Oh Drifter....

Young horses can be pretty entertaining. Drifter was being so very helpful yesterday.
(Or not.)

 What do we have here?

Lemme see.... how does this thing work....

Hang on, I'll get it....

Hmmm.... Lemme regroup.....

Like this?

What could possibly go wrong here! Wish I had left the video running!

As it tipped he made a hard right turn, jumped one step then walked over to investigate.

Whaaaaaat?

It's all about the boys these days.

The boys are all getting more work these days. Dave came over and held Booncat and I did get all 4 feet filed. He was not too bad, which made me happy. I will have to do him again in a few weeks, I didn't take a lot off; just enough to reduce his heels and shorten his toe and balance him. Doesn't take much with those baby feet! Eli was easy, I just tied him to the hitching rail and filed his back feet.
I have been trying to get Booncat eating ration, but he is pretty uninterested. I tried soaking the alfalfa pellets and he takes a few slurps and loses interest. He's a funny boy, he likes things to be his idea. So I guess I will just have to be patient, he'll come around eventually but I bet it won't be until after his mama leaves.
Belle looked like she was dropping condition so I decided that Eli's 5 month birthday was the day to wean him. It's going well, they are across the fence from each other; I put Belle in the foaling pen and closed  Drifter in the adjoining paddock. There is some whinnying but no stress to either mama or Eli.

Gussie is taking over babysitting duties

Drifter is getting some more education now too. I took him to the round pen and got him saddled and cinched up. Poor boy was getting eaten up by mosquitoes as I was working him, but despite that he was really good. Didn't mind at all being cinched up. I did a little bit of in hand circles, direction changes and flexing then had him carry the saddle back up the hill to the horse trailer. He was so good! 

 

He stood well for unsaddling- note that he isn't tied, just for safety in case he had a moment when I unsaddled. But he just stood there like a good boy. I will probably just work him in his pen instead of the round pen, being barren ground there are less skeeters there.

I have had Booncat out every day, he is leading really well now and happily goes in and out of the trailer and the barn. He is such a curious boy! 

He likes the cats....

and they tolerate his inquisitiveness. When he goes in the barn he has to check everything out....

he even went in the Hideout and checked out the table and chair. He is still not too sure about Beamer, but at least he didn't run away this time. 

Beamer was being so cute and gentle! 

Today was hay hauling day, it feels great to have all that hay in the barn! And I still have 8 more bales to pick up but I have to feed enough of these ones to make room for it. No more storing hay outside for me! My hay guy is storing it for me in  his hay barn until I can pick it up.

End of summer

Summer is winding down....

As Eli's departure date comes closer, I have to say I am really happy with him. I can now hop him in the trailer and close the door while he eats his ration, and he is very good about it. He eats a bit then looks out the window openings to check on the herd and goes back to eating. He is standing tied very well, and picks up his feet easily- I do still need to file his back feet, but need someone to hold him for me, perhaps later this week. He is easy to catch and lead. He also doesn't mind fly spray.

Booncat is also making progress. He's easy to catch and is leading fairly well. I haven't tried standing tied with him yet, but that will come. Some of his training will wait until weaning time in October. I have been loading him in the trailer and taking him into the barn, so perhaps I will use the stall in the barn for teaching him to stand tied and get him eating ration, which so far he has no interest in.  Doing his feet is in the works for later this week too, as my friend Dave will be coming over to hold colts for me. Dave is 80 now, but you'd never know it. He is an old horseman and very good with the young ones.

My riding this year has really been sporadic. Partly because my trailer needs tires, but that should be remedied by the end of the month. Gussie is enjoying the time off!
We have mosquitoes now, for the first time this year. The recent wet weather is to blame for that, I'm sure! Poor Drifter got hit the worst, the skeeters must love his colour.

Yesterday was the first time for firing up the wood stove, it was just too darn damp and cold (74 degrees) in the house for me. I do so enjoy a good fire on a dreary day!

My flower gardens are hanging in there. The roses are on their final blooms as I am letting them develop their rose hips. Everything else is still happy though especially the zinnias and blue salvia. 

Tillie is getting very independent and active (read: into everything!) She comes to the barn with me every day, but I have to carry her past the neighbour's fence as their dog has a very loud scary bark that sends her hiding. I put her in the barn while I do chores and she is so good, sits near the back of the barn and just watches.

She is mostly house broke too, as long as I pay attention to getting her outside when she first wakes up. Her favourite way to pester her mama is to hang on to her tail as mama walks by and I sure hope that does not translate into horses tails! 

She will be 6 weeks old September 20th. She is very smart and already shows that she wants to work... poor Merle.... he's the only one small enough for her to work! She does leave the cats alone which is a good thing.

Booncat at 3 months

 Booncat is 3 months old now. I haven't done as much training on him as I have with Eli, partly because Eli needs to be ready to go to his new home next month and partly because I know he will be staying with me for a while- the smaller colts are harder to sell, nobody really wants them.



He has pretty much shed off his baby coat; his black stockings really show now. Wish his mane would come in better!



His personality is really developing well too; he is curious, friendly, helpful (!!!) and not in the least bit fearful, very self assured.

That is.... until he meets daddy....

He is getting easy to lead, although when he takes a notion that he doesn't want to do something he does let me know!  But overall he is getting easier to work with all the time. He even went into the barn today for the first time, his curiosity made it easy.

Getting him to eat foal ration is a work in progress. It always takes a while and he's no exception. He had a few bites of alfalfa pellets with mama yesterday so that will probably be the best way to get him going. I tried him sharing with Eli today but Eli was not impressed. He didn't seem to mind the cat jumping up.

I have had zero response to my ads for him so I guess he will be here for a couple of years. I don't try to market yearlings, there is no sense as everyone wants to pay weanling price until they are started under saddle. So I get to have some fun with this one!

Riding a good horse and Tillie stuff

One last trip to the river before the cool fall days are upon us.

Oh yes, Beamer was walking well enough to ride him and I was pretty happy to get on my boy! I love how he strides out and enjoys every ride. Shayla rode Gussie, we were both bareback in the hopes that we could get them into the deep water.
Gussie was good! Shayla did get her out in the deep water, but Beamer wouldn't stand still enough for me to get good photos as I had to zoom in . He was quite certain that he didn't need to go any more than knee deep in the water!

Silly mare!

Love how you can see Goose through Gussie's legs

I am not getting much riding time now that I have the puppy, she does take up a lot of my time. I try to get things done while she has her midday nap, as I don't have her in a place where she is contained other than her open crate which she can now climb out of. I take her outside a lot, and have to supervise her now that she is mobile. Trying to keep her from eating my plants is an ongoing battle! She is into everything!

She is eating a small handful of soaked puppy chow every day now, and is she ever growing fast. She's a smart little thing considering that she isn't quite a month old (Monday Sept. 9 she will be 1 month.)

Riding day 58

Drifter is a rock star

Drifter has had the summer off to grow up and just be a horse. I have kept up on making sure he minds his manners but other than that he hasn't been worked at all. Since Shayla is in town for a couple of days she was eager to see if he remembered all the training he had from the early part of the year.
Starting with just longeing- no problem! He remembered all the little nuances. So she moved on to the saddle blanket, still no problem. If you remember, we did all that with a horse blanket and a tarp, and yes he remembered all that too. So then it was time to introduce the saddle- and Drifter seemed to really enjoy everything about this whole session.

He handled that really well. She walked him around in a circle both ways, letting it fall to the ground a couple of times. When that happened he just stopped and looked at it, not startled at all. That is a good thing, we want him to just stop and look, especially for the future if anyone falls off him or if any gear falls off he won't get excited about it.

Since he was so chill about just carrying the saddle uncinched, she ran the cinch under and held it in place without fastening it for him to get the feel of it. Again, he took it in stride. So that was a good place to end the saddle work. Next, and since he was so enjoying everything, I brought in the step stool and Shayla draped over his back from both sides.

Once again he was relaxed about it. Not in the least bit twitchy!

So of course we stepped it up once more. Literally....

We both had big silly grins on our faces! They say about the Driftwood horses that you show them how to do something and they get it right away, so you better do it right the first time. I think this was a really good first time for Drifter! Maybe not the traditional way where you rope all the feet and rope the belly and all that, but we do what works for us.  Low key, no stress, but always giving the horse something to think about. And keeping it a good experience for them.

Happy horse, happy Shayla! 

 

This horse has a wonderful future ahead of him! He will be a start-to-finish horse for Shayla, and I am so looking forward to their progress.
Another session is planned for him today including cinched up and perhaps trotting cinched up. And we are going to measure him.
After all this, he is going to get more time to grow up and resume his training in the spring.