Beamer photo shoot

Beamer got some turnout the other day in the foaling pen, which is next to the mare's pen. He had a blast! Lots of hollering at first, and then the mares stood back far away from him- except Jayne who has much less drama then Gussie and Belle. She just calmly kept munching on her hay pile. 

There were several times when Beamer did his power take off and exploded into a gallop as he went from the smaller enclosure into the bottom part of the pen, but I didn't manage to capture it in a photo as I was just enjoying watching him- such a powerful horse! And a couple of times Moondance visited with him at the fenceline and they matched steps running along it. 

Lots of teeth clacking going on there

Sire and son

Digging in...

Keeping in frame....

Shenanigans...

Making sure I am getting all the good shots....

Once he wore off some of his exuberance it was posing time - and he sure can strike a pose!

He still makes my heart go pitterpat, and I still feel blessed to have him in my life. 

That's all folks!

Moondance and an Eli update

I finally got that photo I wanted to show Moondance's cute li'l ears

He is a good little boy, although next year at this time I won't be calling him little!

Got an Eli update, and oh my he is huge!

Last time she measured him he was 14.2 I think he is a little taller now! 

Pistol update

Pistol was sent to the trainers for a couple of months and has now joined his brothers as a working member of the herd. (Rio, Kai, Nitro and Josie are all there)

https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/cd+shiny+pistolena

A ride and a redo

I enjoy ponying Moondance. He is such a cool little dude! He bravely goes through any brush, branches, rough ground etc. that comes along. 

I took him down to the south end of my river ride, which was a lot of riding through brush and finding new trails where there were trees blown down over my usual route. He handles everything so well! 

This is as far as we can go as there is a fence across the dyke just beyond this spot. Remember this spot, by the way....

Moondance also is getting his ration tied up in the barn, as I now have Gussie separated from the herd in the pen he used to be in. So I put him in the barn and hang out with him while he eats. Of course, that becomes opportunity to do stuff like laying a saddle blanket on him...

with a little help from Thumper!  Moondance didn't care one little bit. I am super happy with this colt. 

Sometimes you just get a connection with a horse, last time for me it was with Stella, and I get the same feels with Moondance. He feels like my horse. I had the feeling he was special even before he was born and so far I am not disappointed. 

After riding, I was emptying my vest pockets and discovered that I had left a bank card and a store points card in my pocket- only the points card was missing! I remember when I put them in my pocket when I was gassing up the truck and thinking I had to remember to put them back in my wallet, and of course I forgot. So I planned to get on Gussie first thing in the morning and retrace my route- the card must have fallen out one of the 3 times I pulled my phone out of that pocket to take a photo. We retraced our route, which actually made for a nice ride as I did it a little faster than I did while ponying Moondance. Sure enough, it was at the farthest point of our ride- remember I said, remember this spot? 

Yup there it was! I was glad to find it as I can get 40 bucks worth of groceries with the points I have built up. 

On the way back a light rain started, and I really enjoyed the smell of the damp woods and the muffled hoofbeats.

The rain really started coming down just after I got Gussie unsaddled, so the timing was perfect. 

Riding day 47 and 48

Mixing it up

We have had wet weather the last couple of days. 

Wet turned to white for a couple of hours today

I have been keeping an eye on the herd dynamics lately, as it seems Jayne isn't allowed to go in the shelter especially if I feed in there. And since a few inches of rain have turned the pens soggy, I pretty much have to feed in there. So I decided to try putting her in with Moondance . He has been weaned for over a month now. 

So far, so good.... She did kick at him once but then settled in. I checked later in the day and they were standing quietly. I had their hay in the big tub as well as along the back wall and Jayne pretty much rooted all the hay out. so I took the tub out. 

Moondance seemed to enjoy having company. He did a little performing for me 😄

This afternoon at feeding time, I hung out and watched both sets of horses. Jayne wasn't letting Moondance in the shelter, she kicked at him a couple of times. And in the big shelter, Gussie wasn't letting Belle in  to eat. Darn those red heads! So I did a switcheroo. Jayne and Moondance went in with Belle in the big pen/shelter, and Gussie earned isolation in the foaling pen/shelter. I watched for quite a while to make sure this was a good arrangement. Moondance tried one slurp on Belle so I smacked his butt and then once things settled down he didn't try again but just went to eating. 

Even if he does try to nurse, Belle doesn't have any milk and I hope she will discourage him. If she does come back in to milk I will have to separate them again.

Meanwhile....

Gussie seems quite happy to have alllll that hay to herself! It will be interesting to see if this changes her herd bound behaviour and separation anxiety.

Crossing the river

Crossing the river here is something I have been doing all along, but knowing where to go once  I top up on the other side was what I didn't know, as it tops onto farm fields. Apparently one farmer installed a gate so riders can go through, and another one allows us to ride the edges of his fields and come out on the road without having to go through fences. 

I started out at the place of the lady with the champagne Tennessee Walker mare, and we joined up with another lady who is her neighbour and also rides a TW. This lady knows all the crossings. 

We had just gone through the gate here

 The trail from here went down to the river and the crossing is between our place and the swimming hole. 

From there we headed west along the dyke with a short detour to show these ladies the path through the bush that goes to my horse pens.

Crossing #2 was one I have done before too, it has a really steep trail to climb on the other side.

The crossing here has a man made row of rocks placed as a bit of a dam as they draw river water for irrigation; that's their pump shack on the other side.

The bottom part isn't as steep as the top....

We stopped part way up for a view shot. The river is a long way down!

The horses chugged their way up to the top and we broke out on hayfields that sadly are getting plowed up to install yet another orchard. So many orchards in our valley. Since we wanted to ride a little longer we opted to explore a trail that went back down to the river, and we had a bit of a dicey way to get off the trail and over some rather large rocks to get to the river crossing. We all opted to get off and lead our horses down to the rivers edge.

Gussie butt photo! We did use the rocks as mounting blocks to get back on. This crossing was actually in between the 2 other crossings. We headed back up to the dyke once across and went up to the swimming hole.

From there we crossed again (#4) and headed back up the original hill we started out on. 

You can see the sweat on Gussie's neck. She has been getting a work out this last week! 

Now that I know the routes, I can ride to my friend's place in about 15 to 20 minutes, and from there go for rides on the airport trails. As long as the river is low that is!

I took Moondance out ponying the next day. He ponies like a pro now! 

He sure is a cool little horse. Well... not so little! At 5 months old he is over 12.2 hands at the wither (50 and a half inches) and 51 inches at the hip- 12.3 hh. His leg measurement is 16 inches, so he is on target to be 16 hands or close to it, just like all his brothers.

I am going to try for a photo from the front when he has his ears pricked- he has Beamer's ears!

Riding day 45 and 46

Yahk

For a long time I have been wanting to take a ride with my friend who lives at Yahk, a small community between Creston and Cranbrook. It's mountainous country, heavily timbered, with a network of old logging roads and skid trails.

We are all riding mares 😎

 Finally got together with a group of ladies and we went on a ride that started out with  a steep overgrown skid trail- 15 minutes of climbing with a couple of rest stops.

It topped out on a logging road that we followed for a few kilometers, enjoying some fall colours; the leaves are just starting to change here. It will be more spectacular once the tamarack trees start to turn yellow.

We had 3 bridge crossings; the grey mare was the bravest and led everyone across each time. The little black mare was not too sure about it and had to be led across the second one but by the 3rd bridge all the horses were good. 

Today I will be riding again- a local ride that will show me a trail from the river crossing by our place up to where my friend lives - we will be starting from her place. 

Riding day 44

Ride n roll

Took a town ride the other day; one of my friends has her horse on a town acreage and I wanted to show her a ride she could do in town that takes you up to the radio tower hill where you can overlook the whole beautiful valley. 

It sure was another nice day for riding. 

Gussie was a pain to load again; she does try my patience! And once again she loaded perfectly for the trip home. 

Moondance is turning into a real sweetheart. When he sees me coming he moseys over to where I am- and I mean mosey! This is what a "mosey" looks like:

Nonchalantly strolling up, head swinging from side to side, not a care in the world! 

However this evening I took him out to go for a walk, and I noticed this:

What now! Has the wonder year started before he is even 5 months old?  I inspected and found that he lost some hide up on the inside of his thigh and scuffed his other  leg too. So I did a little CSI work...\

and it looks like Moondance rolled right next to the fence and hooked his legs through the second from the bottom wire. Which by the way, is hooked to the hotwire.... . Pulled out one staple which I haven't found yet. This wire is neither high tensile nor barbed, so the damage is minimal, just some hair and a bit of hide missing.  

This is what the fence looks like after I fixed it; Now Moondance, don't be rolling there any more!

He stood really well for hosing it down .

I tightened the wire and replaced the staple. I think he will be a little wary of it in the future- this is him as I was working on the fence:

He's no worse for the wear, although I do think he may be a little stiff tomorrow.

Riding day 43

Riding season

Autumn is my favourite time of year for riding. There is a sense of completion - things have been done for the year; the garden has produced and been harvested, the firewood for the winter is in the woodshed, the projects envisioned have been (mostly) completed, the foal is weaned, the mares are bred, now it's time to just enjoy the beautiful crisp mornings and sunny days that are the prelude to winter.

Moondance is doing really well. He has had a stress free weaning and seems to enjoy having his own space where he can still hang out next to "his" mares, and talk to his daddy on the other side of the alley. He follows me around politely while I pick up his manure piles and put out his feed. He is a gentle colt, and it makes me happy every time I look at him. 

I ponied him again along the dyke, this time he followed along without any resistance as we wound through the bush trails, crossed logs, saw a grouse, and covered his longest distance yet.

I invited a friend along and went up to the local arena to work on Gussie's softness and transitions; sometimes it's good to give the older horses a refresher. Always love the view at that arena, it's right up at the base of the Skimmerhorns.

The next ride was back at the airport trails with friends, it was supposed to be a large group but there was a mis-communication and they went on a different route, so it was just me and the 2 ladies I had been riding with as we took to the airport trails, but both groups met up for lunch at the Golf Course restaurant, where we are allowed to tie our horses to the trees while we eat on their outdoor patio, Good burgers, by the way!

Hay fields at the end of the airport

The hill is steeper than it looks

Relaxed horses and riders on a beautiful day. This is what trail riding is all about- just enjoying.

The squeak of saddle leather and the sound of hoofbeats. All is well!

Gussie seems to be getting over her reluctance to get in the trailer, I think she enjoys getting out on the trails as much as I do. Previously she would get in and right away turn around and face rearward, so I hauled her like that, but the last couple of times she let me tie her in at the front, which is good as I need to be able to close the divider when I go on my next ride as I will be hauling another friend's horse. 

For the record, I don't argue with a horse once they are in the trailer- that is a recipe for getting hurt or killed. I'm always cautious about loading. The only problem with this type of trailer is that it's risky getting up in that corner to tie them in. If they try to turn and leave before you get the tie done you can get mashed. It always helps if there is another person to swing the door almost closed while you tie so that the horse doesn't think about leaving as Gussie is doing in this photo- she was wanting to turn and face the rear. Horses are naturally claustrophobic so I totally understand, being that way myself!

Riding days 40, 41 and 42

End of summer and 1st day of Autumn

And it was a lovely day for a trail ride. 

Gussie, apparently, didn't think so. It took me 15 minutes to load her. Lately, she has become herd bound which only manifests when it's time to load her in the trailer. She knows how to load. She always loads perfectly after the ride and it's time to go home! Looks like I will have to work on that, and load and unload her a bunch so that loading isn't always about leaving the farm. Silly mare. 

This ride was out at the airport trails, my 3rd ride out there in the last few weeks. This time we rode to the top of the ridge (west side) overlooking the Kootenay River valley. The smoke has cleared, but on the USA side of the border they are burning off the stubble fields so there was still some smoke in the air.(we are so close to the border here.)

My friend's horse is a champagne coloured Tennessee Walking horse mare. Gussie had to hustle to keep up to her.

We wound our way through the forest, some old growth huge trees and some new growth, and then there was this gnarly birch tree. It looked like the fungus growing on it were stepping stones on a climbing wall.

Of course once we got out of the trees and headed back to the farm, the view was just as spectacular on the east side of the ridge.

The last day of summer was a good one too- I ponied Moondance again, this time we went all the way to the swimming hole. He is getting this ponying thing figured out! 

That is, until we came to his very first steep little hill. We're talking a drop of about 3 ft. that takes Gussie one stride to go down. He was like uh-uh no way I can go down there! So I found another way to go. But we had to drop down off the dyke to get to the river- this time, he had to come. So I dallied up and put Gussie in gear and the little guy had no choice. Once again, it was not a big hill, a gentle one but he just isn't used to anything but the smooth ground of his pens. 

He was not sure about the river when he first saw it! This is where it's invaluable to have a good calm quiet horse for company to instill confidence in the youngster. 

He also was NOT going in the river! So once again, I dallied up and he had to follow Gussie into the water. Once he was in he was quite intrigued. I think next time he will follow along without any fuss.

When we got back, Moondance got to chill out at the trailer with Gussie, standing tied like an ole broke horse.

The flies are quite pesky at this time of year!

Riding day 38 & 39