Schooling Sassy, continued

Sassy and I have progressed from ground driving to ground reining- this is just a sample; I usually give her 5 -10 minutes of this. (Please ignore the ugly baling twine hobble on the snaffle! I'll get around to putting a leather one on, honest!) This was her third lesson on this, the first time she took a little time to figure out that I wanted her to go forward with me walking along side, but we got there in only a few minutes. She reins quite lightly, and doesn't get excited about things. After this session, I stepped in the stirrups. She wanted to walk off with me when I did that, mostly because my toe was poking in her elbow, so I had Ted hold her, and I was able to step up on both sides and lean over her and pat her on the opposite side. It was quite rewarding to see her eye soften and get all relaxed when I did that. A couple of more days of doing this and it will be time to swing over and settle into the saddle! I'm loving the mind on this filly.

Innocence and Wisdom

This is making the email rounds; it's very touching.

Come for a spin!

We are back to snowing here, but it's so warm that it's turning to rain. Too miz'bl to do anything with the horses, so I thought I'd just take you for a spin on Beamer with me.

Dizzy yet? It's not a perfect spin; he pops his head up a little, but you try spinnin' and filming at the same time!

A Visit to Brian's Saddle Shop

On our road trip last week, we made sure to stop and visit Brian Ironmonger at his saddle shop. That's him on the left, instructing a student. He hosts a saddle making school, one student at a time. They make a belt , chaps, bridle and saddle. He makes and sells various strap goods and repairs saddles and other horse gear. The saddle on the left is one he made years ago and the other one is an Eamor saddle, both in for repairs.
This is the saddle the student is making (supervised by Fluff!) It is being built on a 1590 ralide tree.This is one of Brian's finished saddles, featuring a half seat over roughout. He likes to do sewn down jockeys and skirt rigging, but will make them any way the customer wants.

The walls are full of memorabilia, artwork, and photographs. The shadow box holds the deck of cards that Brian used when he got the perfect 29 hand playing crib. The painting is one I did of Brian in his heyday riding a bronc called Kootenay Gold.

Brian and his wife donated some of their land for building The Arena of Dreams, which is operated by the South Country Cowboy's Association, a charitable organization that supports cowboys and other local people who are in need. They host a rodeo there every year that is sanctioned by the Foothills Cowboy Association. And every winter there is a fundraiser, Cowboy Christmas, a dinner and dance that is a lot of fun and raises thousands of dollars for their fund.

The Ironmongers also raise a few Longhorn cattle, and are retired pony chuckwagon and chariot racers. Brian writes some cowboy poetry and has been invited to the Cowboy Poetry Gathering at Pincher Creek this year. We have a couple of his books of poetry; most of the stuff he writes about really happened, but I'm sure he took poetic licence on a few of the tales!

Sunday Silence

To B.C. and back- a photo essay

Our trip to visit our friends in B.C. took us through the Crowsnest Pass, along highway 3. This is the famed Turtle mountain, and that rock scar in the middle of the mountain is the Frank Slide. Over a hundred years ago, that mountain let go a rock slide that carried down into the valley and partway up the other side. This was a coal mining area and there was a little town called Frank that was in the path of destruction. There is a town buried under all that rock. Funny thing is, even with all the wind in southern Alberta blowing dirt around, there isn't much that grows in the rubble.

Almost at the B. C. border sits this beauty, Castle mountain.

We made a pit stop in Sparwood, home of the world's largest truck, a Terex Titan. This is what they use in the open pit coal mines; there are 5 mines around there. I lived for 10 years in that town, and you couldn't pay me to move back there.

We stopped in Fernie to pick up some Brown's Jerky. They have some lovely old buildings there. In the background on the left is the Catholic church and on the right is City Hall. The Three Sisters mountains peek between the branches of the mountain ash tree.
We left the sunshine behind the farther south we went, and it was socked in with cloud while we were there.

This is Jake getting a hug from Janice, and Lily. I wanted to get more pictures of her horses but it wasn't very good light for taking pictures and it was pretty chilly out, so I spent most of my time basking in front of their wood stove.

Janice owns one of Reba's pups from her first litter; the little darlin' in the middle is Sage, with Tess on the left and Reba on the right. Tess had fun playing with Sage and Tucker, Dave's new pup.

Our trip home offered some good photo opportunities, like this one, which I call "Holes in the Floor of Heaven".

When we were driving through the Crowsnest Pass coming back, there were a group of Bighorn Sheep licking the salt from the road.

The light was amazing and made the mountains look all moody and mysterious.

We came home to more stupid cold; it's - 25C here again. So that puts Sassy's schooling on hold for a few more days. But I'll have a post for you on Monday about Brian's Saddle Shop; we stopped for a visit there on the way through.

Schooling Sassy

With all the lovely weather we've been getting, it was time to put Sassy back in school. She is for sale, and I want to get her riding by spring time. I re-introduced her to the snaffle bit:
On Saturday I ground drove her in the small pen, and yesterday we headed down the driveway with my husband along to help. It was rather like trying to push a wet noodle at times as she wanted to turn back and keep me in her line of vision, but eventually she worked it out.

I'll drive her again this morning, then she gets a few days off. Tomorrow I work at the cattle sale, and then Ted and I are going to B.C. to visit friends and have a little break. We'll be visiting over at Own a Morgan, and I hope to get some good pictures of the horses, and Reba's daughter, Sage, as well as the fantastic scenery there.

Update: When I went to do chores this morning, I had to free Beamer from his bucket- he had backed up to it to scratch his butt and caught one of his tail braids in the handle where it joins the pail. He must have been there for a few hours; he had pulled hard enough to break one side of the handle and pulled a lot of hair out. Poor guy! Note to self: remove empty buckets!

So once I got that sorted out, I drove Sassy again. She moved out much better. We went into the field, around some trees and back down into the driveway turnaround where we did some very nice circles, whoas and back-ups. I finished off by bouncing at the saddle on both sides and putting a little weight in the stirrups. So that'll be our program when we get back; once she is going well at that I'll have to haul her to an arena for the next step.

Sunday Silence- a little colour!

My saddle

I had to go to the city today so didn't have time to ride, but yesterday I brought my saddle home to clean it. So I'm going to show you my saddle; Nuzzling Muzzles had a lot of saddle talk on her blog in her search for just the right saddle to fit her horses and it got me to thinking about my journey in finding saddles that fit me and my horses. The first saddle I used on Beamer was too long, and it put me behind his center of gravity- he has a short back- and I was having trouble with my balance on him. My trainer thought it was just me, so he got on him in my saddle and had the same problem. So I traded that one in on this one; it's a reining saddle made by Saddlesmith, and it works great for me and Beamer. I like the skirt rigging which keeps me really close to my horse.

The stirrup leathers have a twist to them which keeps the stirrups hanging straight; they are always right there for my foot, no searching for them! There is plenty of room in the gullet.


The bars on this saddle flare away from the horse's shoulders, which allows ease of lateral movement in the spin and rollbacks.
I like the aluminum stirrups because the weight of them helps to keep them hanging in the right spot. I use a neoprene cinch on this saddle. I never get sore in this saddle, even if I ride a lot of hours.
Oddly enough, it did not fit Gussie very well. So on her, I used a saddle made by Brian Ironmonger from Brian's Saddle Shop in Galloway, B.C. and custom built for me and Sundee (Coyote Belle's mother) but that's another story!
I tag anyone who wants to participate to do a post on their saddle!

Another perfect day

Ahhhh..... another wonderful, warm, sunny day, perfect for a trail ride! Beamer and I found some fresh snow that really needed some tracks in it; so we were happy to oblige!

It was just a gorgeous day, so we headed down the back road and up by the pumpjacks.It was a perfect day for shadow pictures (inspired by Mikey!)

We found a new trail along a pipeline so we went exploring. There were some good hills to go up and down; Beamer doesn't like hills much, especially going down them. He thinks he's going to slide because of the years he spent wearing sliding plates on his hind feet, so any time he has to go down a hill he really thinks about it- but he did great and we went striding happily along once we got back on the road. I tried my hand at a video, you can really see how energetically he walks:

On our way back we came across my husband, out for a walk, so I let him ride Beamer back to the barn. It was his first time riding our stallion, so I had to take a picture! (imagine that- me-take pictures?)

And of course, one can't take pictures without Beamer posing !

So don't you wish you were out riding with me in our winter wonderland?

Hugs needed

Hey, everyone, stop by Scary's West and give her some love. She's back and has had some losses to deal with.

Wholesome kid stuff

Looking for some good Christian fiction that includes horses? Check out this website- Sonrise Stables. They are also known as Christian Cowgirl. Check it out for all the little cowkids in your life!

Sunday Silence- White stuff can be beautiful!

Ahhhh, sunshine!

It warmed up enough today to be a few degrees above freezing, so we made the most of it. Ted took the tractor and cleaned out the soiled bedding in the run-in shelter for the mares; after almost a month of stupid-cold, it was ready for a good scraping. (Sassy supervising!)

They had to see if there were edibile bits in the fresh oat straw bedding.

After that I saddled up my boy and had the pleasure of frolicking in the snow- after we posed for a few portraits! I swear Beamer knows that his picture is being taken; he hams it up for the camera-

See? Big smile-

On my face too!

We had a fun ride,trotting and loping through the snow, practicing canter pirouettes like the dressage horses do, checking the back pasture for downed trees on the fenceline (there was one), and just for fun, Beamer wrote his name in the snow!

Snow blankets

Since I took their blankets off the other day, Mother Nature has supplied her own version for the horses to wear. You can tell that their body heat is not evaporating, or the snow would be melting instead of cloaking and insulating them.

New blogger alert!

Hey, everyone, my friend Carol over at Prairie Ridge Performance Horses ( she of the blue roan horses and Jack Russel pups) has decided to start blogging as a better way of keeping us updated on the happenings at her place. She is at All the Pretty Horses ; stop by and welcome her!

Pups and Peppy

My friend Carol sent me these pictures of her pups that she is selling; these are purebred female Jack Russels, 6 weeks old.

If you are interested in these little hooligans-er, I mean little darlin's- you can contact her here. She has them reasonably priced.

In other news, I have put Peppy up for sale again. He is really getting tall, and is over his cold. He is definitely a true blue roan, not a lick of brown on him.

You can see the remnants of the dun stripe he was born with, at his tailhead:

I sure hope whoever buys him keeps in touch with me, cause I'd sure like to see this colt grow up.

Off and Rolling!

The warmer weather allowed me to remove the blankets from all but Beamer; I leave him blanket all winter. They all got brushed, and I was ready with my camera cause I knew there'd be some rolling going on:

Ahhhhh....

I think I can....

Yup! all the way over with that big baby-belly! Sassy had to get in on the act too:

And after a good back scratching comes a good gallop:And off I go too; but it'll be a short sale today as we only received about 500 head, mostly cows. Everyone is being a little cautious on this first sale of the year, with a "wait and see what this sale does before I bring more" attitude.

Warm enough to ride!

Yesterday, the sun was shining, the day was a balmy -10C (14F) so Beamer, the girls, and I headed out to the back pasture. Most of the tracks in this photo are from mule deer and whitetail deer. The sun was making the snow crystals glitter, Beamer's feet were making squeaky sounds, the dogs were leaping and frolicking, and waiting impatiently for us to catch up.

We rode around the other side and were closely watched by the mares'n'kids. I'm sure they would have liked to get out and frolic in the snow too!

All ears were on the dogs in this picture; they were doing their border-collie outrun and sneaking up on the herd from the right. We did a little ditch riding after this, and Beamer got to lope in some fresh snow where I knew the footing was good under the snow, and all in all it was a lovely ride, a welcome change after 3 weeks of bone-chilling cold and sick horses. They are all better now, and I'm just itchin' to get Sassy back in training and get that first ride on her. Think I'll have to get the flat tire on my trailer fixed and haul her to an arena to get that done.
I'll leave you with the view from the best seat in the house, and the half moon in the sky at mid-day!

Sunday Silence