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.

Getting to know Delia

Monday, I hauled Delia to the indoor arena. I had both the bosal and sidepull with me. I started out in the bosal, and decided that I would just stick to that until I get more acquainted with her- the sidepull is quite soft and she could easily ignore it if she chose.
I lead her both ways around the arena, and was pleased that she didn't find any monsters lurking. She was interested in looking out the windows, but no other issues. I worked her on the ground for a few minutes to get her used to the action of the bosal. Here is how it fits her now that it is shaped:

It's still a little loose on the sides, so I put it back in the wraps after riding. This is a fairly heavy bosal, good for the initial teaching as it has a bit of authority if you have to bump it.

I could probably get away without using the throatlach, but that's the way Al made it and I am loathe to change anything he did.
The horsehair mecate was a gift from Shayla when she came back from California. Love it!
At first, when I was working her on the ground, every time she took her head away and gawked somewhere else, I brought her into the circle in the opposite direction from where she was looking. She caught on fairly quickly that losing attention meant having to pay attention. Then I took her to the mounting block, and we had a lesson on exactly where she was supposed to stand for mounting. That took a bit, she always wanted to give 2 or 3 steps when I was just visualizing one.
After getting on, she started gawking around again, and I had to bump her back into the circle quite a few times. Her trick when she isn't sure if she wants to do something is to stop her feet. She does sometimes try to take control of her head, the way she would do if a kid was leading her in a halter and she decided that it was time to stop for a bite of grass- which I am positive happened a lot in her lifetime!!!! This is where the authority of the heavy bosal came in handy. One bump and release, or 2 if necessary, and on we would go. She seemed a bit uncertain about the whole process- she is quite green and I think is not used to being alone at all. Another horse came into the arena about halfway through our session, I got off while he came in, then we had another- and much shorter- session at the mounting block. It was interesting that she was much more relaxed with another horse in sight- they were just grooming him- and I started to get much more softness in her. Just a suggestion of my hand out to the side and she would give me nice turns, and she has a wonderful whoa and back up. I worked a bit on turns on the haunches and serpentines. Overall I was pretty happy with our first real session. I do need to do a bunch more arena work with her before I hit the trails, to make sure we really understand each other, and I'll keep her in the bosal until she is really nice and soft in everything I ask of her.

 Good girl Delia!

Delia's follow up body work

Melissa came over yesterday to do another session on Delia. The first session was all about the things that were going on with her head and neck, some of which were affecting her vision. The preliminary testing yesterday showed that that is pretty well cleared up, just a little tweaking was all that was needed there. I guess that layer needed to be done first before moving on to the next issue. What Delia wanted worked on yesterday was her hind quarters. Her sacrum was sore, and a lot of muscles associated with it needed massage. We had a really good session, Delia made it really plain where she wanted to be worked on and exactly how long too!

Another thing about Delia- she really loves the essential oils and will sniff the bottle from each nostril. The ones she doesn't want she will turn away from, and the ones she wants get a good sniff and soft eye.

There was one point during the hind end massage where she brought her head around to her side and self adjusted a bone in her neck- we could hear it pop. Very cool! When Delia decided that Mel had done enough, she walked away and began eating her hay, like "okay, thanks we're done now!" It was about a half hour session.
Josie was standing by watching, and it seemed that the good energy Delia was getting was reflecting in her.

After Mel was done with Delia, Josie stood right by Mel, almost begging for her to do a little work on her too- of course, she obliged with a little work on Josie's poll. She said that horses with a busy, inquisitive mind usually need work on their poll area, and Josie apparently agreed.

I got a side pull yesterday, and the bosal is shaped and ready to use, so today I haul to the arena and I'll try both of them out and see which one works best. Yay- saddle time!

Fun in the sun

Yesterday was so beautiful, you could almost hear the grass growing, the sun was hot, everything is growing like crazy. I have flowers! Only the violets are blooming right now, but the daffodils will pop soon.

All the horses got turn out time, I was hoping that Delia would roll and get rid of most of that mud on her but no, she was more interested in eating, and once in a while keeping up with Josie's wind sprints.



The bosal shaped up nicely, I'll rig it up today, and if the weather cooperates I'll ride her today. Sideways rain this morning! But I see blue sky peeking out.

Trying out bitless

This is a bitless bridle I tried out on Delia yesterday, I borrowed it from Janice to see if it would work for us. I believe it's a Dr. Cook style. 

I'm not sure of the function of that curb strap, it didn't seem to do anything other than keep the noseband in place. A pull with the rein will put pressure on the poll and the opposite side of the face.
So I climbed aboard..... and Delia promptly dropped her head to graze... "Oh look, I have nothing on my head, I can eat!" It took a bit to pull her head up and I promptly put her through turns, stops and backing, but after 2 minutes I got off- I don't like that there is very little release after you pull the rein. It seems that it is hard to be light with your hands with this rig.

Meanwhile, I decided to try shaping my bosal to fit better.

I researched on line on how to do it and all the sources pretty much said the same thing. I will take the ropes off tomorrow and see how it fits the mare. This bosal is pretty special to me, it was made by Master Rawhider Al Grandchamp from Montana when he was 93 years old, and given to me.
I also might have a side pull tomorrow to try out.
So since riding was out of the question, I worked Delia on the long line... and got a bit of attitude! She was quite sure she shouldn't have to work, and tried popping a crow hop when I asked for a lope, also tried to blow out of the circle- she did this both ways, silly girl! I think she was feeling pretty good! But she did quickly stop the nonsense and get back to work.

Poor pitiful horse, she had to work and get sweated up! After I untacked I let her have 5 minutes of grazing....

which, of course, is her preferred activity.... sorry, Delia, you life of leisure is coming to an end, you are going to have to work for a living now! Considering that she didn't have to do anything the first 9 years of her life except raise 2 foals, she is not  doing too bad. A little lazy, but I think if I find an activity that she really likes, we are going to have a lot of fun.
She made sure to find the muddiest spot she could to roll after I put her back in her pen!

Isn't that going to be fun to brush off!

Kids 'n horses

The girls had a great time yesterday- the rain stopped and the sun came out, so we saddled up Beamer and all 3 of them rode him. We reviewed all the things they learned last year. I kept them on the lead line until the last little bit of the ride. Beamer, as usual, was a perfect gentleman for them.

Then we got Delia out, got her all brushed up, white hair flying everywhere! 

They all rode her, on the leadline- I only had a halter on her as I don't have her teeth done yet- and she was so good for them. She is basically lazy, and they had to pay attention to keep her motivated sometimes, but once Delia figured out the program, she was really good. They all wanted to trot on her after the first rider found out just how smooth her trot is, she just glides along and it's so easy to sit. They all had big smiles!

I would love to post more pictures, as I took lots and some video, but  I'm not allowed to put their faces on the internet. 

I'm pretty sure this is going to be my kids horse. Once I put her through all her paces this year and get lots of miles on her, and get the kids riding lots more, I can see them having a lot of fun with her- going to the little open shows, and going on trail rides with me once I get Josie broke in a couple of years. 

The Minions are here!

My 3 lovely nieces are here visiting this weekend. Beamer and Delia got the mud scrubbed off them- and Beamer remembered them and was quite pleased to have their attention!

Delia enjoyed the attention just as much as Beamer did....

She is shedding like crazy! She grew much more hair than Beamer and Josie- they hardly have any compared to her.
Tomorrow they ride! It's so fun having them here.

Happy birthday Josie!

Josie turns 2 today. She was born on Fleetwood Farm over in Alberta, as I had sold her dam in foal to Beamer. The owner gave Josie back to me after Gussies twins died, and she was companion to Stella, who also died that year, so she is the only foal to survive Beamers 2013 foal crop. She is one special and beautiful little lady.

Wasn't she a beautiful baby! And just as gorgeous now.

Of course she got a cookie this morning...

Cookie? Did I smell cookie?

May I has another one?

Wordless Wednesday

After the rain

A few days of heavy rain made a mess here. Mucky horse pens, squishy lawn and Lake Beamer is back.

That circle in the foreground is where the round pen used to be. The water receded today, but it's going to be muddy for a bit yet.

 No, I didn't load that photo upside down, that's Delia's reflection in the pond in her pen.
I gave them more turnout time today- the cows were in the pasture next to that pen, so I figured it would be a good chance for Delia to learn to get along with them.

 She was quite intrigued, didn't know if she should investigate or get outta Dodge!

The flight instinct took over I think!

I think lots of turnout next to the cows will be good for her- she'll figure them out someday. Hopefully before I'm riding her down a trail and we come across some!

After I brought the girls in, I gave Beamer some turnout time.

He was happy to get out and get a change of scenery and stretch his legs a bit.

You can see how soft the ground is, they tore it up a bit but it's better than keeping them cooped up in their pens.
Beamer found mare smells... Delia is in heat at the moment.

I've been watching to see if his arthritis bothers him, sure doesn't seem to so I might put him in regular riding, nothing too strenuous, just to get him in shape; he's kinda round!