The boys, birds, and good dogs

Yesterday when I got home from work I was kinda lazy feeling, didn't want to get off my comfy couch and go out to do chores- but I'm glad I did. The sun came through the clouds, and I turned Beamer out in his pasture to play for a while. He was rather lazy too, until I chased his sons out of their pen to visit daddy.

The behavior of Nitro and Rio towards their daddy is always interesting to watch. They are both submissive to him, and Rio tries to boss Nitro around with varied success; Nitro is pretty good at standing up for himself, as a hoofprint on Rio's chest testifies. Nitro doesn't think twice about double-barreling Rio when he gets too pushy.

After the herd dynamics got sorted out, it was play time.

Nitro and Beamer stroll down the fence together; Rio doesn't really do this; he will come and greet Beamer but then goes off on his own.

Nitro was feeling good- here he is showing off some of his moves while Beamer shows how to trot the sidepass:

Beamer- that move is showing off your cutting blood- now if only I had some cows to work.
Rio finally got out and played too- but not for long.

All that work made Nitro a thirsty boy, time for some of that bubble-up.

A little later I went  out to bring Beamer in and spotted this fellow on a fence post:

I grabbed Beamer's bridle and hopped on bareback to see if I could get a little closer for a better photo.... got a little sidetracked by some geese....

 I didn't manage to get any closer to the eagle, but it was interesting to watch and listen as a female eagle flew over, and he was talking to her.

Look closely... the Eagle is... shall we say... excreting?
He flew away after that, but since there was a field full of Canada geese we made our way over to them. The dogs were with me, and I didn't want to alarm the geese, so I asked them to lie down and stay,

which they did for the next 15 minutes while Beamer and I rode near the geese and watched them for a while.

We made our way a little closer, and the geese weren't too disturbed by our presence. a few bunches would fly away,but not all of them.

It was fun, a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

Wordless Wednesday

A little excitement and schooling Rio

One of my side jobs is dog-sitting, and we have an old Cocker Spaniel with us for a few days. I had him tied out in the yard when Shayla brought Rio out today. We thought Rio had spotted old BillyRay, and she was tying Rio at the hitching rail when he spooked- went up and over the hitching rail and landed on his side after sort of jumping over it; since the rope was only wrapped and not tied he had a bit of slack but his head was under the rail facing the opposite direction that he had been in.... and then he tried to get up and ended up crawling under the rail. I didn't think he could- but he did! He stopped when I hollered Whoa! What happened is that the old dog was lying still when Rio walked past him, and when he was at the rail, the dog, now behind Rio, got up and moved and totally startled Rio. There was no harm done, just a little bit of hair missing on a front leg that scraped the rail as Rio was going up, and it took about a half hour for his emotions to come back to his normal quiet self. I put some StressAway oil and some Rutavala oil in his nostrils which helped to calm him down.

So, the best thing to work on today was his mind. Some sacking out with the flag, and the lariat, and dragging the rope, working on crossing the tarp, and then backing over the tarp and the poles that hold it down, sidepassing over the tarp, and pretty soon he was ready for another bareback session. This time we worked on having him line up properly with the mounting block. It took a few tries, but he was getting the hang of it.

He did some nice trot work both ways, and then we called it a day. It's always good when a day starts out with a wreck and finishes on a good note. 

While we were working Rio, Beamer and Nitro were having match races up and down the fenceline in their turn out pastures- I didn't get photos, but Dave (Nitro's owner) did, I'll have to see if I can get some from him. I didn't get to see who was winning the races either- I'll find out tomorrow. 

A good Sunday

I really enjoyed my Sunday. Not much relax time but got some things done. First, the mares got some turn out time, much to their delight.

A little thing like being over 10 months pregnant didn't slow them down at all, they let 'er rip!

Fat girls can run, I'll have you know!

Nitro got some quality time too; I trimmed his front feet, and then Dave did some trailer loading which I helped with, and he learned that it was less work to load than it was to say no.

Meanwhile, Shayla was working on Rio, getting him to give and flex from the ground. Since he was being a good boy, we thought it was time to get on him bareback, a new experience to him. 

Showing how nicely he can flex! And yes I know- no helmet! Won't happen again!

Shayla, your hair matches Rios tail! He was really good, I'm sure that this horse actually loves  being ridden. He gets such a soft pleased look on his face . But that may change when he actually has to work at learning under saddle later this year, we'll see!

Good boy, Rio!

Sunday Stills

The challenge this week is to shoot sunrise or sunset- but to include a building. This was a tough one for me because we did not get any colorful sunsets, so trying to get an interesting shot was indeed a challenge.

This is a sunset on the Skimmerhorns- not much colour.

This was also taken at sunset, with all the buildings of the town of Creston at the base of the mountains. The only way I could make this sunset interesting was to include the reflection. Gotta go with what you have to work with!

Wordless Wednesday

Schooling Rio, continued

After finishing up some trimming on a front foot, Rio got some in hand work in the round pen. We put the tarp down and he walked over it with no hesitation. Then we built an open end box and worked on turning him inside it.

After that, he got a lesson in sidepassing.

He did quite well at these two exercises. The idea was to get him using his brain to start thinking about where his feet are, and where he has to place them in response to certain cues. We also worked on having him stand square, placing each foot where Shayla asked for it. He's a long way from show ready in that department, but he's picking up on things really quickly. 

Since we had his brain engaged and he was behaving nicely, we saddled him up, and did something else new: his 4th ride was a trip through the yard and out on to the hayfield, Shalya riding and me leading. I'm telling you, that horse has a long stride! I had to work at it to keep up with him, and I have long legs. 

Here are the first ever Rio Ear Cam photos!

He was so good! When we turned back, he saw Nitro and started to ramp up a little, but a couple of corrections and he came right back mentally to us.

Good boy, Rio!

Family portrait

I was going to save this for Wordless Wednesday, but I have something else for tomorrow.

I give you....

Beamer and his sons.

Beamer was being a little studdy in this photo, which is why the boys are giving the submissive mouth, and why Shayla is looking so stern. I gave her the camera and took Beamer over to the other side, he was a little better over there.

You can see how much bigger Rio is, we measured hm at 15.2 at the hip now. 

I really like this one of Dave and th'boys. Even if Rio is muddy! We took these photos before we groomed him. 

Schooling Rio- Third Ride

After yesterday's lesson in manners, Rio was back to his sweet self today. He was very nice on his leading, and trotted without any protest, so we moved on to his third ride today.
It went really well, I held the end of the get-down rope while Shayla did all the steering , starting and stopping. I tried to stay out of the picture as much as possible so that Rio wasn't using me for his cues.He did tend to want to come to me at rest time though.

I couldn't get far enough away to get all of them in the picture, but I think Shayla's smile says it all. They had some really nice walk/trot transitions, although Rio is a little stickier going clockwise, he did get some nice transitions that way too. His stop is improving, and he has a nice back up.
I think yesterday's tune up sunk in, because Rio was well behaved all day; I trimmed his front feet after the ride, all in all we had him out over 3 hours; the riding time was only about 20 minutes.

This photo makes me laugh; Happy rider yes- but doesn't Rio look smug? He knows he did well today!

Schooling Rio, continued

The focus for our last training session was to improve Rio's leading manners. Since he'll be shown at halter in the local shows this year, he has to have nice manners.
He is feeling pretty full of himself, and it was a lot of work to get him to pay attention and only go the speed and direction we were asking for.

Shayla is asking him to trot here, and you can see the resistance in the raised head and tail swishing.

He would trot a few steps, then try to speed up and blow past her. (Bad Rio!)

Which, being a big strong horse, he was fully capable of doing. 

I don't like having to brace against a horse, but it's pretty tough to keep up with him and bring him softly back to a nice trot. We tried a few options, but it seemed to be mostly an attitude problem, so I decided to discipline him a bit. Now before I get snarky comments on this, let me remind you that Rio is a stallion, and misbehavior is not allowed as it will escalate if not nipped in the bud. Think testosterone. 

What I did was bring out a stock whip, and every time he leaped forward, he got a smack on the hip, and wasn't allowed to stop- because what he was doing was blowing out like this, and then facing up and stopping. So we worked on keeping him moving and not worrying about form. A couple of sweaty humans and one sweaty horse later, he was starting to get it. He soon realized that it stung to blow out on us, and that every time he trotted right beside us he got to stop and rest. 

One thing that really helped was to go straight across the middle of the round pen, with the far side as a visual barrier, rather than the endless circle. 

Today he gets worked again, and then I'll be trimming his feet. 

Some other exciting news is that Nitro's owner has asked Shayla to show Nitro in the halter classes this year too- very cool! So little Nitro got started on his first lesson too.

Smart boy, he picked up the cues quickly. 

He looks pretty good in Shayla's show halter too.

Hopefully by May all the winter fuzzies will be gone!

Sunday Stills

The number 7... not so easy to find numbers to photograph, I opted not to do the 7-11 store, or cash registers etc. So in my environment, I find the number 7 in only a few places.

The Seven Half Diamond brand, one of many on a kitchen utensil container I made a few years ago.

Ed said bonus for the Roman Numeral 7- here it is on the 10 Commandment tablets outside our church.

The L Over 7 brand on one of my custom built saddles. That's it for me- seven is one of my favorite numbers.

Not quite spring

Even though I have some perennials that are starting to send out new shoots...

Hollyhocks

Catmint

and a little ground cover Verbena that I'm pretty sure wasn't supposed to be a perennial.

These photos were taken on Valentine's day. Today it's just cool enough for a few snowflakes to float down, so I'm hoping these plants are hardy enough to keep growing.

The number of geese and ducks is on the rise, every morning at chore time some of them wing their way overhead. I haven't been able to capture a good enough photo of them yet, but it's not for lack of trying.