The bucket list

Most of us have a little bucket list; things we set as goals - things that allow us to dream big once in a while. One of the things on my bucket list has been to ride in a Buck Brannaman clinic.
Well I finally bit the bullet and entered one! I've been saving up some money for a little while to do something special with, and when I saw on Facebook his clinic schedule, I jumped at the chance. The one closest in Libby Montana was full already- it's in July- but there was another one in July in Ellensburg Washington that still had some room, so I entered in the Horsemanship 1 class. Ellensburg is about a 5 hour drive from here, so it's very doable.
Here is a description of the Horsemanship 1 class:

   For the green horse and rider already comfortable in the snaffle bit along with aged horses needing continued work. This is the first stage of progressing into the bridle with all basic movements introduced. All levels of riders - no matter what discipline - will benefit. The class features strictly dry work - no cattle. All manoeuvres stress the vaquero style of riding and are appropriate for horses from first level snaffle to experienced bridle horses. Hackamore horses welcome.

I plan on riding Kai in the bosal this spring, so this should be a perfect fit for where we are at now. 

"Me? Yer takin' me?"

Aaaaaahhhhhh.............

'Nuff said.

Mayhem!

Boxing Day we went to visit Janice -  and Carol, who was in town from Saskatchewan visiting family. They both have collies that are all my fault (grin). They each have a Reba daughter, littermates Sage and Jess, and they each have a Tess daughter- Janice's Kali from Tess's first litter and Carol's Pip from Tess's second litter.  Here is a picture of the Matriarch Reba and her 3 daughters and 2 granddaughters- with a side of Amber thrown in!

 After the family photo, it was play time.... 7 border collies and one golden lab (Tucker) all vying for the same ball.

Carol got their attention while I took photos....

Jess, in the lead, knew exactly where the ball was, while Pip  ran interference for her!

It was tough to get all 7 in the same photo!

Tucker tried hard, but he was outnumbered! That is Reba in the foreground- pretty spry considering she had cancer surgery less then 3 weeks ago.

I was happy with Amber- this was her first "dog party"  aka social outing. She did really well and actually listened to me. She will be a year old on January 9th.

For the most part, she stuck close to Tess. That is Pip, Tess's daughter in the back.

Isn't she a beauty!

It may have seemed like mayhem, but an order was discernable. Tess always got the ball, with Amber and Pip in hot pursuit. Amber would take the ball once Tess got it, and then drop it and one of the other dogs would grab it.

Meanwhile, Reba and Jess were guarding the jolly ball which Tucker considers to be his.

Kali (front left) was pretty sure that this was waaaaay too much activity and pretty much stayed out of the way of her crazy relatives.

It may have been mayhem, but it was a beautiful day, in a beautiful setting and shared with good friends and good dogs.

Th' boyz get worked

Yesterday was all sunny and warm and a perfect day to load up the boys and head to the arena. Shayla is here for a few days so Nitro got to come along. After a little photo op, that is!

Pretty soggy for a two year old.

Imagine him at 5 years old.....
Since the footing around here is either mud or ice, depending on where you go, we opted for the indoor arena.
I rode Kai around for a bit while Shayla did the ground work on Nitro, then she got on and I took the lead line while she rode Nitro.

He was a good boy! He hadn't forgotten the lessons he had in October. I think giving the youngsters time off to absorb things and grow up a little mentally is good for them, keeps them from getting pressured up.
Then she worked Kai....

He got worked at all 3 gaits. The last time he got worked like this he was all over the place, steering wasn't good, etc. so he has come a long way. We still need to build a soft feel in the face but that will come . Like Shayla said, he needs consistent riding, which I know but it probably won't happen until spring, riding during the winter will be sporadic. I was happy that he was willing to go forward without any silliness, so I think I'll be ok with riding whenever I can without having to worry too much about that. Can't wait for this coming year and long rides in the mountains!!!!

Nitro will soon be heading to Alberta to live with his Shayla- hard to tell who will be happier!

Just doggin' it

Headed north to the Kimberley area yesterday - it was time for Amber to meet the lady who will be starting her on sheep in the new year, and for a quick Christmas visit to Janice.*Janice's other half, Dave, is getting heart surgery tomorrow, so if y'all are the praying kind, a little knee mail would be appreciated for him.*
I took Tess along too, and when we got there her daddy Quill was there, he is 14 now and it was nice to see him again. Tess's boyfriend Moss was there too, and P. put him in the sheep pen, and we had Amber (and Tess) outside the pen watching.

I didn't get any good pics of Amber, but she was quite keen on watching the sheep. Tess of course was beside herself, she wanted in the pen so bad!

P. also worked her young dog Drift, who will be doing nursery trials this year.

Possible future mate for Amber? 

The reason we aren't working Amber just yet is that P. had a hip replacement surgery in October, a couple more months to heal and then we can start- most likely February. 

She gave me a few pointers on things to work on with Amber in the meantime. One of the things I need to do is get Amber more focused on me, I need to be able to stop her in full flight- she isn't consistent with that yet but we're getting there.

We also had the chance to visit with one of Tess's daughters from her first litter, the one I called Emma but got renamed Peppy. They live quite close to P., so we stopped in.

The kids were throwing a toy for them, and Tess was all over that!

 Peppy is a beauty, and like Janice's dog Kali, she looks a lot like her daddy Moss (in the first photo).

 After that, a visit with Janice and on home. I think Tess is coming in to heat, so I'll likely be heading back up there before long!

Wordless Wednesday

What to my wondering eyes did appear....

No, it wasn't Santa and his reindeer, but they probably would have got the same reaction from the horses that Reba did when she visited the horses for the first time wearing the cone.

Nitro was on full alert.....

The two brothers - almost identical aren't they! Kai has a little higher tail set than Nitro.

Josie had to squeeze in the middle of her brothers and get a bead on Reba too.

Beamer was quite intrigued.

You know that song, "I can't take my eyes off of you...." 

Well Beamer, I can't take my eyes off of you, Mr. Handsome!

Reba update

Just a quick note to say that Reba's surgery went well, they found 2 tumours which they removed; her blood work and x-rays show no further problems. She gets to wear the e collar until her stitches come out on Christmas Eve, and I have to make sure she doesn't go out to the horse pens and lie in the mud and manure until she is all healed up. It will be nice to have her back to her old self!

It's all good.

I took Reba to the vet today, as you may recall I had mentioned that she has a tumour, and I wanted to know if the cancer was throughout her body or just the one spot. They did bloodwork and xray, and the good news is that she is normal, so she gets surgery tomorrow and will be home tomorrow. I am so relieved!

She is still quite active for a dog over 13 years old, and I hope she sticks around for another couple of years.

Ulcer Info

I'm posting this link on ulcers in horses for future reference, and so that I can easily find it without having to search the internet should I ever need it, and for the benefit of anyone else. The blog is Equine Nutrition Nerd.

Blogger is at it again

Some of you have been telling me that they are getting Word Verification in the comments, that pesky "prove you're not a robot" thing. I do have WV turned off in my settings, so I don't know why some are getting that. I have tried one other thing, changing my settings from registered users to anyone can comment. Let me know if that helps!

Play Ball!

And now, a break from our regularly scheduled programming.....

The battle begins!

Tess is always first to the ball, then Amber does her best to get it away from Tess.

Reba stays out of their way, waiting to see if they will let her have a chance.

Queen of the ball!

Amber does not bring the ball back to me, but she will drop it and go work Tess; for her the game isn't about the ball it's about working the other dog.

My two beauties. Mother and daughter; Reba is 13 and Tess is 8.

Wordless Wednesday

Overcoming inertia

Aurora did a post the other day called "Out of my comfort zone" which got me reflecting on my current state of mind in regards to horses. I guess with age comes wisdom, but it also can be interpreted as caution.
I find that I am reluctant to trust in my abilities as I grow older; I am definitely less reckless and nowhere near as brave as I used to be.  I recall saddling up the young horses and heading out, alone through the bush, or along trails, or tackling swift rivers and streams; things I just wouldn't do now.
Just getting up the courage to climb on a green horse is an accomplishment now, where before I wouldn't have given it a second thought.
Today, it was time to face my trepidation. I have been making excuses not to ride; the ground is slippery, or frozen, or muddy; I have nobody to ride with; I don't want to pay arena fees each time I ride. All valid excuses. Today, I went with one of my old mottos: just do it.
I brought Kai out, saddled him up and did a very short session of moving his feet before I stepped up on him- just enough to know that he was paying attention and not tense. I figure Kai has about 20 rides on him now, most of them short rides. Definitely a long way from being a broke horse. I kept the ride short, as it wasn't about teaching Kai but it was about discovering where I was at.

I made a pleasing discovery. Once I hit the saddle, my worries disappear. It all becomes about the horse, and discovering where he is at in that moment. About what he and I can do to connect. Working on figuring him out helps me to find where my talents - and limitations- are.
I know that I am careful to stay safe now and I make it work. The big thing I do differently now as compared to my youth is that I listen to my horse more instead of just riding according to my own program.
Here's what Kai told me today: He has opinions. He doesn't like fussy stuff. Once he gets something he doesn't want to be picked on about it. And he really wants to just get out and cover some ground, go places and see things. He's not an arena horse. (Yet!)
He kinda reminds me of me in my younger days......
It was a short, 15 minute session, but it taught me lots.

Ride while you can!

I noticed that Beamer was feeling pretty good today, he was playing around and frolicking in his pen. I took the opportunity to grab a few  well maybe 30 photos,( I deleted a lot, honestly!)

I was struck by the similarities between daddy and sons.

The sun came out in strength today- of course that always means mud as the ground thaws, but I figured I'd take advantage and go for a little ride on Beamer, the dogs have been cooped up a lot lately too so they needed some exercise. I had to leave Reba at home which really ticked her off, but she isn't in shape to come along.

You can see the snow line about halfway down the mountain. Sure glad we aren't getting the weather they had in Buffalo! But I'm sure we will get our snow in due time. I want to ride as much as possible before winter hits hard.

Looking back towards the town- this is part of the farm I live on, and those are some of the landlord's cows.

When I got back, I was loathe to dismount, so I let Reba out of the kennel and rode around the yard so she wouldn't feel too left out, poor girl! I decided to do some schooling on Beamer- and boy did he get a pout on! What? Sidepass? Are you crazy, lady? The ride is over, we're back!  Haha sorry Beamer but you have to work a little! Oh he was bad. Flat out refusing to sidepass. I worked him through it, but he was not too happy with me! Sheesh, a simple sidepass and he had to make an issue of it. Must be a union worker.

All the same, it was great to be back in the saddle on my boy,nothing beats the view between those little black ears.