The barn project

I have to give a big thank-you to Rick and Wendy and my hard working husband for taking on this project, which is going to make life easier for me this winter.

First there was an idea. Then there was a plan. And then the work began! When these old power poles were first put in their holes they looked like a drunken Stonehenge:

With a whole lot of effort, the poles were straightened and tamped:

Then the plans for the shelter to be added on the end started....

*Ahem** the end of the barn, that is! It took shape quickly, and will be a nice run-in shelter for the herd this winter.Of course, every project needs an overseer- Marble had to see if the tin was going on just right!


The supports were placed for the tin on the front- this was all done with 2X6 rough cut lumber from a local sawmill.

The tin was put on, everything got a fresh coat of paint, the doors were rebuilt, et voila! a very nice project, finis!
(Sorry, the Canadian in me comes out sometimes!)

And just in time for winter! And isn't that a great hitching rail!
I now have a nice sheltered area in front of the stalls so I don't have to shovel snow away from the doors, and an awesome series of lights for each stall, the walkway, and the front that overlooks Beamer's winter pen, where the weanlings are right now. As you can see in the background, I have my round bales ready for winter feeding, just have to put the panels up around them to keep the horses and deer out of them.

Getting it figured

I am so pleased with Chickory! The last few days, she has really come around. I still have to send her into the "trap" to get the halter on her, and it is quite funny to see her try to evade by sticking her head through the panels, but she does let me halter her, brush her, and doctor her leg. The strange thing is that she doesn't mind being handled; no fight in her, and even in the close quarters of the little pen, she has never once offered to kick. Not a mean bone in her body. Yesterday I worked on getting her to accept me on her right side; I leaned over her when brushing so that she could see me in her right eye, then when I was brushing her face, I slowly worked my way over til I was standing just to her right. I could see her thinking, trying to decide if this was acceptable; apparently it was, because she didn't turn like she normally did. So I left it at that, then moved on to the next challenge: leading! I opened up the panels and asked her to follow me up to her shelter. It took a little bit, and a number of sideways tugs, but we did get there and she got her reward of oats in the bucket that hangs there. So today, I will work on getting her to let me halter her without her sticking her head through the panels, and another leading lesson.
Meanwhile, Peppy is quite bored with all this, as I take him out of the pen and tie him up with his grain bucket. I make sure to give him some attention too- he gets brushed and loved up on. I need to find some new challenges for him. Maybe I'll make a bridge or step to work on his loading skills.
The addition on the barn is finished now, so I'll get one more picture then post a start-to-finish for you. It looks great!

90 years since the end of WW1

Almost there!

In two days, Chickory has come a long way. I went from taking over an hour to get the halter on to only about ten minutes. Now she stands there and turns her nose as far away as she can without moving her feet- it's really quite comical, sort of her last bastion- but eventually lets me halter her. Which is a good thing, because yesterday she sprained her ankle in her efforts at resistance.

Surprisingly enough, she is very good about letting me doctor her. I put her in the little pen, and could likely wrap her without the halter on, but to keep the program on track, I halter her first. I can touch her all over, except the front legs, but she really doesn't want me on her right side yet. Check out how dark Peppy is now! He is doing really well, and growing like a weed. He's about three inches taller than Chickory. This picture was taken just before dark. Work sometimes interfers with the time I want to spend with my horses! Oh well, gotta pay for the hay! The days are really getting dark early. On my non working days, I spend all my spare time with my little critters, trying to get as much done as I can before the snow comes and winter hits with a vengance.

Sunday Silence

If at first you don't suceed.....

Imagine that.

I got it done too. It took me longer than it took Ted. But I got the halter on Chickory.

And she isn't snarling!

Back for my 200th post

I have been working some long hours this week, so haven't had time to keep up with all my blogger friends. We had a long day at the cattle auction, the highlight of which was a group of these extra big, extra wild Charolais steers and bulls. One of them stood in his pen in the alley before he was sold, following every move of the young fellow who was loading cattle into the sales ring, swinging his head from side to side, and charging at him time and again. Creepy! In this picture a pair of them are coming out of the sales ring; one of our brave girls is at the door ready to close it and me, I'm up on the fence -I didn't know if they were going to try to leap the fence or not- then I had to scramble down and close the gate that you can see in the foreground. We made sure the alleys were clear, then sent them down to their pens ; they went full tilt, with the pen rider hard on their tails and got them penned without incident. The one that was hunting the young fellow got sent straight from the sales ring (where he tried to climb in with the auctioneer) to a pen; we didn't try to contain him, just sent him straight down to a good strong bull pen. At the end of the day, the last 4 or 5 were some of these, so we ended the day on an adrenalin rush too! I love my job.... really I do. I'd rather do this job than my other job, cooking in a restaurant.
All the horses except Chickory got their feet trimmed yesterday. I won't have time to work with her today, but tomorrow she will get some attention. I really need to get her halter broke before the snow hits so that I can turn her and Peppy out with the other two into the winter feeding paddock and put Beamer in the pen they are in, as it is his winter pen.

Ted gets it done!

This is very much like the post Mikey did at Horseshoeing Housewife; for her, Wade got it done- for me, Ted got it done. He was watching as I worked Chickory, and we hit the usual [Wall] where she allows me an inch of progress and no more. Husband says "you want the halter on that horse?" "Sure!" says I. So I got my lariat out, slipped it on her neck, while he worked with the halter to get it on her; she did try her usual rapid flight take-off that would put the Snowbird airplanes to shame, but he persisted, and in a few minutes, the halter was on, and he handed me the leadrope. Did I tell you my husband is very intuitive when it comes to animals? Check out the look on Chickory's face:I swear she was snarling! I worked her in a circle both ways til she relaxed a little, then let her go. She did try to get away from me after she was haltered, but it's a whole different game once you can control the nose. Ted says we'll halter her every time now. I think it is no longer a fear issue with her; she has had plenty of time to get used to us. She has some sort of barrier to being handled unlike any horse I have ever known. But I intend to go on loving up on her until she figures out that I am her human -the feeder, the protector, the leader, the partner. She'll get it someday; and I have time-and my husband- on my side!

Sunday Silence - 10 years ago

Chickory, continued

Today I spent a lot of time with Chickory, as I have to work the next 5 days so won't have a lot of time to spend on her. This morning she came up to me and sniffed me, which she hasn't done before. I got her in the little pen and she let me touch her- just barely- and it's like she has a wall that she won't let me past. So I got the rope around her neck again, and worked with her til I could get both my hands on her, for the first time; one over her heart and the other on her withers. (Thanks, Twila). We ended the session there, without the rope, and getting her to circle me so that she was looking at me out of the right eye.(Thanks again, Twila.) So every session, we are making progress, but she is only allowing me one small step at a time. Which is fine with me, because I want to give this filly a forever home, and I need to gain her absolute trust. She behaves like a wild mustang, so I can really appreciate all the work that people like Tracey at Mustang Diaries goes through with all the horses she works with. My hat's off to them!This is the look she gave me after we finished and I was sitting quietly in the pen with her.

Updates on Gussie and Chickory

Although this is Hallowe'en night, this isn't a post about things that go bump in the night. Here is an update on Gussie-now known as Sunday- Pat called to tell me that they did an ultrasound, and Gussie/Sunday is definitely pregnant. Also, they got her teeth floated-note to self- call the horse dentist! Looks like I will be buying the foal back off them as they really don't want to raise a foal. That is just fine with me; if it's anything like Peppy, it will be a terrific baby.

When it comes to Chickory, I thought I needed all the insight I could get, so I contacted Twila Hayes at Awakening Spirit . She helped me to see things from Chickory's point of view, and gave me some things to do that will soften up my approach to this wonderful little filly. I won't go into details here, but I will journal the results here. I believe God puts challenges in our paths for good reason, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this one plays out. The end result that I am looking for is a willing partnership. Sometimes we have to step away from our usual way of doing things, take a good look at ourselves, and not be afraid to trust, to change, and to think outside the box. After all, that is exactly what I am asking Chickory to do.

Work and play

We had over 1600 head go through the cattle sale yesterday, and worked until after dark. I had my camera with me and caught the sunset sky,and Kelly, one of the pen riders. We have two pen riders who push the cattle down the alleys for us to pen. They bring a total of 5 horses, and are in the saddle all day-often 9 or more hours. We do bulls first, so they use their best horses in the morning, then change out around lunchtime and ride their younger horses. They do a great job. Today, I'm working at the monthly horse sale, which starts at 6 PM, so I bet I don't get home til after midnight!

I had a good session with Peppy today. I introduced him to the idea of walking over the feed bag:

which he thought was a better idea than having it rubbed all over his body! He is getting very tall now, and getting a little pushy at feeding time, so he is getting his manners tuned up too.
When I worked with Chickory, she let me touch her at first, then regressed into being flighty, so out came the stick to rub her with, and the rope around her neck, asking her to give to pressure-which is coming along nicely until she decides to take flight! But we ended up on a good note with her letting me rub her neck, poll, cheeks, and under her jaw. She still hasn't got that soft look, though; I'm thinking that will take a while.

At Last!

It seems that Chickory has finally figured out that I'm not a horse eating monster! When I worked her on Saturday I quit the lesson when she let me rub her on the back. Today, it only took a minute to get the rope around her neck, and she worked much quieter- more walking and less loping around the pen. After a few minutes I was able to touch her again, and walk around the pen with her with my hand on her back. She also gave me nice soft steps to the side in response to me holding a slight pressure on the rope. Woo-hoo! She was much more relaxed today. So I let her go, and left the pen with her eating her grain. About 5 minutes later, I went back in the pen; no rope or anything, and she let me rub her back again. After that, I put Peppy back in with her, and reached over him and petted her on the face-first time she let me do that!You can see where she scuffed her face turning into the fence instead of towards me-she doesn't do that much any more.

I'm just so happy with the progress she's made! Taking my time is paying off, and I think that having Peppy in with her is really a calming influence. Maybe our next session I will actually get the halter on her- It'll have to be Wednesday as I have to go run with the bulls tomorrow.(My way of saying work the cattle sale). Penning the bulls can get downright dangerous.

I also started sacking out Peppy today with a feed sack using approach and retreat tactics. He did well; I'm going to have to find a bunch of different things to use for sacking out, and get him walking over and under a tarp. We're thinking about maybe keeping him and making him Ted's riding horse, which means he would be going in parades as my husband is in the North West Mounted Police Commemorative Association- they do lots of parades and historical re-enactments. And since he's going to be a gelding he'll always be available; no time out for raising babies like the mares! We'll see how it goes- someone will probably want to buy him just when he's getting where we want him! So it goes...

Sunday Silence

Sassy and Chickory

Things are just ticking along here; I worked with Sassy again today, just tied her to the hitching rail and threw the saddle on her just like an old broke horse, then longed her and ground drove her in the bosal. She is super easy to work with; she even loped saddled today with no fuss. There's no buck in this girl. If she was a little older, she could be ridden. Can't wait! but I must! I have a young friend who weighs about as much as a feather, and I'm going to ask her if she'll do the first rides on Sassy in the early spring. That is, if I don't get her sold first. This would be one super 4H horse.

Chickory got lesson number three today in the mini round pen. I've been touching the stick to her back as she goes around, the pen is small enough that I can keep it on her all the way around; I'm trying to desensitize her to being touched. I've also been tossing the halter and leadrope over her, and today I fished it around her neck like I did with Andee. I know. I could use my lariat, but this is softer and easier to release.

We ended the lesson when she gave me one step when I pulled on the rope. This sure is an athletic filly; she did a sideways leap yesterday that covered 10 feet. She is destined to be a cutter, I'm thinking. Must be that Docs Hickory blood. After she cooled out for a bit, I took the grain pail in and got her eating out of it when I was holding it, and even let me touch her face a little with the back of my hand. I tell you, I've never had a horse like this one that is so wary of people. You'd think she was a wildy! But I can see her mind a-working , and today there was a lot of lip licking, chewing, and lowered head- in between bouts of the quickest turns and jumps! But she gave in a lot quicker today, as she figured out that all I wanted from her was to stop her feet and stand, look at me, and let me rub her with the stick. We're getting there!

Back to working Sassy

I have heard back from the new owners of Gussie and Andee; they are both happy with their new girls. Gussie is sporting a new name, they are calling her Sunday-lovely name! Well, on to my next project; Sassy went back to school today. I longed her in the bosal, then looped the mecate line around to serve as a set of driving lines and did a little ground driving, which went well once she figured out it was ok to have me behind her instead of in the center of the circle. I got my saddle out and longed her in her halter. She accepts the saddle without any fuss; I think this filly is going to be almost too easy to work with!Once I get my horse dentist up here, I'll get her teeth floated and wolf teeth pulled, then I'll introduce her to the snaffle bit. This filly comes from Bar Diamond Y Quarter Horses, (see their link on my Sale Barn) and they are all proving to have this wonderful trainable mind. My friend John is 75 years old, and he is starting them himself. Good for him!

...And Andee's new home

Well it has been quite a weekend! As I was sitting on Gussie, waiting to go into the sale ring, I got a call on Andee, (love those cell phones!) and ended up selling her to a fellow blogger; Sherry at Fern Valley Appaloosas! So I hauled Andee to Sherry's place today, where she will be living with her new buddy, a beautiful little Appaloosa filly called Catch a Dream. I asked if Andee fans could see her progress on Sherry's blog, and she said she'd try to post as much as she has time for. So I am putting a link to her blog in my Horse Blogs! Thanks, Sherry, and I hope you enjoy this beautiful filly.

Gussie's new home

We're back from the sale, and I did sell Gussie. There were well over 200 horses in the sale, and I'm happy to say that there was good interest in my pretty mare, and that she sold to a very good home.

I delivered her for her new owners, who live in the foothills of the Rockies and ride the wilderness trails. They have a very nice place and 4 other horses to keep her company; I couldn't have asked for a better home for her. Pat, I hope you enjoy her as much as I did!

The horse market is a little sad right now- the only horses that did well at the sale were the broke horses. Seems no one wants to speculate on a youngster, the only folks buying right now are those who want a horse they can get on and go. So I am cutting back on my breeding program, and will not stand my stallion to the public next year. I will breed my one mare, and have a breed-back to do, but that will be all. So my next project will be to get Sassy broke. I'll get back to work on her ground work, and start riding her next spring.

Sunday Silence

Road trip

Today after work I am loading up and heading for Olds and the horse sale; Ted is staying home to do chores and keep the dogs out of mischief. It always seems strange to me to go somewhere without my dogs, but they do not belong at horse sales. This looks like a good sale, hope the buyers show up!

Earning Trust

Sale day for Gussie is almost here, and I am really happy with the way she is riding. Here is a link to the website for the sale she is entered in: Western Breeders Horse Sale. She is lot 149, and will be the twentieth horse through the sale ring on Sunday.
I made some progress with Chickory yesterday! Andee is getting quite trusting, and both duns really love their grain, so I held their grain bucket instead of tying it to the fence. Andee came right up and started eating and let me scratch her forehead. Chickory, after some hesitation, came in and nipped Andee to get her out of the way, and snatched a mouthful. After realising that I wasn't a horse-eating monster, she came back for more and even touched her nose to my hand! I think taking my time with her is going to pay off in earning her trust.
We had an electrical short in the auto-waterer recently which resulted in the mares getting a shock when they went to drink. We got it fixed right away, and with a small amount of coaxing got them to drink again. Except Coyote Belle. She was sure that waterer was an evil monster just waiting to zap her lips. After a couple of days, she still wasn't drinking, even with leading her right up to it and scooping it to her, so I resorted to grain. I put it in my hand and made her reach down to the level of the water bowl to eat it and progressed to putting the grain on the edge of the water bowl. The first day, she ate a little from there, but wouldn't drink. I watched her the next morning, and she would come up and look at it, but wouldn't drink. So I did the grain thing again, and this time put water in my hand with the grain and then put my hand right down into the water and got her to eat the grain there. Finally, she took a drink! At last! Good thing, because I couldn't think of anything else to try.

Canadian Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! There are so many things to be thankful for, and I know it is difficult for many of us right now to focus on the good things in our lives when it seems that our world is falling apart. It's a proven fact that gratitude is good for you both physically and spiritually and so today I am going to count my blessings:

-My husband, Ted, a kind and generous man, the best friend I have ever had;
-My friends, who keep in touch with me wherever life and my husband lead me;

-My daughter;

-This beautiful country that I live in, even with all her faults;
-That I have a roof over my head; enough food to eat, unlike many who have to live on the streets;
-That I am able to work, and have a job (or two or three...)
-That I have a church to go to and don't have to worry about my life being threatened for my beliefs;
-That I am still in relatively good health:

-That I can think of so many more blessings that they are too numerous to list here, but I'd like to mention that I am thankful for the internet which has allowed me to be in touch with people from all over the world, even if we may never meet;

-And then there are these blessings, who bring joy to my life:

My boy

My girls

Little boy blue

The most pathetic dogs in the world

My furry feline friends

And I'm really thankful that we did not get the snow that my friends in Saskatchewan got yesterday!!! Thanks for the photos, Carol!

Sunday Silence

Frosty Mornings and Fall Sales

The last few mornings there has been hard frost on my windshield; all my outdoor planters are done for, its time to mulch the leaves, pull up the annuals and add some more soil in the flowerbed. I guess my chore list has to include washing the windows (ugh!). Sure wish we had a wood stove in this house; that's the kind of heat that I love the most-warms you to the bones!

Andee is coming along really well. For the past two days, I just sling my lariat over her, then halter her and she leads nicely now. Today I caught her in the bigger pen, so I won't have to use the mini round pen for her any more. I'm working on her letting me pick up her feet; so far we have the left front only, and I can get halfway on her right front. Every day we advance, so it's all good.

The horse sale is next weekend, so I have Gussie in and blanketed, and I've been riding her lots. Today I roped a cable spool and drug it around a little. I think this mare is going to make someone an awesome ranch horse. She'll be good for dragging calves to the branding fire, maybe do a little ranch roping, and she'll be nice and smooth for those long rides gathering cows. I got to thinking about how much riding time I actually have on her- it works out to about 4 months riding over the course of three years, so it's not a lot. I think she is doing really well. She sidepasses, two-tracks, has the start of a nice turn-around and a super stop and back up. We've been loping circles the last couple of rides. I'd say she is pretty much ready to go on and do a job for someone.

Life goes on.....

The cool weather set in yesterday, with the wind blowing all the leaves off the trees. I spent the day working at the auction market, penning the critters such as this one:

We only had about 800 head go through, so we got off early and I worked with Andee, who is coming along nicely. She is much easier to halter- don't have to use the stick now and she is trusting me enough that I can pet her after I turn her loose. Also I have someone interested in her, so all my work on her will pay off and I can halter and lead her for them when they come up to see her. She really is a nice girl at heart, and kinda pretty too!

All my weanlings have a good winter coat coming in. I plan on riding Beamer a lot this winter so I decided to start blanketing him, and put his blanket on him this afternoon. I'll take it off during the days if it warms up.

I entered Gussie in the Western Breeders Sale in Olds, Alberta, the 18 and 19 of this month, so I've been riding her lots in preparation for it. I thought the wind would make her silly riding today, but she was really good. I plan on putting a reserve on her, so if the bidding doesn't go high enough, I'll be bringing her home -which won't break my heart! It'll be a good venue to get her out in public and maybe eventually get her a good home. Then my next project will be Sassy, the palomino filly. I need to do more ground work on her; longeing saddled up, ground driving, more in-hand trail, etc. By next May she should be the kind that you can just step on her and she'll be nice and easy to get going under saddle.

Chickory

This little darlin' is my dun granddaughter of Docs Hickory. I haven't started working with her yet because I have been concentrating on gentling Andee, who is for sale. She is still very stand-offish, and about jumps out of her skin if I get too close to her. I am a little reluctant to work her in the small pen that I am using for Andee, because I think it will make her panic to be that confined. She is starting to associate me with feeding time, but still won't let me close to her. Andee walked up to me tonight and took some grain from my hand, so I really did make good progress with her today. So I am going to have to do some figuring as to how to get to Chickory.

She does look wary, doesn't she!

Turnout and training

A couple of days ago I moved Gussie back in with the mares and moved Peppy in with the new fillies. He is across the fence from her, but can't try to nurse, and the top rail and the third rail have an electric line on them on his side.

She had to check out all the new smells;

And then all three mares took off through the trees. This picture is funny because Coyote Belle is ahead of Gussie but all you can see of her is her baby belly sticking out on either side of the tree!

I am having a good time working with Andee. I have been working her in a mini round pen, and on Saturday got the halter on her for the first time. If I had known that all I had to do was get a bucket of grain to encourage her to cooperate, I would have done it long ago! So with the reward of grain she let me touch her face, and with the help of my trusty stick, fish the halter on her. Today when I worked with her, she was much easier to touch and halter although I still had to use the stick to bring the halter up around her face. She also had a lesson in leading,
and I apologize for the poor picture;


(it's hard to use the camera and lead at the same time!)You can see that she is following me nicely on a loose line. After I turned her loose, she let me walk up to her and pet her. So we made good progress today. I think next time I'll be able to halter her without using the stick. If you are curious how I do that, it goes like this: I drape the halter and lead rope on the end of the stick and rub it on the filly. Once she accepts that, I drape it on her so that the halter end is on her off side, and the lead rope on the near side. Then I use the stick to fish the lead rope through the throatlatch area of the halter, and bring the end of the rope where I can reach it, and it works like having a lariat around her neck. Once she is used to that, I slide the noseband on her nose- the first day with the stick, today with my hands. She still won't just let me reach up to do up the halter, so I flip the headcollar piece over her neck with the stick, then rub her neck til I can take the rope and run it through and do it up. The first day I had to do that one-handed; today after a little fussing, I was able to use both hands. So we are continuing to build trust, without having to force this filly into things; the only time I ever had to really get after her was at first when she kept turning her butt to me- she doesn't do that any more! I think she will be a really willing horse once she gets the picture, and having Peppy in with the fillies will be good because of how friendly he is.

Passing on an award

Linda at Just Another Day on the Prairie kindly passed on this award to me. The text is a little strange because of the translation, but the jist is the closeness of the blogging community and supporting each other with recognition. So I'd like to pass it on to Tracey, Aussie Oklahoma, and Canadian Cowgirl.

The text that goes with the award:
“To translate the gift from Portuguese to English, it means:
“This blog invests and believes, the proximity” (meaning, that blogging makes us ‘close’ -being close through proxy)
“They all are charmed with the blogs, where in the majority of its aims are to show the marvels and to do friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize, and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut, or that they propagate? Then let’s try to give more attention to them! So with this prize we must deliver it to bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.”

Sunday Silence

A picture is worth.....

a thousand words!

Bar Diamond Y horses for sale

I have new pictures of my friend John's horses for sale. They are all sired by PC Peppy Pale Rider: PEDIGREE RECORD © 2008, AQHA. All Rights Reserved.

We'll start with Poco, the started two year old. He is going well under saddle, and when I saw him this spring he looked to be about 15.1 hh and growing.

Next is Bardella Bobby Jo, a two year old buckskin mare.
They say about her that she has a smooth trot, carries her head down and is learning her leg and seat cues.

I think she's a gorgeous mare! Not sure how tall she is. I will do another post on the yearlings and weanlings tonight. If you would like to talk to John about these horses, email him at dsorge@gss.org

What's in your truck?

What we carry around with us in our vehicles says a lot about us. Here's what is in my truck:

In the back seat- copies of the registration papers on the horses I have for sale; my straw hat; 2 spare ball caps; 3 reusable shopping bags. On the floor- tissues; a steel bowl for watering the dogs tucked partway under the seat; extra set of spurs, tie down strap; and two hitches- 2" and 2 5/16". Not visible in the pockets is the jar of peanuts (emergency rations!); the mearuring tape, lint roller, two pairs of work gloves, and a shammy.

On my visor is a Cross with the motorists prayer and a holy card; sunglasses with the business card for the vet tucked in behind. Also in the front I keep a power box for plugging in my cell phone, more sunglasses, pens and cd's and tucked into the headliner on each side is a poppy for Remembrance Day (Memorial Day in the US).

And in the back-what else but two border collies! When winter hits, I'll have a few more things, such as a blanket, a shovel, warm gloves; and I'll cover the back seat with an old sheet so that the dogs can ride inside when it gets too cold.

Now I tag KDW at Blackjack Land and Cattle, Mikey at Horseshoeing Housewife Linda at Just Another Day on the Prairie and W.O.W. at A Cowboy's Life to give us some insight on what their vehicle says about them!

Website- science and horses

Here is the link to a cool new website called Horse Science News. It has really interesting articles, such as "At times horses simply can't remember" and "Horses find blue floors scary". Here is an example of one :

Depends On How a Horse Sees It

by Liz Osborn © HorseScienceNews.com
A study has demonstrated for the first time that a horse’s emotional response to an object influences which eye they prefer using to look at it. Whether horses experience something as new, frightening or enjoyable directs a preference to seeing it with the left or the right eye.
The experiment conducted by French researchers at Université de Rennes documented how horses responded when presented with one of three different objects. Each item had a different emotional connotation. The Arabian mares studied were shown a shirt that was considered negative, and a cone that was new to them. A bucket, being associated with food, produced a positive reaction in the horses.
Researchers watched how the mares visually investigated each object, and recorded the number of glances and amount of time the horses spent looking at it with each eye. For horses, each eye sees almost completely separate scenes. Unlike humans with our binocular vision, horse eyesight has just a tiny overlapping field of view.
The data revealed that an item’s emotional charge relates to which side horses favor for examining it. When encountering the shirt, horses had a slight preference for viewing the somewhat scary object with their left eye. The novel cone got investigated more with the right eye than the left. The pleasing bucket produced no side bias in how the horses viewed it.
The preference for looking at something with one particular eye is influenced by how the horse feels about what it’s seeing and which side of the brain primarily processes that emotional response. The brain’s two hemispheres split the work of processing the range of emotions, with each side responsible for certain ones. As well, information from each eye is processed by the opposite brain hemisphere. Thus what’s detected by the right eye goes to the left hemisphere.
This study’s findings reveal that among horses the brain’s left hemisphere plays an important role in dealing with new situations. This same left brain function has been noticed in many other animals. Additionally for horses, the right hemisphere seems significant for assessing negative reactions, while both sides of the brain participate in processing positive experiences.

Australian research

I found a really interesting post on Fran Jurga's Hoofblog about research being done with the wild horses in Australia. It is about a team who is spending time in the outback researching the condition of the feet of these horses, and also says that they have the largest number of feral horses in the world. It's a good read, check it out!