Down the road

Had a real nice ride down the road today. There wasn't much traffic on our backroad, so I saddled Clancy, worked her on the ground for a few minutes: I do this to make sure her attention is on me. She only wanted to eat grass so I had to make sure that eating grass wasn't  her priority. :o)
It sure was beautiful and warm this afternoon- if this keeps up I'll be riding every day. Yay!

I switched bridles and I think I like this one better on her, it has more feel. I worked on my timing by counting footfalls and was halfway through the ride before I realized I was counting the hinds out of sequence- sheesh! Now that I have that fixed in my brain I should be able to figure out the best time to apply cues. Who knew riding properly could be so technical. I did get some nice rating just using my body weight and energy- kind of fun, made up for my error with the footfalls.
I sure do like the view down here.

 I left Tess at home to babysit the pup- poor Tess. Thea is getting pretty rough with the older dogs now- I had to really get after her tonight for being too rough with old Reba. Poor little pup knew she was on the s**t list then! It's a fine line with disciplining border collies; you don't want to take that working edge off them but you can't let them run amuck either. Too much discipline and they can sull up, not enough and you have no handle on them- at least for the first year or so, after that it's much easier.

Fences and sunshine

Most of you know that I use electric fence to make turn out pens for my horses- I've been doing it for a few years since my landlord decided that I shouldn't use his pasture any more. When I get home from work, I turn Clancy out in her pen, and Beamer in his. All was well until a couple of days ago; I keep an eye on them, and half an hour after my last check, I went to bring them in- and Clancy wasn't in her pen. The fence was all up, hadn't been stretched anywhere; and she was over by the heifer pen calmly grazing. Her neck was a bit sweaty, so I think she got to running and couldn't stop in time so just bailed over the fence. No harm done- but now I don't trust her to stay in the electric fence. I've seen her get pushy with the round pen fence when she is out of sight/sound of the other horses; when Josie was calling to her one day, and I had her in the round pen she was bumping the top rail with her chest. Looks like she probably doesn't respect fences. I probably need a separate and more powerful fencer for turn out, as well as making the tape a lot higher. But for now, it will be hand grazing, and that's just what I needed to get me off my butt and riding again.
Yesterday I hauled her to the local stable and used their outdoor arena- which is huge and has really nice footing. It was a perfect sunny afternoon.

We did walk/trot work, just trying to get her legged up for all the fun stuff I want to do this year. She is making good progress with some of the issues she came with. She no longer bloats up for saddling, she stands still when I mount (that was a real issue last summer) and no longer walks off right away as soon as my butt hits the saddle. She is learning that I like things slow and easy instead of just being in a big hurry. One thing that still need improvement is softening in the face. When I pick up the reins for a soft feel she dives into the bit and bumps herself. I try to use my legs to lift her in the back and have her in a nice frame but she isn't quite getting it yet- but she will. She was softer last summer, just needs refreshing. And I need to develop better timing with my cues. I am woefully out of time with her reaching foot! I'll get better too ;o) I think I am going to use a different bridle on her too, I find the mecate reins too heavy.
When I got her home, she got to graze for a while- her favourite thing- and it was funny watching Thea grab the lead rope- I think I could train her how to lead the horse! She isn't afraid of the horse and also doesn't pester her.

I was debating mowing the lawn the other day- but I think I'll just let Clancy do it for now.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Stills- Wings

I tried hard to capture birds in flight but mostly what I got were birds happily feeding or looking for food, like this pair of Mallards.

This goose shows the meaning of "goose step".

I waited and waited for this red-winged blackbird to fly off, but caught him scratching his head instead.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday. 

A dog day

Today was all about the dogs. It's a beautiful Easter Saturday, sunny and warm. Ted and I took all the dogs and drove up to visit Janice. I wanted to do a photo shoot of Reba and her clan- Reba has made it to 14 1/2 years old now, and every day is precious. Her daughter Sage, (one of Janice's dogs) is 12 now and her health is failing due to an old injury to her back. She also has Tess's daughter Kali, and I wanted Janice to get to visit Thea. This is Janice's busy season with her greenhouse business, so she won't get away for a few months and by then Thea will be past the puppy stage. So without further ado, here is the family portrait- with Thea added in.

Thea, Reba, Sage, Tess, Kali

 I took a few photos of Sage for Janice.

Such a beautiful girl!  The next photo is Tess's daughter Kali, who is rather camera shy.

I love this one of Reba and Sage. We will be lucky if they last through this year, so this might be the last photo shoot I do of them.

Cuteness overload !

Thea has learned the fun of playing ball. She tries to steal it from Tess.

Her ears flop up when she runs.....

She is always plotting.

Sunday Stills- Joy

One of the definitions of Joy is: A source or cause of delight.
Well- today is the first day of spring, so that gives me joy! And I have my first dandelion; their yellow brightness is so cheerful. I know many of you already have yards full of flowers, but we are a  couple of weeks early here as compared to the last few years.

Of course, I have several 4 legged sources of delight here too. *grin*

Miss Thea is growing like crazy. Everyone who meets her loves her. She is so sweet! 

Then there is Beamer, who brings me joy just looking at him. I feel blessed to be his human.

Family and friends, my faith, lovely spring weather- so many things that bring joy. I try to look for the joy in life, even in the little things, and not dwell on things that are negative or sad or hurtful. This journey through life passes so quickly- more so as we grow older (funny how that works) that looking for and finding beauty and joy can carry us through the hard times. Have a blessed Sunday, everyone.

Thea

Well I didn't get in the riding that I wanted to do- other things seem to get in the way. I did spend a lot of time with Thea though- yes, she is one of the things that is distracting me from riding.

The focus is crappy on this photo but I had to post it because it shows how she looks to Tess for  leadership. She does what Tess does, which is a really good thing, because it's helping me teach her the commands that Tess already knows; hopefully she will soon associate the word with the action. She already is building her vocabulary.... No! and Leave it!  and, get up (when I want them to go up on the deck). We are working on that'll do, and here, and lie down.

She has a natural lie down so it will be easy to get that one on command.
She snuggles up with Reba when it's nap time- not Tess or me, it has to be Reba.

Reba also disciplines her as needed, as does Tess. I'm glad I got this pup while Reba is still around, it's giving the old dog purpose and she seems to have a bit more spark in her. And that makes me happy. Love that old dog.

Spring has sprung

I got Clancy's turn out pen set up yesterday. She is one happy horse now! Room to move and grass to eat in the sunshine; life is good.

I had to get after her to move out a bit, she just wanted to drop her head and chow down on that spring grass; I am restricting her and Beamer to short turn out while the grass is so rich and their systems adjust to grazing again.

I got the insurance on my trailer today, so hauling time is about to begin. Time this stout girl went back to work.
Totally unrelated but on a side note- my garden is right next to Clancy's pen, and I noticed that I have some volunteer plants there- some lettuce (I let the romaine lettuce go to seed) as well as spinach. Yippee! I also have kale that over wintered.

Looks like there is lots of green around here for St. Patrick's day tomorrow!

Turnout = Happy Horses

I couldn't bear to see the horses in their muddy pens any longer. So today I set up an electric pen for Beamer, and turned Clancy out in the round pen.
I'd say they were both pretty happy about that.

Clancy worked up a sweat, she sure was ripping around. She has been kind of sulky since Josie left. I think she's mad at me. She'll get over it. Looks like I will have to bite the bullet and pay to ride in the local indoor. So today I'll be checking my trailer out to make sure it's ready to go down the road.

Little things

I spent some time with Clancy yesterday. She is looking a bit sad about being alone, so I spent a lot of time brushing her, washing her muddy tail- I braided it after I rode so that it would stay clean when she rolls.
I have made some good progress in her trusting me when it comes to saddling and mounting. She no longer takes a big breath and holds it while I cinch her up, and she doesn't bite the rail much any more either. Just once when I brought the saddle blanket out. Slow and easy seems to be paying off with this mare, which makes me pretty sure that the Former Owner (FO) didn't give a hoot about her being ok with what he was doing. You know, that cowboy -up- we gotta get stuff done  attitude, which may work fine with some horses but it's plain to me that this mare got defensive. She also stands still, and doesn't move off right away when I get on. I'll take the little advancements!

I spent some time on ground work. This is the first time I have worked her since she left me watching her rapidly receding into the distance after she rolled. I was more concerned with getting Josie going, so Clancy was put on the back burner.
One of the things I played with was getting her to stand square, without me being right beside her. I was about 8 ft. away in front of her and just used the rope to get her to move her feet; just the tiniest wiggle of the lead rope or suggestion to move a foot ahead or back. It was fun! She did really well; then it was getting her to stand and ground tie while I moved around her; she kept wanting to turn to face me, so I'd have to set her up again. Finally, we got this:

I have a lot of work to do legging her up. We did some trotting and softening in the round pen. We also worked on her sidepass until she was consistent at it- and I found how much my timing really sucks! Then used that sidepass to work on opening the gate and riding through and closing it. Much better, she has some dwell now and isn't just in a big hurry to get through it, but I need to work on the closing, as she just wants to leave and not sidepass back to actually close it. I chose not to make an issue of it, just quietly kept at it until the gate was closed and latched. I'm sure we can make big improvements there every time we do it.

Merle- by request

LaVerne Bevers was asking what Merle thinks of the pup. At first, he was all over her, but once she got her confidence up in her new surroundings she was a little much for him to handle. Then he started getting protective of what he considers his space- namely the couch, when one if "his" humans is on it. He would stand on my lap and growl at her if she got too close. He's a funny little dog. I had him out when I was playing ball with the collies- he was having a blast. He thinks he is a lot bigger than his 3 pounds 4 ounces!

Pupdate

Thea is really starting to blossom. She has adjusted well to the pack dynamics here. Tess has quit giving her the stink eye and seems to be treating her the way she did her own pups. I have a sneaking suspicion Thea tries to suckle on her.
Reba makes sure that Thea respects her elders; she will snap at her if Thea gets in her face but lets her climb all over her. She shares her blanket too.

When we are outside she is doing well at staying out of the horse pens; I don't put a string on her anymore. She came into Clancy's pen once when I was cleaning it and backed out when Clancy came to investigate her.
Like a typical pup, she plays hard and crashes hard.

See that pillow behind her? she decided it was a good thing to snuggle in behind it to sleep.

I have had to puppy proof the house, and I use baby gates to keep her contained to certain rooms so I can keep an eye on her. Silence is suspicious. Very, very suspicious.

Josie

Well, miss Josie left today.


 Her she is at her new home, being re-united with her brothers from another mother- Kai, Nitro, and Rio.
I love this next photo- thanks Alana for taking the photos and letting me post them.

It seems really strange to just have one mare in the pen; I can't remember the last time I was down to one mare- probably about 20 years.

Clancy misses her buddy. But now I will have more time to work/play with her. I has plans :)

Settling in to our new normal

Everything is going well with the puppy. She doesn't mind her crate after sleeping in it last night; we are working on the potty routine (only one accident so far) and the other dogs are getting used to her.
I had her in the Canine Hilton with Reba today while I went to town, and that worked really well; Reba tolerates her and pup likes the company.
I make sure to give Tess lots of attention; don't want her to feel neglected now! I played ball with her today; Thea isn't quite sure what all the fuss about balls is -yet!

Meanwhile. she was quite intrigued with my boots. I had just finished mucking out the mare's stall and she decided she likes the taste of horse poo. And she thinks boot laces are nummy too.

I went and got her a chew toy today. Now if only I get to sleep through the night......

A Perfect Puppy

It was a great day for travel today- I headed up to Nanton to hit  Cowboy Country Clothing for a couple of pairs of jeans (4 1/2 hr. drive) and found what I needed, then met up with Crystal (Ranch Riding blog) . The plan was to have about an hour to visit, but I got a text that the people who were delivering my pup were early so I had to cut the visit short and head to Ft. MacLeod to pick up Thea (another 45 minutes, but back the way I came).
I had Tess with me for company for Thea. After I got Thea and put her in the crate for the trip home, I caught Tess giving her the stink eye and the Elvis lip- can't have that! Tess is a tad bit jealous.
Thea was pretty good on the trip home; over 4 hours and she slept most of the way. Once home, I put a string on her so I could keep her out of the horse pens. I just tie it to my belt and carry on. Thea did really well, followed me with only a few times coming to the end of the string. She comes when I call her, and her safe spot is pretty much right underfoot.

I put her in the Canine Hilton while I unloaded the minerals I got at UFA, and she carried on a bit about that, but as soon as I put a bunch of shavings in there she quieted down. Linda said she is used to shavings from where she was raised, so it made an unfamiliar place smell more familiar.
She wanted to check out Beamer, and when he put his head down by her and snorted at her, she just did the border collie drop and stare- perfect!

Please ignore the mud, I will be pushing it up with the tractor tomorrow- if it isn't raining again.

Thumper had to inspect. 

Reba sniffed her a couple of times and then went about her usual routine of keeping an eye on the horses. Poor old Reba, she is fading fast. But as long as her spirits are good and she has an appetite, we will keep on assisting her in her old age.

After her long day of travel and an hour out exploring here, she was tuckered out. 

I hope she sleeps through the night.... I'll be crating her at night so I expect a bit of fuss until she gets used to it.
This pup has the exact personality I was looking for- not rambunctious, wants to be with me, is biddable, and has good working instincts.