Today was a wonderful day for a ride! It was 41 degrees and sunny. A slight breeze chilled my hands a bit, but other than that it was perfect. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice also, and then it's going to get gross again.

Here's a picture I took a few days ago of Tonka's shoulder bridge pad, to show the area it fills in behind the shoulder. It is tapered at the back, even though it doesn't look like it in the picture.

After a longer ride with it today, I'm not convinced it does any good. It's memory foam, and when that stuff gets warm it just compresses. It looked good to begin with, but when we got back I think the front end of the saddle had dropped.

A photo of my summer playground - the mountains - all covered in snow.
I've actually never ridden in these mountains but I will this summer.
Part of it is Mary McCroskey state park.

This is Gold Hill, where I have ridden and will definitely ride again. I haven't been to the old mining camp yet.

We only rode for about an hour, but I swear it felt like two. It wore Tonka out too. He seemed like he wasn't feeling very well today. I considered just staying home but he clearly wanted to go up the road so we went.

Scout was a good boy for our ride. He's been ponied longer than this, but it was out in the woods which for some reason isn't near as scary as around man-made things. One of our neighbors is a farmer and he has lots of stuff on both sides of the road - an orchard, several buildings, big grain trucks, tractors, plows, cats - you name it. That gives them a lot to look at. We were only passed by one vehicle - the mail lady. She was nice and slowed down to go by. Scout spooked slightly once, which made Tonka lurch forward. I don't know what it was that bothered him.

My body is twisted today. It's weird, my left shoulder is in front of my right. Or my left hip is back. Not sure which. It made riding a little awkward. I'm going to the chiropractor tomorrow, hopefully he'll get me all lined up again.

I also made a huge turkey dinner today. It was fun. We emptied out our big freezer last weekend and turned it off, and this turkey had to be eaten. John's parents came over and we had a nice evening together. A couple hours later I still feel like I'm going to explode and die of salt intake. But it was totally worth it.

I don't have a lot to write about, I suppose. I rode Tonka today and ponied Scout. I've been riding Tonka in a nice, really gentle bit these last several times, but today I didn't want to warm it (my hands didn't have any warmth to share) so we rode in the halter/bridle or riding halter or whatever you want to call it. He is SO much more responsive when he doesn't have a bit to distract him. I've probably made that observation on here before. Not that he's bad in a bit, but he plays with it a lot, and it's really apparent what works better for him when you go back to riding without one. Feather light neck reining and a beautiful stop. Everything just happens a fraction of a second sooner, with more relaxation.

Anyway, we had a short ride in the cold, me in my marshmallow man suit of coveralls and old farm coat, and with my hands about to fall off because I didn't realize I needed gloves until it was too late. We were trying out the Skito shoulder bridge pad that I got yesterday (cheap - eBay). I think it may well be the ticket. My saddle sat more level and he didn't have near as much loin scrub as he usually does. He had plenty of room for his shoulder to move freely. He also didn't pop his head in the air when I put weight on his shoulders during the dismount. Nice.

Yesterday I didn't ride. Had full intentions to saddle up until I walked outside. Ice was blowing sideways through the air. The cold, windy weather had them feeling very playful and a little nervous. So I took them to the trailer, picked out their hooves and scraped most of the dried mud off, then took them back to the pasture. I ended up hanging out in the pasture, walking all over the place and loving on my boys, just because I couldn't get over the fact that they so obviously wanted to hang out with me. Scout wouldn't leave my side and Tonka wasn't far behind. Not that they usually run away when I'm around, but our relationships have strengthened with the consistent work lately. It makes me happy.

We've had a busy few days and I've been without a computer. But now thanks to my patient and industrious husband, all my programs are newly installed, minus all the junk that wasn't supposed to be there. And minus one part of the file I was using to keep track of my riding hours. Darn it. Luckily I had just looked at my total the other day and the number was round and easy to remember, 25, so I'm pretty sure I've got it all figured out, within a few hours of error.

I have to learn how to work a new version of MS Office. That'll be a source of irritation for a little while. I'm resistant to change, I admit it, especially when it comes to software. And I lost my photo editing software so I downloaded something called Photoscape. I can't wait to see what I can do with it. I didn't want anything complicated like Photoshop. I don't have the time to figure out how to use it.

These photos I trimmed and re-sized using Paint, which is also new and different, but wasn't beyond my peabrained ability to figure out. :)

I found my perfect boot!

They're Ariat Jamisons, and officially they're a work boot, but they have the right sole for riding. I'm not fond of the pink stitching and pink suede around the ankle, but they are very comfortable. They have a firmer sole than the Terrain, not as squishy but more supportive, not lumpy under my foot and I think it'll last longer. They're a short boot that can be laced loosely enough to slip easily off my foot in case of getting hung up in the stirrup.

Yesterday Tonka and I ponied Scout again. We had to pass the fire John had going at the barn, and it went well the first 5 times we went past it, but on the return trip from riding up the road Tonka couldn't go by it. Poor guy was terrified. The fire was much larger, my son was laughing like a madman, the dog was chasing a cat, and John sneezed. My goodness. I let him stand and look for a long time, hoping he'd decide to go on by, but I had to hop down quickly when I saw that Huck was going to chase a cat over some stacked sheets of tin. I think that noise would have been the last straw. (I wish I could break that dog of his cat chasing! It's the one thing he does that I don't like.)
Both boys seemed to enjoy going up the road though. We went a bit farther this time, past a couple of houses with mailboxes, garbage cans, farm implements, and other horse-eating things. Scout is so much more level-headed than Tonka was at his age (or even now, maybe).

We also did a bunch of work around the place and made a couple trips to the dump. I finally got around to cleaning up our little shed. A bag of feed got left in there and it had an infestation of mice. I filled a kitchen garbage bag 1/3 full of mouse poop. I should have worn a mask. My lungs have been in bad shape ever since, and I had to use my inhaler a couple times, which makes me sick. So even though the weather is decent today I may not be riding. Does anyone know of any good remedies for congested lungs? Preferably something that doesn't make me feel shaky and useless?

Today the horse work was pretty short, only about an hour. I ponied Scout around the field for a while, then up the driveway and down the road a very short distance. I figure baby steps are a good thing. That and my dogs were following me and I didn't want them loose on the road.

Tomorrow the weather should be decent for riding, warm with a little rain. But we have a lot of work to do and a benefit auction to go to, so we'll see if I get time. I'd like to keep things as consistent as possible and take advantage of any good weather we get.

Hope you all have a great weekend ahead of you!

My two amigos

Today was more of the same. Nothing real interesting to report. Good progress though.

I feel like I've been held hostage in my house this week. Liam is sick, poor kid. He got up at 4:45am on Monday with a fever of 103. Needless to say he didn't feel good and would be staying home from school.

Tuesday morning was another early one. Huck had an odd potty emergency at 5:30, and then Liam woke up and needed some ibuprofen, and I went to wash my hands and found that we had no water. The pumphouse door had been left open and the pipes were frozen. So I went on a journey outside in the cold to find a heater, didn't find it, went into the attic, found one, and plugged it in. By then I was awake. The pipes thawed eventually.

Today Liam stayed home again, but he wasn't feeling too terrible. I let him play outside for a while. That might have been stupid. But I did insist that he wore a coat, and it was about 32 degrees, which seemed warm after the last couple days. And I know how I feel after being sick for a couple days - I want out of the house! So he played by himself, then we played a good game of catch together. He watched me work in the round pen with Scout for a while, but he asks so many questions when I need to be paying attention to what I'm doing, and Scout was being rude to Liam, who was sitting on the top rail of the round pen, so I asked him to find something else to do.

I had a good day with my boys. I should probably say now that I've decided not to do the clicker training. It just isn't for me right now. I don't want to learn a whole new method and retrain all of my horses at this time. I'm already not sure how I'll have time for what I have to do with the horses this year. Clicker people may judge me for quitting and using the dreaded natural horsemanship, but that's okay. I know I'm not beating or otherwise abusing my horses into submission.

Scout got some refresher work in the round pen. We worked on consistent inside turns, gait changes, coming to me, and staying with me as we move around. He has a hard time with that on his right. That's his bad eye (if it's bad - some things he does better on that side). By the end we had made progress but not a lot. He'd eventually drift too far away or get ahead of me. I decided to call what we had good and let him "soak" until tomorrow. When he was drifting, I wondered if maybe he could see me better from a little farther away. I wish I could see how he sees! But I've decided not to make allowances for his eye, other than taking the time it takes to make him comfortable with doing things correctly.

With Tonka I asked him to relax and walk around the round pen, as a warm-up. He has a hard time walking, he'd prefer to trot. So we worked on turns and eventually transitions. He was also cutting away from the rail on the side away from Scout, and getting right on the rail by Scout. He's a little herd-bound to that baby.

Here are my boys. I had to take the picture toward the sun or it wouldn't have had both boys in it. Scout needs to learn patience. :)

I am reading "Countdown to Broke" which at first I didn't like because of the emphasis on the round pen. But lately I've realized that my aversion to circle work has caused me to be kind of half-assed in some areas. So I'm going to do it this way, slowly and carefully, being very sure that I don't progress too quickly or overwhelm my horses.

Speaking of progressing too quickly, I had a lightbulb moment recently. Blogging has been detrimental to my horsemanship. I think it's probably normal to want to get to the next step and be super proud that my horse has done something new, and take pictures to document and share on my blog, but I need to suppress that urge. It's not about me and what I can do with my horses. It's not a race and I don't need to prove myself by hurrying. The only thing I need to keep in mind is my horse, and how he feels about what we're doing, and whether he's ready for the next step.

Which doesn't mean I'll baby them. They have a job to do and lessons to learn in a timely manner. There's a balance that's sometimes hard to find - between making allowances and requiring that they "man up." Because to try to make them comfortable all the time is not going to be good for them at all in the long run. They have to become uncomfortable (in a safe way) and realize that they can come back from that and be okay. Preferably with the human coming out looking pretty smart in the end, so we can gain their trust. :)

I'm babbling, and I'm sure none of this is ground-shaking information to any of you. I just had some humbling realizations lately that made me step back and re-think how I do things with my horses.

Oh - but going back to "Countdown to Broke." This is what I meant to say: he trains the horse to move its hip away when he pulls the rein toward himself (on the ground). Which really confused me at first, having been a "lateral flexion" person who expects the feet to stand still while they bend their neck around. But eventually I came to like the idea. A lot. Rather than training the horse to have a rubber neck that bends around all the way, you're going more with their natural inclination to follow their nose. Which would be much safer than a horse that will put its nose on your boot while you ride, but continue on in the other direction. In a panic situation, mind you. Not that Tonka would do that, but Cisco has.

So, what Tonka and I worked on was connecting his nose to his hip - meaning that when I picked up the left rein his hip would move to the right, and vice versa. Making sure he fully committed, with the left hind hoof crossing in front of the right hind hoof (or vice versa), as we're taught to look for when "disengaging the hindquarters." In the process I realized I've really let a lot of stuff slide. We had a quiet little tune-up session.

Then we rode out of Scout's sight, and back where he could see us, changing up the duration, while he stood tied. He wasn't happy, but he got quieter with each repetition.

I think he's a handsome boy, even if he is naughty.

Tonka waited half untacked without moving an inch while I took a picture of Scout.

Before I went to Scout to untie him (he was on a Blocker ring, but he'd tied a knot somehow anyway) I thought about how horses often become more fidgety as you approach them to untie them, looking forward to being untied. I worried that I'd have to leave him tied longer, and I wanted to be done. But as I approached, he'd fidget or paw and I'd stop approaching. He'd stop fidgeting. I'd approach, he'd fidget, I'd stop, he'd stop. I think I only had to stop two or three times before he realized I wasn't coming if he wasn't standing still. He really is smart.
So - What are your thoughts on connecting the nose to the hip, if you know what I mean? I may not have made sense of it here. I'd like to know who already does this and why, or who thinks it's a bad idea and why. Thank you!

I got a chance to ride my horse yesterday for the first time in a while. It was a beautiful morning. And by that I mean warm, cloudy, and just barely raining. I'll take what I can get. I decided to ride with my bareback pad. I got a Skito pad a while back (for $10!) and it works perfectly to put cushion between his back and my bum. The bareback pad has some cushion as well. We had a lot of fun, just playing in the field, tuning up a few things here and there, and then we went down the driveway and into the trees, but not down the road. I don't trust him, or my balance, enough to do that bareback. Tonka did stumble going downhill once and I was surprised how little it bothered my balance. I just don't think I'd stay on one of his huge sideways spooks. He hasn't done that in almost a year, but I have some fear issues associated with it, so I'm sure I'd get all tight every time he looked at something funny, and that wouldn't be a good thing. No sense taking risks anyway - I can't afford any more medical bills.

I think this week I'll walk & ride with Tonka, and later start taking Scout along. He could definitely use the exercise and experience. And I think the weather is supposed to be halfway decent, so it may be time to start making a commitment to work with Scout every day.

I need some feedback from you all. I mentioned before that I can't find boots that are good for walking AND riding. The Ariat terrain boots I have are awful (but maybe only because they're old). Would you ride in loosely laced walking shoes? Or do you think it likely my foot could get caught in the stirrup even if the shoe comes off? Does anyone have suggestions for comfortable riding boots? I'm talking about walking many miles in them, so they have to be supportive and comfortable. I like the look of the men's Roper Horseshoes. Anyone have any experience with those?

What I'd really like would be some STI breakaway stirrups - then I could wear whatever shoes I want. But they have a HUGE price tag.

What would you do?

This morning we didn't have time for a long walk but we went 2.5 miles. I love my EveryTrail app on my phone for tracking distance.

I realized this morning that what used to be my "skinny" jeans (I'd only wear them some days because they weren't very comfortable) are now my comfy jeans. Love it. All the hard work and dieting is paying off, slowly but surely. And my back isn't near as painful now as it was a couple months ago.

Tonka still seems sore, but the walking is helping. His hind end is super short-strided when we start out but he's more normal by the time we get home. I think if we keep up the daily walks I might be able to ride him next week without feeling like I'm hurting him. Weather permitting.

Tonight I'm going to the Mustang Club meeting in Spokane. It's at Perkins on Mission and Argonne at 6pm if anyone would like to join us. We'll probably be planning some trail rides, and of course talking about Mustang Days. You don't have to have a mustang to join in the fun!

My computer has gone on strike. John's going to have to wipe it and start over from scratch this weekend. I'll be able to back up and save the stuff I want to keep, but I'm sure it will be a very slow process. I'm not looking forward to it.

I just today grew a brain and realized I can use John's computer to check blogs and write a quick post and look up information on enrolling at University of Idaho.

I'll start with the school idea - I think I mentioned I've been looking for a job. Unfortunately my skills are in a limited area (office work, customer service work - not something I'm extremely keen on anyway). Also, there are lots of college students around to fill entry level jobs, and many employers are looking for college graduates for anything requiring any kind of intelligence. I never got around to going to college, other than one logic class where I had a lot of fun and passed with a 4.0. I'm thinking of starting at U of I with the intention of ending up in Rangeland Management, or possibly something else in the college of Natural Resources. I also like the idea of their pre-vet program but I have a few reservations there. Now I just need to find out if I can go to school without it costing me anything. You never know, it could happen.

In other monetary news, our business is... changing. We have some huge decisions to make and I have no idea how our lives will be structured in 6 months. If we could both go back to school that would be best, but I don't think they pay you to go to school, and we have a lot of mouths to feed (and a mortgage payment).

I've got to run out the door but I have to tell you real quick - Tonka has been really lame from the EPSM, and I decided to get him back on a fitness schedule. (I need it too, of course). So today I walked 4.5 miles with my best horse and my best dog, both of them on leads at times, and working on Huckleberry's off leash manners, and they were awesome. Nothing like splitting your attention between two very intelligent boys to keep your mind off your troubles. And I'm a firm believer that exercise and fresh air is good for mental health! Very much so. We had fun.

Edited to add a couple pics of our walk today.

This morning as I sat and drank my morning coffee I watched my boys at the trough. They're so fun to watch. Tonka was rather annoying with the "I'm not touching you" game while Cisco got a drink. Then he chewed on the edge of the trough for a while, yawned a lot, lifted a hind leg and switched his tail. (I think these were signs boredom and of pain - I didn't give him his special feed yesterday.) Scout tried to irritate Cisco by nosing and nibbling at his flank, then he gave up and they all stood and dozed in the sunshine. That's about all the horse interaction I got today, other than a quick hello as I fed.

Those of you familiar with rain rot or rain scald or whatever you want to call it, does this look pretty much like what you'd expect to see?

Are big lumps like this normal?

I worked outside for over 6 hours today and now that I'm inside, I'm getting more and more sore. There's a lot of moaning and groaning going on in this house right now.

The sun was shining all day, and I needed that so bad. I got my horse chores done and I decided it was time to tackle barn demolition again. So I started a fire. Which was tricky since it rained buckets all day yesterday. My little fire grew and grew I kept feeding it all day until it turned into a huge pile of embers as the sun went down.

Liam and John worked with me, and they got the lean-to part of the barn torn down, saving the good siding for me to build a shed with later.

Katia did a bunch of housework without being told (much) and helped throw a little wood on the fire. But you could see her girly squeamishness as she picked up the wood. She's deathly afraid of spiders. And maybe she doesn't like dirt as much as the rest of us do.

India spent the day mousing, which (as you can see) involves a lot of excavation:
Huckleberry was plumb tuckered out from being overseer all day. He also made sure he was available for company anytime I took a break for a minute to let the fire die down a bit.

It was a great day. Which we all needed. Some things don't need to be blogged, but this has been a very, very difficult week. Nobody's going to die or anything, so don't you worry. :)

What a HUGE relief. Soxy is going to be fine. Well, for now... The vet thinks it's the same old thing it has been - most likely a sinus infection but possibly a guttural pouch infection. Her lungs sounded great, heart was great too. He said she looks very healthy and alert, and he doesn't think her problem is painful. So we treat it, again, with antibiotics. He said he'd get back to me on a dose for goldenseal and echinacea too. I hadn't thought of giving her echinacea but I already started with the goldenseal, but probably too low a dose. I know when I start to get a sinus infection it clears it up. Have to be careful though because it can be hard on the liver, and we haven't run bloodwork on Soxy.

I didn't realize how stressed I was about this until I was halfway home and I suddenly felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest. I'm glad she's going to be around for a good while more.

The vet thinks Soxy may have pneumonia. It sure is different from the other times, but I was so focused on her past issues I didn't give a whole lot of thought to whether it might be pneumonia. It occurred to me, but I thought the gurgly noise would be more in her lungs. Which it might be, I don't have a stethoscope. So off to the vet we go tomorrow afternoon. Luckily my driveway is clear and I only have one flat tire on the trailer (I swear we find EVERY stray nail with that thing). I'll change it real quick in between appointments tomorrow.

Today we took my son to a behavioral optometrist. It was pretty fascinating. He did about an hour and a half of tests with the doctor. The doctor will study his tests and put together a treatment plan, and we'll see him again tomorrow morning to hear all the juicy details. I am really excited that there may be a solution to Liam's aversion to reading. He kept complaining that his eyes or his head hurt as we got further into the tests, and some of them even made him nauseous, so I'm really hoping there's something in his eyesight that can be corrected and will allow him to enjoy schoolwork more. Heck, if it makes him sick no wonder he doesn't like it.

Speaking of sick - I'm sick tonight. Hopefully a quickly passing bug. I want to ride this week! Now if only the weather will cooperate.

And speaking of weather - Katia and I went for a drive today and decided to go ahead and go through this:


Probably a dumb thing to do, but the water wasn't moving fast, the road was paved (not soft - no getting stuck), and it looked shallow. It was deeper than it looked, but we were okay in our big pickup. The flooding on our own place isn't bad at all, but it's pretty bad in the surrounding areas. Lots of melt and lots of rain at the same time turns farm fields into lakes. John said he couldn't even count how many deer he almost hit tonight. They're probably all flooded out of their normal homes, poor things.

Cisco got it! I knew he would, he's a smart boy. It seems he doesn't really like to touch the target, or he doesn't really understand why we're playing this game, but he knows now that touching the target gets him a reward.

I'm trying to edit a video of our first tries... We've had nothing but technical difficulties with the camera today. This video may be too big but I'm going to give it a shot. (Don't mind my scowl, somehow my face stuck like that. My poor horses probably don't know what to think. I need to make it a goal to soften my expression a LOT.)

Note that I make an attempt to not click and treat when he's crowding or mugging. The point here isn't that I'm rewarding him for anything yet, I'm just showing him that the click is connected to the food. But I don't want to click when he's doing something I don't like. When he's sniffing my right hand he's checking out the clicker. That's okay, I like curiosity, but it was kind of like mugging too. He wanted to know if it was food.

I'll try to get some video of the next step tomorrow, but it might be raining all day so we'll see...

Cisco doesn't get clicker training. I think he understands that something interesting is going on, but he's not sure what, and he doesn't like my target.

Tonka understands too well, and I'm not moving things along fast enough for him, I don't think. It all just feels so awkward, when I know I could just ask him to do the things and he would do them, without the clicker or the food. But he wouldn't be as excited about it. The excitement kind of gets in the way though... Blah. I wasn't all that inspired by the results today.

Scout - he didn't even come to play. He watched us work for a while and then went to go eat hay and didn't come when I called, so I figured he didn't get to play today.

Bella - She kept me company while I scooped load after load of poop into the wheelbarrows. (That's what happens when you leave the poop for when the weather is better). She's good company, and cute as heck the way she watches with such interest.

Soxy - She's sick again. Shit. Sorry, but the situation warrants a bad word or two. I just took her off antibiotics 3 weeks ago. Usually it's 3 months before the problem comes back. Now it's both nostrils, not just the right, and I can hear her breath bubbling through her snot. I told Liam we might have to have her put down soon and he said, "NO!" So I'll start antibiotics and bute and call my vet on Monday. I'm not sure this is fair to her. I think it's painful. I've picked out a burial spot for her. I've loved on her a lot today. I'm sure she feels that I'm upset, but she still loves the attention.

I think I'll go try the clicker with Cisco again before it gets dark.

Today was a crazy day! I never even saw the horses, other than a glance in the dark as I fed before dawn and long after sunset.

My son had his student led conference this morning and it was a lot of fun. He didn't really enjoy having to show us the details of all the work he's done over the year, though.

Then we ran some errands and went to my sister's to keep her company before her MRI today. She's having some disturbing visual problems and headaches. The doctor talked her into getting it checked, since one of the most common places for her cancer to metastasize is the brain.

We did some more running around, I dropped Liam off with John, then met my sister and her husband at the hospital where I so recently had my MRI. I eventually remembered to call my daughter to tell her I'd be home late, and she answered the phone in tears. She'd sprained her ankle at school and they just sent her home on the bus! I think she didn't want to draw attention to herself but I wish she'd have called me. I could at least have picked her up and saved her the long, slippery, steep walk down our driveway. I think she was in a lot of pain by the time I called because of that walk. I rushed home, after stopping off to pick Liam up but he didn't want to come home, so it was just Katia and me. She was feeling better by then, had iced and elevated it. So I got her more comfortable and made her popcorn and we watched a movie together. When she gets up and hops to the bathroom her ankle starts hurting again. But then she admitted she never took any ibuprofen so I got her some. Hopefully that will help with the swelling and inflammation.

My sister called and said the lady who did the MRI told her she didn't see anything to worry about. That is awesome news and will make it much easier to wait through the weekend, but we still have to wait for the radiologists to look at it.

Liam and John came home, and Liam had had an great day at John's work. They were there for about 4 hours and he kept himself occupied, didn't interrupt when John was with a customer (after the first customer and a reminder how important it is that he not interfere). He wrote some paragraphs about how much he enjoyed himself. That kid, he amazes me. He can have some really rotten days followed by totally angelic sweetness. I don't get what changes him, but I enjoy the good times to the fullest! (Although he's insisted, "No more kisses mom." Darn it.)

Tonight I went out to feed and it was warm, silent, windless, and bright with moonlight. Beautiful. I hope this weather holds through tomorrow. I'd really like to spend some good time with the horses. Good night!

As I mentioned, I've decided to give clicker training a more thorough try than I have in the past. I ordered a book - Clicker Training: Colt Starting the Natural Horse, by Leslie Pavlich. I already had the clicker and the carrots. :) Today I joined the clickryder group on Yahoo and of course the first post I read was about a horse throwing a fit and biting his owner. My big worry about clicker is that it will cause bad behavior. We'll see...

Scout's day one with the clicker (before I got my book or reviewed clicker info)- I did too many things, I realized a little too late. Probably part of the problem I've had in the past. But I did communicate that the click meant carrot, and I did a lot of click and reward for him backing a step (because as I said, I don't want him turning into a pushy butt-head).

Scout's day two with the clicker - doing less, correctly. I clicked and treated to remind him what it was about, then I held out my "target" which was an empty water bottle. Being the inquisitive guy he is, he nosed it, I clicked and treated. He mugged my pockets, I ignored him. I held up the bottle, which interested him enough to stop the mugging, touched his nose, clicked and treated. The only time I corrected him was if he mugged me in a way that seemed dangerous, I'd flap my elbow, hands in pockets. No hitting. It would be a long process to type all the repetitions, but it didn't take long at all, and he wasn't mugging me, but was following me around, touching the bottle. My only complaint is that he was trying to bite the bottle. I decided not to click and treat for that, but to take the bottle away and present it in a way that would help his nose touch it before his teeth, and reward the nose, not the teeth. I think it was great progress and I'm surprised at how quickly he quit mugging me.

In the past I never tried just ignoring the mugging, I always flapped or pushed or said NO or something to discourage it. Which probably kicked in a play drive. These boys love to play bitey face or "I'm not touching you!" and it can go back and forth forever. Interesting that just standing there ignoring it was WAY more effective. I learned something new today. I love it!

Now I'm going to go out and do it with Tonka or Cisco, whichever volunteers first. Tonka already knows the clicker and is very much wanting to come play when he hears it. Cisco is going to love it, he's so incredibly smart. This is fun!

The boys had too much fun today.

Except for poor Scout. I was leading him.

He wishes he could join in the fun.
(Do any of you have horses with that blue rim around the eye? Three of mine have it, all red based with dun factor. Just curious how common it is.)

I had decided to take Scout for a walk, and then I decided to just take him around the perimeter of the property and check the fence so Cisco and Tonka could come along. I don't think the boys go out there very often judging by how excited they got about it. Especially the deep snow in one of the ponds. Tonka couldn't resist a couple good rolls there. It was a fun and refreshing little outing.

I just couldn't decide which photo of Scout I wanted to post, so I posted them all. He was saddled and I was attempting to convey the idea of standing still to him, but he wasn't getting it.

"Hey look, my friends are over there!"
"I'll just come stand with you, okay?"

"I'm not having fun at all."

I decided that today I would definitely get out and spend time with the horses, and trim Scout's feet, which were way overdue. So I left Tonka to his business and got Scout out. I figured if I had to trim him, he might as well wear a saddle. I had some idea of having him do a few round pen exercises, but there was ice under the snow in a few spots so we just did a little slow groundwork on the lead line.

He's pretty much completely accepting of the saddle, other than wanting to chew on it. I watched him like a hawk while I saddled him and gently dissuaded him from that idea, and he quickly stopped thinking about it. I think the saddle may fit him better than it does Tonka, just judging how it sits on him. I didn't feel around under the tree or anything, but this is going to be his saddle so it better work!

I probably could have climbed on for a very nice ride today had conditions been right, but that wasn't my aim for the day, and with the ice it would have been a bad idea.

Toward the end I started introducing him to the clicker. I've ordered a book and I'm impatient to get going! He enjoyed the carrots but I think he's confused about what it means, although it did liven up his interest in working with me, which is GREAT! The funny thing is that Tonka heard the clicker and came running. He stood at the fence and watched very, very intently while I unsaddled Scout. So I saved him a carrot and gave him a click and treat when he came to me in the pasture.

He got some ideas about ear-pinning that I had to speak to him about. We often have this discussion. I think I must inadvertently allow it when I'm feeding and not watching him, so he needs a little reminder sometimes. I slowly but firmly drove him away and followed along, driving him, until he'd gone through the gate into another area to stand in time-out.

Here's a good illustration of Scout's willingness to put up with punishment.

Tonka: "Hmm, where shall I bite you?"

Tonka: "I'm going to bite you right here"
Scout: "Your breath smells like carrots."

Tonka: "Last chance, I'm going to bite!"
Scout: "I wish I had a carrot."

He will eventually move, slowly, after he's been bitten pretty hard. He's tough to motivate, which is a large part of why I ordered the clicker training book.

And here's my crazy pup. The eyes!
(You should click to enlarge to get the full effect)

Devilish Dog

He looks so innocent here, but he's trying to hide behind the tree so I won't come take his stick. He much prefers keep-away to fetch, but he'll give it up if you make him.

I am having trouble seeing from trying to read a couple blogs in white type on a black background. I wish that didn't give me so much trouble! I hate to ask people to change their look because I want to read, because it seems kinda selfish, but otherwise I can't read, so I may have to start speaking up and asking... I got a comment from Chloe with a very interesting looking blog - http://www.wildhorseproject.blogspot.com/ but I can't read it, darn it.

Which isn't the point of my blog post. I've been meaning to write about my plans for the year. I could call them resolutions but I don't like that word. And as another blogger wrote, resolutions are basically a way of saying, "these is my worst flaws," and sharing them with the world at large is a bit hard. I don't like to get that personal. But here are a few things I AM going to do this year.

I am going to get more fit, which for me has a lot of different aspects. I have to lose weight. I've been doing a good job of that slowly over the last couple years. I'm about 40lb lighter than my heaviest weight. That's about the weight of a saddle! I hope to lose about 20 pounds this spring, or possibly more, but we'll see how I feel at that point. I also need to work on flexibility and core strength. This will help in my riding but will also help in my overall body pain. Mainly it's in my back but I've been having big trouble with my left hamstring lately. Another part of my fitness plan is to work on my balance. It all ties together...

Other things I will do this year include several camping trips with the horses. I plan on doing at least two days of the John Wayne Trail ride. I'm also going to spend a weekend at Lakeview Ranch up near Odessa. Other camping destinations may be Escure Ranch near Sprague and Farragut State Park up by Sandpoint. I don't have dates planned yet.

I am going to work on my riding, taking some lessons. I have a huge amount of room for improvement. I should do a whole separate post on that... Maybe I will.

I am going to start Scout under saddle. I still hate the idea of splitting my time between two horses though. Every time I think, "I'm going to do such and such with Tonka," I remember that I also need to do it with Scout, and it's a lot of pressure and makes me not want to get started doing it with either of them, in case I don't have time to do it consistently with both. Dumb, really, but there it is.

Speaking of Scout, today I met a colt born of one of the mares that came from the same adoption Bella came from. They look similar, with the sabino markings, big wide blaze (this colt had more of a bald face) and roan in the flanks. He was not as fat as Scout, which I thought was appealing. I can't feed them less in this cold though (8 degrees right now). They're from separate HMAs but I think there must be some crossovers between the herds, they all seemed so similar at the adoption. This colt will be started under saddle soon, and riding in organized rides by April. I won't be in that much of a rush. :)

I may also do a short pack trip into the mountains somewhere, but that's not a must. Although I think it would be a great experience if I do get to do it.

I also plan on going to at least one adoption as a volunteer with my mustang boys. There's supposed to be one in Lewiston this year.

My sister wants me to buy, borrow, or beg an appaloosa and go on the Chief Joseph trail ride with her this year. I couldn't put that much time into another horse. Conditioning and the long ride through Montana. I love my horse. I would love to do this with him! But not with another horse. And they only allow appaloosas. :(

That's all I've got so far...

You'd think with the kids back in school I'd have all the time in the world to blog, read blogs, eat bon-bons and lounge about in my pajamas. Somehow I haven't been spending much time on the computer though. Between cooking, cleaning, driving around, exercising, and reading my book, which is rather absorbing (Tolstoy again), I don't have a lot of extra time on my hands. Weird how that happens - no set plan for the day and all the sudden it's full of stuff to do.

I finally made time to play with Tonka today. I trimmed his hooves over the last couple days (the lazy woman's way to trim). I've also been medicating his rainrot (?) as best I can in the cold without clipping him. I think today was the third day I put Vetericyn on it. I talked to my vet about it and he said, "I don't know why that stuff works." Basically he doesn't put much stock in it. But it doesn't have to be rinsed, which is important in this cold weather. I just spot treat. The only area I "clipped" was on his flank. I cut it rather long with scissors, but short enough that I can get close to the skin more easily. His neck I can't clip in this weather, so I just do my best to find all the little bumps and get stuff rubbed into them. I still think it's weird that he got rain scald only on the lower part of his neck, under his jaw, and on the lower part of his flank. I never see him with lots of wet that stays long in those areas. It usually drips off before it gets there. But even so, my vet thought that's what it was (just a phone conversation, he didn't see it).

In this picture you can see where I cut his flank hair:

Anyway, back to the exciting fact that I actually got my horse out today. I think he enjoyed himself. We didn't do much, just some real easy circles to get him moving and then a leisurely ride around the field. He totally cracked me up when we were done. I had set my hat and his lead rope on the table and I was thinking I wished I didn't have to get off to get them (too low to reach). I rode in that direction and when we got there he picked up my hat, so I asked him to bring his head around and I grabbed it. No luck with the rope. He totally didn't understand what I wanted. At one point he picked it up but then he dropped it off the table. After that he tried putting his hoof up on the table to see if that's what I wanted (luckily it's sturdy and anyway he didn't press down). I got down and tried to make what I wanted more obvious, but no go. I'm thinking this might be something handy to work on though. Would be nice to have my horse hand me stuff I can't reach. But it might create a monster! He's already a mouthy guy.

I also got to put my new breastcollar and cinch on my saddle. I got a screaming deal on the breastcollar. It's the shape I like, with plenty of room for his shoulders to move, and it's the right color. The cinch was a gift, a wide string roper cinch, luckily without those pesky Smart Cinch buckles (they make it hard to put my cinch buckle in the keeper on the saddle when I'm not riding). But I did want to cushion the bite of the cinch rings, so I got these "Cincha Ring Safes" made by Colorado Saddlery. They're even better quality than the Weaver Leather ones, and they're the right color too. I got a screaming deal on those also. Now I'm having doubts about them though. They're bulky and when his leg moves back his skin and muscle fold over them. Here's a picture:

I'm too tired to think straight now, so I'm going to bed!