Smokey

After Katie came Smokey. He was the neighborhood horse. He was born across the road (same place that black came from) and had been passed from neighbor to neighbor, never leaving the block. When our neighbors decided to move they decided to make sure Smokey stayed on the block and offered him to us.



Of course I was ecstatic to have another horse, let alone a black horse. What girl doesn’t dream of a black horse? What we soon came to find out was that Smokey was a 30 yr. old Chickasaw horse. In case you are wondering the breed no longer exist. I also learned that my bus driver had ridden him when she was younger and he pulled the same stunts on her then that he pulled on us 20 something years later.

I’m attaching the only information about the breed that I was able to find when I was searching.

Letter From the American Indian Horse Association

Letter From Horse & Rider

Horses & Ponies Book Page 1 (Photo Page)

Horses & Ponies Book Page 2

Horses & Ponies Book Page 3 (Photo Page)

For a comparison to the above photo



Horses & Ponies Book Page 4

Horses & Ponies Book Page 5

Horses & Ponies Book Page 6

Smokey's Registration Papers (front)

Smokey's Registration Papers (back)

Katie and Smokey enjoyed each other very much.




Smokey was the first (and thankfully only so far) horse that I have had until death. At the ripe old age of 34 the cold winter temperatures just became too much for him to take.

A horse (pony) of my own

In 1988 after many years of being horse crazy my parents finally broke down and bought us a pony. A friend of ours went with us to the Ankeny Sale Barn and helped us pick out Katie. She was your ideal starter horse - not! She was a 13 yr. old barrel pony, but she was beautiful!

Since we hadn’t planned on buying that day mom and dad had to buy a halter for her and find someone to haul her home. I had no saddle, no bridle, nothing! We finally got a bridle but still no saddle. That is when my grandfather gave me one to “borrow” until I got one of my own (I still have that saddle).

We (my sisters and I) shared Katie but that didn’t last long. She quickly learned she could buffalo my sisters so my Grandfather got on her so he could teach her a thing or two.

After grandpa left she started right back up with her normal behavior so my dad decided to get on and show her how it was done (this is the ONLY time I've ever seen my dad on a horse).

Notice the nice gaping mouth? She liked to run through the bit when you'd say whoa. To her that was an option and one that she usually didn't like to take.

While Katie wasn't the idea starter horse I'm thankful every day that my parents bought her for us. Had I started out with an old dead broke horse I'm not sure I would know the things I know today. Katie was always pushing me to learn new things.

Don't you just love the make shift tie down, tight reins, no heeled shoes, arm inside of my shirt and oh yes, the all mighty bowl hair cut.

A trip down memory lane

Well I finally got off of my lazy duff and sent the paperwork into AQHA for Lucy and Cat. I got my new ID number in the mail yesterday so I decided to do a few searches. That lead to looking up old horses I had owned.

I found that TJ, the first foal I purchased and trained, is only a few minutes away from me & that Foxy (aka Rahja) was still in MN but with a new owner. I googled both of their names and Foxy pulled up on a forum so I opened an account and PM'd the woman. She has had Rahja for 3 years now and loves her. It was nice to know that she was in a new home.

So with that I decided to come home and pull out the scrap books. I'm in the process of scanning them all to my computer so you might get overloaded with old photos.

Here are a few to start off:




Tee Jayz Roman Bar

This was my first cold TJ. I picked him out when he was just a few months old and paid $400.00 for him. I was told by several peole that I would never do well with him & that I needed to save my money and buy a more expensive prospect. I believed in him and he helped me prove them all wrong.

Below is Stormy (aka rotten little shit). She was Nikki's second foal. She was foaled the same year Sis was (2000) and we had planned on keeping her for Chase but that thought quickly died as she seemed to have her daddy's attitude.










Then we have Max. This is Brady (my oldest nephew) showing him in a showmanship class. This one is a pop quiz and I will give out bonus points to anyone who can look at this picture and tell me what is wrong w/it (except for Traci).



I'll leave you with this for now. I'm going to try to finish my scan and then I'll put them in order of how I/we owned them.

NHR - Animal Neglect **WARNING** Photos may be too graphic for some

Just down the road from mom & dad is a cattle farmer. I'd say he is in his mid to late 40's, single and he still lives at home with his elderly parents. He owns a few houses that he rents out. We actually rented from him prior to the house we are in now.

I have ridden past his place and his cattle since I was a little girl so it wasn't very easy for me to ride past the other day to see his cattle looking sick and underfed. DH told me that someone turned him in but nothing has been done so I decided to take matters into my own hands after seeing a cow trying to eat a pile of net wrap that was once on a big bale.

FYI - DH was my camera"man" so I think the following pictures are pretty good considering.

Wednesday when we rode past I thought this cow was calving. According to DH today she is dead and in the exact same spot we saw her on Wed.



There is no food for them to eat. Just dirt & trees.




This poor cow was still eating the net wrap today since there was no food to eat.



I will never understand why people feel this is an acceptable way to treat our animals.

Spring is in the air

Yesterday was lovely (52*) so I had planned to ride after work. I told DH Chase could go with me and go on Max. He had already ridden him once so I didn’t figure he’d be too bad. When I called DH to tell him I was on my way he said there was a little girl in the barn that was just dying to go with. My niece is so horse struck that she reminds me of myself when I was younger. I wish Chase had some of her passion. Unfortunately my rule is one adult per kid when we are on the road.

I made a phone call up to the house and my sister agreed to swap kids (she’d take Ty and I’d take Shari) and Brandon said he’d go with so we all saddled up for a ride. I wanted to ride Abby one more time to see how she was going to do so Lu was left back at the barn.

I did get video of Black being saddled so you can see how pissy she is but I can’t seem to figure out how to rotate it so once I do I’ll post it. She has a chiro appt. next week that I am hoping will help but I have a feeling that it is so ingrained into her that even if she feels better it will still take time.

Here is Chase (showing off since he’s on Max), Shari, and DH.



Shari was afraid Nikki was going to take her in the ditch.



The boys yapping their traps.



I’m not quite sure how Chase got out in front but can you see the nice tuck Max has to his head?





Chase looks so little on Max.



Nikki & Shari were bringing up the rear.



That old black mare. *smirk*



One of the things we need to work on with Chase is keeping his hands down.



DH took that a little too literally and got a bit too relaxed on Black.



I lost my patience with Chase a few times. He’d say whoa but really mean easy and then he’d let Max keep on walking. He was also in Max’s face a lot! I realize he’s a kid but he needs to decide if he wants to ride or not. Right now he just enjoys showing off. He was telling Shari what a great rider he was and honestly she rides a lot better. I thought Max did very well dealing with all of Chase’s antics. At one point I caught Chase clucking and kissing just to do it. And this is why I’m training Abby to ignore him. *sigh*

One the way home I heard a bit of a commotion. I looked back to see DH quickly dismounting off of Black as Nikki was going down on Shari. This is something Nikki has always done. When she gets tired she rolls. Usually she waits until she’s hot and sweaty but I guess she decided she was done with the ride. The kids aren’t coordinated enough to whack her when she goes down. I’m seriously considering putting a shock collar on the dock of her tail and zapping her when she starts to go down.

Like a trooper Shari got back on and we headed back home.

Lucy was happy to see us.

Make the right thing easy

Yesterday I was asked if I thought I could have Chase & Abby ready to go for the Horse Fair in April. They want to open up the drill team pattern with little kids. I think this is a cute idea but I’ve very cautious about it.

For starters it is one if their first events this year. They have new horses in a new environment at high speeds and from past experiences something is bound to go wrong. Add into the mix children on horses that are in new environments at high speeds and I just see an accident waiting to happen. Abby’s worst gait is loping. She just isn’t a high energy pony. She also hasn’t been exposed to those types of environments. While I realize most of the time she takes things with a grain of salt I’m not sure I’m prepared to see what she “might” do. Yes, I’m being the overly cautious mother. I’d almost feel safer putting Chase on Max. At least I know he’d lope and he’s been in the coliseum before.

With that being said I’ve known I needed to invest some time in Abby for a while so last night I decided to take her out. I knew what I needed to do so I had no goal (distance wise) to meet. I just wanted her to walk down the road on a loose rein without balking.

One of the things that *I* am trying to do (which is really difficult for me) is ride more like Chase. So when I first asked Abby to go and she didn’t I thumped her with my legs lightly like Chase would have. We got to the road and got about 5 feet down it before she decided to turn back for home. I asked her with my reins to continue down the road but she refused. This was when the “fun” kicked in.

I wasn’t going to keep her from going home but if she did she was going to do it on my terms. We headed back home at a strong trot. As soon as we got to the barn gate I used it to do rollbacks (she’s fairly athletic). Once I thought she was going to die I trotted her back to the road and then politely asked her to walk down the road. Periodically I would squeeze w/my legs like I was scared and if she sped up I slowed her down. When she ignored me or slowed down I released the pressure.

We did this for quite some time until finally I was able to walk her past the neighbors house nice and quietly without her even thinking of going home. When we got to the open field I let her stop and rest and flexed her. We stayed there for about 10 minutes and then I dismounted, rubbed her head and walked her home. I’m going to try to do this again tonight to see how much she retained.

We Loped!

Saturday we went to MIL’s to help her get ready for Sunday. Cat is shedding and I had white hairs all over my jacket just from touching her. She’s kind of an orange/cream color at the moment. She is still very short but she is wide. She’s going to be built when she’s done growing.

Sunday we had drill practice. Two members were gone so I had to fill in. I was told we were just walking & maybe some trotting so I figured Black could keep up no problems. When we got to practice we started off by walking around to warm them up like normal. She proceeded to pin her ears and look nasty but never acted on it. She seemed to come out of it quicker then she did the last time we were there.

We started the pattern and she was doing well. They started picking up speed so I pushed her up into a trot. There were a few spots where they went into a lope and I had her going as fast as I could at the trot but we weren’t keeping up and I wasn’t going to push her anymore.

After the first round I decided she was tired and got on Omar (Terry’s 20 something ½ Arab gelding that I rode last year for the last performance). Matt (our drillmaster) jumped on Black and I jumped on Omar. OMG was his saddle uncomfortable & his stirrups were a foot longer then my legs. He looked like a jockey in my saddle though. LOL

One of the little girls put her hooded sweatshirt over her horses head for grins and giggles. To all of our surprise Black’s head came straight up in the air and her eyes got very wide. She didn’t move but she definitely didn’t care for it. We all got quite the chuckle out of that.

We ended up loping parts of the second run and on this run MIL and Sis were in with us. Sis was full of it. This really was her first time out this year (I had jumped on her bb for 5 minutes the day before but that doesn’t count). Sis was foaming up by the time the run was done. We did another run and this time I used Sis to burn some of her energy off.

We did one final run and MIL needed Sis back so I tried Black again. When we got to the first pinwheel I pushed her a little more then normal and she broke into a lope and stayed in it! I ended up getting her in and getting her to stay in a lope in several places. She feels so weird compared to the other horses when she is loping. When I sounded so surprised that I got her into a lope I had a few members ask me if she was young. I had to chuckle when I told them she was 24.

It is supposed to be lovely tomorrow and Wednesday so I am hoping to get little Ms. Lu Lu out for a road ride sometime this week. I can tell she’s getting bored. She has to mess with everyone that walks by her stall. She has to make sure we realize she is still there.

She just couldn't take it

Lately MIL has been depressed. I can hear it in her voice and read it in her words. I know people get the winter blahs but she has them bad. Last night we were discussing our plans for Sunday. They need me at drill to fill in for a member that will be gone, Chase has 4-H and I have a board meeting. All 3 activities overlap & DH has to work so MIL was going to watch the boys for me.

As we were talking she informed me of how much she missed the drill team and how she wanted back on. She said it had taken her two weeks just to get the courage to tell me that. She felt silly since all last year she just wanted Sis at home. She had planned on joining the drill team by her but they sound more like a bunch of Parelli followers (I say this in a good way) who get together weekly vs. a drill team. She really did enjoy the drill team and she asked if I thought they would let her back on.

I made a few calls and they were happy to have her back. She starts practice on Sunday so now I have to find a new sitter. I called and told her last night and she was so excited I told DH she wouldn’t be going to sleep anytime soon because she sounded like she had drank and entire pot of coffee (she doesn’t drink coffee but she was wound).

I’m so happy for her. Of course they are thinking this will change my mind about being a permanent member vs. an alternate but I still don’t think that’s going to happen.

A Race Against The Sun

Yesterday I raced home to try to beat the freezing drizzle that was on its way so I could get in a quick ride. By the time I got out to the barn the overcast had already set in and my daylight was quickly escaping. I decided if I wanted to get any riding in I would have to hurry up so I pulled Black out and put her bridle on. I decided to skip booting her because that was going to take too much time. I figured if she got sore I could jump off and hand walk her home. I grabbed my crop in anticipation of some resistance and off we went.

I LOVE riding her bareback. I just melt into her back and it is so comfortable (at least for me anyways). Before we even got to the edge of the second driveway she was starting to show some resistance so I quickly introduced her to Ms. Crop. She decided going on a little further was a better option. We ended up making it to the neighbor’s house without any resistance when a car decided to come down the road. I decided to stop her and let her turn and face the car so she knew it was coming. After the car drove by I asked her to go back our original direction and she put her foot down (pun intended).

She likes to turn quickly (usually to the left) and try to run (trot quickly with her head up in the air) sideways when she wants out of work. If that doesn’t work then she backs up. She’s usually pretty close to the ditch and so if you are afraid of her falling you back off of the pressure and she wins. Well I didn’t back off. Her back foot slipped off into the ditch and she stepped out of it. I had anticipated that it would take her by surprise more then it did but it didn’t and when I didn’t release the pressure she backed up more and ended up being completely in the ditch. We weren’t in a shallow ditch either.

I had to grab her mane ½ way up her neck just to stay on. I think it took her a minute to realize what had happened and to get her composure. By then I had tapped her with my legs to encourage her to get out of the ditch. As soon as she was out I pointed her in the original direction we had been traveling and backed up my request with another visit from Ms. Crop. We didn’t seem to have any issues after that. We trotted from the one neighbor’s to the others and then when we hit the stop sign we turned around. Since she wants to “run” back home I made her walk a ways before letting her move up into a trot.

When we got back to the house we (I) decided to go on past it to the other neighbors. I could see where her stopping point with DH had been on Sunday and as she started to hesitate she was reminded of her recent visits by Ms. Crop and decided to move on. I baited her a little by letting her turn left to go home and then changing my mind suddenly. She did very well. Once we made it to the neighbors I hopped off and walked her home.

I drove it and we rode 1.6 miles with NO BOOTS! She seems to be improving daily!

Saturday we went for a family trip to a tack store that is a little over 2 hours away. Of course we found lots of stuff. Did we need it? Probably not but we did stimulate the economy.

DH and Chase got new ropes, we got some mane conditioner/detangler and I got a new show headstall and a new bit for Abby.

My new headstall (reins and rein jackets still need to be ordered)



And this is the new bit I got for Chase & Abby to try.



You can read more about it here.

I've decided he needs to learn how to ride one handed since that is how the majority of the world seems to ride plus he can hold the horn if he needs to). I want to get him riding comfortably that way & then we will move to two handed riding. This doesn't mean that CA is going to the side it just means it isn't going to be the primary focus right now for him.

I'm hoping this bit gives Chase the leverage he needs w/o letting him get in her mouth too much. If it doesn't work we can always change.

When we got back I put it on Black and hopped on for a bb road ride. She went a little ways and stopped. I asked her to go and she did for a few feet and then stopped again. Then when we got to the trees she started pulling the stuff she pulled with Chase with me (turning quickly and trying to trot home) so I tried to keep her in the direction I wanted her to go. She almost backed down into the ditch but I finally got her going forward again. Not to much longer down the road she did it again. I got after her a bit harder. She decided if she couldn't go home she was going to trot. More power to her! That didn't last long.

When she finally decided I wasn't caving she started walking out nicely down the road. She's not feeling too bad! We went to the stop sign & back (all the farther I had intended on going anyways) and then we turned around. It was pretty chilly so I didn't mind. I let her trot most of the way back. I was actually a bit surprised she felt up to it.



Sunday DH and I were going to go for a ride but we weren't seeing eye to eye so I rode Abby for a few minutes in the pasture with the new bridle and then put her away (I can tell her and I are going to have to come to a consensus this spring). I told him what to expect with Black and like always she did as I expected. He didn't push her through it because he was "afraid of her falling" so he just rode her in front of the house.

We are expecting nice weather later this week so I'm hoping to get out again but for now we are still dealing with the snow John sent us.

Things don’t always go as planned

Last night was beautiful! It was 62* out and I had hoped to take the kids and the horses for another walk. When I got to the farm I noticed Lucy was eating a bale of hay that was supposed to be behind electric fence. Right next to her was the neighbor’s cattle. Seems my cow horse wants to get friendly with her opponents.

I got the horses in and had Chase plug-in & unplug the fence while I checked it. Dad ended up coming out and just moving the bales further away from the fence while Chase had fun whacking the cows with my crop when they tried to push on the fence. I ended up walking the entire fence line and finding quite a few insulators that had popped out of the staples so I fixed what I could but it got dark fast so the horses got to spend the night in the dry lot.

I hate checking fence but it looks like this weekend we need to go out with a chainsaw (there are quite a few trees in the fence), a hammer and some staples. I at least got it cracking from 1.8-2.2 to 5.5. I’m not sure what a good zap is but the cows seemed to stay off of the fence when it was at 5.5. I can’t blame the cows for pushing on the fence. I just wish the neighbor would feed them a little more often.

A Family Affair

Last night by the time I got home I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to ride so I took both boys to the barn with me. The horses were a mess! It would have taken me 45 min. just to clean them up had I decided to ride and we had less then an hour of daylight left.

Chase & Ty helped me feed and after the horses had eaten I decided to take Abby and Black for a walk on the road. By this time my niece and nephew were in the barn so they went with. Brady (my nephew) held Ty while I walked Abby and Chase walked Black.

So picture this if you will: 2 horses, 4 kids and 1 adult walking down the road. I’m sure people wondered what we were thinking. Black was moving very well on the road without her boots. Abby was doing well too although she was a bit sore in the harder areas. We didn’t go very far before we stopped to turn around. When we did Chase took Abby, Brady took Black and I took Ty.

It didn’t take Ty long to get heavy so Abby helped out a little in getting him back to the barn. I threw him up on her back and held onto him while Chase led her. I’ve decided Chase and Lu have been dipping in the same flask because he couldn’t walk a straight line either. The kids had a blast. It is nice again to day and DH works so we might go on a “walk” again (only this time I’m taking the stroller).

Pictures!

I forgot to add my pictures to my last entry and I didn't feel like editing it so I just decided to make a new post. Here are my pictures from my ride on Abby AFTER our meeting.



Can you see how hot she is? Do you see her new blue CA halter?



I thought this was kind of cool too! She looks so fat!

Video for Barb

People ask me all of the time where we live compared to where the horses are kept. This video is pretty much a “real time” video of where we live and how I get to the ponies daily. I had to cut the video in half because there was quite a bit of traffic at the stop sign for some reason and I didn’t think anyone cared to watch cars go by.

*disclaimer*
I do not recommend you take video while driving.

Weekend Update

Friday night I headed out to the farm to meet DH after work. We had a birthday party for my mom that night so I knew we wouldn’t be staying long. Ty just loves to be in the barn so I decided to saddle up Black and take him for a short pasture ride. As soon as he got into the saddle he grabbed the reins and decided he was going to take matters into both hands (literally).

We rode around the pasture a bit but Black seemed sore so DH helped get Ty off and I took Black onto the road to see if she would do any better. Once I got her on the road she seemed to be a bit better. I think the mud in the pasture was harder on her compared to the solid surface of the road. We ended up riding to the neighbor’s house and back.

Saturday Chase & I decided to go for a ride. I told him I’d ride Abby and he could ride Black since Abby hasn’t been out yet this year. We started off down the road and Chase was doing great on Black. Abby was being slow and didn’t want to go but I’d forgotten my crop at home so I just had my hand to whack her with and that wasn’t getting me anywhere. By the time we got to the neighbors Black decided she was going home and Chase was having a hard time controlling her (not that she was that bad he just isn’t used to her style of riding).

Since Abby was being a pest too I decided to head back before someone got hurt. We unsaddled Black and tied her up (I think she was in a hurry to get out to the big bale so I had to let her know that wasn’t going to happen) and I took Abby out for a meeting. I took her out onto the road and did some LFR with her and then did the C pattern all the way down the road. Once we got past the point that she didn’t want to go past earlier I started to slowly make the work easier (easier away from home). She was dripping with sweat and would have done almost anything I asked at this point I think.

I sent her into a ditch, made my lead rope into a set of reins and hopped on bareback. We rode home nice and slow. I started desensitizing her to my legs. I’ve decided I don’t want her as sensitive as Max to legs since she is a child’s horse & Chase tends to balance with his legs at the moment. She was so tired she obliged to ignoring my cues.

When we got back to the house I jumped off and started the C pattern again. I’m going to make being at home a living hell until she figures out going down the road nice and slow is the better option.

Sunday we had drill practice. No, I’m not on the team per se but I did tell them I’d be an alternate in case someone got hurt or couldn’t make it. I’m going to take Black to practice so I can get her in shape. It is the best thing for her overall body. The arena had perfect footing. It was nice, soft, moist sand. I didn’t boot her and hoped I wouldn’t need to. She seemed to do very well on the footing.

As soon as the other horses got close to her she decided to bring out witchy black. She pins her ears and swishes her tail. I’ve decided it is a bluff that has apparently worked for her for years. When the other horses ignored it she quit but if another horse came towards her she was out of there. I think it will be good for her in that aspect.
We ended up filling in (which I hadn’t expected to do) and I had to trot her quite a bit (remember we’ve mostly been at a walk so far because of her feet). She was awesome. She gave it her all. We did the pattern twice and once I asked another member to fill in so I could give her a break. At one point when I was just walking her around I felt what felt like two bones grinding on each other under my saddle towards her left shoulder. She had taken a few bad steps prior but acted fine afterwards. We are trying to schedule a time with the chiro to look at her.

Terry thought maybe she’d be sore today from all of the work yesterday but DH called to say when he let her out she kicked, bucked and then hauled butt to the round bale.

Snow Ride!

Well not really a snow ride but we did go for a ride yesterday. The temps were in the 40’s and the sun is staying out later so I decided to take Lu for a ride down the road. I got to the barn, saddled her up and away we went down the road.

I might not be able to get Lu to move out in an arena but get her out on the road and her ears are forward and she moves right out. I knew I wasn’t going to get far since it was 5 o’clock and it typically gets dark just a little before 6 so I decided to head north of the house.

Since this was our first ride out I wasn’t too worried about actually training her. We both just wanted to ride. She was moving out at a pretty good clip but I could feel her starting to tense up as we headed past the neighbors. There were lots of deer in the field behind their house so just about every noise or movement made Lucy finch. I kept razzing her and taping her with my legs to try to get the spook out of her. I found myself clutching the reins and told myself to “just let go”.

On the way home I noticed myself holding her on the side of the road so again I had to remind myself to just let go. I honestly think Lucy would have walked straighter had I gotten her drunk before our ride. She refuses to go in a straight line. When I pull her to the side of the road she heads back to the center just as quickly as I drop the rein. If I don’t drop the rein I end up holding her there which I don’t want to do.

All in all we had a pretty nice ride and we got home right as it got dark. Char this picture is for you. I know it isn’t the best but I knew you’d appreciate it. She flinched when my phone made the “click” noise.



DH had tried to ride earlier in the day but said that Black was sore and Max’s hock was abscessing so he only managed to ride Black a short distance. When I got there Max’s abscess appeared more like a simple cut to me but DH is still worried and is taking him to the vet on Monday just to be safe. Black was a bit sore but I think the change in temps plus the fact that we are actually riding her are playing a role in that. I took her out and hand walked her a bit. She’ll be going with me to drill practice on Sunday.

Weekend Ride

This weekend we had unseasonably warm weather (45*). Saturday we started our day off shopping for horse items and ended up about an hour away at a tack store where we spent way too much money. When we returned I asked my mom if she would mind watching the boys while DH and I went for a ride.

I asked DH who he was going to ride. He wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to ride Black because he thought he was too big for her. Poppycock I said. He doesn’t weight that much more then me. He finally decided to ride her and I decided to ride Max. I figured if he had problems we could just switch.

I showed him how to saddle her up (she is very, very cinchy), we booted her front feet and we were off. As we were going down the road I asked him how she felt. He said “she feels weak”. I asked him what he meant & he replied by telling me she didn’t feel like she had much energy and like she was having a hard time walking. I told him to look backwards. When he did he could see that she had been sinking in and really sliding since the roads were so mucky. When he moved her to the middle of the road he felt the difference.

I turned Max around and headed back towards home and she just kept trucking along. We passed cattle, cars, truck, etc. - no problem. She was wonderful. When we got to the one road I told DH I was going to trot Max and he could trot Black to see how she felt. I told him he might have to nag her a little bit to keep her in it but I thought she’d try to stay up with Max. I told him we’d have to work on loping as she got stronger. I have never loped her under saddle. The last time we had her, her feet still weren’t good enough.

I started trotting Max off and when I turned to look DH and black were trotting. I asked him how it felt and he said not too bad. The next time I turned around to look they were loping. I giggled and asked him how that felt. He said like a rocking horse. He was very hesitant about Black when we got her but he was glowing as he rode her. He said she just “felt good”. He said he felt like they fit very well which made me happy.

We rode about one country block and she seemed to be in good spirits when we returned so hopefully we can keep getting her out and get her in shape. She lost a lot of muscle when she went to Michelle’s so we have some work to do getting it back on her.

Max was pretty good on the ride out. We rode on the buckle the entire way. On the way back we had words. He wanted to “rush” home and started pushing through my hands. We worked on it though and finally we came to an agreement.

It is supposed to be nice this coming weekend so I am hoping to get the horses out for another road ride.

Well Trained vs. Kid Safe

Wednesday night a friend of mine and I took the horses to the indoor. I took Black & Max and left Lu at home. I’m not sure how Mona would react to Lu’s bald spots (from the skin scraping) so I figured I wouldn’t go down that road right now.

Terry was going to ride Max and I was going to see how Black would do on the Nike footing. When we arrived we put the horses in stalls so they were out of the alley since the trainer was in the indoor riding. Terry asked me what I wanted her to do with Max and I told her to just treat him like she would any other horse. I wanted to see what he was going to do with her.

I brushed and saddled up Black and worked on her cinch problems (I think her heart point is out like Lu’s was because I could touch it with my hand and she’d pin her ears and swish her tail). Once the horses were saddled we headed into the arena for a little ground work. By now the trainer was out and it was all ours.

I didn’t really get to see Terry work with Max as I was focusing on Black. She really didn’t do too bad. She needs some work on yielding the HQ but she lounged fairly well. When I looked over next Terry was bridling Max and his head was way up in the air. I walked over and bridled Black.

Terry got on, flexed Max a bit (I did tell her to flex him but she didn’t release when his nose hit her toe) and started riding. She likes to ride with a bit tighter rein then what I ride with and Max wasn’t too happy about it. I hopped up on Black and we did some flexing (left side she could get to stirrup, right side she sat on my hand).

I tried not to say anything and just wanted to see how the two of them did together. I wanted to see how Max would react with a different rider. I’m not sure if she was tense but he wanted to go into a lope. When she got over by the manure tub he did a “mini spook” & that is when I said enough. I told him that he was testing her. She kept trying to take him directly up to the manure tub which seemed to make things worse.

I explained to her how to take him in a circle and then turn him into the tub and keep going. She tried but was doing it at a walk vs. a trot so it meant nothing to him. When she would turn him into the tub she would give him the opportunity to look at it vs. making him move his feet and keep going so it really wasn’t doing anything. He finally got tired of it and put his nose on the tub saying “there, now leave me alone”.

After that I had her put her hand on the buckle and put her hand and the rein on the horn and told her to keep her other hand off of the reins. I explained to her that if she felt he was going too fast she needed to do a ORS. She was also leaning forward a lot so I asked her to lean back. Once she got him moving he moved into a trot without being asked so she did a ORS. She wanted to pull back on both reins out of habit but didn’t. After about 5 minutes of walking around on a loose rein Max had relaxed and I think Terry had relaxed a bit too.
Then I had her move into a trot on a loose rein. He looked relaxed but she kept tipping forward and every time she would he would stop so we had to work on that. Then I showed her how to stop him off of her voice/seat. She thought that was pretty cool and I think once she knew she could do it she felt more comfortable.

She wanted to neck rein him which is fine but she kept dragging the reins over his neck and he was confused. I showed her how to move them over just slightly and when she did he would turn. After that I had her pick up the reins as soft as she could until she felt contact. He was very soft and very giving and it didn’t take her long to figure that out.

She said she felt dumb riding him. She’s ridden for a long time and said she felt like she had a hard time riding him. We both agreed that maybe this is why DH gets so upset with Max. He knows Max can do it but doesn’t understand how to ask him to do it.

I have a gal who is looking for a well broke horse who is trained JL style (similar but not exact to CA). She wants a horse her husband can trail ride on and that she can ride. The more I think about it the more I wonder. Can a truly broke CA or JL trained horse ever be husband/kid proof? A novice rider when they get on tends to squeeze or hold on with their legs. To a CA horse that means go. If the horse sped up the rider would more then likely squeeze more which to the horse would mean go faster!

I was really surprised to see Terry have as many problems with Max as she did so it really does make one wonder.

As for Black, she was a bit lazier. She spooked herself when she saw her reflection in the mirror but after that I kind of forgot I was even riding her around since I was instructing Terry. She did seem a bit sore but I think part of that is from her back feet (they are nasty) but she did trot out freely when she was following Max.

Far from dead

Everyone seems to get a bit nervous about the black mare when I mention her age (24). They get even more nervous when I tell them our plans for her. I keep saying that 24 is far from dead. I had a Chickasaw (look that one up, the breed no longer exist) gelding that died at the ripe old age of 32. We would run him in the pasture because we didn’t know how old he was until after he died and we found his papers.

Well last night was a beautiful night (for Iowa). We had a light dusting of snow and it was around 12* out with no wind so I decided to let Chase try to go sledding in the pasture. When we got there we got the horses in and then the kids headed off to the small hill.

I decided while the kids were playing to throw the bareback pad on Black and go for a ride. I remembered her saddling issues and was prepared but she seems to have gotten a bit worse. She was biting at the radio on the wall and turned to nail me a few times but my elbow was ready and waiting.

I grabbed my bridle and she took it very well and then we headed outside to mount up. I remembered she didn’t like things jumping on her and when I tried to do it she reminded me that she still didn’t like it so I pulled her over to the fence so I could slide on. As I was climbing the fence I let go of the reins for a split second thinking she’d stand still. NOPE! She took the opportunity and ran (literally).

She went into the barn where the other horses were at so I was hopeful she would stop. NOPE! She saw the open door on the back and was off again. She was all over the pasture and you could tell she felt good. Finally she landed herself at the big bale and I was able to catch her. I walked her back up to the lot and finally got on.

She still had plenty of energy and kept trying to trot with me to the big bale. It wasn’t anything serious (she wasn’t dragging me that way or anything) but it was funny. I told DH I hoped he didn’t expect an old dead horse because if this is what she feels like after one trim wait to see how she feels in the spring after she’s been under routine care.

I did check out her “whoa” and it still seems to be working and she also seems to be neck reining well too so I am hopeful that she will work out.

The trimmer was out on Monday and said that her heels were high and uneven and that could have been causing some of her pain. He also told me to treat her back frogs. I didn’t get out Tues. night because Ty was sick so when I checked her back frogs last night “blah” they were nasty. I decided to go ahead and put thrush buster in all of her frogs just to be on the safe side.

I was hoping to take her and Lu to Mona’s tonight but I don’t think that is going to happen. Ty still isn’t feeling well and DH will be home with him all day so I guess it will be my turn when I get home. The temps are supposed to be in the high 30’s low 40’s on Saturday so hopefully I can get them out then.

Can you believe it?

Thursday it was around 40* here so DH decided to take Max on a ride (can you believe it?). He took him down the road a few miles and when I asked how he did DH's reply was "he was an angel".

He said he stopped for a minute at the gate south of my parents and then stopped to check out the cows but other then that he was great.

Today we went and picked Black up. She could stand to gain a few pounds and her feet need some work but she's not nearly in as bad of shape (hoof wise) as she was when we got her.

When we got her (Sept. '07):





Today:







The trimmer comes Monday so we'll get her back on a normal schedule with her feet and we'll also start graining her a bit and watching her sugar intake. Hopefully it won't take too long to rehab her this time.

Video Update

Last night we headed to the indoor. It was 32* out so we were having a warm snap compared to what temps had been. I loaded up Lu and Max and Terry was going to meet me and ride Max while I rode Lu. I was pretty excited about that because I think it is always fun to see how the horses act with someone else on the.

When we got to the barn we did our normal brush and tack up routine. By the time Lucy was ready to go my phone was ringing. It was Terry and she wasn’t going to be able to make it. I was bummed but I understood.

I had taken my camera to get some new video for you but with her not being there I didn’t think I was going to be able to get any footage. That’s when it hit me. I could try to set the camera on the mounting block and just let it roll. Well it kind of worked. I forget my camera shuts off after about 2 minutes so I didn’t get as much as I thought I did and I wasn’t going to make Lu do it again.

So here is what we did get. This is LFR Stage I w/a twist. I want her to leave with a yes ma’am attitude but I don’t want her flying around like she normally does. I also want her coming into me after we yield the HQ instead of backing (you can see she isn’t backing anymore but she still is a bit resistant/hesitant to come in). I think she’s looking better but I’m always up for listening to constructive criticism.



Once we did the LRF it was time to get on. Lucy had a cob up her butt tonight and didn’t want to move. I asked for a lope and it was squeeze, cluck, tap, TAP, WHACK and then her heels would come up in protest and she’d finally go into a lope for a few strides and then we would repeat the above. It took about 20 minutes for her to figure out I wasn’t going to give up and she finally loped a few strides freely so I shut her down (I didn’t want to get her any hotter then she already was). We trotted a bit and then did some of the bending exercise (she getting better at this finally) and then I dismounted.

I moved her to an empty stall and untacked her. Mona’s barn (minus the arena) is heated so I had hoped it would help cool her out quicker. By this time Max was getting a bit fussy in the arena that his buddy was no longer there. Nothing big but it was annoying.

I did the LFR with Max and he did very well. Then we did some backing. He backs but crooked as a jay bird so we worked on straightening him up. After that I threw the bareback pad on and jumped on. I decided with him that I was going to work on ME. He is very soft and light so I wanted to see how soft I could ask for vertical flexion and get it.

We would trot a few strides with no contact and then I would slowly add contact until I could feel him give to the pressure and then I would immediately release and we’d go a few more strides and repeat. He is very soft if you allow him to be.

What I noticed is that yet again *I* am a lefty. I am constantly taking my horses counter clockwise so when it is time to go clockwise they aren’t nearly as soft. Is this their fault? Nope. 100% my fault. Going clockwise wasn’t as soft with Max (body wise not in his face). He wanted to drop his shoulder & cut corners so we worked on lifting him up and keeping him bent in the corners.

I was feeling very good about where our ride was at so we decided to do some loping. Not much, just enough to say we did it. I think he still needs to build his muscles back up before we push things too much. We loped one lap in each direction. He was cracking me up because when I would say good boy he would take that as “you can stop now” so we had to work through that a bit but I think that is a good problem to have with a half Arabian don’t you?

I’m not sure when I’ll get out next. Hopefully Saturday we’ll be going to look at Black and Sunday we are having Ty’s 2nd birthday party so I have a lot of stuff to get done before then.

Back in Black

This weekend I got an e-mail from the gal who purchased Black. She is going to be selling her and wanted to know if we were interested in having her back. It sounds like she’s fallen on some hard times and I don’t think she was prepared for the upkeep Black’s feet require.

I wasn’t quite sure how to approach DH about the offer to buy her back but I knew I had to at least ask. I was surprised at how open to the idea he was depending on how bad her feet have gotten.

According to the gal we sold her to she rode her last summer and some friends and their 5 & 7 yr. old kids rode her in an indoor in the fall. She said she is a bit sore on the hard ice but that she hasn’t abscessed since she had her. Needless to say we are going to go look at her on Sat.

My father will probably kill me if I bring home another horse but it won’t be the first time I’ve done it and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I’ll just have to pray we don’t have to move them anytime soon.

Our “hope” for Black is that she becomes DH’s roping horse (yeah I know). She is 24 but when she was here and her feet were on the mend she acted like she was 10 again. I’ve had horses live to be 34 so IMO 24 is far from dead. I know in her day they worked cattle off of her and ranch roped.

I told DH he’s going to have to take his roping dream down a notch. He wants a NFR roping horse but we can’t afford one (heck I’d like a trained reiner). He has been asked to do some ranch roping competitions with a few friends this year.

I’m not 100% on how the competitions work as I’ve seen a few different styles. Neither are very high impact on the horses like normal team roping is and I think it would be a good “starting point” for DH.

Here is one example of Ranch Roping. I think they are DQ’d if the horse gets out of a trot.



In the other example there are 12 or so cows that are grouped and numbered in groups of 3. As you cross the line your number is called and those are the cattle that have to be roped. A breakaway rope is used and your time ends after the last cow is roped and the rope breaks away.

We both figured if she doesn’t work then we can either try to rehome her or send her to live with MIL so I can have my horse back. LOL This would give MIL two riding horses so if we came over we could go for a ride without having to haul a horse over.

Here are some pictures of her from when we had her in case you don’t remember her.

Back from the Vet

I took Lucy to the vet last night to have some skin scrapings done to see what her “crud” was. I wanted to makes sure it wasn’t anything that would spread to the other horses or that would cause new problems this spring.

The vet took several samples of the “crud” but they were hard to find since I have been grooming her with the furminator. She also shaved off some hair and took some skin scrapings. She spent about 45 minutes under the microscope to tell me she didn’t see anything. She agreed with the other vet that rain rot was a possibility. She said the “crud” could be the puss from the rain rot lesions but that it was hard to tell since we were at the “end” of the cycle. She said that really Lucy’s hair follicles and hair shafts looked very healthy.

So for now I’m going to just ride her until her hair falls off (hopefully that doesn’t happen). If she has another skin issue we’ll try to retest while we are having the issues.

Update on the girls

I’m not sure if I posted this or not so I’ll just say it again in case. A few weeks ago MIL called me asking me to come over and help her with the girls. Apparently they have gotten pushy to the point of dangerous & one of them knocked her over and then the other ran over the top of her. Luckily I don’t think any hooves hit her body but it was enough to scare the shit out of her. I told her I’d come over but the weather didn’t cooperate.

This weekend we finally had “decent” weather (28 with wind gust) so I went over to help. With the horses in their stalls I showed her how to back them into the corner without leaving them an opening to bolt out of the stalls (and potentially over the top of her again).

We started with Sis. Once she was backed into the far back corner I had her change what side of the stall she was on by pointing. Basically I wanted her to keep her butt as a pivot point and just move her shoulder from one wall to the other. If she walked forward I backed her back into the corner and we repeated. She was a bit nervous (I think MIL has gotten a bit carried away with the stick) so we worked on it until she calmed down.

Once that was going well I put the halter on her and backed her in and out of the barn and her stall. After that I asked her to walk out of her stall with my hand on her jaw. If she went too fast or got in a hurry I put my hand on her nose and backed her back into the corner. She did very well so I let her go outside and we cleaned her stall while Cat threw a fit.

Once we were done with Sis’s stall we moved on to Cat. I back her into the corner just like I did Sis and then asked her to move her shoulder from wall to wall. We’ve worked on this at home before so she knew what to do and did it very well. When she moved back to the left side (my left side her right side) of the stall she was over shooting her left hip and was tipping it towards me so I asked her to yield her HQ back into the wall. This is where the fun began!

When I put pressure on Cat’s hip she immediately pushed forward into me so I asked her to back up. Her front feet immediately left the ground and she went into a full & very high rear trying to get away from the pressure. Needless to say she not only went up but came forward towards me since I didn’t remove the pressure. Needless to say that stick can make a nice impact on the jaw.

Once she came back down I kept the pressure on until she was back in the corner where she was supposed to be. Once there I released the pressure and let her soak in what happened. This happened several time. What I noticed was when I went for the left hip she pushed into me and this was where the “rear” started so I took her outside and did some LFR stage I and really got after that hip (didn’t need to get after the right hip).

Then we moved into the barn and did the sending exercise in the alley (showing MIL she didn’t have to go outside). We had fun playing “tag” with her left hip. My stick was able to tag her quiet a few times. EVERY time she came forward into my space and every time I backed her back out of it. Finally lefty started getting the point so we moved back to the stall. Things went a lot smother then.

I showed MIL how *I* would let her out of the stall if she was in a hurry and told her to make sure she does what she can to make coming out of the stall not so fun on the days she has time.

She did call me to tell me that she’s let the girls out several times and they have been good as gold since Sat. Hopefully they continue to be good and MIL continues to stay on top of their pushy behavior. MIL has learned that she relies on the stick too much and she also clucks too much! I need to duck tape her mouth and wean her off of the stick.

"Crud" update

I consulted two vets (mine & a friend’s) who both feel Lucy has rain rot. I was told to spray her with Lysol, groom her and get her in the sun. The first nice day we had I was told to give her a Pine-sol bath.

**excuse me**

I’m not giving my horse a bath in Pine-sol. I think the label suggest we use gloves.

It seems to be coming out well with the Furminator and doesn’t seem to be affecting her so I’m sending hair samples to two friends to see if they can figure out what it is. I’ll update as soon as I know anything. My luck it will come back that it was just rain rot but we’ve had rain rot before and it has never been like this.