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

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

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

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

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

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

The second one was this Weaver bit.

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

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

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

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

Getting ready for Mustang Days and trying out new bits.

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




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

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

Camria (Bella) riding today:

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

Very clear striping on this shoulder:

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

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

The lower side of the neck is dark.

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

A wide flank stripe:

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

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

Good night! May tomorrow be a better day!

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



Check out the rocky terrain:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zaz trailer loading:



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Breaktime.

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

Where we'd been:

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

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

Zaz made my birthday a good one.

Here he's curious and ready to run:


Curiouser and Curioser:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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