Artsy Video by Darling

You may find yourself needing to let this one load for a couple of minutes before watching. Darling has pulled up some old footage, plus added some recent clips, to create this video. Hope you enjoy!

I Feel the Earth Move

Meanwhile...

Darling edited this video I shot over the last couple of visits to Oregon

I've been hauling Tika to the riding club to work with her while Darling rides. She's been a frantic mess, and I have no clue as to why. On top of that, while working her in the round pen I noticed something that I'd nearly forgotten...a funny mis-step in her hind end as she trotted around. I'm not exactly sure what the deal is, but wonder if it's scar tissue from her entanglement in barbed wire? It was odd...she'd be trotting then suddenly her hind end would drop out from under her. It happened both directions...

I mentioned it to Darling, who wasn't happy to hear. She's been pestering me to just get busy and get up on that horse already. Well, I've been on her, haven't I? Plenty of times. I was thinking that after a week of consistent work I'd grab my good friend Roz and have her pony me. But now...what was this nervous bit about? And what is the whole back end issue thing about?

The following day, Darling was sitting on Steve Holt! as I was working Tika. "What!?" She exclaimed. "You saw that?" I asked. She nodded. So it wasn't my imagination...Tika has an issue. Well...one more issue than the others she's already packing along.

Tika's scars are on both hind legs, as well as one foreleg.

While I'm trying to figure a plan of action for the red headed fury, I'm also needing to get busy with Lefty. With the trips to Oregon here of late, I've not spent a good amount of time with anyone here, and the big boy really needs to get going. So that's what we did. We went. I loaded him up today and hauled out to the riding club. I was met with 4 other horse trailers there, however, and a severe lack of time to attempt to fight that much distraction. I opened the trailer door, though, and allowed the backward facing boy to stand and munch on hay while I stood in the parking lot talking to Roz for a bit. Good for him to learn to stand patiently and not worry about doors opening to unfamiliar scenes.

Upon arriving back home, the winter daylight was fading and we unloaded into a fairly dark driveway. Lefty did fine, stepping out carefully and slowly, then leading nicely to the barn. Certainly not a difficult work out, but it's good for him to travel without added stress of workouts now and then.

Lefty's Video

As promised, the Lefty's Lesson video!

Time to Get Busy

Despite the aching toe, it was time to get busy. I loaded Lefty into the trailer, he turned around and backed into his corner just like that's the way you're supposed to do it. He learns quick, that's for sure. I tied his head alongside the hay bag and swung the divider closed in front of his chest.

"Just remember, I'm leaving for work soon, so no breaking down or getting hurt!", City Boy called to me. I wonder if he was speaking of the truck breaking down, or me?

I hopped into the cab of the truck and off we went.

I was hoping no one would be at the riding club, so that I could simply back up to the big door and unload Lefty straight into the arena. If he bolted, I wanted him to be safe. As I pulled up the driveway I was relieved to find that we had the parking lot to ourselves...that made it easy to back up to the door.

Lefty was nervous when I opened up the trailer doors. He stood there all tense and wide eyed, but since he was facing me I was able to simply stand there and talk to him, convincing him to relax before I opened the divider and untied him. It only took a minute or two for him to soften up, and rather than bolt from the trailer after his ride, he stepped quietly to the edge, stopped and looked around, then exited like a gentleman.

YEAH!

While we were there we played with the big red rubber ball, backed between ground poles and even laid out a couple of barrels and backed between them. I took video. Have I edited said video? No. No, I have not. But I will, and I'll show you! It was nothing short of fabulous for both of us. Bolstered my self esteem as well as Lefty's. He wasn't too sure about all the 'toys' I had out, but he did what was asked and I was so very proud of him.

Meanwhile...down south a bit I've begun riding the half sister to the big red mare I was riding earlier this year. Chica is also a granddaughter of the great Peppy San. She's big, she's black, and she's just a little scared. My kinda girl! The video is my second ride on her. She's only had roughly 7 months of riding her entire life, and this is following a 7 month layup.

Please excuse the fact that the camera seems to be focused in the rafters...

The following day, Chica got scared while I was on her. She struggles when she sees things out of the corner of her eye, and while we were standing in the arena she turned her head and spotted me. Panic city! She bolted forward with lightening speed, me with droopy reins and totally unprepared. But I managed to get my 'breaks' collected and hollered whoa, and she came to a stop. After that, she spooked a couple more times, but I managed to get her back under control each time.

It was good for me. Really, really good, because this is what I've been afraid Tika will do. Of course, Tika's not got the breaks that Chica has, but my confidence level bounced up for the second time that day, and I'm feeling very good about where I'm at mentally. And all it took was a run away horse!

I Think My Horses Want This...

I'm pretty sure they'd fall in love and I'd never see them anywhere else but beneath it again!

Baby, I Love You

Er...maybe not so much?



Bad Pony!

Come Ride With Us!

A brief glimpse into the Heady Road trail, home of the upcoming Sumas Mt Trail Challenge.
Come ride with us Memorial Day Weekend!

Crazy Weather

If you live in the northwest, you're undoubtedly wondering what the heck is going on with this weather! Beautiful and sunny one moment, hailing golf balls the next, snow falling on the hills and rainbows forming during showers. And then there's the wind...

The view from my computer

This does not stop the activity here, however! Wishing I'd had my video camera with me the other day when Tika was showing off to a couple of Arabs at the riding club. She was snorting and blowing and absolutely floating...or was it flying?...around the round pen! This girl is a total Diva.

Red is now allowing me to touch the right side of his body. He's not thrilled about it, but no longer trying to drag me through the mud (which he doesn't do, because I'm a wimp and let go of the rope before getting that mudnure facial.) I was even able to let fingers slip up to his poll and onto his cheeks. And he sniffed me...of course on accident. He would never admit to actually moving his nose over to my arm on purpose.

Sandy and I have been working on our cutting skills on a regular basis, and I'm seeing the fruits of our labor beginning to bud. Would like to see his head down a bit lower...cutters like low heads. But will we ever make it to a show? Probably not. So I'll take what I can get on this boy, learn all I can, and maybe by summer Tika will be ready???

Curt got the better of me when he turned the bull around the opposite direction. I thought we were done! Way to confuse me...so easily done. I'm going to have to keep a sharper eye on that sneaky devil...

Red Makes Headway

Red is finally making some progress. After being away 4 days I wasn't sure where we'd be when I came home, but he didn't loose ground (though...what ground had we covered that could be lost?) On Monday morning he finally let me touch him for the first time. A full month...and finally I got to touch him.

The video is long. No fun music, just the crunching of rock beneath his feet. He's turning left and right for me, allowing me to get a little closer and rub on his back. That's the only place I've been allowed to touch before he goes bolting off.

Biggest, most exciting thing from this video was that he stopped while moving to the right. That's his tough side, and with the end of the lunge whip resting on his back, he managed to come to a complete stop three times. HUGE strides for him.

And by last night? Well, I got to scratch shoulder an withers. This is a very sensitive area for Red; when the lunge whip touches him there, he bolts in panic. So I was thrilled when for just a moment he let his guard down and his lips quivered with enjoyment as I scratched. Then he spotted a little clump of hair falling to the ground, and off he went!

You may need to let the video buffer a little bit before playing as it tends to stop for brief moments. It's also seven minutes long, which can be a bit tedious I suppose, but it gives a good idea of where we're at for those who are interested.

I've also got Tika news...I sat on her yesterday. Video of that experience tomorrow!

Watch Your Bull

It's an early morning. Darling & I are heading south to Oregon for the Northwest Horse Expo down in Albany. We'll be working the Mustang U booth, which is shared with Equiscience. If you're in the area, look us up! We're in the Santiam building, same as the Mustang Heritage Foundation and BLM booth.


Darling has been folding brochures all night while I supervised City Boy's framing of photos. I won't have many there, but a few of Honor and the old buckskin stallion, plus a few posters and some notecards. I've been slowly adding to my stash of goodies, and now it's time to make them all go away. Hope someone shows up to buy them!

Of course, there will be more than just booth time and photo sales at the Expo, as the Northwest Extreme Mustang Makeover is happening! And you know I'll be out getting a few shots of the activities for those of you who won't be there.

In other news...Sandy's cutting skills are coming along nicely. We started the lesson without the camera on, which was a shame as Sandy was fresh and full of life as Curt worked the bull. Doc rode Rose on the opposite side, and as Rose is a finished cutting horse, Curt made sure he was giving the two of them a good workout. Sandy did well...and Curt wasn't happy to hear I hadn't turned the camera on before the ride, hollering over the roar of the bull, "That was a good one!"

Typically there are two workouts during a lesson, and we give the horses a chance to relax and catch their breath between them. Since Sandy's first go had been a very good workout (and longer than usual), his second work, the one in the video, focused on our weaker areas. Curt slowed things down so I could figure out my timing.

"Get your nose, get your rib cage, get your hand out towards me...," this is the sort of thing I hear. And the sort of thing you hear in this video since I didn't dub it with music this time around!

Look at my Little Girl Ride!

The guys? They're watching football. Darling just finished up a video late last night, though, and that's what I'm watching. Special thanks to Equiscience for sponsoring Darling & Steve Holt!.

Oh...and if you've ever wondered where Steve Holt!'s name came from...well, I found it on Hulu. The show...not Steve Holt!.

Mustang Magic, Champion and Reserve

On a lighter note than this morning...here are the champion and reserve champion from this weekend's Mustang Magic in Fort Worth, TX!

I guarantee you'll be impressed with what these two trainers were able to do in 90 days. Heck, you'd barely see a domestic bred horse with 90 rides able to do what these boys did going from wild!







Were you impressed? Me, too! Get out there and ride!

Technology Challenged Loser's, Raise Your Hand!

Darling is having fun with my new video camera.

What, you say? Did she steal my video camera???

I know. First my horse. Then my other horse. Then my still camera. Now my video camera! But in truth, my computer doesn't have the horse power to run the program that is needed to actually create videos from this camera, so I'm completely dependent, once again, on that teenage punkster of mine. Dang, how I hate being held hostage!

So the video you see is from the other day, and not of yesterday's super wonderful lovely ride of Sandy working the bull. I am forced to wait for Darling to 'feel like it' before I see an edited video. And to make matters worse, my memory stick is now full of videos from the past few days, and I have no clue how to remove them! I am such a technology challenged loser... I need to go ride.

This Day, Last Year

This day, last year, I had Steve Holt! in training for the Mustang Makeover.

Today, I have no horses heading to makeovers, but I have got Tika in training, and as you know, I'm fond of looking back to see what life was like at this stage of the game with previous horses.

We had the four letter S word most of December last year. The ground was slick and white, so no hauling about like I'm able to do this year. Still, we had the round pen at home, which worked quite well for getting the long legged lad worked from the ground. I was thrilled when I was able to touch his head and get a bridle on three times.

THREE TIMES!

Tika's worn it how often now? Too many times to count. She's not at all head shy like the boys were. Which is odd in a way, because when she first got here she'd step on her lead and you'd have though someone had fired a bullet into her chest from her reaction! She'd sit down on her haunches and her head would fling up into the air as her forefeet lifted off the ground, releasing the lead they'd just caught beneath them. She's very sensitive to pressure, but not to touch, which has been a real blessing.

Mom...your horse doesn't like me.

About this time, the snow was beginning to melt, and City Boy had helped me get Steve Holt! into the trailer a couple of times for our first journeys to the arena. A video in this link, posted December 30, 2008, shows what we probably did the day before. I was surprised to see him being sensitive to so much, especially considering what happened just two days later, on New Year's Eve.

This week, City Boy again traveled to the riding club with me to get some footage of Tika being worked. Darling, of course, worked her magic and put together a lovely little piece for me to share with you. I'm simply in awe of this pretty little mare...there's something very special about her.

Yes, it truly is a beautiful video, showing the special bond I've created with this lovely mare...I especially love the whiplash segment...

Scars are Tattoos with Better Stories

Since showing the videos this week of Tika, I've heard it a lot. "What's that bump she's got?"

Well...it's a wattle. Or is that waddle? I'm not sure, except it flaps around down there and is a bit odd. It's like what you'd see on a turkey, except not the snood part, but the wattle part. I think I spelled it with a double D before, but now that I think about it, a T seems to fit.

Tika's wattle was visible while in the corrals, but why she had it couldn't be determined until she was here at home. A scar on her elbow, and a line stretching upwards until it reaches that little flap of skin, help tell the tale of Tika's sometimes difficult past. Something had sliced her elbow open at some point, and the wattle was formed as the skin healed.

Not only has Tika got the scar on her elbow, but on the back side of her gaskins, on both the left and right sides, are two more nasty scars, indicating that our lovely girl at some point likely tangled with barbed wire.

Life in the wild was not all glamor for our pretty girl, but thankfully she was able to break free (or perhaps some kind soul spotted her and cut her free?) from the wire and heal up. I've considered having the wattle removed. I don't think she feels anything in it, but I'm worried about it becoming caught on something, and that of course has the potential to cause pain. For now it continues to stick out like a sore thumb, though, attracting attention and starting conversations.

Latest video...and again, music by Teresa Farris:

It's a Girl Thang, Baby!

I just finished reading Pony Girl's post on mares, and had to smile.

I've only adopted mares here. Oh, sure, I adopted Steve Holt! and Sandy, but they were assigned to me and of course they were difficult to part with after spending 90 days with them. I'd never have selected a gelding to train for myself though, and while I love them both...they're not girls. Girls have something that boys haven't got. Some magical little spark deep down.

Snotty? Cranky? Difficult? Yup, some times. But there's a cunning character that goes along with it. The boys can be goofy and playful and fun...but the girls will take care of you. There's an autopilot with a mare that I've not found in the geldings. Let them mother you, and they will. They'll tell you where you should be standing, where you oughtn't be sitting, and basically boss you every which way. But when the chips are down, they'll out perform and out think a gelding any day of the week.

Tika has most definitely told me where to go on more than one occasion. She's pinned her ears and flashed her teeth, and the girl definitely knows how to give some lip! But I've also experienced those tender moments...moments when I've wondered, as she's shielded me from the blowing wind with her neck curved around my body, does she miss her foal? Because theres no mistaking that maternal instinct as she moves in close and wraps herself around you.

Yes, I'm definitely a mare lover. Give me Mare-itude any day. Or as we call it around here, Tika-tude!

Western Saddle and a Video

The snowfall continued throughout the day yesterday. Not much, and it really didn't amount to anything. Perhaps just shy of an inch? But this morning, as the air warms and the snow melts, our world has turned to ice. How is it ice can form in 40 degree weather? The ground is still hard and cold from the past two weeks of dreadful temps, and the melted snow turns instantly to ice.

But yesterday, with no ice and only a little bit of snow, Tika and I picked up the training level a notch. She'd stood so nicely for the English saddle that I decided it was okay to bring out the Western one. I wasn't too sure what she'd do about the stirrup and fender flopping over her back. For that matter, I wasn't sure what she'd do about my lifting it up into the air alongside of her, but she was fine. A little apprehensive, but not stark raving mad. So up into the air it went and quietly onto her back. The cinch was...a cinch! She's gotten used to my reaching beneath her belly and stood right there for me to tighten it up without making any attempt to move away.

Don't mind me...I look like a dork. I really shouldn't watch myself in videos. I'm bouncing up and down alongside of her...but not big bounces because I don't know that she's ready for big. And I'm trying to rock the saddle without banging into it...and it looks downright dorkie, lol! But hey, dorky is as dorky does, eh? And really, Tika didn't seem to mind that much.

Once finished with our little exersice in dorkiness, I slipped the bridle onto her and we worked a bit at giving to pressure. She does okay to the left, but struggles to the right. Guess I know what our lesson plan is for today, then, don't I? That is, if the ice melts...

Now, all you face bookers...Mustang U is hosting a giveaway, so you'd better trot on over there to see what it is!

Farewell...the video

Darling's farewell video...

**************

Are there any knitters in the crowd? I've got a bunch of hand spun yarns here right now looking for homes!

7 skeins, over 100 yards each
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all seven for $100 (free shipping!)



Black Merino, 3 skeins, over 100 yards each
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The Great Assortment!
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I've got one skein left of the yarn on the left with the golden
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Pop me an email at desperatehorsewife@gmail.com
Great Christmas gifts!

This Child Of Mine...

She never ceases to amaze or inspire me.