Back to school

With this mild weather and the subsequent softening of the snow, I figured the footing in the round pen would be good enough to put Rio back in training.
Did a little bit of longeing in the bosal first, then saddled him up and longed him some more. You'd think he was an ole broke horse; just threw the saddle on and off he went, didn't even bat an eye; and he hasn't been worked for 4 months.

You can tell how big he is- those stirrups are adjusted to fit me and I wear 36" leg in my jeans.

I'm getting pretty excited about riding him, he's got the kind of disposition I love, and he is such a nice moving horse.

I know I have to wait until he's growed up a little more, and so I'll keep on doing ground work and as many different things as I can think of to introduce him to, then in late May, he's heading to the trainers.

If you haven't been over to Own a Morgan blog in the last day- head on over, she is having a contest to celebrate her 500th post!

Wordless Wednesday

Room to Zoom

The great thing about corral panel fences is that you can change the configuration to suit your evolving needs. Now that Chickory is gone, it was time to set up the two foaling pens, (not imminent, but I like to be prepared!)which meant that Mr. Nitro had to go in with Rio. Since's Rio's pen has as it's run-out one side that is electric fence- white tape against white snow- not too visible, so I decided to build an alley to a safer paddock, the one that Nitro is accustomed to from his baby days. They have been visiting over the fence for the last few days, so it was time to put them together. Once Rio realised that Nitro was in with him, he tried to play the dominance game, biting Nitro and trying to run him..... well, here's what happened:

Nitro connected with this kick, and Rio backed right off. Nitro has no problems standing up for himself, and big brother doesn't get to push him around!

A few minutes later they were peacefully cleaning up the hay bits from where I moved the feeder.
Too peaceful perhaps for their youthful minds; they had a couple of impromptu races around the paddock....

Rio might be bigger....
*
but Nitro is faster- no problem outmaneuvering big brother! Rio even had a head start.

Looks kinda smug, doesn't he?
That's okay, Rio, you are still the prettiest mover.

Sunday Stills

The letter F... brings to mind Feetsies,,,

 Fabulous Furry Felines....

Frost.....

and Fire

Saying goodbye.

Back in December, my sister and I traveled to Kamloops to see my dad, whose health was failing. We said our goodbyes then, not knowing how much longer he had. He passed away on Thursday night.

He had Lewy Body dementia, and for the last 4 years, he changed from the vibrant spitfire we knew, and slipped away peacefully in the company of his wife of over 42 years. Even though his passing was expected, it still fills me with sadness. There won't be a funeral for him, but we will have a family gathering in the summer.

Today I said a different kind of goodbye- Chickory headed to her new home in Alberta.

She's about 6 weeks away from foaling, and I'm kind of sad I don't get to be there for it. But she will have a good life where she's going.

Life is all about change- death, birth, day to day events.... it's not about what could have been, it's about what lies ahead, and living each day to the fullest.

Wordless Wednesday

Just another day at the office

Guest post by Rio

G' mornin, dad- what shall we do today?

Not much goin' on, is there?

Might as well go for a stroll...

D'ya think the mares will notice and come out an admire us?

Nah, I didn't think so either. Race ya to the end!

I'll even let ya win, dad!

Sheesh! lookit him braggin'!

Guess I'll just have to let you see that I've got some moves too!

The wait is over!

It was a really busy weekend around here, we had an auction to work on Saturday and I managed to not spend more than I made- I came home with a cream can for only $25, and a crock that I gave to a friend; but I should have bought this trunk- I wasn't bidding because I thought it would sell for a lot of money and wasn't quick enough when I realized it was selling for only $10.

On Friday, I watched some of the Jim Anderson clinic, held at the new indoor arena at Creston Flats Stables, it had me itchin' to get working cows again. Maybe this fall, after Gussie's foal is weaned.

Sunday, we went and got Nitro for his new owner and brought him here. He's looking really good, but it was pretty sad for Veronica, having to part with him.
He hauled well, but when we went to unload him, he decided to take his time, didn't want to step out into the snow. Funny little guy.

 Eventually he did, and the horses were all talking to him as we put him in his pen, between Beamer and the mares.

His mamma Belle reminded him that she is the BOSS.

In no uncertain terms!

Silly old girl! That's your boy!

But his old buddy Chickory was happy to see him, and hung out with him for a bit.

Beamer was excited too, I wish I had the camera ready when I saw him rearing and leaping, and when he reared and pirouetted at the same time- holy smokes that boy's athletic! Nitro eventually was done visiting the mares and said hey to daddy.

Anyway, they all settled in and after Chickory leaves, probably next weekend, Nitro will go in the big pen with Belle and Gussie, at least until foaling time. Now it's time for me to head out and do my morning chores- and take more photos of course!

Sunday Stills

Big sky! Love this challenge, (because it's an easy one!) We are to use the Rule of Thirds, making the sky the major part of the photo.

I never get tired of the view here: East,

South,

West,

and North.

I hope to see some spetacular skies, as I visit all the entries in the Sunday Stills Challenge. 

All about the Rim Notch

I had enough interest in my remark about rim notching, that I asked for help in explaining it from my hoof care provider, teacher and friend, Tara Wilson. First, I'll show you the photo I gave her of Beamer's foot with the hairline arches that I have been trying unsuccessfully, for the last year, to remedy by relieving the quarters. The remarks below the photo and the drawings are hers.

The rest of this post is provided by Tara, and I thank her for taking the time to put this together for us. Feel free to ask questions in the comments box.

Rim Notching is simply removing the ground pressure on tubules that are being bent. Now that we understand what tubules are and we can see them with our own eyes let's think of them as little individual strings within the wall's structure. Now lets think of a 6 inch long string laying on the table. It's 6 inches long right? Now put a few bends in it, it's no longer 6 inches on the ruler, its 4. So we trim our horses foot, everything looks good, everything is how it should be BUT our strings (tubules) still have bends in them so in reality they are still longer then they should be. (This is one of the things that cause arches in our hairlines at the quarters.) Now we think, "Our bends are above our arch relief so they are not pressured," but they are. As the foot lands the arch relief expands and makes ground contact keeping these tubules from relaxing and hanging straight, and allowing the hairline to travel in a relaxed 30 degree angle towards the heel.

Tubules are not glued together within the wall, they just grow in a very tight knit community creating strength in numbers! They are so individual, we can manipulate a very small number of them and they will move within the wall or "community," up or down, forward or backward.

Rim Notching comes into use when our quarter hairlines won't relax, when we have a contracted foot, when there is FFS (Forward Foot Syndrome) or any time there is a capsule (wall) deformity.

Header

Because so many of you were having trouble with my header photo going black, I used a different way of uploading, let me know if this works. The last header I uploaded directly from my photos file via the "choose file" prompt, using the option to place photo behind title and description. This one, I uploaded to Flickr and used HTML code to place it in the slot for blog description.
Hope it works better!

Looking up

Blogger is up to it's antics again, I changed the font on my header when I changed the photo, and sometimes it shows the new font (with a capital A) and sometimes it reverts to the old font. Gah!

I've been taking a lot of sky photos this week, as Big Sky is the subject of this week's Sunday Stills Challenge, and have a couple to share that won't make the Sunday post.

This is straight out of the camera (sooc), no editing. We had a beautiful sunset going on, lovely pastel colours and I kept going back out for just one more shot. The next one is also sooc.

 While I was doing chores a little earlier, I noticed a jet climbing, next to the moon.

We live right under the spot where the jets alter their course for landing in Calgary, so if you are ever flying from Vancouver to Calgary and feel the jet banking left, look down and wave!

The con trail did some interesting things.

And then:

Smoke rings!
Anyway, back on earth here, I touched up Beamer's feet, and still can't get rid of those hairline arches and the dish on the front :0( .

 Tara gave me advice on what to do, but I don't think I'm confident enough yet to do rim notches, I think that will have to wait until May when she comes out for the next barefoot clinic. But I can work on filing the flare down.
The day is set for bringing Nitro here- Sunday afternoon! Can't wait to see him again! Here's a reminder of just how cute he is:

Airborne!

Wordless Wednesday