Ride 18 Rosalee

Last night was Mesa's first night of living in the mare pen; I took her and Coulee out of the foaling pen and now they are living in the bigger mare pen with Rosalee. Coyote Belle gets the foaling pen to live in, except during turn out. I am not going to put her and Coulee together at all while they have foals, Coulee is too aggressive and I don't want her kicking Belle, or once Belle foals, don't want to risk her kicking Belle's foal. I saw her kick Mesa the other day; Mesa was goofing around like foals do and kicked out in play and nicked her mama's butt, and Coulee fired with both feet at her, I think she nailed her in the butt but could easily have broken a leg on her filly- good thing she didn't! Hopefully Mesa has learned not to play like that around her mama. So since I have 2 separate turn out grazing pens, I can keep them separate until weaning time. 

I alternate putting Rosalee in with Belle and next day in with Coulee. Mesa likes to hang out with the other mares instead of staying close to mama.

Coulee doesn't seem to care....

I've been busy trimming horse feet this week; got Beamer and Rosalee done on all 4, and got Belle's fronts done. Man she has thick hoof wall! I'll do her hinds this weekend. Shayla did Coulee for me the other day, so I am about caught up. 

Today I rode Rosalee. 

Started off in the round pen, the headed out to the lease. Once we got past the houses and away from the herd, it was like trying to push a wet noodle. Her attention was not on forward, unless it was to look at something and act like it was scary. Her evasion is to stop, back up a bit and shake her head, which is exactly what she is doing in this photo, hence the rein flying around.

She says no, I say go, and go we did. I had to use a lot of leg and once in a while resort to the spur to convince her to continue.

Even though she was frustrating to ride, it sure was pretty back there. Lots of wildflowers like these daisies.

And those  briar roses are in full bloom and smelling lovely.

I thought she would give me trouble when we came to the water puddles on the road, but it was only a minor glitch.

So I have given it some thought. I think I won't ride Rosalee out by herself any more, at least not until I have a lot more rides on her. I just do not enjoy it, and I'm getting to the point where I just want to have a relaxing ride, not a 7 year old horse that acts like a colt. So with her, any trail riding I do will be in the company of other horses, until she is a lot more solid for me. I'll do more arena work with her, perhaps start patterning her on barrels. She is broke in the body, knows all the reining stuff and gives all her parts, but her mind isn't connecting with what I want to do. So instead of me having a frustrating ride and getting all grumpy about it, I need to do something with her that we will both enjoy and build that up as a foundation to going on and doing other stuff.

Aaaaaand... in other news..... I bred her to Beamer last week.... if she catches she will foal mid May next year. I won't be ultrasounding her, will just wait and see if she shows heat in the next month. I kind of hope she caught, she sure likes to mother and I think she would be a good mama. I'm thinking she will cross really well with Beamer and there is a real variety of colour possibilities. With a side note that colour was not the reason for this breeding!

From Animal Genetics colour calculator:

Offspring Color Probability 

12.50% -	Black
12.50% -	Smoky Grullo
12.50% -	Red (Chestnut/Sorrel)
12.50% -	Dunalino
12.50% -	Smoky Black
12.50% -	Palomino
12.50% -	Grullo
12.50% -	Red Dun