Oh hello spring!

The last couple of days have been just gorgeous and perfect for spending lots of time with the horses!
We made friends with a fellow who moved here to work on a beef ranch, and we all went for a trail ride with him on Ice, Shayla on Rose and me on Gussie. It was the first ride for Ice in the bush, her previous trail rides were on a gravel road with not too many distractions; this was a step up. We all rode down to the river and then back along the dyke and through the bush. Ice, of course was perfect!

He didn't know what to expect when he rode Ice into the river; Gussie and Rose waded right in and Ice just kinda followed. I think he thought she would paw and splash or lay down! He also complimented Shayla on what a good job she did with Ice's training; Ice was a lot more advanced than he thought a horse with only about 20 rides would be.

After a bit he and Shayla switched horses, and she was pretty happy with how Ice handled this new experience. First ride in the water including wading through the swamp.

The next day, we worked Mesa first. Ground driving time! At first she was a bit confused that someone was walking behind her as it is very different from longeing.

I had Shayla come in and walk by her head so that Mesa would follow her; that worked very well and Mesa quickly figured things out.

She is going to be so easy to ride! She also learned to back up with reins instead of just shaking the lead rope. Very nice, Mesa!

We are supposed to be in for a rainy week, but if it isn't too bad we will continue with the ground driving and then get Shayla on her guiding with the reins; I'll have a longe line on her too but we should be able to take that off fairly quickly. 

Next ride it was ponying Drifter! He still needs to learn more manners when it comes to ponying; he tried to rear once and several times he was nippy, but it's all about being vigilant with these young'uns and not letting them complete the undesirable behaviour. Over all it was a fun ride with him! He also got to go in the river for the first time.

Rose did a very good job of keeping him in line! Drifter seemed to really enjoy this new experience.

Later that day we saddled up Gussie and Ice and went back down to the river just for fun and for Ice and Shayla to have another trail ride. 

The water looked really blue in the shade! Made Ice look blue too.

There is not a lot of snow left up in the mountains and the river still is low. It will be interesting to see if it's a drought year or if we get a lot of rain to make up for it..

Riding day 29 & 30

Not so little Drifter

As foal watch continues (344 days today) there are other things going on. Spring is springing- yay!!!- and the grass is growing, so I have the horses fenced out of one of the pens, not that it grows a lot of grass on this rocky ground but I need it to grow as much as possible and not get chewed down. I have to clean out my flower beds so the new growth can thrive, and trim my rose bushes. Spring is such an exciting time!

Shayla continues to work with Drifter almost daily, short sessions to keep him tuned. He got introduced to the tarp the other day. Remember the session we did with the horse blanket?  It paid off with this session.

We started out with me dragging the tarp and Shayla leading him following it. He was trying to eat it, silly boy.

Walking across it and standing on it- check.

 Then we draped it over his back and led him around a little.

He sure isn't a super reactive horse, doesn't get frazzled much as you can see in the next video:

Then we got in full on dress up mode for him!

He's a cool not-so-little dude!

Working them all

Foal watch continues...
Linda and Nat D  feel free to enter another guess as yours are past. Look on my sidebar for a look at the other guesses.

What a wonderful day I had yesterday!
First off, I took a ride on Beamer, just bareback down around the pond to see if there was any water in it (there is!) and to get him out of his pen for a change.

When Shayla got here she worked Drifter while I rode Beamer, then we saddled up the redheads, Gussie and Rose and went meandering through the bush and down to the river.

Pretty sure we both had big smiles going on! The river is starting to rise with the warmer temperatures and sunshine melting the snowpack. We even had a warm breeze for the first time this spring.



After that Shayla rode Ice (both Rose and Ice are back here) and had a really good ride on her, the first time she has ridden her here other than in the pen. Lots of distractions like dogs barking , equipment working, kids playing etc. but she handled it well- one little spook where she grabbed her butt and scooted forward, but got over it very quickly.
Then it was miss Mesa's turn!
Off to the round pen we went, it is the first time she has been worked under saddle for a while, and of course she was a rock star!

Since she was being so good, it was time for her to learn to carry a rider under saddle.

Preparatory step #1 went well!

as did step #2...

and step # 3

Then up and over!

Pretty happy with li'l Mesa.

Riding  day 28

Foal watch

Belle is at 339 days today.

Her udder isn't quite full yet, but her milk veins are large and she could easily fill in a matter of hours.

Tonight I start foal watch. I always start well beforehand so that she gets used to me popping in and out of the trailer and shining the flashlight at her. I have been putting her in the foaling pen in the evening and letting her out with the mares during the day, but starting tomorrow she will be staying in the foaling pen. She seems happy and relaxed in there; she knows the routine. Gussie always keeps an eye on her, hanging out at the fenceline and visiting with her bff.

I strung electric fence all along the top of Drifter's pen as Mesa has been coming up to the fence and bugging  visiting him. They both got a little zap today so hopefully she will back off. And I need Drifter to learn to respect fences. So far he has been really good but a little jolt will make him more respectful. 

His training is coming along really well, here's a little video of the end of a short session on the longe line.

Not all good days are sunny

There was a threat of rain yesterday, in fact it rained most of the night. I was a little reluctant to ride, because, well, maybe I might melt....  but I sucked it up and by golly it didn't rain. It was actually quite a nice day for riding!
We were accompanied by our friend Michelle on the 19 year old mare Kit; you may remember them from my posts at the swimming hole last summer.

Kit and Shayla;s mare Rose

 Same area as our last ride but a different road that took us past a channel of water.

This area, over a hundred years ago, was under water as it is the end of the Kootenay River and the beginning of Kootenay Lake. It is very flat land so I assume it was quite marshy and full of nutrient rich silt that the farmers were coveting as farmland. As system of dykes and channels allowed the drainage and development over the decades to what it is now- a lovely agricultural area where livestock, hay, tree nurseries, and many other crops grow.

(Photo by Shayla)

This view is looking north towards Kootenay Lake. Just before Kootenay Lake is a small lake called Duck Lake, in the summer it is terrible for mosquitoes there so this is a good time to ride there. The road we took skirts Duck Lake, but close to the lake the road is closed to all but foot traffic during the spring thaw. We figured that meant horses too as their hoofprints were rather deep in spots.

Mostly the footing was really good and smooth so it allowed us to do some long trotting. I got Gussie kicked into high gear again- man that is an incredible trot on her! I have said before that Gussie is the smoothest  quarter horse I have ridden - it's true, even at a long trot!

Most of our ride was much more sedate though. There were 2 incidents when birds startled the horses- one where ducks flew up right beside the road where there was a culvert with a pool of open water where the ducks were feeding, and along the channel where we were doing our first long trot; the channel had ice on it until we reached a spot of open water and a pair of swans were startled by us and flew up. The horses put on the brakes! Gussie didn't really spook as she was in the lead and the swans flew up behind her, but she stopped very quickly. Her version of spook is to stop with a brace on her front legs and just stand there and look.

We rode over 8 miles, and by the time we got back to the trailers we had some tired mares!

We have a couple more rides planned for this week, one (or maybe 2!) more in this area and one in the middle of town up the tower road overlooking the Creston valley.

Riding day 27

Another 360 degree vista

For Ice's second trail ride we chose to go down another quiet back road. This one is closer to Kootenay Lake and provided another grand vista of the Creston Valley.

Both mares were a little edgy at first, Gussie was being pushy and rude and Ice was being fidgety and looky. We got that sorted out and off we went.
Ice did her first spook- which was more of a startle than a spook; just slammed to a stop and turned less than a quarter of a turn while being all looky at whoknowswhat. Easy to handle! And good to know that she doesn't make huge spooks.

There were cattle along the road, tractors parked that we rode by, horses in the distance and geese in the fields. All new things for Ice and she handled everything very well after the initial spook.

We both agreed that Gussie is a great companion for young horses on their first outings, she doesn't spook or flee, just carefully looks things over and then carries on.

I think Gussie likes mentoring! It's equine nature to like having another horse with them so this works out perfectly, both we and the mares get to go out and enjoy these beautiful spring days- life is good when you Ride A Good Horse!

The view:

Riding day 26

Hanging in there!

ENTER THE FOALING CONTEST BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK



Belle is at 334 days today.
Nat D and Emily in NC, the date of your guess has passed so feel free to guess again!

Long view

Today's ride was down a road across the valley- we had great views of the whole valley. The first part of the ride we went along the base of the mountain just to see where the road went- it ended at some private property right on the US border.



That power line is pretty much on the border. We turned around, not wanting to go past the posted no trespassing signs.
There were a couple of places where there were livestock guardian dogs who came to check us out- Shayla pulled Goose, her little border collie, up into the saddle with her, just in case the dogs took after her.

It sure was another beautiful spring day!

Next we went down a long straight road that was perfect for doing some long trotting. Shayla was riding Rose, her Quarab mare who has a lovely long trot. Gussie had to work at it to keep up as she kept wanting to break into a lope but I managed to find the right gear for her to stay in a trot- and what fun it was! She could really motor!

Shayla did a good job on the video as her horse was moving out pretty good too! I had to grab my hat it kept wanting to fly off.

Quite the 360 degree view. I'd like to ride down there again and take Tay with me, it would be a good place for her to really get some exercise.

 Riding day 25

Gussie remembers

As I mentioned in my last post, Shayla and I headed down to the River Road, where I used to live. It was a good place to give Ice her first trail ride, as there is very little traffic on that road,and it's mostly farmland on each side , basically a nice safe outing. We drove past our old place about a kilometer and parked. I was wondering if Gussie would remember the area... I'll get back to that in a bit.
Ice did really well! Just strolled along, calm as could be, you'd never know she is a 3 year old with only 14 rides on her.

And then there is the view- I miss that 360 degree view!

When we got to the river there was a boat thinking of pulling in - the road ends at the boat launch- but they kindly pulled back out and headed upstream. 

I think once we got to the river, Gussie really clicked with where we were. It has been 6 years since she was there. On the way back she started walking really fast- striding right out , ears up and alert, all business. Ice had to trot a few times to keep up. Gussie wasn't doing her nervous jig at all; I could feel that she was really thinking and memories were coming back.

Once we got past the corner in the above photo, she started looking towards where our place used to be, and whinnying - she never does that! I'm sure she was calling out to see if any of the horses were there. I found her reaction quite interesting. Remember, that is where she was living when I sold her the final time.

When we got back home, I think she was quite relieved to be back with her herd. She found a sunny spot by the shelter and slept. Normally she would have been busy eating the hay left from the morning feeding as that's what the other horses were doing, and she is all about her hay!

I hope she feels secure now.

Riding day 24

Spring training

ENTER THE FOALING CONTEST BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK

Spring starts tomorrow! Yippee! The snow is melting, the river is rising, the songbirds are back for their early morning serenade....  

I decided it's time for Tay to learn to be a trail riding companion. She has really progressed over the winter in her bidability; easier to call off when she is doing something I don't want her to. So I took Gussie and Tay and went for a river ride.

 

The trick with Tay is to have a command that sends her out front, as when she is behind a horse the temptation to go for the tail or the heels is probably still strong. She actually did really well.

The water is rising and getting muddy now that the warmer days are here.It was wonderful to just sit on my horse, listen to the river run, my dog just sitting there waiting for my next move- and even a hawk in the tree that flew away once we invaded it's space. Can you see it in the next video?

Another lovely day today and another river ride coming up- but this time it will be me on Gussie and Shayla on Ice for Ice's first trail ride, and we will be going down the gravel road to the river down where I used to live. I wonder if Gussie will remember it, last time she was down there was 2013.

Riding day 23

Working colts and riding

ENTER THE FOALING CONTEST BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK

The melt is on and mud season has arrived. Mornings are best for getting things done, while the ground is still frozen (got my corrals cleaned ) and afternoons are perfect for working colts and riding.
Went with Shayla to the big indoor arena and watched her ride Rose and Ice- Rose loved being back in the arena and it was nice to see her showing how broke she is; this is a horse Shayla has done all the training on, nice horse. Then Ice- what a good li'l 3 year old! Took everything in stride, never been in a big arena or be ridden with other horses working at the same time. She did really well. No silliness at all!
Drifter is getting worked every day and is coming along nicely. He does still test at times but it's getting pretty half-hearted. We try something new with him every time he is worked; in this case it was sacking him out with a stable sheet and asking him to move out while carrying it.

He is so much like Ice (same bloodlines). Doesn't get bothered much about new things; just checks them out and accepts them. His biggest reactions come from being surprised by the dogs running unexpectedly into his sightline.
Mesa got worked with the stable sheet too, she is quicker and more feely than Drifter. No problems wearing it and moving out with it, so she got a little extra work, dragging it off over her head as she may someday have to deal with that if she gets blanketed. It took a few tries to get her to stop her feet and stand while Shayla dragged it slowly off. This was where we stopped:

Yesterday we saddled up Beamer and Gussie, what a beautiful day for a ride! Beamer of  course was very happy to get out and Shayla was pretty happy to ride him!
My photos turned out crappy, I have a setting on my camera app on my phone that says Pro and I had it on there- works for everything but bright sunlight apparently!  So we'll go with Shayla's photos.



The snow is not very deep but it's heavy and wet as it melts so it was a bit of a workout for Beamer. But he sure wasn't complaining!



Gussie earned herself a little extra work on the way back; she started her little jig when I only wanted her to walk so she got to two track side to side as we went down the road, and one nice long back up session where I got to practice moving her hip over as she backed to keep her correct on a straight line. She walked after that!
When we got back and unsaddled, Thumper got to spend some time aboard his favourite horse.

He didn't want to get down so I left him up there as I turned Gussie back into her pen.

Belle update- she is finally starting to make bag! Slowly, but it is happening!

Riding day 22

Waiting on spring

ENTER THE FOALING CONTEST BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK!


Winter is desperately hanging on. Yesterday I had a nice ride in the sunshine, took a trip down to the swimming hole to dream of summer days.



The river never did freeze completely over this winter. There are little duck tracks all over the ice near the open water.



We made our way to the water, I listened to the soothing sound of flowing water while Gussie checked out a dog and his people who were walking the trail nearby.

Today we have more snow. Soft wet almost rain type snow.



Then- bam! we are in for a week of sunshine and warm weather starting on Thursday! Yippee! Let's get this snow melted. Oh wait.... then comes mud..... can't win!

Shayla has been working Drifter nearly every day and he is really progressing. But as is usual with colts sometimes they take a step back....

He tried to put one over on Shayla by leaping and rearing on the longe line... but when he realised that wasn't going to work he stood there with this ultimate mad face for about 2 minutes while he thought about it....

and thought about it some more..... 

and then he just went to work and did what he was supposed to do! Such a character! He tries to say no and do what he wants, and when that doesn't work he thinks about it and just goes to work. Good boy!

Yesterday she tried something new to him. Packing a saddle blanket, sacking him out with it, and longeing him wearing it and letting it slip off him.  All good! Then she asked him to walk over it... I had a good laugh at his antics!

Belle update- no sign of bagging up yet! Those of you who have guessed early dates will be given a second chance at a guess once the date of your guess has passed.

Riding day 21

It's that time again!

320 days is the standard for days gestation for a viable foal. Today, Belle is 320 days. So far, she is her usual bigasahouse self, but no hint of bagging up.
She was bred on April 22 last year. I usually determine a due date of 343 days.... give or take a week or two! That would put her due date at March 31.  Belle has a history of going anywhere from 11 months 5 days to 11 months 20 days.

So- it's foaling contest time!
You pick: Gender, colour, date and time of birth.
To assist in colour choice, these are the only possible colours according to Belle and Beamer's colour genes:

Please note that Bay and Brown will be considered the same genetically at this time. 

So far, this match has produced 2 bays ( Sparkle and Nitro), 2 smokey black (Rio and Kai) and possibly 1 black (Stella Belle, who wasn't colour tested).

So- have a little fun with it! I will put a list on the sidebar for reference once I get a few guesses. Up for grabs will be some Diamond Lazy H swag- for sure a ball cap and maybe some other stuff too.

Wordless Wednesday

Making progress

We had 3 more schooling rides with Gussie and Ice. Ice is really progressing, she is  loping well under saddle, holding the lope and always picking up the correct lead. Gussie we are still working on her holding her hind lead to the right. She gets a little frustrated and starts bulling into pressure instead of moving away from it, so it's a work in progress.
Yesterday I hauled Mesa with Gussie, it was her first trailer ride and she did just awesome! I loaded Gussie first and closed the divider, then Mesa and she pretty much hopped right in once she checked it out. It's only a few minutes to haul to the local arena so that was a good first experience. Once there she unloaded well, we backed her out and this is where those lessons as a baby on trailer loading came in handy, she had no problem with backing out.
Shayla saddled up Rose and we went down the road to my sister's property and rode through that,

then back  down the road to the arena where Shayla ponied her around for her first time in an arena.

So dusty! Through the whole experience of loading, hauling and seeing new places, Mesa did super! I'm pretty proud of this filly, and her new owner is too!

We have also been taking Drifter out on walks. He has to learn some manners, and taking him for walks is a good way to work on keeping him focused on his handler and not having the distraction of the mare herd. Because he is so easy going it is important to not get slack in assuming he will always be good- it's almost spring and those boy hormones will kick in! I'm happy to say he takes correction well and learns quickly. Because he is already a big boy!

Riding day 17,18,19,&20

Some arena time

The cold weather and nippy winds made these last few days the perfect time to haul to the little indoor arena. We hauled Gussie and Ice, as both girls needed some schooling time. Ice is doing really well, and her calm disposition really shines through as she progresses in her training.
Gussie was used on the first session as a comfort companion as Ice got ridden for the first time in an indoor, just travelling around the arena with her at first and then parking in the corner as Ice was worked.

Shayla did a schooling ride on Gussie next, reviewing where she is at with her softness and lead departures. It took a bit for Gussie to get back in the groove, she has been only on easy going trail rides for the last few months with only a few schooling rides so it's understandable!

We hauled again the next day, and both mares showed improvement. Shayla loped on Ice, and Gussie nailed her lead departures and Shayla has been working on the fundamentals of the cow turn (as compared to the reining spin, different deal but both are turns on the haunches) with her. 

Looks like I have ridden her enough to keep her in a bit of shape over the winter. 

Today we are hauling again, the plan is to ride several times a week at this indoor to get the girls in shape- spring is coming! Supposed to get really nice spring weather in about 2 weeks .

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

Drifter is very itchy with all that hair, I think he was looking for a good scratch as he was being so very helpful as I cleaned his pen.

Riding day 15 & 16

Drifter enters the Big Boy world

No longer a baby, Drifter is now at the age where it is possible for him to cover a mare. Even though his "boys" haven't dropped yet, it is still possible for him to impregnate a mare.... or a filly! And I sure don't want any catch colts. So he has been put into the foaling pen until I come up with a separate stallion pen. There is also a possibility that he will go to Alberta with Shayla, we are waiting on some options to gel for her. It would be really good for him if he could live with some geldings.

At least he has a shelter to himself now! The girls have come to check him out, but mostly they just ignore him in there. When it comes time to put Belle in the foaling pen at night, I will stick him in the adjoining pen, which is separated from the mares and I can electrify its wire.

He actually does chew on the jolly ball.

 

So pathetic!

If the mares pester him when they are in heat I will run a hot line on the mare side of the pen so they keep their distance.

Gussie's gotcha day (Tay too)

It was one year ago today that I headed to Alberta for the 5 hour drive to bring Gussie home. And I am so glad I did, it has been great having big Red back and having a horse I can trust when I'm trail riding.
This is her when she arrived here:

She didn't have much body mass although she wasn't thin, and she had vitiligo- pink skin on her lips that she never had before.
This is her now:

Lots of riding and the right kind of feed for her and she is back to her old self! I sure do enjoy this mare, she is such a character and yes she is a bit quirky but nothing I can't handle.
It was also my gotcha day for Tay, who has also greatly improved in the last year. She went from not looking you in the eye and chasing and gripping cats, to begging for luvins and being able to stand still while Thumper sniffs noses with her and rubs against her.

Yesterday we went for a short ride to pony Drifter.

We took turns ponying him, and he wasn't exactly a good boy! I had to get after him for thinking he could nip, and a couple of times he stopped and reared up. Good ole Gussie was so good, she just let me deal with him and didn't try to kick or jump around while I scolded him- but I think she thought she was in trouble too because she started jigging, so we just stopped and let everyone think about things and calm down and finished the ride with a more relaxed manner. Drifter just needs to get out more, it's kindergarten time for him.

Riding day 14

Mesa

Well it's a done deal.
Although she will be living here until June 1st., Mesa is sold.



This young lady drove 5 hours to come and see her, and I am so glad it was a nice day for travelling- although she said it was -30 C when she left home, it was about - 8 C here when she arrived.
Shayla worked Mesa on the long line to show off her training, and Mesa, as usual, was a good girl.
Then... I asked her if she would like to hop on Beamer, as he is the same size that Mesa will finish out to. Just to prove that small is mighty!

Beamer, of course, was a perfect gentleman and I really think she didn't want to get off him! He is the best ambassador for his babies.

I have to thank Shayla for all the work she put on Mesa over the last couple of years, she has such a good program for ground work for the babies, correct and consistent and builds a good foundation on them. Thanks Shayla!

Mesa is destined to go into training for reining as she grows up, which is exactly what I thought she is best suited for. And we will get to keep in touch with her, as this young lady is the one who came with the family who bought Belle's 4 sons and Josie, and rode Kai to finish up his training for his owner. So she is very familiar with the Beamer babies, and I'm so happy that's what she chose for herself.