Family crisis break

Taking a break while I deal with a family crisis, my brother who has liver cancer has been put on palliative care and according to his doctor does not have much longer.

Smoke gets in your eye... and lungs

The smoke lays heavy in the valley; numerous fires across the border and in our province have blanketed the land for miles; I drove 5 hours through heavy smoke on the weekend, coming home from Kelowna to Creston.
On my way home (I was at my nephew's wedding) the road through one of the burned out areas was open, so I came home that way. It was pretty sad to see the devastation. In this fire 30 homes were burned, and as I got to the edge of the fire I could see the first one- looked like it was an auto scrapyard, all burned. There were several areas where a home was burned but one only a short distance away was untouched.

In one area, irrigation pipe had done it's job, the ditch was burned but the field untouched.

You can just see the irrigation line at the top of the photo

Just down the road, there was another field with the pipe laid out but not connected... all burned.

I thought this was odd, the post burned but the rails intact and the fire didn't reach the house in the background. 

The smoke was unbelievable, my eyes were stinging the whole drive.

Here at home, the smoke is just as thick, although the local fires are somewhat contained. The one north of is is 90 % contained, and they have 5 heavy helicopters working steadily on it- I can hear them as I type this.

You can barely see the helicopter through the smoke.

The round pen stands empty, and will remain so until the smoke lifts- and maybe for a while after that. My lungs are compromised by this smoke, and I'm not willing to risk my horse's long term health by working them in this.

I did work Josie yesterday, but I won't work her again for a while. We did a lot of sacking out, and while we made progress, she is still quite flighty. 

She is getting better at facing up, but I am having trouble getting inside turns for change of direction. All that will have to wait, especially after I read this article from the U of C Davis on horse respiratory health.

Wordless Wednesday

Josie day 2 and riding Clancy

This session, I reviewed the in hand work and then sent Josie around. I had a lot of trouble getting her to look at me with her left eye, her preferred side is her right side.

Even when I had her going to the left, when she stops and faces up she will turn that right eye to me.

At the end of the video, I was turning away to see if she would join up.
Every session, I want to introduce something new, this time it was a white hand towel, did some rubbing with it- all good- and then I whirled it- oops scary! Also worked more with that noisy flag, and the stick and string, which I whirled over her head; that didn't seem to bother her much.
We work through each new thing until flight is not her dominant response. I don't expect total acceptance in each session, just an improvement and being able to stop in a good place with a relaxed horse.

I was set to work Clancy in the afternoon when Shayla showed up- it sure was nice to have another set of eyes to help me peg the things I need to work on with her. Apparently she was feeling pretty saucy living up to her name (DD Cats Hot Sauce) because when we loped her saddled up in the round pen, she got a little humpy!

I think the saddle wasn't cinched tight enough as well as her feeling pretty good after 6 weeks lay off.
Shayla rode her for a bit, and identified several issues with her, especially dropping to the inside going right.

Foose had just decided that the round pen makes an awesome litterbox!

Shayla gave me a few exercises to do with miss Clancy, I rode her too and could feel what Shayla was talking about.

So we worked on freeing up her right shoulder with some counter arc work. Today, I'm hauling up to an arena and Shayla will come along with her horse so we should get a good training session in on Miss Clancy. 

Josie goes to school

But first, an update on the fire situation: The immediate danger is over as it has cooled off and we had a couple of hours of soaking rain a couple of nights ago and the fire crews on both sides of the border are on top of things, God bless 'em.

Now that the round pen is up and looking pretty, it's Josie training time. Josie is halter broke, with decent ground manners, but that's all I have done with her. Now she is a good stout 2 and a half yrs old, it's time to get her ground work done.
I started off in hand, using some of the things I learned at the Buck Brannaman clinic.  She did well with following the soft feel to go forward, and stepping to the hip to have her cross her inside hind over in a hip yield. She also backs well.

After that, I took the halter off and sent her around the pen.

I wanted to learn what it takes for me to control her speed using my body language. That was interesting, because she is very sensitive, and it didn't take much change in me to get a change in her. A long time ago I read an article by Chris Irwin that discussed the energy in your body and how you can use it to drive or release a horse during longeing, and it sure works. Of course, being a baby, she was easily distracted when Clancy and Beamer called out, then I would have to drive her a bit more to get her attention back.

My goal was join up. Every time I asked her to stop, I'd wait to see if she looked at me with both eyes....

If she didn't, I'd have her head out again. If she did, then I'd soften my energy, back up a step and turn my core away from her, inviting her in.
It took almost a half hour, but we did achieve join up.

Next I did a little more in hand work, asking for change of direction by yielding her hip, then doing what Parelli calls the squeeze game- sending her between me and the fence and asking for hip over just as her hind end passes me, then stop and teeter back. She did this well going from left to right but I had to work on it a bit going from right to left, she tended to back away , so I worked her  in the center of the pen until she got more comfortable in that direction, then moved closer and closer to the fence until we could do it smoothly.
After that, it was time to introduce her to the flag. My flag is a bit of a feed bag tied to a stock whip- it's quite noisy. Now, Josie can be reactive and flighty and she decided that this flag was a monster, so she galloped around me- on the lead line- while I just stood there crinkling the flag, until she stopped her feet. Then I led her out at a walk, still crinkling (not waving it around, just bunching it up so it made noise) and several times she tried to blow out, but eventually got it figured that it wasn't anything to be alarmed about.
Then I could ask her to touch it with her nose.

Once she touched it, she tolerated it, although when I moved it to her neck she got tense and quivery at first.

Over all it was a good first session, it gives me a good idea of where she is at mentally and where her sticky spots are.

Sunday Silence

Last night

The eerie feeling I had was well founded. The fire south of us has spread, and the little town at the border crossing was evacuated. Our fire department joined forces with their US counterparts, and they battled during the night; here is an update from them:


Canyon-Lister Fire Department


This comes from Fire Chief Guthrie. All units have returned to hall. We were dispatched to the border crossing and although there was some moments when an evacuation might have been required. Our friends to the south have done a fantastic job at confining the fire to the south of the river. There is no evacuation for Canyon or Lister at this time.

So now we play the watch and wait game. My horse trailer is hooked up, and I have a couple of bags of personal possessions ready to grab at a moments notice.

Across the valley, another fire started last night. This one is closer, but slightly north.

 Taken with my little pocket camera, on full zoom.
I stayed up late last night, checking for updates. This fire will be attacked this morning, probably with helicopters. All I can see this morning is smoke over there.

I'm praying for the fire fighters; that they stay safe, and that these fires get under control asap.

Trying to keep normal

There is an eerie stillness in the air tonight, even though there is a breeze. It's like the feeling of waiting for something to happen. Even the birds are silent and in hiding.

The smoke from the fire south of us fills the valley, and you can taste the smell, if you know what I mean.

Looking south towards the fire.

There is no way I would ride in this dense of smoke and compromise the horse's lungs. My lungs are having enough difficulty.
We hired a fellow in need to paint the round pen for us; grey it is, although I will add a touch of red to the uprights and cross bars of the gate.

It's a work in progress.

Beamer has been having difficulty with his arthritis. I have tried several different products to no avail, so I'm going herbal. After some research, I have opted for a blend of burdock root and dandelion root tea poured over a couple of cups of alfalfa pellets, along with some nettles and a bit of black cumin seed oil. Topped off with apple cider vinegar to disguise any bitterness from the burdock and dandelion- Beamer does like ACV. 

He approves- he licked it clean.

 I sure hope this gives him some relief. I hate seeing him hurting. 

I spent sometime today online, keeping up with the news from south central B.C. where wild fires are raging out of control. There are reports of livestock being lost, and several frantic people trying to get their horses and other creatures out of harms way. Some people have lost their homes, and all their winter's hay in a year when hay is hard to find. The Facebook community is rallying , and people from all over are offering sanctuary for displaced families and animals, and hay donations are being rallied. Rescue efforts are under way but it will be some time before the full story of the devastation caused by the Rock Creek fire will be told. Right now the highway is closed.

Photo credit: Chris Knight

Meanwhile, more fires are being reported in the area, in one place a fire truck and crew was trapped and requested air support - no further news there yet. Towns and farm are being evacuated. My husband has family in one of the towns that is being evacuated tonight.  People with horses are opening their gates and letting the horses out- roads are closed so I think they are hoping the horses will find their own safety. There are already groups being organized to help find animals after the fire has passed or is contained enough for search parties.
My heart is hurting for all the people who have or will have lost their homes, their livelihood, and their animals. Fire is so unforgiving and indiscriminate. And it's a long way from being over, we are just getting into the hottest part of summer.
My husband and I are supposed to be driving through that area next weekend on our way to a wedding in Kelowna; if the roads are open. I would rather help with rescue efforts than go to a wedding.
God bless and keep safe all the firefighters and the people in harm's way.

Helpful dogs

Yesterday we had really nice evening light, partly due to the fire south of us.

I got to thinking that I don't have a nice photo of Clancy on my sidebar, so off I went to the mare pen, along with my trusty collies. I had to chase the girls away from their hay to get photos.... and of course my sidekicks were happy to assist.

That is, until the horses started walking towards them....

I did get a couple of nice photos of Clancy, but not one for the sidebar. I need a new one of Josie too.

Wordless Wednesday

Round pen progress

Sing it with me.... a rakin' sand in the hot sun, I fought the sweat and the sweat won....

The sand was delivered Saturday morning, I used the tractor to roughly level it and then raked some Sunday afternoon and finished it off this morning.

Ted is building me a gate; a 10 ft. panel with a 5 ft opening for the gate, which will be around 4 and a half ft wide once it's fitted.

 He has a plan to do a decorative piece with horseshoes on the top , there will be 2 top rails to make it extra tough.

Tack welding the top bar in place. Where's your welding helmet Ted?

I had hoped to be using the pen by today, but things always seem to take longer than planned. I hauled all the panels out with the little tractor and laid them out, ready to assemble once the gate is finished.

Awaiting the gate and one more panel

Ted says the gate will be finished tomorrow and we'll do the set up in the evening. Can't wait! I was planning on taking Clancy for a ride today but I'm beat from all the raking and heavy lifting. These panels are made from 2 inch drill stem pipe, and they are very heavy.  In an ideal world, I would paint them before I assemble them.... but rust is a colour isn't it?  I'd like to paint them grey like my other panels.Also, I want to wrap rubber conveyor belting along the bottom half all the way around to keep the sand from getting kicked out.

An update on Kai- guest post

I have kept in touch with the people who own the 3 boyz, and the young lady who had been working with Kai has agreed to do a guest post. Here is the story on Kai since they bought him in February:

Hi everyone! My name is Shannon, and I just turned 20 at the beginning of July.
I've known the Perrott family for about 5 years through being in the same 4-H club as Rorie, the girl who bought Rio from Shirley. Over a year ago I decided to start boarding my horse Bailey at their place, which is when I really started getting close with the family. After we discovered how amazing Rio was, when Shirley messaged us asking if we might be interested in looking at Kai, we were all very excited.
Upon meeting Kai for the first time, we were lucky enough to find out that Shirley was also looking for a home for Nitro. However that being said, I was told by Kevin (Rorie's dad) that if we took home both Kai and Nitro, I was expected to help out with either horse.

Needless to say, once we got Kai and Nitro home I fell in love with Kai. Just like his daddy and brothers, he is calm, willing, and a total joy to be around.
The first time I rode Kai in the arena he wasn't sure what a straight line was, and was a little rusty on steering! Which is understandable, as he had only around 20 rides on him at the time. He would also get rather nervous with faster horses moving around him.

I got him going pretty good with more riding at the arena and outside. I even taught him how to give hugs and bow! I was really excited and had lots of plans for him during the summer!

May 5th, was a pretty scary evening. I got a call from Alana (Rorie's mom) saying that Kai had hurt his leg. All she could say was "it's bad". I met them all at the vet clinic to see Kai might as well of ripped his foot off. The culprit: barbed wire fence. 

You could stick almost your full finger into his wound. The vet was worried about joint damage, but thank the good Lord there was none. Since the injury was in such a high motion area, stitches wouldn't hold. Kai ended up getting a cast on foot that went up past the fetlock.

 

Luckily, we had just built a brand new barn, so that became Kai's new home for almost a month while he healed. What amazed me was how he never looked lame, even with his cast. He never limped, or hopped.

After a week, Kai had worn through his first cast and needed a new one. When the cast came off we were amazed at how well it had already started healing. Lots of new, pink skin! He was re-casted and given a boot to help prevent wear and tear!

Kai's injury prevented me from any riding, however it gave me a chance to work on ground manners with him. We practiced showmanship: standing square, pivoting, and staying beside me. Once his foot healed more I taught him to trot beside me, which was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be! We also practised yielding his hindquarters and forequarters.

His cast came off at the end of May, and we again were amazed at the healing that had taken place. 

He still never took a lame step. I tried my luck at just lunging him and he was amazing, no limping whatsoever. 

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As he continued to heal, I put some light rides on him. At first we just walked, and when I felt confident in his healing we upped it to include a trot. 

Today, he is about 90% healed. He has some scar tissue that may or may not grow hair, however he moves like nothing ever happened.

 

Since we have had Kai, I've been the only one riding and training him, which has made me love him like he was mine.
This fall I will be doing 4-H, taking Kai and my mare as my projects. My plans and goals for us are to continue his training, and get at least one show under his belt!

I'm so blessed to have the Perrott family in my life, and so thankful to Shirley for allowing me the opportunity to love and teach this horse, and to be loved and taught by him in return.