Be's Buzz Blog

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-28T12:20:00.000-08:00

A little bit of the very little snow we've gotten so far this year, and the kids enjoying breakfast

Post Christmas ride photo

My girls, both out on trail for the "Christmas Ride" :)

Be's special Christmas Dinner Mash
Apples, Carrots, Mints and Peeps

And all the kids in this year's Christmas Card:

Clockwise from top left are Be, Timmy, Marie,
Porky, Niles and Gordie

Happy Holidays!!!

October, November, December!

2011-12-02T06:47:00.000-08:00

Wow, time has passed! The weather in Ontario has been unseasonably mild. We've just begun December, and there has been NO measurable snowfall so far. As I say this, there are flakes actually falling outside the window, but they are just puddles when they hit the ground. Its been amazing. Because of this, we've been able to do a lot around the farm and even play with the horses a bit when it isn't too muddy. Oh, we may not have had snow, but we sure have had rain and mud!

Giving Be a big hug as we enjoy a fall day in the woods

Me and my girl out on trail in November!

Pleanty of green stuff to keep the Be-aver happy

All of the horses are loving the extended good weather

Be making friends with Niles, home for the winter from the track. I don't think she likes greys very much though.

Be taking a snooze

Riding Streakers in November. She has a great new home now

Marie, Streak, Be, and Red (who also has a great new home now!)

My stallion Porky, enjoying his main job

And last but never least, Timmy the mini. Very sadly, I lost my mini Tyke in September due to old age. Porky missed his little buddy, so we welcomed two year old Timmy to the farm. He's a cutie!

A Good Week for Riding

2011-09-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

My mother visited us up here for the Labor Day holiday and we had a great time hanging out with the horses and even getting out for a few rides. Of course, Be's still doing lots of this:

But we're also doing this!
That's my mom on the dark mare

And later we joined up with another of my friends and her mare, who I use to own, for a very nice ride along the Welland Canal. Unfortunately, there were no ships there this time

And back on the farm my friend keeps her horse

The End.

Heh heh

Drier Times

2011-07-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

Finally, the sun is shining, the ground is dry and harrowed and I got some saddle time in. Yay! I've had a couple of good after work rides so far, and Be hasn't forgotten a thing. We just go all over the farm for now, but its nice.

I have a tripod now and hope to play with that more in the near future. Be is also helping me by nuzzling it while I lean over from the saddle to play with the timer. She's so helpful!

Post ride Be says Wheeee!

I also did a little traveling away from the farm for work in mid-June and Be was very happy to have mom home.

Solo

2011-06-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

So the ground around the farm is still soppy and wet, but I really wanted to ride over the Memorial Day weekend. So with the weather improving I tacked up Miss Be, dug up some courage, and explored the world outside our relm. Did I ever mention we live right on a major highway? This is great for snow plowing and giving directions; very poor for just riding out from my property. To get to slightly less busy roads, I had to walk down the shoulder of the highway. This is something Be's never done from my farm, and certainly never done at all alone. I watched traffic patterns for a bit, and it seemed a fairly lower volume so we were going to give it a go.

I led her down the side of the highway to the first side street. Since my focus was on cars, semis, RVs, trailers, motorcycles and other vehicular traffic passing just to my right (yes, I lead Be from the off side, putting me next to traffic so she could spook away from it and me), I did not take any photos of the adventure. Maybe next time I can just video the walk from her saddle or something. Its unnerving, and always has been. My other mare and I have made this walk many times, but she's a standardbred and semi-accustomed to vehicular traffic. Be is not a standardbred (grin). I had a pocket full of peppermints for our outting, and I think she got 6-10 of them before we hit the side street. I made sure her focus was on me and the goodies, but she really was as good as I could have hoped for with the whole thing. When we hit the side street I loosened the hold on the lead and she relaxed even more, leading me to think that if possible I should loosen up a bit more on the highway. We walked over to the farm that our hay guy owns and I mounted up in his driveway. Got my bearings, and off we went!

This is a third turn away from the farm, and a very boring, low traffic road. It was perfect for my purposes that day, and Be slowly cruised along at a walk and on the buckle.

These rocks on the left have given every horse I've ever ridden down this way some concern. Be was no different, but she only gave them a strong look and a general distrust as we passed them. An A- in my opinion, good girl!

Some horses tell me there are bears in these bushes, but not her. The ears flicked but she motored right along.

Passing the rock quarry. This side is now unused I believe, and the building shown here is almost to the roof in retained water. We've had a VERY wet year so far :(

Returning home, we went a different route and used my hay guys's soy fields. He said we may do that if we stay to the edge. I wasn't sure how it would go since we've never ridden them before, but I found an entrance, went through a few wet puddles, and took the shared fence line down to our farm. This is my barn poking through the brush from the other side of the fence.

We exited the field through the fence near the house, and I gave Be a much-deserved good bathing, then dried in the sun while she mowed the lawn.

Back in her stall, looking for goodies :)

Good girl, Be!

Picture Post!

2011-05-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

So with a month of rain behind us, we've gotten a few clear or almost clear days to start drying out. The land became mud everywhere, soft and squishy. We picked up litterally tons of concrete slabs that will go into firming up parts of the driveway so we can park vehicles and trailers with more stability.

Winter coats are slowly shedding. Tyke, my mini, is always the last to shed out. But he sure enjoys the fresh spring grass!

Be, Ree and the cows are out on the back field grazing as well

We've two horses ready to start the racing season at the track.
Chewie exercises below with hubby in the irons

Be is watching me put the laundry out on the line

Marie celebrated her birthday recently. She's 23 this year!

Be, showing off her new summer coat

Navagating some of the mud so she can come in for dinner

Grazing on the big back field

The best halter ever!

April Showers...and Mud, Sleet and Snow!

2011-04-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is April and I still haven't ridden much at all. Weather continues to range from cold and wet to cold and muddy with few breaks. However, the last two days it's been kind enough to SNOW some more. This is truly bull....well, you know ;)

That said, I did sneak in the first baths of the year for my girls last weekend when the weather tipped the high 60s and sunny for several hours :) Below, Be gets power washed in the front yard.

With the mud all over the sacrifice area, the girls have been spending a good bit of time out in the solitary paddock. Fortunately they get along well enough for this. And look, there's even some grass out there! Well, when its not snowing that is.

Be had her 9th birthday on March 24th. The horses celebrated with mints, apples...

And of course Peeps.

Giving Be a hug for her birthday.

...and lots of scritches...

...and of course letting her wear a birthday hat. I think its her.

The two racing thoroughbreds shipped into the track a couple weeks ago, so Be and Ree are home alone and enjoying the solitude.

And that's pretty much all the month between posts has brought! I guess Be's on a hiatus of sorts until Mother Nature turns off the waterworks and warms this place up. I've my fingers crossed for this to happen soon!

Still Slopping it Out

2011-03-23T06:28:00.001-07:00

This month is going to be devoted to saying heck to the weather, and doing things anyway. Spring is always muddy around here, and this year looks worse then ever. I have had enough of looking out at the slop, snow, mud, water, and whatnot. Now that we've regained an hour of daylight, I'm trying to make the most of it in all aspects of life, including my riding. So, we're slopping it out in the mud and making the best of the situation.

I've never linked to another blog before, but I think this is seriously good reading. The first 6 years of riding horses I had an indoor arena, and spent many a nasty weather day in those four walls. When I moved to my own farm and brought my horse home, I knew I would miss having an arena and the good footing, but I did not factor how much that would affect my riding conditions. My farm is on clay, so water drains slowly and usually in channels to storm drains, not through the layers of the ground. We're downhill from a ridge, so we get runoff off other farms and lands as gravity takes its course. I have only treelines around the pasture, no trees in the pasture or paddocks to speak of, so sun beams down when summer finally comes. We live right smack on a highway. Not simply adjacent to a hwy, but my actual driveway goes right on to the main road. My front paddock, where the pond is, shares the fence with semi trucks, emergency vehicles at speed with their lights and sirens, RVs and other towed vehicles, flapping tarps, motorcycles, muscle cars and so on and so forth. And if that wasn't enough, there's the wind. We're within riding distance of Lake Erie, and the winds that blow off the lake are often stiff enough to hold you upright. I've found the neighbor's trampoline in my pasture, along with other oddities.

But, the horses see this stuff every day. It becomes part of their norm. Its we humans who make a big fuss out of it. For a long time I work with this and incorporate it into making my horses good all arounders. But the effects of severe weather was always something I would finally give in to. Now, I'm trying harder not to let even that get to me.

Jonni Jewel and her well-travelled horse Hank have countless endurance miles under their belts. They've done Telvis, and more then once. In the endurance world, that's like saying they climbed Everest. In a recent blog, she talks about avoiding the outdoor world when riding conditions are less then favorable as a mental condition. I wholeheartedly agree. Its really good reading:

http://trotonhank.blogspot.com/2011/03/it-is-mental-condition.html

Okay, so moving on, here's how we've spend March so far!

Practicing our two point through the mud

Moving our body parts through the mud

Picking our way around the training track in the mud.
Be thought I was insane. This is much more slippery/greasy then it probably looks.
Remember, clay :(

And smiling for the camera through the mud.
Yup, smiling.

Hubby even got into the action on a good day. Here he is swinging up on one of the racehorses for a trot/canter around the training track on a decent day. The Moos look on.

Be takes a closer look at yet another mud puddle I asked her to step into

Blub blub!

And on a day when I was short of time, we lunged. Always good to brush up on that skill.
Notice the bull in the tree lines. He walked under the lunge line while we were going. So I lifted the rope higher and Be kept on, never missing a beat :)

Splashing through the mud and the muck

And what do I get for this besides a muddy horse and muddy tack? Well, how about this gorgeous sunset, framed between my favorite pair of redheaded ears? If I was inside lamenting over how the environment has once again stopped me from riding my horse, I would never have had this view. I think this is worth the mud.

The whole month hasn't been a total "wash" (pardon the pun). We did sneak away for CanAm again, and had a lovely time indoors checking out horsey things from around the region.

Check out the cool slow-feed hay cube for fatties

I got an updated picture with Moxy, the Herbs for Horses spokesmodel dobe. He's such a sweetie!

We saw one of the handsomest red dun stallions I've ever seen show his stuff in a reining demo

The Canadian Cowgirls brought their game to the arena in style

And we closed out the night across the road at Western Fair Raceway, handicaping the standardbreds and making our high roller $2 bets around a magnificent buffet. Good times, good times!

February in a Blur (of Pictures)

2011-03-09T05:05:00.000-08:00

Well, by the dates you can see not a whole lot of horse excitement happened in February. I tootled around the back yard when weather permitted, and just hung out with the horses and did chores when it did not. I took Marie out for one ride down the road, much needed for both of us, and haven't left the farm since. But, I did snap a bunch of photos because that's something I can enjoy in any weather. So, here we go!

Here Be is getting her yearly mane trim and banding. Yes, I butchered the mane again. One of these days I will learn I am no good at this. Be is giving me a raspberry for the hack job.

The Be-aver out and about on one of the freezing, yet sunny days

Banding over the mane. Perhaps in a couple months it will look okay.

Be and I post ride in the back yard. She was a fantastic girl :) If we're lucky, we're getting a ride a week in.

Be's forehad whirl and star. I spent some time learning the macro feature of my camera. I really like the results!

Be's eye

Be's eye showing my reflection in it. Love her white eyelash.

Her little white ankles in the snow

Snow melted into droplets on her nose

Awwww

One of her pretty, striped front hooves

Be at the barn door. You can see me behind the dutch bottom half, and her thoroughbred buddy standing off in the distance

And that, friends, is pretty much all I did in February!

Groundhog Day

2011-02-02T07:17:00.000-08:00

I really couldn't think of a good title for this post. Then I noticed it's February 2nd, and inspiration struck. Apparently, Punxsutawney Phil has predicted an early spring, and I'm hoping that's the case. It's been a bitter cold winter for the most part, and I'd be happy to see it disspear any time now. The only encouraging sign I've seen so far is my mini has started shedding. Sadly, past experiances has proven he can shed for many weeks so he's no more reliable then the rodent in the ground's shadow. For the time being though, Be and I are on hiatus from trailering off on adventures. This includes our jump lessons, which were going quite well. But that's okay, we've got a big backyard and she and I have other things we can work on, including breaking in the new saddle.

Here's a combo conformation shot and daydreaming pose

And a good roll series

This past weekend, I saddled up again and twisted my husband into operating the camera for me. I wanted to see how the saddle looked with me in it (I like) and get some nice winter shots out in the back acreage.

My new-to-me Stubben Sigfried VSS :)

Tracks in the snow

I think she really likes showing me around her backyard

Whee!

Me and my girl :)

Happy Trails!

-8F Degrees!

2011-01-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

Look Be-aver! It's a Stubben! Let's hope this fits you!

Yup, we snagged a 70's vintage Stubben Sigfried out of an auction this week. It need reconditioning to supple it back up, but hopefully it will work for a nice jumping saddle. For one thing, I'm loving the decent sized knee blocks and thigh roll! Be can make those a blessing sometimes when she's feeling frisky.

The treasures. Girth, saddle, leathers, stirrups, (more of both of those) and a brand new in box helmet. Not sure if I will be using all of this, particularly the helmet as I'm not fond of that style, but it made a pretty picture

My Be :)

Be and Buddy the ram in turnout

The sheeple attack the hay round while my older mare just rolls her eyes. Be and Marie were being particularly not nice to the two low on the pecking order thoroughbreds so I tossed them out with the sheep for a few days. The sheep sure showed them how to share hay!

The aforementioned gentle thoroughbreds

Be, sharing the hay nicely

I woke up this morning to -8F on the digital thermometer. BRRRR! Fortunately, I'm the only one who has to get up before dawn. Tomorrow we rocket up to near 40F, then plummet down to the 20's the next day. I'd love a trip somewhere warm soon. No real riding (I'm not counting swinging over from the hay round onto a back without a saddle or bridle riding). The air temps are very cold and the weather is clear one hour, raining sleet the next. The trailer is also behind some snow drifts so I might not be hauling anywhere anytime soon. We're just taking winter one day at a time and waiting for spring

Happy New Year!

2011-01-07T06:29:00.001-08:00

My faithful steed waits at the barn door for her supper to be ready

Bringing my mini, Tyke, in for the night

My friend and I out to do barn chores and spoil the horses for the holidays

Showing off Mopsy, one of the sheep twins born 2 months ago on the farm

Joining in a Monday morning lesson with my friend. We did a few of these in December and I really enjoyed them!

So we're in 2011, and hopefully another good year of horses and all that goes with them. Be and I wrapped up our last Monday ride last week with a great session, and started back on Thursday nights this week. She's been a pretty good girl, really spotting the jumps on her own and landing well. We've been working on getting the lead change down after the landing, and when we land nicely its pretty consistant. Sometimes she's still showing the red head attitude with a few pops here and there and she tries to anticipate what we're doing, but she knows if she doesn't go into a jump quiet and collected that I'll pull out and that seems to motivate her to tame the wild streak. I had to end early last night do to my own physical problems (back was hurting, then I lost a stirrup over a jump, landed, pulled her up and pulled it out of commission, ouch) but overall she's doing really well. My instructor says she wants to jump higher and has the aptitude for it. Hope I do too!

Good Tidings of Comfort and Joy

2010-12-21T10:29:00.001-08:00

This past Sunday my friend came out to visit her gal Marie and the gang. She made the mistake of bringing a bucket full of carrots. As you can see here, my cheeky monkey Be-lined for the bucket like a heat seeking missle.

Hmm. What's in your mouth, Be?

Be getting chatised by Marie

The new girl, Pam, also got her shoes pulled and is now out with the others. The four of them are playing nicely. Left to right, Pam, Chewie, Be, and in back is Marie

Our round bale feeder. Its so big :)

The Beave knawing into some freshly snowed round bale

Pam and Be burry Chewie in hay

Where the hay comes from :)

I have bronchitis for the second time this winter. However Monday was another staycation day for me and I didn't care how sick I was, I hooked up the trailer and took Be for our jumping lesson and rode until I couldn't breathe anymore. Of course, Be was a hot little firecracker and wanted to run off from the trot, so my first challenge was speeding up but staying at a trot, then regulating the trot, long before we could do any canter work. Mostly working trot, move into extended trot, down to collected trot, and finally a good canter. Instructor wanted me to sit back back back on her so I finally sat the canter, what the heck. I've a western background, I can sit on my seat bones. So of course then I got nipped at for hugging with my knees. I don't win. When we moved on to jumping, Be tricked me.

She was behaving so nice, got the gears where I wanted them, came in a nice collected trot, let her have her head so she could spot herself and the witch kicked it into a gallop to the jump, cleared it high enough for twice the height and spun the turn hard enough to give me whiplash. So now I had to repeat the jump (which was pretty nice, aside from the takeoff and landing), but pull her UP to a walk or a halt after the jump. It was like stopping a locomotive. Second time I pulled the right rein straight up and the light went on, no more shenanigans. She was much better behaved after that. But we cooled out about 10 minutes early because I was starting to hack up a lung :(

While cooling out, we did a fun photo shoot with the Christmas gear.

Yes, we rode with this stuff on as well!

I doubt there will be another update before the holiday is upon us, so

Merry Christmas!
See ya after the holidays!

~Jenn & Be

Fa la la la la

2010-12-07T04:45:00.000-08:00

We've got a whole lot of raspberries going on with the horses lately. I have no idea what it means, but it's cute. On the left is our new racing filly, Everlea. She's a 4 yr old by Whiskey Wisdom. She's a big filly, and kissing cousins to Be (both have Wild Again as their grandsire). Be and she seem to be getting along pretty well.

Temperatures have dropped an awful lot this week. Be models her seldom-used heavyweight winter blanket while keeping warm by stuffing her face at the roundbale feeder.

Marie and Chewie join Be for a snowy meal at the salad bar while I clean stalls

Mom, aren't you done yet?

At least Marie is enjoying the snow

Since we got dumped on by snow yesterday (Monday), it was too hazardous to trailer over for a lesson. We're postponing it until our normal night of Thursday. The horses spent rotating time outside in the cold weather, but were in the barn for most of the day. I pulled out the santa hats and played dress up with a few of them.

I can always count on Be to give me a good photo

Somebody hears the candy cane wrapper. Tis that season too :)

Sea Pleasure might wear the hat, but he'll tell you how he really feels about it too.

Everlea wears the hat with good graces. Hopefully this is an indication of how she is always to handle :)

And last but never least, Tyke and I squeeze in for a red hat photo. Hmm, Tyke does drive... I wonder if he'd like to pull a small sled around the back field?

Monday's Child is Fair of Face

2010-12-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

Be and I took last Thursday off to celebrate Thanksgiving day. Okay, so I really took it off to eat a delicious turkey, and she got a nice warm mash with goodies instead of being hauled in the dark for a lesson. To make up for that, I scheduled a Monday morning lesson on my last day off of a vacation-extended holiday. We joined a ride at 9:30 in the morning, and I really liked the daytime, stress-free experience of riding on a day when I had nothing else going on and not rushing home from work. I have since booked the remaining Mondays off for December, and have scheduled our lessons for those Mondays. Yay!

So, I walked out into the back acreage and clipped my horse's halter early Monday morning. Took her into her stall, removed her blanket, tossed on a light cooler and walked her into the trailer for the short ride over to the stable we take our lesson at. Be really loads so nicely, treats the trailer as if it was just another stall, and hauls like a dream. She likes to look out the windows too.

At the stable we joined in with two other ladies I get the rare pleasure of riding with. Unfortunately it has been raining almost constantly and the outdoor sand ring, despite the gorgeous day, was not good for riding. So we tacked up and prepared for an arena ride. My dear friend is helping me learn to sew, and I finished my first project the week before. Here is my blue floral saddle towel. Pretty cool, eh? I have more material I can't wait to try with my own machine once the bobbins come in. I think I'm hooked on this simple sewing stuff :) Also, I got a steal on a pair of lined foot warmers at the horse and tack auction this past weekend. You can see them on the run up stirrup in this photo. I got to try them out for the first time, and I just loved how warm my feet stayed!

Be says enough with the camera, let's go ride!

We had a very nice ride with lots of equitation focus. We also worked on collected trot - collected canter transitions. Since riding my little firecracker is much like a sportscar with a clutch and a touchy accelerator, I had to ask for that very carefully, almost just think it, and she did it. She's getting better and better at reading my mind. When we moved into the jumping, she actually is spotting her distances properly on her own too. So now I need to learn to trust her judgement, and just stay out of her way. She's got an arc to her jumping style, when I let her do it on her own. She even throws in the automatic flying lead change when we land. Such a good girl!

Here we are working into our corners past the open door. We can ride deep and almost straight in the corners, or curve a nice circle. Be is very athletic and versatile.

Back on the farm, I turned her and everyone else out for a lovely day as the sun brought the temps up. Here's the sheep, with the twins in the middle of the flock.

And Be enjoying her turnout

November's Flying By

2010-11-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

Happy upcoming Turkey day to ya'll :)

So far this month I've been in the saddle only about once a week, and fought off another sinus infection. Not quite the way I planned to enjoy the on again, off again good weather we've sporatically enjoyed, but somehow the month is just slipping away faster then daylight right now.

I've said good bye to three of my racehorses in the past month as they moved on to other careers. Two geldings and a filly went out to the east coast of Canada to new families and new adventures. After the months and years they spend with us, and how we've cared for them all, I get emotional to see them go but I do rejoyce in hearing how happy their new people are and how well they are doing. I have one more to retire from the track, our 10 year old stakeswinning stalling Sea Pleasure (Porky). Porky's arrangements to stand at stud will be finishing up in the comming months. He's been a consistant hard running superb example of a racehorse, and I look forward to seeing his offspring hit the track in a few years.

Sea Pleasure, back on our farm after his 2010 season

Sea Pleasure at play

November is also time for the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) aka Canadian Royal Exhibition. I'm still not quite sure what the proper designation is, but if you just call it the Royal around here, people know what you're talking about. This year was my second time to the Royal, and my friends and I went the first weekend. We saw some wonderful demos and gorgeous animals along with farming and agricultural exhibits. The Royal is not a horse show, though horses probably do dominate the majority of the events. There are cows, sheep, goats, llamas, bunnies, dogs and more along with crops farming and other rural activities. It's suppose to bring the country to the city (Toronto). We got to see top level indoor show jumping (the Millars, et al), top jumpers, top indoor eventing, heavy horses, hackneys, roadsters, and more. One of the highlights for me was watching Stacey Westfall's demos 3x that day. Here she is in the more up close and personal Spirit of the Horse ring. While the demos in there were very short, Stacey aboard her new stallion Vaquero was able to show us much easier how she was signaling and what she was training him to do. Here he is doing a reinless spin.

The Royal trip was a Saturday and as the evening performance ends very late we stayed over with local friends. We left very early on Sunday morning though as my two geldings were heading east that morning and I really wanted to say good bye. The trailer was already in my driveway when I got home, and I rushed from my truck as my husband was leading the last boy aboard. I ran to pet noses, scritch withers and take a last shot of them in their slants.

Le Sigh.
I know though that they are already well settled out there and making their new family happy so that's what matters most to me.

We also had some new life on the farm in the past week. Our new sheep had her twins, little girls, and they are adorable

Bella's being a great mommy to Mopsy and Flopsy

So we're down to 4 horses and the mini, soon to be 3 horses when Porky leaves for his fathering duties. This is "Chewie" in his first day out with my two mares.

And the reason we have this blog, the Be-aver!

Marie, who turns 22 next year. She's showing off the mud they are all finding fun to roll in

Chewie and Be in the back field

So, while I might not be riding a whole bunch right now, there are still lots of horsey things going on and farm stuff too. Be and I are still progressing, just slower this time of year. Hopefully the winter will stay mild, but even so a few dashes through the snow would be fun right about now :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Fall is Here!

2010-10-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

Fall is here with the nice cool riding temperatures. Of course this doesn't mean I've gotten a lot of riding in though. More like I've hung around with the horses, but only ridden about once a week. :( However, what a lovely bunch they are :)

I'm still making the weekly jumping lesson though, and they seem to be coming along well. We're inside the arena now, so more groundwork and equitation comes along with the jumping. I'm looking forward to honing these skills over the winter. Be is just happy with getting to jump in the light again. I have video, but video uploading to Blogger isn't working right for me for some reason. I will have to look into it.

Wheee!

And the horses are feeling good too. Very good actually.

Extreme closeup of my girl

Nothing specific in the near future planned for riding, but hopefully we'll hit the trails this weekend or next. The days are simply getting too short. I sold one of my race retired fillies last weekend to a lady who is head over heels in love with her out on the east coast of Canada. We should be down to just three horses this winter, so kind of a break. My husband is getting into sheep raising though so we'll see how time consuming they are. They sure are cute though, and Be actually doesn't care about them. They've run into her stall and her eyes just go wide but the survive the experiance. Whew!

Photo Post!

2010-09-28T11:21:00.001-07:00

Took the Be camping. Lots of woods, lots of horses and other critters. She handled the trip very well and despite some weather and wind issues limiting our riding we had a lot of fun. I love knowing she will camp and hope to try it again in the future.

Me being not so smart

Be's pen

Visiting with my gal

A little turnout time for Be and her old friend Pepper in the arena. This gave them a chance to stretch their legs and roll

Showing Off

2010-09-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

Two weeks' vacation seems to have improved Be's mood and we had a pretty good ride this past week. We went out early in the morning to beat the heat and showed off for our company. My husband watched us jump for the first time, and my mother was visiting from Florida and manned the camera for us :)

Hubby hanging around while I tack up Be. Be seems to want to gravitate toward the ring.

Be and I waiting for the mounting block. I usually swing up from the ground but I'm trying to get use to using the block and having her stand beside it

Be hamming it up for the camera

There's something to learn even from the bad photos. In this case, my sitting trot needs me to be sitting back more with my heel under me :P

Canter canter canter. Stretch UP!

Apparently I am laughing. Who knows why but I tuck my chin when I laugh. Ah well.

And now for that stuff Be loves. Jump, Be!

Sure tucks those feet eh?

1,2,3,4,5,6, release!

Wheeee!

Below is Be and our friends Mary and Red. Many of the students mistake their lesson horse, Red, for Be. We shared our lesson with him and Mary.

Zoom Zoom

2010-08-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

Be's getting a few weeks off to rest while we're busy with other things in life. I think she was developing some soreness in her back or shoulders so a rest will do her good. She's been roughhousing with the filly that's on layup at the farm so she probably wrenched something. Before that though we had a lovely little ride around the roads with a friend we haven't been out with in a while. This is us going down the side of an 80kmh major roadway. We lead this two horse ride, and I fell in love with my mare all over again as she treated it like just another day.

That's our buddy back there. Yeah, she's a little pokey.

These "zombie foals" spooked our buddy, but not my red head :)

I also got a nice ride in on my husband's horse. It might be time to start him on jumps soon, as I'm sure he's going to be mine to work with.

Repetition

2010-08-13T07:05:00.000-07:00

Be and my 4 yr old race filly Seagraves. Seagee is home from the track for a rest. Be's loving having someone who actually likes to play and they are clingy horses so they cling to each other very nicely

Four across, all with races in their past.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger, right? I'm struggling with jumping the outside line. Be and I do well over the first jump, an oxer, most times. Even the inbetween striding is improving to the second jump. But that second jump we're not having great results with. Sometimes she tries to deek out because its a straight bar, then she decides to go over it anyway and I'm landing to the side of the saddle and then because I'm off balance she sometimes bucks. Others she clears it with gusto, and I take her back too fast, apparently hit her in the mouth and she bucks because she's mad at me. She is not giving me any breaks on this and wants to land at a run. I'm reassured this is normal, and she's just less forgiving then other horses. But that's not good enough for me. I don't want to hurt her. I don't want to get hurt either. I will keep trying to release longer and better and hopefully get the hang of it pretty soon before I compress a disk or go flying off after the landing. Other then that, things are going pretty good. W/t/c and other stuff is just fine. I will just hope that practice makes this better too, just like everything else we've done together.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-08-06T05:44:00.001-07:00

Be and I after a really good jump lesson

Two years ago this month Be was retired from the racetrack. The thought was to give her a rest then find her a new job and a new home. Obviously, that's worked out well (grin).

I still enjoy her immensely, love spending time just hanging with her, and marvel at how much joy she can bring into my life. She also pushes me further, aggrivates me at random, and endears herself the next moment. She's carried me countless miles, taught me to hold on properly while she runs, and is showing me how to leave the earth on her back. Next month we plan to try camping. Who knows where the future roads will lead, but truly the journey is the destination.

Be sharing her hay with me. Um, thanks.

Week (or so) in Review

2010-07-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

So much going on lately that I have all these photos and never enough time to put the backstories with them. Well, here is Be and I two weeks ago I think aiming for the second in a double combination. I think that's what it is called when you have two jumps in a row. This is really very new to me, and jumping with any grace or height was never something I thought I'd aspire toward. I am learning to count 1-2-3 and fold. These are definately interesting times for our partnership, and she just LOVES to jump.

This is Galaxy Wind (Gally), a 6 year old mare we just retired this month. She is now to be an all around pleasure horse for a first time owner friend of ours.

Speaking of which, this is Gally in her new barn with her new mom. Spoiled already of course. Their retraining story has just begun

This is our new racehorse, Chewie. And his ball. He LOVES his ball. Chewie gave us a 2nd place, just missing the win by a neck in his first ever start for us. We hope for good things from him.

This is our old fella, Porky, just back from the post race test barn. Porky ran a hard charging 2nd for us yesterday.

Be and my husband's horse Hour, an 11 year old thoroughbred. I imagine I will start doing something with him in the fall when the bugs die down. For now, Be is thrilled to have a horse that puts up with her being a pest all the time.

Be and I jumping last week

Tyke, my mini. Tyke just won SmartPak's Facebook contest for the "worst hair". He earned a set of lovely andis clippers for his stunning locks, and will enjoy them with a body clip next spring.

Chilling out with Be between sets in our lesson last week

Be giving me horse power over a warm up single

Playing in the Shorthills

2010-07-14T07:16:00.001-07:00

Sunday we loaded up with the girls and headed to the Shorthills for the first time this year. The rainy weather we've had up until now would have made the trails slick and dangerous, but we've had a nice dry spell so conditions were better, abeit hot and muggy. We had a blast playing in the forrest and fields up and down hills and rocks and water and bridges for several hours. This is where Be and I had our first trail ride together back in 2008, and definately a favorite for both of us. For the first time I took my english tack, and learned I can stick to a horse pretty good these days.

Waiting to cross the big metal bridge

Crossing one of the streams. The bridge here is not meant for equine traffic

Following her standarbred buddy through another creek

Be and I climbed up a high alternative path. Ahoy down there!

Pep and Be share some grazing space on a rest break

Following the gals down into the ravine. We rode tail

One of the entrances to the park

Up a big hill

Gotta love the view at the top

Weekending

2010-06-30T07:14:00.000-07:00

Be and I 'auditing' our first horse show together

Be and I had a busy weekend. Saturday we loaded up and trucked over to ride the multi-use trail near a friend's house. But the weather was unbelievably hot, breezeless and BUGGY. I mean huge biting green headed bombers that tried to chew us all to bits, along with mosquitos. My friend and I had a ride to the ice cream shop in mind, but we cut out about 3/4 of the way there and hit the main roads instead for the ride back. But before we did that, the second horse was having a bad day and tried to plant my friend in the ditch amongst other naughty behaviors. Be had to be the brave leader, as well as stand up the trail and wait out the other mare's antics while her rider dealt with attempts to run home and unseat her. We had bugs, snakes, big rocks, cars, oh, just SO much to deal with that we were all exhausted after that ride. But I was more then proud of how my girl handled herself. We ended back at my friend's farm with some adult beverages and rehashed the best worst ride we'd ever had, as everything that goes wrong is much funnier after you survive it all and everyone is safe and sound.

Sunday afternoon I again put her in the horse box and we trucked down the road to the local english horse show. With her sudden steady track record of being a "good girl" in her lessons, it was time to get her feet wet around a showgrounds and see how she made out. I had to park fairly back from the action as it was later in the show day. She wondered where the other horses were at first and took about 15 minutes to settle but as we walked nearer the horses competing and she could graze she relaxed a lot and was much like she is anywhere else I've ever taken her. I tacked her up about 30 minutes after we arrived and we did wander the grounds a bit, then warmed up and did w/t/c both ways around the grass practice area, then cooled out and I took her back over near the active arena to watch friends and horses compete and take photos from her back. I was very well pleased with my horse and her first show experiance. Actually competing should be in the stars for her one day.

Going back a bit, our last 3-4 lessons have included solid jumping, both at a trot and a canter. The last one we did a series of 3 jumps, one oxer and one double oxer. She's brave and loves going over them. When we are heading toward a jump she actually rates better and lets me collect her up nicer then she does on the flat. I think she's looking to me for what I want and I love that. We land almost always at a nice canter, ride straight and true to the end of the ring then turn and usually swap the lead if we don't go back to a trot. It is all so amazing and new for me. I'm grinning from ear to ear after those rides. That's what this is all about, right?

In other good news, the racehorses are running pretty good too. Seagraves, below, has given us three 3rds since the start of the meet in May and a 2nd in her race last week. She's itching to get her photo taken. This photo is in the testing barn where they take samples from the winner and a top finishing horse from each race. She loves her baths.

And Porky, our old fella, had a nice charging 3rd the other day for us. He was our open allowance winning horse of last year, and we hope to return to that soon.

In Memorium

2010-06-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

To me, this is a cool shot. Left to right is Be, Pepper, and Marie. Marie and Be I still own, and Pepper I did own and later sold to her current owner. I started Marie under saddle at 17 (she's a standardbred that raced), Pepper (appy belgian draft cross) I started under saddle at 5, and Be's been my project since we retired her off the track. I've never had all three of "my girls" under saddle together at the same time before.

Pepper's owner lost her young niece in an auto accident. Bringing hope out of tragedy, her organ donor card gave precious gifts to many in need of organ transplant.

Sunday was the WRTC (Washington Regional Transplant Community) walk/run to raise awareness for organ donation. Pepper's owner organized her own smaller version of the event locally in our own fashion. We had a walk/run/ride/bike event down a local multi-use path with our shirts and talked to people at a local snack bar before heading back for pot luck to talk and enjoy live music. We had a turnout of around 30 all together, 10 horses, whereas the park in DC that held the bigger run had full capacity of 500 and had to sadly turn down walk/runners before the event began. This was the first year of the events, and both will continue in the future. It's been raining all weekend (and today of course) here, but it held off just for yesterday afternoon.

Our riding group. Neat to have all three of my girls, past and present, together. We're dead center (Pepper, Be with me, and Marie)

Be and I on the trail, doing what we love to do

Be and Pepper, happy to see each other again

Marie, my herd alpha mare, keeping Be in her place

Look What We're Learning :)

2010-06-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

Hey, see that jump standard? Guess what we did a lot of?!

Warm up

Get ready...

Go!

Okay, so these were from a week ago last Thursday, but we're trying to jump! We did about 5 jumps each way and got progressively better. We trotted into them nicely, cantered out and most I got a lead change on the turn. Pretty darn good for relying mostly on instinct and immediate corrections from my trainer. (That's her with her hands on her hips watching intently to the right, grin) I was so proud of my girl! We'll continue to learn with the young'uns as Be really really likes jumping and doesn't punish me for not being perfect. Last week when we were doing it in a private lesson, I was not letting her head go, or folding too late or too soon before I got the rhythm better, and she never once retaliated. Pretty cool to have my girl be a babysitter at something for me. I knew she'd missed her jumping as she use to love doing it with the trainer's daughter over the summer. So hopefully I'll enjoy this little stuff with her and she can expand my experiances.

Cool down

This past Thursday poured rain so we rode in the indoor arena. There were no jumps in there so we practiced 2 point at the trot down the long wall, which often resulted in a canter depart from Be. If she did it on the correct lead, we kept going. What lovely canters we got too! The younger riders were also given something to try so I tried it as well. Stand up in the irons, balance on your feet and brace with the calves at the trot, without hanging on the mouth. WOW. That made my legs sing but I did it several times and made a couple complete circles doing so. Whenever I did hit her in the mouth though she'd either drop to the walk or stop entirely and I think staying up with that shift in gear was equally impressive to me (grin). Fun times!

2010-05-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

My dirty girl post ride, post bath, post roll. Yuck.

I'm a week late in mentioning that Be and I had our first ever lesson that included actual instructed jumping. We did a private lesson, worked on the w/t/c stuff, then ended with around a half dozen pops over a small oxer. I stayed on over the jumps as well as reined in her enthusiastic canters after them (grin) Some of the jumps were great, some needed improvement, but overall she was the lesson horse packer teaching me to let her jump while I figure out my timing and body position. Loved it.

Tomorrow we have a lesson with the beginners and will probably work on w/t and perfecting stuff. She probably will dislike the lack of any real speed and being held to task, but we've been cantering around the field at home this week so she can take a break and work on composition :)

Back to the Beach

2010-05-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

Pepper and Be went to the beach on Sunday. Lots of kids, lots of loose dogs, lots of golf carts zipping around about a mile of sandy beach. This was Be's third trip to the beach, second since the first time about a year and a half ago when she bolted on me and I ended up on the ground at a gallop, black and blue. The second time we went was after a very long summer ride and I thought she'd be tired and just resign herself to being there last fall but no, she bucked every time the waves touched her back feet (rear feet weren't going near those waves, no ma'am!). This time was a charm for the most part. Pepper escorted us along the dune line on the way out, and we visited with kids, people and we had people talking to us and taking photos all along the way. That part of the beach is a summer resort park where people have mobile homes and camp so they don't see a lot of horses and we're an oddity. I was very proud of my red head; no poos on the beach at all! She wasn't that kind of nervous, just eager to an extent. Though we only rode along the water line, we did great otherwise and Pepper and her owner had fun in the little rippling waves that came in while I snapped some photos.

We even had the fastest trot race I've ever had down the beach. I expected one of them to break into a canter any moment but nope, they just extended stride and floated. Later on the trail home (nice groomed grassy trail) I asked Pep's rider if she wanted to try a canter beside us. She was above on the trail and we were below. She has been taking lessons in her off season and they were working on trying to canter. I thought maybe with Be going beside her Pepper might pick it up too. I put Be into a canter by barely thinking it (she LOVES that gait) and Pep popped into a faster and faster trot. I notched out the canter just a bit (had a racehorse under me for sure if I wasn't careful) and Pep just increased her trot again. I think a lot has to do with the ask. Her rider wanted canter, but didn't know how to ask for it. That's okay, it will come. I reined in before we hit a crossroad on the trail and we had a lovely walk back to the farm.

We also stopped in for a glass of wine at a friend of her's house for about half an hour after the beach, and I got an update on how one of the standarbreds I'm assigned to is doing by stopping in at another farm, so it was a very productive day. Here's a few photos.

Reining Be in for a quick snapshot before we play on the beach some more.

Pepper playing out in the water. Be didn't want to get her feet wet but she did go down to the water line. I'll take that as progress.

Be and I looking at all the tire prints from the golf carts. Notice the loose rein and my splinted broken finger (whoops!)

Returning to Pepper's farm after a lovely ride

Diva Behind Bars

2010-05-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

Took Be back to the track for a quick visit yesterday. This was the first time she'd been back there in two years. I expected some recognition, but wow she really was a different horse getting off the trailer. Alert, calling, excited and even anxious. Fortunately NOT spooky, but she was really looking for someone she knew and talking to all the horses. Most of them ignored her, particularly the ones going about their morning training business. I walked her down to our barn and into the shedrow, glad that she was not her former self in the inclosed small space that is the barn area. She did not rear, pull back or kick out at anything at all, which once upon a racehorse time she did. Instead she just hung close to me, watchful and alert on a pretty loose lead. I had the chain over her nose like a proper racehorse just in case, but it was really unnecessary. Put her in a stall where she proceeded to alternate between calling for a friend and eating anything she could find. By the time we left for the first time she was well settled in, though still optimistic that a friend would be forthcoming.

I took her out for a good thorough warm bath, something she hasn't enjoyed in over two years, then stretched her legs for about 10 minutes with a brisk walk to warm up, and followed that up with a good long graze on the grass as she finished drying and I walked her to within sight of the racetrack where the other thoroughbreds were still zipping by. She gave the track a long lingering look with soft eyes, ears gently pricked forward, body still like a statue as she watched other horses come up the road with their riders and handlers. Then as if she decided that world was behind her she dropped her head back to the earth and grazed quietly. But there is no doubt that she knew where she was and what those horses were doing. You can take the racetrack from the racehorse but once a racehorse, always that experiance is in there somewhere.

But the trip to the track was a quick one, and Miss Be was back on her home turf in time for supper with her farm buddies. Here's a few photos from her visit. Be's looking for anyone to pay her attention here.

You think this is funny, don't you mom?

Watching me out of the corner of her eye

Providing valuable lawncare

Staring out towards the racetrack and the horses coming back from their morning exercise

Colorado Springs - Garden of the Gods

2010-05-14T04:59:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd add a few more photos of one of the most beautiful and unique places I've had the chance to visit. First, this was my view behind my hotel. This is the famous Pike's Peak. It got a good cover of snow that Sunday night, and as the temps dropped throughout the week I was there I got to watch it slowly burn off the snow, but never actually totally go away even when I was wearing t-shirts and the temps hit 70. I had everything from snow, ice, hail, fog, rain, and sunshine on this trip.

Taking a breather on a rock formation. It was a short climb to get this shot. To do more then this, I'm sure I'd need a permit.

Which brings us to this sign. Permits necessary. Below though you will see what proper rockclimbing gear apparently means.

Can you see the guy up on the top in this photo? He had a heck of a view! He also had no helmet and quite an altitude above the ground. The formation is about twice as high as shown in this zoomed in photo.

Nice big rock formation at the main entrance to the park. I'm sure it has a name, they all do, but I have no idea what this one is. So we'll just call it B.A.R. Big A. Rock.

Me, feeling very small in the world

The trees are normal sized. The rocks obviously are not.

This guy was rock climbing with his buddies. Apparently on breaks he is a strumming musician as well. His accoustic guitar resonated against the rocks. He appeared to be wearing those water shoes you would windsail in and shirtless. I guess this is the hip cool thing the teenage guys do.

The wall of rock the guys were climbing/inhabiting.
I have a video of them repelling somewhere too

Pretty cool huh? I highly recommend seeing this. I also recommend renting the horses to do it, as I discovered lowlanders like me are suceptable to altitude sickness. Not feeling weak and breathless is a huge bonus of letting a horse do the legwork. Overall, huge thumbs up as a neat place to visit.

And We're Back!

2010-05-12T17:49:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned, I was in Colorado Springs last week for business training. I got away though on the final afternoon and booked the last 2 hour ride through the Garden of the Gods city park. If you ever get the chance to check it out, it's all hooves up! Go!

This is the Academy Riding Stable. Nice place, lots of lovely horses, and what scenary! Pike's Peak is hiding behind the clouds here. I'll post more photos another day.

Heading out into some of the most gorgeous rocks I've ever seen. I had to ask about why they were orangy, far more orangy then my camera could capture. I was told there is a high iron content that rusts in them. Cool.

This is Sleeping Giant. The indians saw a giant laying down and their legend says he would wake and free their people. Maybe one day, huh? The head lays to the right in the photo, the arms, chest, legs and feet continue to the left.

A self portrait. I have a picture of my horse and I but I'll have to scan it in another time. My horse was a chestnut gelding named Easy. Easy was sensitive. Imagine that, a sensitive chestnut. He was also the only red head in the bunch (grin)

I just said "experianced" when going through the forms, so I was told to ride just behind the head wrangler on the ride. I enjoyed that. This particular spot he is about to step down actual rocks as the steps down a rock formation. I LOVED this. We are actually going down the rock. I have a video of my decent I can upload later as well.

More another time!

Hiatus Comming Up

2010-04-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Self portrait from this past Saturday's ride

This weekend was beautiful on Saturday, rainy on Sunday. We girls hit the trails for a nice long ride on Saturday and enjoyed the sun while it lasted. I seem to have started on a nice tan, which I'm appreciating. I left the girls at home though in the interest of time and my friend's horse hadn't been ridden much lately due to the owner's injuries so I took him out. Its nice to ride different horses sometimes. He was a little spooky now and then over noises, and I managed to reinjure my broken finger in one good buck-spook but eh, it's horses and that stuff happens. He's usually a nice, quiet, laid back dude.

Back on the home farm I've gotten bridle paths trimmed, brushed as much shedding hair out as I could, and they all got their hooves trimmed and dewormed. If the reappeared sun continues to dry things up I should get a ride or two in by the end of the week. Saturday will be opening day at the track for us and I'm waiting to see which, if any, of our horses will get to race. Sunday I'll be leaving on a plane to Colorado for a week, and the girls will be in hubby's hands while I'm gone. Unless I forget to pack my camera I'll snap some mountain shots and anything horsey I come across. Happy trails!

Wheeeeee!

2010-04-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

Photo credit Laurie Langley
Me, holding up the rail at the racetrack while my husband exercises the racehorses.

I got to do a little of that riding myself finally for the first time this week. Before getting into that though, we've had a significant hiatus to riding the past two weeks. The southern part of Ontario has had a large number of confirmed strangles cases lately, and it finally made it right down to our community in a local barn with a horse that hasn't been off the property. This news spread fast and within a week most public barns, shows and associations were cancelling rides and shipping around, including Be and I shipping in for lessons. This is fine, better safe then sorry, but with the rain it left me nowhere to ride for a while. The back fields were rough, the barn yard is being reconstructed with the tractor whenever the deluges dry up enough, and so we waited. Then in a breaking and entering the barn incident with my other mare Be ended up cut up and with a puncture in a back ankle. I just got no breaks!

So I took some of that time to thin and straighten out Be's mane.

The barn break-in banditas

And in the days just prior to now my husband has used the tractor to smooth out some of the ground around the barn and started on a galloping track for his thoroughbreds. He took the back 10 acres and started a "training track" that is suppose to be a dual purpose of him exercising the racehorses and me just riding in general. He was going to do a loop around the perimeter at first and I said I wasn't too sure about taking a horse solo across all that open space and having a straight shot back to the barnyard area if I got run off with. So he kindly offered to make it a figure 8 for me. I thought that would be great, two ovals basically on top of one another giving me kind of a ring down nearer the barn and he'd have about a 5/8 galloping loop.

Welllll....my 8 looks more like an "8". His looks more like two teardrops merging points like a X. A figure 8, yes, if you use the whole pasture. It's not perfect yet as he only did about an hour of looping around for the initial go, but I walked it, picked out the big rocks, and decided the ground wasn't too bad for Be, who I've grown to trust to be a very surefooted balanced critter. The puncture on her ankle from the barn break in had come down to almost nill and she was breaking into a canter the day before when we tried the first smoothing attempts out in the barnyard area. We walked the bottom loop both ways, trotted both ways, changed diagonals using parts of the big loop to loose the repetition, and moved into the canter on the circles. She either nailed her leads or swapped them smoothly if she wasn't yet making enough of a circle, and she was just an angel out there. She wanted to go faster then a nice steady rhythm like we've used in our lessons but I kept just a forward canter and had a blast.

That was a dream of mine. "Gallop" as the trackers call it one of my thoroughbreds around the back 10 acres. I hadn't a place to do it before but now I do and we did it. And I felt totally comfortable and at ease, trusted her past things rustling in the bushes, the cows, the sheep (!), the birds we startled, the branches fallen over the winter, etc. She just didn't care as she was loving the run. No, scratch that. WE were enjoying it. She'd flick her ears back while I told her how good she was and I'd scratch her neck and try to work on shoulders back, thumbs up, heels down. And yes, she could actually make those sharp corners at a canter! I would just check her speed for the stride it took to really make the turn and she'd continue on with the gait. What a different girl she is now!

So, WHEEEEE! We CANtered the back field! :)

“This is a Chestnut Mare.”

2010-04-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

I had to laugh a little when I reached page 4 of this article and read this quote from George Morris:

"What the reviewers should also hear - maybe they're not horsemen - that this is a chestnut mare"

Morris is Chef d'equipe of the US Showjumping Team.

Controversy Continues Over Sapphire's Disqualification at the Rolex/FEI World Cup Final

http://chronofhorse.com/article/fei-explains-decision-eliminate-sapphire-confusion-still-reigns?page=4

Back in the Saddle

2010-04-12T06:02:00.001-07:00

Be returned in my lesson this week after 3 off and she was a dream to ride. We had a few boogie men in the corners because the arena doors opened on the ends and there were hallways and such she hadn't seen but we worked through all that. I was very pleased with what we accomplished.

And what a gorgeous weekend it was up here! Lovely spring weather where a light jacket will do in the breeze. Saturday several gal pals and I headed over to New York for a horse and tack auction. It was much better quality then the local one over here, and we all had a fabulous time scooping up deals and checking out the quality horses. We rounded out the day with lunch and a stop at our favorite tack shop. I was pleased to find the saddle I'm in love with is still in consignments, so I'll keep tucking away pennies and see if I can pull it off. I think Be would love it. It's an endurance saddle, so hornless with a very comfy composition for a long long ride.

Sunday was gorgeous all around for riding. In the morning most of our racehorses went to the track and showed off how well they are doing for me. Here's hubby up on our stallion going for their first published work of the season. The first one he just wants the horse to roll along at whatever pace they want and they all did great.

Photo Credit Laurie Langley

Then in the afternoon I loaded Be up and we headed over to the Double F for a trail ride with her buddies Pepper and Tater. My trailer was in doing the minor maintenance stuff and some rewiring so I had all my trail tack in the house. I didn't feel like lugging it all out right then so I tossed the English gear (its always packed and ready for lessons) and we had our first trail ride in my AP and her loose ring snaffle. What a COMFY ride that was. It was like bareback with stirrups for me. I may have to do that more often unless/until I get that endurance saddle (grin). They have a similar feel.

Since I remarked on the way my saddle felt, Pepper's owner said she wanted to try bareback sometime. I said why not this afternoon? After a nice ride like this Pepper would be perfect for a little tootle in the round pen. She looked skeptical, so I said I would go first. We stopped in to visit with the neighbor at her farm of sheep, llamas, donkeys, horses, dogs, and kids on ATVs first. Our friend was kind enough to snap some photos for us :)

Then we headed back to the FF, stalled and untacked the horses, and I brushed Pepper's back down a bit to dissipate the bit of sweat. Pepper's the lovely draft cross in the middle of the photo above. I use to own her, and sold her to her new owner, so I'm quite comfortable with her. Pepper qualified for hippotherapy at a facility in Toronto while I had her and worked a program for a short period of time while I had her. She's the perfect horse for trying bareback on as the some riders in the program go bareback and I've ridden her that way before too. It's quite comfy on her broad back. I climbed on, and walked her around with turns, stops and backs, then the other gals gave her a try and there were so many smiles. Just a lovely end to a nice weekend.

Be heading out on the ride

Can you see the horse in this photo?

Pepper leads the way!

A Change of Weather

2010-04-05T04:57:00.001-07:00

Our Easter Bunny staffers. They didn't deliver goodies but they did deliver a lovely trail ride! :)

Mother Nature has finally blessed us with unseasonably warm weather and I think everyone is out enjoying it. We moved the racehorses back to the track on Friday, and they all settled in nicely. Their first time back under saddle was Saturday and everyone jogged a nice mile, most breaking into a slow lope now and then with eagerness to go. A dear friend gave me an easter basket with something for every critter on the farm, and included were some bunny ears. Being the kind of person I am, I attached a set to the training bridle and sent my husband out with bunny earred thoroughbreds. The ladies loved it, the men heckled, but overall I'd say they were a hit. It was a nice start back to the racing season for us.

Here's Seagee on the backstretch of the track with her light blue ears perked in the wind. She's my 4 year old, and youngest racehorse.

Seagee pulling like a bulldog on her way back toward the barns

This one is Clifford, our very big puppy dog. And another exercise rider taking a peek at the big bunny coming up on the inside of him.

Clifford, showing his high leg action. This one will have huge potential off the track too

Our ten year old stallion, Porky.

Porky started a little lazy but came back like a steam engine.

And me, caught by a friend's camera, watching our horses while taking a break from barn chores.

Later Saturday Be and I wandered over to a farm a friend boards at and joined her for 3 hours in the saddle. Be hasn't been ridden in over 3 weeks at this point, but she was fantabulous. We went through a huge field next to a busy road, crossed over, did a bunch of backroads and found lots of signs of life out there. We flushed out one cottontail who should have been sleeping in a hollow so he could deliver eggs that night. I guess he was running late. Be was in the lead almost all the time, and the rabbit startled her a bit but not bad at all. Then we continued on past my friend's sheep farm (first time seeing/hearing them for the other mare, first for Be as leader), and we waved and checked out the sheep, donkeys and horses before turning the corner to our friends' farm.

At that farm, we were graciously received as always. Both horses and humans got a breather, chatted, and then a photo op. As you can see, I was feeling on top of the world on this ride. Or rather, on top of Be ;)

Hopefully this is the start of a lot of these days this year!

Mixed Messages

2010-03-29T07:58:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I have nothing riding-related to share for long periods, and usually it relates to weather interfering. The last several days have been rain rain and more rain, so no riding. Be has more often then not been a mud covered mess, and the bad weather has delayed getting the wiring redone on the trailer.

So, speaking of trailers, I thought I'd share this and open the video up for discussion. This is a Pat Parelli before the hugely mass marketing horsemanship in a box industry took off for him. In this it appears he is doing a trailer loading demo at a clinic. Well, at least that's what it is suppose to be. What I see is a calm, willing horse go from "trailer is a thing of little concern" to "OMG I Ain't Going Near That!" thanks to Mr. Parelli and his handy twirlly rope. At one point the mare starts leaping across the ramp in the narrow space between him and the back of the stalls. That is scary stuff. Meanwhile he calmly tells the audiance about his scale of -10 to 10. Apparently Mr. Parelli starts in negative numbers and works his way up to where the horse is a 10 by putting on its own shipping boots and latching the doors behind him. Or similar.

Here's the video.

If it is out of the frame too much, you can see it on You Tube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwYAn4IH918&feature=player_embedded

Yeeeesh. After watching that, I guess I have a 10 with my mare. After work I rush home, throw the tack in the truck, hook up the trailer, test the lights and brakes, positioning it for loading, change into riding gear, then run out to the field or barn to grab Be and load up in the last 2 minutes I have before I'm suppose to be on the road. And I have no twirly rope or helper to put up the butt bar or ramp, that's part of the 2 minutes. My horse never breaks into a lather while doing this either. Whatever he's doing here with leaping over the ramp and stuff is dangerous and taking way too long. He says he's the preditor in this situtation; but how does a horse know when you're suppose to be the preditor, and when you're the protector? The protagonist or the partner? The mixed messages this NH craze send leave me backing away when the coined phrase is used. I fully support working with a horse and using pressure, release and reward. But I don't think the answers to achieving a good relationship with our horses come in a box.

Keys to the Bentley

2010-03-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

For the second week in a row, I'll be riding a "lesson horse" tonight. Two weeks ago I messed up the wiring in my trailer plug and it's still not right, and last week Be was a mudpuppy so she'd never have been dried and clean enough to ride between the time I get home from work and the time I get to the stables. But that's okay, it's a good thing to ride other horses. Bentley is a schoolmaster hunter, and taught me some funky positions that I have to ride him in. Who knew perching at the front of the Titanic was a real way to canter? Huh. Oh yeah, and don't touch his mouth. He hates that and will shake the reins out of your hands. What a difference taking a Bentley for a spin is from my little red Porsche!

We did w/t/c and started to try jumping. Its a lot to put together in my head, particularly with a new-to-me horse. We did two jumps; the first I think I hit him in the mouth a bit. The second I did not sit deep enough and lost my outside stirrup. I need to think deep, hinge, release, speed control, and aftermath. Jumping did not thrill me all that much, but I guess its a good skill to have at the basic level.

Speaking of that bugger, I think she misses being ridden too. So I've been paying her extra attention, and she's been doing cute things like nudging me with her nose and meeting me at the gate. Awwww.

Speaking of riding other horses, my last ride out on one of mine was on my 21 year old standardbred mare, Marie (pictured below). She's been off since December while I work to kill a sarcoid on her ankle. But she proved she's sound and bored and wanted to do something so I took her out for our Sunday ride two weeks ago. She was as good as she ever is, leading or lagging, moving sensibly to the beat of her own drum with two other horse and rider companions. We had a great, if chilly, time, and relaxed back at my friends farm for some tea and chatter afterwards.

Me out on the chilly ride. Hi there!

Hopefully, good weather will be here soon and more frequent updates will occur :)

A Little Friday Fun

2010-03-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

Red Hills Horse Trials 2010 - Three Star World Cup - Peter Atkins

Not my usual cup of tea, but riding along with a great pair like this virtually (thanks to a helmet cam) is a lot of fun! Enjoy!

I Think I Need a Trailer Intervention

2010-03-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

Last week I didn't unhook Be unloading in the dark and she slipped her halter. I think I told you guys that story. Last night, I did the unloading all right and perfect. Did the rest of the stuff out at the barn which took around half an hour, and then I came back to park the trailer. By that time I forgot something pretty important.

I tried to back it in by the house, which was a no go. I couldn't get a good angle to swing it around the tractor and keep it out of the soft mud in front of the path to the door. I straightened out and got it totally turned around then backed it in by the house. While I was manuevering it, and particularly when backing, I was wondering why it was sometimes a bit reluctant to budge. I shrugged it off by thinking the soft muddy ground wasn't giving much traction. I walked around to the back to go into the house...... and found I had left the RAMP down! WOW. I have never done anything as moronic as that. It was perfectly fine, albeit a bit muddy. That's one oopsie that I'm not going to be telling hubby about :(

Be was fairly good last night. My instructor was in such a great mood though after a rough beginners' lesson earlier that week. Last night she was forcing equitation on the other riders and looking for their best. She also said I looked tired or something similar, and I didn't think I was at the time but now reflecting back I think I agree. The trailer incident is a good example. Be wanted little to do with working at slower gaits (shocking) but I held her and held her and held her at the trot till my arms were stiff (not yanking/pulling but equaling pressure given for pressure received). Instructor said she's been working for a year, we know she can canter and we know you can deal with her antics so just keep her going whatever she does and don't stop. So...we trotted while everyone else around us cantered, sometimes sideways but we did it anyway. The only really bad thing she did was her only buck of the night; unfortunately it was a bit close to where everyone else was sitting :( I cut that corner from there on and that went fine.

The other three girls took a breather after their first canter set, leaving the rail free. I had the ring so I let Be out and we had a gorgeous canter. I actually sat most of the clockwise canter and found it comfortable. I think I'm figuring out how to keep my leg stiller by sitting the canter, which in turn reduces my leg accidentally whacking her behind the girth, which in turn reduces her fits, sideways movements and bucking. But I'm also trying to carry my dressage whip while riding to get her "over" more on the rail when she does drift sideways. Her poking her hip out is not totally my fault as I've seen her do it with others too and get real pig headed about corrections. Clockwise we flew along very easily for me, I actually relaxed and just floated with the movement. Counter clockwise was tougher to sit for some reason, maybe my lower back, but we did half sitting and half hovering. She was soaked after that ride, and the other horses weren't even done yet (they jump after flatwork). She makes things much harder for her (and me) then they need to be. Good thing there are some improvements for all that effort!

Last weekend I hooked up the trailer for a ride with the gals. In the process I cut the trailer pretty hard trying to avoid all the mud we have going on right now. I didn't jackknife the gooseneck, but I did apparently pull the wires out of the adaptor plug on the truck. :( I didn't realize this until I was on the road to my friend's farm (about 10 minutes away). I pulled out my tools after the ride and reattached the wires to the default places in the plug. It seemed they all right at that time and I went home on my merry way.

Last night after the lesson (but before the ramp incident) I turned on the lights so I would have my interior light on for loading. I was startled to find I had no lights. The brake box said everything was connected and the brakes hummed when I hit the pedal...and lights worked when I stepped on the brakes. Huh. Apparently if I turn on a turn signal, brake, or 4-way I have all my lights. Four ways turned the dome light in the trailer into a disco ball of off-on-off-on so I turned that off. I guess the daytime lights are working right but the nighttime ones are not and it must come down to a miswiring in the running lights. I drove home with the four ways. I'll try to figure out what I miswired tonight. With 5 wires and 7 receptacles, there are only 35 possibilities. That shouldn't take more then several evenings, right?

Momma's Got a Brand New (Feed) Bag!

2010-03-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

There's a new bright shiney object in the pasture! Day one, they shied, spooked and fleed the new monster. Day two, they couldn't wait to shove their noses into it. Yes, there is finally a round bale feeder out there! Whoo hoo! 9 bales of hay a day (3 bales, 3 times a day) by sled was getting really old!

What's that over there?

Mmm yummy!

Be is one of the ones who spends much of the day in front of the feeder. Chunky monkey!

But of course they all line up for turn in time. Feed and a bedded stall win over spending a night out until the weather gets better

Reflections

2010-03-04T06:04:00.000-08:00

I found the right words for my riding/schooling relationship with Be. It doesn't have to be all right and perfect to be perfectly alright.

We have moments of greatness intermixed with moments of progress as well as moments of "just stay with her and keep going until she stops". In the past I mentally counted the number of hops, ducks, lunges and bucks. A good series of these could put me off asking for speed above a collected trot. Now, I just stay with her, keep her going and work her until she smooths out and reward her with riding her looser and lighter when she is doing what I ask. Sometimes this happens from the start. Most times I have to play with her a bit and then she does it. And then the not so great times I have to work with her a while before she hits the right response. But in all, I must say I CAN now do it. I can work within my comfort zone and keep at her until we're both on same page and working together. And I even remember to breathe these days (grin)

Last night's lesson was not perfect. I was not perfect; she was not perfect. Sometimes I asked too hard (and got called for it, good instructor!). Sometimes she was disobedient. But we kept at it, and in the end it looked good, felt good, and was good. We're doing this together, we both enjoy it, and we both improve, be it small steps or huge leaps. Preferably with neither of those litterally though. Good strides, no leaping, and that dressage mantra of forward would be my preference.

I also learned I can sit a canter last night. I took my AP saddle and perhaps the stirrups were too long because I had real trouble getting out of it. My body didn't want to post at the trot so I had to kind of force a post. It was weird, hard to explain. And perhaps it was why she was so laid back at the trot. She was rather slow for her but not in a bad way just not gung ho like normal. When we moved up to the canter and she got silly I often found sitting back on my tail bone and trying to absorb the motions was easier on my back (though it aches today anyway!) then the forward hover-crouch thing that pumps along with the canter beat. I asked if I could do that when it felt better and was told sure so that's something new to try playing with. It's my shoulders that hurt today so maybe I was sparing my lower back more. I think the exercise ball has my name on it tonight to stretch everything back out again.

Be and I start the canter transitions with a little "fresh air". Ooops.

Working things out

Catching that last, great canter lap around the ring

Be, sweaty after a good workout. So was I, so was I. We worked it hard.

Be Says iRock!

2010-02-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

Short but sweet update here. No pictures, no loose creatures, flying objects, or weird stuff to contend with, but we finally had a lesson last night! We last had one Feb 3rd, and now it's the 25th, so I was greatly missing them.

The weather called for a major storm watch for the past 48 hours but other then several inches of snow over late night last night we were pretty good for trailering out. Coming home was more dicey but I was on Cloud 9 so I just took it nice and slow and enjoyed the euphoria.

Got to the barn, and the wind was whipping snow around on the roof. I was tacked up before the other 6 riders (yes, BIG group for a lesson in the arena!) and took Be out there with the noises kicking in at random from the wind. I just hand walked her around, checking out poo piles, hale bales, doors, and wishing I had a lunge line to get some of the energy out of her as she felt like a spring. She leaned to grab a bite of hay out of the round at the far end, heard something, and spooked into me (more specifically into my elbow as I got it up in time). I thought wow this could be interesting.

But the other horses joined us and she did the deep end better under saddle then some of the others so that was a relief. She didn't want to loose rein walk to warm up well, and most times she felt a breath away from breaking into trotting. Sometimes she'd try, particularly coming down the wall toward the main door, so we did some quick circles to stop those. Considering her excitement level, she was really good though. At the working trot I had to hold her back but sitting trot was gorgeous, collected, slow with a fabulous bounce with the cadence from side to side. I could have ridden that forever! We moved up to the canter and she gave fabulous transistions, smooth and balanced with the correct lead every single time. With so many in there only half could canter at a time so we'd come back to a trot while others flew by us, and visa versa and she was actually pretty okay with not taking off with them. That's HUGE for her, and for most with the competitive racehorse streak in them.

What a GOOD girl she was! Be rocked!

Sunday Riding

2010-02-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

We lucked out on Sunday with some really lovely weather for a trail ride :) We were celebrating the sweet sixteeth birthday of our friend's standardbred gelding. Here's our lovely group. The standardbred is next to the paint on the right.

Having my picture taken of me taking a picture. Well, this is a pretty normal look for me so it works.

The necessary between Be's ears shot

The jaunty sign guy tipping his top hat at us

Headed back into the woodsy road allowances

And back to the farm for the party

Be enjoying some horsey birthday cake :)

Naaah, not spoiled, right?

Catching up the Week

2010-02-17T18:49:00.001-08:00

Saturday a pair of brave gals and I tacked up and headed out in the bitter cold for a nice short ride

Be was a super good girl, happy with her gelding and mare buddies. But before we even got to our final destination I had offered to pick up the second of our party of three. She's a near black QH mare I didn't know yet and a rider I hadn't ridden with yet, but everything sounded great. She has just recently moved much closer to my barn (over to the cow sorting ranch actually) and I figured I'd just load up Be, swing over there, and pick up the mare and off we'd go. Well...that mare wasn't too keen about jumping on the trailer, sadly. She wasn't scared of it, and Be was right there to show her company. She just was having no part of it. I was very proud of Be each time the other mare would stick her nose up her bum or rock the boat. Be just soldiered on and waited out the entire half hour it took for us to coax the dark mare on board. It was all wellworth it though, as we got out on the back roads for some awesome riding.

Our new buddy!

Post ride, relaxing in the horsey palace that is my friend's farm. Be just loves coming to visit this place!

My gal is looking quite fit and healthy eh?

Be sharing her sweet clover mix hay with her standardbred buddy Tater

It only took the dark mare 15 minutes to load on the way home. With more of these good trailering experiances this should get easier and easier.

And later, on Sunday, Be showed Gally the proper way to naw down my fence posts. Grrrr.

Aside from that, we missed our lesson tonight (Wednesday) due to unsafe driving conditions. But we rode anyway!

Tonight Be and I had a nice half hour short session but so good! I pulled out the wintec AP because it's snowing like crazy out there and I got her tacked up with that bridle she was throwing bucks the last time we tried it. It was so stiff and she's so sensitive, I figure it had something to do with each other. I've worked it and oiled it and it's so much softer with a nice french link on it and she just loves it now! Anyway, got up on her and found my stirrups were too long. I've got the webbers (single plies like on my dressage saddle) and this pair can't go any higher :( but I wasn't going to let that stop me so I held with my knees more like I should anyway when I needed to. Did a fast walk because she's full of herself to warm up, moved into a trot both ways, both working and collected.

Hubby said keep it walk trot out there because of the footing but we know Be, the mountain goat girl wanted to fly so I gave in, gave the inch, and we had the most beautiful canter around and around and around in an area a little smaller then the arena, so it was more in a circle then straight. The ends of the circles were rather narrow but she can balance around anything. Correct leads, smooth as silk, and not a buck the entire ride. Wow. I'm on cloud nine. And she wasn't even breathing hard of course. I kept it short in respect to us getting wet out there in that snow, just 6 laps each way, but it was amazing.

New Photos

2010-02-11T06:01:00.001-08:00

Weather up here has been crappy for riding so here's a photo montage instead of the usual weekly lesson update.

Galaxy Wind (Gally), one of our racehorses we picked up at the end of last year. She'll be getting a restart with us on the track in a few months.

Be teaching Gally new tricks :(

Our much-needed new tractor. Oh, the projects we have for this!

Marie, Gally, Be, Seagee, and little Tyke

Cow Sorting Ranch 2.0

2010-02-11T05:51:00.000-08:00

Well, I took Be back to the cow sorting last Friday night. Honestly, in the short of it, there isn't much to tell.

Be hopped on the trailer, travelled around the corner to the ranch and we were the first ship ins there. I got there early to hope it would help her and give her time to get use to the place. Another person who sorts there showed up shortly after and she unloaded her gelding first, then I unloaded Be, who was pretty okay with everything. I walked Be over to the off side of other trailer and said see Be, horse right there, so let's get tacked like a good girl. And she was fine with all that, in the dark and so forth. I left her halter on and her bridle in my bag, but I didn't want to carry the saddle so that had to go on her at least halfways.

I lead Be up the driveway to the arena. There is a garage door that opens then a gate to get into the arena. The garage going up was a good bit of interesting to Be, having never seen that before, but the gelding came up right about then and didn't care so Be was okay with it too. Into the arena we went, where there was all of two other horses. The one was a paint they just gelded and he was pretty green and fresh under saddle. The lady owner was working him in the arena at all gaits and then moved down to the cow pen to work him some more, so I tried to just walk Be around in the near side and get her use to being there.

Well, there's a catch pen and a side pen on that side and the one had their tractor in it and the other had a roping dummy. Be did the arabian snorty blow thing at the tractor and the roping dummy. She apparently didn't even see the cows at the far end yet. Wow. I put her tack under a table near the tractor and walked with her to get her across the arena into the deep end where the cows are. It was a slow procession but we did get within a few feet of the pen they were being held in (I could have reached and touched them if I wanted to) but she really wasn't loving them. After standing near them a while I took her back over to the only open area on the near side of the arena to watch the other horses start to arrive. The tractor and the roping dummy were moved out, and I hoped to park Be over in one of those. Nope, the former stallion was to go in that area and they wanted no other horses near him so I clipped her to the line, which she was pretty good with considering she couldn't turn around to watch what was going on well, and we waited.

The arena filled in nicely with about 25 horses total (they made 7 or 8 teams of 3). I wanted to grab my bridle and swing up to point Be's red-ribboned bum back toward the arena wall rather then out toward all these horses but I didn't feel good about leaving her tied to go get her tack from under the table. Nearest us to the right the lady ranch owner tied the recent stallion, and I just kept Be's attention. The lady was taking the entries so I was pretty much stuck for the moment. Once that finished up I left Be with a recently arrived friend and retrieved her bridle. Popped that up on her and up I went.

The warm ups going around us were pretty routine. Be threatened kicks 3 times throughout the whole night we were there, and never once actually kicked. The first time was when a rider left her horse "ground tied" and it wandered off and behind Be. She froze, rotated her ears back to listen, and shifted her weight. Second time was a similar reaction, the patrol guy who was there for the first time with his draft came up right behind her and he said sorry, I see the ribbon, and moved off. The third and last was late in the evening and I was holding her talking to someone on the outside of the arena, Be's bum outward (slightly my fault but there was tons of space for working horses) and the same big draft went flying by her hindquarters so her rear end hopped up.

We stood on the circle watching the rounds and mostly holding our ground when the cows would sort into the area in front of us and get near. Now and then we took a step back but for the most part we did great with that. I had about a 10mm circle area behind us that I walked a couple circles with her when she got really bored.

Cows between Be's ears

See, we're standing more then still enough for pictures :)

They did three rounds per team and took a break. I moved Be out into the arena while most of the horses were tied to the rails to work on the fear thing. The first rider with the gelding from earlier kindly stayed out in the arena and mounted on him doing nice circles out there, and I tried to tuck Be in behind him as much as I could. We'd get about halfway around the arena area she'd skitter sideways like a crab looking at the cows in the pen the whole time, but so what. Her biggest tactic was backing. I tried to use that to my advantage and turned her around and backed her toward the pen several times. In doing this she hopped only a few times, reared only 2 or 3 times, and actually broke the plane of the catch pen 2 times I know of, perhaps a 3rd with the one good rear. Lots of good girl comments and rubs when she did what I want, I stayed out of her mouth nicely which limited the rearing bucking stuff, and we closed the evening with some trotting circles that took up almost the circumferance of the arena left to us.
I call it a win. We tried, and we didn't embarrass ourselves, and that's good enough for me.

On the Upward Swing

2010-02-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well, we keep reaching and so far succeeding! After barely doing anything for the past two weeks (one tootling around bareback night of riding) Be and I had a lovely lesson on Wednesday night. Okay, maybe lovely isn't the perfect choice of words as she wanted to GO but we did all the things we were suppose to. Just a little bucking here and there, but she did it all in tempo and with the right leads so that's a plus. And she did some really neat, balanced movements that weren't just a straight down the wall canter so that was cool too. She was quite pleased with herself.

Be behind bars after our ride

Quick pic while she scores some candy canes from me

Trying More New Things

2010-02-02T06:11:00.000-08:00

Going back to last Thursday, the weather dumped more snow and bitter blowing wind on us so I decided it wasn't great trailering conditions and cancelled going to our lesson :( But I really wanted to ride, and there was some nice snow on the ground, so I dug out that bareback pad for the second time and girthed up Be while she was eating. I then took it a step further and put my standardbred mare Marie's bitless bosal on her as well. I decided now was as good a time as ever to find out how well she steers without metal in her mouth.

Bosals are a mostly western training and transitioning device that work off the sensitive nerves of the end of the cheek bones on the horse's face to teach them to give to pressure and turns the whole head like a stiff weighted halter. Vaquero cowboys traditionally use a bosal as a transition for lightening up a horse's rein responses from a snaffle to a spade (high port) bit with shanks. Personally, I find a bosal a refreshing break from metal in the mouth and a nice alternative on the trail for a horse to grab a bite, take a drink and let it's mouth relax when puting miles on them. However with Be I just never got to the point where I felt safe enough to give her that freedom yet. But being that I planned nothing above a walk through the snow with the bareback pad, I figured now was a great time to have a soft place to bail if I needed it. I put the bosal on her, and lead her out the door.

Be did the normal resistance to the pressure thing any horse I've seen try one for the first time does, but she gave in pretty quickly. She works well off leg anyway, which is a huge plus for a bitless horse. In a few minutes she was a pro with giving to the bosal, so we sorted the calves at a walk, pushing them away from the group and cutting off their escapes. Be has no fear whatsoever of these four cows, and does a fabulous job of getting as close as she needs to be to them. Sigh. If only she was so good with other cows!

More photos off the roof of the barn :)

See the snow falling? So very very cold outside now

Lastly, we just bought a nice big tractor! Tractors are awesome things. We're going to get the disk harrows going and keep a nicer footing for riding at home. I'm so happy for that!

One Man's Wrong Lead is Another Man's Counter-Canter

2010-01-21T11:17:00.000-08:00

Be was an eating machine tonight at the barn I take lessons at. She crunched through a candy cane and half a flake of alfafa while I was brushing her up and tacking her. I took her into the arena and had to pull her away from the round bales at the end. The other horses were coming in and they were ready while I needed to tighten my girth and get my helmet on so I walked to the middle, where a jump was set up. We were standing by the jump standard and she just gave it this odd look, a quick nudge with her nose, then bit it!! Hard! I'm like Beeeeeaver! Sigh.

She was fun tonight. She definately recharged on her "vacation" lol She knows the routine. Warm up walk (walk much faster then everyone else because she can), pick up the reins for a working trot (try to do this as fast you can until finally collecting like mom wants), sitting trot (do this super slow, super perfect, super balanced, barely moving forward and as long as needed, even if mom drops the reins), pick up the working trot again (usually does it like mom wants it), and then a rest period. Be always decides she's rested enough faster then any of the other horses do and starts getting springy, bouncing into a trot and we do a quick tight circle back to a walk. Then we get to pick up the reins again, and usually she'll spring the trot about then (sigh) but tonight she sprung right into the canter and my instructor and I both knew it was either that or she would buck (she'd been like sitting a TNT barrel all night and knew this was FAST time) so she told me to keep going. And so we went and we went longer then any other horse.

In one transition she had the wrong lead and instead of coming back to a trot and trying again like usual I was told to try to get her to do a flying lead change. She knows how to do those better then I do, as I usually just feel it but I don't have the full mechanics. I tried to lift the outside rein and pop her over and instead she pointed her nose into the wall and swung her hip out, and continued to canter sideways around the arena. I was trying to figure out my next step to correct this when my instructor actually praised what my horse was doing. She said that's an advanced dressage move and she was doing it very balanced and on the diagonal. I got her straighted back out after about half a lap, but that had been as easy as breathing for her.

Transitioning to another canter later, she picked up the wrong lead again. Instead of bringing us back to a trot like usual to correct it, she told me to try do get a flying lead change again. My instructor said keep the canter going but try a small circle. I did not know "small" meant like half the arena. I did a very small circle. Instead of forcing the change like she thought it would, she told me I just did a 10 meter counter canter balanced and collected circle with impulsion. Instructor said she loved it, and said I had no idea how hard that was to do. I guess I still don't, because Be just does these things. I said you mean there's hope for us yet? (grin) She called Be one balanced animal. I just enjoyed the ride. And that was my first ride since returning from FL. This year has gotten off on a good riding note week after week. Love my little Be-aver!

Dogs, Snowmobiles and Trains

2010-01-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

Squeezing out one more unexpected ride before I head to Florida this week, Be and I loaded up late Sunday and headed to a nearby farm where my friends board their horses. Temperatures were in the upper teens to lower twenties with a windchill and windspeed that could knock you off your horse if it didn't cement you to them as well. Brrrr. But we went, we rode, we survived. It wasn't a long ride, but it was fun!

Be was rather fresh, and didn't want to walk, didn't want to tail the other horses, and didn't like the wind whipping her tail against her back legs. Boo hoo, huh? So we rode tail, abreast, lead, and when she got bucky or prancy we just did it in place at a walk. Got that sitting trot thing mastered by now!

We saw Be's first snowmobiles (no big deal) a four wheeler or two (old hat), rode with my friend's dog, got charged at by barking dogs (she rarely blinks at those anymore), and did our first ever train. Way cool. The train comes on at you slowly. We knew it was coming as it was way down the tracks when we went over the first time and we turned back not long after that so we could hear the rumbling increasing steadily. We stayed back a good pace both because hey, they're horses, no need to get up close, and the train cars can put off a lot of wind passing by. But Be definately paid them attention, ears up and alert, watching and waiting, but nothing remarkable once something was there that she could see going by.

Hacking up the back field of the boarding barn to the roads

Nice icey roads someone shouldn't have been acting up on :P

Watching for the train. Can you see the little red lights at the crossing?

Watching the train pass by

A van passing us just to get stuck by the train as well

Choo choo!

At the crossing with sunset

Lucky Enough

2010-01-07T06:23:00.000-08:00

The gal who bought my draft cross has a little quote on her Facebook page that often makes me smile. "If you are lucky enough to own a good horse, you are lucky enough." Knowing I sold her her "good horse" gives me warm fuzzies and they are truly well matched and having a great time together. I sold that particular mare, despite being a quiet, safe, happy plodding horse, because I had to choose between her and Be.

And I have to say, I am lucky enough to own a good horse too.

I think back to the stuff I've put Be through that she's accepted, and I really am impressed by her. Last night, yet again, I loaded her by myself, by herself, into the trailer and got her nice and secure, putting up butt bar and the ramp while she stood there looking back at me (yes, she can turn her head around to watch and likes to). I don't wonder if she will get on the trailer, or if she'll be anxious about trailering alone, in the dark, in the cold. I know I won't have a horse broken into a wet sweat with nerves when we get where we are going. My trailer wiring decided to do some shorting in the cold for some reason so I'm worrying about the dim running lights and watching her inside light flicker off and on in the trailer, and I know she's not worrying about the strobe light effect. I get to the barn and have most lights but the running lights are still dim and the interior light is off. With this in my mind, I open the top doors, go in the escape door and hook my lead to her halter, go back around to the ramp and let that down and the butt bar and give her tail a soft tug to tell her to back off.

Be backs one step nicely, then there is a short struggle, the trailer rocks, and she backs the rest of the way off a bit quickly onto the snowy pavement. Quickly noticing my mare is now halterless, I do grab the only thing still on her body, which is a sweat cooler I put on her for post ride cooling. Yes, I'm thinking so much about the darn lighting issue that I forgot to unhook my mare's halter. So I can lead her a little here and there with my hand under her chin but she's really giving me that "what's going on now" look. I got her to the side door close enough to unhook her halter from the tie but I couldn't reach it when it fell to the bottom and she didn't want to get closer as it would put her head in that dark hole with me if she did. So we stood there, looking at each other placidly, waiting for someone to save us lol I didn't even have a carrot, a string, anything to put around her head/neck and try to lead her with more effectively so what could I do? I didn't want to go far from the trailer as I knew she knew the trailer and was use to hovering around me like a shadow while I did things next to it so I figured it was safer then trying to make it around the barn into the door where there was no light yet.

About 5 minutes later a student and her non-horsey dad came up the drive in their little car. I'm quickly debating how to tell them I need their help but don't need their car right up near us. I make all kinds of funky gestures, stop ones toward the driver, frantic pointing at the passenger (the student) and then to Be's naked head. In the end they come a car length behind my trailer ramp, and the student jumps out. Elated, I tell her Be slipped her halter and I need her help. For some reason, she comes over to us as if she should now hold Be by her blanket while I get the halter. Errr, how about going in the trailer for me and getting the halter, particularly since my mare knows me a bit better and visa versa lol She says oh, and gets her halter (which, despite a break away, she did just slip and not break) and I put it on a relieved looking Be. Then she starts to walk back to the car and I call her back asking if she'd mind grabbing the lead out of there too, please and thank you. Clipped Be up and we were back to normal :)

We navagated around the barn in the dark and the inside was indeed unlit. This is always fun as there is often hay right on the inside of the double door, and the stallion, and sometimes cats, or a wheel barrow, or other things that a person could navagate but a horse might not. I think I'm the only ship in this time of year so I don't think Be navagating stuff in the dark is remembered too often. More points for my good horse, she has always followed me from one environment to another without question. I get her in a nice stall with the hay I brought (heaven knows she's earned it) and she makes herself at home like always. No wide eyes. No calling to others. This is how she travels. She settles right in and blends in.

I get the trailer parked, get the wiring partly resolved (still no interior light), and get back to the barn with the rest of her gear. Brushing her out in cross ties next to the stallion and the new horse, she couldn't be better behaved. Other horses pass by her, no problem. Tack her up and we join a youngster on his second ride in about a year out in the arena. He's walking fast but behaved, and his owner just does a little walk trot before putting him away. She likes Be because the youngster's mom was also a chestnut TB mare and she has a special affinity for them. She's one of the barn boarders who have seen Be come along over the last year and she's very encouraging for us. While I'm adjusting my tack, I'm watching another rider who's joined us up on a school pony. The pony is shying and proping in the dark corner. Be's ignoring him.

I get on Be from the ground (need to make friends with the mounting block one of these days) and join the other two on the rail. The pony falls in behind Be, making her the "brave leader". Warm up walk goes uneventful, and we pick up the reins when told. The pony's rider, same one who rescued me and Be out in the parking lot, now has a crop and the pony is power walking (grin). Be and I go through the walk, the trot, the working trot, the collected trot (nice nice sitting collected trots!) and like last ride I'm in for the canter. I've been doing half the canter work, but my instructor said after the last ride where I did just fine with only a little bucking that the canter is mine alone to do so we're doing it.

I get a nice trot, go into a corner, outside rein, inside leg and squeeze and boom, we're cantering just like everyone else. Nice, collected, rhythmic canter that's not going to mow down the other horses (the pony was doing that LOL) and not crawling along either. We went and went and you could just feel how happy Be was to be moving. I didn't feel like a sack of potatos this time, nor was she bucking, threatening to buck, or doing much of anything wrong. Around and around we went, and as I got more comfortable I would give her a little more or take a little back and vary the canter stride. It was cool!

We all transitioned down and walked for a bit. I took a moment to set the camera up for one of the onlookers and she took video of us going the other direction. I don't look like a sack of potatos either, and Be is carrying herself so nicely! Even my instructor says she's muscling up in the shoulders and rear differently, and I feel how effortlessly she moves off her back end. Love it! We hit a couple wrong leads going that way (clockwise) but that's not unusual with a TB and we would come down to a trot and try again and pick up the right one. I had a wonderful time, and she really was my good horse under me, helping me stay balanced and comfortable with whatever turn or circle we took. No more cornering like a motorcycle on the turns. Not one buck. After that we took another little break and I was going to call it a night. I swung down and started walking her out while the girls rested. I looked at the jump, an oxer (X shape) that was potentially higher then the little downed rail we popped over last time. Then I looked at Be and she looked at me and I looked at my instructor and said if I trot into the jump like last time, do you think she would continue at a trot afterwards? She said probably, which is instructor speak for just try it, so I swung back up.

I asked for a trot and she gave me a spiffy one. I wrestled with her a bit while my instructor, a note of concern in her raised voice, says don't try the jump until you have her collected and slowed down. No problem, I had no intention of doing anything until I felt secure lol I get her into a lovely collected trot of medium impulsion, and aim for that jump. No ground pole, no wings, no baby hop this time, we're jumping! I put my knees against her, tilt forward at what in retrospect felt like the exact right moment, and Be's ears went magically up as her body released a lovely springing action behind me and over we went. It was smooth, I didn't mess with her head, and somehow I was still there on the other side of the jump. Of course, by letting her head go she did take it upon herself to hit the ground running with a spiffy canter, which may have partly been my fault as I know I grazed her belly with my left heel. Hmmm. But I was in good enough a position to stay with her, make the quick turn to the right at speed, and even felt her automatically switch leads in the turn. Wow. I brought her back to a trot, then a walk, and released my breath. That was different. My instructor said that was a real jump. Huh. I *can* do a real jump. I filed that away for later when I need more confidence and we called it a night, cooling out as we watched the other girls pop the jump and get a running stream of corrective commentary.

Be got her much-deserved carrots and we headed for home. She loaded back into the trailer without hesistation. I even remembered to unhook her halter this time when we got home. She unloaded peacefully, as if my earlier folly never occured. Marched through the dark past the shadows and the cows and the sheep with their bell ringing to the barn and tucked her right into her stall where she proceeded to make the treat begging face. Gave her some carrot slices to entertain her while I got the rest of her and Marie's dinner prepared and brushed her out while she ate. Perfect.
I am lucky enough to own a good horse.

Snowing and Blowing So Just Pictures

2010-01-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

It's now 5 days into the new year. So far there's...

No riding.

No cow sorting.

No horsey anything going on.

Just snow, snow, snow. And below freezing temps. Augh.

I even woke up to half my barn being out of power when the heated buckets tripped the breaker overnight. Unfortunately, that's the side the heat light for the water cabinet is on as well, so double fun. I know the majority of North America is suffering from frigid temps, but that doesn't mean I'm going to quietly accept it. I booked a flight for Florida! Soon!

Muwahahahah.

At least the horses don't care about the weather.

Be and cows

Be pushing away the cows

Be amongst cows

Sea-gee the camera diva

The stallion with his sheep

2009-12-31T05:53:00.000-08:00

After a fabulous lesson last week, snows came and burried stuff around the farm. I took the precautionary action and cancelled going to our lesson last night early because the trailer's still stuck and the driveway is icy snow.

But really, I wanted to ride. And the snow had filled in some of the holes in the paddock. And I've never popped on Be bareback as of yet. Hmmm.

I grabbed my helmet, put on my warm boots and decided to see if I could get my bum up on her. I fed the girls, and while she munched I brushed her out. I dug out my bareback pad, which hasn't seen the light of day in months, and realized the girth is now on one of the western saddles in the trailer. No problem, there has to be a girth around somewhere. I found a brown, nondescript nothing fancy western girth that looks like it's never been used. Well, that would be because I'd never trust a piece of junk like this to not gall my horse in real use. But this is bareback right, and that doesn't count I told myself.

I put the pad on her, and was pleased to see the shaped wither relief works just right on her like it did on my old mare's withers. I girthed up Be and found even on the top holes the girth was loose enough to put a hand between it and her. Again, this is bareback right? Be just looked at me with that "what are you thinking of doing now" tollerant glare and I moved on to bridling. Out we went into the cold clear night air.

Well, almost. First we had to shoo the black cow away after her long drink in the trough by the door. She was backwashing as she peered hopefully past us into the barn and the sounds of munching and crunching. And of course the highland bull came over to check things out too. We shooed both of them off, my mind again on the irony of Be's total ease with our cows compared to the ones at the sorting ranch. I'm still tempted to take her back just to give it another shot. I put Be in the area we dig the snow out of in front of the barn door so I had a few extra inches in height, added a mounting block beside her, and climbed the steps to stand over her back. She looked back at me with another curious gaze and I slid over on to her back with what grace I could muster. I might as well have done it a hundred times for all the lack of excitement that moment elicited from Be. I adjusted myself as deep and centered as I could, got my bearings and gave a gentle squeeze and turn of the rein to move off.

She didn't budge. More squeezes, more rein, no response. I escalated slowly, harder legs, even kicking and eventually I was kicking like a barrel racer making time. These were the kind of kicks that normally would have sent us flying across a field. Eventually she did the deep sigh thing, looked back with a "are you sure about this" glance, and moved off for me. It was her last protest of the evening. After that we did laps, figure 8s, played with a barrel, and sorted out the cows, all in nothing faster then a brisk walk but mostly ambling along at a pleasant, comfortable pace. The part that really impressed me is she did it in a fairly nice frame too. She was sure footed on the icy parts and ruts that I couldn't see under the snow and the few times I felt a foot slip it never affected her rhythm or bothered her in any way. She just did whatever was asked, pushing right up into the cows when they didn't feel like moving, and put up with my fumbling with the camera, playing with the self timer, movie, and flash settings. Not too many horses you can pop a flash right next to their heads, especially repeatedly, and not bother them. Be, she just turned her head when she saw the "box" and ignored it. The many times I moved close enough to set it on the roof she didn't mind my fiddling and adjusting to place it somewhere it would get a picture.

And so, we played and plodded for about half an hour, and accomplished another new milestone.

The first attempts at the camera self timer were kinda dark and dismal. It was actually a little lighter in the barnyard then the photos suggest. But you can see her head was in a nice, relaxed, casual position while we worked. I took some video on her back too, but am not sure how it came out yet.

Can you see my smile? :)

Ribs, while we were playing with the reluctant cows

Checking out our tracks

Still playing with that self timer. The settings for that are incredible. Up to 10 shots at a time, with an adjustible interval. 5 seconds between was kind of fast, 10 kind of slow. I'll find a happy place.

This is what I call getting "the look" from Be. She will reach around with her nose, usually giving my boot a nudge, when she thinks we're doing something stupid again. Standing out here getting our photo taken over and over qualified.

Sidesaddle next? She took a step a few moments after this, and it was just enough to unseat me so I landed on my feet next to her and she just looked over with one of those "about time!" expressions

Post ride discussion the camera caught. 10 shots is a lot!

Pad without me aboard. Its very comfy

Stalking me for carrots. You can see she looked through the feed tub by the grain on the ground from her searching.

Very proud of my little red head as usual. We're trying to plan for a nice New Years Day ride tomorrow with friends so hopefully I'll have another ride story to share.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everyone!

As usual, the more I'm home the more stuff I've got going on. Did the Christmas thing with the inlaws, did a lot of phone calls with the family far away, and did a lot of mucking. We now have a couple sheep in with the stallion, so of course there are more mouths to feed and work to do around the farm. Let's see, 7 horses, 1 pony, 4 cows, 3 sheep, 3 dogs, about a dozen chicken, and a guinea pig. Sometimes we even find time to take care of ourselves.

We didn't do a lot for ourselves for Christmas, but hubby did get me a nice set of drill bits and a fleece blanket (smart man) and I got a lovely new camera I'm enjoying to the Nth degree. It's a Canon, which I must say the brand is quickly climbing the rungs for me, with a powerful 10x optical zoom and a gazillion features for me to learn. Definately a big step up from my traditional point and shoots. So, more photos should be coming to the blog!

Also, Be and I are doing fabulous. My instructor's daughter was away with her grandparents this past week so Be and I did everything together for the lesson. All the walking, all the flavors of trotting, and oh yeah, CANTERING :) Just one huge buck from her amongst the little bunny hops this time. Of course she made the peanut gallery scatter with it since she would have run them over if I hadn't steered her away, but other then that we flew around and around and I'm told we did really well. What a nice Christmas gift from the chestnut silly :) We even jumped! Yeah, just a jog into the jump, squeeze and pop over it, but hey it was a real jump. Then I did a few more on leading her on the ground while cooling her out and she jumped as lovely as a balloon on a string, just following me right over and landing softly. Love my girl!

Of course, no pictures from that lesson whatsoever. But I did play with the camera a bit the last two days so here's a few shots of this and that, and some with the inbetween camera I didn't like at all and the old camera which is now hubby's ebay'er.

Spock waiting at the gates for me so we can start the Christmas Eve barn chores

Turnout. Be and Marie

Be heading over to check me out

Be, Clifford and Sea-Gee (can you see her?) hanging together and
sharing a meal

Clifford, who loves to stick all 17+hands of himself in front of the camera

Be and Hour getting all snuggly

Sea-gee the brat filly

The little guy looking debonaire

The camera I didn't like did have some redeaming qualities.
How can this not be cute?

Also with the camera I didn't like, and also one I think is cute

And some with the new camera, which I just love!

Hour up close

Be and Clifford don't mind a little rainy snow

Handsome Porky is out standing in his field

Porky tending to "his" flock. What a nice stallion!

Close up of Muffin

And Then There Were Two?

2009-12-21T05:37:00.001-08:00

My husband's favorite gelding of ours, Hour, has about reached time to retire. He loves running, but he's 10 going on 11 which is ancient for a racing horse. Hour in his youth was a stakes horse and won his first race, the Victoria stakes, in his career debute. A $450,000 sales purchase, he never quite lived up to that height but we did help him break $200,000 in lifetime earnings in the couple of years we've had him. His record is 6-9-6, with one of those wins for us and several of the seconds and thirds. Hour is full of character, and is a curious boy who's into everything. He always wants to be doing something, and if he's not he'll fill the time with weaving. Hubby and I really love the "old man".

I personally think last year should be his last year of racing, but I know Hour doesn't mind going back. I'm just hoping hubby is too busy with the other horses to really want to campaign him again. To encourage that scenario I really need to do something with Hour. He last raced in October, and I let a friend take him cow sorting down the road with me and Marie 3 weeks after that race. He hadn't been ridden at all between then, and he did great. With the footing at the farm being as bad as it is, he again has sat a couple weeks. The ranch had a free sort this weekend at part of the christmas festivities, so I planned and persueded hubby to come along and help me out with taking Hour again. I would have loved to have taken Be, which was the original plan, but he'd never have gone to watch Be and with Hour I had a chance. Hour hasn't learned to load by himself yet like the girls do and he's incredibly tall compared to what I'm use to plus is use to mounting on the walk so I needed a ground person to get me up in the saddle.

Hour was fab! We did one pratice run with my group that had one of the fastest times of the night :) We also did fairly well in the jackpot round (money earning round) even though we didn't pick up points or money, and we really gave it a good shot in the one on one solo sort. The time to beat was 13 seconds, which is extremely fast, but we tried. I'm very proud of the old man. On the agenda is teaching him to load, stand, and working on the back so we can do even better. I think I've a new cow horse :) Well, until hubby steals him that is.

Jackpot round. Fastest time getting all the cows out in order without sending the wrong one over wins. At the end you'll see a light colored cow that made a break for it and Hour and I couldn't catch it fast enough. He was the wrong number :( Other then that, we'd had a great rhythm going! I'm in the red santa hat on the tall bay.

This is our one on one sort. Hour was figidy waiting for the cows to be bunched so I circled him. That put us going in at an odd angle (sigh) but we really tried. I had my cow, number 5, spotted and got behind his heels. For a moment I thought we had him but the bugger spun and squeezed by us. Well, it was our first try so we definately should improve! The object here is to "pen" the cow we're given in the side corral outside the main pen. I was trying to pen mine in the pen on the right.

Solo sort

A Baaaaah Moon on the Rise

2009-12-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

Two weeks of poor weather have left me little Be news to blog about. Occassionally the sun would shine, but with muddy boggy footing or now the lumpy, rough ice, riding just isn't easy to do. I skipped out on lessons and cow sorting this week because I feared pulling the trailer out of the icy driveway. By the weekend it all swapped over to rain of course, so we had spots of mush and spots of melting thick ice. The weather is certainly gearing up from the nice long summer-ish fall we enjoyed last month.

I did get a nice afternoon last Sunday, but with an icy driveway we didn't go anywhere. I don't think the horses minded another day off.

Other then that, the new thing on the farm is SHEEP. We now have two older ewes. They were "free", which always catches hubby's eye, and he's wanted sheep for a while so he pounced on that. They are kinda cute, but of course set Be's warning system off so she's got something new to freak out over. I wonder how many weeks/months/years it will take for her to be calmly nose to nose grazing with the freeks, err sheeps.

Baaaaaah.

Picture Post!

2009-12-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

Catching up on a couple weeks' riding with pictures :)

We started using themes for the Sunday rides. This is the "brown" ride. I had antlers on Be's halter but they kept sliding back so eventually I took them off. You can see them sliding down her neck here though.

And here is the "pink" ride. Pink and red-orange really clash!

But Be's rocking it anyway

Another good lesson night. Canter's coming along, not so fast for me, fast enough for her advanced rider. She's also loving her jumping

Scritch scritch for the good girl

Heh heh. Trust me, the feeling of tollerance is mutual. But we really get along great :)

Be wants treats post-lesson. She's skilled at the art of begging

Raspberries for when I ran out of carrots

Today (Sunday) out in the sunny, snowy back field

Be and her buddy Marie, my other riding mare

Sun bathing

The TBCM Does a Parade

2009-11-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

Whoo Hoo!

I always take my older standardbred mare in the parades as I can pretty much look around and take pictures and not have to worry about what she's doing or if she's going to be stupid. She follows the crowd and behaves for the most part, and even in the big parades kids can run up to her and pet her so I really enjoy having her as my mount. This year though I had the spare spot on the new trailer and a friend who's ridden all her life and ridden with me often but has never gotten to ride in a parade. She gallops racehorses and ponies them at the track so I knew she's a very experianced rider and would probably enjoy Be. And Be would probably stick to my mare like cellophane so that would give her confidence. A win win.

What I never expected was Be to be brave and actually almost bored by all the activity LOL She lead in front of Marie, my other horse, quite often. Other then a little thing about her personal space (if she didn't know a horse and they were right on her bum she would hump her back end and even glanced one's chest when he sniffed her bum :( ) and a dislike of her tree skirt rump rug (made her bunny hop, so I wore it over my lap instead), she was an angel.

Friend on Be, me on Marie in the staging area, watching all the preparations go on. Be still had her pretty skirt at this point.

Only photo I have so far of us on route in the parade. As you can see, Be is so "excited" her rider is waving to the camera LOL My horse is listening to the plastic bags wrinkle and wants to go explore the possibility of food

Nice smile! Check out Be's head position.

Over Central Ave bridge. Yup, got that down pat too.

Once again finding something to do with her spare hand :)

What a fun time we had!

The Story of Anna

2009-11-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

Since this is a thoroughbred blog, I thought I’d take a post and go in a different direction with one entry. Hopefully the handful reading won’t mind.

Many TBs end up in unpleasant situations, particularly after they leave their racing lives. I work voluntarily with both individuals and organizations whenever I can be of assistance to find their horses better, safer places to land after their racing days are over. In honor of my first beloved old Standardbred mare Bess, I focus a lot of my attention and support in a voluntary coordination role for the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society. I assist with fundraising, shows, site inspections, demos, and anything else a volunteer can do, as well as maintain a list of volunteers and round them up for all the aforementioned tasks. Sufficed to say, I care deeply about the futures of our horses coming off the tracks, regardless of the breed, since part of my household income comes from their efforts.

That said, not every owner/trainer/breeder/etc is as interested in the end. To that point is the story of Anna. About two years ago I was introduced to Anna, the proud new purchase made by a triumvirate of people in the same barn my horses were in. My husband and I looked at the scrawny liver chestnut mare with the crooked blaze who had never won a race. Then we looked at each other with skepticism and said nothing. What can one say when there’s nothing encouraging come to mind?

Fast forward to this year, and the now 6 year old maiden (never won a race) is in the hands of just one of the original three. And he is the textbook definition of a Scrooge when it comes to care and treatment of his horses. Cheapest small amounts of feed and hay, pinching bales from neighbors and adding nothing with energy to the low end meals they did get, and sending them out week after week to be “also rans”. By September she’s hitting vet scratches from being so worn out (improper care, sanitary conditions affecting her hooves, running too much and generally in poor muscle condition) that the trainer seems to have finally given up. He actually stops taking her even for walks around the barn or grazing, she just lives in her stall and swings over to the one next to it on the days he resets her water and scoops out a fork or two of manure. He’s stopped buying any bedding by mid October and continues to rake the sides of the stall down into the center to create this bowl-like prison for her and his other horses. The one mare disappears, also a 6 yr old maiden, but that one he’s more attached to as I believe he bred her and she’s now in foal so she’s “special”, creating that next generation of lackluster racers. The 3 yr old colt he has, who might show promise in more capable hands, also is winless. He put that horse on the ground himself, out of another of his mares he can’t bother to keep well.

And he stops feeding Anna. At first she got a flake a day, and then she got nothing. My husband and I started haying her at nights, after he left. I hate this owner-trainer with a passion. His stalls and mine are side by side but I won’t say a word. Even then, I pass word that I have a home lined up for little Anna, just let him know. Then I try offering cash, no response. I guess the feelings are mutual. We don’t get a good look at her because she’s in a dark stall with dark ground (no bedding) and we’re trying to be clandestine. But we hay her and try to keep her vitals alright. Then the last Saturday of the month comes, and a box barely big enough to qualify as a trailer comes. They nail it together right there, the license plate jumping around on its bail string hanger. Then they butt rope and whip and spend half an hour getting Anna into this death box. I’m pretty sure I know where they are going. There is one low end auction at the end of the month half an hour down the road. He’s going to squeeze every penny out of her thin frame he can by letting her go to the meat dealers.

My consciousness cannot bear this. I get the bail money from my husband, rush home to grab my still-hitched truck and trailer, phone a friend for assistance and another for a place to for her to go once I get her, and off I go to the auction. We wait through all the old tack and new crappy tack to get to hip number 11 and get her out of there. She’s standing in a pen she can’t turn around in, and for the first time in daylight I can see just how ribby she is. I am furious. I pat her on the nose and leave to hide in the shadows near the sales ring so the owner doesn’t see me. A starting bid of $200 comes from the auction house. That’s my competition, the meat man. The auctioneer is fishing $250 from the crowd of disinterested people. I cut the air with my hand and my bid of $225 is added to the fray. The auction owner is in the ring, looks in the crowd to see who’s actually putting a “real” bid in on the mare. We lock eyes, and he acknowledges that its a private buyer and politely drops out of the bidding. The auctioneer fishes along for a few more beats but its obvious that the last raise in price came from me.

Anna’s mine. “Guaranteed sound papers at home 5 year old chestnut mare, will make a great youth’s horse”. Yeah, we won’t get into the age being wrong or the papers that will never come. At least the suitability is right, she should make a nice lady’s or youth’s horse once she’s feeling good again. I rush to my truck to get a lead and a couple of cc’s of tranquillizer. We’re going to load on my trailer with as little drama as possible. First, no lip chain on her nerves. She’s had enough of that. Second, no yank-whip-push. I opened the trailer wide, coaxing quietly and gently. Then I thought a moment, shook the full hay net of sweet clover hay and her ears went forward before she about ran me over to get into the trailer. Ah yes, the motivation of a starved horse. Getting her to back out of the hay box was harder then getting her into it!

So Anna stayed with me a week, and her story circled Facebook and other websites. People that knew of her were appalled. Not sure if it will ever change anything substantial, but it changed her life. After a week she’d put on some weight and was already perking up, but ever so grateful for her new lease on life. The trailer that took her home was smaller then mine, and a step up, and she overcame both obstacles with ease and poise, again going where the hay was with her ears forward.

Anna continues to thrive in her new home, the darling of many already. I’m told interest in her is building up with her gentle nature and interest in people. She’s going to be okay. She’s going to be fed and have a healthy place to lay down, clean water to drink and hands that care on her.

The deep, dirty "bowl" stall Anna lived in at the racetrack

Anna outside the auction house. She about dragged my friend to the grass

This was a racehorse living at the track

Anna head on. Those are not ripples in flabby flesh. Those are her ribs under one of those rabbit soft thin winter coats malnurished horses get

Number 11, given her name and her life back

In my pasture, where you can't walk without her seeking you out

Cute face, huh?

Leading the pack to come in for dinner

Anna in her new home, where she likely will stay based on the interest in her. Omm nom nom hay!

Ribs are filling in already, less then a month later

Someone is a very thankful little girl. Another Thoroughbred Chestnut mare ready to embark on a path away from the track. Best wishes, little Anna!

Tonight's Be's lesson night. She and I had a fabulous lesson last week with all speeds and lots of fun, and the second half she spent popping a little jump like a pro with my instructor's daughter. She made my heart swell. If I keep coming home on cloud 9 like that, my husband is going to be very jealous ;)

The Weekend Post

2009-11-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

It's only...errr..Wednesday, so that's not bad for updating on a ride that happened Sunday right?

And to top it off, this has to be a quicky, so here's our 3 hour tour in a 30 second blur...

We saw one of these:

Up close. It's a 13 foot pole, ha ha get it? Neither did I.

And we saw lots of these. No idea why they are out there but they made me laugh so mission accomplished?

Close up

And we saw this several times

Close up of the last time when he got brave and decided to buzz right over the horses. I guess the previous times when we didn't bolt or shake fists at him made him brave. Pretty cool though. The horses didn't flick an ear.

And we passed this

And then Be's bridle broke and hauled her up by grabbing her halter. Borrowed a screw, fixed it while holding the silly, and off we went again.

Ta da!

No Lions and Tigers and Bears, but Monkeys? Oh My!

2009-10-27T07:23:00.001-07:00

At the Tim Horton's drive thru

Sunday I loaded up Be and then picked up Pepper, an Appy Belgian mare I use to own, and we headed over to a friend’s to do a little group ride as the weather was spectacular. We four gals ambled down the road and decided to make a trip to Tim Horton’s, the infamous Canadian donut diner that exists practically every 10km around here.

The closest Timmy’s to this ride was down in “town” past the one traffic light on Main Street so we headed out and meandered through small town neighborhoods to get there. Next to one park we cut through is the zoo. We saw the giraffes from the trail and that was such a neat thing. Be didn’t blink at these crane-like creatures slowly moving around and enjoying the sun with us. Hitting the main drag after that we saw everything from polite passerby traffic that waved and smiled to the rude teens that flipped the bird and honked their horns. We didn’t care, we were there to ride and we did just that.

We crossed over to Tim’s and snuck around back behind the drive thru to dismount. We held horses as riders went in for a break and to grab a bite to go. Pepper had a wardrobe malfunction while we were standing there, with the fastener to the bit falling out and the bit dropping out of her mouth. Yikes! A scurry through our gear brought up a spare chicago screw on one of our reins and that was popped in to make a quick repair. Glad that happened while we were on the ground.

We mounted back up and headed across and down the road a bit in hopes of taking a road allowance around the back of the zoo. I had a racehorse running that afternoon and had to get back quickly. We started down the allowance as the leaders and I felt Be pick up the pace and tighten up as we went along. Then I started to hear them. The monkeys. They howled and hollered, setting off the wolves some as well. Be wanted to bolt. I did not. I tucked her in back of the line and just dealt with her tantrum. Sometimes we looked like a high school dressage horse, sometimes we bucked and bucked. The monkey noise never ceased. We finally made it into the woodsy part of the road allowance and found it was deeply rutted with water filled holes. Some of these ruts had water up to the horses’ knees in them. I followed behind Pepper, and watched her step into one that was so deep her big chest hit the front of the ditch before she climbed back out. Be just leaped from side to side on most of them, but she was still unnerved from the monkey business.

We kept going though, hopeful the end was near. Then we came upon a car. Oh, not your typical occupied vehicle, but a car that was somehow stuck solidly in mud and muck in the middle of our already narrow passage. We had no choice but to turn around and backtrack the long way we’d come, past the worst of the screaming monkeys again. So…back we went, miss bucky buck rattling me back and forth in the saddle from time to time. We finally hit Main again and Be just exhaled and relaxed. She’s definitely not a monkey fan. I joked maybe she prefers the Beatles like me. She was drenched in sweat but we’ve been there before so I didn’t worry. She wasn’t breathing heavy and her pulse was good. She just washed out with her nerves.

We were already late, and I really had to get back. My friend called her boyfriend, who hauled my trailer over to a park close to us. I yanked the tack off Be right in the middle of the road, pointed her toward the back of the trailer and she hopped right on, leaving her trail buddies without so much as a whinny. We booked it back to the farm and unloaded. Hubby looked at the mare and knew without saying what sort of fun we’d had. Eh, I still love her. She keeps life exciting. She was plenty cooled enough to toss out in the warm sun so I’d brush her sweat out when I got home.

The horse I had running didn’t win, but he did show some ability. That was good, and I wasn’t late J On another note, we did win one yesterday with my little filly Seagraves. After a year of picking up checks on every surface and on multiple distances, she broke her maiden in fine form and won a nice blanket in addition to her purse. Atta gal little one!

Heading into town

One of the residential areas on the way to "downtown"

Single file down the side of Main St

The horses having a nice snack at Timmy's. Drivers are staring at us of course.

The open part of the road allowance past the zoo. Be was happily leading until the monkeys went off

The bad girl and I riding drag. Those ears never stopped flickering

Seagraves and her lovely win blanket

Celebrating an Anniversary

2009-10-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

One year later, and here we are again on the UCEA Fall Colors ride. This was the first trail ride Be and I ever did together, and we had just as much fun this time as the first. This time however we were on time and joined the large group of 40+ horses and riders. Be and I loved the good weather and great outing. The trails were rather slippery and muddy up and down the forrested hills, but my little mountain goat was a peach with her feet. No slipping or stumbling for this little thoroughbred! None of the sights, sounds or events phased her, despite all the bikers and people with dogs out enjoying the unseasonably nice weather. We even passed the vineyards with their loud bird poppers right next to us and she didn't flick an ear their way. For general on the trail stoutness, she's fabulous! The only thing she did a bit wrong is she didn't like some of the horses that wanted to be close behind her (so she's wearing a ribbon next time) and she wanted to go faster toward the end so I had to practice some really collected stuff and keep her mind occupied. These rides are relaxing walk/trot, which is exactly what she should be doing, but we did lope up a few hills as fast as others walked them. Can't take the TB out of the horse I guess.

If you look real hard you can see the riders crossing the bridge in the middle of the above photo

Traveling down into one of the many dips in the forrest

Brilliant golden fall leaves

Forging one of several streams

Up another hill. There are about a dozen horses in this photo.

Giving the good gal a pat while she enjoys her salad bar.

Looking out from my favorite vantage point. I really love this mare!

Cow-abunga!

2009-10-12T04:57:00.000-07:00

Be, my cow-phobic horse who wouldn't sort and washed out instead when I tried to take her cow sorting, mothers our youngest calf. Go figure.

Lesson 10.08.09

2009-10-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

Be jumping! And a flying lead change after the jump! Proud of my little red head :)

Warning: Whiny, Sick Person Post

2009-10-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I came back from a lovely visit with the family down south very late Sunday night. I got back to the farm around midnite, and it was clear with a large moon shining bright over the pasture. I went out to the barn to see the horses and turn them out as they'd been inside a lot while I was gone. Be wanted to cuddle and hug me, and Marie pressed her itchy neck into the curry comb. Pretty cool stuff. Both were rather muddy/dusty from rolling in the wet fields. I got them cleaned off and put them and my mini back out in their spaces.

Monday afternoon we had 3 horses racing. I watched the first one online, missed the second, and just caught the third. Somewhere in my lungs congestion was starting to build, and I felt a bit off. By that night I coughing, and Tuesday morning dawned all stuffed up and miserable. Apparently I brought home a bug with me :( Tuesday and Wednesday passed in a blur save seeing the doctor and struggling through my barn chores. I picked up a nasty sinus infection, and it was making me miserable. Today, Thursday, I'm back to work and dragging myself through the coughing congested thing. I'm trying to keep it contained, as heaven knows we have enough bugs floating around our office this time of year with peoples' kids going back to school and the weather keeping us all indoors.

So now we're up to Be's normal lesson night. I'm going to sit it out and watch T ride her. It's going to be bittersweet, as I missed riding my girls while I was gone. But it's best I continue to rest and Be really wants some attention so might as well let her have fun. I'll try to remember the camera this evening. I'm sure Be will have fun with T. She gets to go fast ;)

Round and Round

2009-09-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Be continues to go round and round with T after good 10-15 minutes, while I work to contain my amusement while watching the Energizer Be-aver in action.

Riding Riding and More Riding

2009-09-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

A week's passed since the last update and asusual that meant I was very busy. The best part though is Be's been about as busy as I have :)

We left off with my birthday and Be's first full lesson with my instructor's daughter T, which included canter work as well as jumping. Well, I trailered her out that next Saturday to ride with someone I've been trying to hook up with for almost a year. I use to have a lovely young draft cross mare. When I was seriously looking at Be as "my" horse, I knew I had to give up one or the other as I don't have enough time or resources to devote to three horses and Marie's here for life. So I made the difficult decision to sell Pepper, the sweet belgian appy. I had interest in this big quiet sweetie throughout the province, but lucked out that she went to a nice lady just down the highway from me. We'd been trying to get together to ride for some time and it finally worked out for the upcomming Saturday. Her farm is against a shared trail that was perfect for putting some miles on the two of them. She's still getting use to Pepper, the draft cross, and needed some quiet steadies to just amble along with. I decided this was perfect for Be :)

We joined her and another friend of mine on her standardbred for a little "training ride" down the trail. A great time was had by all, and the other lady's confidence visibly grew with the passing hours. Then we decided to get daring, and headed down the road to the beach. Now, the last time Be set foot on beach sand was last fall when she had a racehorse moment and kicked it into high gear, bolting after a pack of cantering horses and leaving me black and blue on the sands after spooking away from a run out. Augh. So I had my own trepidations, but she was calm, and I was certainly with a group who wasn't going to race along so I bit down on my fears and went off to the beach like it was something we do every day.

Be and I, center of our 3 horse group

We hit the sandy access and I felt Be tense. I swung down and just lead her out there, while the other two rode forward confidently. Pepper's rider looked longingly at the water, and I realized she'd never been out there before. I've been in the water several times with Marie, and even swum with Pepper when I had her, so I knew water wasn't a problem if she really wanted it. She pointed Pepper out there with my encouragement, but she wasn't assertive enough to actually get Pepper into the water. I offered to trade her, giving her Be to hold and I swung up on Pepper. I pointed her toward the small waves and kept irritating her sides until she finally gave a deep sigh and trudged out without further complaint. She hit the water and actually enjoyed it, splashing and drinking to refresh herself. I came back out and her owner got back on. Pepper eagerly went back out in the water, taking the standardbred pair with her.

Pepper and I posing out in the lake

I gathered up Be's reins and swung up. I didn't think I'd get as lucky as her suddenly deciding she loves the water and would follow, but I did at least ride her along the shore without too much nervousness. There was a sand spit out into the lake, and I took her there next. That put water on three sides of her, and while she danced she listened to me too. We had quite an audience on such a nice indian summer day, so I had to be brave while thinking of what trouble being stupid could cause. I deepened my seat and turned Be around, backing her farther down the spit. Her back ankle touched the water and she jumped. I stopped her, calmed her and backed her again to touching an ankle, bounced, calmed, repeated. It was cute to see her try to kick the water away, but eventually she did it with less fear and I decided that was enough for now. I had a camera and a cell phone plus my clothes on a cool day, and didn't feel like landing in the water and having a loose horse on my hands.

All in all, that day rocked.

The next day Be and I picked up another friend with a standardbred and we met up with a gang in a provincial park called the Shorthills. The name is misleading, as they might be short in stature, but they are very challenging angles. Several areas of the trail go straight up or down into rocky water passages or bridges. This is where the cancer ride earlier this year was, and one of my absolute favorite places to ride Be. She's like a mountain goat, so sure and nimble on her feet and she scurries up and down the inclines, through the water and over the bridges without a qualm. We had a grand time, gaining and loosing extra riders as we navigated the two and a half hours of riding. Be was extremely forward on several sections and I had to contain her, causing her to work about 3 times more then any other horse. Some straight sections we did at a diagonal, with her bouncing along or throwing in a buck for good measure. But it was all fun and her emotional outbursts just humored me. She resembled a drowned rat at the end of the ride, but her P&Rs were fine, and she cooled out very fast. I think she's just a metabolically blessed mare. We held up in a set of standing stalls on the trail for a little snack, and Be wanted to socialize. I wouldn't let her, so she looked for something to eat. Being under heavy tree cover, there was no grass. So she improvised, and started eating the wood of the stall :P My friend said "Be" must be short for beaver. Lovely. So the Be-aver has a new nickname.

Be and I breaking in the standing stalls she proceeded to Be-aver

C'mon Be, leave the wood alone

Out on the gorgeous trail

We're last

Be back at the trailer and cooling off with some hay. She looks hotter then she really was

Loaded up for home

And that brings us up to last night with Be's regular riding lesson. I did the first half with walk/trot work, and T got back on for the cantering and jumping. The first idea was to canter Be until she was tired. Well, she didn't tire. She just kept going and going and going, quite fast and quite happy. My friend and I just laughed as she flew by us, her rider enjoying the rush and working on balancing it out and rating her. Ah, Be! They did pop a jump a few times and Be seems to be taking that well now too.

Be with T before darkness fell

Around and around they went!

She'll probably get the next week off now, as I'm going out of town. But I couldn't be more proud of the week we've had. Atta gal, Be!

Be's First Real Jumping Session

2009-09-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

Aside from popping branches and stuff on the trails, and playing with the occassional pole on jump standards, this is her first time actually really being asked to jump something with purpose. The first time she wasn't so keen, but with each jump she got more confident right through this last time over the little cross jump thing (oxer?). It's not me aboard; my instructor's very tallent daugther was working with her again and I got to sit back and enjoy. Be and I are doing a lot of riding this weekend though. I have more photos, and will hopefully have more photos and ride stuff to add in the coming days :) Be's the last horse to jump in this clip. I think she did it as well as any of the other horses with the students aboard that went before her, and those horses all show locally with the riders aboard them. It's an advanced class. I'm very proud of my little silly :)

Discuss it with a Mare

2009-09-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

You may tell a gelding, ask a stallion, but you must discuss it with a mare

Be and I had a nice little evening exercise around the barnyard area last night. Since I was asked not to canter her for a while while we work on the hoppy bucky thing, we did a proper walk/trot session. The air is turning crisp with cool nights, and the horses are getting velvety coats. I warmed her up both directions on the buckle and she was very easy to work with. When I picked up the reins, she tucked her nose and we did a good forward walk both ways before moving into a nice working trot. We worked on trot circles, bending and flexing, holding her side up with my inside leg and riding into the outside rein. She flexed nicely, coming off the front end and really powering along with her hindquarters. We worked both directions, took a break, then came back to the trot with more extension before collecting it up, then down to a walk and cooling out. Only at the extended trot did she get a touch rushy but she listened and we continued on our lines.

Throughout the ride I was babbling along about practically anything. I think she likes hearing my voice, and we talked about the upcoming lesson on Thursday, and the trail ride in the hills we'll do on Sunday. I told her my horsey goals are to be able to ride her right and enjoy her at all gaits. I also told her she's welcome to help me out at any point (grin). Hopefully tonight's ride will be a lot of fun, and set us up for a great ride on Sunday through the hills and changing leaves of the forrest. It'll be a nice change of scenary for her. She really loves the trails and hasn't been out on them lately. Perhaps that's part of her issues lately; we just need to get out of the ring(s). Until she can lope along gently and transition down without bouncing all over it's hard to take her a lot of places as the bigger groups always have a few who want to fly around on their horses. That stuff turns off the sensible Be and flips on the racehorse Be switch. Sometimes it's frightening having a horse that you know loves to run as much as she does.

Change of Tactics

2009-09-10T04:27:00.000-07:00

Be and T at sunset

Be's strange defiant streak has continued with this week's lesson. She tries to beeline for the geldings when they are in the center of the ring and we're suppose to be working on our canter. When I keep her away from them, she hops or kicks. We're kind of frustrating each other with this pattern behavior. My instructor's daughter, T, got up on her after the lesson tonight and will do so in the future to try to work out this bug. The other horses had left by the time she swung up last night, but she still had some things she could work with. First, she has no fear of flying and just let Be roll in her canter, steering and asking for changes but never transitioning down. Teaching Be to give in and just offer up a nice canter is now a major goal of T riding her. I'll do the lesson stuff w/t, and T will take her afterwards for developing the canter. You'll hear my instructor next to me comment on how Be has things programmed into her mind, and she's right. There's nothing physically wrong with Be; she just knows how to get away with certain things and her responses are automatic now. She needs a change of doing things to fix it and T's more experianced with that then I am so this should be a huge help.

T getting use to Be

T working on the canter. This was the first few minutes, and it just got better from there.

When T got off she told me that was fun. Ah, to be young again. But I did kind of know what she meant. When Be flew down the beach on me, abeit with me as a passenger and not a rider, it was like flying. The mare is smooth and loves the flight. If you love to run, like Be and T do, it probably was a lot of fun :) I enjoyed watching it.

Lunging

2009-09-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't lunged Be in eons and since her canter departs have been hit and miss, I thought I'd give an intro to side reins. This is the second time we've had them on, first at the canter. I think she took it well. She's got a lovely canter when she wants to, the little imp. I noticed the sweatier she gets, the more she attracts bugs, and the more she wants to try to outrun them. This may be part of the problems we're having in the rides. She's probably getting sweaty, attracting bugs then acting up to try to get away from them.

Homework

2009-09-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

With my ever-obliging (read, would rather be anywhere else) husband's assitance, here's a few videos from today's schooling at home. Be is getting rather frisky. Bad girl. Some stuff looks good, some not so good.

Still Alive in Ontario

2009-09-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

Yup, we're still kicking up here. Not a lot to report on with Be of late. We did have a terrific lesson last Wednesday though with lots of canters and even some sustained ones. Only one bad girl bucky session which quickly got shut down and corrected. Be got her correct lead each time too. I'm beyond pleased with her lately. She's settling into being with just Marie and we've seen her actually playing with the black and white cow she loathed so recently. She's still not thrilled when it moos but just being a cow in the field is fine with her. I watched last night as she gently nosed it away from the barn door so she could go in for her dinner.

Be and Marie took a trip up to Campbellville this past weekend and spent the night at a good friend's farm. I was taking Marie into her first ever horse show. Marie's a standardbred, and her competitive options are limited, save for the standardbred showcase series up here just for her breed. Starting this year, there are 3 standardbred shows with points and high end awards. Only the last, hosted by the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society (OSAS) is really within distance for me to participate. I do volunteer work for the organization as well, so it's doubly special to finally get to complete there. Despite being 21 this year, Marie's saddle time had been sporatic since breaking her to ride at 17. Last year I finally started putting considerable milage on her after my other old gal passed away. I may have taken her to the show last year, but we went camping in the forest instead. This year I packed up Be and Ree as I figured Be wouldn't like being all alone all weekend and off we went to the farm I got Marie from.

The girls enjoyed the retreat, and were spoiled rotten. Sunday was the show, and Marie got a good bath and grooming before we headed out. Ree's a western gal, so we showed Western Pleasure and Western Equitation w/t or pace. We can canter, not a true lope, but it's so very hard to get it from her and nearly impossible to sustain in a turn so we did not enter those two classes. Apparently it scared everyone else out too as they had just one entry for those two and it was a horse I'd ridden earlier that day in the english classes and I knew he was under saddle for the 3rd time in his life and he does NOT canter lol. More about him in a moment.

Ree was fabulous with the show, taking 1st in Western Pleasure and 2nd in Western Eq. In EQ she had gotten a little hot and her nice slow jog turned into a fast trot, whoops. But we got that back under control. I'm so proud of her! I also tried pole bending and keyhole, both speed events. Marie can do poles with precision if not speed, and can stop, turn and run back fairly well. Considering we spotted most of the other horses about 10 years on Ree and two better ankles (Marie has huge calcified ankles), I think we did darn well to place 4th in keyhole and 6th in poles.

Here's Marie :) Her registered name is Rhythm Almahurst.

Resting at the trailer before her classes

Marie giving me her typical "we're about to do WHAT?!?" face. Gotta love her

Alright Ree, are you ready?

Doing our thing :) Ree's slow jog beats most standardbreds as they tend to get fast in second gear

Marie's first red ribbon ever. Red is 1st in Canada

Exiting loaded up with goodies and a cooler

Celebrating our first win

Doing the pole bending thing

Our fourth in keyhole. Yeah I'm going to have a huge grin on my face for taking a place in a speed event :)

Ree and I with the day's accomplishments.

As I mentioned before, I also rode a horse for the OSAS. I didn't know anything about him, in fact I threw my saddle on him while they held the class for us to get in there. But what a gorgeous sweetie he is! His name is Not a Prude, and he'd been under saddle only a couple of times before this. He's a very rare roan standardbred and sure stood out in the crowd of bays. I had no idea what I would get, particularly in second gear, but we not only survived w/t or pace English pleasure and English EQ, but we got better and better and I even found a pacey gait I could sit for the sitting trot. Awesome. I was told after our classes that this was his 3rd time under saddle. I looked up his past win photos as a race horse and apparently the tongue thing is normal.

Trot, Prude says? We've got trot!

Now that I've got my feet wet with this showing thing, maybe Be and I have another goal for next year. There's local shows here :)

I also had an update from Ridge's new owners. He continues to heal well with just a little proud flesh they are treating on that one front leg. The kiddos are riding him lightly walk trot already and he's being a great babysitter. Hopefully their mom will be up shortly and then he can be a whole family treasure. Things like that warm the heart :)

Squeezing in a Late Lesson Update

2009-08-25T05:30:00.000-07:00

Way late on the update, but Saturday Be and I had a lesson before the heavens opened to unleash another storm on us. We were by ourselves, with the nearest horses in the front fields as the school's horses were slated to go to a show the next day. I tacked up Be at the trailer under the nice sun and she contently munched hay despite being out of site of anything equine. I took her out to the sand ring and we warmed up nicely enough. In the deep end of the ring we could see the horses in the front fields playing so that seemed to please her though she didn't try to stick to that end nor call to them. Both very good things in my opinion.

Our instructor joined us and we did the working trot, extended trot, collected sitting trot stuff with some circles and change in tracking. All that went very well. She added a ground pole to the track and Be wasn't particularly pleased with that. She tried to shy and shimmy away in both directions but we worked through that and eventually she was trotting over it with more confidence and less looking for my hands to guide her (we did it with my hands up her neck). Eventually she picked up the pace and we tried letting it fall into a gentle collected canter.

Um, tried. Very key word. She did a lot of hopping and bucking trying to get those canters right. Sometimes she did, others I had to shut her down and try again once I got over my pleasant surprise at still being in the saddle. Once things were going better we moved up to two poles, and again she would speed up and we'd try to fall into a nice canter. And again she'd pop. Then she gave a good cow kick with the bucks and I had to pull her head right around and make her kiss her tail. That seemed to knock some sense into her, as the next canters, in either direction, were much much nicer. One direction seemed a lot heavier on the forehand but my instructor said it was a nice canter so maybe that's what she's suppose to do. On the very positive side though, she got her leads right each time. We called it a ride about 45 minutes in as the sky grew dark. I cooled her out and untacked at the trailer, brushed her down and just after she loaded up the rains started dripping before turning into a torrent by the time we got home. I'm glad we called it quits early!

In other news, Ridge is healing up well in his new home and his people expect to start doing a little walk trot with the kids up soon. We also got another of our win pictures back from the starter allowance earlier this month. Here's Sea Pleasure getting the win at 7 furlongs on the turf.

Close up of the big beautiful boy

Bounce

2009-08-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well, Miss Be is definately going to take her time getting over the recent bovine baby boom. She barely touched the hay and I'm pretty sure didn't drink while in the barn yesterday. Marie's stall is the first one in the barn, and Be's is the second. The calf is in the fourth one down the same side. I found Be once again plastered to the wall between her and Marie, with her nose buried in the back corner. Now you may ask why I don't just swap them around and put Marie in between Be and the calf, as she could care less about the calves then finding the next edible thing. I tried that already, and Be just got nervous on both sides, as she doesn't like being by the barn door, and plastered herself against the same wall on the opposite side to again be nearer Marie. Might as well keep her in her normal stall with four walls and a solid door. Marie's has a webbing in the front as she wants to know what's going on. I just don't need Be breaking that or somehow getting tangled up in it either.

I actually ended up hand feeding Be her pellets. She was worried too much to keep her head down in the bucket as that put her eyes below the stall bars and she couldn't see what was around her as well. She eventually took quick, small bites from the tub but I had to feed her the majority of the grain myself.

Then I decided to throw caution to the wind and tack her up. Of course, this required peeling her off the stall wall to girth her up. At least I could brush her with the plastic curry for once and she didn't blink an eyelid or flick an ear. There are some benefits to your horse tuning out. I lead her out and had to use the mounting block as I'm trying to get use to my new-to-me tall boots and I had no chance of getting on any other way. I got up and we had a nice warm up walk each way, with her a little leery passing the barn area. And of course, the bugs were atrocious. All the cows save the heffer's calf were down in the area we were riding in and she worked in and out of them as if they were just moving obsticles. Not a care in the world about THOSE cows. (sigh)

We moved into the trot and continued working easy. I went with a normal trot, extended it out, brought it back, collected it, sat it, and switched directions and digonals with no problems. I kept an eye out for the cow's baby as I knew he was sleeping over in the pond area and should he wake up and suddenly find himself alone he was very likely to cry for his mommy. As we worked we sweated, and attracted more bugs. She started getting testy about some of the bugs we were encountering. She'd hop or shy and that was pretty normal and didn't bother me. But I did want to bring her closer to the barn since the better, flatter ground was in that area and I wanted to try some cantering. Well, each attempt started with bounces and the flattening back out to a trot or even a walk. Bounce bounce bounce. I said fine, and started earlier, before we got to the barn. Well now, that was interesting. She gave a series of bucks at the canter along the side fence. I went forward and swore I was going to eat dirt again, but somehow I really had good grip and managed to put myself back in the tack and ride it out to a normal canter for several strides before bringing her back to the trot before the rougher ground.

Unfortunately, that series locked up the muscles in my right calf. This happens sometimes when I'm sleeping and more so in the winter. This is also the second time I've worn these stiff new high boots and it's happened both times. I think the inflexibility of the boot coupled with me gripping (she did the popping bucker thing last time) cords up the muscle and I can't flex it out as well with the confining footwear. As mad as I was and wanting to continue I had to get off and stretch the muscle as best I could. Be actually tried to rub her sweaty head on me. Yeah, that wasn't happening. I got back up as soon as I could, despite the lingering pain. The next go around attempt I walked her into the barn area and asked for a trot. She stopped and balked instead. I pushed. She swished her tail and threw her head. I kicked. She actually popped a little rear! I smacked that between the ears and she sulked. Finally I got my trot from a standstill and she behaved for the most part. I did the cantering from two point thing instead, and after that called it a night.

I untacked her out by the front gate, and hosed down the sweaty spots. The girls went out in the back field for the night, free of cows and mooing things. At least with Be, life is never dull!

Oh Baby!

2009-08-19T05:17:00.000-07:00

Just when I think my mare is going great, there's peace and harmony around the farm, yadda yadda, something throws a monkey wrench into it all.

We brought home a drop calf two days ago. And our black angus heffer had her baby that afternoon. Let's just say Be hasn't been herself ever since. The drop calf has to be stalled for a while longer as he's too small and defenseless to be put out with the bigger cows and horses. He's two stalls down from Be's normal stall. She plants herself against the opposite wall and won't go over toward her hay, feed, or water now and just watches that way, prancing when the little feller moos :( I tried swapping Marie and her around, putting Marie nearest the cows, and it didn't help. Marie couldn't care less, but Be plastered herself to the wall closest Marie and didn't eat or drink again. I brushed on her and agitated her to get her mind off the cow. Eventually she settled enough to eat half her feed but what a spaz. I ended up giving her a bath when I turned her back out to get the sweat out of her coat. I sure hope she accepts the babies as part of the farm soon!

Proud momma and her baby

The bane of Be's existance, resting in his stall

Floating on Air

2009-08-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

Ridge continues to improve with the dedicated care of his new family. With the vet's blessing he is on turnout in a small paddock and grazing, keeping things moving and keeping his bandages on. He's down to just two now. I'm told the kids are popping lots of carrots into him and I'm sure he doesn't mind that. He's getting a yearling buddy shortly.

Be made the maiden journey in the new trailer yesterday to our lesson. She was rather peevy, which I partly attribute to her being stalled most of two days with the weather, not getting ridden since the last lesson, and her boyfriend leaving, and partly just a case of the I don't wannas. We did some things really good before she started ignoring stuff, and then we had a come to jezus meeting, after which it was "yes ma'am" to whatever I asked. That's when we started getting beautiful, collected, sustained, floating canters on the correct lead around the ring, even with other horses cantering along with us. That, my friends, is what I call floating on air :) We CAN do this.

I just love my mare!

The Blessings of Good People

2009-08-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

Post accident Ridge grazing on the grass after his cold hosing.

It's been a rough ~24 hours post injury taking care of Ridge but things were looking good. We got him well cleaned up and comfortable on a bed of deep hay and standing wraps with fleeces on all fours and swat in every other wound plus a fan to keep the bugs out. Ridge moved around well, enjoyed his hand walking and grazing on the front lawn and accepted whatever treating we had to do.

And amazingly, the lady who left the deposit on him Sunday was still interested in him! Our farm isn't set up to be a "clean space" recovery area, and after checking out as no structual damage our biggest concern is keeping the chance of infection low. The lady sent the vet who was to do the vet check out to confirm what we knew about it being cuts and punctures but not ligaments or other more serious things, and after that she said she would still take him. She has the ability to do cleanspace rehab and the time to nurse him back to good health. I wanted to give him to her but she insisted I keep the deposit check. We helped load him into a step up 3 horse slant with lots of room and he got in easily so that was more proof things are moving like they should be under all the swelling. Ridge went home with her last night and she wrote to tell me he travelled well, unloaded in the dark fine and was settling in. I'm waiting to hear how his first day up there went (they're about 2 hours away). But he left the same gentleman he has always been. My eyes got damp watching him leave and hubby was comforting me but more then anything I couldn't believe how things changed so fast. Hug your horses, guys. They may be big creatures, but they are so much more fragile then we can imagine.

Ridge's injuries. The worst is the right knee, which is probably what he landed on/into when he hit. It's all swelling though and everything continues to go down well.

Looking for an Ark

2009-08-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

Ridge was injured last night when the storms came on. They were out grazing into the dark and it seemed to be just rain at first. Rain was no problem and expected from the weather reports but we had major lightening suddenly roll in around 10pm. The lake forms these cells on occassion but I've rarely seen them as bad as the ones we got last night. The entire area is now under water and there are power lines down, flooding and washouts throughout the area. We saw bolts so massive the house was shaking. So was I. Our own lights went out as well, plunging us in darkness. It was several hours before it was safe to get out to the pasture and call the horses in.

When I went out I found Ridge moving stiff. I got him in the barn and in the light and he has lacerations on every leg. Our best guess at that point was the bolts or booms spooked him into something somewhere. I have never had this happen on our farm but I've seen the effects on other horses and it looks like tangled his legs in something. We cleaned, packed and wrapped his legs, boasted his tetnus and gave him some bute as he's bound to swell up. He's resting comfortably and eagerly dug into his feed tub and hay so he's in good spirts. He was a gem for cleaning up and working on, even with the abrasive topicals. When the day finally broke we saw the front pasture where they had been flash flooded and a tree was swept down and into the current. Now we could surmise what likely happened was he and the girls were forging through the water on the deep side and he tangled with the submerged tree. The water wasn't all that deep but the tree may have been moving, further ensnaring his legs.

I had a lady come out for her second visit to see him and left a deposit on him yesterday of course. He was scheduled for a vet check on Tuesday and would have shipped Wed or Thurs if he passed. As he's barely lifting his feet right now, it's safe to say I'm cancelling all of that and any commitment she had to him. I swear, if it wasn't for bad luck sometimes... It's mostly cuts we're dealing with, a little heat in the back ankle and a pretty good cut near a front knee, so keeping him clean to lower the chance of infection is most important. Of course it's a mud pit out there now so stall rest on top of everything will make this so easy (not).

The girls look gorgeous. I guess that's one blessing.

Halter Go Seek

2009-08-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

Guess what I came home to! Everyone's favorite pasture past time,
Hide n Go Seek Halter!

The culprit, Be. She ran off last night after I brought her home from the lesson with her good shipping halter still on. And of course she managed to loose it somewhere in the pasture.
Bad girl!

Spock, my faithful companion, and I set out to find the missing halter.

Boy that pasture is a little bigger then I remember it being.

Wander back to the back acreage. Is it near the unused pasture?

Nope, no halter here!

How about back near the rear pond? Maybe she sipped and it slipped?

Nope, no halter here.

How about back in the shady corner? Maybe she took a nap and lost it? No? How about the other corner?

Nope.

Not under the pear trees either.

What about over there in the flat rolling spot?

Ah ha! We found it!

Atta boy. Halter found. Mare goes out naked again.

Canter Canter Canter Canter

2009-08-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

Be and I had an excellent lesson on Wednesday night. I've only gotten to ride her once in the past week and that was at home but we'd worked on the bending, suppling and staying under herself, then moved on to the canter and worked through her bunny hops and got it. It seems to have paid off in leaps and bounds as we cantered ALOT in the lesson :)

We did the warm up walk without running over the two geldings and their advanced riders. This is a huge improvement from our last lesson. I still circled a little so she didn't walk up on their pokey heels, but it was relaxed and swinging and nice. Then we moved into trot work and did working trot, collected trot (sitting this for me), and some sort of extended trot. I don't remember if it was extended or a third term. I was told there are four types of trot, and this was the fast one where you put just enough gas and brake to keep from cantering but keep going fast. The one we didn't do involves stretching the shoulders out and covering the ground but I can't remember which one that was so I'll have to pay better attention next time. Anyway, we did our thing and the other gals moved into their canters. Be wanted to do what the boys were doing at first but eventually she poked around at whatever trot I asked for for the most part and we practiced.

We started practicing two point along the sides and discovered (not surprisingly) Be would pick up a canter from that body language. So we went with it and we cantered a lot from two point then sitting back and seeing what we got. If it was right, I tried to keep it and went through the turn with it as much as I can, sometimes even completing the turn :) Others we got the wrong lead and I'd be told to bring the canter back to a trot, go around the rail and try again. On one such occassion she picked up the wrong lead, and I was about to be called back to the trot when I felt this really cool movement under me and her way of striding switched over and instead I was told to bring her back down after a few strides and praise the heck out of her because she was doing a flying lead change. Awesomeness!

There were the not so good moments of course, a few where she wanted to run off and threw bunny hops instead of shied around trying to shake free from what was being asked. I also committed several times a very green rider mistake that I'm furious with myself over. I would look down when cantering at her shoulders instead of looking where I was going. I know better then that, but my brain kept wanting to look to see if she was still cantering. How stupid, huh? I think I made my instructor nervous also a time or two when Be would beeline toward the jumps when we were arguing as she thought we might jump them but that's not going to happen. I know we're not ready for that, and Be's not particularly eager either. We also encountered the scary plastic flowers around the jumps and got over that eventually. It's funny what she's wussy about sometimes. There are beds of real flowers along the ring and over where we mount, but boxes of fake ones just don't belong in there for her.

Overall though it was a terrific ride and I had a lot of fun. I feel a lot of progress being made. One of the other gal's mom was taking photos. If I ever see them I'll come back and share some :)