3 month photo shoot

August 16th, and Tumbleweed is officially 3 months old. So for part of my 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months and 3 years (as being the best times to evaluate a horse) without further ado, I hope you enjoy his photos!

Rockin' the dun factor now! Check out the stripe on his back:

Love those markings!

He still has some shedding out to do but his beautiful colour is showing.

Love  the dark tips on his ears.

Such a friendly guy. 

I'm trying to get him to drink water after he eats his ration instead of heading straight to his mama for a slurp of milk, but he is still a mama's boy.

Beamer sez: Hey! He is lots like me too! Handsome! And fun! 

Another river day

We did head back to the river today, but we took the long way around, doing some bushwhacking parallel to the dyke, heading downstream. Found some very pleasant trails, and turned around when they all ended at the river. Michelle came with us again today but on her palomino Morgan/Quarter Horse cross mare, Allie, who used to be Shayla's horse; you may remember her from a few of my posts trail riding with Rio a few years ago.

I was bareback again as I planned to ride into the river, as was Michelle. My butt cheeks are sure getting a workout!

Shayla did a little schooling on Sassy, checking her for issues when the other horses get a ways ahead of her, but- she was a rock star! She was happy to stay back, no trotting to keep up.

Shayla was saddled, so she opted to take the photos. We went across on the shallow end first to see how Allie reacted. All was well so the next pass was deeper.

Michelle said that she could really feel Allie reaching for bottom!

 No, Allie, you are not a submarine, you need to keep your nose above the water!

Gussie did better today, although she definitely was more comfortable with another horse in the water with her....

we did get to swimming depth a couple of times. She does turn around and head to shore pretty quickly once she has to swim though; I think the trick there will be going with a horse that will swim straight across and have her follow.

Shayla took her mare across but not at swimming depth. Sassy seems to like the water.

She's a pretty cool li'l mare!
After that we went upstream a ways and found a place where we can go further by getting into some shallow water to go around a fenceline- that's Sunday's project. It should bring us to some trails that Shayla knows well.

Riding Day 55

Too much fun!

What do you do for fun in August? Go swimming? Well; of course! Since our first sortie to the river went well, we invited another friend who had never swam a horse; she rides English and has a really cool horse that is 18 years old, the lovely bay mare Kit.

You know that bend in the river that I always say is my favourite view? Well, that's where the swimming hole is. We headed there, I rode Gussie in the saddle as I wasn't planning on swimming her, while the other 2 ladies rode bareback.

We all crossed the river at a point where they could just wade across. Kit wasn't sure aboutthe water touching her lady parts!  On the way back across, Shayla got Rose to swim for more than a couple of strides.

That got Kit's rider a little braver!

But, Kit was still having none of it!

Eventually though.....

She swam her back across too- and her smile says it all!

Shayla swam Rose several times. Rose gained confidence with each swim.

We sure had fun!

We even had an audience- I hope we didn't disturb them too mush with out squeals of joy!

Kit swimming back

Shayla and Rose in the deeps!

We had so much fun; even though it's still very smokey here, this is an easy ride and a good experience for the horses. 

Sooooo.... since that went well....

Today Shayla and I decided that the red roans needed to get this figured out too. Gussie has never swam, to my knowledge, and I do know that she dislikes scary footing such as teeter totter bridges.So losing her footing in the river would be a big deal for her. And Sassy, as a 4 year old, has never done any of this stuff before we introduced her to river crossings. So it was their turn today. We rode them bareback to the swimming hole, accompanied by our faithful border collies Goose and Tay.

You can see all the smoke in the air... BC has declared a state of emergency, finally, which frees up more funding to pay for fire fighting.

Anyway, we did an easy crossing first just to gauge where the mares were at mentally with the water. That went well.

Gussie went across well, this was on the way back across.

Then Sassy got to go for her very first swim...

She did really well! Took everything quite calmly. Then I took Gussie in the deep water.....

As soon as her feet couldn't touch bottom she wanted to head back to the safety of the bank, and she lunged out of the water. It was ok for her first swim! and lots of fun. But I do need to take her back through and all the way across, but for the day, that was enough for the mares. 

The smiles tell the story! We thoroughly enjoyed that! We do need to take them back again just to encourage them to be braver and trust us. Gussie especially. 

Tips for swimming horses: A short rein and split reins - you sure wouldn't want to get caught up in a looped rein if things go south.

Riding day 53 & 54

August - smoke and water

This morning's rather ominous sunrise.....

Our province is burning, again. There are hundreds of fires, some close enough to fill our valley with smoke. So far none close enough to be a threat to us, but a community 20 miles away is on evac alert for a fire that is about 10 miles the other side of them. 

The smoke is so thick here. It is laying on the ground and is limiting visibility. 

This is a view from downtown where normally you can look across the valley bottom and see the mountains on the other side- you can't even see the valley bottom!

However- I did get some riding in before it got bad. One ride down to the arena for some schooling, and a couple more trips to the river. Shayla wanted to try swimming her horse, and also using the river to work on the little swelling on her hock. This is her mare Rose.

It was a lot of fun! I had a saddle on Gussie so didn't go in very far.. The next time we went, Ted came with us, riding Gussie, and I rode Sassy. It has been years since Ted came riding with me on our own horses- a couple years ago we rode an outfitter friend's horses. This was the only way I could get him to come and check out the swimming hole, as you can't drive to it and no way he was going to walk to it!

I rode Sassy in fairly deep but she was reluctant to go deep enough to swim- and it had cooled off a lot from the day before when we were there.

We did get belly deep though!

Sassy was a good girl for me, nice quiet ride on a loose rein. She is quite brave even if she didn't want to go any deeper. 

No boots or hat in case I got to swim!

Gussie was a really good girl for Ted. I think he quite enjoyed himself even if he wouldn't admit it!

Ridin' the redheads!

The next day was when the smoke hit hard. So no more riding until it lightens up a bunch. Meanwhile, I'm getting evac kits together for the horses and for the household, even though we aren't expecting that to happen it doesn't hurt to be ready. There is no rain in the forecast for the rest of the month and anything can happen, it only takes one careless person or one lightning strike.

Riding day 50, 51 & 52

Another first (or two)

Yesterday was vet day. Both Tumbleweed and Rosalee had to get trailered to the vet for their international papers and coggins test. I thought it would be a good idea to close the divider on Rosalee and then load T'weed, so I tried that- he hopped right in the trailer but then was trying to nurse under the divider, and I felt that could be a wreck, so I unloaded him while Shayla opened and secured the divider, then loaded him again- he loaded perfectly. It is a fairly short haul to the vet's, perfect for his first trailer ride.

The vet was impressed with how well behaved he is. While she was doing her exam on him, from across the parking lot we saw a little boy and his parents making a beeline for us- horses are like a magnet to kids! They wanted to pet the baby, but I said no and let them pet Rosalee instead. The little boy (maybe 2 yrs. old or under) was a bit intimidated by her larger size, so dad picked him up to pet her on the neck. He noticed the flies on her and I showed him to brush the flies away; then when dad put him down he noticed the flies on her belly and wanted to go under her to brush them off too! Eek! Then he ran back to his mom exclaiming all the way, "mama, mama, mama, mama". He was pretty excited about his first encounter with a horse! Also, a lady driving by saw the horses and comes driving right up to us and jumps out to see the horses.... her fancy car was parked a bit too close for comfort.... but she enjoyed seeing the horses too. I love how happy horses make people!

He was good for the vet too. I did take a video of him getting his first needle, but I have to free up space on my computer to be able to download it from my phone. I have it on my Facebook though. Here is the first video that did download.

He was a good boy while his mama got her exam too.
So- the paperwork is all done, and as soon as it gets back they will be heading south across the border- but not completely out of our lives! I am actually excited that T'weed is going to Linda and that we will get to see him grow up, both on her blog and in person. And it's pretty cool that Rosalee won't be far away either.
T'weed is making progress in another way too. I lead him and Mesa together into the barn in the evening for their ration, much the same way that I led Pistol and Mesa last year. He is getting quite comfortable with standing tied while he eats, and since Mesa gets twice as much as him she isn't trying to steal his food.

Notice the lead rope draped over his bum, ready for me to grab if needed; he is standing tied but I like to be ready to release him if need be. I no longer have to stay between them to keep the peace! Good kidz.

Rio update

Learning how to fly 

One more visit

Linda and her husband came up for one more visit with Tumbleweed. I had a couple of surprises that I waited to tell/show her !
First, T'weed is well into his shed of the baby coat, and now we can really see his dun factor showing in the stripes on his legs.

He is going to be one flashy dude when he is all shed out!
He has grown a bunch too. He's easy to catch, not perfect at leading away from the herd (butt rope time) but once he is out he's pretty good. I have been leading him in and out of the barn and feeding him in there, so I thought it was time to move on to the next step- that was surprise #2.

I had taught him to load in the trailer the day before she arrived. He loaded again for her, she had to use the butt rope after giving him the chance to load without it at first, and it only took a minute or so and in he went. Good boy Tumbleweed!
I love seeing the happiness this colt gives her.

That smile says it all!

So there is more good news- Rosalee and Tumbleweed will be travelling together to Linda's place, where mama and baby will have another month together before Rosalee's owner comes to pick her up. This means that as soon as we get the international papers done, they will be leaving us, so in less than 2 weeks. The bonus for that is that T'weed will have a less stressful weaning as mama will be with him for over a month in the new and different place. So happy with the way things worked out!

Things are happening!

So much going on....

July was a hot one, not much for rain and everything is tinder dry. Since my last trail ride, it has been early morning riding only.
I hauled Gussie to a smaller local arena where Shayla was working another horse; Gussie's lesson at the big arena in my last post must have sunk in after a couple of days off, she nailed her leads on a straightaway- now we can move on to other things.

The "other things" are wanting her to not keep popping her head up, and staying at the speed requested of her. She tends to speed up if she thinks she is going to be asked for a lope. It's all coming together though!
Last night in the blessed cool of the evening we went for a bareback ride to the river, looking for a few more access spots for future exploring. We found several spots where there were trails through the rip rap that covers the banks of the dyke.

This one was the best, it actually had a sandy area, and that still water you can see is pretty deep and may be a good area for swimming.

Gussie is like, you gotta be kidding me- swim? No Gussie, not now- but maybe next year!

Sassy was quite brave - this is only her second time in the river and her first trail ride in just a halter.

There was a beautiful sunset going on, it was hard to capture the colour with my little camera.

The horses had to go up and down steep little trails with unsure footing. At one point I got off and led Gussie down- and getting back on that big girl bareback wasn't much fun! I did end up on my butt when she moved away just as I was struggling to lift my leg high enough to clear her hip while standing precariously on a curved log.... no harm done, I have lots of padding! I have never been one of those people who can easily vault on or belly up on a horse.
Gussie will be heading out on a working vacation in a few days. Shayla is taking her to Alberta so she can have a trail horse for mountain riding, as her horse will be staying with me for rehabbing a hock injury. I will have Sassy to ride, and maybe Beamer if he is sound enough for some short rides. I am going to start him on Nrf2 as soon as I can get some, hopefully by next week. He is pretty sore in that knee right now and tends to not put weight on it when he is eating.

Breaks my heart. I would also like to get him those StreamZ bands . Between those 2 products I hope to give him some relief.

In other news... Rosalee is sold! She will be going not far from where Tumbleweed is going. The lady who is buying her just bought  a topnotch young reining stallion and she stands him at a place that is 15 minutes from Linda's.
This is him:

He is a son of Gunnatrashya. His name is DP Gunna Outshine Ya.

They should make some really nice babies! I'll be watching for them in the show pen in a few years.

Riding day 48 &49