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. 

Once again...

 We're on the move.

The photo in my Sunday Stills post was the horse shelter Ted built for me a couple of years ago; we sold it to a place just down the road that has a riding arena and horse feed business as well as boarding horses. Half of it will be made into a tack room. 

We have decided to move back to Alberta to be closer to Ted's family, as his Dad is in his declining years. He had a stroke last month and his heart is weak. He will be 89 this year. Ted's son and his daughter and their families are both in Alberta, and when we move there it will be easier for my daughter to visit, as we will probably be only an hour from the airport instead of nearly 6 hours.

So for now, even though we enjoy this beautiful area with its mild weather (I have to mow the lawn for the third time today)  as compared to Alberta (it's snowing in Calgary as I write) family comes first. The plusses are it's closer for Ted's family, and it's right in the heart of the horse industry for me, as well as being closer to the other half of the Diamond Lazy H herd at Shayla's. I'll be able to help her at foaling time and help with the training of the foals.

As far as the horses go, Sophie is in heat and will be bred to Beamer this week, and I will check her back in June. Hopefully she will catch on this breeding as it will put her foaling time right about the same time as all Shayla's mares for next spring. 

We have a potential place lined up to move to, for July 1st which works well for my sister and brother in law, who , once we decided to move, put this farm up for sale.  It's a hot market right now, so it won't last long before it sells. 

The forget me nots on Merle's grave are the first flowers to bloom this year.

Sunday Silence

 

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.

Peeling back the layers -day 1

 This last week has been one of discovery for me and Sophie. There were some things I suspected about her that were confirmed when Shayla started working with her; she gave her three good sessions in the round pen that pinpointed the holes in her training- or, should I say the lack of training. 

Day one was mostly about finding out where she needed the most work. The first level is her tightness of body. I mentioned a while ago about how Sophie flinches when being touched; that issue is also part of her unwillingness to stand still when being brushed or saddled . So to work with that, Shayla  worked on desensitizing her to touch, continually popping her with her hand until the hardness left her muscles; taking the saddle pad and throwing it up on her and all over her. It took a while for Sophie to relax. 

For this issue, I now have built into my program for her, making sure that we deal with the tightness before moving on to any next step. Which means not saddling her when she's tight- more on that when we get to day 3. 

In the round pen, on the longe line Sophie was trying to do things on her terms; especially trying to turn back and change directions when being sent around to the right.  Also, she doesn't have the concept of a verbal whoa built into her automatic reactions; Shayla had to take ahold of her when her verbal and body language whoa was ignored. The other thing during longeing was when Shayla brought her in to stop in the center, that she has no concept of personal space (except her own) and got pushy.

Tight body

For these issues, it's a matter of just being consistent with what we are asking of her, not allowing her to turn back and change eyes and  building a good solid whoa, as well as reminding her to not crowd me. 

Getting it figured

Then there was the back up; she pretty much ignored any subtle or soft cues for a back up, so once again Shayla had to get big to get the message across. The other side of this, is that Sophie will back up when you walk up to her, instead of standing still, so to remedy this we ask for forward movement even if it means a sharp pull on the lead rope. The first few times this happened, Sophie threw up her head and half reared, so this is definitely something that needs to be dealt with. Eventually she stepped forward on a loose lead. 

The next thing was bridling and longeing her off the bridle, as well as bitting her up to each side. This is to help her find how to be soft in the face. Sophie showed a lot of resistance, especially to the right. When I trail rode her a couple weeks ago, I found that she was easy to ride on a loose rein, but if I had to put contact on the bit for any reason she was what I call hard mouthed- no give to the bit, just pushing into the bridle and tossing her head. 

As we progressed through the lesson, we felt that her training level was about what we would expect from a two year old who was just starting in training. But with an 11 year old mare, she isn't as mentally fragile as a young horse, so we could push her a little harder as needed. I feel that her original training didn't include a lot of finesse, and that she wasn't asked for any softness during the time she was ridden by her former owner, so all this is new to her.

As far as her personality goes,  this is what we concluded:

Closed minded/tough minded

Dominant but not confidant

Pushy but not brave

Owning this mare is a learning curve for me. I am so used to the more willing, easy to train type of horses that this is good for me to have to learn ways of building confidence and connection with Sophie. I feel that she is a good horse who just hasn't had the foundation to really shine.   

Sunday Silence

 

Oh Thumper

 

The manx cat was hanging around our yard a couple of days ago; I thought he left but apparently not. It was raining pretty hard when I let Thumper out, and this is what I saw when he came back in. This is about his 4th fight with That Cat. He has a bunch of scratches in his ears as well as the punctures, and a couple gashes above his left eye as well as a very sore tail base that he won't let me explore. That Cat has worn out his welcome and I will be chasing his kitty butt out of my yard whenever I see him. Cat persona non grata!

Cats

 Thumper and Foose have been together so long they are like an old married couple. Foose is 13 now and Thumper will be 12 in August. 

They do a lot of things together. 

Sometimes Foose comes complaining to me if Thumper hogs the food bowl, but it's usually Foose who hogs it!

Sometimes they share sleeping space, but mostly it's Thumper on the bed and Foose on his own bench.

Kitty paws! 😍

Thumper is the cuddlebug of the two. Always happy to take over my lap!

Foose is the you may pet me but only for three seconds type.

Thumper is the security guard . He is always scrapping with any cat that comes into his territory. The latest one is this Siamese Manx - very pretty cat but still intact so he is flexing his territorial muscles. He lives 2 doors down.

Foose mostly hangs out in the house these days, but with the nicer weather he is a kitty-in-and- out! 

Yeah? So what! Thumper can do all the work!

Now that we don't have dogs, we are very thankful to have two such lovely and personable cats .

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. 

Wordless Wednesday

 

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. 

Happy Easter

 This was another week of not getting much accomplished. A trail ride planned for Saturday fell through, and I only did a little ground work with Sophie during the week. Partly that was because she came into heat again- a stronger heat this time, so I gave her a few days to get over it. 

Also it was Holy Week, so that's where a lot of my focus was. Easter Sunday is a rainy day for us, as we snuggle up with the fire going and a ham in the oven.

I hope you all have a blessed Easter spent with family, friends and good food for this wonderful Feast Day. 

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. 

Sunday Silence

 

Clean pens

 We are corral cleaning this week, so Beamer got turned out in the round pen while his pen got scraped. 

Much to his delight.

Now that's a roll back!

The pens are all cleaned, now we have to haul out the older piles for garden compost and allow the newer piles to age another year. 

Another blog

 If you all love good photos hop on over to http://www.greenhillfarmblog.com/

Ruth is a blogger in Ireland who takes amazing photos of her farm life with sheep and border collies. 

First arena ride

 We had a heavy frost this morning and I was quite delighted to see this unique pattern of frost on the hood of our truck.

So dimensional and layered! It would make a great wallpaper pattern.

It warmed up to a beautiful day for taking Sophie to the arena. She was a little reluctant to load, I did have to go in with her at first, and then unloaded her and sent her back in on her own. My trailer is a 2 horse angle haul but she wants to stand facing backwards.  I'm all right with that for now but it might be an issue if I have to haul 2 horses. 

Once we got to the arena, there were only a couple of other people there. I walked Sophie one tour around inside, letting her check out all the signs on the walls, the roping dummy, the barrels in the corner, all no problem.

Then at the mounting block, well this is a work in progress. She went around it several times before stopping at the perfect spot for me. I'm going to have to work on this at home some more. 

For the most part the beginning of our ride was pretty good. She walked out at a good pace, steering was good and she was interested in her surroundings but not silly about anything. Then when the other horses came in she did start getting a bit anxious. She started losing her focus on me and got more concerned with where the other horses were. One horse was acting up and quite ramped up; we just stayed out of her way. Sophie started diving into the bit and tossing her head. I worked on changes of direction and small circles, straight lines and backing to keep her focused but she got to the point where I just stopped her and let her stand still and just watch . This was very much like when we get to that spot at home where she just stops and won't go any further. I had to let her chill out and get her mind back in gear, so I stepped off and lunged her with the reins so she could burn off that anxious energy. Then back to the mounting block  (another round and round session). This time I let her stand for quite a while before riding out. One fellow there, an old friend , was getting on his second horse; a Fjord/quarter horse cross, who was a lovely quiet fellow. Sophie seemed drawn to him, so I asked if we could just ride around the arena side by side with him. 

Bandit is so cute!

That worked really well. Having a nice quiet companion was just what she needed . Sophie relaxed so much that she did that shake horses do that just about shakes you out of the saddle; I had to grab to stay on and it scared her so that she jumped sideways and scooted; I did a one rein stop and was kind of laughing at her. I think she was so relaxed she forgot I was up there!

A couple laps around the arena in that relaxed frame and I called it quits there on a good note. 

She got to soak a bit at the hitching rail while I practiced roping the heels of the roping dummy. 

She loaded better for the ride home too.

Lovely view; if you zoom in you might see the hawk on the right of the photo.

Wednesday is the only day they have open riding at this arena, but there is an outdoor arena just down the road from us that I have to phone and see if they do drop in riding. 

I made arrangements to go riding with Sophie's new friend as soon as the trails are passable. A few more arena rides to get the measure of her and work on some of her issues and we will be trail ready. 

I am pretty sure she hasn't had consistent riding for over 2 years so it's going to take time to get her back in the groove.

Let's ride!

 The last day or two we were hammered with driving rain, sleet, a bit of hail and strong gusty winds. Not conducive to doing anything with the horses. I did a lot of online stuff with the Warwick Schiller program I signed up for, now just waiting for the winds to die down so I can put it into practice. 

A lot of this program is about discovering where the horse's mind is and ways to get their attention on you, and to let them know that you are aware of what is going on with them. 

It's actually simple, and less is more. 

Today, the weather calmed down a bit, still a bit stormy but only in patches. This afternoon I saddled up miss Sophie to see if we could get any farther away from home. I used the advance and retreat program that I first learned many years ago from following the teachings of John Lyons, and now many others . 

Ride out a ways, turn and circle part way back; ride a little farther, turn and circle, etc. etc. It did get some nice forward from Sophie. 

We headed down to the other side of the pond this time, the area where I have walked her in hand plenty of times. 

And then we hit the wall of her comfort zone. This reminds me of the song lyric, Don't go down to the woods today...

I think part of what is going on with her is that there is a lot of activity down on the dyke, which is slightly visible through the trees . Lots of dog walkers and people riding. And this mare is very alert to her surroundings. She's confidant when I am leading her, but not so much when I'm riding her. At this point we just sat and dwelled a bit, then headed back. 

As we headed back we were hit with a squall of wind and sleet. Some horses would get all prancy and snorty, but not miss Sophie. She just bent her neck into it and steadily marched into the wind and sleet. Good girl Sophie!

As I turned her into her pen (after a bit of hand grazing) she went on full alert staring down towards the dyke. Beamer did too, so I knew there was some kind of activity going on. 

I hung out for a bit and watched. It was worth a few photos ops! My brother in law gave me a little pocket camera, a Canon Power Shot S50  that I had with me so I managed a couple of action shots. 

Tail up and trotting and snorting!

Aaaand airborne!

Eventually even I could see what was going on down there- there were some girls loping their horses along the dyke. 

I am really looking forward to tomorrow- we are loading up and heading to the indoor arena!