At last!

 I am finally over the pneumonia and we finally got a warm day! So of course, this happened. 

Never mind giving me the stink eye!

 She must have thought she was retired from riding because she was Not Impressed when she saw the saddle. A lot of evasion techniques were employed. (Hence the churned up snow.) And yes I have had chiro work done on her to rule out physical issues and this saddle does fit her well- except that she is a bit too rotund to do up the back cinch, so I had to remove it. I think I will try for longer back billet straps as being a cheaper option than buying a longer back cinch.

I let her stand tied until she stopped fidgeting, then off we went on a pasture ride to check the fences. 

She was her usual steady self, with a few backwards glances to make sure that she knew where Velvet  was. 

Everybody exhale and say Ahhhh!

It felt soooo good to be back in the saddle again! 

On this ride I used my bosal. She did alright in it but it isn't a good fit. I may look for another one that is a bit lighter. 

The (large) girls

 I saddled up Ruby. Well.... first she had to let me know she Wasn't Best Pleased about being haltered. She has Opinions about being caught, I have to convince her by walking and blocking with her. But I always let her know I'm pleased once she's haltered! Silly mare. 

The new stirrups didn't add any weight to the saddle, in fact they may be lighter than the leather wrapped ones it came with. That was the only thing I was concerned about, so bonus!

Ruby has definitely gotten... rotund, shall we say?

That back cinch is on the last hole, both sides and it's pretty snug! I always ride with the back cinch laying on the belly, so I reckon in another month I won't be saddling her, so I hope to get in a few rides this month while the weather holds, even if they are only round pen rides.  I didn't really ride this time, just had Ted longe me on her so I could get the feel for the stirrups. Her back has gotten really round too, so the saddle is wanting to roll a bit. I also had to go with a longer cinch. 

Baby belly bump! Due in 4 and a half months

I took her for a stroll up to the mail box and back through the hay field, we both enjoyed the walk. She strides right out beside me on a loose lead, not perfectly but pretty good. A couple times I had to ask her to move over and not crowd me. Although I wasn't riding, everything I do with her is a learning curve for both of us. I see that she is willing and not reactive, and she sees that I am paying attention to her and keeping her safe - and letting her have a bite of one of the bales that are still on the field! Partnership isn't always achieved only in the saddle. 

I will trim the excess strap from the bosal hanger, and add a throatlatch rope. 

Ruby isn't the only one getting large- check out Velvet's baby belly!

She looks huge already but remember she is only 14 hands. She is due in 4 months! For an older mare, she is holding her weight really well through this pregnancy, and I see no reason that she won't have a lovely healthy foal at the age of almost 24. (Which she will be on May 16 next year.) Here is what she looked like as a baby.

If her foal looks anything like that I will be over the moon!

Stirrups

Who would think that something so simple as stirrups can have so much ellect on the way we ride and the horse's comfort and correctness. Give this video a watch:

Side note: I was taught that "heels down" didn't mean actually shoving your heels down but rather lengthening your leg by pushing down from the thigh, which has the same effect as recommended in this video.

After watching it, I googled angled stirrups and there are a lot of them out there. Here is a link to a blog post about checking the level of your foot: https://murdochmethod.com/level-your-stirrups-for-a-solid-foundation/

So my question to you is, do you ride with the angled stirrups and has it improved your equitation and your horse's performance? I an going to try shimming my stirrups to see how it works for me before I go and buy a pair. Also, if you do ride them, what brand do you use and is one brand better than another? Here is what I found on google images, the variety is overwhelming!

Trying out bitless

This is a bitless bridle I tried out on Delia yesterday, I borrowed it from Janice to see if it would work for us. I believe it's a Dr. Cook style. 

I'm not sure of the function of that curb strap, it didn't seem to do anything other than keep the noseband in place. A pull with the rein will put pressure on the poll and the opposite side of the face.
So I climbed aboard..... and Delia promptly dropped her head to graze... "Oh look, I have nothing on my head, I can eat!" It took a bit to pull her head up and I promptly put her through turns, stops and backing, but after 2 minutes I got off- I don't like that there is very little release after you pull the rein. It seems that it is hard to be light with your hands with this rig.

Meanwhile, I decided to try shaping my bosal to fit better.

I researched on line on how to do it and all the sources pretty much said the same thing. I will take the ropes off tomorrow and see how it fits the mare. This bosal is pretty special to me, it was made by Master Rawhider Al Grandchamp from Montana when he was 93 years old, and given to me.
I also might have a side pull tomorrow to try out.
So since riding was out of the question, I worked Delia on the long line... and got a bit of attitude! She was quite sure she shouldn't have to work, and tried popping a crow hop when I asked for a lope, also tried to blow out of the circle- she did this both ways, silly girl! I think she was feeling pretty good! But she did quickly stop the nonsense and get back to work.

Poor pitiful horse, she had to work and get sweated up! After I untacked I let her have 5 minutes of grazing....

which, of course, is her preferred activity.... sorry, Delia, you life of leisure is coming to an end, you are going to have to work for a living now! Considering that she didn't have to do anything the first 9 years of her life except raise 2 foals, she is not  doing too bad. A little lazy, but I think if I find an activity that she really likes, we are going to have a lot of fun.
She made sure to find the muddiest spot she could to roll after I put her back in her pen!

Isn't that going to be fun to brush off!

New halter design

I decided to change the placement of the knots on my halters. I didn't like the way the cheek rope would slide up by the eyes when turning the horse, so I made some modifications in the measurements. I'll have Beamer model his new halter for you.

Beamer? *Ahem, Beamer* time to come out of your snug house and pose for us.

Yes, Beamer, you look awesome in blue.

Yes, there is still room for those trademark Beamer yawns!

Oh allright, you can go back to sleep now!

Here are the changes I made: Dropped the noseband knots- the old design had them 9 or 10 inches apart, I now do 12 - 14 inches, depending on the horse. I want the knots to sit below the top of the cheekbone, in the hollow of the jowls. Of course, to compensate I also shortened the measurement to the fiador knot, it's 7 inches here but I think I could go 6. The distance from the throatlatch knot under the jaw to the  cheek knots is shorter too, to keep those cheek side pieces from sliding up towards the eye.

Here is a comparison photo of my old design,  I actually could have had this halter done up tighter as the jaw knot is too far forward. 

Little differences, but they make the halter work much better. 

Sunday Stills

With today's challenge being the color brown, I didn't have to look any farther than my tack room.

But.... of course, I did.....

Sunday Stills

It's all about texture:

The varied texture of these cedar logs from the smooth shell to the rough  and rotted core;

the variety of textures in my scarf collection;

Merle's soft fluffy fur and the roughness of the hay;

and the smoothness of the horn wrap against the engraving and the rawhide binding of the horn cap on Chickory's saddle.

Making a halter for Rio

Rio has outgrown his baby halter- at 7 months old he is as big as some yearlings. I bought 50 feet of rope a while ago, enough to make a couple of halters- cost, $10.
Here's a step by step on how it looked to make it. I start with about 21 feet of rope. The first two knots are the noseband knots, with the left one 82" from the end, and the next one about 10 inches away.

(Sorry about  the fuzzy photo!) I'm using a simple overhand half-knot. The tape marks where the next knot, the Fiador, will end up.

Making the Fiador- start with the right hand length (the long side)

The Fiador before tightening it:

And tightened, it becomes the knot below the chin that the lead line gets attached to:

Remove the tape, and using the long  (right side) end make a knot 6 " away (5 " for a yearling) - the jaw knot. The next knot is 9 inches away (7 for a yearling) and becomes the knot and loop for fastening the halter when it's all done.

When you tighten this knot, leave about a two inch loop for doing up the halter.  Take the rope and run it 9 inches (7 for a yearling) to the noseband knots, making another half knot inside the existing half knot, which now becomes a double overhand knot. Here's how you make a double overhand knot:

The first overhand half knot

Making the second overhand half knot inside the first one so that it becomes a double overhand knot and looks like this when tightened:

Then do the next noseband knot, making sure there are no twists in the rope. The next knot is for the offside and is the last knot using this part of the rope- it should be 9" away (7 for a yearling).

 The remainder of that piece should be plenty long enough for tying the halter. Next, take the original short end that comes out of the Fiador knot, and make a knot inside the jaw knot. Then run it up to the last knot you made in the other rope -9' for a horse, 7' for a yearling:

Tie your last double overhand knot there, and even up the remaining lengths. Before you really tighten down all the knots, it's a good idea to try it on the horse first in case you want to adjust the length in between knots, as every horse is different. 

You can finish the ends in a number of ways- copper tube, shrink tube, splicing. or what I used is some industrial grade reflective safety tape. 

The best part is trying it on Rio and it fits!

I made one for Chickory too, and have enough left over to make puppy chew toys for Merle.

She really needs a new lead rope.

Wordless Wednesday

A Visit to the Saddle Shop

I can't ride bareback forever, so since Ted's services were in demand at Brian's Saddle Shop to build a roof for the deck on their guest cabin, we loaded up Beamer and went for a saddle fitting as well. If you are ever in the area, which is on Highway 3 a couple of miles before Jaffray B.C. make sure you stop in for a visit. Just look for this sign:

I tried out a number of different trees trying to find the best fit. I really recommend taking your horse to a saddlemaker if you want the best fit for you and your horse. As you'll see in the following photos, there was something with each one of these trees that didn't quite fit my boy.

This one was tight at the top of the bar.

This one fit everywhere except the gullet, it was too low. Without the pad the gullet touched his withers.

This one has good gullet height, but the front of the bars was entirely the wrong angle.

This one was also too low in the gullet and too tight in the bars.

We finally settled on this Wade tree as being the best fit. I didn't get a photo of it sitting on the saddle pad, but it gave it just enough lift so that those bars were at the same angle as Beamer's shoulders. The bars lay evenly along his back, and the flare on the bars will give him freedom of movement in the shoulders. We talked about design; I want the Association basket stamp and pitchfork border on the skirts and jockey, and corner tooling on the fenders with our brand. I'll have to go back and get the ground seat built to fit, then the leatherwork can start. I'd like to help as much as possible, but it's a two hour drive, so we'll see how much I can do.

We kept Beamer in a pen across from a mare, of course he had to check her out thoroughly, but these are nice stout corrals that are designed for rodeo stock and bulls, so all he could do was talk and sniff.

How'd you like to have this rodeo arena in your back yard?

When we went in for supper, there was a little visitor demanding his supper too.

He even liked his belly tickled.

I took these shots from only about a foot away, he isn't camera shy!

Meanwhile, Ted's project was coming along nicely.

This is a really neat little cabin, it's where we stay when we're there.

That's Beamer in the pen below.

I left him there to finish the job and hauled home, where something else was awaiting us, but that's tomorrow's story.