Horse shopping again.....

Did I ever mention how much I hate horse shopping? I am sure nobody pays any attention to what you write in your "wanted" ad and just try to sell you whatever they have.
I posted on a FB horse sellers/buyers page, specifying age (4-12)  mare, and broke. Right away I get yearlings, green broke 3 year olds, etc. I specified the blood lines I didn't want and most of the horses had those blood lines if the owners cared to do the research.
Of over 70 comments, I narrowed it down to 2  that might be worth checking out. MIGHT be. Sigh.

I am waiting for more info on this mare. Supposed to be Smart little Lena bred. She is 8 years old, that is her only foal - an oops.

Waiting on a pic of the papers. 

Here is what they said: 

"We raised her. She was started as a three-year-old. My husband rode her quite a bit. We have used her with 4h kids, trail riding, clinics, playing horse soccer."

Sunday Silence

Tomorrow....

If all goes well, 

 Snoopy leaves for her new home on a breeding farm.

Updates on Belle and the boyz

Some updates on Mama Belle and the boys.
Belle foaled out a big bay colt yesterday, I'm waiting for more photos from the owner so I can share them.
Kai got his foot stuck in wire and required vet attention, including a cast to immobilize the foot so it could heal, and it is healing up nicely. The young lady who was riding him is taking very good care of him during his recovery.
Rio had his first show, and they took second place in Showmanship, haven't heard yet how they did in their other classes.

This next photo is from their 4H Achievement day.

They don't just ride in the arena, they hit the mountain trails too.

I hear that Nitro and Kevin are entered in the Buck Brannaman clinic in High River in November.
That should be awesome for them!
I'll post more news on Kai's recovery as I get it.

Decision made

Snoopy is officially listed for sale. With my pasture limited this year, I only have room for 3 horses, so if I want to buy a riding horse, she has to go. I'm hoping she will sell quickly as I have a couple of horses I want to check out.
I have only had her since Friday, and was away most of the weekend. What I have found with her- she is friendly, in fact I had trouble getting photos of her because she was walking right up to me. She does not like getting caught- but I worked a bit at driving her away when she did that and a couple of minutes of that was enough and I could walk up and halter her. Of course that meant an opportunity to take photos!

Sure wish this mare was broke.....

 I'll be deworming her today - that hair should be all shed out by now and she looks a trifle thin to me.

My round pen panels have been taken down and I'm just waiting a couple days for this rainy weather to clear  so I can get it set up. Then I will start ground work on both Snoopy and Josie, yay finally!

Clinic weekend

I spent the last weekend attending a Bruce Koch clinic over at Janice's. Once again, I am impressed with this instructor, and how both horses and riders make improvements every day. From bossy dominant horses who push their owners around, to nervous horses, to horses who have little hissy fits when they are pushed to not be lazy, everyone made vast improvements. Without boring you with details, I'll just say I was impressed enough to book Josie in with him for next year. She will have 2 months of basic training with him, and some light riding from me once she comes back. Here are some of my fave photos from the clinic.

This is a Beamer daughter: she went from being petrified of the flag, especially above her.....

to standing quietly right next to it, even though she didn't actually touch it. This was a huge improvement.

This 17 hh draft/thoroughbred cross complained when pushed, but her girl worked her through the issues and got some nice work done.
 Look how precise she is in foot placement:

This next horse was dominant over his owner, basically flipped her off and did what he wanted.

At this point, he had just blown out and refused what he was being asked- I believe it was something simple like moving in a circle and then yielding his hip- a very resistant horse who was used to getting his way. We weren't sure his owner would even get on him- but it all came together with consistent handling and patience on Bruce's part.

By Sunday afternoon, he was relaxed and his owner was actually enjoying riding him for the first time in a year or more.
Then there was the big blue Percheron/quarterhorse cross. He was ok until he was pushed, kind of like the paint mare but more aggressive in his resistance.

He is a powerful horse, but he didn't intimidate his rider, a young gal from Australia. She just kept on working him and did really well.

Of course, at lunch time we had a little light entertainment from Dave's golden labs, older dog Tucker and pup Gus.

I hope Janice does a post on the clinic, her blog is Own A Morgan & QH

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!

Dappled Delia (edited to include a link)

Still waiting for that saddle fit kit to come in the mail....
Be sure to check out this link on wither conformation : Wither Conformation- seeing damage
Rode Delia in the Wade saddle, only for about a half hour, and here is what the sweat marks looked like after- I made sure to have the saddle as far back as I could to keep it behind her shoulder blades.

You can see the dry spot just to the right of her mane on this left side;

And a bigger area on her right side. Also, the back of the saddle is too rounded for her and doesn't sit right back there.

 I kind of feel bad putting a saddle on her that doesn't fit, so I might have to do like I did with Beamer and ride bareback until I can get her a good fitting saddle; only Beamer is really well broke... Delia not so much! But she is pretty easy to get along with so I shouldn't get into too much trouble riding bareback.
I put my spurs on last time I rode her, to help her get over her tendency to just stop suddenly when she doesn't know what the heck I want or just doesn't want to pay attention (like when she hears Josie call). I use my spurs judiciously - if you look where my stirrups hang in the photo above, you'll see that my foot hangs low, so I don't have the spur against her all the time. It worked well, and she started paying attention when I put a leg on her to ask for lateral movement or to get her  crossing over in front, and for turns on the forehand. Before, she was pretty much ignoring me. I have big blunt spurs, with a wide pressure area, and I don't do sudden jabs, just apply pressure after I apply leg pressure. She's learning! She does still have issues to the right, and I was reminded of something I read on Kates blog, where she said that she had to think about opening her hip when turning to the right, and I visualized that and it really made a difference. I thought I had no leg pressure on the right when I asked for a turn to the right using my left leg, but as soon as I tried that visualization. I could feel that I was lighter with that leg and my horse turned better. Thanks Kate!
Still don't have her teeth done, and Delia is getting much better in the bosal, I only have to use a leading rein now and rarely have to bump her. She's also starting to move off the neck rein/same side leg combo nicely.

How do you like those dapples? Pretty cool markings on her back legs above the hocks too.
Gotta trim those feet again though! No I didn't turn her loose with a halter on, there is a lead rope around that post behind her.
I am all paid up for the Buck Brannaman clinic now, pretty excited for that, but want to get her in better shape. Guess I'll have to suck it up and do a lot of bareback riding!

Sunday Silence

Horse backs

One of the things that amuses me when I look at peoples ads on Facebook for saddles for sale is the way people are always focused on the gullet size. That is an important part of saddle fit to be sure, but it is only a small part. A 7.5 inch gullet in one saddle may fit completely different than the same measurement on a saddle that is built with a different tree, different bars, etc.
 Here is a link to Rod Nikkel's page that explains some of those differences: Understanding Tree Measurements  and this page gives even more explanation on fit: Factors That Affect Tree Fit.
I took some photos this morning to show the difference in the backs on my horses, so you can clearly see why my saddle that fits Beamer and would probably fit Josie if she was old enough to start, won't fit miss Delia. She has a completely different back from them.

I will have to use my Wade saddle on her until I can get the new one, but I will probably also do a lot of bareback riding too.

Update on Rio and Kai

I get Facebook updates from the owners of th' boyz, so I get photos of them that I am allowed to share. Thanks to Alana for these photos!
They recently had Rio and Kai at a clinic working buffalo- both colts are ridden by teenage girls. Alana said that the boys did amazing and that it was breathtaking to watch. (insert BIG grin!!!)

I'm button-poppin' proud of those colts and the young ladies that ride them. This is why I do what I do- raise affordable high quality horses.

 Here they are getting instruction....

and learning to move the critters.

Rio, getting into it....

Kai- he always did like making things move so he should love this!

Relaxed, not hot, just doing the job. Perfect.

What's happening here

This last week has been busy around here. During the week, I was helping my sister with her job search, did a lot of yardwork including thinning the dead canes out of the raspberries, and this last weekend made a trip up to Janice's to pick up some flowers for all my baskets- today I planted most of them; it's hot here and no frost in the forecast for a while! Yay!
Ted rototilled the garden for me, as well as fixing the little 1942 tractor so we can clean the horse pens now and move compost to the flower gardens.
We worked an auction on Saturday, a fundraiser for a local church. Sunday I laid out a pen with electric tape for the mares- the lawn, which takes me an hour to mow with a riding lawn mower is now repurposed into two horse pens which use up over half the space- might as well let the horses eat it, as I have no pasture here any more.
Today I took Delia out for a ride, I wanted to go bareback and in the sidepull, but she wouldn't even leave the yard.... so I saddled her up and put the snaffle bridle on her and away we went. I wanted to know how she would do riding out by herself but still within sight of her buddies- she is kinda herdbound. She walked out real good at first, keen and interested.

We turned down a road that runs through the fields, parallel to our place, so she could see Josie in the distance. She called a bit but not too bad. I asked for lateral flexion a few times and got absolutely nothing! She's iron jawed in a snaffle- I get better flexion in the bosal so that's what I'll use next time. My dentist apparently doesn't want to come to Creston for a few more months so I am going to have to get a vet to do her teeth. Which makes me a little cranky because the vets here are not exactly good at horse dentistry, but hopefully will do a good enough job.
On the way back she was really doing the quickstep, focused on Josie who was galloping around the pen calling, but she did stay in the walk as I asked. I've got a long way to go with this mare before I can remotely call her broke! Wish I had my round pen up, it's a shame on my landlord that I had to take it down and use it for fencing.
On the plus side, nothing bothered her, there was traffic and strange things in the ditches, and one guy hauling a boat that made a lot of rattling and banging as it went over bumps.  When we got back I worked her for about 5 minutes on circles, and watched Josie as she ran hard and tried to stop but wiped out and slid into the panel fence... could have been a wreck but it wasn't.
Tomorrow is plant the garden and hopefully another ride, this time in the bosal. I have decided that I am going to either have to get a saddle custom made for Delia or sell her- both my saddles leave dry spots on her very wide withers. Since I like her, I will probably get a saddle made.... (grin).

She is "double backed" which means that the muscles on either side of her spine rise up above her backbone, and although she has a high enough wither, her shoulders are really wide. Even setting my Wade saddle behind the shoulder blades it still leaves dry spots. So I have ordered a Dennis Lane fit kit from a saddle maker in Alberta, it should be here in a few days. Once I have her profile figured out, I'll get the right tree ordered from Rod Nikkel and have the saddle made at Top Hand Western Shop in Claresholm Alberta.
In other news, I had my collie Tess bred at the end of February, and her due date is May 1st- but I am doubting that she caught, sure doesn't look or feel like she is carrying any puppies. If I'm lucky, there will be a couple. I have orders for 5 pups, so it's disappointing! Tess is going to be 9 this fall, and unless she comes back into heat this year, she won't get bred again. I really wanted a female to keep, as grandma Reba is really starting to go downhill, she will be 14 this September.

Sunday Silence

A good Easter weekend

Hope you all had a good Easter, however you celebrate it. I had family over- yes, the minions and their mama, my sister, are here. We attended Good Friday Services, and Sunday Mass, and the kids got lots of horse time in. They rode both Delia and Beamer, but I think I'll have them ride Delia the most as she is the horse they will eventually be able to trail ride and go to little shows on.

They made lots of progress, learning how to ride in a bosal instead of the curb bit that they use on Beamer. It required some effort too, as Delia is nowhere near as broke as Beamer! It was a really good learning weekend for them, and it showed me that Delia will someday become a good kids horse.

This is the youngest minion, she will be 7 next month. Her favourite thing is trotting on Delia! She did a little bit of steering today. The other two, who are older, did a lot of learning how to steer and stop and progressed to the point where they got to ride her solo for a bit today.
As for big girl stuff: What I need to work on with Delia- Overcoming herd bound, learning how to move individual parts of her body, turns on the forehand and haunches which are rudimentary right now, sidepass which is barely there. Once she gets lighter in response to my leg aids ( I may need to put my spurs on, she is pretty dead sided) I will be able to get her performing nicely in lateral moves too. On the ground, I am working on teaching her not to crowd me, and not to dive for grass when she is being led. She has a bit of un-learning to do in that department! Once I have all those elements at a walk and trot, then I will see how she does at the lope.
Over all, I am pleased with this mare, she isn't a fancy show horse or a speedy games horse, but if I can develop her into a steady mount for me for trails and Cowboy Dressage, and be able to put kids on her for fun shows, she will earn her keep.