Clancy leaves and another contender

I took Clancy out for one last photo shoot before her long trip to her new home.

New home? Did you say new home?

Yes, Miss Clancy, new home. where you can use that powerful hind end chasing cows.

Oh. Well alright then.

I loaded up and left here at 5:40 AM and got to Longview Alberta by 11 AM . Clancy as usual hauled like a dream- this is one well travelled mare; she was born west of Edmonton Alberta, bought by a lady from Cranbrook BC, sold to the lady in Millerville Ab. that I bought her from, then here to Creston BC, then off to Spiritwood Saskatchewan.

The people who picked her up are team penners, so Lisa (cdncowgirl) if you pen in the Saskatchewan penning association shows you might see her in action this summer.  Russel Kahl is her new owner.

I didn't manage to connect with the lady who owns Dot E  as she had a business appointment that she couldn't skip and I think I have talked myself out of pursuing that mare.

I did find another horse that was posted just yesterday - if I had known I would have made the time to drive to Strathmore to go try her out. 

Here is her info:

BL Whiz Kid/Pepinic Candy mare. Trained and competed as a reiner with Jesse Beckley before changing direction and being used in English shows. Won Reserve Hunter under Saddle and Hunt Seat Equitation in Quarter Horse Nationals in the fall of 2014. Shown in local shows by prior owner, jumping to 3'. Willing, forgiving, and loves attention. ~14.3 hh.

Here is a video of her being ridden western I did notice something about her- I'd like to hear feedback from all of you to see if you pick up on the same thing.

Changes

It seems that spring is a great time for changes. There are a couple of things going on here: We may be on the verge of moving, with my sister and her husband as our landlords. That is really good news for us, I just hope they can find the right place that fits our budget and their budget. Exciting!

And then there is miss Clancy.

 I decided to list her for sale. I want a horse with a little more feel, one that will really move off my leg and soften in my hands. Clancy will do it, but it is rather grudgingly. She just doesn't enjoy it like she enjoys getting out on the trails and seeing new country, but I want a horse for both. So within just a day of listing her she is headed to her new home on Monday, where she will have a job as a team penning horse and checking cattle. Very fitting for her.

Of course.... that means the hunt is on! Not my favourite thing. But I have 3 contenders lined up so far and a few more to sort through.

Down the road

Had a real nice ride down the road today. There wasn't much traffic on our backroad, so I saddled Clancy, worked her on the ground for a few minutes: I do this to make sure her attention is on me. She only wanted to eat grass so I had to make sure that eating grass wasn't  her priority. :o)
It sure was beautiful and warm this afternoon- if this keeps up I'll be riding every day. Yay!

I switched bridles and I think I like this one better on her, it has more feel. I worked on my timing by counting footfalls and was halfway through the ride before I realized I was counting the hinds out of sequence- sheesh! Now that I have that fixed in my brain I should be able to figure out the best time to apply cues. Who knew riding properly could be so technical. I did get some nice rating just using my body weight and energy- kind of fun, made up for my error with the footfalls.
I sure do like the view down here.

 I left Tess at home to babysit the pup- poor Tess. Thea is getting pretty rough with the older dogs now- I had to really get after her tonight for being too rough with old Reba. Poor little pup knew she was on the s**t list then! It's a fine line with disciplining border collies; you don't want to take that working edge off them but you can't let them run amuck either. Too much discipline and they can sull up, not enough and you have no handle on them- at least for the first year or so, after that it's much easier.

Fences and sunshine

Most of you know that I use electric fence to make turn out pens for my horses- I've been doing it for a few years since my landlord decided that I shouldn't use his pasture any more. When I get home from work, I turn Clancy out in her pen, and Beamer in his. All was well until a couple of days ago; I keep an eye on them, and half an hour after my last check, I went to bring them in- and Clancy wasn't in her pen. The fence was all up, hadn't been stretched anywhere; and she was over by the heifer pen calmly grazing. Her neck was a bit sweaty, so I think she got to running and couldn't stop in time so just bailed over the fence. No harm done- but now I don't trust her to stay in the electric fence. I've seen her get pushy with the round pen fence when she is out of sight/sound of the other horses; when Josie was calling to her one day, and I had her in the round pen she was bumping the top rail with her chest. Looks like she probably doesn't respect fences. I probably need a separate and more powerful fencer for turn out, as well as making the tape a lot higher. But for now, it will be hand grazing, and that's just what I needed to get me off my butt and riding again.
Yesterday I hauled her to the local stable and used their outdoor arena- which is huge and has really nice footing. It was a perfect sunny afternoon.

We did walk/trot work, just trying to get her legged up for all the fun stuff I want to do this year. She is making good progress with some of the issues she came with. She no longer bloats up for saddling, she stands still when I mount (that was a real issue last summer) and no longer walks off right away as soon as my butt hits the saddle. She is learning that I like things slow and easy instead of just being in a big hurry. One thing that still need improvement is softening in the face. When I pick up the reins for a soft feel she dives into the bit and bumps herself. I try to use my legs to lift her in the back and have her in a nice frame but she isn't quite getting it yet- but she will. She was softer last summer, just needs refreshing. And I need to develop better timing with my cues. I am woefully out of time with her reaching foot! I'll get better too ;o) I think I am going to use a different bridle on her too, I find the mecate reins too heavy.
When I got her home, she got to graze for a while- her favourite thing- and it was funny watching Thea grab the lead rope- I think I could train her how to lead the horse! She isn't afraid of the horse and also doesn't pester her.

I was debating mowing the lawn the other day- but I think I'll just let Clancy do it for now.

Spring has sprung

I got Clancy's turn out pen set up yesterday. She is one happy horse now! Room to move and grass to eat in the sunshine; life is good.

I had to get after her to move out a bit, she just wanted to drop her head and chow down on that spring grass; I am restricting her and Beamer to short turn out while the grass is so rich and their systems adjust to grazing again.

I got the insurance on my trailer today, so hauling time is about to begin. Time this stout girl went back to work.
Totally unrelated but on a side note- my garden is right next to Clancy's pen, and I noticed that I have some volunteer plants there- some lettuce (I let the romaine lettuce go to seed) as well as spinach. Yippee! I also have kale that over wintered.

Looks like there is lots of green around here for St. Patrick's day tomorrow!

Turnout = Happy Horses

I couldn't bear to see the horses in their muddy pens any longer. So today I set up an electric pen for Beamer, and turned Clancy out in the round pen.
I'd say they were both pretty happy about that.

Clancy worked up a sweat, she sure was ripping around. She has been kind of sulky since Josie left. I think she's mad at me. She'll get over it. Looks like I will have to bite the bullet and pay to ride in the local indoor. So today I'll be checking my trailer out to make sure it's ready to go down the road.

Little things

I spent some time with Clancy yesterday. She is looking a bit sad about being alone, so I spent a lot of time brushing her, washing her muddy tail- I braided it after I rode so that it would stay clean when she rolls.
I have made some good progress in her trusting me when it comes to saddling and mounting. She no longer takes a big breath and holds it while I cinch her up, and she doesn't bite the rail much any more either. Just once when I brought the saddle blanket out. Slow and easy seems to be paying off with this mare, which makes me pretty sure that the Former Owner (FO) didn't give a hoot about her being ok with what he was doing. You know, that cowboy -up- we gotta get stuff done  attitude, which may work fine with some horses but it's plain to me that this mare got defensive. She also stands still, and doesn't move off right away when I get on. I'll take the little advancements!

I spent some time on ground work. This is the first time I have worked her since she left me watching her rapidly receding into the distance after she rolled. I was more concerned with getting Josie going, so Clancy was put on the back burner.
One of the things I played with was getting her to stand square, without me being right beside her. I was about 8 ft. away in front of her and just used the rope to get her to move her feet; just the tiniest wiggle of the lead rope or suggestion to move a foot ahead or back. It was fun! She did really well; then it was getting her to stand and ground tie while I moved around her; she kept wanting to turn to face me, so I'd have to set her up again. Finally, we got this:

I have a lot of work to do legging her up. We did some trotting and softening in the round pen. We also worked on her sidepass until she was consistent at it- and I found how much my timing really sucks! Then used that sidepass to work on opening the gate and riding through and closing it. Much better, she has some dwell now and isn't just in a big hurry to get through it, but I need to work on the closing, as she just wants to leave and not sidepass back to actually close it. I chose not to make an issue of it, just quietly kept at it until the gate was closed and latched. I'm sure we can make big improvements there every time we do it.

Making the best of it

This week I have spent my horse time trimming feet. I got Beamer done last week, and over the last week I got the girls done- 2 feet at a time. Fronts one day, backs the next. Josie had bar overgrown over the apex of her frog on both feet, so I really took my time with her. She is really good to trim. I did Clancy the last 2 days, her feet are a work in progress. When I got her she had contracted heels, and instead of a nice round hoof it is pinched at the heels and more of a pear shape. They are slowly spreading but I think it'll be another year before they are where they should be. The nice thing about her is that I can ride her barefoot and she doesn't get ouchy. She has nice strong feet.
Today, as I was trimming, the heifers in the next pen got the wind up, as the landlord was doing something in the next pen that involved a bunch of yelling.  I was underneath Clancy, trimming her hind feet, when she snorted- Josie was snorting and blowing so I watched for a bit. When the heifers came roaring up to the fence Josie ran right up to them (gonna be a good cowhorse someday). I grabbed my little camera for a video but it was a little late.

As you can see in the video, we are into the muddy season here. I can't get the tractor into the pens for cleanup until it dries out a bunch- this is the worst time of the year; mud season- and it's early this year.
Now that all the horse feet are done, I hope we get some good weather next week. I really want to haul to the local indoor and put some time in on Clancy.
I googled the meaning of her name yesterday just for fun- and I like it- it means "red warrior" . Pretty cool!
It was a good week for doing feet, pretty dull weather. This is what it has been like the last few days:

Mo' better

Yesterday, I figured I would turn Clancy out in the round pen, if she wanted to roll or run around, she could do it on her own time. So.... guess what.... she just stood there. Sigh.

Ok Miss Clancy. I guess if you don't want to play, we'll see what you want to do.
I thought I'd send her around, but all she wanted to do was be with me. **Grin.**

That's not to say she wouldn't still leave me stranded if she got loose, but it's a step in the right direction.
Speaking of direction- there is a Cowboy Dressage instructor just about an hour and a half south of us, in Idaho, and she is holding a couple of clinics this spring. I definitely want to audit the first one and really wish I could afford to ride in the Jon Ensign one- but not with the way our dollar  is at right now.

This should give me a good understanding of the concept and the way the court is set up. THen there is this one:

This is more along the lines of the Buck Brannaman clinics and I would love to ride Clancy in this one.

Another lesson learned

Such a gorgeous day today that I knew I'd have to ride- especially since yesterday was such a dismal day; we were fogged in and it had only partially lifted by 3 PM. Different story today!

I figured it was Clancy's turn. I spent quite a bit of time saddling her- I was working on combing out her tail, so the saddle pad went on, combed a bit, saddle went on but not cinched- combed a bit more, etc. until I had her cinched up and ready. It was the first time she didn't bite the rail or bloat up her belly.
I led her out to the road to make sure the footing was good- and it was, the road is mostly slushy with bare sections. I stepped aboard- she stood still, good girl; but she started trotting her little springy jog and tossing her head; I could tell she was feeling pretty good on this first lovely day in a long time, so I stepped off and worked her on the ground until she was paying attention. Then off we went, much more relaxed.

She even walked nicely through the puddles. About 50 feet ahead of where I took this photo, I turned her into the field on the left, because a vehicle was coming and I wanted to get off the road; we had Tess with us too.
Sooooo- always listen to that little voice. I ride with a mecate set up, which is a looped rein with a tail which I call the get-down; I usually tuck a loop of this into my belt, so that if I have to step off, I have an instant lead rope without having to take the reins over her head. For some reason, I decided to loop it over my saddle horn instead. Like you would do if you were riding with a halter under your bridle and wanted to loop the lead rope over the horn. I never do this, so why I did today, ...... stupid I guess. Anyway, Clancy got in that lovely soft soggy snow- pawed it once, and dropped to roll! I had to step off on the off side as her legs were out to the left and of course, didn't have time to grab the get-down off the horn. She got up, and went down again for another roll. I tried to grab the rope, but she saw my hand coming and - yup -you guessed it- took off at a flat out gallop headed for home. Man can she run! ( I have visions of trying her on the barrels....)
I started walking back with my trusty dog who would NEVER leave my side, and the neighbour lady came to check on me, as she saw Clancy high-tailing it home without me. She very kindly drove me and Tess home. When I got there, Clancy had made her way into the pen next to Josie, where the heifers live. They only have a knee high strand of (very) hot wire to keep them contained, and she blew right through it. Fortunately, all the cows were quite happy to visit Clancy instead of exiting their pen.

You can see that the get-down is safely still looped over the horn, and that is the loop reins that are dragging on the ground, they were up near her ears so she must have had her head down once she got in the cow pen. She stood quietly while I caught her, then tied her up outside the pen so I could repair the electric fence before the cows did an escape act of their own.
Then- it was off to the round pen- can't have her thinking that running home gets her unsaddled and back in her pen!
So- what to do- I decided that since she didn't come to me after she got up from rolling, I needed to work on join up. I wanted to get her so that she would follow me anywhere; and this is going to take a few sessions and hopefully take us to a new level in our partnership.
I worked her at liberty, took the bridle off but left the saddle on. I started out making her move, then ignoring her;

 `
It took quite a while for her to stop and look at me, and more rounds before she stopped and turned to me, but didn't come to me.

I used the technique of walking back and forth in front of her that Shayla used on Josie last summer; it worked fairly well and although she didn't join up then, it did allow me to move her hind end over and move her shoulder, all without touching her. Pretty soon. I could send her out, stop her, back her, turn her both directions but still no join up. Eventually, it did happen- she came and touched me with her nose, and followed me no matter which direction I went. If I lost her for a step. all I had to do was step to her hip and move it over, then she hooked on to me again.
So that was a good way to end the day.Clancy got a good workout, and it gave me a new direction to go with her, one that I will be able to build on and eventually get that true partnership I'm looking for.

Saddle time

My saddle got it's annual winter clean and condition. I use Lexol leather conditioner- it's all I've ever used on this saddle and on my Wade.

All cleaned up and ready to go back to work! So today I started with Josie. She hasn't been worked since November 4th, other than me just giving her a few minutes in hand work in her pen a couple of times. I took her out to the hitching rail, threw the saddle on her like an ole broke horse, and took her to the round pen. The footing there is pretty good, with loose snow and no ice. We spent a few minutes working on moving her feet- hip over, shoulder over and change direction, back up, come forward etc. Then some stick and string work, flipping it around her and whirling it overhead- all good. After that, some sacking out. I happened to have the jugs and bag set up at the round pen, so that's what I used.

 They are frozen so they are nice and noisy. As I was shaking them, standing on her left side, she turned her head so that she could see them out of her right eye (more on that in a bit) and got bonked by a jug so blew back a bit; I upped the ante by shaking them more vigorously until her feet stopped moving- and kept working her with them. As you will see in the video below, she likes to keep worrisome things in her right eye; every time I'm on her right side she is relaxed, and when I move to the left side, she tips her head so she can see the jugs out of her right eye, which drops her shoulder in towards me.
After videoing I did some more work because it was a bit  much trying to handle the leadrope and the camera and get her correct in her movement. We stopped on a really good note, when she was nice and relaxed on both sides. Not a bad session considering she hasn't worked for over 2 months.  I was hoping to pony her from Clancy today, but decided that wasn't a good idea; the driveway and road are slick with compact snow; I fell in the driveway leading Clancy so I just took Clancy and headed out to the field.

Other than putting the kids on her a couple of weeks ago, it's been a while since I've ridden her, so I wasn't asking too much of her- just wanted her to take it easy because of the conditions. She walked out nice for me, and on he way back I did ask her for some lateral moves when we were still in the field where the footing was good. She had her little "I don't wanna work" moment, which is  left turn, up with the head, and a sideways step- so silly! Of course that meant she had to work more than I was planning on......
Overall it was a really nice way to spend the afternoon. I really really need to get these girls to an indoor arena but just can't make it happen for a while. Oh well, just have to make do for the time being.

A visit from the minions

Over the week between Christmas and New Year's, my 3 nieces (The Minions) visited for a couple of days. They were excited to meet and ride Clancy, and of course their favourite, Beamer.

 I haven't ridden Clancy bareback, although Shayla did, once, but the girls were happy to climb on and get led around on her. She actually stood pretty good for them in their awkward scrambles to get on board.

Such a good girl Clancy!
The next day I saddled her, and the girls rode her in the round pen (on a long line). The 2 older girls wanted to trot and were happy to find that Clancy's trot is much smoother than Beamer's.

This is the youngest- just walking was fine with her!
This is the oldest one, she just wanted to keep trotting! I plan on giving her lessons on Clancy and hope they get on well enough that she can show her in the little local shows this summer.

Beamer got his minion time too!

They all 3 rode him and he lapped up the attention.

Reba also benefited from some special attention. Poor old dog, her hind end is giving out on her. I have to help her up the stairs to the deck most days, and she has trouble getting up if she lays on the laminate floor, can't get enough traction to push herself up so I have a blanket spread on the living room floor - and everywhere else she hangs out- for her. Sometimes I have to pick her up and hold her while she gets her feet under her. Hope she makes it through the winter.

Saddling and the winning photo

I've mentioned a couple of times that Clancy has issues with being saddled. She is getting better about it; for example she doesn't swing away any more, and isn't nearly as anxious but she still does have some anxiety about it. I've done all I can think of to make it a good experience for her, like being gentle with placing the saddle, not cinching up tight at first; in fact I barely cinch it tight enough to stay on at first; and making sure the saddle is not placed too far forward as to interfere with her shoulder blade when the leg is extended back.
But- she still does this:


She is slowly improving..... I'm giving her every chance to relax that I can. I plan to start using my essential oils next time I saddle up to see if there is a difference; the one I will use is a Young Living oil called Release.
We went for a nice ride down the road and into the west field that isn't ploughed up yet. I worked on getting the soft feel and she is starting to give it for a few strides now. Also worked on those same rein serpentines- the first time I asked her was near the beginning of the ride and she did her little Clancy protest- swung her front end around fast and leaped forward (a few inches! Lmbo) she is so funny. Of course, that just got her more work......
Also worked on getting the soft feel and asking for walk trot transitions, I had to regain the soft feel before each transition but we did get to the point where she stayed soft. I foresee lots of transitions coming up. When we got back to the yard I worked her in the L and we didn't hit any poles this time... good Clancy!
Got this photo in from my halter contest winner, Jenny

Looks good on him! Glad you like it Jenny.

A spot of sunshine!

Well- finally! After a couple days of torrential rain that left lakes in Beamer's pen and the mare pen, the sun broke through today.....  oh how wonderful it felt, especially as we get close to the shortest day of the year, and it has just been so gloomy out!
Got home from work and hustled out to saddle Clancy. Fortunately she was standing close to the gate so I didn't have to wade through mud to get her out.
She still has a little issue about being saddled; when I put the saddle pad on her, she bites the hitching rail- I'm sure it has to do with her previous life and saddle fit or some other issue related to saddling. I just take my time, bring her head around and give her a rub, then take my time saddling; I back her away a step from the rail, and if she grabs it again, just bring her attention back to me and let her know there's nothing to worry about or get upset about. I really take my time cinching her. I try to make saddling a pleasant thing for her.

We started off in the round pen with some ground exercises, and because she was pretty fresh after being cooped up for over a week in a muddy pen, I sent her around before getting on.

She likes to keep her right eye on me; when changing directions from right to left she wants to do an outside turn, but when she is going left she invariably does a proper inside turn. So I worked her on that until she was giving me inside turns both directions.
I'm happy to say she stood still for me to get on, and that opening the gate with her is much improved. Still need to work on sidepassing to the gate once we have gone through so I can close it- so I took her to the L that I made of poles to do a little work on that.

See how nice and neat it is..... well not for long! I think every pole got rolled! Oh well, I know what I have to work on now. We have good shoulder and hip yields now, but I have to put it all together now for the sidepass.
 I did one exercise that's really fun; take the rein out to the side and get in time with the reaching front foot, then bring your elbow close to your hip and use leg on the same side to hip yield, and do a series of shoulder over/hip over; it's fun and really makes you work to get your timing perfect. You can do it like you do in ground work where you ask for a hip over then sweep the front across and change direction and ask again, or you can do it so that you are asking for the same side all the time (when you're riding)- shoulder to the right, hip left, shoulder right, hip left etc. then switch directions and do the other side.
We also took advantage of the puddles in the yard to make sure she would go through them; of course, she did.
Sure felt good to get back in the saddle again, even for a short time.
Another thing that brightened up my day is the fact that some of my flower baskets are still alive even after all that cold weather and hard frost we had. It's been raining for quite a while and the frost has gone out of the ground; back to mud! But look what I found.....

Took this photo looking south; that bald area on the mountain that is in line with the fence line is where the forest fire took out all the trees last summer. That is really close to the border, it was the day they shut the border down because of the fire.

Into the dreary part of winter

This is an El Nino year, which means mild and wet where we live. And sure enough, after that little blast of winter that brought minimal snow but lots of ice, it started raining. My plans for riding were put on hold- first because it was too icy to pull the horse trailer out of my driveway; my pulling truck is 2 wheel drive- and now with the rain, I can haul but still can't ride the fields, which have been cultivated and are now a muddy mess.
 Gah! I remember how nice it was in Alberta when I could just saddle up and go in just about any direction.Well at least I can ride down the road now; and I think Clancy is just as bored as I am.

Once in a while I'll do a little ground work with Josie- not flagging just moving her feet, and she remains feather light on the lead rope. I measured her yesterday and she is 57 inches, which makes her 14.1 hh- and still growing.

And then there's Beamer.... he's feeling pretty good since I started him on herbs for arthritis, and I do take him for a little ride now and then.

So- if we get a break in the rain today, I'll saddle up and go!

I was thinking yesterday about the horses I've had here this year, and put together a collage of the 4 horses that were here but have moved on to new homes.

Kai and Nitro, who have the most wonderful home, and Delia and Snoopy, mares that didn't quite work out for me; Delia was bought back by a friend of the seller, and Snoopy has joined a broodmare band in Alberta. All these horses, in their own way, contributed to my getting Clancy. Kai and Nitro I sold because I prefer mares, Delia was not a good match and Snoopy was a part trade on the sale of Delia- but even though she was a sweetheart, at 10 years old she wasn't broke at all and needed some farrier attention beyond what I could do.
I must say, I'm really happy with Clancy.  She isn't a push-button horse, but she has a good enough start on her that I can go on with her and not worry about her being silly- in fact, she takes really good care of me. I'm really looking forward to next year, I have lots of plans for her!

Back up.

My horse trailer is more of a stock trailer (it used to be a 4 horse straight  haul and we converted it to wide open inside). Normally, I have the horses come out head first as they haul with their heads angled to the rear. Easy peasy. Since we are planning a show career for Josie, there will come a time when she will have to haul in a different trailer where she will have to back out, so yesterday, I backed her out. It was the usual story, she got quite concerned about where the ground was and it took a few minutes but we got it done without incident.
So, her lesson today started off with work backing up. A review of over the tarp work, then asking her to back off the tarp. Shayla soon figured that the issue was the poles that were holding the tarp down, so she worked her on a single pole, going over it and then backing over it. It was pretty funny when she did this:

Yep, Josie toes on top of the pole! She did end up backing nicely though.
I rode Clancy while Josie was being worked. I started off with ground work and flagging was fun because Clancy did get a bit reactive at first, but she is much to lazy to stay worked up when she figured out that her reaction caused me to get even bigger with the flag, and her feet stopping equalled the flag stopping. (Grin). I also did the half circle exercise from Buck's clinic dvd, it was a lot of fun. I need to work on my timing and finesse for that but Clancy did quite well.
After that I was just riding circles, trying to get Clancy to round up and carry herself in better frame; she tends to be heavy on the forehand and doesn't use her hind end well. Anyway, she tripped over her own feet and went down on her knees, pitched me forward but not off, and bless that mare she just stayed down on her knees while I righted myself and then got up. I love that mare! Shayla gave me a lesson on how to get her working better, using her shoulders properly instead of evading with them and diving into the bit instead of giving true collection, so that will be my focus for riding today. As Shayla was riding her I could see the difference when she started moving correctly, it was a pretty picture. I should have videoed it!
Then it was off to the teeter totter bridge. Clancy has no trouble going over it, even steps on from the high end and walks calmly across. Josie was not so keen on the bridge work, she wanted to pop off the side, or jump off before it teetered. Of course, that just created more work for her until she did it right.

That big saddle horn on my Wade saddle is just perfect for leaning on! Isn't that a lovely view?

Lesson weekend

Shayla and I hauled up to Janice's with Josie, Clancy and a gelding called Tonka that Shayla is working with. We had a 2 hour lesson from Bruce Koch with the mares, working on basic ground work moves with the goal of improving our horsemanship and timing. I find that I really need to improve my timing and improve how I use my energy. Clancy got quite bored, you know how when you have to repeat something you give a heavy sigh and roll your eyes- well if she could have rolled her eyes, she would have. But I got the help I needed. Shayla had an interesting work with the gelding, but that's her story to tell.
Janice's mare Jazz is half sister to Josie, both of them are Beamer daughters  and they sure show it!

Jazz is 6 years old now, and Josie is a long 2 year old.

This next photo is my favourite:

Josie did well at the clinic, her quality shines through, and the good work that Shayla has put into her really showed. We came away from it with some things to work on, and some ideas for what to do next.

Thankful Thursday

My Thankful Thursday: Just a trail ride today, Shayla brought her saddle down and she rode Beamer, I rode Clancy and ponied Josie. Beautiful afternoon with good horses, good friend and a good dog. What more can a person ask.

A good day!

Another great fall day today that still has me grinning.
After a good day at work, I loaded up Josie and Clancy and headed up to Shayla's.

Such a lovely place!

 I did a little work with Clancy on finding the feel for the reaching foot, and steering serpentines with just my legs while Shayla worked with her Rose mare on the teeter totter bridge.
Then we decided that that would be a good place to start Josie's lesson today. She did really well!

Proud of that little mare! I worked Clancy on the bridge too, she did super- a few times of leading her over and then I rode her over. One of the goals for her is competing in Cowboy Challenge so this is a good start.

After that, Josie had a ground driving lesson.....



Then we went for a bit of a trail ride, I ponied Josie and Shayla rode her Allie mare bareback.


I'm really happy with Josie's progress, but I'm even happier with how well I am getting along with Clancy. She is just right for me, a nice sensible mare that I know I'm going to have a lot of fun with.