Spring stuff

 Another quiet week here. But busy with non horse stuff like getting my gardens cleared of last years dead branches, dividing some perennials, raking the barnyard debris from putting chaff down on the icy winter paths, and raking poo piles away from the buildings and fencelines to prepare for corral cleaning in the next few days. 

I worked Sophie a couple times in the round pen, and decided to switch to using a Billy Allen mouthpiece snaffle on her, thinking that the single jointed snaffle was more distracting to her; she seemed to be much more comfortable in the Billy Allen so I will ride her in that until I feel she is ready for a curb bit. 

I was planning on riding her the day after our stroll, but she came into a pretty strong heat and was so focused on Beamer that I thought it would be pointless to work on her issue with leaving with that strong of a distraction. Discretion is the better part of valor! 

Ted is back now so I can haul away from here to ride - I'm sure that will help. 

Sunday Stroll

 

Sophie

 Since my husband had to go out of town with the truck for a few days, I wasn't able to haul to the arena on Wednesday. So today was such a nice day I thought I would just saddle up and ride. 

You ready Sophie? Let's go!

I had to work with her a bit at the mounting block to get her to stand still in the perfect spot, and then off we went. 

Well, off we went for a little ways. As soon as we got to the end of the area that Sophie was familiar with from being able to see it from her pasture, she stopped. 

She had a good look at her surroundings. I urged her on. A few more steps and she stopped again.... rinse and repeat.... 

Beamer was hollering at her as she got close to being out of his sight. There were strange things in the bush. (Dirt piles, brush piles, tire piles oh my!) And and and a pond! With light reflecting off the water!!!!

Sigh....

Miss sure of herself in the pasture is not so sure of herself out in the great big ole world. 

I opted not to get in a fight with her about all this. No point in it really. My goal is for her to be confidant in me and for me to be confidant in her. We need to take care of each other. So I got off and led her through all those troublesome things, to a place where we could just chill out and sit for a bit before heading back. 

The pros: She doesn't buck, bolt or spin around when she is troubled .

The cons: How the heck are we going to cover ground if she has to stop and look at everything?

I did some thinking as I led her back- to the round pen. If she won't go forward on the trail, she will have to work back at home.  Since she was a bit pushy in the bridle when I was riding, we went back to the basics. I bitted her up and sent her around. She really doesn't have softness in the bridle at this time, so that is definitely something I have to work on. So nice to be able to use my round pen again now that the ice and snow and mud have gone. 

She was pretty pissy about that at first. Lots of head flinging and pulling on the bit.

Not quite there....

That's better! Just a little slack in the reins. 

I brought out my rope and checked to see how she was with it whirling around her head and thrown on parts of her body. She was pretty good with it so I assume she is used to ropes from her previous cowboy life. 

So it looks like my focus will be not so much in riding until I can get a trail riding buddy to give her  confidence with another horse to follow, instead sending her back to basic training to work on softness and connection. 

I let her stand and soak for a bit before I turned her loose. She was still leaning on the bit at a standstill, so I waited until she gave herself some slack before I turned her loose and took her back to untack and turn her back into her pen. 

That's what I was waiting for! 

One more Sophie tidbit- it's looking like she isn't pregnant after all, her belly has not gotten any bigger in the last 2 months so that must have just been her winter flufffiness. All good! I really didn't need her to have a foal this year. 

The saddle restoration.

 From an old moldy hunk of junk to a perfectly functional saddle, and all for the cost of elbow grease, 30 bucks worth of oil, and 200 to the repair shop. Here's the post with the before photos 

There are a few things left to do like get a set of stirrups and give these ones back to the saddle maker, and get a new off side billet (the strap the cinch attaches to on this side of the saddle) and get a couple of latigo keepers installed on those front conchos so I have a place to hang the cinch when not in use, and a place to put the excess latigo when I tighten the cinch. 

Front view, showing the leather which we chose instead of sheepskin. Those dark spots are where the saddle strings go through the tree to tie all the skirting down. 

Those angled swells should help keep me in the saddle when I'm working colts!

The leather underside, with a close up of the texture. I am sure this will help to keep the saddle from slipping around, it should have better grip on the saddle pad than sheepskin. 

I have saddle pads of 3 different thicknesses; 1 inch. 3/4 inch and a half inch. I tried this saddle on Sophie with the 1 inch 5 Star pad. 

You can see that the billet strap is too short in this photo

Plenty of wither clearance although I think I could go to the 3/4 inch pad as I think this sets the bars too high on her, but for colts who aren't as wide backed as this mare, this pad should be perfect. When I originally set the bare tree on her I thought there might not be enough wither clearance. This saddle has full quarter horse bars. 

Turned stirrups! 😁

You can see how much lower the cinch sits on this side as compared in the above photo; that's a 36 inch cinch; if it was centered it would probably be a good fit. 

Sophie sez, let's ride!

Eeeeh what's up doc?

 That was my question as I headed out to my gardens to see what indeed is coming up, since today is the spring equinox. Turns out the answer is lots! 

Aurora- that is my Heleborus which apparently is quite happy! 

Purple Emperor Sedum

One of several irises, all of them with new growth

All my daylilies are sending up new leaves

Lilies! this is my earliest one, it's a deep red.

Red bee balm, one of my favourites. I harvest leaves and flowers for tea and an oxymel.

Spinach that overwintered! It should have new growth coming along, I'm sure these leaves will be bitter. I also left beets and carrots in the ground but alas, the cold got to them. 

What's up in your garden? I know you southerners have flowers already, hope you post them! 

Jayne heads north

 Today was travelling day for Jayne. She's en route to Shayla to rejoin her herdmates Belle and Gussie and to meet a whole bunch of new friends. She will have so much more room there and the grazing that I don't have here is plentiful there. 

She's such a sweet mare and I sure am blessed to have owned this granddaughter of both Hollywood Dun It and Shining Spark- two of the most prolific sires of performance horses in modern quarter horse history. 

I figured Sophie would get a little wound up when Jayne left, and she did a lot of calling and ripping around. I put Beamer in the foaling pen (which borders Sophie's pen) for a few minutes to get her mind off Jayne, and also because I am going to be using Beamer to tease Sophie to find out if she is pregnant or open. 

Beamer thoroughly enjoyed that! And it definitely took Sophie's mind off Jayne being gone. 

I have made arrangements to haul to a local indoor arena on Wednesdays to get Sophie going. Finally..... back in the saddle!

And then the rains came

 We are in full on melt down mode now. Most of the snowpack is gone ; within a few days it should all be gone. Now we just have to be wary of the mudslides this little area is known for. 

I will be insuring my horse trailer in a couple of days and by then I should be able to get it out of where it was parked for the winter. 

As you can see, there is still snow and ice in front of it but this side and behind it is all clear, perfect for bringing Sophie out for a grooming and to take her for a walk. I wanted to see how she would do crossing the seasonal creek that flows through our yard with the spring runoff. Always good to know what your horse does with mud and water- Beamer would absolutely refuse to cross this type of terrain. 

I needn't have worried!  

Sophie has what I call a working horse mentality. A get the job done without drama type. She even has that look physically. I can't wait to see where she's going to shine. 

Have any of you been following the Cowboy Channel rodeo broadcasts? I have and I'm glad to see that many of the big rodeos are now including breakaway roping in their events. At The American, it was on par with all the other events for the big prizes. I wonder if the Calgary Stampede will include it this year. Nice to see another event where the ladies can compete for the big bucks. 100 grand at the American. Last year Calgary paid only 50 grand instead of their usual 100 grand so maybe this year they will be back up to their usual payout, and I sure hope they add in breakaway roping. It's something I want to do! Although I would not be competitive at that level ever.... it's another thing I can do with my horse that I think she would be good at. She certainly has the physique to get in the ground to stop fast. We do have a roping club here so I'm going to see if they do breakaway. I used to team rope back in the day so I do know a bit about how to throw a rope. What I like about this sport is that it's just you and your horse and one bovine, not like team sorting or team penning or team roping where you are dependent on other people during the event. I also like that it's a timed event and not a judged one like reining or working cowhorse, and that it's a lot less demanding than barrel racing. 

Better get my rope out and get my arm back in shape!

Quiet week

 Not a lot going on here this week. We had a snow squall blow through, followed by cold sunny days and apparently we are getting back into wet weather starting late today. 

The racoon (s) is back, so far it hasn't been a pest and I only know it's here by the tracks in the snow. 

The neighbours have seem 2 very large ones recently, however this was a solo set of tracks. 

The horses are all shedding now with Sophie being the slowest. Probably because she's a prairie horse and hasn't acclimated to our milder climate here in the Creston Valley.  I am starting to wonder if I was seeing things with her belly as she has not gotten much larger in the last month. But with maiden mares it's hard to tell. 

Beamer is getting *ahem* fluffy now that his teeth are done and I had to take him off his grain/alfalfa pellet supplement. 

Those poor knees 💔

He is 21 this year. It makes me sad to know that his years grow short. I couldn't have asked for a better stallion. He has the best disposition anyone could ask for. If it wasn't for those knees I would still be riding him. 

I am hoping that the rest of March will be warm enough to melt the snow so I can get back in the saddle. However, I probably won't be doing solo rides through the bush here for a while as the bears are starting to come out of hibernation, and a grizzly does live in this area. So I will stick to a less wild area when I start riding Sophie. 

Still think it may possibly be a baby belly!

Sunday Silence

 

Swans

 When I heard that there had been some sightings of swans now that we have some open water, I vowed to at last get some photos of them. 13 years we have been here and now I finally made the effort!

We had to travel some 10 miles or so up the lake to find them; they were on a quiet backwater channel some distance from the highway.

Would you bushwack your way through that tangle of briars to get a few photos? Why, of course, I knew you would! Actually, I couldn't help thinking of Val and Aurora as I followed the deer tracks through the underbrush to find the easiest way through. 

And there they were! Two groups; these three and two more downstream from them. 

They had spotted me and were nonchalantly swimming away. 

I could see that there was a duck nearby but it wasn't until I got the photos on my computer and cropped them down that I could see it's a Hooded Merganser. Bonus!

As far as I can tell these are Whistling Swans, the most common one in this part of the world. Their call was more like a goose than the call of the Trumpeter swan, which is more rare. 

Not the crispest of photos, even though I had my tripod. But they were quite a distance away and I had max zoom on them. 

It was a bit of a steep climb back up to the road and I spotted this hole in a tree at one of my rest stops. I wonder if it's a home for a bird like a Flicker, Owl or just a place where the woodpeckers were dining. 

There were lots of these moss covered rocks too, some of them huge. Definitely don't step on them or you will go sliding! I managed to get all the way to the top before my foot went through a snow covered hole between the rocks. It always happens just when you think you are home free! But no worries, just a wet butt. 

Wordless Wednesday