Summer jobs

Summer is in full swing now, complete with thunderstorms, rain and hot days all mixed up. But not too hot to get work done with the horses. Booncat progresses, he is fairly easy to catch now and is starting to lead and turn. He is usually busy playing with the lead rope knot!

Eli is eating his foal ration well now, although I still have to mix it with alfalfa pellets. I'm working on getting him to hold his feet up longer, as the next time his owner comes we are going to rasp his feet. He and Booncat play now, they are both instigators and pesky with each other. The size difference is amazing. I measured Eli today, he is 12.2 hh at the hip already! and just over 3 months old!

Trimmed Drifter's feet yesterday, he was not bad; a bit fidgety; I had my friend Dave helping and when he got too restless I had Dave walk him out to help reset his brain. He only jerked away once where I had to let go, and only got cussed out once.
 😁
He is getting big too- 14.2 and a half at the hip at 14 months. He's looking pretty good though!



I worked Sparkle a couple more times, bitting her up first and then riding one time, then just riding her 2 more times, all in the small pen. I tried riding her out of the pen into the yard but it didn't feel right, she was very looky and spooky so I figured she isn't ready for that just yet. More arena time with her will help me get to know her better, but that means hauling and as we only have one truck and Ted uses it to get to work it kinda makes it tough to just do my thing. I rode Gussie down to the river on her own twice and ponied Sparkle once to the river- she loved it! She was a bit looky going through the yard though and shied once as we got going, so I may not trail ride on her for a while. After riding my good solid Gussie I just don't want to deal with spooking any more. Getting too old for that!

Took another ride on Gussie today before it got too hot, cruising through the bush down to the river and back.

What's not to love? A lovely day, the creak of the saddle and a good horse to ride. My kind of relaxation!

Riding days 50, 51, 52 and 53

Well that was easy

Since I have had Booncat and Sassy in the herd, I haven't tried to halter Booncat, so it's been about 3 weeks. Today I set to getting him halter broke, thinking he was going to have none of that! Well.... I'm happy to say that he was quite cooperative!
I started out by having it in my scratching hand, as he always presents his butt for scritches as soon as he is anywhere near you. Then rubbed him with it as I would if I was brushing him. Pretty soon he was all about that rope!

Love this colt! He is going to be so easy to train!

Eli at 3 months

Friday the 19th Eli turned 3 months old. I kind of slacked off on his training because he won't be weaned until he's 5 months old- and I kinda regret that now! He is soooo big!
However, he is a sweet heart most of the time. He is really easy to catch, loves his skritches and getting brushed, leads reasonably well but there is room for improvement there.
He is slow in adapting to eating his foal kibble. He though I was crazy the first time I offered him the Step 1. Not food! apparently. So I tricked him a bit by adding alfalfa pellets, which smells much more like food, and had to offer it by hand and slowly work him up to eating it out of the pan. He's a funny boy; I tried him this morning on less pellets mixed in and he was having none of that!!!

He is starting to show his true colour now. He's going to look just like his big brothers!

He moves like Rio, thinks like Kai, and has Nitro's funky crooked face stripe. Speed isn't his thing although he has plenty of it and uses it when he needs it, he just doesn't zoom like Booncat does and like Nitro did.

When Booncat gets zooming at turnout time, Eli gets in on it too- with lots of tail flagging and looking cute at first .

That booty!

Photo bombed by Tay... who is going to have puppies in 3 weeks!

This is a really nice colt . So happy that he has found his person!

Schooling ride

Today was all about checking out what Sparkle knows as far as arena riding goes- all the basic stuff that a broke horse can do.
As promised here is the progress in her saddling; note that she is not tied solid. She has come a long way from my first attempts at saddling her !

Once in the pen I did a little groundwork on giving her hip and changing directions smoothly, that showed progress in that she only gave as much as I asked for (progress for me as well in asking as softly as possible) then it was time to ride. This time I bridled her and stepped up with no preliminary exercises.
I apologize for the pooh pile in the foreground of the video! I need to get a tractor in there and scrape the piles- that one is Drifter's stud pile.
In the video, I do a few simple exercises: lateral work, same rein serpentines, sidepassing the box, and spiral into a front crossover. All of it needs improvement, but she has the basic understanding of what I'm asking. Remember, she was not ridden in a bit for the last few years although her original training was in a snaffle, so she is dealing with reacquainting herself to that feel as well as that she hasn't been asked for this kind of work for a while . I thought she did really well, considering the distractions of a helicopter flying low overhead on it's way to hovering over cherry orchards to blow the rain off them (keeps the cherries from splitting) and Drifter banging away on a log in the adjacent pen.

Once I am happy with her work at a walk, I'll progress to a trot. Another day or two I think. Then I will need to find someone to ride with me on a local trail ride- I am really looking forward to that!

Riding day 49

Wordless Wednesday

Riding day 48

It's time to get to work!

It is time for me to stop procrastinating and get to work with Sparkle. The foals no longer take up so much of my attention although their cuteness is sure captivating! Booncat is very friendly and I do need to get him haltered more often, and Eli is learning to eat his foal ration when I catch him and bring him out of the pen, more on that another time.

It had been a while since I worked with Sparkle. Yesterday I started back on her training program. My goals: Have her stand at the hitching rail to be saddled is #1. Not necessarily tied, looped over is fine as it gives her a bit of movement to back up if she gets concerned, but she does have to stand for saddling. So, yesterday she chose working in the round pen over being saddled at the hitching rail. However it only took less than 10 minutes for her to remember that it's a lot of work to say no, and I got her saddled. Part of the plan is that I don't ride her unless she lets me saddle her from the start, so instead of riding her after saddling, I put the snaffle bridle on her and bitted her up. She is not accustomed to wearing a bit, so she fussed with it a bit but didn't really have much problem in giving to the rein pressure.

Today, I gave her the chance to say yes and she took it. Which brings me to goals: #2  Riding her only after she is good on the ground.
I saddled her with the lead rope only looped around the hitching rail, she backed 1 step when I threw the saddle up which to me is acceptable on this particular horse. Then I took her into the bottom of the foaling pen, which is kind of like a mini arena, to do some ground work and assess her some more. It was interesting finding her points of resistance and learning how to get past them without adding too much pressure; she is super sensitive and too much pressure gives a huge reaction with her.

The reason I ask for the horse to step over on the hind end in this exercise is because it sets them up for the one rein stop which is crucial for safety, especially on a green horse or one I am unfamiliar with.

Sorry about the barking, Tay thinks when I click to the horse that it's a signal for her to help.

After the ground work I bridled her and checked her around using the off side rein around the saddle horn and getting her to follow the rein around turning away from me. 4 times each side - good on the left turn but had to work a little more on the right turn. After that, I thought about stopping but decided to once again give her the benefit of the doubt.

She followed me in a nice join up so I figured it was a good time to step on. At first she was a little concerned about the bit when I picked up the reins, but as soon as she realized that I wasn't taking a firm hold she relaxed and we had a nice little ride. I used two hands at first to make sure she was ok with guiding  (Janice only rode her bitless) but soon went to one hand and used legs and body to turn with minimal reining. I think a few more days of riding her like this and making sure she is comfortable with me using the snaffle on her and we should be able to go out  to a bigger arena and then on to trail riding. Am I being cautious, maybe too cautious? Perhaps, but better safe than sorry. If she spooks at something on the trail I want her to completely understand what it means when I pick up a rein and do a one rein stop in a hurry.



Time to give this mare a purpose in life!

Riding day 47

New trail and a switcheroo

Headed out a couple of days ago for my first real trail ride of the year. Gussie and I and Janice and Jade, and their dog Gus went to McGinty lake which is a nice ride through widely spaced Ponderosa Pines and lots of wildflowers (which I didn't get photos of!). We rode about 2 and a half hours which was perfect for my out of shape horse and my butt .

There be mountains in the distance!

Both horses knew there were other folks out and about even though we couldn't see them at first. 

Jade and Gussie are the same age, 16. Jade is a Morgan. Ain't she pretty? There was something she was alerting on that we couldn't see- maybe it was the skunk that we kept getting whiffs of as we ate our lunch by the lake.

Gussie, however was busy with her own lunch!

I got a kick out of Gus (the dog) who had to go into every bit of water he could find- whether it be a mud puddle-

or the lake, where he happily bailed right in and swam around just for the joy of it. That's a Labrador for you!

It was good to have him there because this is bear country. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

I have kept Booncat and Sassy separate from the herd as Sassy got used to being a mama, and because Sparkle and her sometimes get into kicking matches and I didn't want any injuries now that Sassy has been sold. So I brought Sparkle and Drifter out and put Sassy and Booncat in with Belle, Eli and Gussie. It worked out really well, as Sassy is finally chill enough that she doesn't get all worried if Booncat is out of her sight. At first she put the run on Eli as he checked out this new addition which he has only visited with over the fence so far. But today, he was allowed to approach.

There is 2 months difference in their age, hence the size difference- plus Eli is going to be a BIG boy.

And about Drifter- we kicked him into the mare herd so that he can learn herd manners, which was working perfectly, because Belle is already in foal to Beamer, and if we have a catch colt from him with Sparkle or Gussie it won't matter. We want Sparkle to get used to stallion behaviour so that she can get in foal, which up to this point she shuts down around stallions, as Janice found out to great expense over the last 3 years. So far, it is working: Drifter is mindful of the mares tolerance for him, and Sparkle, although she hasn't shown heat in the 2 months she has been here is at least tolerating Drifter's attention.

 I took the stall front off of the foaling stall so it's nice and open and they can both go in if the weather gets bad. They actually get along quite well- and Sparkle is the boss!

Riding day 46

Eli meets his lady

Eli got to meet Mel yesterday, and I think she was pretty pleased with him! He is a little bigger than she was expecting, but he is going to fit in well with all the things she uses horses for.

We get to follow his career too! This special boy came along at just the right time in Mel's life and it's pretty cool that she has wanted a Beamer baby for a long time, and this was the one. There are not a lot of Beamer babies, and as he ages and his arthritis progresses, there may not be very many more. I am sure hoping Belle gives me a filly next year.

Of caps and colts

Betsy! Your wait will soon be over, I finally picked up your hat - their embroidery machine was broken for a couple of weeks, and then the lady was away for a couple of weeks. So at last here it is- sorry, not green or brown so I hope you don't mind black. I'll skip across the border tomorrow and mail it, you should get it soon! Sorry for the delay, I haven't forgotten you!

Booncat is a month old tomorrow. I had been putting his halter training on hold as his mama was not too happy with all his antics as he tried to avoid being caught, but she has chilled out a lot now, even to the point where she will leave him sleeping and head a long way away for her feed. Then he wakes up and looks around- no mama- no problem! Until he spots her and then it's full tilt to investigate what she is eating. They are both getting more independent, which is good. I still have to catch him in the stall, just makes things easier. 

Shayla has sold Sassy, and she will be here until near the end of September. So that gives me lots of time to enjoy this little rascal! He sure is fun.

Eli meets his new person tomorrow, I'll be sure to get a photo shoot.

Canada day fun

Today is our national celebration, Canada Day. I went and watched mounted shooting put on by a local club-  there was some awesome shooting and fast horses! But not all of them, some were in their first year of competing and were a little more sedate, such as this local lady:

and some were hell-bent for leather!

This pattern had him shooting the blue balloons with a lever action rifle:

But my favourite entertainment of the day was when I came home and little Booncat was showing off for me!

Love that little fellow!