What a week....

 Grab a coffee, this is a long one.....

So many things have been going on in the last week. First of all, there was the fire danger. Not so much for us in particular, but for our family and friends. Shayla had 2 or 3 fires close to her , and her fiancé was kept busy hauling and operating dozers to help with fire fighting. One was very close to his dad's place. Fortunately all those fires were controlled quickly. 

But then there was the town where Ted's dad is in long term care in the hospital, and where his brother and sister-in-law live. They were put on evacuation alert and within an hour were given the evacuation order. It was a logistical nightmare getting 7,000 people out of Drayton Valley all at once, and the 20 minute drive to the mustering area turned into an over 2 hour drive. The hospital residents were not evacuated that night; the fire department kept a watchful eye on them but all the residents spent the night in their wheel chairs awaiting imminent departure. The next day, they were driven to a town quite far away, about 4  to 5 hours drive. We hope he will soon be able to return. But so far, the fire is not contained. 

There are several small towns and reservations in northern Alberta that have been evacuated. However, cooler weather has arrived, but unfortunately still very windy and not enough rain to be very helpful. Speaking of rain, B.C. has flooding and mudslides and their own evacuation alerts and orders.  Crazy how the weather is completely different from one side of the Rocky Mountains to the other!

Despite the heat and wind, we managed to get a few things done here. The round pen is up (mostly), just needs a repair on one of the fasteners for a panel so it will be a couple of days before I can use it. I got Beamer's pen enlarged now that we moved the debris pile to the burn pit. (And no we won't be burning it until next winter!) All the horses are on pasture now, and since it was a slow introduction to the spring grass, there are no health issues for them. 

Speaking of Beamer....

Yes? what is it?

You got work to do, buddy. 

Yes that is Velvet. I kinda figured she wasn't in foal as she didn't get any larger in the last couple of months. Then in April she had a mini 2 day heat, and on Friday she came into full blown heat. She was willing and ready yesterday so Beamer got to cover her. Today she is pacing the fence and calling to him so this is a good strong heat, and she will get covered once a day until she goes out. I sure hope she catches and settles well this time! She turns 23 on May 16th. Putting in my order, once again, for a blue roan filly. 

Speaking of fillies...

I got word from Sophie's owner, she foaled out- guess what- a Beamer filly. Imagine that! I knew if I sold her it would be a filly! It's a sorrel with a star, no other white. I hope to get some nice photos of her sent to me. For now, here she is at just a few hours old. 

He said Sophie is being a good mama. I think she went to the perfect home. If you want to check it out, he is on Facebook, Sylvain Lachance in Quebec. He mostly raises paint show horses. 

I went to the top of Beamer's barn to look for some tubs for my raised/container garden, which we are also working on, and to my surprise, look what I found!

Mama cat was under one of the half barrels and she growled at me and then zoomed down the stairs. When I lifted the barrel these lovely little Siamese cross kittens were there! So I hastily retreated without touching them as I don't want her to think she has to move them. Mama cat is the black short haired feral cat who is Smoky and Bandit's mama. 

I thought the full Flower Moon would bring on foals for Shayla, and it did!  One of the draft mares that I had photos of, the lovely Katey, had a colt last night. 

And Jayne foaled! Yay! 

Check out the chrome! Shayla said "He's missing a boot!" Yes, it's a colt.

The sire is the same as the sire of Bear, and there are 3 more siblings due- Dolly, Belle and Gussie's foals. 

Musta been hard work , lots of yawning going on! 

Can't wait to go play with this one! Probably in a few days. 

Adios and hello kitty

 Sophie is en route to Ontario now. I took a couple photos (of course) before she left. 

What a solid built horse she is!  I sure hope she doesn't slip her foal on the long journey. 

Beamer had to say his goodbyes too. 

Velvet was not happy that her friend was leaving again so soon!

Loaded up and leaving. Sure hope they have a safe journey, there are 2 other horses travelling with them. 

Sophie just wasn't the right horse for me, too reactive and with such a powerful horse I decided that I need to find something more broke and one that I felt safe on the ground and on her back. The search continues. I was hoping that she would go to a breeder, in a pasture breeding situation and that is where she went. 

I got some more photos of mama cat and the grey kitten the other day. I moved their food box closer to where I think they are living, which is closer to the house. 

She isn't afraid of us, but is not tame at all. 

The kitten is funny, when it gets a notion, the tail goes up and the adventures begin!

Still don't know if its a male or female. 

It has its mama's eyes.  Hopefully it will survive the winter! The barns will be open enough for cats to get in, and we will keep feeding them. 

See ya later boyz! and Sophie news

 The baby boyz got to go home today. Their kindergarten training is done, and they are ready for the next phase of their little lives, which is basically just grow up to be good well behaved horses until they are old enough for schooling. 

I really enjoyed having them to play work with these last 3 and a half weeks. Their little personalities were so easy to work with; Scooter is very smart and sensitive, and Boe is calm and willing to follow Scooter's example. They are best buddies, and were easy to handle in everything I asked them to learn. 

They loaded like champs in Shayla's big trailer, and I'm pretty sure she is happy with their progress!

As you know, I had Sophie out on pasture at Shayla's while I had the boyz here; she brought her back today when she came to pick them up. 

She wasn't too happy with Shayla bringing her in off that 80 acre pasture with her friends!

And yes, she does have a low splint on her right front; a remnant of her scuffles with Beamer in August. 

The big news- she is sold! She is going to Ontario on Friday to a home where she will be raising babies who will be used in ranch classes- and I am sure that the Beamer baby she is carrying will delight whoever ends up with him. 

I put her on a Facebook page, (thanks Ted for letting me use your FB account!) - it's the only thing I use FB for- and since a previous post on her got no results, I changed it up a bit. The first post I talked about her and Beamer, this post I added in some comments about the great horses in her pedigree - and yes I mentioned her blemishes. It took only 2 days to get her sold!

Of course a few good photos helped! Pretty sure this won't make a "Bad For Sale Photo" post over at 4 R Ranch blog!

Although I was hoping for the Beamer baby she is carrying, the trade off is that there will be a Beamer baby over on the other side of the country, hopefully to carry on the legacy of being good minded, trainable athletic horses. 

Back on line!

 We finally got the internet hooked up here; now I can post from my computer again which means I can post photos from my non-cell phone cameras. However.... that means I have to find the cord that connects one camera to the computer.... so meanwhile we are still on cell phone photos.  

This is a gate that leads down to the river. 

The river is low right now and although it looks muddy it's actually clear, and shallow. 

We have a lot of deer here, and when I was checking fence I spooked a couple of white tail bucks - couldn't get my phone out quick enough to get them jumping the fence, but did manage this one. 

They are actually across the river there, it's quite shallow. 

A little back story on my Sunday Stills post.

Since both mares seemed to be settling in nicely, I thought it was time to see if Beamer could go live with them. Considering that they are both bred to him, and neither one is in heat, it should have worked. 

Wrong. 

Sophie wasn't too happy with him from the get go. At first it was a lot of posturing, but it devolved into kicks and bites. 

They seemed to find their respective places after a while, usually with Beamer far away from the mares.

Then either he or Sophie would approach, and the squealing and roaring was on again. 

I gave it 3 days, but by then it was obvious that it wasn't going to work; Beamer had only one thing on his mind and the mares were saying flat out get lost. So I pulled him and back to his pen he went... where he paced and paced and hollered and worked himself into a sweat. I was at my wits end to find a way to calm him down; he would get really wound up if the mares went out of his sight. I finally tried some Stressaway oil in his nose, then I locked the mares in the pen opposite him so that they were always in sight of him; and finally he calmed down. 

Was it wise to just stick him in with the mares? Probably not. But I was going by how well it worked when I put him in with Jayne; they got along great, and Velvet is very much like Jayne. The catalyst, I believe, was Sophie. She has turned out to be an alpha mare, at least in this herd - she wasn't when she was in with Shayla's horses - and she got quite aggressive with Beamer. He isn't used to that, so he got pretty ramped up. Poor guy has lived a sheltered life! As long as Sophie is here, he won't be living with the mares. I will be sending her to Shayla after she foals, to be bred to Shayla's stallion, at least that is the current plan. 

It's nice to have peace in the barnyard again!

Springing along

 Lots of spring things going on.

The Helleborus has a flower! 

The Pet Cemetary- do you see what I see?

How about now?

Yup- morel mushrooms! Since they were growing on the graves, I couldn't bring myself to pick them, but I flagged down one of the local dog walkers who was happy to pick them and take them home. There were 9 of them , enough for a nice feed all fried up in butter.

 

Purple nettle grows down in the pasture. After reading up on it, I'm going to harvest some and dry it for tea.

The Goat River has settled down quite a bit; this area a few years ago was a flood zone. 

Sophie will be heading north to Shayla's next week, and I will begin tearing down the panels as soon as she leaves. She has been feeling pretty good these last few days; I'm pretty sure she caught and is packing a little bitty Beamer baby; because she had some of his fancy moves the last couple of days!

I tried to get the rearing and standing on one foot but I wasn't quick enough. I haven't had time to work with her  lately, and I gave her a week off while she was being bred. So her training will be put on hold until we get situated in Alberta. She does seem to be happy to follow me around and when I do the poop scooping in her pen, she supervises. Usually from way too close! And she has started whinnying when she sees me come to feed . I guess I have moved up a notch in her herd!

 

Mares

 Sorry about being awol for most of this week. In my defense, I have had a cold that laid me low for a few days. (Not Covid!) It came with an awful headache.

Some exciting news- Mama Belle is very close to foaling! 

Udder is full including the teats

Muscle tone around the tailhead is jiggly and dropped

Historically she foals on or close to the full moon, which is Sunday night. From what Shayla says, she is most likely positioning the foal today; she walks around with her tail out and will probably roll a few times as the foal begins to enter the birth canal. From there it's usually within 24 to 48 hours!

Can't wait to see this foal! Here is a photo of the sire, Root Beers Boots

Isn't he a beauty!  Shayla is hoping for a buckskin filly from this cross. 

It does seem strange to not have a foaling contest for her this year. But feel free to leave a guess in the comments as to colt/filly and colour! Choices for colour are;

Offspring Color Probability

37.50% -	Bay
37.50% -	Buckskin
12.50% -	Black
12.50% -	Smoky Black

Jayne isn't far behind, she should foal within a week to ten days after Belle. 

Sophie came into heat this last week too, so we were busy trying to get her bred to Beamer. 

Beamer had a hard time covering her; she was pretty reactive and worried about his yelling and climbing on her, which leads me to believe that last year when she was pasture bred that's why the stallion couldn't get her covered. Ted was helping with her and he could barely hold her still. It took two days of failed attempts and finally on the last day of her heat, Beamer managed to get it done. 

I will check her back in 3 weeks but I'm really hoping we don't have to go through all that again! 

Having a bite of dandelion salad after the successful breeding. 

The farm is now listed for sale, and we have a showing on Monday, so I have been packing and cleaning . We still don't have a place nailed down to move to, but we have a contingency plan in place to put stuff in storage and stay in a holiday trailer at Shayla's until we find a rental. 

We had a garage sale last Saturday, very successful, and have enough stuff to do another one before we move. 

My Suzanna Magnolia is in full bloom, wish I could take it with me but probably won't survive the Alberta winters. 

Sideways

 A couple of sessions after Shayla headed home, I discovered a new issue- this one is understandable, but it's something I need to work on for the sake of staying safe.

First off, I grabbed the wrong bridle, no big deal but it was pretty obvious Sophie wasn't as happy with it as with the Billy Allen mouthpiece. 

She did get to the point where she was giving to the bit both sides, so I decided to step on her and see how she was with going forward and giving to my hands. I'm having trouble with my left hip, so I wanted to climb on the round pen rails and have her sidle up and stand quietly for me to slide on; not having a stick to tap her hip over meant she would not come in parallel, she wanted to just face me at a 45 degree angle, so I had to climb down and position her from the ground. Note to self- bring the flag next time. 

Once on, she was pretty good at being soft in the face, all that bitting up is paying off. No bumping the bit or rooting her nose out. There was one point where she wanted to stop her feet like she used to do , but this time she listened to my legs bumping and kept going. 

However....

I stepped off and darned if the saddle didn't slide sideways quite a bit as I swung off. (Yes I did tighten the cinch before I got on her.)Well, her eyes got as big as saucers when she spotted that saddle hanging off her side! And she started to jump forward and buck. I had both reins in my hand so was able to control her forward movement and kept pulling her around to the side and hollering whoa at her, about 6 jumps later she stood and let me undo the cinches and straighten up the saddle. Then  I longed her off the bridle reins to make sure she was all done bucking- she was. So my thinking was she needs to get used to things going awry without panicking, so I deliberately recreated the saddle off to the side and asked her to step out. 

She trusted me although she was clearly still worried. I made sure to stop before the saddle slid all the way under her! To work on this issue I need to come up with some things I can hang off the side of the saddle (other than my body!) I may ask my friend who packs horses to come give me a hand and we can try pack boxes on her. 

So that's pretty much the rest of the story. Lots of things to work on with miss Sophie before I will be able to have a connected and conscious ride (on both our part) and feel safe on her. 

Peeling back the layers- Day 3

 Day 3 got pretty interesting right from the start. 

Sophie was easy to catch, and I tied her to the trailer as I usually do to groom and saddle her. There was quite a bit of commotion going on with dogs playing, and people visiting. When grooming she wasn't too tight but when I went to throw my heaviest saddle up on her, she pulled back hard and sent the saddle flying and although she didn't knock me over I did have to  turn my back and get the heck out of the way.  And of course she stretched out the halter which I didn't have done as snug as I could have. Shayla fetched another halter  and took over working with her then and there,  sacking her out with the lead rope and not letting up until Sophie's mind came back from outer space.

The original plan was for me to ride her on this lesson. However, discretion is the better part of valour! So Sophie got a lot of sacking out. One of the things Shayla did was slapping the saddle (not the horse!) with the lead rope without asking Sophie to move. Sophie of course moved a lot, still being in that tight frame of mind and body. With persistence she finally got it. 

Still flinchy and tight but understood what was being asked. 

Because of her setting back and pulling when tied, she needed to work on giving to the lead rope both in backing and coming forward. She was likely a little sore behind the ears from the episode at the trailer, she does have some hair missing there. Sophie is a very powerful horse, and having a rope halter and a tied on leadrope is one of my tools I use on every horse to ensure they can't break. 

There's no more pussy footing around with this horse. She is going to have to figure out that her life of calling the shots is over. Once she had a pretty good (but not perfect yet) give when asked she got bitted around, and we ended the session with sacking her out with a slicker. 

She didn't move her feet. Good girl Sophie

I gave her a day off after that and let her soak. The next day when I saddled her I didn't tie her solid to the trailer (just in case) and worked on getting her body soft just cupping my hand and patting her all over; she wasn't flinchy and tight so I moved on to saddling, no problems. 

In the round pen she followed the feel on the lead rope easily, and was soft  when bitted up.  I worked on moving her hip over and moving her shoulder over, all from the ground using something I learned in a Buck Brannaman clinic; keeping it flowing like a dance; move the hip over, change direction by yielding the shoulder do a circle or two, repeat. Then I asked her to move forward in a half pass (still from the ground) and while she was good when I worked her from the right, she was reluctant from the left side to move her shoulder over and cross her left foot in front of her right foot; she did eventualy get it though. 

I think the day off helped. However, the next day I found another hole in her training... stay tuned for the rest of the story. 

Peeling back the layers- Day 2

 Day 2 we switched saddles to my little saddle as it's the only one I have that the stirrups will fit Shayla- the other 2 saddles it's very difficult to shorten the stirrups much.

Everything was a review of the first lesson, with Sophie showing some improvement on not changing directions unless asked, and a better back up. 

She was also softer with her whoa and face up.

However, once Shayla rode her she showed just how much work she needs to get soft in the face; she really isn't giving to the bit at all. Riding her with a loose rein and using a neckrein and leg works, but if something happened (think bear , bicycle, dirt bike, deer etc. etc. ) you really wouldn't be able to give her support and direction . You wouldn't be able to keep her focused on her rider and she would feel that she is left to her own devices (bolt, rear, whatever) whereas if you can connect with her through the reins you can steady her and keep her mind from leaving. So this is a very important part of her ongoing training. 

So my program definitely will have to be consistent in getting her to figure out how to find the softness, whether it's bitting her up on the ground, or to my hands when riding. 

The other thing we figured, is that so far I have been "sneaking" rides on her. Which basically means that I have just been riding without pressuring her to do anything out of her comfort zone, just getting along with her and she calls the shots. I do know better! But riding by myself on a horse I don't really know was testing the limits of my old lady bravery. So it was awesome to have Shayla work her, because now we know the limits and boundaries Sophie has set and have a plan on how to get her past them.

Sunday Silence

 

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. 

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. 

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.