stubble fields. Yes, I know sometimes it has to be done to kill a rust that's gotten into the crop, to keep it from spreading. I understand that sometimes it's the best way to control weeds. But to do it just because you're too lazy to till in your stubble? I can't believe they're allowed to affect the entire world with their smoke just for that. Of course if they till, there's the dust... Sometimes I think I'd like to live somewhere else. But then we don't have floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, or destructive tornadoes. Just smog during harvest and snow in the winter. It's a good place. But my whole head is in pain right now. On a happier note - my ear noise is gone! Now it just hurts. It's nice to be able to hear relatively well again.

2011-09-22T08:45:00.001-07:00

Yay! Our hen came back! She's totally fine, just really talkative and hungry. I'd think she was broody but isn't 6 months old too young for that? They just barely started laying, we've only gotten 2 eggs from them so far.

Anyway, just wanted to post a happy update!

2011-09-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

Scout's second trail ride was even better than the first. We went to the same place, and I rode pretty much the entire time, didn't need to walk to get our nerves under control.

He was very interested in some cows on the other side of the cattle guard by the parking area. They were very interested in us too. People-watching cows. :)

He flat-out refused to pose nicely for a picture.

That's a little better...
Pretty cool that I feel confident enough to be dorking with my cell phone and taking pictures on his second trail ride. :)
He really preferred to lead, on both rides so far. What a bold, brave boy. But we practiced following a lot today. At first he had his head in the air and his ears listening behind us, he was scared. But he got over that.
A long view, Gold Hill is the mountain on the left

Taking sign pics for navigational purposes, and a sweet side view of Rosie:

I'm so thrilled with this colt. He's so easy to ride! I can guide with my legs and neck rein for the most part, but when I want more finesse I direct rein. He rates really nicely too. What an awesome handle Keith put on him.

We went off-roading a bit and he really seemed to enjoy it. He kept trying to leave the trail after that, to go back into the brush. He had a little trouble going down a steep bank into a ditch, but that's just colt stuff.

Yay! Back on the trail and loving life. :D

2011-09-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

"Nothing is worth more than this day." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It really is amazing how good it feels to get outside and work with the horses. I just came in from doing some groundwork with Scout and it made me happy. He's such a big cutie. I still haven't ridden thanks to this head congestion but I'm going to go to the doctor today and hopefully they can give me some good advice, and maybe medicine that doesn't make me feel loopy.

In other news, my grandma has been in the hospital and yesterday she said she didn't want to fight anymore. It's been a stressful time. We have all been so afraid. But then in the afternoon she made a sudden improvement so I am really hoping the upward trend continues. They can't do the surgery she really needs because she's so sick and weak, but if she gets strong enough and they fix the valve in her heart, I think she'll be with us for a good long time. I'm not ready to give her up yet.

My sister had a biopsy today to check a suspicious growth. I really think it will be like all the other scares and she'll be fine, but there is always the fear that cancer is going to rear its ugly head again. I'm going to go up with her tomorrow to see her oncologist. I wish they'd have the biopsy results that fast but they just can't.

On a happier note, since I started giving Soxy bute every day she's enjoying life again. Yay! I'm not giving up on her yet. I won't let her be miserable just because I can't handle having her put down, but, in the words of Atticus Finch, "it's not time to worry yet."

I've been reading so many blogs where people are in the same boat I am, fighting depression and negative inertia as we move into fall. I wonder what we bloggers could do to lighten things up. Any ideas? For my own self, I'm going to force myself to go out and work with the horses every day, whether I want to or not. And try to get out on the trail some more. And declutter my house (already made a lot of progress on that).

I just had an idea and added it to the top of this post. I have this book I got from Lea of Lea and her Mustangs called "Happiness Quotations." I'm going to start sharing them with you all. Some of them are very inspiring.

Another thing that I read yesterday really struck me deeply: "What happens, happens." I've just finished To Kill a Mockingbird for the zillionth time and I'm starting a new book by Molly Gloss. I love her books. This one has less of a western theme. Or none at all. It's kind of Sci-Fi - about some Quakers moving to another world. I like it a lot so far. If you all haven't heard of her, you absolutely have to read "The Hearts of Horses," a book about a young woman horse trainer in the early 1900s in NE Oregon. If you follow the Mustang Makeovers at all you'll recognize some of the names of people and places she mentions, not in the story but in the acknowledgements I think.

I've gotta quit rambling on and get going. Have a great day!

2011-09-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

Blah. Life. I have to remember to count my blessings and be thankful. And breathe deep.

How do you release stress when life is handing out sucker punches? I can't go into detail but I'm tired. Bone weary. I need to let go of the weight of yesterday so I can carry the load of today. And quit borrowing trouble for tomorrow...

Yesterday I didn't ride. I'm still dealing with a lot of head congestion and now my left ear is humming constantly. A bass note in your ear all day has a definite effect on a person's psyche.

Today I was still a bit dizzy and clumsy, so I opted not to ride again. Instead I practiced trailer loading my 3 redheads into the new trailer. They all seemed bothered by the windows on the butt side of the trailer. I think they're lower than the old trailer so they can see out and they feel threatened. Tonka loaded well but shot out every time I asked him to back out. So we kept at it until he went slowly. Bella did really well until I closed the divider on her, then she looked like she might try to crawl under it. So I opened it back up and petted her a lot and repeated several times. Scout kept trying to step into my space. I'm a stickler for making them hug the wall as they load, not walk down the center of the trailer and certainly not on my side. I want to keep myself safe, even my toes need lots of space in there. So we backed out and started over a fair amount and until he kept on his side.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time out there, including hitching up and catching them all. So they all did what was needed in a timely fashion. I'd like to practice some more just to get them more comfortable. And I need to get a welder to fix the dividers. They're not at enough of a slant, my horses are just a hair too long, so I want to add some more pin receivers to make the slant more slanted. Luckily the dividers are adjustable in length. I also want to cut off the rings that are there to attach a corner feeder. They're a little sharp and Tonka skinned his head. Poor guy. I wouldn't mind being able to feed them grain in there but I'd have to find a different way to do it. maybe have some rounded chain-link shaped attachments welded on to hold the feeders. Feeders which I don't have anyway so it gives me one more thing to add to my list of things to spend money on for the horses... :)

2011-09-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

Scout's first trail ride was a resounding success! I had such a great time. A huge Thank You to Melissa and Rosie for babysitting us (and bringing your camera). And a great big Thank You to Keith Danielson from Hooper Crossing Ranch for putting such a wonderful handle on my baby.

He's so mellow! We both (Scout and I) started out with some nerves, so I hiked for a while. But we spent most of our time riding, and he did so well! Very alert and forward (a case of nervous motion) but also very responsive. He rated off my seat with little help from my hands, moved off my leg, and stopped nicely. He had a fair amount of trouble staying stopped. Colt stuff. Wiggle wiggle. He just wanted to keep moving. By the end of our 4 hour ride we were both totally relaxed and enjoying every minute of the ride.

As you can see, he's a pretty stand-offish guy...

I'm looking forward to many happy rides ahead. He's going to make a spectacular trail horse.

2011-09-12T20:47:00.001-07:00

No ride today. Plans were interrupted by a horsefly. Scout got all worked up just after I got him out, tossing his head and acting like a dork. I tried to find the fly and shoo it off for him but it didn't help. Then he stomped on my foot, trying to get the fly. So I put him away and went to get an ice pack. I was out of fly spray or I would have ridden anyway. Now I have a new bottle of fly spray but my evening didn't go as planned. Oh well. I wasn't really in the mood tonight anyway. My foot is fine, it just stung and I have a pretty bruise.

I forgot to mention the other day that I bought the horses some new toys. I was going to get a yoga ball but I found a big beach ball for much cheaper, and I got a rattly hula hoop too. It's interesting the different reactions I got from Scout, Tonka, and Bella. Scout didn't take long at all to be in my face investigating. Tonka was a little more iffy about the rattly hula hoop but pretty soon I had it around his neck, asking him to give to pressure. Neither of them was very worried about the ball, although Tonka doesn't like it when I roll it at his legs. Bella wanted nothing to do with any of it, especially the noisy hula hoop, so I just pretended to ignore her while I played with them. And of course Scout kept coming up and trying to take the hula hoop, which made it rattle, which scared her. I like playing with them with no agenda.

2011-09-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

Every ride just keeps getting better! He's a neat horse. We went out further today and he really got interested in where we were going and it was great - ears forward, quick walk. Then we rode around the front field some more. We still haven't cleaned up everything from our yard sale so it's a great place to let him ride around weird junk.

He looks like he could be a movie star. :)

2011-09-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

Today's ride with Scout was all of an hour and really was good. We rode in a bigger area - one of the pastures - for a while and then I took him out into the front field, which isn't as enclosed and has a lot more distractions. Eventually we went up the driveway a ways and tried riding out in an unused, treed field. He was worried about what might be in the bushes and he was drawn back toward the mares, but I was able to get his attention and do some good work. But then I started thinking about paper wasps and how they like to build nests in the weeds there, so we went back.

Scout is hyper aware of any movement in the trees around the house, although he didn't do anything stupid even when big things happened, and he seems very wary of the dogs. While Keith was riding him he did have one big uh-oh moment and it was caused by a white dog running at him. He turned tail and ran, but it was at a nice medium lope. I'm hoping not to have any big spooks like that, but I know it is a possibility. He did spook like that once when I was ponying him, when the dogs popped up out of the creek behind him. Overall though, he's not a spooky horse. It's pretty neat riding a horse who doesn't look at every object like it might eat him. But in so many other ways he doesn't come close to comparing to Tonka. I made a good analogy today. Riding Tonka is like driving a sports car, whereas Scout is like a big bus. Slower, less responsive, less maneuverable. In the future that will be a wonderful thing, since I'm hoping Scout will be a good husband/kid/all-around trail horse. Right now it's a little odd trying to make the adjustment. I'm sure it's odd for him trying to get used to my inept riding after working with Keith. We'll get it all sorted out. I'm not going to give up on getting responsiveness out of him, but I have to be aware of the fact that he's not eagerly awaiting my every whim like Tonka is. He thinks he has his own agenda. And he has a short attention span!

Tomorrow I think I'll set up some minor obstacles and give us both something to think about. I may try taking him out on the trail with another horse this week. Just an easy trail, an old logging road he's been on before. I don't want to push to far too fast, but I also don't want him to be too complacent and think this whole riding thing is dumb and not worth his attention.

It's fun, it's new, and it's good work, but I still find myself missing riding my Tonka.

I let them all out in the pasture for a little over an hour tonight and Tonka's leg seemed fine afterward. I had tried trotting him in the round pen yesterday but I couldn't tell why he was off - whether it was EPSM or the tendon. He just wasn't right. So I figured if he seems to tolerate being in the pasture that can be the beginning of a reconditioning program and we can work on getting the EPSM back under control so he can be more comfortable. I'll have to start lunging him again at some point. He was doing so well, I hate to think of all the boring work that lies ahead to get him back in shape. And there's Bella to think of too. I haven't done a thing with her in a while. Not that she minds.

2011-09-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

Isn't he cute?

We had a short ride in the round pen today. I was feeling kinda dizzy and off balance, but we did some walking and trotting and maneuvering in the round pen. Then we walked around any scary stuff I could find, because I noticed he seemed abnormally spooky after he got home yesterday. He was more his normal self today, it must have just been the stress of the trailer ride. Later in the day I started getting a sore throat and realized I'm getting sick, which explained the dizziness in the morning. Back to school bug - hopefully mild and short lived!

Tonight I spent a lot of time loving on Soxy and feeding her carrots and grain and bute. I want to try to curb the pain until her time comes, and give her all the goodies she can safely eat, and scratch all her itchy spots as often as possible. She's such a sweetie. Grace was jealous. She makes it hard to give Soxy one-on-one time. I have to be constantly vigilant and make sure she's not edging in and making Soxy feel stressed.

(I'm going to say this in a whisper, in parentheses, because I hope I'm mistaken: Miss Grace quite suddenly looks a little funny in the belly. If she was bred right before she was gathered she could still have a baby - latest due date would be mid to late October. Cross your fingers for me, hopefully I'm just being paranoid. But then again, babies are cute, and look how nice Scout turned out. It wouldn't be the end of the world. But I hope she isn't.)

2011-09-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

My big baby looked like a big boy at the trainer's. But he's not so big at home. He looks little next to Tonka. And look at that baby face when his mama bosses him.

He's the first horse at my place to wear shoes. I didn't get to be there for such a big "first" but oh well. He needed them for the riding they were doing out in the rock. It will be interesting to ride a horse with shoes. I don't know whether I'll continue to shoe him in the future. I'm not really pro shoes, but I also know it's been challenging to find a good boot fit for Tonka and it's a pain to have to avoid certain trails to save my horse's hooves. Scout has naturally soft hooves. They're decently hard right now thanks to the dry weather, but most of the year they're pretty flexible. So we'll either have to find boots that work or shoe him during the trail riding season.

He gave Mama Cat a good petting. They're funny.

A "family portrait" kind of a pushme-pullyou with a peekaboo over the top. They're happy to be together again.

Tonka's tendon seems to be doing well. I put him in a small pen with Bella last week so he could be happy. But still, this is the face he wears most of the time.
It's because of his lack of exercise and his EPSM. He's moving really stiff-legged in the hind end, and his whole body just looks bad. He's uncomfortable and I hate to see him like that, but I can't over-exercise the tendon.

I like this face better.I might try putting him in the pasture tomorrow. I'm afraid to though. So I might not. I really should try trotting him in the round pen to check his gait. He doesn't seem to have heat or swelling in the leg anymore, but I don't know about lameness since it's so hard to spot at the walk.

Soxy doesn't look good. I think I'm going to spoil her for a week, schedule a backhoe, and say goodbye. Her face is swollen where the tumor is, and she has a pained eye. I hate this.

The dog couldn't stay. I'm not competent or willing to handle the severe separation anxiety. I felt terrible dropping him off at the humane society (no-kill shelter) but that is what they're there for, and it's better than him wandering around starving to death or getting hit on the highway, which might have been his fate if I hadn't picked him up. It was a hard decision to make. But when I got home and our old dog India peed in my shoes, I realized she wasn't okay with the new dog so it had been the right decision. She has terrible arthritis and is heading toward her last days after 10 years with us and she deserves consideration. I'm looking forward to spoiling the two dogs that we have, while we have them, and hoping that India will perk back up or maybe we will find some new pain management for her. I don't want to lose three beloved pets so close together.

So if I don't sound real excited about Scout coming home, it's not anything to do with him or his training. I'm just a bit worn out emotionally tonight. He's got a good handle on him, all the buttons are there. We just need to start riding and getting a feel for each other. At this point I'm not in a hurry to take him out on the trail, but it would be a pleasant surprise if I found we were ready for that. I'd love to get out in the woods and enjoy a ride on a good horse.

2011-09-07T13:15:00.000-07:00

My life has been hijacked by a very cute guy I found on the side of the highway.

He's a little rough around the edges.

But he's a big love.

The whole family loves him, and nobody has claimed him yet (I did EVERYTHING in my power to report he's found, and checked for a microchip - he had no collar). We just happen to have an "opening" for a dog, although we hadn't planned on getting another for a while. The only hitch is that this guy has a severe separation anxiety problem. I don't know how anyone could possibly have abandoned him, because he's like velcro! He's always right beside me. It's very flattering, but it becomes a problem when I want to leave the house or go into the grocery store. Right now I can take him in the car (although it's not fun for him) so I can go places where I can have a dog attached to me, but I can't go shopping and it's difficult to do anything with the horses because he barks and cries when I tie him up nearby. I won't even go into what he did to my bathroom last night when I had to leave him for a while. I hope he settles down or we find a safe way to contain him while we're gone. I have a dog crate that may be big enough, but I don't think that's a good idea. What we need is a kennel... My fenced dog area doesn't hold him.

Suggestions? I've dealt with separation anxiety before but this is much worse than anything I've seen.

2011-09-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

Soxy is still well enough to play with little girls, but not for long periods of time. She can't breathe very well, and I think it makes it hard to do much of anything. She's such a good girl though.

Life is busy around here. I will get back to my horse work this week though.

2011-09-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

I finally got my very first horse trailer! I'm still a little disbelieving. I didn't get to drive on the way home because of a migraine, which was kind of a bummer, but John says it hauls nicely. It's totally silent too, no clanging and banging of loosely pinned dividers and bulkhead. This one has an enclosed tack room, which means it's a full, permanent wall and doesn't shift around. The dividers pin in securely rather than being loosely chained to the wall, and there's no slider in the rear wall to clang around. The ceiling is higher. It's double matted with softer, more textured mats. I think my horses are going to love it. I was concerned about the dark color being hot, but both times I looked at it, it wasn't hot at all inside.

This is her better side. There's some peeled paint and rust on the other side. I'll have to give her a face lift at some point.

2011-09-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

2011-09-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

We had to say goodbye to Angus last night. When I got home from being gone all day yesterday I found him in pain, with gray gums and no capillary refill. Luckily he was well enough to get into the truck and I didn't have to call in help to lift him.

I'm really thankful for this last week we had with him. We pampered, spoiled, loved, and cuddled him. And I'm thankful for being able to hold his big noble head and ease his way out of his suffering.

He may look tough, but this dog was the most loving big baby you'd ever meet. He thought he was a lap dog, at 120 pounds. All he had to do was stand over your lap and he was a lap dog. :) We're going to miss him.

My thoughts of him are happy, even though I'm sad. We had good times together. What a dog!

2011-08-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

Had a very big day today. Rode Bella this morning and then hopped in the car to go look at a pony and several trailers. The pony was heavenly. He just does what you ask when you ask and not much else. What? Horses like that exist? He trail rides, games, does trail competitions, rides out away from his horse buddy at home, and is just perfect in almost every way. He's also a wonderful cuddler. I don't think we're going to be able to get him though unless some kind of miracle happens. If I find a cheaper trailer that's not falling apart, maybe... Poor Liam, he's already in love with that pony. The pony is sure to find an excellent home, he's such a good boy. If you're in the area and you're looking, let me know and I'll give you their info.

I saw one trailer that was falling apart and after that decided not to look at the other old trailers with no photos on my list. I saw two that were worth buying and made an offer on one. I don't know if she'll take it. It's not much less than her asking price but she doesn't seem real keen on selling in the first place. I actually had a hard time getting her to show it to me. She said she'd talk to her husband about it. :/

I ordered a pair of bucking rolls to be made at Indiana Harness today. Can't wait to see them. Their price was pretty nice too for custom work.

Still have to feed so I'm off!

2011-08-28T22:13:00.000-07:00

Angus is feeling so much better! It really is amazing. He's like his old self. Granted, he's on two kinds of pain meds and antibiotics, but I can't tell you how happy it made me when he trotted across the house to see me when I got home yesterday. So it looks like we may have more than a few days. My biggest (huge) fear is that the tumor will rupture again and I won't be able to get him up to go to the vet and he'll be in agony. I'll hope that doesn't happen.

Bella and I rode again today after two days off. Of course I was trying out different pads again. I really do need to use the Ricotti pad, this saddle doesn't fit her. Hopefully it's good enough, with the extra padding. She certainly rides differently with a different pad. My round pen isn't totally level, and she kept trying to break into a trot going down hill. I figure it was shoulder pain. She didn't do quite as well with everything else as she did the last time I rode, but that could have been the two days off. Even so, she's doing so much better than she was when I posted a video. I'll get another one soon. I'm proud of her (and me, a little).

After watching Keith ride Scout I realized I'm thinking too much about her emotions, making too many excuses for her. I also decided to do a desensitizing routine before I ride, with a lead rope or stick and string, and progress to other things. That starts the ride off with her thinking, possibly worried, but soon realizing it's no big deal. I think that's a good place to start, and it's good for horses to have a routine they can count on. I also realized, and already knew this was one of my big faults but it really drove it home when I talked to Keith, that I'm asking for too much too soon. She doesn't have to do something perfectly the first day. Maybe I'll just get a try. Then we can do something else and come back to it the next day, and the next, until it's solid. While we're doing that we can still progress in other areas and work more on things she's good at, which will boost her confidence.

I am really enjoying this journey with her. And she doesn't irritate me! Tonka is always moving, fidgeting, playing, being a spaz, trying my patience, checking to see if I'm still on my game. He makes me become a spaz, simply to keep one step ahead of him. He's not hard to take most of the time, but lately with him not getting enough exercise his energy drives me nuts. Bella isn't like that. She's a calming influence.

Speaking of Tonka, he's been going for walks for the last 3 days, just for 10 minutes, and his leg seems fine. I'm so excited! I might take him for a 15 minute walk tomorrow.

Here he is taking a break at the crab apple tree, hoping I won't make him stop.

We had a glorious storm here tonight. Wild sunset, lots of lightning and thunder, and then torrential rains. I love the first rain in August after it's been so dry for so long. It's very renewing.

I'm on the hunt for a horse trailer of my very own after all these years. I found a couple I love but one is in Montana, a 5 hour drive one way, and one the people don't seem real interested in showing to me. That and with school starting this week it's hard to find time... I did finally decide what I really want in a trailer if I can find it on my limited budget - a 3 horse slant with dividers and a tack room. I like the 3 horse, even if I only usually haul one, because eventually I can haul all three of our rideable horses to go trail riding. Also, if I want to haul someone else's horse I can stick Tonka in front and the strange horse in the back and they can't mess with each other.

Oh, and since I didn't take pictures of the awesome obstacle course at Hooper Crossing, here's a link. The photos don't even touch the surface of what he has out there though.

I've gotta get off my feet. Good night!

2011-08-26T10:37:00.001-07:00

I don't know why bad things come in groups. I was pondering that on my way home from the vet this morning, trying to find the bright side. I thought maybe it's so that we have longer periods to enjoy the good times in between the bad times. I think maybe it's better to have all the bad stuff go down at once. But I still don't like it.

This morning our big dog Angus was very much not right. I walked into the bedroom after blogging, feeding the horses, and picking Katia up from volleyball. And he was laying on the floor in the wrong place, in a very strange way, and not responding to my voice. Eventually I got him to sit up, and with great difficulty he stood up. Nothing was right about the way he was acting - he was obviously in a lot of pain. What really told me something was very wrong was when he didn't eat. This dog's whole world revolves around feeding time. He thinks about it for hours beforehand and then wanders around hoping for more after he's done eating. The vet wasn't open quite yet but I put him in the car (with difficulty) and went to the vet, calling them when I got to the edge of town.

Long story short, after a bunch of diagnostics, they find that he has a 5cm mass in his spleen that ruptured. It didn't bleed a lot and seems to be clotting fine, but he needs some fluids and pain meds throughout the day. I can pick him up this afternoon. But that's not all. This is pretty common in large dogs, and it's an aggressive form of cancer. We could spend a couple thousand on top of what we spent today to have his spleen removed, but the truth of the matter is that it is very likely to metastasize if it hasn't already. So that's not really an option. Just like with Soxy, we have to hope we can get him comfortable and wait out the end. It doesn't sound like it will be a matter of years. We might have months. We might not even have days depending on how he responds to treatment. We'll see.

So, Bella didn't get ridden yet today. I might be able to get to it but I have all this pesky housework I've been neglecting.

2011-08-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

Tonka's not afraid to jump in and help, and he's so cheerful about it too. Just the kind of co-worker we all need. Yesterday Bella and I opened the gate and did some riding outside the round pen. This horse is awesome. Sometime I'll have time for a longer post...

2011-08-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

Scout looks good. I watched them work in a small indoor arena and outside. He rode all through the obstacle course (I have obstacle course envy now). He should be ready to come home by the 8th.

I didn't take pictures. Sorry. I feel weird asking, "Hey, can I take a picture an put it on my blog?"

I had a lot of ideas and thoughts on the way home but I'm going to go outside now and play with Bella.

2011-08-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

Tonka says, "Hi! Whatcha doin'? Can I come help? Will you come get me? Wanna go do something? Will you come play? Take me to eat grass? Can we do something? Anything? Please?"

Today Bella and I worked on sensitizing her to my leg. Eventually I'd like her to turn when I turn, without a heavy leg signal. She doesn't have it naturally in her like my first two mustangs. We made some good progress though.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to see Scout. I can't wait!

2011-08-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

A happier picture of Soxy. I let her out this morning thinking she'd stick close by because I was getting her grain ready but she went for a walkabout and I had to go get her. Luckily she doesn't move fast and she just wanted to visit Bella. See her sticking her tongue out at me?
Her little walk allowed me to listen to her breathing. It sounded pretty normal. A week ago it would have been loud and labored. I think we're getting the inflammation down. I know the tumor won't go away but this will buy us time.

Bella in the Ricotti pad again. I don't think it's dumping the saddle back onto her loin. In fact, it's lifted up in the back just like it should be. The seat looks level to me.

Today we worked a lot more on turns, and not getting distracted by workers on the highway. Then we just travelled the rail for a while. When I was happy with how that was going I asked for a trot. It was choppy, and quite frankly she was a little pissy about it. She did it though, 2-3 times. Then we turned around and went in the other direction. When I asked her to pick up a trot she did, with minimal attitude, and this time it was sheer heaven! I could ride that trot for miles. I wish you could feel it. Lovely. I dismounted and called it good.

I mentioned how I put up my saddle the other day, so I thought I'd expound about that. I don't like straps and junk hanging everywhere.

I learned this breastcollar storage trick from the horseman up the hill. It keeps it nicely in place. At first I thought it took too much time, but better that than tripping over stuff.

(Of course we all know to cinch up the front cinch first, and let it out last, right?)

Here's my main complaint about the Smart Cinch. Any other cinch I'd hang my back cinch on the buckle pin from the front cinch, and then hang that on the saddle. But that doesn't work so this is what I do:

I worry that over time the folded back buckle will wear on my saddle. When I get around to it I'll either turn this cinch around so the regular buckle is on this side, or switch it out for a string cinch.

And here you see the sweaty side is out, able to dry. I'm real particular about how I put stuff up.
If you go anywhere there are a bunch of horsemen together, you might notice them checking out each other's gear and how they handle it. I think you can tell a lot about a person by their tack and how they handle it. Maybe they don't give a damn, maybe their gear is old and worn but well fitted and well cared for, maybe they have everything that's in style right now and it's all barely used. I think I'd fit in the greenhorn category based on my stuff, but at least I'm careful how I handle it. To me, my saddle is a work of art and deserves care. My horse too, of course - I should keep my stuff reasonably clean and pay attention to whether it's comfortable for the horse.

2011-08-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

I decided not to use yesterday's video, it's just too long even after editing. So I'll load today's. It's still almost 10 minutes long. Pretty boring stuff, but for me it was great to watch. I saw some mistakes I made. I put a couple captions where something interesting happened, but not many. One theme that's consistent throughout is Bella's turns are not what I want. Today was better than yesterday though. What she does, and you'll see it if you watch, is turn where I'm asking her to turn, but she keeps her body fairly straight and is leaning against the bosal. What I want is a nice supple turn with her body arced in the direction she's going, with no pressure on the bosal. She had one excellent turn today when I didn't even have to bring the rein into contact. She followed my body. Just one, but it's a start.

Another thing that's interesting to note is how she parks her hind end out pretty far when she stops. She did this a little bit yesterday and I wondered if the Ricotti pad was dumping too much weight on her loin. This pad I used today is flat, and she parked out worse. Perhaps it's putting pressure on the nerves in her wither that cause a horse to park out. I'm going to go back to the Ricotti pad next time and see what I see.

I love Bella's sweet face.

Below you see that the inside of her bosal (the dirty part) is pretty smooth. I've seen some, I think made by Weaver Leather, that may as well have been saw blades, with the points of the plaits standing up. I wouldn't use one, and I hope anyone who buys them is smart enough to do something to smooth it down.Post-ride sweetness. What a good girl.

2011-08-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

I'm editing a really long, boring video to share with you, but in the mean time, I thought I'd talk about tack.

Here Bella is wearing a cheap (but not abrasive) bosal hung on a regular headstall, with cheap reins. The bosal could be shaped better but I don't have a bosal block. Any kind advice about bosal care and use would be kindly accepted. I have read about them online but that's about the extent of my knowledge.

She has a Ricotti pad under her saddle. It has a gradual build up toward the front for downhill horses, or horses like Tonka with hollows behind the shoulders. I'm finding it may not be all it's cracked up to be and may not work for any of my horses, but it is WAAAAY better than any other built up pad I've tried, besides maybe the Chris Cox pad. Above, it looks to be putting the saddle too high in front, but Bella also does not look downhill in the photo and she definitely is.

The breastcollar is a martingale type breastcollar, also sometimes called a pulling collar or a modified pulling collar. It isn't a true pulling collar, because it attaches to dees in the saddle, not through the pommel. It also has a strap that goes over the neck to hold it up. I do not like a breastcollar that gets in the way of the horse's shoulder movement. This certainly does not. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't match my new saddle, and the strap over the neck rubs their mane on long rides, causing tangles and sometimes damage to the mane. (By the way, I LOVE where the breastcollar dees are located on this saddle. Not too low. Most are too low.) More about breastcollars - I once got a concussion and a $1200 hospital bill for not using one (my saddle rolled). Not something to be proud of for a lot of reasons. But I am very glad I was wearing my helmet. I don't like to see a breastcollar adjusted too tight. As I said, the shoulder needs room to move, but also you don't want it pulling your saddle from side to side and causing discomfort. I also don't put metal snaps on them to make it easier to attach to the saddle. Maybe I'm too paranoid, but metal breaks. It also clanks, which bothers me.

The saddle, of course, is my beautiful handmade saddle I bought last year. It's a bit wide for Bella. But I think it's close enough. I adore it. It was made by "an Amish kid" north of Spokane, whose family has moved away. The maker's mark is a symbol, but there are initials on the hobbles. I just can't remember what the initials are right now. You can see the matching hobbles hanging from the saddle. Bella isn't hobble broke but Tonka is, and Cisco is (although he's not here anymore). The saddle maker obviously put a lot of time, knowledge, and talent into this saddle, and he made it very comfortable and balanced for the rider.

I've been considering getting bucking rolls attached, but then we had all these vet bills... I keep thinking the bucking rolls might save me a hospital bill, but I still can't justify the expenditure, at least until next payday.

The saddle bags shouldn't even be mentioned. They're horribly dirty and worn, came on a ranch saddle that I bought, with some cattle doctoring paraphernalia still inside. I love them, but they're ugly. I can't find any new ones like them, and this saddle really does deserve leather saddle bags.
The cinch is a felt Smart Cinch. I'm not real partial to the roller buckles that perhaps make it easier to cinch your horse too tight. I also don't like them because the way I put up my saddle doesn't work well with them. I'd have to show you in a different post, it isn't something I can explain. But I do like that the metal buckle is padded by the felt, and it's not gross, slippery, sweaty neoprene.

I think that covers everything Bella is wearing. I'd love to see some of you do posts on tack. I'm a tack junkie!

Bella found Tonka's mineral feeder (which he miraculously hasn't broken) and she really liked the Dynamite minerals I bought from Keith Danielson at Hooper Crossing Ranch. (Tonka isn't partial to them but that may be because he doesn't need them.)

Here's Soxy, looking thrilled. She really was right as rain and happy, just didn't want me pointing the camera at her and asking her to pose. You can see the incision under her eye if you look close, and her nose is still bleeding a little. :(

2011-08-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a really good day. This morning I decided to ride miss Bella in the mustang pen. I didn't feel like getting Tonka out of the round pen to ride in there. I figured the small mustang pen would make a great "breaking pen" because it's small and we couldn't get into too much trouble in there.

Here's my pretty girl, ready to ride.

What I didn't realize until I mounted up, is that the roof is too low for riding. So I decided to just do some turns and stops in the open area, and then maybe move to the round pen. But just after I dismounted, Katia came up to tell me Soxy had flies all over her face. So I decided to make it a really short ride and call it good. I think that's good for Bella anyway.

Later in the day I spent some time with Tonka, scooping poop while he helped. He's such a good helper, scooting my wheelbarrow around and trying to chew on the handles. Then I groomed him and gave him a snack. You can see in the next picture how he's losing condition with no exercise. His EPSM is rearing its head, but not terribly. He's stiff and uncomfortable in the hind end. His front end seems to be holding up pretty well. You can see some lameness from the tendon but it doesn't seem too bad.

Tonight Bella and I had a longer ride in the round pen. It was still pretty short, maybe 10 minutes, but we did a lot of circles and some stopping and backing. She's pretty resistant to the left, but pretty good to the right. She's trying some of her naughtiness, snaking her head around and stopping. It's like she's doing a kinda-sorta one rein stop without being asked. I wasn't there for most of her riding when she was at my sister's a couple years ago, but I think there were a few issues there. The saddle didn't fit, she was trying to bully my sister into getting off with her snaky-necked biting moves, and her stifles were hurting. I think a lot of it now is due to insecurity, but she shows some attitude as well. The attitude also comes from insecurity, but she's also testing me to see if she can get away with it. She moves out (walking) when I ask though, and she does turn, it's just not very responsive. We don't have power steering yet. :) Her stop is very nice, but her back is a little slow to come. When it does come she wants to move forward again after a step back. We just need to develop our communication, and she needs to relax.
I'll try to get some video tomorrow. I should be able to set the camera on the side of the round pen and start it if I don't have anyone there to man the camera.

This chicken cracked me up tonight. Volunteer grilled chicken. But she says, "No! Beef! Beef is what's for dinner!" Her name has chosen itself - Blackbeard. If you look close you can see why. She's a pretty nice hen. I sat with her in my lap tonight and she really enjoyed being petted.

This picture is from last night. A good snapshot of my life. Huck, airing out his belly and hoping to charm someone into giving him a belly rub (look at his cute paws!), with two horse training books, a vet bill, and a trail map. Don't mind my messy bed. Yep, I'm one of those people who never makes the bed.
I saw Cisco at his new home today and talked to his new owner a lot. He really loves that horse. There's a lot about him that's lovable. While they were camping they picketed out the other horse and just let Cisco roam and graze. He'd come into camp and get into their pockets pretty regularly. He's a personable guy. It sounds like they're working through his wanting to go back to the trailer. He's already lost weight and put on some muscle. They're planning some long rides out from home soon. I love it. Just what that horse needs, a lot of time and love, and someone who's not afraid to insist when he needs to. I can't wait to have a horse to go out riding with them. Bella may be ready soon, and if not, Scout, and if not, it looks like Tonka will be better sooner than I thought. He'll have to see the vet in a couple weeks though to make sure he's doing as well as I think he is.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

2011-08-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

Cisco is sold! He's actually been gone since last Sunday but I didn't want to jinx it by saying anything. Now the bill of sale is signed, the guy loves him to death, and I have one less mouth to feed!

This guy is younger and totally willing to work Cisco through his issues. They went camping and rode through some rough country every day for the last 5 days. One day they went 20 miles. So he's thoroughly aware of Cisco's naughtiness. Love it.

Another thing that's kinda neat, is Cisco will live right across the creek from us. It's causing a little trouble right now because Tonka is all excited and moving more than he should. But it'll be nice to be able to see him, and maybe go riding with him every now and then.

I gotta run! more later, with pictures...

2011-08-18T20:58:00.001-07:00

I wanted to post a happy update. Soxy is looking bright and chipper tonight, and she ate down her grain and meds like a pig. Her breathing even seemed better and there was less blood in her nose. Maybe the dex is already helping? I have hope she'll be with us a while longer.

On another note - I feel like I'm running an equine hospital! Soxy on her meds, Tonka with his leg needing iced twice a day, and Bella back on steroids for her skin (they are helping, she's just not totally cleared up yet). My gosh. It makes me really appreciate the times when they're all well and I actually get to ride.

Speaking of riding, Scout has been at the trainer for almost two weeks now. I just sent an email asking when I can go see him. I'm excited to see how he's doing!