I'm alive!

Don't worry, I'm still alive!

I started a new job and I didn't have access to a computer for a while!

All horses are doing well, they are mischevious, as always. They have been put into a new grass pasture fenced by only an electric tape... they have broken out of there twice so they are back in their regular pasture since I don't really feel like being stressed over that all day, while I'm at work, 2 hours away... They broke out because of Dandy. She can't see very well and she constantly gets chased by the old girls, then runs in the tape and jumps over it. For a blind-ish horse, she is quite the escape artist! Then we went on a ride Friday night my SO and I, I took Dandy and he took Peg, his usual horse. We went out and enjoyed our ride... but when we came back, Pearl wanted to follow and she ran into the tape, and broke it!!! Now everyone was running free... since the tape was broke, we couldn't really shut the gate!

We rounded them up and put them back inside, where they belong. Fixed the fence and everything was great. Until last night, we had just left the farm and Dandy started running and went through the fence, she didn't break it, but she got outside (I don't know exactly how since I wasn't there). My SO's family tried to put her back in, but left the gate open, or probably didn't chase the horses from the gate when they opened it and all the horses got out... By the way, I was extremely mad at their stupidity, but what gives!?! They called my dad and he managed to get them in their old pasture, the one that is fenced with page wire. I was very happy, that's is where I would've put them. There is no point having them break loose every day!

So tonight, we will fix them up better so that they have access to the shelter, which was blocked off for some reason when we put them out in the new pasture.

I pulled Peg's shoes and trimmed her feet, Her walls have gotten MUCH thicker, that is a great thing since they were paper thin when I shod her. I trimmed her in a pasture trim with a toe rocker and she seems very comfortable. We went on our ride without her shoes and her feet held up great, no soreness, no lameness whatsoever! I was thrilled! Her feet aren't all deformed from the shoes, they actually took a better shape! I will put the shoes back on before the end of June, since we are participating in a parade on June 25, she will have her shoes to go on the concrete.

I also plan on shoeing Pearl with the same type of shoes. She will be ridden a lot this summer and I want her to be comfy! Their hooves have made good improvements since they are with us and I am glad that they are finaly comfortable enough to go on a short trail ride without being sore after.

I am planning to take more pictures soon. Misty is doing well with her training, she is now able to lead like a pro and I will be working on her feet very soon, I am up to touching below her knee on her front legs and her butt on her back legs (I work way slower with the back!!! :S). I will probably be working on picking up her feet very soon... I can't wait to see what they look like on the bottom. I also need a new pair of nippers, because my old ones are giving quite the run for my money and they are getting very dull, even after one sharpening, I don't think it is worth it to sharpen them again. I had Diamond nippers and I will be switching to Mustad for the next pair, I hear they are hard to beat so I'll give them a try.

That's pretty much all the news for now.

More training

This weekend has been super busy for me. We just completed disking, harrowing, fertilizing and seeding one of our big fields. If all goes according to plan, we will have very high quality hay to harvest next year in that field.

It was a hot dry weekend and dust was flying everywhere. I spent countless hours outside (I think I averaged 13 hours per day out of the house) and got one big sunburn. You can put sunscreen all you want but with the sweat, dust and elongated periods spent in the harsh sun, it wears off... and being that I never returned home, I never reapplied. I'm surprised the dust coat that was on me didn't prevent sunburns!!! Anyways, we're done with that field! I'm so happy!

I've managed to squeeze a trail ride (probably under 1 hour) on Sunday late afternoon. I will post that story tommorow!

Sunday around noon, we undertook our second training session with Misty. This time, I've completely isolated her from the other horses, she couldn't see them at all, but could hear them and probably smell them, which caused a bit of a problem at some point. She did great. I have taken her halter off permanently since I have no problem getting close to her at all and it was causing chaffing on her face. I was a bit nervous about putting her halter on, but she proved me dead wrong by standing very quietly, even when I was having trouble getting the darn thing over her head. We hooked a lead rope on and started.

At first, she wasn't sure what was up, but you could tell that she remembered her first lesson. She reared once without nearly as much strenght as her first session and bolted about 5 times before she understood that we had control of her head and that she couldn't get away. Then she started to comply and give to pressure. She is VERY light, practically no pressure is needed at all. I had to get after her twice, once for an attempt to bite my arm (the arm that was leading her) and the second because she crowed me. The rest of the way, there was no need at all for correction. She lead circles, turned both sides, stopped when I stopped and never attempted to bolt again. Once she had a clue about leading, I proceeded to touch her, she is not fond of touching but I managed to touch her neck, withers, back, the upper front legs and a bit of the croup as well as lower on her sides. She moved away twice but I kept with her and she realized that I wasn't there to hurt her.

She is super friendly and loves to have her face petted, but not her body. I believe that the people who had her before only petted her face from over a fence, because she is much more relaxed from accross a fence and tenses up a bit when it isn't between us. Other than that, she comes to meet us, likes attention and is very willing to learn new things. She is getting to be more comfortable around us and she should be very easy to train. Next session is revisiting leading correctly and maybe getting to touch and pick up her front feet, but it will take patience and time. For now, she is not totally comfy with me touching her above the knee, so we'll take as much time as it takes to get there. With enough practice, she'll get used to it and it won't bother her as much once she knows that I will always give her foot back. Plus, I can't wait to trim those nasty hooves! I might be over-dramatic, but it really gets on my nerves to see a horse with long hooves, especially mine!!! I can't stand it! Fortunately, we are not riding her and working her hard, so length can do for now... if she was trained to pick up her feet those would've been done a long time ago!

Fun Q & A

I found this on Jayke's blog so I will post it here with my own answers!

Enjoy!

1. What would your perfect day consist of?
Getting up early on a beautiful day, saddling up the horses and going exploring new trails with my SO or riding in or near water with the horses.

2. How would you describe yourself if you were an item of clothing?
A used pair of jeans, because even though I'm young, I've seen a lot of things and endured many life obstacles and curve balls thrown at me.

3. What hobbies are you currently working on?
Training my new 3 year old filly Misty and getting the farm into top working order after a few years of off time.

4. Walking in the woods in wellies or bare foot on the beach?
I'll do a combination of both... barefoot in the woods. I was raised in the woods and could basically survive there if I had to. The woods have always provided a great sense of adventure for me and a good way to wander into the unknown without going too crazy. I've done a lot of wild camping, canoe trips, hunting, fishing, hiking in HUGE forests (too big to even try to put a size to them, they go on forever and contain well over 250 lakes, rivers and streams, some not even known, named or mapped yet). The feeling of walking barefoot in the forest is way different than on a beach, to earth is softer and you get all kinds of textures, roots, branches, rocks, stones, moss. Watch out for poison IV and burrs! Oh and tree sap! If you want to walk barefoot somewhere, try it in a forest, it's an awesome feeling of freedom. *** I am not responsible for any rash contracted while barefoot walking in the woods, please be informed on plants that cause such rashes.

5. Have you ever hugged or sang to a tree?
Yes, I have hugged a tree, and I have a picture to proove it (which will not be posted here, since it is not scanned). I was about 6 years old and my cousins had a cottage on the river and beside their cottage stood the biggest pine tree everyone has ever seen (still standing today!). My sister and I tryed to join hands from each side of the tree and couldn't... my dad took a picture. I don't see why I would sing to a tree, but I guess you could say that I've sang indirectly to them on walks and trail rides alone. Usually I try an keep quiet to listen for wild animals and birds.

6. Growing your own veggies or nipping to the supermarket?
Love my own garden, but when it runs out, I have to use the supermarket and I am always disatisfied at the produce they offer there.

7. Have you found anyone exciting in your family tree?
No, but I have native american blood pretty close to my leaf. I've found out when my family immigrated to Canada and they mostly married native women.

8. Slap up meal in a posh restaurant or fish 'n' chips from the wrapper?
I don't often eat out, I pretty much cook all that I eat. I can cook fish and chips... when I go out to eat is usually when I have a craving for nachos at a particular restaurant... I can't make them like that at home...

9. Which element do you most resonate with, Earth, Air, Fire, or Water?
I don't know which one between Earth and Water. I love water, it is vital for all living things, plus a running stream has a peaceful effect on the soul. Much the same for the Earth, it is vital and peaceful.

10. Do you believe in fairies?
No, I think there is no such thing as fairies, but if there were, the world would certainly be a better place.

Evading Cues 2

Jayke - I've tried pressure / release, making her work harder (since she wanted to move). As soon as I release pressure, she's gone in 5th gear! I absolutely HATE pulling in a horse's mouth, but this is inevitable. She really was a brat that day. She is 12 years old and a bit of navicular in one foot so round pen work is not totally out of the question but canter is out for sure... For once, I don't know what to do with this one!!! She's been ridden all of her life.

I think that many things caused her to be a brat that day:
1. She was in heat and wanted to go meet the stallion (which was a NO NO!).
2. She saw one horse coming back to the barn right when we were leaving.
3. The mare and new foal were out in the pasture and she didn't get to go greet them (She's the alpha).
4. I probably got on her nerves but holding her back so much.

I did correct her with a sharp smack on the butt with my 6 foot reins, she just came unglued and threw one of the biggest fits I've ever seen her throw, made her circle around, made her work hills... Arrg! I'm out of ideas. I've been riding her for over 3 years now and she's always a bit fast paced, but never such a b*tch and never actually ran through the hands of anyone, she was actually a pretty good mount.

In terms of her endurance, she could go for 2 days, non stop and would still come out galloping at the end. Her owner went on a 38 km ride one day and she had to hold her back the whole time, she trotted probably 95% of the way and was still rearing to go when they got to the end! So I guess I can forget making her tired for a 1.5 hour ride... She responds to rein cues quickly, but she won't stop, ever, she jigs, prances sideways, turns quick circles, backs up in the direction she wants to go... you name it, she does it. You can pull, push, kick, haul, smack... nothing will get her to stop and stand still, while only a month ago I had her standing as still as a post for as long as I wanted. What happened? Could someone have ridden her and caused some problems, was she uncomfortable?

Personnally, I think she was affraid to miss something at the barn. We used the same saddle, bridle, bit, pads and she got brushed and groomed just as much as she usually does. She wanted to see the stallion and couldn't, she pulled while being tied at the post twice (or more??), couldn't stand still... this is not usually her. I don't know how to take her attitude... with a strong reaction or a smoother one!?!??? How do I correct her, I tried harder being that I was sick of her attitude and it didn't do anything (?????), was it harsh enough, not enough, too much??? I don't know. Usually a firm voice reprimand is enough for this mare, but this time, I had to check her in the mouth, because she was looking everywhere and crossing more dangerous areas (creeks, mud holes) quickly without looking. Next time, I might gallop her up the hill a few more times, although I don't see it changing her spirit.

Next ride, I might take another horse altogether... I could enjoy my ride more... This makes me miss all of my horses so much and appreciate how smooth gaited, peaceful and respectful they all are (even Pearl!). Just goes to prove that you don't need full blood registered horses to have a great time... also shows that having too many horses (she has 9) makes training them difficult and half-assed most of the time. There is not enough time to ride them all and work them like they should. She has 9 horses and out of the 9, 2 are adequately broke (including miss attitude), 1 is being worked occasionnally, 1 is green broke and lazy, the stallion is green broke. There is one mare that was backed by me, but turned blind afterwards, one unbacked mare. One lightly worked 2 year old and one brand new foal that has been haltered. All her horses are haltered and imprinted, but the work stops after leadline training since there is just not enough time. While I don't appreciate this way of ... lets say.. hoarding horses, she is knowledgeable and her horses are mostly well cared for. They are vaccinated every year and handled and petted daily. The area that would need more work is hoofcare. She never lets the hooves grow super long, but could trim every 8 weeks instead of every 3-4 months.

As a horse owner and having my own horses to care, look after and worry about, I vowed to never let any other person and their way of keeping their horses get to me... it still does, but much less than it used to. After all, you can tell them until your face is blue that their horses need a trim or their teeth floated, but if they still don't do it, it is out of your reach. They will also have to endure the consequences.

I am 25 years old and am often not taken seriously when I provide advice to other (older) horsepeople... but I have to say that if I give advice, it's because I know my stuff, otherwise I would be keeping my mouth shut. I always research anything before it comes out of my mouth. What comes out readily is stuff I know well and have tested myself on my horses. I have done a lot of reading on general horse care and am pretty well seasonned. I've learned to take care of horses at the age of 6 and have been riding and caring for them since then, learning more and more on the way.

Evading Cues

Since this seems to be a big topic on other blogs. I want to talk about horses that are master evaders, mainly because I ride one. That mare is not one of my horses, but is a horse that I ride weekly for exercise.

She's a horse that gets hot, won't stop or stand still cannot walk, has to trot.

Usually, this mare is not so bad. Yesterday I took her out on a ride. We rode for about an hour in hilly terrain. As we were leaving the trainer was coming back with a freshly broke 4 year old. When my mare, lets call her Gwen, saw that the other horse was going back to the barn, she vowed to run the trails as fast as possible to return to the barn faster.

I am used to her attitude and do not usually allow any of it. I couldn't stop her! I litteraly sat there with reins as tight as it took. As soon as I let a little bit of slack on her reins, she took it up to a trot, faster and faster. She already jogged the whole trail, which is comfortable, but that's not what I was asking of her. I've tried many stops and stand on the trail and all yielded poor results. At one point, I had to check her in the mouth, made her stop, she basically had a meltdown right there, threw herself in a ditch mini-rearing and bolting sideways. I thought about bailing off, but I needed to teach her something. Whipped her butt, made her do circles and thought we were good to go and the same story plays over again!

So once we were done trail riding, we stayed in the fields to school a bit, so we did trots and canters. I never felt in control. This horse was pointing her shoulder, running through me, never keeping a straight line, leaning on the turns... It was a nightmare! I was holding her back from running and she went into a full galop, ran right through my hands! I had no control over her at all. I tryed a small canter in the field but she pointed her shoulder towards the barn running sideways, then I corrected her to put her in a straight line and she leaned in so hard it nearly unseated me.

I am not usually hard handed, but with this mare, you can only think about not being hard before getting on her back, then the necessity imposes itself and you are found pulling as hard as it would usually take to stop a horse dead ALL THE TIME! She wont back up, she throws herself sideways, spins, throws her head, puts her chin to her breast and runs right through, points her shoulder, etc. There's probably more stuff that just doesn't come to mind right now. So what do you do with such a barn sour, cue evading horse????? I've tried making her work in canter but she is unbalanced and canters in all directions, plus I have no control to tell her where to go, if she feels like going someplace, you can pull all you want but she'll go anyways.

How do I get her back on track!? Have you ever had one of these horses?? What worked?

What is wrong with Mother Nature!?!?

Since I bought Misty a few weeks ago, I had plans to have her leading and picking up her feet by now... Was I ever wrong! Mother Nature always has that habit of breaking every one of my plans!

Since I've had Misty, I spent a lot of time with her in the pasture, she is now a friendly little puppy that follows me everywhere... and I must admit that it's annoying somethimes!

I've worked once with her, changed her halter from a rope to a nylon until she can be caught and haltered easily. Put a rope once on her and all hell broke loose until she finaly understood some basic prehistoric stuff and I let her go, since she responded good.

Since then it's been raining constantly during my weekends, we've had snow and torturing winds last weekend that froze you in your tracks! No intention of going outside, although I had to go for the routine stuff, but I had no interest in playing with horses... my only interest was in a warm bath (Hot!) and a big fluffy blanket. It was SO cold! I wonder how we keep spending winter without freezing to death!?!

Since we've had temps over the 20s Celsius lately, I had put all of my big bulky clothes away, so guess what, I was absolutely frozen after spending 10 minutes out in that wind!

So we are starting all over in our training plan. This weekend is supposed to be nice, so I plan on spending at least half a day training and I absolutely want to go for a ride, I haven't ridden until the beginning of the month and I am undergoing a sort of riding withdrawal... therefore, if I don't ride this weekend, I will throw a fit and probably cry a little.

I have finally found it in me to ride Pearl again. I was her first ride ever and she had to cope with me and I had to cope with her. It was one of the worst rides on a horse I have ever had. She was nervous, mini-rearing everytime we stopped and was hard to steer. At least I found out what she was all about. I sat on Pearl once after that (about 6 months after our first ride) and she was good. Why did I dismount??? Because my mom, who had been taking lessons with Dandy was supposed to come for a little trail ride with me. So I gave her Dandy because she is very calm and takes care of my mom and I was going to take Pearl. So I helped my mom up on Dandy and climbed aboard Pearl, which stood stock still for once! My mom was getting nervous, despite Dandy being as cool as can be. She decided that she wanted off, so I dismounted Pearl and attended her and Dandy.

Now that I know how Pearl is (a big faker!) I can totally handle her mood swings. Pearl likes to intimidate her rider and she is very good at it. Now, she has learned not to rear, but she fakes it by sitting her butt down and extending her front legs as much as possible. For the rider, this feels exactly like a rear, but she has all four legs (sometimes 3) on the ground! I know... she's good! This is probably a thought behaviour. This is pretty much all she does, except she is hard to steer a bit and can't stand still when she doesn't feel like it. I got all of it mapped out, I know she'll want to act out, but she certainly isn't out of control. I plan on riding her briefly this weekend, if the stars align! I'll let you know how that goes.

Peg is doing terrific, she still has her shoes and they are working GREAT! Her gait has improved dramatically, which as permitted the shoes to stay on, no adjustments needed in over 3 weeks! Her hooves grow very slowly so the shoes don't need to be reset yet, but I always keep a close eye on them and check them every time I go out to see the horses. her foot is starting to reshape nicely and she is not lame at all! I am tickled! Try Easywalker horseshoes if you want a good performance shoe that is not made of steel, absorbs most of the shock and is safe on pavement, ciment, grass, etc. It is simply great!

New calf pictures

Here are pictures of our little calf. She's a heifer and is a pale blond, nearly white.

Here she is on Friday, April 30. She is three days old here, with her mom.

She was basking in the sun, resting and my presence did not disturb her much.
Mom started to move off to graze, so she got up and took a good look at me. She was curious and for a minute, she was making her way to meet me! Mom quickly came back to stand between me and the calf.

Here's mom and baby. They pretty much have the same look. Mom was coming my way, she wasn't threatening, but I didn't take chances, those horns could potentially cause damage.

For lack of better pictures, I took new pics of our cow herd... ok, we only have five cows, but here they are! That's all of them.

And here are the new girls, bought after we had Nabisco. The furthest cow from me isn't in calf.

So that's the Friday pictures. Sunday, we rounded them up, caught the little one and put her tag and checked her. Here she is after she just got her new earrings. It was my first time putting tags on anything and it went really well, she didn't even flinch!

And this is after we released her back in the herd. No need to say that we will keep her!

As of yesterday, she seemed to be eating (or at least chewing) grass. She also visits with the other cows. Yesterday, the four horses and 5 cows (plus calf) were all standing pretty close together and getting along, I was happy to see that!

Here she is!

After making everyone wait SO long, here is the new filly! 3 year old Misty. I agree that her feet are in dire need of a trim, but I am not ready to play with the guns, nor is she ready for me to touch her legs. Excuse the somewhat bad pictures, I was trying to get a good profile, but she was either shying away from me or wouldn't let me be... she thought my camera was food!!!

She is a Bay tobiano and I think she has some roaning on her butt and sides. She is shedding her winter coat and I did brush her a little bit, but she hated it when I got to the back portion of her flank and she took off when I touched the lower portion.

These pictures were taken on Friday, April 30, 2010. She is very muscular for a 3 year old filly that hasn't been worked and she has nice conformation.
She is about 14.2 hh to 14.3 hh. I have noticed some flaws on her back legs and I wonder where they came from. I saw old wounds (deep enough) and a bump on her pastern near the coronet band. In the next photo, you can see a small healed gash on the lower part of her canon and you can clearly see the bump on the lower pastern.
Saturday, we set out to work with her a little bit. I removed this darn rope halter and replaced it with a nylon one. Until she can be caught and haltered, she will have to wear it. None of my horses ever wear halters in the pasture, but this time, I have to for training purposes. Also, we have experienced putting a lead on her. I got my trusty cotton lead out... it's probably the toughest rope on earth... and the oldest!! My sister helped me with this because I have a really sore knee and my back wasn't really cooperating that day. So all goes good with the lead on her, she stands quietly and plays a bit with the rope, I feel comfortable and my sister too, so we decide to take it up a notch and try to make her walk.

Now I probably told you this before, but she hates having forward pressure on her halter, she just shoots backwards and freezes. This is a bit what happened, she was completely froze with a glazed look in her eye, she couldn't move a foot! So I decided to just move to the back of her to apply a little (psychological) pressure. So I put my hand out and gave a kissing noise. She took off running, my sister held on the whole time, she reared up, nearly fell backwards (but didn't) and when she landed back on her feet, it pulled the rope out of my sis's hands so she took of trotting with the rope on. The dragging rope didn't scare her and she resumed to grazing with Dandy. I thought we could never catch her again, but no! She stayed there and we were able to catch the rope. Since there was no way for her to go forward, we decided to start teaching her pressure from side to side. So we pulled her head to the side, she struggled the few first times but then gave a foot! We quickly rewarded by removing all pressure and started again from the other side, by the end, she was moving a foot without throwing her head or pulling back, so we stopped there, we were all tired and sweaty anyways.

We will resume training at that particular point this weekend, for the time being, she is still friendly and enjoys her ears being rubbed!

Remember when I said she had a HUGE hindquarter... well, here it is. I'll just remind everyone that she is 3! Dandy is 4 and being worked in collection and hasn't ever developped a huge butt like that... she's not far behind, but it doesn't look like this!
No need to tell you that she is FAST! Yet I am not used to having a performance bred QH in my yard!