Hittin' the trail

Trailered up to Kimberley area to ride with Crystal and Janice and another gal. We rode about 3 and a half hours through some pretty rolling country where every now and then we's get a really nice view- like this:

Rosalee did really well today; I rode at the back as I had my two dogs Tess and Thea with me, and it was Thea's first real outing. I wanted to make sure she behaved her puppy self! Rosalee just walked along nicely without trying to jog to keep up, and we maintained a good pace without having to trot. Poor Tess is fat and out of shape so we have to stop several times for her to rest, and give her some of our water, but we all made it.

I totally forgot to wear my helmet- I was intending to- but it turned out I didn't need it and I was sure glad of the shade of my hat brim.

That's Fisher peak in the background and hey look, all the horses have their ears up and all the ladies are smiling!

Photo that Crystal took. Didn't need the flyswatter string tail today- I don't think we had a single bug.
I had body work done on Rosalee on Saturday, sure enough he needed to work on her left shoulder which may be why we had the left lead problem. Tomorrow afternoon I hope to haul to the arena and work on that, and haul Coulee along too.

Together- at last!

Coulee finally has a buddy she can get along with.
I made the decision today to put the mares together; they have bonded really well over the stall fence, they hauled well together and since I don't have back shoes on Rosalee, I figured it was time to put them together. Which also makes it easier if I am gone and my husband has to do the chores.

First job was to tear down the stall, get rid of the corner feeder, move the water tub out so they can get all the way around it; in short, eliminate any place where a mare could get trapped and kicked by the other one. And we all know which one would be most likely to do that!!!!

I had Rosalee in while I was doing all that; Coulee was out on the lawn pasture while I made sure everything was just right. Then I brought her in, led her through it all so she could suss out the changes. I had put 4 piles of hay out so they didn't fight over hay.

There was one moment when Rosalee got told that Coulee was the boss.....

Coulee had just backed up and double barrel kicked, but didn't connect- Rosalee was watching and stayed out of her way.

After that, the pecking order was established.


As you can see, Rosalee is pretty cool with it all, just mosey's out of Coulee's way. Coulee has to check out everything Rosalee does, after all it might be something she wants you know! The part where Rosalee is in the stall near me eating hay and Coulee comes in - after flipping water around- you can see her thinking: I want to chase that yellow mare out of that hay pile- but I doesn't want to get trapped! So I'll pretend I'm checking out the salt blocks... then kind of slide in on the open side and let her know that's MY hay... see mom, I didn't bite her! I could have you know but I was being good!
Meanwhile Rosalee is all la-di-da about it all. Perfect!
Finally.... harmony in my herd.

The menace response

Do you suspect your horse has trouble seeing things or does it get startled by things you think it has seen many times? If the horse's vertebrae or axis are out of alignment it can put pressure on the optic nerve which can affect its vision.
 I did a little video to show how to test the menace response, which is simply chopping your hand towards the eye making sure it isn't the air flow he or she is responding to, start from a position back towards the neck and move up to the corner of the eye to see where they perceive the motion. The horse will blink when it perceives the "menace".
A chiropractic adjustment will usually fix the problem unless there is an underlying disease.
I used Coulee for this demo, and you can see that she has excellent vision with both eyes, as she should since I have had the chiro work done on her.

String tail fly swatter

Rosalee came with a hock length tail- not much good for a fly swatter, so I helped her out by adding a string tail. About every 10 days, I redo it,washing her tail and re-attaching the strings. Today I built her a new set of strings as the last one was getting ratty.

Hock length tail....  finding the end of the tail bone... Look at all the different colours she has!

Start the braid a hand width from the tailbone. All you need is some baling twine, a hair tie, and some vet wrap.

Loop the twine at one end.... measure to make sure it won't drag on the ground... put the braided tail through...

Start the vet wrap on the folded over tail, roll it down to cover the string loop, cut the last 4 inches of it up the middle so you can tie it off- Viola! Also make sure you don't have any loops of string on the bottom, it should all be cut ends so it doesn't catch on anything.

It ain't pretty but it does help her swat flies. Thanks to Shayla for showing me this method. Some people use MTG or other products in the tail, I just use a conditioner that I rinse mostly out just leaving a little bit to keep the tail hairs from getting brittle.

Like father like daughter

Thought you might like to see a photo of Dolls Docsan, the sire of Rosalee.
First- here is Rosalee, all shiny and golden in the evening light. She has put on weight and is dappling out.

And here is her sire, I found an ad for him on Northern Horse.

He sure put his stamp on her!

Beauty is as beauty does.

Yesterday I hauled both mares to the big outdoor arena. (Love my trailer!!!) I rode Rosalee with the intention of getting my first lope on her. I noticed that she doesn't flex well to the left, and I attribute this to her teeth not being done yet, that's a couple of weeks away.
She's a bit rusty in the reining elements, but she has a lovely lope departure and a rocking chair lope that I could ride all day... to the right.... when I asked for a left lead lope, she bucked a step (for which she got corrected with a one rein stop) so I worked her at a collected trot for a while then asked again. She did not repeat the buck but she has trouble holding the lope at the left lead. I do have my body work guy coming again next Saturday so we will explore any body issues that may be part of the problem but I really think the teeth are the problem. Once they are done there should be no more problems.

Then it was Coulee's turn. I had the idea that I would check her out on the ground and if she was well behaved I was going to ride her.
Well.... not so much.
I did a simple request for her to walk around me in a circle. She backed up. I asked again. She backed up again. I whirled the end of the rope toward her hip.... she backed up faster. All the while giving me the stink eye. The only way I could get forward momentum from her was to shorten up the line and ask her to move her hip over - If I was in the saddle that would equate a one rein stop.Then asked again for forward movement, which I finally got, but very begrudgingly. She kept turning to face me and backing away from me. I did try  getting after her especially when she was backing but it didn't help. To my credit, I didn't lose my cool but kept trying to think of a way to get her to do this simple thing. If I walked with her like I was leading her it worked but as soon as I sent her past me on a circle she got all pissy. The only way I could make her want to go forward was to make it work by yielding her hip; it was the only part of her that I could control! After a few times of circling her hip, she'd step out properly. I did manage to get her to go around, even got a lope but she bucked at the lope.

So. That leads me to what I really want with Coulee. She needs to be more than just a beauty. I really wanted her to be a good riding horse- and she may well be a lovely riding horse, but I won't ride a horse that isn't agreeable on the ground. I made the decision to stop working with her- yes, I know this is fixable, but I don't want to put in the effort to fix it. If I was 20 years younger, it would be worth it. But I'm at the age when I'd rather pass the torch to someone with the energy and time to work with problem horses. So for now, she just gets to be a lazy broodmare. I do have someone interested in her, but can't take her at this time, so I'll just hang on to her until things work out that she can go to a good home. And she is carrying a Beamer baby that I am pretty excited to see! As a side note, the lady who bred Coulee said that all her siblings have good dispositions, which I checked on before I bred her as I don't want to pass on a crabby disposition.

It's hard work being crabby.....

Preventative measures

West Nile Virus has reared it's ugly head in our area. Horses within a 60 mile radius have contracted the mosquito borne disease, which is reported to be fatal in 1/3 of the cases. At least one horse was euthanised, 3 others have died or been euthanised showing the same symptoms but the bloodwork was not done.
Those of you who remember my little Stella Belle will know that one of the things I considered with her was whether or not she had a neurological disease, and had the bloodwork done- which all came back negative. People, if your horse shows neurological signs, get the bloodwork done! At least that way the vets and other horse owners will know if there is anything going on that could be preventable!
Since I don't know the vaccine history on my 2 mares, and I know I haven't done Beamer in 5 years, they all got vaccinated today, and will get their boosters in 3 weeks. Cost for my peace of mind? $214. Worth every penny.

Wonderful Wednesday

Well it might be too hot for serious riding, but it wasn't too hot for Rosalee to give a very first horse ride to a priest visiting here from the Grenadine Islands in the Carribean. It was wonderful to watch as his grin of fear blossomed into a smile of delight. Rosalee, of course, was perfect. Started off with me giving him a demo of how to get on, ask her to go, steer and stop. Put him up on the lead line and once it was clear he could steer and stop, I unclipped and let him go around by himself. Oh I do love this little yellow horse!

Of loss and love

Treasure your creatures, for they aren't with us nearly long enough. Two of my friends lost their stallions in the last couple of days; blogger All the Pretty Horses lost her blue roan stallion, at the early age of 13- no visible cause so most likely cardiac arrest, and another friend made the call on his 19 year old stallion due to his infirmities. Very sad for both of them and all who knew those wonderful stallions.
As I look at my oldies, I know that day will come for me too; Reba is nearly 15 now, and Beamer is also 15. With Reba, it's week to week; with Beamer I hope for 10 more years, but I'll take whatever the good Lord decides.

A lot of people post about the "rainbow bridge", but it's not something I think of as a reality. I do however, believe that God has given our animals a soul different from ours and that as His created beings there is a place for them in eternity, and that it is indeed likely that we will meet them again on the other side of this life. Several recorded near death experiences have mentioned being greeted not just by the souls of people but of animals too.
The love we give to our creatures is not wasted in His sight; for love is a part of God, the eternal good.

Future kids horse

My niece came for a visit, and of course one of the priorities was a riding lesson. Normally I have the kids ride Beamer, but miss Rosalee got the call to duty.

We started off on the leadline with learning how to handle the reins for turns. First two handed and ending up with neck reining. I think over the course of the last 3 summers, the kids have only had about a dozen rides, so I was really happy with her progress. I put together a series of videos into one long one- it's 10 minutes long so you may not want to watch it, but it shows how well the lesson went and how well Rosalee went for a beginner rider. I couldn't be happier. Once my niece learns how to ride at a trot and lope, I can see her wanting to show this nice mare.

Trailer progress

Things have slowed right down while I wait for my husband to finish the work he is doing on the horse trailer. The back door had a big bend in the frame and bottom of the door from a horse kicking or whatever so he decided while he is rebuilding it to do it right and get everything done all at once. So he took the sheet metal off,

straightened the frame at the bottom, welded in the new panel,

He also pounded out the divets on the sides of the trailer from kicks, eventually will do body work to make it smooth on the outside before we give it an exterior paint job next year.

On the inside of the back door there is a bit of a ledge from the square tubing where that sheet metal attaches; this had been rusting from horse poo collecting there so he built a custom piece that doesn't allow the pooh to collect.

This next photo is from when we first got the trailer; you can see the wow in the back door that is now fixed. I love having a handy husband- whose motto is "do it right!"

That divider is rebuilt too. Today he did the interior paint  under where the puckboard is going, which is 4 ft. high all around the interior and back door. 

Custom fitting the puckboard.

Tomorrow the back door gets painted and fitted with puckboard, as well as puckboard on the bulkhead that divides the front tack room off.

This trailer is going to be better than new!

It's all in the timing

We had a rainy morning here for the first time in quite a while; it was perfect for making jam. I put up 6 jars of Plumcot and 6 jars of Apricot jam. Nummy!
Early afternoon, the rain quit and it was time to get out of the kitchen!
Rosalee is pretty much out of heat now, so I saddled her up and headed to the round pen. I had spurs on and I figured I'd better ride in there first to let her get the feel of my cues when I'm shod.
I started off with groundwork first; I am working on my timing when asking for a change of direction, and it was a good chance to make sure the mare was paying attention to me and not the two black hooligans hollering at her. There were a few times I had to send a hooey up the rope on the side she was looking away to- a little trick Buck taught us.
Rosalee was pretty fresh, when I asked for a walk she'd trot, when changing directions she would leap into the new direction- so we worked all those kinks out, then I got to studying my timing on change of direction. All that stuff you read or try to learn at clinics only helps if you can remember it when you are trying to accomplish something with a horse; and I remember someone somewhere saying that the timing is when the front foot hits the ground- and I'm darned if I can remember who said it. So while I was working on my half circle turns, where the horse yields it's hip, clears the shoulder and sweeps across in front to change direction, I finally nailed it- it's easier for the horse if I ask for the turn (to the inside) as the inside front foot hits the ground. So I'm hoping this will help me visualise the perfect timing when I'm in the saddle.
By this time, Rosalee was pretty soft and paying attention so I rode her for a bit. I gently let her feel my spurs when I asked for her to pick up her belly and round out her back and she was good- it's plain that she is accustomed to riders who are ironshod. I got some nice work in frame at the walk and trot, and we worked a bit on lateral moves- sidepassing the box like ole Al Grandchamp taught us (Tara, you should remember that one ) and shoulder in and hip in. Also checked out her spin- holy moley that girl can drill holes in the ground and whirl!  She is a bit rusty but picked up quickly once she knew what I wanted- it's been 3 years since she has really been asked for much.
Of course, that got me to thinking- it would be a shame not to show her. She is NRHA licenced  so could enter NRHA classes if I was a member. I'll have to check that out- it could be fun to go in a couple of lower level shows. I still will do Cowboy Dressage too, no reason I can't do both.
After the ride, I put her in the grass paddock that Coulee uses, it's just a hot wire area of my lawn. I think she was pretty happy to be turned out to graze- first time in the 17 days since I bought her.

She has gained some weight too. Now to get that tail to grow so I can take those ugly strings off! But they work as a flyswatter.

Another type of heat

Had an interesting ride the other day. Rosalee is in full raging heat, and I wanted to know what she would be like to ride in that situation, so I saddled her up, took the dogs and headed out on the hayfield ride. It started out really well, she had a nice loose walk stride going on, riding into the cool of the evening and the setting sun.

We headed down the road to the left in the photo above- it leads into the hayfield.

Things were still going well, until I stopped to take a photo of the mountains in the setting sun; that's when she realised she could hear Beamer and Coulee in the distance. Not only that- along the dyke off to the south of us, there were cows and she couldn't quite figure out what they were. I guess this was enough to rattle her hormonal mind, because she started wallowing around, then stopped and stared in the direction of the cows- and I couldn't move her neck with the rein- she was froze up. To my experience, a horse  freezes up just before some kind of blow up- so I got off. I worked her around me on the ground for a bit, she was definitely not paying attention. I lined her out and headed back, leading her and every 20 feet or so, I'd work her in circles asking for a hip over and back up. I wasn't getting the back up at all and that's where I kind of lost my cool and got a bit mad- I know she has a terrific back up under saddle, and for her not to back up on the ground really ticked me off. Now, I don't like losing my cool with a horse, it's counter productive and doesn't solve anything. In my mind I could hear Buck Branaman and some of the advice he gave us in the clinic, so I kept working on getting to her mind through controlling her feet. I did try getting on her twice more, but she still wasn't with me so it wasn't worth the battle. Once we got home, I rode her in the round pen  (safer for me) and worked her until we had everything going smoothly.

I hope she comes out of heat soon. I was told that she has really strong heats and it's difficult to ride her during them; her show owner used to put her on regumate during show season. I am putting her on raspberry leaf and Shayla recommended Sharp Edge Mare Mix  so I think I'll try it.

I guess it's my turn to have mares who have difficult heats- I've owned mares for decades and never ever had these issues; in fact I rarely knew when they were in heat.

Earning their keep

Nitro on the left packing salt in for a rancher, that's Rio on the right with his girl, and their friend on her nice dun mare. Good boyz!

Me and Rosalee

Yes, that's her name. Ever since I got her I've been thinking of the Bellamy Brother's song "The Ballad of Tumbleweeds and Rosalee" and I just couldn't get it out of my mind when I was trying to think of a name for the yellow mare. She is so pretty, I wanted a name that reflected that. I even looked through names of yellow roses, but nothing came up. So I had a little chat with her, told her that dolls were just toys and that I wanted to name her after the prettiest thing I could think of and that is roses. So her name would be Rosalee. I swear, when I said that, her eyes got all soft and she looked really pleased!
Anyway, I borrowed a Vic Bennett reining saddle from Shayla because my regular saddle was giving her dry spots. The weather here is hot and muggy, and if I wait for cool weather it could be a while, so I saddled up and headed out with Tess and Thea.

I don't think the colour of the saddle suits her, but it fit her really well and was a good fit for me too. I might look for something similar in a darker oil.
Since it was too hot to go the 6 mile river loop, I opted for the hayfield ride again. It is about a 2 mile round trip- and it was almost too much for Tess, who is out of shape because I haven't been taking her out on trails for about a year now. She made it though and I made sure she went in the dog tub as soon as we got back. Thea is fitter with way less hair so she was fine.
As we started out, Thea thought she should be working the mare, so she was flip flopping from side to side and taking little runs at the string tail I tied onto Rosalee's hock length tail. As the ride progressed, she got over that. It annoyed Rosalee but she was pretty good, only swinging her neck at the dog and pinning her ears when Thea did the fly-by.

Unlike most people, I have never actually hankered after owning a palomino or a red dun; I've always loved the bays and blacks. But like Mark Rashid says, a good horse is never a bad colour.

When we got back I checked her sweat marks for dry spots- there were none.

Ted is working on installing the puckboard inside my horse trailer, should be done in a couple of days if he doesn't get interrupted. Than my plan is to haul Coulee and Rosalee to the big arena in Canyon and work both mares. I'd like to get Coulee going now that all the body work is done on her; she shouldn't have any issues. Even if I just pony her, it might help her get along with Rosalee but I'd really like to get riding her.

Belle's colt update

Isn't he a handsome little dude!

Belle, on the other hand, looks like she really needs to come home for some TLC.

Coulee talks

Ever since I got Coulee and discovered that she is the equine version of Grumpy Cat, I have tried my best to eliminate anything that may be causing her behaviour. I got her teeth done, she has had an equine sports therapist work on her twice, and I bred her in hopes of relieving her hormonal stress. Still, she is crabby, and while I know that it's her nature to be that way, I wanted to make sure that I had explored all the avenues available to me to help her.
Yesterday, I had a session booked with an animal communicator, Dana Meier. I didn't tell her anything about Coulee, just that I'd be interested in hearing what she has to say. It got very interesting right away- she does this type of visualization where she approaches the horse and goes through all the different parts of the body and reports anything she finds, and then goes on to talk about the mental/emotional side of things. She doesn't claim to be completely accurate, just reports what she is getting from the horse.
Right off the bat, Coulee said she wanted to be asked permission to be touched,  and Dana picked up right away on her crabby nature. Then Coulee told her about how and where her neck was stiff and her back was tight and sore, and that she had tight extensor tendons on the front of her hind cannon bones. Now, Dustin had just worked on her a few days ago, and he found a lot of stuff out on her back including a twisted vertebrae, so I think that her body is adjusting to being aligned right. Dana suggested using a mini thumper massager on her and I just happen to have one, so after the session I gave her a "thumping". Which she seemed to enjoy.
When asked if she had always been grumpy, Coulee said yes. She also gave Dana the impression that it's nothing I am doing that makes her grumpy, it's just the way she is. (That was a relief to hear.) She was also a bit alarmed when I told Dana that one of the reasons I booked the session was that I was trying to decide whether to keep her or sell her- she does not want to leave.
Dana didn't pick up on any hormonal issues with Coulee, so I asked if the reason was that she had been bred and was probably pregnant and we got a big Yes! She is happy to be pregnant. So I think my plan of helping her in that way worked. Her previous owner used to give her a drug to keep her from coming in to heat because of her raging hormones.
Then we got on the subject of the other mare, why she is so crabby to her. Apparently Coulee thinks my new mare is smug, and that Coulee is afraid that the mare will kick her. I know where that fear comes from; the new mare is in the same stall that Chino was in when she came here for breeding, and Coulee got into a couple of kick-fests with Chino so perhaps she thinks that any mare in that stall is out to get her. Coulee seems to think the best defence is offence.

It's ok Coulee, nobody will hurt you. I only want to get along with you.

Also I asked about the name for my new mare; I'm having such a hard time naming her and that is unusual for me. Dana asked her about that and it seems she really likes the name Dolly! (the name she came with). And she likes to be called Princess too. Really? Seriously? Do we have a prima donna here?  (Coulee thinks so.) We tried a few options from my short list and the only two she didn't mind are Rosalee and Billie.
All in all I think it was a good session and that I didn't waste my money ($30) What I got out of it was some more things I can do to make Coulee feel better physically, and that I can respect her desire to be left alone while at the same time letting her know that I think she is beautiful and that I'm happy with her and won't sell her. I'm glad to know that I'm not causing her any of her problems.

First trail ride

I got invited to go on a short trail ride yesterday.
My as-yet-unnamed mare used to be in a pen of geldings and she came to me with a lot of nicks and hair missing, so I assume she had a bit if a rough go with the geldings.
As we lined out for the ride, a gelding was a bit behind her and off to one side and she nailed him with a hoof to his chest/shoulder. The day before he is to get his paperwork done to go barrel racing in the US and the day after he got worked on by the same guy who worked on my mares. I sure hope he is okay. So now I know to make sure this mare doesn't get in striking range of other horses on a trail ride. She was good with the dog being right behind her, and I hope this was just a one time occurrence, but she won't get a second chance.
Other than that, it was a good ride, she seemed quite relaxed in the bush, followed well and didn't get anxious when the other horses got out of sight. She has a lovely long trot, such a big stride compared to what I am used to.

My next ride on her will be down the road here to the river and back. It's a 6 mile round trip; I need to get my dogs out following so Tess can teach Thea proper trail riding etiquette; follow behind and stay off the road. Yah right..... we will see how the puppy does!

Sunday smiles

Beamer got to be a kids horse today. A family with 3 children came over and as a birthday gift for their youngest daughter wanted to give her a ride on a horse. So pulled Beamer out of his pen, slicked him up and saddled him and introduced them to him. My B Boy was on his usual stellar behaviour as kids climbed on, loved up on him, and got led around. All 3 of them wanted to trot as well as walk and you should have heard the giggles!

Thea loved the kids and had to be underfoot all the time- literally, as Beamer stepped on her toe. Good thing it's deep grass, she didn't get hurt. After we put Beamer in his pasture, and Coulee out in hers, I introduced them to my as yet nameless yellow mare. I brought her out and put them up on her bareback- not riding, just sitting on her. She was really good.

This is my favourite photo of the day. I let their dad use my camera, he took all these photos and gave me permission to use them on line.
I love seeing how happy children are around horses and dogs.

Riding whats'r name

I got the hayfield ride in today. To start with, the mare didn't pay much attention to me as she is really trying to befriend the other two horses; Coulee is jealous of her and Beamer thinks she should come live with him and the poor girl has to be separate from them so she was listening to them instead of me. 5 minutes in the round pen fixed that; I have some work to do to get her to sidle up to the fence for me to get on; she isn't bad but does move her hip out. If I mount from the ground she stands good, but it's easier for me to get on from a more level spot.
 Anyway, we headed out- no traffic and today's showers knocked the dust back so it was a nice little ride. I opted to leave the dogs home until I get to know her a bit better.
Riding a new horse out alone from her new home is a pretty good test too, and she passed with flying colours. She is curious but calm on the trails.

She's a long strided mare, so different from the horses I usually ride. Doesn't seem to walk out with energy but that may change when I start riding with others- next week.
I have her on Step 8 to help her regain some weight as well as Hoffman's minerals and all the grass hay she can eat. And I hand graze her after we ride. Once we move she will have her own grazing paddock - I foresee fencing in my future this fall!

Smell the roses, don't eat them!

Meanwhile I am still racking my brain for a name for her. Start firing suggestions this way please! 

Something feminine, a little bit Western would be nice, or something classic. Not a name that plays on her colour (like Goldie, Brandy, Sunshine etc.)