Meet Snoopy

Today, Delia left and Snoopy arrived. I was still not happy about Delia so I didn't take any "parting shots" but I did get some "hello!" shots of Snoopy. 

Here she is putting Josie in her place and establishing the pecking order. Snoopy, #1, Josie, #2.

"Yes Ma'am!"

Ummmm, Josie is okay with that. 

The white streaks are the rain- it was pouring! She is put together really nice. She has a better back and no weird swirls. Her feet need a little work, but that is not an issue, we'll have Shayla do a set up trim soon. 

I do have her up for sale, with someone interested in her as a brood mare- but it sure won't break my heart if she doesn't sell- she's a beauty! Built the way I like and pedigree the way I like- just need to get to know her a bit and take it from there. 

A deal on Delia

Well, that didn't take long.....
Talking to Delia's former owner, and he arranged a good deal for me.
There is a lady who owns one of Delia's sons who is sentimentally attached to Delia, and will buy her for what I paid for her.
But wait, that's not all.....
Former owner, who is getting on in years and infirmity, is trying hard to rehome some of his horses. He is giving me Delia's 3/4 sister, nicknamed Snoopy. She is a solid bay, 10 years old and never broke or bred. With the money from Delia, I can, if I choose, send her to a trainer for 3 months. Or, I can do the ground work on her, and flip her. Or, I can just keep her as a brood mare if she tests 5 panel negative. Lots of options!
I will be getting her on the 27th or 28th. I have seen photos and a video of her, and she is really pretty. (as far as I could tell). Her feet have been neglected, but Shayla will work on them for me. I'll have my round pen set up in a couple of days, so it will be perfect to assess her and do some ground work to see what I am dealing with.
There is a bit of a story to her; she was sold as a 2 yr old for $4500, but the lady came with a tiny 2 horse trailer to haul her on a 10 hour trip, and Snoopy got a little worried when she felt the butt chain and ended going down and under it, so they unloaded her and the lady bought  different horse. It's going to be interesting to have an untouched, mature horse from impeccable bloodlines to play with. And I've always liked the bays. :0)

Parting ways

Delia is up for sale. The reason for her sale is , well, because we parted ways, literally.
I went to ride her on Saturday, did my usual pre-ride checks, like leading her to and around any new items in the yard, sent her out a couple of times around on the line, but when it was time to mount she wouldn't stand still, so I worked her a little more until she relaxed and was licking and chewing, then she did stand still for mounting. I stepped her forward to do a little bit of circling before heading out, and she humped her hind end up... so I brought her nose around, took her hip out of gear, and asked again. Once more, up with the hind end, and same treatment from me. At that point, I should have stepped off and made her work her butt off until she had absolutely no doubt that yes, she did have to work today. But what I did was ask her to step forward.....
 Next thing I knew, it felt like I was on the receiving end of a stick of dynamite. Her head went between her knees, I couldn't pull it up, and she went rodeo on me. I think I lasted 2 jumps.... I hit the ground hard on my right side, and my head bounced off the ground at least twice- thank God I was wearing my helmet- I had the get down rope tucked into my belt, so she didn't go anywhere, but my brains were so scrambled I couldn't focus and could hardly coordinate my limbs to move if I had to get out of the way, fortunately she just stood still. I managed to call for Ted to help me get up.
My overwhelming feeling is disappointment. I was really enjoying this mare, but now I will never get on her again. I can't trust that this won't happen again, as she had no reason that I can find- nothing to be afraid of, and nothing causing her enough pain to do that- I had ridden her out down the road and through the fields a few days ago and she came through that just fine. I think she was just crabby that I wasn't turning her out to pasture.
No, I didn't cowgirl up and get back on- I'm too old for that. In my younger days, I would have made her work so hard she would beg me to get back on and ride, but I just don't need that crap anymore. So I put her away, looked at her and told her we were done.
She does have 2 nice colts that have nice dispositions, so she has potential to continue to be a brood mare. There might be some cowboy out there that is willing to ride the buck out of her, but it isn't me.
I'm sure there is a nice mare out there that will be a better match for me. Meanwhile, I have a cracked rib, and an awful lot of sore muscles and still feel a bit woozy, but no concussion.

It's a cryin' shame.

More on saddle fit

Here is a link to Rod Nikkel's blog post on saddles with trees that flare out at the front. More stuff that I didn't know...
http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/effects-flare-and-its-not-pretty/

Striding out and a big wind

This weekend I didn't get as much saddle time as I had hoped for, as we attended a memorial wake for the dad of a friend of ours on Saturday, and Sunday turned out just beautiful - perfect for Mother's Day. Thanks to my daughter for the lovely bouquet of roses and carnations, my two favourite flowers, and the phone call and FB message- I felt loved! The best thing about being a mom is having an amazing daughter that is the light of my life.
I saddled up Delia, and decided to step it up a bit- limited the review work to a couple of minutes and didn't go into the training pen, just stepped on in the yard, did a couple of pre-trip checks to see where she was at, and headed down the road and into the hayfields that I rode through on Beamer the other day.
She was awesome.

My focus was to make this an enjoyable ride for both of us, and to see how she reacts to different things. She's pretty sensible and other than a few trot steps that were unasked for, she didn't put a foot wrong.
She trucked right along, looking at everything....

I did ask for a few things, like bridling up a bit if she was getting too looky, and some lateral moves, walk/trot transitions and changes of speed at the trot, all of which she did just fine. So that means.... we are ready for some real trail rides! I want to haul her to a local outdoor arena today, if I can pry the pick-up truck away from my husband; he's delivering loads of composted manure for gardens today.
About 7 PM the wind started howling here, coming from the east. It went on until dark- I looked out the window when it started to check on the horses, and there was Beamer, standing head on to the wind, when he could have been in one of his 2 shelters, silly boy!  He did go in after a bit.
This morning I surveyed the yard for damage, all of which was minor except for this:

Good thing those chutes were built solid or this granary would have been about a half mile away!
No other damage, other than a bit to some of my plants when a little decorative lighthouse got slammed into one of my oak barrel planters, and pails and chairs scattered around. The horses have good shelter on all sides except the mares when the wind is from due south.
Nice and calm today- time to ride on!

More saddle fit pics

Here are some photos I took before my ride yesterday; I previously showed the way it doesn't fit those wide shoulders of hers- this shows the rear view.

That's a substantial gap, and here is why:

My finger is laid along the bar, and the pink arrow shows (more or less) the shape of Delia's back at that point. So you can see how the angle of the bar is steeper than the angle of her back, which means that the bottom edge of the bar will dig into her back and cause discomfort  and soreness. I can get away with short rides in this saddle- which is actually quite a wide saddle- but I don't think it's fair to her to go on long rides. I'm hoping that fit kit will be here today- it was mailed over a week ago.....

Yesterday's ride went really well; started out leading through the Formerly Scary Areas, got in the pen and mounted up (she stood still, yay!) and  the focus of the work after review was on trot work. We are getting nice lateral work going forward at the trot, and nice changes of tempo. She did get a little sticky when I asked for more sideways reach, so we went back to the walk and worked on the sidepass. I find that she loves praise and every time I praised her for getting it right, she tried a little more the next time. Good girl! I had left the gate open, it's a narrow 4 ft. gate, so when it was time to head out into the yard, we rode through it. I thought she might scoot through such a confined space, but she didn't, just walked calmly through. We cruised through the yard, and I really wanted to go down the road, but the traffic was horrendous- they were doing the sturgeon release at the end of the road which is a boat launch area, and there were non stop cars going by. So I called it a day, and was happy with our progress.

Wordless Wednesday

Delia delights

You know you are having a good day when you don't want to get off your horse.
Today's session started out with leading Delia through the pole shed with all its (previously) Fearsome Objects.

Once she had navigated- calmly- through everything and had a good look at it all, we went into the pen I ride her in. At first, she had an issue with moving when I wanted to get my foot in the stirrup- I have trouble lifting my leg high enough, so she has to keep her front feet in a specific hole so that I don't have to reach too much- good thing she is only 14.2 hh! But with her round flat back, the saddle is a bit tippy so I need all the advantages I can find to make a nice smooth mount. She steps her hind end to the right. I kept patiently putting her back in position, and she kept stepping away. So I resorted to a vigorous back up that woke her up and got her attention, and then she was good- well, one more try just to see if I meant it, and she found out that yes ma'am I certainly did mean stand still!
Anyway after that we reviewed all of yesterday's work, and I'm happy to say that she keeps getting lighter and lighter to my aids. She is very sensitive to weight distribution. We did some really nice trot work where I only had to think about an extended trot and send just a bit more energy into my body and she would take a nice longer stride, and then I'd just think about a nice easy jog and exhale and she would come right back down- had to be careful that she didn't break to a walk with that though.
Since she was being so good, I took her out of the pen, and over to that pile of timbers that she wouldn't let me mount from yesterday... today, no problem! So we rode around the yard a bit, and then out onto the road. I wanted to work on an exercise to build her confidence and take away her herd bound issues. I rode a ways, not far, and then back to the driveway- but continued on in the new direction past the driveway, and then back. Kept doing this for a while, increasing the distance each time and she was nice and relaxed. I was keeping an eye out for traffic though, there were some yahoos cruising by yelling out the window a little earlier.

I felt like I could have just hit the trails and gone for an hour or two.....but as usual, my truck and trailer need work before I can haul anywhere. Hopefully by next weekend we'll be able to go on a real trail ride.

Advancing through issues

I've been riding Delia every day, I not only need to get her in shape, but first I need to work through some of her issues.
1. She is green- but she learns fairly quickly; she is really making headway on the lateral work; today I was able to sidepass the box with her (5 steps forward, 5 steps right sidepass, 5 steps reverse, 5 steps left sidepass). Also got shoulder in and hip in.
2. When she is uncertain about something, she stops. A very quick stop. As in all 4 feet stop moving NOW.
In this video, she does that stop, and I ask her to keep going. It's a little discombobulated because she isn't ready for one hand on the reins yet.

When you are expecting forward momentum and she does this, I tend to tip forward, so this is where those big ole spurs of mine come into pay; a squeeze with my calf and spur and she carries on.

Those rowels are large and blunt, which gives a good area to diffuse the pressure.

3. Delia lacks confidence. I wanted to ride outside the pen to start with today, but she was giving everything the hairy eyeball. So back into the pen for our session, and then out at the end of it. We did some advance and retreat work, as well as incorporating the movements we had been working on in the pen. 

All in all, it was a satisfactory day. I got some nice soft work , barely had to touch the rein sometimes, and she is really light to my leg now; pretty much the only time I touched her with the spurs was on those sudden stops and at the beginning of our lateral work- she picked it up quickly and worked nicely off only leg.
I think tomorrow I'll do a bit more ground work and introduce her to everything she looked sideways at today; vehicles parked in the pole shed, a pile of timbers, in and out through all the parked vehicles, etc. She was much better on the trail the day I bought her than she is in my yard!