Stepping out

Moondance has gotten over his baby 'tude and now willingly steps into the barn . After he eats, I lead him out- just for fun I have been able to back him all the way down the barn aisle, which is about 20 ft.

The view from my lap as I sit and wait for Moondance to finish eating. Usually both cats are in my lap!

 I like to make everything a training opportunity when I can so I present you with:

The art of unloading 

 

Sometimes I can get him to step one front foot out at a time, but I  am happy with how well he did this time. 

Frisky morning!

This morning at feeding time, the fresh snow and mild temperature (it rained on top of the snow) had Moondance going. 

Then, when I fed hay, I had THE NERVE to feed the other mares BEFORE I fed Gussie, and she was NOT HAPPY with me! I apologized, and put her hay in her stall but that was not GOOD ENOUGH for her highness, who wanted to be fed outside where she can supervise all the other horses from her pen. 

 

Ok Gussie you made your point! Then, she would NOT go in her stall even though she wanted her hay, so I took the opportunity to work on a loading lesson. I blocked her every time she turned away from her stall, she was making moves that belong in a cutting class! And sliding stops, oh my! Eventually, as I stopped the pressure each time she pointed her nose at the stall, she eventually stepped in and promptly exited- rinse and repeat! We stopped when she quietly stood in her stall and softened with licking and chewing. 

Silly mare. 

Sunny day photos

We had a lovely break in the clouds yesterday, and with 4 inches of fresh snow I couldn't resist getting out the Nikon and heading down to the barnyard. 

The horses however were feeling pretty lazy and were more interested in snoozing in the sun than posing for the camera. 

I spent some time hanging out with Mama Belle, and was rewarded by seeing baby bumping 3 times 😍 

Only 3 more months or so to wait!

Moondance was snoozing too, but I convinced him to wake up a bit.

Doesn't he look impressed!

Wouldya just lemme sleep?

He made a half hearted attempt to play with the willow branch that I put in for them to chew on.

Nice booty, Moondance!

So I gave up and went to visit Jayne. Of course, he followed me.

Jayne wasn't about to move at all, and she let Moondance know that his presence was not welcome in true redheaded mare style:

Well next up I headed over to the barn to visit Beamer but got sidetracked:

Oh hi Thumper!

Beamer too was being lazy in the sunshine.

But I woke him up. 

I got him to play half heartedly with the willow branch, but he was more interested in snoozing.

Well allright then, go back to sleep!

 A note on Beamer- he has developed arthritis in his other knee now so I have to scale back my plans for him. Any riding will just be for a few minutes to keep him happy and get him out of his pen, and I will have to just take him for hand walks instead.  

It has actually progressed really rapidly in the last month. He is walking well at this time but I will have to monitor him as far as his comfort level goes.

I have had inquiries as to how Tess is doing- the answer is, amazingly well!

She too was feeling lazy on this sunny afternoon but I did get her out for a walkabout photo shoot.

She was all squinty eyed in the sun.

She walks really well, no falling. She even chases Thumper when she thinks I'm not watching!

Lessons and baby bellies

The other day, when I was asking Moondance to come into the barn he had his usual Idon'twanna attitude; when I backed him up to regroup he got downright rude, rearing and pawing - so we had a Come To Jesus meeting with the help of my dressage whip - no I didn't beat him up or whip him into submission! What I did was calmly strike him on his front legs below the knee when he was in the air-  and then stand at his shoulder and ask him again to come forward; when he balked I reached back behind me (so he couldn't see the whip) and tapped him on the butt. It took three times and then he decided he would much rather be in the barn munching on his barley. The next day, he figured he would go see daddy instead of stepping in the barn and got told no ; one tap on the hip and he stepped in and then backed out, 2 more tries and in he went. Yesterday- only 2 taps. Hopefully today he will just walk in like a good boy! Them young'uns do like to test their boundaries.  With young stallions you do have to be vigilant that their childish behaviour doesn't become ingrained and make them dangerous as adult horses. He has to be respectful of his handler but not fearful; a fearful horse can be dangerous. Another area where he is being asked to mind his manners is when I am in the pen cleaning their shelter or putting hay out. Usually a vocal command- a HEY! or a growl will get him to back off out of my personal space; and here one has to be careful not to turn it into a game that colts would play. 

Speaking of play, he was feeling pretty good yesterday, so of course I had to video it!

Both Jayne and Belle have had about enough of his antics; they are doing a good job of telling him off. 

I haven't had him out in the round pen for a few days, but I did load him in the horse trailer just as a reminder the other day.

Didn't he just walk right in without hesitating! Silly boy. 

The mares are looking pregnant, both are due in May.

Pretty excited for this one, hopefully my keeper filly!

That isn't a sagging topline on Jayne, it's just the way the mud on her back follows the contour and makes it look like her spine is sticking up. She is actually in great shape.

Belle has her usual big belly, and as you can see by comparison, it is pretty obvious that Gussie is not in foal to Drifter. She may have caught originally but probably absorbed it due to complications from her fecal water syndrome contaminating her vaginal tract. 

With snow in the forecast for most of the week, I will have to pick my days for working Moondance. I think it's time to hand walk him again, just he and I to get him thinking less about himself and more about just going forward. I don't want to pony him from Gussie at this time as I suspect he is quite hormonal with this weather that is more like March than January; bare lawn and trees budding is not what I expect in January!

With colts especially, every time you handle them you are training them, so no day is lost.

Tarp training continued and a distraction

Moondance's round pen work continues. 

He gets rather exuberant when I take him out of the pen to go to work; he reminds me a lot of Nitro that way. Sometimes I just have to let him cavort and get it out of his system before he can settle down into learning mode.

 

Well all right then, lets see if you will wear it today! 

This is how we started: 

 

Willing but a little nervous at first. I don't really call that fearful, as his flight instinct got overruled by his curiosity. 

We did more tarp work, but got interrupted by a barnyard duet....

I was a little concerned that they would erupt into an all out fight and that it would set Moondance off at an inopportune moment, but they disappeared shortly thereafter.

Moondance is an interesting study for me. He is going through a phase where he has to stop and consider things... sometimes for waaaay too long (20 minutes to decide to go in the barn the other day!!!) He absolutely cannot be coerced or forced into doing anything and then once he decides that everything suits him, he does the asked for task. He doesn't do anything, just stands there and looks at me. Then, he will do it at his own pace. Going into the barn - which is where he gets his ration, which he loves- once he has decided to go in he slowly walks the length of the aisle, and inspects every. single. thing. on the way- stuff he has walked by dozens of times! However, I can also back him all the way out of the barn (about 20 ft.) including the step down at the entrance! 

When I started asking him to go around me on the long line, he got a little ramped up, and sassy, and ended up turning several times and getting himself all wrapped up in the line including getting it under his tail; I just dropped the line and let him sort it out himself- he circled a few times and I thought he was going to get dizzy and fall down, but he stopped moving his feet just short of that. 

After that, he was pretty easy to get along with, and we ended the session with a few little circles on about 10 ft. of line, and a nice session with the tarp, a big improvement from how we started.

Kindergarten is in

I opted to ride Beamer instead of leading him for our next outing. Ted led Moondance while I rode- my first ride of the year… yay! Because of Beamer's knee I can only do short rides on him, but I treasure every ride. 

Moondance did fairly well for Ted, but did get a little rambunctious so we opted to take him to the round pen where Ted worked him for a few minutes, long enough for him to start paying attention instead of thinking it was all play time.

So for our next outing I decided that Moondance needs to get handled a bunch more before going for walks again. So he got round pen worked today.

He had to inspect my tools- a flag stick, which he promptly tried to eat, and a big ole raggy tarp I reserve for schooling colts.

I worked on getting him to go forward around me by opening my lead hand and cuing him at the girth area with my stick, and as soon as he moved a foot forward I gave a release of the cues. He caught on pretty quickly and soon was circling me- although he did get a little... ahem...exuberant a few times!

To ask for the stop I bent a bit and looked at the hip, moving the stick to point at the hip, and he very easily caught on that he could move his hip away and face me. Once I had him going nicely both ways and stopping when asked, we moved on to tarp work. 

I like to get them following scary things first, it makes them much less scary and they get quite brave, as you will see:

Everything goes in the mouth.... eye roll...

I flapped it around him, and started rubbing him with it using the approach and retreat method; namely approach it towards his body and retreat with it before he moved away from it. Within minutes, 

he was wearing it. 

After that I folded it up to about the size of a saddle pad and laid it across his back, then slid it off his rump, from both sides. He was better when I was on his left than right, but allowed it to slide down behind him without moving.

I finished the session with a review of the longeing- a couple of half circles and hip yields each way to make sure we had that down pat, and that was it! He was a very good boy. He is quite proud of himself when he figures things out and laps up the praise I give him. 

A few of these short sessions and introducing more sacking out items and obstacles will keep his mind occupied, and should make it easier to take him on walks. 

We go out walking

….after Midnight...

That's Midnight Moondance following Isle Be Midnight, so the song came to mind!

The boys got their walk yesterday. They were both super happy to get out, and Beamer tolerated Moondance's presence but not too close please!

There was a lot of mouth clacking going on. Moondance was very respectful but not fearful.

We found a nice patch of lawn for them to graze (in the middle of January!!!)

Overall it was a good walk, I would need to do plenty more before trying to pony off Beamer, but these in-hand walks will suffice to get them buddied up for now. As long as I have help!

The boyz

Well- I didn't get to take the boys for a walk yesterday as Ted had company most of the day. So postponed until today. But I did take the good camera out to get sunny day photos, and the boys didn't disappoint. I think Moondance hams it up for the camera just as much as Beamer does. 

So grab your cuppa, sit back and enjoy!

Photo op? Naw, I'm to lazy soaking up the rays. Go see my boy he's young and energetic!

Pick meeee!

Lemme see; where shall I begin!

Thisaway?

Or thataway?

How about I pester the mares?

She's no fun... how about mama?

She's no fun either!

How 'bout you? Will you play with me?

Pleeeeease?

All you old fogeys are no fun at all!

That's mah boy!

Marching on

Is it just me or does this month seem like it should be March? So totally un January like weather. Snow on the mountains...

Poplar trees in bud....

(My magnolia still has buds) and green things starting to push up in the not frozen ground. 

Yesterday it snowed most of the day, big fat wet snowflakes, and then it rained all night. We went from 3 inches of snow to this:

and this:

The ground is saturated from all the rain/wet snow making the top part of my horse pens a muddy mess. This certainly is not the La Nina winter they forecasted. 

I am taking Moondance for walks, he's at that stage where he's really bored and this warm weather is nice for me to get out and go for walks with him. 

He sure looks like his daddy in this photo.

Mama Belle keeps an eye on him when I take him out and if she even gets a glimpse of him through the trees she calls to him.

I hear you, mama!

Today when we went out, I had to laugh, every time he had to step across a stick or a log he wanted to either pick it up or bite it. 

I could pony him, but the in hand experience is more what he needs right now, learning his manners on the lead line and discovering that I can control his youthful exuberance. It's all about patience with these yearling colts, and it's fun watching him learn, watching him stop and think until he figures things out.

Tomorrow, I will try leading him while Ted leads Beamer beside him, it will get both boys out and I hope to eventually take Beamer on little rides ponying Moondance. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics play out! It will give Beamer a purpose for being ridden too.

Mouthy

I have yet to get in my first ride of the year- we have been having more rain which always dampens my spirits (pun intended!) when it comes to riding. 

However, Moondance is keeping me busy. He is in a growth spurt, he now stands 13.3 hh at the hip and 13.1 at the wither.

He is bored with winter too. So of course, when I come into the pen twice a day to clean their shelter and put out their hay, he is happy to interact with me. 

 

Of course he's at that pesky age where everything goes in the mouth! Always tugging at my jacket or trying to steal my shovel, or grab the wheelbarrow. 

To discourage him nipping me or my clothing, I handle his face and his mouth a lot rather then waving him off or smacking him, as I don't want him to be shy of my hand movements; instead, if he needs discipline I will flick his nose the moment he opens his lips and goes in for a nip. It takes time, but it works. I had to do this a lot with Drifter- they do get over this stage, and it seems to be more prevalent with colts than fillies.

His leadrope is fair game, apparently!  He's like those dogs that grab their leash; always has to grab the knot in the leadrope when I first lead him. And when I tie him up, it is usually in his mouth! Must need to floss his teeth eh? 😁

I've been taking him for little walks too when it's not raining. There's snow/rain in our forecast for the next week though, so I guess we are at that slow stage where we wait for winter to wind down- I have a feeling we are going to be in for a lot of snow in February and March to make up for the lack of it so far.

Wordless Wednesday