Drifter update

It was so nice having Shayla here for the weekend. She rodeDrifter, who did very well- such a good boy. Here are some photos from the first day:

Sunday a lady came out to try him out. She rode him after Shayla put Drifter through his paces.

While she really wants him, she has to sell her current horse first, so that could take a while. Meanwhile I put a post on the Driftwood Horses page on Facebook and got 3 ropers inquiring about him, so I'm hoping something will come of that. One in particular where he would be kept as a stallion.

Since Shayla had to head back to Alberta, it's up to me to keep up with Drifter's riding, so today I got my first real ride on him. A short warm up on the lunge line and then I used the corral panels to step on him. He felt really good, calm and willing. He is pretty narrow at the moment, being so young so the saddle feels a bit roly poly. I quite enjoyed the ride though!

Moondance loading , a bath and zoomin'

Little Moondance is not so little anymore! He will be 3 months old on Thursday and I am planning to do a photo shoot of him. Meanwhile, here  is an update on him.

He loads like a champ and happily eats his kibble. I have been scrubbing the baby hair off him while he eats and in this heat it's disappearing fast.

My hat is not edible!!!!

I decided it was time for his first bath. He actually did quite well, just moved away a little at first but then seemed to quite enjoy it.

The "What the heck" face.....

turned into  "Hey can I have a drink"

We finally mowed the weeds in our turn out pasture so I have been letting them out on it all day, they can come and go as they please between the pasture and their main pen. The mares just drop their heads and graze but Moondance has to zoom!

And be a pest! He doesn't pester Jayne though. I have noticed that on the mornings when I come down to do chores, if Moondance is napping in the early morning sun it's Jayne that is standing watch over him. I am so looking forward to her foal!

Hot horses

This weather is hard on horses and humans. 101F degrees yesterday and 50 percent humidity made it a score of 151 , 31 degrees above what horses can handle.
I checked on Drifter in the late afternoon as I had noticed he was starting to show flecks of sweat around 4 pm; that's when it's the hottest here. At 7 I went down and he looked like this:

Poor guy was drenched and couldn't cool off.  So I gave him a nice refreshing bath. 

He quite enjoyed it. I noticed that Gussie was hanging out at the water trough but not drinking; it is a favourite hang out so I wasn't too concerned. But this morning, she wasn't eating. That's very unusual as she is always waiting at the gate to try to grab a bite of hay from the wheelbarrow. 

She didn't appear to be colicy, just dull, and her hind gut issue has flared up again. I put my trusty DiGize oil on her belly and gave her the probio supplement, as well I hosed her down; a couple hours later I gave her some electrolytes and more DiGize. I have a fast acting electrolyte tube on it's way so she will get that too. I will be keeping an eye on her today, she may need hosing down again. The other horses seem to be fine, just Gussie and Drifter having trouble with it.

Drifter got ridden today; Shayla is in town for the long weekend and came over to ride him. He hasn't had a proper ride for 4 months and he was so good! Some ground work first and then she stepped on and rode (in the round pen.)

All this was done starting at 7 am to beat the heat. We did hose him down again after riding and he promptly rolled and viola! a chocolate palomino!

A little loping video:

That's a pretty nice 2 yr old! We have someone coming to see him tomorrow..... stay tuned...

Hot hot hot

My least favourite part of summer is when it's too hot to do anything. My routine is pretty simple- early morning chores, do any garden stuff that needs doing, then in the house until around 4 pm and head down for chores before supper, water the garden and that's about it for the day. I don't do heat well.
However, this is the best time for heading to the swimming hole! Yesterday I got my husband to accompany me, he rode there and back while I walked and I rode Gussie in the water. I so need another riding horse!!! ( I also so need the exercise...)

I love seeing him ride, he doesn't ride often enough.

Gussie is wearing her Easyboots…. more about that later....

The water is just right, not cold any more. There were swimmers there and people on floaties going down the river. One guy came walking upstream packing a huge inflated swan floaty- Gussie could have cared less...
I didn't swim her as I didn't want to get my saddle wet and didn't feel like unsaddling so we only went chest deep.

I left her boots on for the river crossing..... bad idea....

Yup there is one missing.....

I did ride back and search but I'm pretty sure it got washed downstream and I wasn't about to make Gussie walk over all those rocks looking for it.
The Velcro was really worn out and it was time for new boots anyway so I will be ordering a pair of Cavallos for her today.
I will be spending more time at the river as I have a friend who wants to come and swim her horse.

The farrier trimmed all my horses including Moondance. The little guy was really good to trim, all that handling of his feet paid off.

The boys are the sons of the farrier, there were 2 of them and they trimmed Belle and Jayne while their dad did Drifter, Gussie and Beamer. They all did a good job. And I am happy to say all my horses were good! Jayne did try to pull a back foot away, and the dad coached the son through that- he was holding her foot higher than Jayne was comfortable with; she may have some hip issues from compensating for her bad front leg. And both boys were really interested in Moondance!
That's another thing that has been playing on my mind lately- If I can't get Drifter sold soon I may have to sell Moondance as I can't justify keeping him and Drifter . I do have 2 more Beamer babies coming and I sure hope at least  one is a filly.

Riding day 28

Gussie , the lesson horse

As we head into the hot days of summer, Moondance is shedding out nicely. His black is coming in and I can't wait until all that baby coat is gone. I think next summer, after he sheds out his winter coat he will be much darker black.

He readily jumps in and out of the trailer now and is giving his feet nicely. Standing tied is still a work in progress.

I have a farrier coming today to trim all my horses, it's something I can no longer do myself, that torn shoulder is not healing well; I even had trouble saddling Gussie. Last time I had my niece do the saddling as she needed to learn how to. 

She got a riding lesson in the round pen and did really well. 

Gussie is so patient with kids. I actually had to get B to put my boots and spurs on as Gussie has way more whoa than go with inexperienced riders. We worked on steering mostly, getting her to turn on leg and neck rein instead of direct rein. Gussie is very light in the face when you ask with leg first, and that was a new concept with B, she picked up on it quickly though as she saw how much easier it was to turn. I did get on Gussie for a bit and remind her that she wasn't supposed to be lazy. 

When I say "knees down" it's actually heels down, but when you push your knees down it lowers your heel and gives you a more secure seat; usually when a rider has heels up they are tipped forward a bit and if you have spurs on they will be on the horse's sides, whereas with the leg lengthened by pushing down from the knee you are more balanced and the spur will drop down and away from the horse.

After the lesson, she rode down to the pond and into the water.

The water level has dropped back to normal, and with the hot days here I just might have to see if I can find someone to ride with me to the river for some swimming. 

Riding day 27

A good horse day

What a year for storms. It's gotten so that I schedule my day around the weather forecast. For example, yesterday they said thunderstorms in the afternoon, so I did all I could before then. First I worked Drifter as I needed new photos and videos for someone who is interested in him. I haven't worked him for about a month so he was a little bit fresh on the longeline but more like happy-to-be-doing-something fresh than anything. He settles down so quickly and is so willing.

My niece was taking phone photos for me.

This one made me giggle- doing the bunny hop!

He longed beautifully once he settled into work mode. 

My right arm doesn't work so well due to torn muscles so that's why I was using my left. I had to save my right for swinging the rope. 

After the rope work and longeing bitted up he did so well that I asked my niece if she wanted to get on him. Of course she did!

Please note that I did not turn her loose on him- no helmet, boots with too much tread and inexperienced rider meant the she would be on the lead line. Drifter did well with her mounting, just twitched an ear and balanced himself. 

I was pretty happy with Drifter, he shows that he has a good mind and a willingness to learn. I really hope that I can get him to the right home. I will keep you updated on that!

After that it was ride Gussie to the river. My niece rode there and I rode back. The river is really nice now, so I took Gussie in to stirrup deep.

As always she was happy to turn around and head for shore.

When we got back it was Moondance's turn. I'm happy to say that he pretty much just stepped right into the trailer and happily munched his ration while we groomed him. But then when it was time to step out.... well he had to ponder that!

Oh! Look how far down it is!

He has unloaded at least 4 times without giving it that much consideration... 

I had to laugh, he would put one toe out- no ground!!!! pull it back, think about it, try again a few minutes later- still no ground!!!!! 

Thinking....

After about 4 of those he decided that the last 4 times weren't flukes and the ground really was still there and anyway he was thirsty for mama milk darn it all!

A couple hours later we had one heck of a thunderstorm as predicted. I sat in the barn watching and listening. The horses weren't in the least bit concerned about the rumbling and booming right overhead.  I made sure to feed them all in their shelters. Although Jayne still isn't comfortable with being all the way in the shelter with Belle, there is enough of an overhang on the sides of the building that she can get out of the rain and weather. 

Riding day 26

Loaded

Moondance made really good progress in the last few days. Ever since he loaded the first time, he decided that he just didn't wanna go in the trailer to eat thank you very much. So after days of setting his foot in and rewarding the slightest try, yesterday he did load- but we helped load that first foot several times before he went in.
Today.....
Well today, it was all his idea.
Success at last.



Once he was in and happily eating I groomed him, trying to scrub some of that baby coat off to reveal his black.

It's a work in progress!

I took Drifter to get his coggins test done in case he does find a buyer. He had to stand tied in the trailer for about an hour while we waited for the vet to get back from an emergency call. He did really good for quite a while, just standing quietly but like a typical teenager he got bored after a about 50 minutes and started pulling and twisting trying to turn around.
To no avail (Grin) Trailers are a good place for colts to learn to stand patiently- as long as they don't start kicking, which he did NOT do. If they set back they can't go too far, the wall is a big help there.

I need a patience pole! I'll have to find a suitable tree for Drifter to stand tied at. I think the hitching post isn't good for that as they can move around the end on it, but a good tree and tied so he can't reach the ground and get a leg over his rope may be in his near future.

Training and riding

Sure can't get any consistent weather lately. Couple days too hot and muggy, then a couple days of rain and thunderstorms... rinse and repeat....

I don't do a lot on the hot days unless I want to spend a few hours hiding in the house recuperating. I have managed to get Moondance out every day and work with him a bit. After that first day of loading in the trailer, he refused to load again. So I have been working on getting him to load his head and neck then one foot. Reward the slightest try. Today I kept putting his left foot in the trailer, give him a mouthful of kibble, try with the right foot, and so on. After many repetitions he finally loaded a foot himself and got to eat as much as he wanted while he had that foot loaded.

With colts it's often one step forward, three steps back until they figure out what you are asking of them and decide it isn't life threatening. But it always makes me laugh when I see that sully look on their face when they don't want to do something and how the light bulb goes on when they figure it out.

My sister is visiting for a few days, and she was helping me with Moondance, it was nice to have her help especially at the hitching rail as I had to rasp the front feet. 

After handling his feet so much for the trailer loading, he didn't mind too much getting his trim. Should be able to do the back feet without too much trouble in the next day or 2.

We also saddled Gussie and took turns riding her  as we went to the river to check out the water level in the swimming hole.

Umm, Thumper, can you move so we can throw the saddle up?

The water is still a little too high and swift for swimming, couple more weeks and it should be perfect. 

As I was riding, we had a tree come crashing down about 50 yards ahead of us- Gussie just stopped and raised her head and looked. Sure do love not having a spooky horse!

My sister (who rarely rides) rode her part way back. 

Sure was nice getting out. Gussie seems to be over the worst of her thrush, so now I can get more riding in. 

Riding day 25

And... done!

Today's lesson with Moondance was similar to clicker training. Hit the target, get a reward. It went like this: I led him to the back of the trailer, set his kibble bowl in there, lifted a foot and placed it on the trailer floor and gave him a bite as I held his foot there. Did this several times with each foot, and then moved the bowl all the way in and stood in the front corner and waited.
Et- viola!

 I moved the bowl to the open back of the trailer so he could feel free to leave if he wished, but he was quite content to stay there .

A little more work on lifting his feet and holding them up, and that was enough for one day. Good boy, Moondance!

Kindergarten time

Moondance is 2 months old tomorrow. So I have been working with him the last couple of days. I have the usual goals for him:
1: Lead properly
2: Eat his supplement which will help him maintain his weight at weaning time 2 months from now.
3. Go on walkabouts and be introduced to new sights and sounds.
4: Learn to load in the trailer.
5: Learn to stand tied.
6: Pick up his feet and stand still for trimming.
7: Be mannerly.

So far, he leads well...

and is happy to go on walkabouts, although on the first one he threw a little hissy fit and fell down; hasn't done that since.

He is eating his kibble- I started him on it yesterday and tricked him a bit- I scratched his itches for him and when he wanted to chew on something like they do to another horse, I stuck the pan of kibble under his nose and he started chewing on it- and decided he liked it.

Today I stepped up the game by putting the pan in the back end of the trailer and got him used to eating it there- which gave me the chance to ask him to step a foot into the trailer.

He did that a few times and that was enough for today.
I pretend -tied him at the hitching rail, and groomed him with a soft rubber brush, and he was happy to just stand there ; I used the opportunity to pick up his feet and put them down on my terms. I have been lightly picking up his feet since he was born but now I am asking him to hold them up a little longer as I need to rasp them soon.
Being mannerly is ongoing, he is pretty good natured and just needs boundaries set occasionally like all kids.

19

The only "19 " I want in my life.....

Beamer is 19 today!

He rubbed out a bunch of his tail, it used to touch the ground! I gave him some turnout in the bottom pasture to celebrate. He has been pretty ouchy with his arthritis lately so I started him on prevacox and after a couple of weeks it is finally kicking in.

He even loped....

The mosquitoes were pretty nasty though. This is wet grass (and weeds!)

A few mouthfuls of grass and he was happy to get away from the skeeters and back in his house (hence the first photo.)

Happy birthday, Mr. Handsome.