Blogger is at it again

Some of you have been telling me that they are getting Word Verification in the comments, that pesky "prove you're not a robot" thing. I do have WV turned off in my settings, so I don't know why some are getting that. I have tried one other thing, changing my settings from registered users to anyone can comment. Let me know if that helps!

Play Ball!

And now, a break from our regularly scheduled programming.....

The battle begins!

Tess is always first to the ball, then Amber does her best to get it away from Tess.

Reba stays out of their way, waiting to see if they will let her have a chance.

Queen of the ball!

Amber does not bring the ball back to me, but she will drop it and go work Tess; for her the game isn't about the ball it's about working the other dog.

My two beauties. Mother and daughter; Reba is 13 and Tess is 8.

Wordless Wednesday

Overcoming inertia

Aurora did a post the other day called "Out of my comfort zone" which got me reflecting on my current state of mind in regards to horses. I guess with age comes wisdom, but it also can be interpreted as caution.
I find that I am reluctant to trust in my abilities as I grow older; I am definitely less reckless and nowhere near as brave as I used to be.  I recall saddling up the young horses and heading out, alone through the bush, or along trails, or tackling swift rivers and streams; things I just wouldn't do now.
Just getting up the courage to climb on a green horse is an accomplishment now, where before I wouldn't have given it a second thought.
Today, it was time to face my trepidation. I have been making excuses not to ride; the ground is slippery, or frozen, or muddy; I have nobody to ride with; I don't want to pay arena fees each time I ride. All valid excuses. Today, I went with one of my old mottos: just do it.
I brought Kai out, saddled him up and did a very short session of moving his feet before I stepped up on him- just enough to know that he was paying attention and not tense. I figure Kai has about 20 rides on him now, most of them short rides. Definitely a long way from being a broke horse. I kept the ride short, as it wasn't about teaching Kai but it was about discovering where I was at.

I made a pleasing discovery. Once I hit the saddle, my worries disappear. It all becomes about the horse, and discovering where he is at in that moment. About what he and I can do to connect. Working on figuring him out helps me to find where my talents - and limitations- are.
I know that I am careful to stay safe now and I make it work. The big thing I do differently now as compared to my youth is that I listen to my horse more instead of just riding according to my own program.
Here's what Kai told me today: He has opinions. He doesn't like fussy stuff. Once he gets something he doesn't want to be picked on about it. And he really wants to just get out and cover some ground, go places and see things. He's not an arena horse. (Yet!)
He kinda reminds me of me in my younger days......
It was a short, 15 minute session, but it taught me lots.

Ride while you can!

I noticed that Beamer was feeling pretty good today, he was playing around and frolicking in his pen. I took the opportunity to grab a few  well maybe 30 photos,( I deleted a lot, honestly!)

I was struck by the similarities between daddy and sons.

The sun came out in strength today- of course that always means mud as the ground thaws, but I figured I'd take advantage and go for a little ride on Beamer, the dogs have been cooped up a lot lately too so they needed some exercise. I had to leave Reba at home which really ticked her off, but she isn't in shape to come along.

You can see the snow line about halfway down the mountain. Sure glad we aren't getting the weather they had in Buffalo! But I'm sure we will get our snow in due time. I want to ride as much as possible before winter hits hard.

Looking back towards the town- this is part of the farm I live on, and those are some of the landlord's cows.

When I got back, I was loathe to dismount, so I let Reba out of the kennel and rode around the yard so she wouldn't feel too left out, poor girl! I decided to do some schooling on Beamer- and boy did he get a pout on! What? Sidepass? Are you crazy, lady? The ride is over, we're back!  Haha sorry Beamer but you have to work a little! Oh he was bad. Flat out refusing to sidepass. I worked him through it, but he was not too happy with me! Sheesh, a simple sidepass and he had to make an issue of it. Must be a union worker.

All the same, it was great to be back in the saddle on my boy,nothing beats the view between those little black ears.

Just a little ride

No pics to share, but today's ride on Kai at the indoor arena went really well. I had the place to myself, and did some in hand stuff first- walked him around both directions so he could inspect the place for any horse-eatin' monsters-  guess what, there weren't any! Good boy Kai.
Reviewed the work I did yesterday; I had him in the bosal. That was all good, so I switched to the snaffle bit and climbed on. I wasn't sure what to expect- it was my first time riding him in an arena completely alone, but I needn't have worried, he was good. It was really nice to get the turns on the haunches, on the forehand, sidepass, and the beginnings of  the two track. I kept his feet busy, there were a couple of times he wanted to stall out, but I just asked him with more leg and that seemed to work. What I found was that he was reaching down into the bit and fussing and stopping his feet when he did that, so it made sense to increase the leg pressure instead of hauling on the bit which would be bracing.
In fact that worked really well, and I spent most of the ride (I only rode at the walk) directing his feet using my legs and very little rein. At this point, I don't care if he bridles up, I want to have control of those feet. The softness in the face will come in time- actually, he is pretty light there already when he isn't fussing. I will get his teeth done again as soon as I can, they were done in June and he was still shedding caps.
I am pretty happy that he did so well after 3 weeks off, must have given things time to sink in!

Back at it

I am on holidays for the next week- no, I am not travelling, but I am getting back to work on Kai. A few things have changed- mostly the weather! With the ground frozen and my round pen re purposed for fencing, I will be hauling to the indoor arena this week. So today, taking into consideration that Kai has had 3 weeks off... ya I know... lazy me... I did ground work with him just to see where he is at. I'm getting winter tires on my hauling truck today so tomorrow I will head over to the arena to ride; today, I took Kai over to Beamer's turn out pen, which has a nice flat spot to work, and put him through his paces. I was pleasantly surprised that he did well- a little frisky off the bat which I expected but it didn't take much to get him responding well to all the cues and paying attention to what I was asking. I also worked on myself- being really consistent with my cues and keeping my energy in a calm and happy spot- and I ended up with a calm and happy horse.

Oh look, he has a tree growing out of his head!

Timing is everything when taking photos.....

Anyway, I worked on shoulder yields, hip yields, side pass, backing and using the mecate as reins to remind him about moving his front quarters over with a neck rein.

He is looking pretty chunky right now! 

I took him over to where I have a few timbers set up on the lawn, and worked on him sidepassing over the timbers. I set it up so that when I raise the stick, he stops, when I lower it he steps forward. when I lay it along his side, he side passes. Once he got it, he was a rock star! It reminded me again why I love this horse.... even if he is a gelding... 

One of the other things that has changed is that it looks like Shayla won't be able to take horses in for training until next year, they are keeping her pretty busy at her new job, so Kai and I will have to learn from each other this winter. I'm sure we will do just fine! I hope to introduce him to team sorting at some point, he already likes cows, being pastured right next to them so it will just be getting him used to them in a different setting- and getting him broke enough that he will pay attention under pressure. 

New dynamics

The last few days have been focused on getting the pens built - enlarging the pen for Kai, Josie and Nitro so that we could give Beamer his full pen back instead of having it divided for Nitro. Kai is pretty bossy, so to put Nitro in with him and Josie we needed plenty of space. We borrowed a little gas powered Stihl auger, that thing is the cat's pyjamas! The guys had to bar the frost off the surface, then the auger made short work of the holes, perfect size too.

With the ground frozen solid now, I won't need my round pen until next spring, so we took it down and used it to set up a fence between the horses and cows. The landlords do have farm fence to put up, but I can't wait until next year, so we put up our own fence line to be replaced by the wire at a later date.

I ended up having to run some electric tape between Beamer and the kidz; they share a common fence line now and I don't want Beamer to be trying to get to Josie when she eventually comes into heat.

I know it isn't huge, but it is the best I can do living here, it's all the space that my landlords will allow us to have.

That's not snow in Beamer's pen, it's white gravel that we put in to combat the mud that happens in the spring.

It's interesting watching the new herd dynamics. After a day, it is clear that Kai has taken the role of herd boss. When I first turned them out in this pen, Kai was just beside himself, trying to do two things at once- herding Josie away from Beamer, and keeping Nitro away from the hay feeder. He was a busy boy for a while! Once I put up the hot wire and Beamer backed off to mind his own business, Kai settled into just being a brat- pinning his ears and charging at Nitro- just enough to get Nitro to move- and getting after Josie for hanging out with Nitro.

I found out that Kai was not the boss in his last herd, but he was best buds with the herd boss. Guess he was studying up for the top position! Josie pretty much ignores him, or gives him both barrels when he gets too pesky, but Nitro is quick to get out of his way. Nitro might be bigger, but he is only a long 2 year old, where as Kai is 2 years older than him.
So it looks like we are set up for winter, the water tubs with heaters are in place, the pens are as good as they are going to get, the horses all have shelter and it's lookin' good. Time to get back to working with Kai now!

Funny face, I love you

Sing it with me....

Funny face,

I love you,

Funny face,

I need you,

Funny face,

My whole world's

wrapped up in you.

Portraits

The full moon brought a weather change- a little cooler, but some nice sunshine. Just in time to get my pre-winter yard work started!

I just managed a shot before the ground mist faded it out as the moon slipped behind the mountains this morning.
Yesterday at turn out time I took advantage of the sun and took a few photos of my lovely Beamer Kidz.

Miss Josie is the most photogenic of the bunch, it's tough to get a bad photo of her.  The next collage I put together because it shows how she ran through the branches, I thought it was pretty funny.

Next up is Shayla's horse, Nitro. As most of you know, he is the 2 yr old full brother to Kai (who is 4) and Rio (who is 3) and Jazz (who is 5).

Even with a rubbed out mane he is still a pretty boy. He is the blackest of the bunch too.

Airborne! After spending over a year alone, Nitro is quite happy to be part of a herd again. His manners are improving too.
And then there's Kai....

I think he has the prettiest head of all the boys (bet Shayla doesn't agree!)

One more portrait- my lovely old dog Reba, who accompanies me whenever I'm doing horse chores. She is 13 now, and on her birthday in September I took her on her last trail ride, she is getting too slow to keep up. Not long after that I found a tumour on one of her nipples, and she has several fluid filled spots, like cysts maybe, so her health is really in question. Doesn't stop her intensity and her desire to work though.

That shrinking feeling

Still all quiet here, haven't ridden Kai in a week or more, just too dang wet and muddy. I would have to haul to the indoor. However, the next couple of days have sun in the forecast, so maybe I'll get going again. One thing about the wet, Kai and Josie are learning to walk through muddy spots and puddles.
The other thing that is happening is that the horses are now sharing their shelter area with weanling calves. The landlord weaned the other day, and the calves needed a place out of the rain, so I moved Nitro over to a temporary set up that I built using pipe and Beamer's shelter that Ted built- and the calves have the end of the stall area now. Apparently, Josie and Kai are quite fine with that, they hang out down there and even lay down close to the cross fence where the calves are. Josie in particular is quite taken with the little heifers.

Should never have to worry about coming across cattle once we get riding her! Her mama liked cows too. Guess all that cutting horse blood is coming through.

Beamer is enjoying having Nitro over the fence from him, they seem to get along well, and if I put Beamer out in the turn out pen Nitro calls for him. I wish I had a big enough paddock where I could turn Beamer out with a gelding, but these small pens don't cut it- no room for the boys to get away when Beamer decides to push them around as studs can do. And my pen areas are getting smaller all the time. I have no pasture, just the one small turn out pen that I rotate turn out in, and a 20 x 36 stall for Kai and Josie, a 40 x 40 pen for Beamer and the pen Nitro is in is about 40 x 50- it will eventually become part of Beamer's but for now Nitro lives there.

 This place keeps getting smaller and smaller for me as the landlords take over for their cattle- and I understand, cows are their income. They take priority. There is a plan in place to do some fencing off of the stall area so that there will be a 36 x 80 run for Josie and Kai off their stall, which will help. However, I will have to hot wire it where it has a common fence with Beamer's pen because of Josie- can't have Beamer getting interested in her.
This place which started out so good, with 5 acre pastures and the nice big dry lot off of the stalls just keeps shrinking and shrinking to the point where I think it's time to get out of here. Trouble is, there's nowhere to go in this valley. I've been looking for years and nothing has come up for rent. See where all those cows are in the background of the first photo above? That used to be one of two horse pastures I had use of. Now there will be cows here year round and that is where they will spend the winter. I hate having my horses confined to such small pens. Good thing I don't have very many horses any more!

Slowing down with the weather

Not a lot going on here with rainy days. The boyz have been worked, Kai got ground driven and Nitro got some ground work. Shayla is leaving tomorrow for Alberta and her new job at SR Training Stables, we will have to keep up with her on her blog, The Road Less Travelled, which she just revamped with bigger print and a nice background. (On my blogroll on the sidebar, it's simply called Shayla's blog)
It is mild and wet here, any snow has stayed up in the mountains where it belongs. We are having a lot of foggy mornings, sometimes it stays for half the day. It is going to be a wet and mild winter, I think.

 The horses are getting their winter colours, Josie doesn't change much, but Kai and Nitro are getting really dark. I turn all 3 kidz out together and they really get to romping!

Ears? What ears?

Josie can dish it out too, she doesn't let her big brothers intimidate her.

Nitro is looking really good! Not sure how long he will be here, Shayla is working on getting him over to Alberta as soon as she can make it work.

Oh that mane! But- it will grow out!

I'm going to try to get a photo of Beamer and his 2 sons as soon as I get some help holding them.

And hopefully before all the leaves are gone, they do make a pretty backdrop..... but it seems I caught a shark behind the bushes in this next photo.....

Kai has always tried to dominate his younger brothers... funny, he doesn't get too far trying that on Josie! Red heads rule!

Beamer's kidz

Headed up to see Janice and her horse Jazz on Saturday, Shayla trimmed her and did a follow up to the body work done on her earlier in the month. This mare is full sister to Rio, Kai and Nitro, and she is a beauty.

She had several spots that needed adjusting. Aurora was asking for more info on using Essential Oils on horses; they are a part of everything I do including caring for my horses. In this instance, Shayla would hold a bottle up and wait for the horse's reaction- if she showed interest, the oil was used, if disinterested, it was a "no, I don't need that one".

Where the oil is applied depends on the properties of the oil. For example, this oil is StressAway, if she had liked it, it would have been applied in her nostrils. Oils that are for the release of spasms in muscles would be applied directly to the area being worked on. Other oils, perhaps on the belly for the digestive system, like the other day when Jazz was showing signs of colic and Janice applied DiGize oil blend as she hand walked her for an hour- with good results I'm happy to say! One oil that horses seem to like is Release, and most people like it too. It releases negative energy, either mentally or the negativity that can be toxic to flesh. We always use it on areas of the horse that are the most tight and painful. Another one is Grounding, usually applied on the poll, which Shayla is doing in this next photo.

All the oils I use are Young Living oils, the foremost leader in essential oils in the world, with their Seed to Seal guarantee.
They are unbelievably effective. I have been using them for nearly 10 years and won't be without them.
Here is a photo of one of the stretches that she did, the "drunken sailor" pose:

Heeheee looks worse because I had the camera on an angle, but if I straightened the photo it would cut off part of the horse.
Anyway.... we have some news...... drum roll....... Shayla now owns Nitro! Dave gave her a good deal on him and he will be staying with us for a little while until Shayla can take him to Alberta with her, probably in the spring, which is prefect- she is putting a couple of weeks training on him and then he will be given time off for his knees to close up and go back into training next year when he is 3.

Of course, she's over the moon about it! I'm very glad she got him- he will have a future as a barrel horse, which I have always believed is what he is called to do.

Also..... more drum rolls please..... I made a deal with her on half ownership of Josie  I'm excited for the future of these two horses, they are in good hands! And she will have her hands full too because she also has another yearling barrel prospect!
I was asked for an update on Rio- Shayla did one on her blog. While you are visiting there check out her posts on her time at Sandy Collier's in California!