Hittin' the trail

Trailered up to Kimberley area to ride with Crystal and Janice and another gal. We rode about 3 and a half hours through some pretty rolling country where every now and then we's get a really nice view- like this:

Rosalee did really well today; I rode at the back as I had my two dogs Tess and Thea with me, and it was Thea's first real outing. I wanted to make sure she behaved her puppy self! Rosalee just walked along nicely without trying to jog to keep up, and we maintained a good pace without having to trot. Poor Tess is fat and out of shape so we have to stop several times for her to rest, and give her some of our water, but we all made it.

I totally forgot to wear my helmet- I was intending to- but it turned out I didn't need it and I was sure glad of the shade of my hat brim.

That's Fisher peak in the background and hey look, all the horses have their ears up and all the ladies are smiling!

Photo that Crystal took. Didn't need the flyswatter string tail today- I don't think we had a single bug.
I had body work done on Rosalee on Saturday, sure enough he needed to work on her left shoulder which may be why we had the left lead problem. Tomorrow afternoon I hope to haul to the arena and work on that, and haul Coulee along too.

Together- at last!

Coulee finally has a buddy she can get along with.
I made the decision today to put the mares together; they have bonded really well over the stall fence, they hauled well together and since I don't have back shoes on Rosalee, I figured it was time to put them together. Which also makes it easier if I am gone and my husband has to do the chores.

First job was to tear down the stall, get rid of the corner feeder, move the water tub out so they can get all the way around it; in short, eliminate any place where a mare could get trapped and kicked by the other one. And we all know which one would be most likely to do that!!!!

I had Rosalee in while I was doing all that; Coulee was out on the lawn pasture while I made sure everything was just right. Then I brought her in, led her through it all so she could suss out the changes. I had put 4 piles of hay out so they didn't fight over hay.

There was one moment when Rosalee got told that Coulee was the boss.....

Coulee had just backed up and double barrel kicked, but didn't connect- Rosalee was watching and stayed out of her way.

After that, the pecking order was established.


As you can see, Rosalee is pretty cool with it all, just mosey's out of Coulee's way. Coulee has to check out everything Rosalee does, after all it might be something she wants you know! The part where Rosalee is in the stall near me eating hay and Coulee comes in - after flipping water around- you can see her thinking: I want to chase that yellow mare out of that hay pile- but I doesn't want to get trapped! So I'll pretend I'm checking out the salt blocks... then kind of slide in on the open side and let her know that's MY hay... see mom, I didn't bite her! I could have you know but I was being good!
Meanwhile Rosalee is all la-di-da about it all. Perfect!
Finally.... harmony in my herd.

The menace response

Do you suspect your horse has trouble seeing things or does it get startled by things you think it has seen many times? If the horse's vertebrae or axis are out of alignment it can put pressure on the optic nerve which can affect its vision.
 I did a little video to show how to test the menace response, which is simply chopping your hand towards the eye making sure it isn't the air flow he or she is responding to, start from a position back towards the neck and move up to the corner of the eye to see where they perceive the motion. The horse will blink when it perceives the "menace".
A chiropractic adjustment will usually fix the problem unless there is an underlying disease.
I used Coulee for this demo, and you can see that she has excellent vision with both eyes, as she should since I have had the chiro work done on her.

String tail fly swatter

Rosalee came with a hock length tail- not much good for a fly swatter, so I helped her out by adding a string tail. About every 10 days, I redo it,washing her tail and re-attaching the strings. Today I built her a new set of strings as the last one was getting ratty.

Hock length tail....  finding the end of the tail bone... Look at all the different colours she has!

Start the braid a hand width from the tailbone. All you need is some baling twine, a hair tie, and some vet wrap.

Loop the twine at one end.... measure to make sure it won't drag on the ground... put the braided tail through...

Start the vet wrap on the folded over tail, roll it down to cover the string loop, cut the last 4 inches of it up the middle so you can tie it off- Viola! Also make sure you don't have any loops of string on the bottom, it should all be cut ends so it doesn't catch on anything.

It ain't pretty but it does help her swat flies. Thanks to Shayla for showing me this method. Some people use MTG or other products in the tail, I just use a conditioner that I rinse mostly out just leaving a little bit to keep the tail hairs from getting brittle.

Like father like daughter

Thought you might like to see a photo of Dolls Docsan, the sire of Rosalee.
First- here is Rosalee, all shiny and golden in the evening light. She has put on weight and is dappling out.

And here is her sire, I found an ad for him on Northern Horse.

He sure put his stamp on her!

Beauty is as beauty does.

Yesterday I hauled both mares to the big outdoor arena. (Love my trailer!!!) I rode Rosalee with the intention of getting my first lope on her. I noticed that she doesn't flex well to the left, and I attribute this to her teeth not being done yet, that's a couple of weeks away.
She's a bit rusty in the reining elements, but she has a lovely lope departure and a rocking chair lope that I could ride all day... to the right.... when I asked for a left lead lope, she bucked a step (for which she got corrected with a one rein stop) so I worked her at a collected trot for a while then asked again. She did not repeat the buck but she has trouble holding the lope at the left lead. I do have my body work guy coming again next Saturday so we will explore any body issues that may be part of the problem but I really think the teeth are the problem. Once they are done there should be no more problems.

Then it was Coulee's turn. I had the idea that I would check her out on the ground and if she was well behaved I was going to ride her.
Well.... not so much.
I did a simple request for her to walk around me in a circle. She backed up. I asked again. She backed up again. I whirled the end of the rope toward her hip.... she backed up faster. All the while giving me the stink eye. The only way I could get forward momentum from her was to shorten up the line and ask her to move her hip over - If I was in the saddle that would equate a one rein stop.Then asked again for forward movement, which I finally got, but very begrudgingly. She kept turning to face me and backing away from me. I did try  getting after her especially when she was backing but it didn't help. To my credit, I didn't lose my cool but kept trying to think of a way to get her to do this simple thing. If I walked with her like I was leading her it worked but as soon as I sent her past me on a circle she got all pissy. The only way I could make her want to go forward was to make it work by yielding her hip; it was the only part of her that I could control! After a few times of circling her hip, she'd step out properly. I did manage to get her to go around, even got a lope but she bucked at the lope.

So. That leads me to what I really want with Coulee. She needs to be more than just a beauty. I really wanted her to be a good riding horse- and she may well be a lovely riding horse, but I won't ride a horse that isn't agreeable on the ground. I made the decision to stop working with her- yes, I know this is fixable, but I don't want to put in the effort to fix it. If I was 20 years younger, it would be worth it. But I'm at the age when I'd rather pass the torch to someone with the energy and time to work with problem horses. So for now, she just gets to be a lazy broodmare. I do have someone interested in her, but can't take her at this time, so I'll just hang on to her until things work out that she can go to a good home. And she is carrying a Beamer baby that I am pretty excited to see! As a side note, the lady who bred Coulee said that all her siblings have good dispositions, which I checked on before I bred her as I don't want to pass on a crabby disposition.

It's hard work being crabby.....

Preventative measures

West Nile Virus has reared it's ugly head in our area. Horses within a 60 mile radius have contracted the mosquito borne disease, which is reported to be fatal in 1/3 of the cases. At least one horse was euthanised, 3 others have died or been euthanised showing the same symptoms but the bloodwork was not done.
Those of you who remember my little Stella Belle will know that one of the things I considered with her was whether or not she had a neurological disease, and had the bloodwork done- which all came back negative. People, if your horse shows neurological signs, get the bloodwork done! At least that way the vets and other horse owners will know if there is anything going on that could be preventable!
Since I don't know the vaccine history on my 2 mares, and I know I haven't done Beamer in 5 years, they all got vaccinated today, and will get their boosters in 3 weeks. Cost for my peace of mind? $214. Worth every penny.

Wonderful Wednesday

Well it might be too hot for serious riding, but it wasn't too hot for Rosalee to give a very first horse ride to a priest visiting here from the Grenadine Islands in the Carribean. It was wonderful to watch as his grin of fear blossomed into a smile of delight. Rosalee, of course, was perfect. Started off with me giving him a demo of how to get on, ask her to go, steer and stop. Put him up on the lead line and once it was clear he could steer and stop, I unclipped and let him go around by himself. Oh I do love this little yellow horse!

Of loss and love

Treasure your creatures, for they aren't with us nearly long enough. Two of my friends lost their stallions in the last couple of days; blogger All the Pretty Horses lost her blue roan stallion, at the early age of 13- no visible cause so most likely cardiac arrest, and another friend made the call on his 19 year old stallion due to his infirmities. Very sad for both of them and all who knew those wonderful stallions.
As I look at my oldies, I know that day will come for me too; Reba is nearly 15 now, and Beamer is also 15. With Reba, it's week to week; with Beamer I hope for 10 more years, but I'll take whatever the good Lord decides.

A lot of people post about the "rainbow bridge", but it's not something I think of as a reality. I do however, believe that God has given our animals a soul different from ours and that as His created beings there is a place for them in eternity, and that it is indeed likely that we will meet them again on the other side of this life. Several recorded near death experiences have mentioned being greeted not just by the souls of people but of animals too.
The love we give to our creatures is not wasted in His sight; for love is a part of God, the eternal good.

Future kids horse

My niece came for a visit, and of course one of the priorities was a riding lesson. Normally I have the kids ride Beamer, but miss Rosalee got the call to duty.

We started off on the leadline with learning how to handle the reins for turns. First two handed and ending up with neck reining. I think over the course of the last 3 summers, the kids have only had about a dozen rides, so I was really happy with her progress. I put together a series of videos into one long one- it's 10 minutes long so you may not want to watch it, but it shows how well the lesson went and how well Rosalee went for a beginner rider. I couldn't be happier. Once my niece learns how to ride at a trot and lope, I can see her wanting to show this nice mare.

Trailer progress

Things have slowed right down while I wait for my husband to finish the work he is doing on the horse trailer. The back door had a big bend in the frame and bottom of the door from a horse kicking or whatever so he decided while he is rebuilding it to do it right and get everything done all at once. So he took the sheet metal off,

straightened the frame at the bottom, welded in the new panel,

He also pounded out the divets on the sides of the trailer from kicks, eventually will do body work to make it smooth on the outside before we give it an exterior paint job next year.

On the inside of the back door there is a bit of a ledge from the square tubing where that sheet metal attaches; this had been rusting from horse poo collecting there so he built a custom piece that doesn't allow the pooh to collect.

This next photo is from when we first got the trailer; you can see the wow in the back door that is now fixed. I love having a handy husband- whose motto is "do it right!"

That divider is rebuilt too. Today he did the interior paint  under where the puckboard is going, which is 4 ft. high all around the interior and back door. 

Custom fitting the puckboard.

Tomorrow the back door gets painted and fitted with puckboard, as well as puckboard on the bulkhead that divides the front tack room off.

This trailer is going to be better than new!

It's all in the timing

We had a rainy morning here for the first time in quite a while; it was perfect for making jam. I put up 6 jars of Plumcot and 6 jars of Apricot jam. Nummy!
Early afternoon, the rain quit and it was time to get out of the kitchen!
Rosalee is pretty much out of heat now, so I saddled her up and headed to the round pen. I had spurs on and I figured I'd better ride in there first to let her get the feel of my cues when I'm shod.
I started off with groundwork first; I am working on my timing when asking for a change of direction, and it was a good chance to make sure the mare was paying attention to me and not the two black hooligans hollering at her. There were a few times I had to send a hooey up the rope on the side she was looking away to- a little trick Buck taught us.
Rosalee was pretty fresh, when I asked for a walk she'd trot, when changing directions she would leap into the new direction- so we worked all those kinks out, then I got to studying my timing on change of direction. All that stuff you read or try to learn at clinics only helps if you can remember it when you are trying to accomplish something with a horse; and I remember someone somewhere saying that the timing is when the front foot hits the ground- and I'm darned if I can remember who said it. So while I was working on my half circle turns, where the horse yields it's hip, clears the shoulder and sweeps across in front to change direction, I finally nailed it- it's easier for the horse if I ask for the turn (to the inside) as the inside front foot hits the ground. So I'm hoping this will help me visualise the perfect timing when I'm in the saddle.
By this time, Rosalee was pretty soft and paying attention so I rode her for a bit. I gently let her feel my spurs when I asked for her to pick up her belly and round out her back and she was good- it's plain that she is accustomed to riders who are ironshod. I got some nice work in frame at the walk and trot, and we worked a bit on lateral moves- sidepassing the box like ole Al Grandchamp taught us (Tara, you should remember that one ) and shoulder in and hip in. Also checked out her spin- holy moley that girl can drill holes in the ground and whirl!  She is a bit rusty but picked up quickly once she knew what I wanted- it's been 3 years since she has really been asked for much.
Of course, that got me to thinking- it would be a shame not to show her. She is NRHA licenced  so could enter NRHA classes if I was a member. I'll have to check that out- it could be fun to go in a couple of lower level shows. I still will do Cowboy Dressage too, no reason I can't do both.
After the ride, I put her in the grass paddock that Coulee uses, it's just a hot wire area of my lawn. I think she was pretty happy to be turned out to graze- first time in the 17 days since I bought her.

She has gained some weight too. Now to get that tail to grow so I can take those ugly strings off! But they work as a flyswatter.

Another type of heat

Had an interesting ride the other day. Rosalee is in full raging heat, and I wanted to know what she would be like to ride in that situation, so I saddled her up, took the dogs and headed out on the hayfield ride. It started out really well, she had a nice loose walk stride going on, riding into the cool of the evening and the setting sun.

We headed down the road to the left in the photo above- it leads into the hayfield.

Things were still going well, until I stopped to take a photo of the mountains in the setting sun; that's when she realised she could hear Beamer and Coulee in the distance. Not only that- along the dyke off to the south of us, there were cows and she couldn't quite figure out what they were. I guess this was enough to rattle her hormonal mind, because she started wallowing around, then stopped and stared in the direction of the cows- and I couldn't move her neck with the rein- she was froze up. To my experience, a horse  freezes up just before some kind of blow up- so I got off. I worked her around me on the ground for a bit, she was definitely not paying attention. I lined her out and headed back, leading her and every 20 feet or so, I'd work her in circles asking for a hip over and back up. I wasn't getting the back up at all and that's where I kind of lost my cool and got a bit mad- I know she has a terrific back up under saddle, and for her not to back up on the ground really ticked me off. Now, I don't like losing my cool with a horse, it's counter productive and doesn't solve anything. In my mind I could hear Buck Branaman and some of the advice he gave us in the clinic, so I kept working on getting to her mind through controlling her feet. I did try getting on her twice more, but she still wasn't with me so it wasn't worth the battle. Once we got home, I rode her in the round pen  (safer for me) and worked her until we had everything going smoothly.

I hope she comes out of heat soon. I was told that she has really strong heats and it's difficult to ride her during them; her show owner used to put her on regumate during show season. I am putting her on raspberry leaf and Shayla recommended Sharp Edge Mare Mix  so I think I'll try it.

I guess it's my turn to have mares who have difficult heats- I've owned mares for decades and never ever had these issues; in fact I rarely knew when they were in heat.