Time off

We weren't able to ride for a few days so Thursday I insisted that I had to ride or I'd implode.  As we were tacking up unexpected guests arrived but I was determined to get at least a quick ride!  Eric rode Tina, I rode Traveller, and we both experienced some of the same things, horses acting bratty.  Neither of them did anything awful but they had a general "do we gottaaaaa???  Why can't we just have a cookie insteaaaaad???" attitude trying to stop, go, and turn where and when they wanted to instead of when we asked them.  It seems a few days off are not good for these two at this point!

So Friday I gave both of them a more thorough ride.  The last time I asked for a canter on Traveller he threw me off so on him I'm doing a lot of work at the walk and trot, cantering we practice on a long line in the round pen.  I felt confident enough on Tina to ask for a canter for the first time and it wasn't too bad!  Eric was watching and said she has a "really funny lope" but it felt ok for a first time.  I really want an arena!  Right now I can either ride off our property on Tina (not on Traveller yet!) which means I have to keep it at a walk or in a space in the pasture which I know is safe for them but hard, uneven, and I have to keep a lookout for rocks.  It makes it tough for me to figure out what's going on with them exactly.  Is this "funny lope" her normal stride, being a stinker, feeling unconfident, or a bit of uneven ground? 

Yesterday we had to go work on my friend's garden.  She has a bad back so she asked us to put in a raised garden for her which we're doing with the wonderful natural rock that's plentiful on our land.  We finished laying the concrete footer for it at about 10pm then we had a two hour drive back home.  I'm so sore today and my poor hands!  Ladies, if you want beautiful, soft hands never have anything to do with concrete because that stuff will just eat your hands up!  I'm really hoping we can get this done in the next month or two because our next project is going to be my arena!  But even sore and not having an ideal place to ride I gotta get back up in the saddle sometime today. 

Feet

Tomorrow the farrier comes out to trim up Tina and Traveller's feet.  Having all four horses done at once is a bit of a strain on our budget so we just do two at a time every 6-8 weeks or so.  Thank goodness Tina and Traveller don't have any problems with having their feet worked on!  It's easy to get them to pick one up and after that they automatically pick up the next one in line for you.  As a matter of fact Traveller once picked up his next foot for me before I was ready, was pawing it around a little expecting me to grab it, and almost set it down on my foot!  And they both do so great barefoot!  I'd swear that they don't really need to be trimmed yet but by the calendar it's time.  I'd rather stay on a schedule to keep them well maintained then to start a problem that can go downhill in a hurry.

Brother and Nugget still need work on having their feet handled though they're much better than when we first got them.  At first they were obviously very nervous about the whole thing, refusing to pick up their feet, trying to jerk them away, breaking out in a sweat, and such.  Poor babies haven't had good foot handling experiences in their past.  I hear that's not really uncommon with racing horses, that too often the track farriers are too rough with them.  Even though Brother was just trimmed a few weeks ago he's getting more and more limpy looking on his fronts and his hooves are so chewed up looking already!  We've ordered some supplements for him and we're going to have our farrier look at his feet again tomorrow.  I'll get some before and after pictures and let you know how it goes. 

Ouch!

Yesterday we took it kinda easy.  We tacked Tina up and Eric actually got on her!  This was his first time back on a horse after nearly being killed in a fall from Brother.  I lead him around a bit for him to remember the feel and he did wonderfully.  I was so happy with Tina for being on her best behavior for him!  It helped him start to feel safe in the saddle again.  After just that very easy, short ride we made a big fuss over her then let her amble over to the others to share in their evening hay.

Tonight I was pleased that he wanted to try again and it went just as nicely.  I lead him around the round pen a few times and then he felt comfortable enough to take the reins on his own.  When Tina's in the pen where she can see the other horses she has an excellent whoa so if he started feeling at all unbalanced he asked her to stop which she did immediately.  I think that really helped him a lot in feeling safe and starting to regain some confidence.  Even in this heat she wasn't sweated at all with such an easy ride so we just untacked her and let her loose again.  Then came Traveller's turn.

From the very start he was being oddly twitchy.  When Eric put the saddle pad up Traveller suddenly spun his hindquarters to the side as if trying to avoid it and wouldn't be still for the saddle either.  I figured it's just been a few days since I've ridden him so he was just being a stinker about going back to work after a little break and he'd settle down.  We just did walk-trots in the round pen for awhile.  He has a very jarring, fast trot so I've been working on getting him to slow down and smooth out a bit.  I honestly don't know how you're supposed to teach them how to do this but whenever his trot gets fast and bouncy I've been pulling back on the reins, immediately giving him slack reins for a slower, smoother trot, occassionally stopping him when he's giving me a nice trot for a little breather.  It seems to be working as far as I can tell!  It still needs a lot of work but he's giving me the nice trot more often and for a bit longer than when we first started working on it.  Encouraged by this small success I decided to be brave and at least try a bit of a canter.

I waited until he was giving me the nice trot then cued for a canter.  He broke into a really fast, long legged trot just shy of a canter, I could swear I felt a stride of canter maybe, so I pulled him back down to try again.  When I thought his trot was good I asked for a canter.  I might've gotten two strides of a canter before his back end flipped up and I was on the ground.  He bucked?  He really BUCKED?!  Ugh!  When the initial overwhelming ow wore off I discovered that I wasn't injured.  A scraped elbow, two fingers, and the suspicion that I'll probably be a bit sore tomorrow makes me pretty darn lucky!  So I secured his reins and started working him around the round pen.

After only a few times around at a trot he decided that he'd like to go the other way so he simply turned his happy butt around.  W-R-O-N-G!  Right away I jumped in front of him with a big "uh uh!", smacked the ground in his path with the lunge whip and turned him back the way I had asked him to go.  Now he acted a bit agitated and looking to the sides for a way out so to distract him I stepped in front of him and asked him to reverse.  Very soon he tried to reverse on his own again and again I made him keep going the direction I wanted him to go the same way as before.  Suddenly he stuck his whole head and neck through the bars of the pen and with a big push and buck he tore right through our round pen!  The cry baby ran straight to Nugget and half hid behind her like we'd been beating him!  When we went to get him he ran tossing his head and kicking up his feet but thankfully he ran right into the side pen.  It took a minute of chasing him around before we caught him.  I couldn't believe how he was acting! 

We took him right back into that round pen!  I lunged him for awhile then Eric lunged him around when I got tired.  Traveller was literally dripping sweat (weren't we all!) and we'd raised a huge cloud of dust in the air when he finally started really licking his lips and acting more obedient.  I was done in but made myself get back up on him.  When we walked past the big hole in our round pen he really tried to go out through it but after about three or four times in each direction of me very firmly not letting him slip out he only looked out as we went past.  We untacked him, gave him a really good hosing off, a cookie and a pat before going inside.  Whew!

Tina still hates me

It's been 100 degrees plus here in Lampasas for awhile now so I haven't done as much with the horses as I'd like.  I actually enjoy warmer temperatures but even for me it's been just a bit too hot and I feel a little bad asking the horses to work at all right now.  But I suppose I'm really just being an overprotective spoiler.  I mean I wouldn't want to go gallop them around for an hour or two at mid-day but surely asking a half hour or so in the morning or evening wouldn't hurt them any.  Besides, Tina and Traveller still need to lose some weight!

Yesterday evening I took Tina out riding.  This is the second time I've taken her off our property to ride a little and she reacted the same way, like I was killing her.  Just before we got out of sight of the other horses in the pasture she stopped to look back and I let her stand there for a minute but sure enough, as soon as we got out of sight of them she was acting up.  The whole time we're out she tries to stop, turn around, go when I tell her whoa, and go faster and faster.  Last night she added trying to bite my foot and jerk the reins out of my hands!  So a simple ride turned into me wrenching my arms out of the sockets trying to keep her pointed in the direction I wanted at as close to the speed I wanted as possible.  We rode back and forth past my driveway as I tried to get it through her head that I would NOT go back until she did it at a walk!  And if she acted up too much I made her take a few steps backwards which she really seems to resent! 

I'm not unsympathetic and I do realize that this is very common and normal.  Her head is telling her that her safety is back with the others and that I am very literally putting her in danger of losing her life.  Since a past owner cut up her mouth with a bit I even use a side pull (bitless bridle for any that don't know) on her and if we're near the other horses that's all I need to control her.  The next time we leave the property I think I'll have to try a bit on her, though.  She's just fighting me so hard that I can't find a place to let off the pressure so it's nothing but "punishment" for her the whole time which is not going to help the situation at all.  Maybe with a bit I can find places to reward her for good behavior so that eventually she can realize that she's safe.  I sure would like to reach a point in the future where I can have a fun little ride around the neighborhood with her.

Plus two makes a herd

While my husband was recovering from his broken ribs I met a lady on Facebook with horses and we hit it off.  Not very long ago she decided that she needed to cut back on the number of horses she had for health reasons and asked if I knew anyone who might be interested.  ME!!  ME!!  PICK ME!!  Of course I told her I was interested!!  She offered me several wonderful horses and I wished I could take all of them but hopefully I chose wisely.

One was an Egyptian Arab gelding that simply took my breath away with his beauty, I admit that I have a soft spot for the look of Arabs, but he was young, just green broke.  With regret I passed on him thinking that at my utter newbie level of training and really rusty riding skills he and I would probably not be the best match. 

Another was a lovely little Paso Fino mare.  She was bred to a drop dead gorgeous Andalusian and who wouldn't want an adorable little foal too???  *sigh*  I turned down this exciting two-for-one too.  The mare was wonderful but I felt like a foal, while loads of adorable fun, wasn't the best choice for us.  If something went wrong with the delivery the vet bill could get insanely expensive, I'd feel so awful if the mare or foal weren't ok, and again, at my rank beginner level of training I didn't want the added work of training a foal.

She really wanted me to consider Tina, a Paso Fino mare.  Tina was taken out of an abusive situation with a lacerated tongue and deep dislike of people.  Carol babied her and worked hard to bring Tina back around.  She said she really hoped I'd take Tina because she knew I'd be good to her and she really needed to know that Tina was safe and loved.  After running my rescue for so many years I knew exactly what she meant.  We want that for all of our animals, we'd never purposely rehome them into an abusive situation, but when you take an animal out of an abusive situation, work that hard to heal their body and mind, and make that unspoken promise that they will never, ever be treated so badly again it somehow just raises your desire to protect them. 

My husband was most interested in Traveller, a Mustang/Quarter Horse gelding.  Carol warned us that he had an extremely dominant personality and would almost certainly insist on being boss of any other horses.  I worried that he and Brother might clash.  He was also fairly young so I was concerned about being able to continue his training.  I have to admit, though, that I just loved his looks, very sturdy with nice legs and these wonderful, huge, tough hooves.  Not only was he exactly the type of horse that my husband liked he was also the spitting image of the Mustang my husband rode as a child which brought back sweet memories for him. 

In the end we agreed on taking both Tina and Traveller home for a trial period just to see how things would work out.  We had a good laugh about just how much Carol babied her horses and that she didn't call her place "The No Rib Ranch" for nothin!  Tina and Traveller were both rather roly-poly!  We got home, got them unloaded into the pen we had prepared, and waited breathlessly for the first muzzle to muzzle meeting with Brother and Nugget over the fence.  It was nothing unusual but still a thing of wonder to us with lots of sniffing, squealing, bitey-face play.

We had planned on leaving Tina and Traveller in the pen for at least a week before trying to introduce Brother and Nugget without the fence between all of them but within a few days they were all so calm and easy around each other.  They all stood close together just relaxing as if they were already a group and the fence wasn't even there so we decided to see what would happen.  We took Nugget into the pen first since she has a very passive personality and were delighted at how easily the three took to each other!  Traveller insisted on pushing her around the pen a little but Nugget didn't seem to mind so they all calmed down very quickly.

Then we brought Brother in holding our breath along with various ropes and whips that we hoped we wouldn't need.  Traveller started marching purposefully towards Brother.  Brother turned his butt towards Traveller and I swear I could hear him thinking "yep, you come right over here and I'm gonna show you who's boss at this house!"  When Traveller got close enough he turned his butt towards Brother backing up the last step.  Brother got his kick off just a split second before Traveller but when Traveller's kick landed Brother jumped out of his skin in complete surprise and ran like he'd been scalded!  We felt bad for Brother's injured pride but couldn't help rolling with laughter.  When everyone settled down we seperated everyone back out and went inside.

A little later that day we heard a commotion and went to see what was going on.  Traveller was out of the pen chasing Brother and poor Brother was running like the devil himself was on his tail!  We put Traveller back up and watched.  Traveller promptly went to the gate, did some amazing horsey-limbo thing that I'm still not sure should be physically possible to squeeze under the bottom rail, and was right back on Brother's tail.  Well we had tools, opposible thumbs, and big brains so that would be no problem to fix!  I guess no one told Traveller that he wasn't supposed to be able to outsmart us because our fix absolutely didn't hold him in!  We fixed and fixed all that day until finally we had a pen that would hold Traveller in as long as we were watching him and discovered we didn't need the pen anymore since Traveller stopped chasing Brother.  We turned them all out together, watched for any signs of trouble for awhile, then dragged ourselves inside to lick our wounds.