When I originally bought Rally, I had big plans to breed her to a good stallion, to produce foals that would suitable for rodeo events. However, since she seemed so trainable, I put that plan on hold while I worked with her. About a month ago, her former owners came for a visit and were really pleased and surprised with how well she was doing. I told them that if they wanted to buy her back, I would do that for them; they have a daughter who barrel races and a grandson who is a steer wrestler. We delved into her pedigree and I showed them all the top notch speed horses in her pedigree. They discussed it as a family and took me up on the offer.
Today they came to pick her up; she will go to a trainer in southern Alberta who competes in calf roping and who starts colts, and has his own indoor arena.
The young fellow who is leading her is another grandson who will be ranch riding her once she is started.
It took a while to get her loaded, even in his big stock trailer and with her former bff mare in it.
Unloaded Molly to see if Rally would just follow her in.... ummm hard no.
We ended up using my round pen and loading both mares together at liberty; it took quite a bit of pressure for Rally to think better of saying no and jump in with Molly, her nice quiet friend.
I am going to miss her!
A few days ago, Shayla came and picked up Patsy....who of course was an absolute angel to load! I am going to miss her friendly self too.
Patsy was a real pleasure to have around- no muss no fuss, just an easy to please filly with the sweetest personality.
Velvet will not miss Rally, she was always getting chased off and nipped, poor old girl. She now happily has Gussie all to herself.
I was doing a routine check on the mares yesterday and Patsy came up to greet me.
I was rather alarmed to see her like that. She had been standing in the shade of the mares shelter with the other horses so I sure wasn't expecting anything amiss.
It wasn't overly hot and humid, pretty much the same as it has been for several days.
I consulted with Shayla and with the vet. There were no signs of distress other than the rapid breathing; she was eating and drinking normally, so we ruled out colic but gave her a dose of banamine anyway.
Vet said I could bring her in in the morning if needed, but by the cool of the evening she was pretty much back to normal. I figure she was like that for at least 5 hours. I was pretty worried about her.
What I think happened is that the mares were not letting her at the salt tub, which was in the middle back of the shelter, and without enough salt she couldn't sweat enough to cool off. This morning she spent 5 minutes licking salt, and later I brought out a bucket of loose salt and added it it to the tub.
She had several mouthfuls!
The other mares all helped themselves to it too
And I moved it to a better spot where nobody will get trapped and picked on.
Patsy was normal today, so I think the salt was the issue, leading to anhidrosis.
I finally got a decent trim on Rally's front feet. Now I am no farrier just an old lady with a bad back, and Rally is not really foot broke, so it has taken me a long time doing things a little at a time. I found that she is willing to lift her feet much better when I ask with my lariat.
Eventually her feet look like this:
The next day I did clean up the sole with my hoof knife and rasped more flare from the hoof wall.
A long way from perfect but so much better than this, which is what they looked like the day I bought her.
Today I started on working with her hind feet. They have been self trimming lately; with all the rain and soggy pasture her feet are pretty soft and some chunks have come off. She wasn't too happy with me lifting and holding her foot so I went to square one, just asking her to lift her feet with my rope- so much easier on my back.
I did this with both hinds, and when she would lift and set each foot down without kicking, that was enough for today.
I was also able to send her in to the trailer twice today, yay! She kinda looked at me as if to say, "aren't you coming in?" No, Rally, you are a big girl now you can do it on your own!
I have also done a bit with Patsy, she is so refreshingly easy after working with Rally!
I got her started on longeing, she goes over the bridge without any worries, and the tarp work was easy too.
In fact, so easy that Shayla asked me to introduce her to being blanketed.
Easy peasy! Patsy also heads straight for the trailer if I turn her loose and has to check for grain in there. One thing I do have to work on with her is backing, both on the ground and backing out of the trailer.
Sunset, and a lovely end to Canada day, which I spent relaxing on the couch, watching the Ponoka Stampede on the Cowboy Channel. The recent rains have given us cool mornings, so this morning I worked Rally, and yesterday I worked Patsy.
This was the first time I asked her to step onto and over the "bridge". She just is so cool about everything. I also asked her to follow me into the trailer- she had only self loaded at liberty (there was Food! in there! ) so asking her to step in was a whole different deal.
Of course it helped that there was a bucket of oats in there, she is quite food motivated at this point. She is super easy to work with.
I had to take a break from working with their feet; I have had a nasty cold for a couple of weeks and bending over sends me into a coughing fit. Getting better now, so feet are going back on the roster for both her and Rally.
Today was Rally's turn, and smart girl that she is, she picked up where we left off. My goal today was to longe her over the bridge instead of asking her to come to me in front of her. One thing about Rally, if she thinks she is going to get in trouble she either shuts down or has an exaggerated reaction, so the key to her is taking my time, staying soft and giving timely releases so she understands when she gets it right. Also, she loves to get praised and loved on.
Really pleased that she offered this right away.
I had set up the L again too, and asked her to walk through it. A couple times, then I dropped the rope and she ground tied while I stepped back for a photo.
Good girl, Rally. Next up will be backing through the L in hand.
Then it was over to the trailer for her rest and snack of oats. I am trying to get her to look forward to time spent at the trailer; whereas before she was giving it the stink eye she is now willing to walk up to it and rest. Baby steps for now.
The other thing I just did was open a panel of the round pen and back the trailer to it, Will have to see how her reactions are and then build on getting her to step in. As I have said before, I am in no hurry, building trust and willingness in this mare is more important than having her conform to my agenda. That being said, trailer loading is super important and high on the list of must haves with her. How I wish I could have had her as a weanling!
I found this poem on a page I just started following on Fb. If anyone is interested, check out Patrick T Muldoon.
We pulled a switcheroo today. I hauled Zipper back to Shayla, as she needs to do some work with him, and I brought Patsy here. Patsy is a red roan yearling who is a half sister to our Drifter stud that we sold, same sire. She is quiet and friendly like he is.
She looks like a Gussie mini-me!
She did really well on the trailer ride of an hour and 20 minutes.
She has a lot of shedding to do, all that white hair will shed off . I took a shedding curry brush to her and got a pile of hair that the wind picked up; I bet the birds will too.
She is very friendly....
I am going to have so much fun with her!
This week will also be all about putting more training on Rally. Picking up her feet and trailer loading are my short term goals with her.
The chiro lady came and adjusted both mares. Gussie had adjustments from head to tail- poll, atlas, ribs, hips and knee and other points in between! I decided to get Velvet done too, she wasn't too bad; her neck and some ribs and a mild adjustment in her hips- the lady doesn't get too intense in that area with mares who are in foal. I gave Gussie a couple of days off to get used to it and any soreness as a result.
I have been working on the obstacle course, only 3 things set up so far as I have to scrounge for materials ; trying to do this without buying anything.
Shayla brought home a new filly- this one is by the same sire as Drifter (remember the palomino roan stallion we had and sold) and she is a match for Gussie!
The new filly (Patsy)
Patsy has higher back stockings and a front stocking but they sure look similar! Patsy is a weanling, it will be fun to see how she looks all grown up. She has the same quiet disposition that Drifter had.
I went for a walk checking fences last week and it was a bit of a nature walk for me. I got some lovely shots of the lazy Medicine River that meanders along, bordering the farm.
We have beavers in the area but they don't build dams.
This is a big old poplar tree that they chewed down.
The grass in places was 6 ft. tall, it was hard slogging! There have been a lot of geese lately, and some interesting clouds.
The next one is a sunset.
We have had a lot of misty mornings, and at this time of year the sunrise is right at the end of our driveway.
Last night's supermoon arose in nearly the same place, but I waited until this morning for a photo.
Speaking of nature....
Guess who?
Yup those marauding bandits are back. The racoons couldn't get into the cat food tote by prying the lid off (see the chewed corner?) so they tipped it over and jumped on it until it broke. I was wondering how long I would get away with having it right next to my cat feeding station. Now I have it in the feed room that so far has proven to be racoon proof.
Gussie let Thumper back on her- it has been a while since she agreed to that!
