Some arena time

The cold weather and nippy winds made these last few days the perfect time to haul to the little indoor arena. We hauled Gussie and Ice, as both girls needed some schooling time. Ice is doing really well, and her calm disposition really shines through as she progresses in her training.
Gussie was used on the first session as a comfort companion as Ice got ridden for the first time in an indoor, just travelling around the arena with her at first and then parking in the corner as Ice was worked.

Shayla did a schooling ride on Gussie next, reviewing where she is at with her softness and lead departures. It took a bit for Gussie to get back in the groove, she has been only on easy going trail rides for the last few months with only a few schooling rides so it's understandable!

We hauled again the next day, and both mares showed improvement. Shayla loped on Ice, and Gussie nailed her lead departures and Shayla has been working on the fundamentals of the cow turn (as compared to the reining spin, different deal but both are turns on the haunches) with her. 

Looks like I have ridden her enough to keep her in a bit of shape over the winter. 

Today we are hauling again, the plan is to ride several times a week at this indoor to get the girls in shape- spring is coming! Supposed to get really nice spring weather in about 2 weeks .

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

Drifter is very itchy with all that hair, I think he was looking for a good scratch as he was being so very helpful as I cleaned his pen.

Riding day 15 & 16

Drifter enters the Big Boy world

No longer a baby, Drifter is now at the age where it is possible for him to cover a mare. Even though his "boys" haven't dropped yet, it is still possible for him to impregnate a mare.... or a filly! And I sure don't want any catch colts. So he has been put into the foaling pen until I come up with a separate stallion pen. There is also a possibility that he will go to Alberta with Shayla, we are waiting on some options to gel for her. It would be really good for him if he could live with some geldings.

At least he has a shelter to himself now! The girls have come to check him out, but mostly they just ignore him in there. When it comes time to put Belle in the foaling pen at night, I will stick him in the adjoining pen, which is separated from the mares and I can electrify its wire.

He actually does chew on the jolly ball.

 

So pathetic!

If the mares pester him when they are in heat I will run a hot line on the mare side of the pen so they keep their distance.

Gussie's gotcha day (Tay too)

It was one year ago today that I headed to Alberta for the 5 hour drive to bring Gussie home. And I am so glad I did, it has been great having big Red back and having a horse I can trust when I'm trail riding.
This is her when she arrived here:

She didn't have much body mass although she wasn't thin, and she had vitiligo- pink skin on her lips that she never had before.
This is her now:

Lots of riding and the right kind of feed for her and she is back to her old self! I sure do enjoy this mare, she is such a character and yes she is a bit quirky but nothing I can't handle.
It was also my gotcha day for Tay, who has also greatly improved in the last year. She went from not looking you in the eye and chasing and gripping cats, to begging for luvins and being able to stand still while Thumper sniffs noses with her and rubs against her.

Yesterday we went for a short ride to pony Drifter.

We took turns ponying him, and he wasn't exactly a good boy! I had to get after him for thinking he could nip, and a couple of times he stopped and reared up. Good ole Gussie was so good, she just let me deal with him and didn't try to kick or jump around while I scolded him- but I think she thought she was in trouble too because she started jigging, so we just stopped and let everyone think about things and calm down and finished the ride with a more relaxed manner. Drifter just needs to get out more, it's kindergarten time for him.

Riding day 14

Mesa

Well it's a done deal.
Although she will be living here until June 1st., Mesa is sold.



This young lady drove 5 hours to come and see her, and I am so glad it was a nice day for travelling- although she said it was -30 C when she left home, it was about - 8 C here when she arrived.
Shayla worked Mesa on the long line to show off her training, and Mesa, as usual, was a good girl.
Then... I asked her if she would like to hop on Beamer, as he is the same size that Mesa will finish out to. Just to prove that small is mighty!

Beamer, of course, was a perfect gentleman and I really think she didn't want to get off him! He is the best ambassador for his babies.

I have to thank Shayla for all the work she put on Mesa over the last couple of years, she has such a good program for ground work for the babies, correct and consistent and builds a good foundation on them. Thanks Shayla!

Mesa is destined to go into training for reining as she grows up, which is exactly what I thought she is best suited for. And we will get to keep in touch with her, as this young lady is the one who came with the family who bought Belle's 4 sons and Josie, and rode Kai to finish up his training for his owner. So she is very familiar with the Beamer babies, and I'm so happy that's what she chose for herself.

Riding again

A couple more riding days- ponied Mesa - she was such a good girl!



She strides right out, no funny business. Gussie didn't like it when Mesa had to go right behind her on a narrow spot, but overall it was a really good ride.

Shayla saddled up Sassy, who hasn't  been ridden since October, and is due to foal in 4 months; she did great too!



The next day we took Rose and Gussie out for a ride, nothing too remarkable but we did get to do some long trotting in the snow, accompanied by the ever faithful and energetic Goose.

Although we don't have a lot of variety of places to go, as you can tell by my photos, we do have a lot of fun just getting out and enjoying the peaceful scenery. 

The other day all the horses were alerting to something in the bush, and as we rode through we spotted moose tracks. 

We took Drifter into the barn the other day, just playing around with him, and let him have a visit with Beamer, much to Beamer's delight. I should have videoed it, they had quite a conversation, and Drifter was enjoying it as much as Beamer. 

He's so cute! And such a good boy. 

Today is the day that Mesa will receive a visit from the young lady who is interested in her for a reining prospect. Stay tuned!

Riding day 12 & 13

Snow much fun!

Well my o my did we get snow! In the course of 12 hours we got about 20 inches. Lots of shovelling!

Fortunately it wasn't too cold to go with all that white stuff.  Beamer was hiding out...

and the mares were frolicking!

 Drifter was covered in snow, but dry underneath all that thick fur. 

I think Ice was tasting snowflakes ! 

The next day it was beautiful sunshine! All the horses were snoozing in the sunshine, and the icicles had melted off their fur.

Even the cats decided that the pathways that I shovelled were worth venturing out on. 

Today was gorgeous, nice and warm. 

Beamer agreed.... 

Shayla and I went for a ride on Rose and Gussie. Little Goose came along too.

I'm sure it was a workout for that little dog bounding through all  that snow but it sure didn't tire her out! Both mares behaved themselves and we had a thoroughly enjoyable ride. 

I sure hope we can ride again tomorrow, it was so much fun today! At the end of the ride, Shayla and Rose did some snow writing. 

Riding day 11

River ride

As I contemplate the 6 inches of fluffy white stiff on the ground and continuing to fall, I know that my plans to haul Mesa and Ice to the little local indoor arena today are derailed.  Once this system is over and the roads are cleaned up, we can get back to business.
We did work with Mesa yesterday, she is longing quite well now and has decided the plastic bag is just another nuisance we ask her to put up with, although she does keep a careful eye on it. She got her first feel of being reined around too, first at a standstill and then with me walking beside her and directing her left, right and back as she walked out. Took a bit for her to figure out to go forward with my arms draped over the saddle but with a little help from Shayla on the lead rope, she got it. She did well for her first session.
The day before was beautiful and sunny, albeit cold, so we went for a ride down on the dyke, with Shayla ponying her 3 yr. old, Ice.

You can see that we finally have Ice on the river.... no pun intended!

It was cold enough for me to break out my felt hat!
Gussie was being really good, it was a fun ride.  Crunchy snow, bright sunshine, a friend to ride with and a good horse to ride... life is good!

Riding day 10

Deal with it

This has been a "weather" week; I'm under the weather, and it's darn cold and windy! But even though I wasn't feeling so good we still got some stuff done. Mesa got some sacking out with a plastic bag.... I thought it would be no problem given that she was sacked out lots last fall, but apparently this year, plastic bags are Horse Enemy #1....



She tried to leave when we brought it close to her. So that merited about a good 20 minutes of just working on that until she would accept it touching her and being able to rub her all over with it on the end of the stick.
The next day, she was much better with it.

The folks coming to see her had a weather delay too, so Feb. 18 they will try again.

We did squeeze in a ride, even though it was pretty cold- not as cold as elsewhere I hear, but the coldest part of this winter for us. 

Goose getting a lift

Gussie was not exactly on her best behaviour, she wanted to be all bracy and prancy so we were using this spot to trot circles and create some work for all that energy- Shayla even loped on her mare Rose. Pretty good footing in this type of snow if you can avoid the places that have underlying frozen puddles.

An indoor arena is looking pretty desirable! Hoping to haul at least once this week, maybe Tuesday.

Riding day 9

Steppin' up

We had a really good session with Mesa the other day....

I think that the videos tell the story well enough!

For those who might wonder, no we don't have plans to put her in full on riding training, she has a bunch of growing to do before that happens. This is just part of the preparation for that. The next step will be to step on and off her when she is saddled.

Shayla changed the setting on her blog, it is now open to the public, so head on over and check it out.

Working the young 'uns

A cold and windy day didn't mean school was out, yesterday!

Mesa did really well, considering how blustery it was. Because the footing got icy with the temperature drop, Shayla kept the work to a walk, as you can see in the video, when Mesa wanted to go faster she was asked to yield and back. Pretty happy with this filly!

 Ice, Shayla's 3 yr. old is also going back into training now. Big dreams for this daughter of Sherry Cervi's famous stallion, Dinero!

Drifter got his first real lesson with Shayla today too. He learns quickly; look how soft he is in this photo after just a few minutes of working with him.

If you look on my sidebar, my blog list has Shayla's blog, she posted her recent lesson with Sandy Collier, and hopefully will continue to post!

Weather or not, school's in!

No polar vortex here  (yet!) so I get to keep playing with the horses. Rode Beamer on the last day of January, just a lovely quiet little ride with no drama.

I worked Drifter in the round pen again, just getting him to go around in a circle again and yield his hip, he did much better than the first time, little guy learns fast. I guess I shouldn't call him little as he is darn near as tall as Mesa!
Shayla is back from her vacation, so she started working with Mesa again, she does such a nice job with her. It was a refresher session, but added in learning to feel lateral pressure on the bit. We had the snaffle with no reins on her; she started by asking with the halter/lead rope and progressed to asking with the bit.

It was nice to see Mesa progress throughout the lesson. I especially liked when she picked up on clearing her shoulder when Shayla asked her for a change in direction. Like when she was stopped and facing up, she would step her shoulder over instead of walking straight to Shayla before going in the new direction. 

I do have some news to share, someone is coming next Sunday to look at Mesa.... stay tuned on that. It is someone who I know will fit her well, and makes it easier to change my mind about not selling her. 

Last night after chores we jumped on the redheads bareback (Shayla's horse Rose is back here) and went for a lovely relaxing evening ride.

Hope you are all staying warm and safe... it will be spring soon! At least according to the groundhog.

Riding day 7 & 8