Oh Thumper

 

The manx cat was hanging around our yard a couple of days ago; I thought he left but apparently not. It was raining pretty hard when I let Thumper out, and this is what I saw when he came back in. This is about his 4th fight with That Cat. He has a bunch of scratches in his ears as well as the punctures, and a couple gashes above his left eye as well as a very sore tail base that he won't let me explore. That Cat has worn out his welcome and I will be chasing his kitty butt out of my yard whenever I see him. Cat persona non grata!

Cats

 Thumper and Foose have been together so long they are like an old married couple. Foose is 13 now and Thumper will be 12 in August. 

They do a lot of things together. 

Sometimes Foose comes complaining to me if Thumper hogs the food bowl, but it's usually Foose who hogs it!

Sometimes they share sleeping space, but mostly it's Thumper on the bed and Foose on his own bench.

Kitty paws! 😍

Thumper is the cuddlebug of the two. Always happy to take over my lap!

Foose is the you may pet me but only for three seconds type.

Thumper is the security guard . He is always scrapping with any cat that comes into his territory. The latest one is this Siamese Manx - very pretty cat but still intact so he is flexing his territorial muscles. He lives 2 doors down.

Foose mostly hangs out in the house these days, but with the nicer weather he is a kitty-in-and- out! 

Yeah? So what! Thumper can do all the work!

Now that we don't have dogs, we are very thankful to have two such lovely and personable cats .

Pressure and release

 Here is a blog I found about about through Warwick Schiller, I have linked to it on a post that opens up a new concept (to some people like me) about pressure and release that goes beyond what we have always been told concerning horse training. 

https://equusoma.com/connection-before-concepts/

If you are interested, here is the video in which Warwick talks about the concepts in the blog post and shows how it works. 

I have been working with this concept with Sophie and it has really helped me begin to understand her. Sophie is a different type of horse from any I have owned before. Working with her has really pushed my limits of understanding  how to connect with a horse who really doesn't care to connect at first. 

We are making progress. 

Shayla is here this week, so she is helping me with Sophie. It's wonderful to have someone else's perspective and expertise.  We are discovering layers of Sophie's personality. I will go into some of that in another post when I can figure out the words to express it. 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Spring rain

 As soon as the rain stops and the ground dries, it will be time to mow the lawn for the first time this year.

 All the perennials are growing like crazy, including the helleborus that I planted experimentally. It seems to love this cooler weather. 

There be snow in the high country though, so not planting time yet!

Beamer got his first turnout yesterday; only about a half hour so the spring grass didn't affect him too much. 

Not letting that ole arthritis bother him

Sophie is still in a strong heat and Beamer was quite excited to be closer to her; she was kitty corner to him in her own turnout field. Thank goodness for electric fences!  Although next time I won't tempt fate, I will separate them by putting Sophie in the foaling pen when Beamer gets his turnout. That stallion roar he has echoes through the valley. In this video is just a mild version of it.

I am thinking of hauling Sophie to the arena this week and seeing how well she does  with roping the dummy off her. Also it's time to see how she does with the trot and lope, and to work on softening her face. 

Happy Easter

 This was another week of not getting much accomplished. A trail ride planned for Saturday fell through, and I only did a little ground work with Sophie during the week. Partly that was because she came into heat again- a stronger heat this time, so I gave her a few days to get over it. 

Also it was Holy Week, so that's where a lot of my focus was. Easter Sunday is a rainy day for us, as we snuggle up with the fire going and a ham in the oven.

I hope you all have a blessed Easter spent with family, friends and good food for this wonderful Feast Day. 

At long last.....

 I got to go on a trail ride. The last one I went on was a solo ride on Gussie on Dec. 18, 2020. 

It was a blustery day, gusty and chilly winds here at the farm, but I figured since my destination was in the forest we would be fairly protected from the worst of it. 

I was invited by Bandits person, Lyn, to go on a trail ride with the guy (Dave) who did all the saddle work for me. We all met up at Dave's at 1 pm . I saddled Sophie before hauling her, she did take a minute to load (I had to step in with her) and when I unloaded her at our destination I could see that her neck was sweaty. I didn't have her tied in; sometimes with nervous haulers it's better to let then find their own preferred spot in the trailer. 

My work at home with the mounting block paid off; she was easy to position. We went into the round pen (all 3 of us) and strolled around in there to get a feel for how Sophie was ; the two gents I was riding with were very kind and willing to make this a good experience for Sophie, as we had no idea how she was going to behave.  They looked after us! 

Sophie was pretty looky but not spooky, just looking at everything and considering everything, just the way she is at home. So off we went! The route took us down a gravel road for a couple of kilometers and then up onto old logging roads and through the bush. 

I was quite surprised that Sophie wanted to be in front! 

The start of the ride, going down the gravel road. Looking at the water in the ditch.

We encountered a couple of vehicles coming towards us, who very kindly stopped as we went by, including one who was running two dogs behind them; they popped the dogs into their truck as we went by. Very considerate!

Once we got off the road and onto the brush trails I asked Sophie to hold back a bit so Dave could lead. 

Sophie, for the most part, was ok with riding beside him but definitely didn't want to be at the back of the pack.

That turned out ok though, because Bandit preferred to tag along at the rear of the pack for the most part. 

We rode for about two hours. I have to say, I was quite impressed with Sophie 💗

She was steady, marched out with confidence, looked at everything but didn't get too concerned. One time she deked to the left when she was surprised to see a culvert , but it wasn't a huge jump, just a couple quick steps left. She handled the terrain well, including a lot of standing water on the backroads. 

That was just one of the long puddles we went through. That one had hidden slippery ruts that had the horses slipping a bit, but she handled it well. 

Overall, I have to say I was really pleased with Sophie. I felt safe and comfortable on her. We do have to work on getting her soft in the face, but that will come with time and schooling. 

As we got back down onto the road, she got looky again as we passed by dwellings that had a lot of stuff to see. Back at the trailer, I tied her to the side of it, and went to look at some of Dave's horses. When I got back to her I could see that she had pulled back; she was completely out of sight of all the horses so I think she pulled because of not wanting to be alone. Another thing we have to work on. 

This time for the trip home I tied her in the trailer; facing rearward seems to be her spot of choice. 

Overall, it was a great day! And, I have been invited to come ride there anytime. 

Sunday Silence

 

Clean pens

 We are corral cleaning this week, so Beamer got turned out in the round pen while his pen got scraped. 

Much to his delight.

Now that's a roll back!

The pens are all cleaned, now we have to haul out the older piles for garden compost and allow the newer piles to age another year. 

Another blog

 If you all love good photos hop on over to http://www.greenhillfarmblog.com/

Ruth is a blogger in Ireland who takes amazing photos of her farm life with sheep and border collies. 

First arena ride

 We had a heavy frost this morning and I was quite delighted to see this unique pattern of frost on the hood of our truck.

So dimensional and layered! It would make a great wallpaper pattern.

It warmed up to a beautiful day for taking Sophie to the arena. She was a little reluctant to load, I did have to go in with her at first, and then unloaded her and sent her back in on her own. My trailer is a 2 horse angle haul but she wants to stand facing backwards.  I'm all right with that for now but it might be an issue if I have to haul 2 horses. 

Once we got to the arena, there were only a couple of other people there. I walked Sophie one tour around inside, letting her check out all the signs on the walls, the roping dummy, the barrels in the corner, all no problem.

Then at the mounting block, well this is a work in progress. She went around it several times before stopping at the perfect spot for me. I'm going to have to work on this at home some more. 

For the most part the beginning of our ride was pretty good. She walked out at a good pace, steering was good and she was interested in her surroundings but not silly about anything. Then when the other horses came in she did start getting a bit anxious. She started losing her focus on me and got more concerned with where the other horses were. One horse was acting up and quite ramped up; we just stayed out of her way. Sophie started diving into the bit and tossing her head. I worked on changes of direction and small circles, straight lines and backing to keep her focused but she got to the point where I just stopped her and let her stand still and just watch . This was very much like when we get to that spot at home where she just stops and won't go any further. I had to let her chill out and get her mind back in gear, so I stepped off and lunged her with the reins so she could burn off that anxious energy. Then back to the mounting block  (another round and round session). This time I let her stand for quite a while before riding out. One fellow there, an old friend , was getting on his second horse; a Fjord/quarter horse cross, who was a lovely quiet fellow. Sophie seemed drawn to him, so I asked if we could just ride around the arena side by side with him. 

Bandit is so cute!

That worked really well. Having a nice quiet companion was just what she needed . Sophie relaxed so much that she did that shake horses do that just about shakes you out of the saddle; I had to grab to stay on and it scared her so that she jumped sideways and scooted; I did a one rein stop and was kind of laughing at her. I think she was so relaxed she forgot I was up there!

A couple laps around the arena in that relaxed frame and I called it quits there on a good note. 

She got to soak a bit at the hitching rail while I practiced roping the heels of the roping dummy. 

She loaded better for the ride home too.

Lovely view; if you zoom in you might see the hawk on the right of the photo.

Wednesday is the only day they have open riding at this arena, but there is an outdoor arena just down the road from us that I have to phone and see if they do drop in riding. 

I made arrangements to go riding with Sophie's new friend as soon as the trails are passable. A few more arena rides to get the measure of her and work on some of her issues and we will be trail ready. 

I am pretty sure she hasn't had consistent riding for over 2 years so it's going to take time to get her back in the groove.

Let's ride!

 The last day or two we were hammered with driving rain, sleet, a bit of hail and strong gusty winds. Not conducive to doing anything with the horses. I did a lot of online stuff with the Warwick Schiller program I signed up for, now just waiting for the winds to die down so I can put it into practice. 

A lot of this program is about discovering where the horse's mind is and ways to get their attention on you, and to let them know that you are aware of what is going on with them. 

It's actually simple, and less is more. 

Today, the weather calmed down a bit, still a bit stormy but only in patches. This afternoon I saddled up miss Sophie to see if we could get any farther away from home. I used the advance and retreat program that I first learned many years ago from following the teachings of John Lyons, and now many others . 

Ride out a ways, turn and circle part way back; ride a little farther, turn and circle, etc. etc. It did get some nice forward from Sophie. 

We headed down to the other side of the pond this time, the area where I have walked her in hand plenty of times. 

And then we hit the wall of her comfort zone. This reminds me of the song lyric, Don't go down to the woods today...

I think part of what is going on with her is that there is a lot of activity down on the dyke, which is slightly visible through the trees . Lots of dog walkers and people riding. And this mare is very alert to her surroundings. She's confidant when I am leading her, but not so much when I'm riding her. At this point we just sat and dwelled a bit, then headed back. 

As we headed back we were hit with a squall of wind and sleet. Some horses would get all prancy and snorty, but not miss Sophie. She just bent her neck into it and steadily marched into the wind and sleet. Good girl Sophie!

As I turned her into her pen (after a bit of hand grazing) she went on full alert staring down towards the dyke. Beamer did too, so I knew there was some kind of activity going on. 

I hung out for a bit and watched. It was worth a few photos ops! My brother in law gave me a little pocket camera, a Canon Power Shot S50  that I had with me so I managed a couple of action shots. 

Tail up and trotting and snorting!

Aaaand airborne!

Eventually even I could see what was going on down there- there were some girls loping their horses along the dyke. 

I am really looking forward to tomorrow- we are loading up and heading to the indoor arena!