Sunday Silence

Bushwhacking

Good morning!

I pray that we all stay virus free and enjoy the time we spend with family and critters and that this all brings us a deeper spiritual life, for nothing makes us examine ourselves more than having to be in close contact with - our self!

Every time I have to go to town I see people being more and more cautious and respectful of physical distancing; one grocery store taped off X spots on the floor to show people where they want them to stand in the check out line ups.

There are a few disturbing reports of people leaving the cities and camping out in the bush-  I sure hope that they know what they are doing because my experience with city folk camping usually involves seeing garbage everywhere and drunken parties and disrespect for land owners.

I'd rather just see the wild life that belongs there!

There were a couple of whitetail deer, but I wasn't quick enough to get the camera on them. 

I love exploring in the bush and Gussie is the perfect trail partner, she is level headed and smart, even though she sometimes makes her opinion known she usually just goes where I want her to- like stepping into the river. 

Riding day 14

We go out Walkin'

Both Drifter and I need exercise, and yesterday was such a beautiful day that I opted to take the boy for a walk. He really enjoys these walks. First thing we encountered was the neighbours burning their brush pile; they are landscapers and had a big pile of ornamental cedar to burn so it was crackling and smoking and flaming quite fiercely . Drifter approached cautiously, we stopped and observed, proceeded, stopped and observed some more, etc. He wasn't scared, just cautious and interested.
Next we navigated through the bush, lots of twigs snapping and branches brushing against him- no worries. Up onto the dyke where the river was observed with interest, then on for a longer walk along the dyke. Remember those big cement barriers that Gussie is leery of?

The space to walk through them is quite narrow and I wasn't sure what he would think of it. But he handled it like a champ! For you Parelli fans that's the Squeeze Play game. Lots of horses are uncomfortable in tight spaces so it was nice to see how he handled it. 

Now that I have had him out and about away from the horse pens the next step is to pony him on some of my brush trails.

Taking it easy

While the rest of the world panics and frets, life here is pretty much as normal. The bonus of living at the end of a country road. I haven't had to change much of what I normally do; my husband is still working (mechanic at the John Deere dealership- agriculture must go on) and we rarely visit other people or get visitors here so it's situation normal.
Now that it's spring. I spend more time at the barn and hanging out with the horses.
I rode Gussie a couple of time, I made some modifications to my new saddle that have helped. I switched out the roper stirrups for my lightweight wooden ones and that has helped ease the pressure on my ankle, and bending the fenders helped too but I need to do it again and get the leather wetter first.

Checking out a couple of the downed fir trees

We gave Drifter a ponying lesson the other day. I just ponied him in the mare pen. He went along fairly well; got a little nippy at first but got bopped on the nose with the lead shank  every time he thought about it. I did a lot of just standing still with him, as he leads really well but inactivity really tries his baby mind. He wants to do stuff, not stand still! 

With stud colts you have to be pretty strict. Learning the boundaries of mares and humans is important at this age. The mares are good teachers, and I have to step up my game a bit and not let him mouth any part of my clothing. I told him that there is no part of me that belongs in his mouth for any reason! I really think that once he is getting ridden his boredom will go away and  will give him more things to occupy his inquisitive mind. 

Still standing and a nice frame for the mountain

Riding day 12 & 13

In my space

This is what social distancing looks like at my place.

No spacing needed!

Mama Belle

It's time I did a Belle post.

Coyote Belle is 16 this year, and this is her 10th pregnancy. She has had 2 fillies (Sparkle N Peppy and Stella Belle Peppy) and from Beamer, 4 sons:  Kai, Rio, Nitro and Eli. Their registered names are Midnight Coyote, Diamond Rio Peppy, Shining Midnite Moon, and Elijah Peppy. When she was living in Alberta she was bred 3 times and produced a bay colt from a full brother to Playgun, this colt has remained a stallion. Then she had a silver bay colt, and when I bought her back she was in foal with Pistol (CD Shiny Pistolena).

I think we can all agree she is due to have a filly again, and if you are a number geek like I am check this out: It has been 7 years since she has had a filly. This will be her 7th foal from Beamer. And Belle is 16, which adds up to 7. Then there is the fact that my number is 7 if you add up the values of each letter of my name. So.... a filly please!

Then there is the way Belle looks. She isn't as huge as she usually is at 10 months along.

She is a grand ole mare and the best mama. I couldn't ask for a better broodmare. When she was injured as a weanling, I guess God knew that she was destined to be a mama. She was never ridden but showed that she wanted to  as a young mare when I was saddling Gussie up, I could see that she thought she should be part of that program too. But now she is quite content to be the matriarch of the herd and the unspoken boss mare. Gussie is the #2, and the enforcer.

A ride and a walk and- flowers!

Happy Spring Equinox! Another glorious day here.

A lovely sunset and I found some more flowers too!

Such cheerful little faces. I really need to plant daffodils this year.

Had a nice ride on Gussie yesterday, just ambling along through the brush, looking for different routes through the trees, listening to the riversong, and noticing how many fir trees toppled during that hellacious wind earlier in the month. Also enjoying the picturesque old stumps that are remnants of trees toppled long ago.

After riding I debated ponying Drifter but opted to take him for a walk instead. We didn't go far, but he got to do a couple of new things like walking over the bridge we have over our spring runoff channel.

He handled that well, I look forward to doing more obstacles with him. Should be fun! 

He also spotted the neighbour's cows....

and the cows spotted him; being curious critters they had to come check him out. This little black baldy was quite cute.

Yes that's Merle yapping

I could just see the wheels turning! The mares are always chasing him away, so for him to have something he can move is really going to make him happy.

Riding day 11

So....I did a thing..... two things actually

Such a lovely day yesterday! Better enjoy it while we can, supposed to get wet by the weekend. So I am dedicating as much time to Drifter as I can before he gets a few days off.
The first thing :
I am now the sole owner of Drifter. Shayla is working in a show barn and has really found her niche, training horses for the rail and trail classes. She is really enjoying it, and her plans for barrel racing have been put on the back burner. Since that was the plan for Drifter, and also because she can't take him to the place she works,   I offered to buy her out and she accepted. So now I feel more comfortable in pursuing his training myself. I may or may not eventually use him for barrels, but first he will learn all the ranch stuff that I can come up with. Hence the rope work etc. This year will be all about getting him to experience the big ole world and be mannerly about it.

The next thing:
I  had my friend Dave come over and help me with this. I longed Drifter first, then did a little liberty work with him. Then I took him to the fence and worked on getting him to come alongside me as I sat on the fence. I swung my leg up on his back and rubbed him. Then Dave took the leadrope and I slid on and had him lead me around.

Just a short little walk around, enough to see how he handled my weight (bareback). He was pretty chill about it! I won't do much of that until later in the summer. I may put about 20 rides on him later in the year then wait until he is 3 to ride him a little more, no hurry about that but I do need to focus on getting him out more, ponying him from Gussie and just exposing him to the sights and sounds of the big old world so that when I do actually ride him he will take it all in stride.
And again, he was a good boy!

Reining and rope work

Drifter sure is coming along. He is so easy to work with! Can't say enough about the good mind on these Driftwood bred horses. Worked on my cues for transitions on the longe line; he is making me think! I had to really plan my changes of direction cues to get the smoothest changes. He will give me 110% so I try to scale it back to 100 % by being more subtle in my cues.
After longeing I bitted him up a couple of times both ways but I feel that isn't what he needs. So I did a little bit of side walking reining. He is getting so tall it isn't easy to do this!

After that I did a little rope work; I sure do like how he handles that. He may have a future as a rope/ranch horse.

With good weather predicted for the rest of the week I should be able to make lots of progress- and get some Gussie rides in too.

A circle of friends

Something special happened today.

I went down to visit the horses before chore time, and sat down on the (empty) feed bin in the mare pen to pray my Rosary and enjoy the sunshine. Next thing I knew, Gussie came and stood so close to me her head was literally right behind mine, close enough that if I leaned back an inch we touched.

You know I don't do selfies, but I had to share this special moment. Gussie totally at peace, with her eyes closed; she had my back.

Then Drifter came over to investigate, and being Drifter he was right in my face, breathing on me and investigating my jacket. Then mama Belle came over, and being Belle, stood about 10 feet away and snoozed in the sunshine.
I had the feeling of being protected and loved in a circle of friends. This lasted the whole 20 minutes of my prayer; and that peace is always what I feel when I pray the Rosary. It was so wonderful and such a blessing that my horses shared that peace with me.

Drifter, being Drifter, had to start pulling on my jacket, and then had to herd Foose out of the pen, and found other things to occupy his short attention span. But the mares stayed with me.

I needed that after the last few days.

A sad and blustery day

Friday the 13th - not such a great day here. First, I attended the funeral of a lady who lived down the road from us at our last place. She was 60 years old. Remember that wind storm I told you about that flattened the mare shelter? I guess she was out in it, doing chores perhaps. Her hay is outside, stored under a tarp and they found her there, it seems one of the poles holding up the hay had hit her, and a large bale had fallen on her. This story makes me so sad, you never know when your hour has come, and it emphasises the need for safety at all times. I hounded my husband when we moved here to build me a hay shed off the barn, not just to preserve the hay from the weather but because it is so much safer; less risk of bales falling. Of course, if you have small square bales, it can still be dangerous if they aren't stacked right and you have to take them from the pile in a way that preserves the integrity and stability of the pile. There are so many things to be safety conscious of with livestock and especially so in bad weather.
Speaking of weather, we are getting a blast of arctic air today with the wind howling and blowing gritty bits of snow. Beamer got his blanket back on and I fed the girls and Drifter in the foaling shelter, which has 3 sides closed in, and is only 15 ft. long. It's a good thing they get along in close quarters; Drifter is always between the two mares and they seem to be fine with that.

Drifter is as tall as Gussie at the hip now but still has to catch up at the shoulder

This nasty weather is supposed to continue until tomorrow afternoon, then we will be back in the sunshine and back to working horses.

A full day

That sure was a pretty full moon- a super moon I believe, closest point to the earth. My camera battery on my Nikon was dead so I didn't get a photo. It is spectacular when it peeks over the mountain ridge, putting the trees in silhouette  before it sails majestically across the night sky. It's still out as I write this morning, but is shrouded in clouds; there is rain in the forecast. Hope I can get some horse time before it starts.
I have been trying to do something with each one of the horses every day; grooming and picking the feet on Beamer and Belle, taking Beamer out to hand graze, working Drifter or walking him, and riding Gussie or at least grooming her. We went for a ride yesterday, down to the swimming hole again. I decided to wade her across the shallow end, the water was so beautiful and clear and I figure spring runoff will be starting soon enough, so might as well get some water time while I can. At first she was not too impressed, but persevered (my key word for the year!) and as you will see in the video was quite happy to turn around and head back.

I am going to have to do more work on that saddle; the fenders lie too flat and the leather is quite thick so even though I put the twist on the straps they don't stay in position. My ankle gets quite sore from that. So today I will be soaking the fenders and putting a curve on them so only the back of the fender lays against her sides. If that doesn't help the saddle will be going up for sale. It's a good stout saddle and we have a roping club here so it shouldn't be too hard to sell if I go that route.

Then it was Drifter time. I did the round pen liberty work; I had done some You Tube research and came across a good video from Dan Steers that gave me some ideas to get started. I'll be checking out the second video in the series too. He uses a square pen, but since the round pen is what I have that's where I'm starting. I didn't longe him or do any other prep work, just went straight into the liberty work. It was a little ragged, there were some places where I had to help him, and some places where he totally lost his attention, and one place where he "thought" about giving me a little nip but didn't, so over all I think it was a good first session- for both of us! I'm learning as we go too!

Riding day 10

Down to the river

Drifter hadn't been for a walk for a long time. I wasn't expecting him to be good, because when he was a yearling, on his walks he would get all excited and leap around with his tail up. However, he surprised me!
He was eager, to be sure, but well behaved... almost. In his excitement at the start of the walk he tried to nip my arm, which earned him an immediate response from me- I was carrying my stock whip for just such an occasion. I am happy to say that is the only time I had to use it in that capacity. I had another use for it, which I will get to in a moment.

He was quite intrigued by the sound and sight of the moving water. One thing I like about him is that he stands still and thinks about things. I think it's a sign of him mentally maturing, as he was way more reactive last year. He did end up moving around me in a circle but not pulling on the lead rope.

On the way back, I got to thinking about all the liberty videos and live demos that I have seen, and how they use the whip to indicate direction and elements. I thought it would be a great way to develop partnership and engage his mind and body while I wait for him to get old enough to ride. So as we walked, I held the whip forward and down, when we stopped I brought it across in front of him held level, and to back up I moved it back so it touched his chest. He picked up on it right away, and we practiced these 3 things several times on our walk back to the barn.

Yesterday I worked him again on those principles with some modifications. For stop, I held the whip vertical, and I introduced sidepass by laying it along his side about where the calf of the leg would be. It really helped that Shayla had introduced that to him last summer. At the end of the session which was only about 10 minutes as a snow flurry was moving in, he was moving freely in the indicated direction  and for the sidepass I could hold the whip about 6 inches off his side, not touching, and he sidepassed beautifully. I was so happy with his willingness and progress! To take it to the next level, I will do this without using the halter. I'll be sure to get video of that. I'm going to have to look up some liberty training videos to get more ideas.

Drifter, you are a fun horse!

Hello in there!

Belle's foal is busy in there! I will be holding my annual foaling contest at the beginning of April. Tentative due date is May 2nd, but that is if she goes her average of 352 days. Her history is anywhere from 347 days (Nitro) to 362 days (Eli). With the exception of Nitro, all her foals have been over 350 days.

Working Drifter March 5

Now that the ground in the round pen is thawed, I am stepping up Drifter's training.
Yesterday, I saddled him up and had him carry all the gear over to the round pen.

My lariat, driving lines, and his bridle

I went to get the flag, but had to extract it from his mouth first...

Silly boy!

I started by longeing him in the halter, walk trot and lope both ways; his first step into the lope he gave an exuberant little leap and that was it, he loped out nicely. 

Then I went to rope work. A little different this tine, I didn't rope his feet. I like to do something new each time and then go back and review. First I had him drag the rope so that it was on both sides of him and had him step over it and feel it on all his feet.

Then I swung the rope all around him, beside his head, rope his head, rope the saddle, rope his butt, his legs. I am happy to say the he stood ground tied during all this and didn't move his feet at all. Good boy, Drifter!

Then I bridled him and longed him again. The reins are tied to the D ring for the breast collar, loose enough that if I was riding it would only be a small movement to pick up contact and enough to discourage him from rooting out his nose.

This colt is so much fun to work with. He retains his training well, so it's easy to build from one day to the next. I plan to intersperse round pen work with taking him for walks to see the big old world around him. That, I'm sure, will create some excitement in him so it's a good way to instill manners in him. 

Blow you old Blue Norther

The wind was picking up last night around dark; at 5 am it woke me up because the tin on our roof was lifting and banging, pretty sure there will be some screws loose! Everything seemed ok though as I looked outside. But I didn't look well enough. There are 2 willow trees behind out house. Well there were; now there is 1.

I used to hang my hammock between those 2 trees and enjoy the shade from their canopy and the view of the mountains on a hot summer afternoon.  Sigh.

But that wasn't the worst of it. See that trailer behind the tree? Our neighbour lives there and he has a good view of the horse pens; he called and told us the horse shelter was down. Of course I panicked thinking I was going to have  injured horses so I rushed down there and was so relieved to see all 3 of them walk to me with not a scratch on them. They were calm too. 

The shelter on the other hand, is a goner.

I could see hoof marks on what used to be the roof, and horsey nose squiggles; Drifter had to inspect!

Totally flattened! (Can I say yay?) Now I will finally get a real shelter instead of a makeshift one! Ted may have someone who will take the remnants of this one to build a pig barn.

For now, I have moved them into the foaling area where they can have shelter and enough room until we can get this mess cleaned up. 

A Drifter day, a test and a lamb

We'll start with the lamb- March came in like a lamb here!
 A gorgeous sunny Sunday, so after Church I worked Drifter. He is such a good boy, I just love him. He stood quietly while I brushed out his mane and tail and put detangler in; no pawing or fidgeting. Saddled him up like an old broke horse and we went to the round pen. Some longeing at the walk, trot and lope both ways, then I brought out my lariat and sacked him out with it (ho hum, says he)

and then I roped all 4 feet. The idea is to pick up the feet and  you be the one to set the foot on the ground. Pulling both forward on the leg and rearward, just as you would do if you were trimming him. He got it pretty quickly.

Drifter really seemed to enjoy being worked. He was quiet and cooperative, no silliness. I think he is going to be the kind of horse that loves to be ridden and have a job to do. I just love him! He's the kind of horse that makes training easy. 

Then we get to the test...

 You know the string and nail test I do just for fun to see what gender foal my mares are carrying, well I did Belle the other day. The nail moves of its own accord; back and forth for a colt and in a circle for a filly.

I sure hope it's true, because that's a circle and I reeeeeeally want a filly!