I can't believe it, I'm down to 3!

I'm sorry I haven't posted lately and I didn't even follow up on the nutrient deficiency post.

I can tell you that my hay when fed alone is deficient in Manganese, Copper and Zinc (average hay was only deficient in Zinc).  So my hay is lower in Copper and Manganese than the average hay values I was using previously.  Thankfully, the deficiency in those nutrients were not very great, so even my old mineral was meeting Copper and Manganese and my new mineral covers everything, so I'm happy there.

Calcium:Phosphorus ratio is 2.7:1 with the current hay and mineral supplement.  I think this is okay for my current herd at maintenance.

Interestingly, the protein content is lower than I would have thought (a little lower than the average grass hay values I was using) - adjusted crude protein is 8.99%, though the protein needs for my horses are easily met by their consumption rate currently.  If I was limiting their hay and only feeding the lower hay rate (1% of body weight), that protein content might be an issue.  I don't think it is an issue currently.

Fat was 2.98%, which was higher than the average I was using. 

And sugar content (ESC) was 9.25%.  This seems fairly average.  Not high and not low.

So my assessment is I definitely need a good mineral mix and I shouldn't limit my hay too much during the winter.  I'd like to get my grass analyzed once it grows in well this summer.  I think my pasture is also quite deficient, especially given that in the past, the main pasture has had several inches of quality topsoil removed and sold to a nearby construction project.

Okay, back to current issues.

I haven't wanted to post anything because there has been so much brewing here with trying to decrease my herd size and I haven't wanted to jinx anything!  I felt like in the past, whenever I had someone interested in a horse, then told someone how excited I was getting, that interested person totally lost interest.  So, this time around I've been keeping quiet about developments, but I can now finally divulge!

Both Griffin and Kachina have left my herd!  Kachina left back in the beginning of January, and Griffin just left this last Friday.  I am so excited for Griffin.  His new owner of course knows his whole story (she read my blog too) and she is going to work with a trainer with Griffin.  She has reported to me how he's been doing the last couple days and he is really bonding with her and settling in really well to his new home.  I'm SO SO SO happy.  At first I had a lot of anxiety and was really missing my former herd members but it is such a relief to be down to the ones that I can move forward with, given the limited time that I have to spend with them.  AND to know that Griffin is finally placed where he will be given every chance to become the horse I know he can be really makes me contented.

Here are a couple pictures of Griffin's last weekend with my herd.  We have SO much snow this year!  Griffin enjoyed his last days with us, but I know he's happy where he is at now too.  I've already gotten reports that he's been playing gelding bitey-face games with his new owners other gelding.

He is charging after the cat in this picture.

When he failed to stomp the cat, he bucked, farted, then took off back for the others.

 

 

 

Pony time

I had a very good friend whom I haven't seen in 2 years visit this past week.  I've been off classes on spring break, and my friend came to do horse things with me!  We had the best weather...60's and 70's (insane for March in WI!!!!).  We trail rode every day (except the 1 day out of 5 that it rained), drank wine and ate goat cheese every night.  It was great and exactly the kind of break I needed!  My friend rode Cody pretty much the whole time, except for when we brought horses into the round pen to mess around with (trying to mount from the ground bareback and cantering bareback).  I rode Catlow the first trail ride, but it quickly became apparent that she needed to rest...she has a cough that I've noticed before.  She had it last winter too, but generally not in the summer time.  I'm unsure what it is...it's some sort of chronic thing.  I will be investigating though it seems like a fairly mild sporadic, cough, unless she is worked really hard. 

We trailered my horses a few miles down the rode to a sandy county road that connects with many trails through a remote oak/pine forested area.  We rode for many hours each day, making sure that we were sore by the time we got back.  We trotted and cantered a ton!  It felt great!  Cody was extremely well behaved for my friend.  Chico was good, but we did discover some holes to work through.  He needs some more work riding at greater speeds keeping his attention on me and not the other horse.  He wanted to be in the lead, so when we were behind, he wanted to catch up and pass.  When we were in front, he was better, but the first day he was very fast and very difficult to get to respond to cues well.  By the last day of our trail riding saga, he was actually doing much much better.  I could let Cody pass us at the trot or canter without Chico even thinking about breaking from the walk.  And we could canter or trot to catch up with control.  I think he needed some reminding about how to listen to me and not his boss mare, Cody.  It was great to ride with a friend and get some training in on my horses at the same time!  And now, my horses get to recover from their week at work too.

I wish I had more photos from the past week, but we were busy riding, plus my camera batteries were low.  But enjoy the few that I have!

We encountered a boggy area and lead the horses through it.  Chico fell in a bit of a hole and splattered me with mud on his way out.

Oh, and here is a photo of goofy Kachina.  I'm not sure how she managed to get herself a hay wig, but it stayed on for quite a while.  She acted as though she was purposefully wearing it.  It didn't bother her at all.  She never shook her head to get rid of it.  It eventually blew off when they came out into a more open area with wind.

Griffin is handsome and the rest of my horses look on.

Kachina comes to the fence to visit.

The rest of the horses came too.  I think that Chico is saying Kachina looks ridiculous in her hay wig.

Trimming Kachina

Phew!  This trying to keep balance thing is already getting difficult!  We are now in the thick of our semester and our first round of exams and already getting overloaded!  BUT, last weekend, I still managed to keep up with trimming and did 2 more horses (no time to ride or work with Griffin though).  I did Pumpkin first.  She hadn't been done in about a year.  Her feet just don't grow all that fast, although they were definitely in need of a trim.  Pumpkin was an absolutely perfect angel for her trim.  She stood quietly, didn't try to walk off (like the last time I'd trimmed her) and politely accepted her treat rewards for standing after each hoof...no searching for more like she always does in the pasture.  Since I finished her so quickly due to her cooperativeness, I decided to get Kachina out and try her...if nothing else, I could just trim her fronts, since they were in greater need (fronts always seem to grow faster than their hinds).  I really didnt' think I'd be all that successful at trimming Kachina at the hitching post (since I'd never tied her before and she hadn't been outside the pasture very often), but it was so muddy in the pasture that I decided to try it.  I just didn't have any other good place to try to trim her.  She lead right onto the mat in front of the hitching post with no issues and was quite relaxed, so I looped the rope around the post a couple times without tying her tight.  She was actually really good and I trimmed both her front hooves without too much difficulty.  She stood nicely, knew she was "tied", and was overall very relaxed.  So then I decided to try to do her hinds.  I got her left hind done pretty easily, but she gave me quite a bit of trouble on her right hind.  It took me over an hour on just that one hoof, but I did get it done!  When she became nervous about my insistence on handling that hoof, after already having let me start working on it a little bit, her inexperience with tying came through.  She just wasn't cooperative and would take her foot away and step away from me.  When I tried to ask her to step back onto the mat and get back into position, she would feel a little trapped and try to back up out of the situation.   Since she was tied, she pulled back to the end of the rope, but then just stood and would not move over at all, so I had to take her out in the yard and lunge her a bit and re-teach her what I meant when I asked her to step over with her hinds or her fronts.  She decided to "forget" how to do that on one side and was really huffy and tossing her head when I asked her to move her shoulder away from me.  She would toss her head up and over my hands that I was holding up by her face, and go the opposite direction I was asking.  It took a lot of "discussion" but she did not get away with her evasion and did figure out what I was trying to ask her to do.  And she also remembered how to calmly move her feet away from me when asked and not just leap into lunging mindlessly around me.   After our refresher lesson, I tied her back up and tried to work to her right hind again.  The problem with her right hind was she would step over away from me to evade having to pick it up for me.  Since she was tied, that meant she would move over till her hip was next to the hitching rail.  I would stand with her and ask her to stand still and relax and not pick up her back hoof until she was standing with her weight off it, almost offering it to me.  When asked, she'd pick it up, but as soon as I got settled to do something to it, she would take it away and walk forward, since that was the only way she could go to "get away" from me.  As she walked forward, she'd come to the end of the tie rope, it would pull her head toward the hitching post, which caused her to swing her hip out away from the hitching post...and directly into me.  At first, not wanting to cause her to freak out being tied (or kick me which she's never done), I got out of her way, but I quickly got sick of that and realized it wasn't getting the message across to her what I needed her to do.  So I started to step with her as she walked forward and vigorously bump her side to prevent her from swinging her hip into me. She did end up pulling back a few times rather violently when I did this, but she's a small horse and it was like "a fish fighting at the end of a line" to quote a friend. I just stayed out of her way and she did have enough sense to only fight for a couple of tugs and then quit and come forward and stand nice again.   Pulling back unnerved her...she was breathing more quickly and shallowly but was standing okay.   I ended up having to tied her rope rather short to prevent her from walking forward very far when I was picking her hoof up.  That combined with bumping her side vigorously before she even had a chance to step forward seemed to work!  Once she figured out that pulling back didn't work, walking forward didn't work, and she couldnt' avoid me, she suddenly stood very still and let me work on her hoof!  She stood really really well, didn't take the hoof away, let me completely finish and I chose to set her hoof down when I was done.  And at the end of it, she was calm and relaxed!  It was a struggle, but it ended really well!  I really pushed her asking her to stand and be trimmed while tied, but it is time I quit babying her and expect to act like a real horse.

Balance

I'm trying to have more balance in my life this semester.  Last semester I realized at the end of the year that I hadn't done hardly anything with my horses or my friends...it was all school and family.  Both of those things are definitely priorities, but life does need more balance, so I'm trying to find it this semester.  Plus, I have a goal this year.  I want Griffin to be ridden on the trail this summer.  I've been trying to do something with my horses every weekend, at least once.  Griffin is a priority right now, and if I have additional time, I'm riding the "old" ones.  Kachina is going to have to wait a bit (maybe she'll grow more if I give her more time off :)  Not likely...) 

Last weekend and the next couple of weeks, I'm trying to get the hooves of all 6 trimmed up.  I got Cody at the end of January, Chico and Catlow last weekend.  Next weekend is Pumpkin, then Griffin, then Kachina.  Then start all over again with Cody.  Trimming is frustratingly never ending, but I do like doing it.  I like that part of my relationship with my horses.  I like knowing them inside and out and since their feet are such a big part of them, I get great satisfaction in maintaining them.  I got even more excited about trimming after discussing it with the farrier that works on horses at the vet school.  I really like our farrier.  He is a really friendly guy, likes to explain what he's doing and how the feet and whole horse work together, and he is not "stuck in a rut" as far as farrier work goes.  He learns new techniques, and works closely with the veterinarians in the clinic, analyzing radiographs of hooves to best determine how to help lame horses.  I'm hoping to hang out and learn from him more often.

On Sunday I got Griffin out and saddled him up for the 3rd time.  I saddled him next to the horse trailer rather than in the round pen because to get to the roundpen means carrying my saddle all the way up there (it's a ways and uphill).  I figured that my horse should be carrying my saddle up there for me, so we worked at standing next to the trailer and accepting saddling calmly.  He stands really well for the saddle pad (I toss it on and off repeatedly from both sides), but he generally wants to back up when I approach his side with the saddle.  I just pull him back forward and swing the saddle up and down at his side several times and back away.  Then I do it again, and he stands very well once I start swinging it.  Then I swing it up on his back.  He stands, but I feel that he wants to step away when I swing it up there.  He'll get better.  It's only his 3rd time wearing it!  Once his saddle is on, he stands extremely patiently while I I fiddle with getting the breast collar on and all the buckled just right.  And cinching is smooth. 

After tacking up, I dug out my breeching for him to wear.  For those who don't know, a breeching is a harness that goes around the horse's rump and attaches to the back of the saddle and to the rings on the cinch.  It is worn in mountain riding to prevent the saddle from sliding forward.  I used it with Chico when we packed into the Cascades in Washington, and I like to use it as a training tool to get horses used to things touching them all over when they are moving.  In the round pen, I swung it around Griffin's rump to get him used to it, then tossed it up on top, attached it to the ring on the back of the saddle, and slid the strap around his rump.  He stood calmly, completely unconcerned.  It was cold out, and I had to fiddle with the buckles for quite a while to loosen them enough to enlarge the breeching.  I think the last horse that wore it was Catlow as a 4 year old, and I couldn't believe how much larger I had to make it.  When Chico wore it as a 3 year old, it was even smaller yet!  If Chico wore it now, I'd have to make it even larger than I did for Griffin...he has really matured into a big stout horse.  Anyway, Griffin was great, although on his right side, I had to follow him for a few steps while he circled away from me (that's his most uncomfortable side), but he stopped and then just stood for several minutes while I got the breeching adjusted just right.  When I asked him to move out around me, he did so calmly, paying the breeching no mind, so we did some basic exercises (flexing, yeilding fores and hinds, backing, responding to cues where my leg will be), and then we got out of the round pen (still deep and crusty with snow) and went for a walk.

Back at the trailer after our nice walk, I looped the leadrope through the tie ring and had him practice standing tied while I unsaddled him.  He did well.  I don't want to tie him fast to a trailer that is not attached to a vehicle, when he is not used to being restrained so near one just in case he were to freak out.

As I walked home through the pasture, Kachina asked to be haltered so she could have a treat, so I did halter her.  I lead her through the pasture and on top of the hill.  She was so calm until I tapped her on the withers with the gloves in my hand.  If the gloves has been on my hand, I dont' think she would have reacted, but as it was, the gloves were now foreign and she jumped back and got all huffy and upset.  So I of course had to work with rubbing her and tapping her with my gloves to desensitize her.  She relaxed a tad after a bit, so then I led her down and out the gate into my yard and lunged her in a circle for a bit just to practice changing directions and listening to my body language outside the pasture.  We still have about 4-5 inches of crusty snow, so she had to pick her feet up high as she trotted around me with energy.  Lunging Kachina is an exercise in directing her high energy - she moves easily, I don't have to nag at her, and she doesn't pull on the halter.  She is fun to lunge because of that.  I couldnt' have picked two more opposite horses to work with out of the Sulphur Springs HMA.  She is sensitive, energetic, thin skinned, a flighty.  Griffin is more secure, much less reactive, not flighty at all, and he tends to be a little dull at times with cues.  Lunging him is a nagging feat if I want him to go faster than a trot.  That is something that I have not been working on yet since my round pen footing is not good enough for it yet (with the snow and all, and then the deep sand underneath).  I plan to work on that more before I ever get on his back.  I want him to move more freely.  That stickiness scares me a bit...I find it easier to control a horse that will respond to my cues even if they are fast and flying around, than one that might freeze up and stop responding.  I'd rather they go forward than freeze up!  But I am not that worried about Griffin.  I think things will go quite smoothly when we get there.  I think I could ride him at a walk/trot in the round pen tomorrow without it being a wreck, but I want to be a little more convinced that Griffin knows how to respond to me under any circumstances...I'm not in a hurry.  I have a baby to think about.  :)

Kachina

The following pictures were taken after a light dusting of snow a few days ago, which is totally gone now, with our thawing temps (crazy WI winter!).  I turned my horses out into the big pasture for a couple days because they've been in their little pasture since October.  I like to get them off the pastures before they go dormant then turn them back out only after the snow is deep enough to keep the horses from damaging the dormant plants.  But we haven't had enough snow this year!  So I decided the dusting was enough to protect the really short grass and get them out of their small pasture.  They were in heaven, and I was happy to be able to see them from the sunroom.  Alas, it warmed back up and the snow is gone again, and they are locked back in their small muddy pasture.

The high today was close to 50 and the ground was wet and muddy in places where it had thawed overnight because the low never got below freezing.  My horses were spunky and all spooked and took off as I walked through the pasture carrying a plastic bag that had treats in it.  Griffin and Kachina especially took off and wouldn't come near me.  Having never been formally introduced to plastic bags, they didn't know that they often have treats in them.  The rest of my horses spooked and snorted, but came right back to investigate and get their treat reward for overcoming their fear of the bag.  So I was quite surprised after I'd passed all the way through the pasture to the tack shed, picked up my halter and came back into the pasture that it was Kachina that first met me.  This time I didn't have a bag, just a halter and leadrope, so I guess I wasn't as scary.  She let me halter her with no tossing her head.  I had actually caught her easily with a treat the previous evening to check her front feet as it looked like she was a little off on one side, so she expected to be caught with a treat today.  I had made plans to catch and saddle either Catlow or Chico, but both were standing far away, back through the treacherous slippery mud.  I opted to take Kachina out since she was right there, not yet sure what I'd do with her. 

I filled my pockets with treats and took her to the round pen.  She was snorty and high-headed at first as I led her toward the trailer, then past the scary garden shed up to the round pen, but once in the round pen, she settled pretty quickly as her buddies all lined up to watch just on the other side of the fence.  I did my usual with her; started lunging calmly, but quickly remembered that she was just a tad off on the right front.  She wasn't super lame, just a tad off at the trot only circling to the right.  I didn't want to stress her leg, not being able to determine what was wrong with it.  There was no swelling or heat, and her hoof looked clean.  I imagine maybe she just sprained it a little in the mud.  So instead of lunging, we just did some walking work.  I led her over the drain tile scraps that I had saved to serve as obstacles in the round pen.  She dropped her head to snort at it, then stepped over it with her front feet fairly calmly, and then almost came unglued when her hind foot clipped it and made a noise.  She just about jumped on top of me, but I was expecting her to be a little spooky over it, so I was safe.  We did it again, and she accidentally clipped it again with her hind feet with the same over reaction to it.  Then, the third time, she was more careful with her feet, and the fourth time too.  The fifth time, she got lazy and clipped it again, but it no longer freaked her out.  I did some more desensitizing with the rope and also my stick and string, and then made sure she was soft and would bend her neck laterally with a soft pull on the rope. 

Then, I decided to see how she'd be going for a short walk.  She didn't appear to be off at all at the walk, so I figured it wouldn't hurt her anymore than hanging out the the pasture would.  I wasn't sure how far we'd be able to go, simply due to the muddy conditions and Kachina's reaction.  This would be the first time ever that I'd lead her anywhere except the immediate vicinity of the farmyard and roundpen.  I didn't want to take her far if she wasn't ready for it, which I thought she might not be since she's always been the spookiest, flightiest, most reactive horse.  But, as we started walking, she dropped her head, and walked beside me rather calmly.  She would stop and raise her head to get a better look at something every once in a while, but overall, she was actually very calm.  I was so surprised.  I expected her to get the most uptight when leaving the herd behind.  So we kept walking.  Even when we disappeared behind the hill and could no longer see anything familiar (we were no longer alongside the pasture that she has been in), she didn't change her calm demeanor one bit.  And we walked past all kinds of things that I would have thought would scare her, as spooky as she is about things when I've introduced her to them in the past.  Piles of logs, an electrical box out in the middle of the grass, the cabin, a tarp covering a wood pile, the pond ice, the dogs jumping out of the brush all around us.  Nothing caused her undue alarm.  She noticed them, but we just kept walking past everything and she gave all these things a glance but then just kept up with me.  We also did a lot of "whoa" and back a step as I led her because she's not very good at it yet.  By the end of our walk she was slowing down when I said whoa but still required my stopping and the pull on the halter to stop completely, and she was backing with a much lighter pull on the halter.  She did not spook at a single object, just eye-balled a few things.  And she only had one flighty moment.  I stopped her a few times in an open area and asked her to lunge at a walk around me.  The second time I asked this of her was down by the pond, and I think she was a little nervous inside, even though she wasn't being overly reactive to anything because when I asked her to lunge, she jumped away from me started blindly trotting around me.  When I asked her to stop, she did a screaming turn and took off the other direction.  She wouldnt' stop, but amazingly wasn't trying to pull away from me either.  At one time I got her to face up, but she came into me too fast and was walking her face into me, so I pushed her away, which send her into another frenzied blind trot around me.  I finally got her to stop and she was huffing and puffing and quite worried then, but as we took off walking again with me leading her, she calmed right back down and there were no more instances like that the next time I stopped to ask her to lunge around me.  The next time was not at the pond.  So, aside from that one little frenzied lunging event, she was actually amazing on our walk.  I expected her to be spooky and dangerous and she wasn't at all.  Just goes to show what I know!  I guess I should not jump to any conclusions with her.  And I need to suck it up and just tie her solid to something.  I actually don't think she'll be as bad as I was thinking she would be.  She respects the rope quite well.  So, I need to find the right thing to tie her to...it's too muddy in the pasture and I'm not sure I have anything else stout enough outside the pasture right now.  This summer we will bury a stout post up alongside the roundpen to practice tying too, but we don't have it available yet. 

Kachina is a pretty little mare, but when she drops her head and leads beside me calmly and respectfully, yet still interested in her surroundings, she is even more beautiful.  I shouldn't work with her if I plan to sell her because it reminds me why I got into the mustangs in the first place and then I get attached all over again and want to keep her for myself!  But, I do need to work with her because it will ensure that she gets a chance at having a useful life and being taken on by someone who is worthy of her.

A side note:  Sassy, the pintaloosa mare that we sold last spring, seems to doing well.  I hadn't seen her at all last summer ( I think her new owners had her in training), but now that it is winter, I can see her in the pasture alongside the highway when we go to town.  She is turned out with their beef cattle, a couple donkeys, and another appaloosa horse.  She looks good from the road.  I'd be interested to hear how her new owners like her, but they must since they didn't contact us about giving her back last fall, which had been part of the original deal.

And onto 2012

Well, I survived my last semester at school, but I blogged less than I ever have since starting my blog a few years ago!  The semester went well, but my time was pretty focused on school, then Wren (when I came home and she was awake), then school in the evening after she was asleep.  And weekends were focused on family when I could, but studying when I had tests looming early the next week, which thankfully were not often.

While I did visit them in the pasture (Wren really likes the horses), my horses have mostly been ignored.

I did make time for some hoof trims and did ride once or twice over the course of the semester.  Now that I'm on winter break (for a whole month!!!), and the holidays are over with, I finally feel rested and recovered.  And I have now ridden three times since Christmas!  I know!  That's a lot!  And I have the sore butt to prove it! 

Sadly, I've put the young horses on the backburner and really have not done any work with them, even though I had Griffin ready to work with me before school got busy.  I've really decided that I need to downsize my herd, but that is so hard to think about.  I worry about where they will go and what may ultimately happen to them.  So making that decision is really hard, but I know I will not have the time to work with them.  My original three are never for sale (Cody, Chico, Catlow), but the others are all being considered up for sale.  I'll work on that more this spring, since I doubt anyone is looking to add to their herd in the middle of winter.

And my nice snowy horse picture that I added to my header is sort of deceiving.  That picture was taken last winter in February.  We had a lot of snow.  This year, we have NO snow so far (the pics in this post were taken about a week ago and reflect what we truly have, with the exception of the dusting from a couple days ago which will be gone when it hits melting temps tomorrow).  It's been a crazy mild winter.  A blessing in some respect (it sure makes it easier to feed our 150 cows and horses and I've been able to ride anywhere I want), but I do miss the snow.  I guess I won't be cross-country skiing anytime soon!

And even though I haven't blogged at all, I have still kept up with most blogs I've always followed, just reading them whenever I needed a mental break while studying...which is often!  I hope you all had wonderful holidays!

Some firsts for the wild ones

Today was a day of firsts for Griffin and Kachina. I didn't have a babysitter this morning, but my mom was willing to bring Wren over to the farm and sit with her while I did stuff with the horses in the afternoon. I trimmed Chico first. Then I caught Kachina. It was easy to catch her since I've been getting all my horses accustomed to treats lately. This comes after a frustrating day when it took me a while to catch Kachina even though she was closed into the smaller paddock area. I finally had to shut her into the 24 ft by 24 ft mustang pen in the back of the barn and "mini-roundpen" her until she started to face up instead of avoid me. She was terrible. And all I wanted to do that day was put fly spray on her! And she's not afraid of the fly spray...once I start I think she is happy about it having figured out it gets rid of flies. So today, I caught her easily as she was already following me looking for a treat.

Then....

I led her out of the pasture gate!!!! I've never taken either of the wild ones out of the gate before! They weren't ready before, and then, as you know, I was pregnant so not about to handle wild mustangs who were sure to spook at things once they were out of the familiarity of their pen. But an amazing thing happened while I left them alone these last couple years. They've both grown up (mentally and physically) and relaxed into their stable herd environment. In the little interactions I have with them every day, they've learned to trust me...and I hardly did a thing! And now that the round pen is up, I am so itching to work with them. To get them to that round pen right now I have to lead them up to it outside the pasture. So, I led Kachina out the gate. She hesitated at the gate, having stood at it, but never crossed through it, but then, she stepped right though. She was alert, but really, she was a lot better than I expected. I even convinced her to step her front feet onto the rubber pad I have down in front of the hitching post for trimming hooves. She did just about jump out of her skin when Griffin suddenly impatiently pawed the panels though. Then I led her up to the round pen. She was looking all over, but she followed me and went right through the round pen gate with no problem. I left her there to get used to it. My mom reported that she rolled in the sand, then followed my mom around as she walked around the outside of the pen.

I went back down to the barn area and this time caught Griffin. Griffin so wants to be messed with now that he's more used to it with his twice a day handling with the treat reward. He pretty much met me at the gate, and earlier in the day, I actually caught him way out in the pasture for the first time and led him down to the barn. Previously, I'd been able to approach him and rub him out in the pasture, but not always, and definitely not if I was holding a halter and leadrope! So this is a big difference! After I caught him, I took his fly mask off. Griffin really is a non-spooky secure horse. The loud obnoxious velcro ripping apart has never worried him (it drives Kachina crazy).

Then....

I tied him up to a sturdy post dug deep in the ground. I've never tied him before. I've never had a need to. Today, I decided he needed to learn to tie because I foresee taking him out and I want him to know to really give to the rope, and I also would like to perhaps start trimming him outside the mustang pen area. I always trim Kachina and Griffin in the mustang pen because they are comfortable there, but all the others get trimmed tied to the hitching post. So, there Griffin stood tied, and I walked away and left the pen so he could figure it out. I knew he would try to pull back to test it, and he did. He pulled back HARD, and then just stood there hanging on the halter for about 20 seconds. Then, he slowly leaned forward and took his weight off the halter and stood upright. He thought for a little bit, then started walking back and forth, then he set back again HARD! But everything held. I didn't have any metal hardware on the rope to break. Then he stood back up and stood quietly at the post...no more weaving and no more pulling!
My mom took all these pictures, and they are a little fuzzy because I think Wren put some fingerprints on the lens.

Of course, Griffin has been prepared for this. He knows how to give to the leadrope with flexing, leading and dropping his head to pressure on it. I've also been loosely wrapping the rope around a post when I trim him, but I'd not tied him tight. So, I think after another lesson or two with tying, he'll get that there is no point in pulling back. Kachina is not at all ready to be tied. She is a flighty spooky horse and I don't think she is comfortable enough yet to be restricted like that...she'd blow and I worry she'd hurt herself.

After Griffin's tying lesson, I led him out through the gate. He too stopped at the gate and was like, really? I get to go out? They always follow whatever horse I'm leading out the gate right to it, then stop when I shut the gate in their face...so this was new and he came out readily once he realized I meant it. Griffin stepped on the rubber trimming pad with no problem. He startled a bit whenever my mom stood up from her seat over at the picnic table (he is still very leary of other people) but I lead him around the yard and he did very well. He even dropped his head to eat some grass. I didn't do any more with him than that. I lead him back into the pasture and turned him loose without his fly mask for overnight. I am still concerned about working him with that cloudy eye. The lesion part is definitely getting smaller, but I feel like the cloudiness is becoming more opaque right under the lesion. Once he's healed, even if he does have scar tissue where the lesion was, I don't think it will affect his vision that much because it is in the lower rear portion of his eye. It will cause a minor fuzzy spot to his rear, but that's it.

Then I went up to where Kachina was patiently waiting in the round pen and began working with her. My little desert mustang moved easily through the boggy sand, although she definitely worked up a sweat. I round penned her loose and she came in nicely turning to the inside even with the increased space (compared to "mini-roundpenning" in her 24ft square pen. She got a bit hyped up at first with my "chasing" her, but quickly, she decided to come in and be haltered. I didn't halter her right away though. I spent some time swinging the halter around her since that seems to be one of her excuses to not let me catch her in the pasture. At first she ran but soon she stood and let me rub her all over with the leadrope. Then we did some desensitizing with tossing the rope all over her body and slapping the ground. She was flawless. Now, don't make fun of my outfit in these pictures. We had to buy these green overalls to wear when we are working with large animals at the vet school. I've discovered how easy they are to pull on over my shorts and tank top so that I stay protected when I am trimming hooves...so this summer they have been my hoof trimming outfit.

She learned these lessons well from the first summer she was with me. Then I lunged her attached to the lead line. She didn't quite understand and I had a hard time convincing her to leave at first, but she quickly realized what I was doing and was agreeable.

She remembered things well, so I decided to bring out a new thing to introduce her to. I started tossing a thin light-weight saddle blanket over her back. She was tense and flinching at first, but with repetition, she relaxed a bit and accepted it. When I moved to the other side, she just flipped out. Eventually she stopped moving and freaking out and I was able to toss it over her back repetitively on the other side. Then I went back to the first side. She stood accepting it for a bit, even appearing to no longer care about it, then suddenly she exploded and freaked out about that side...wierd horse. But I calmly kept at it and she stood still again finally, and then was good again for moving back to the other side. I left her lesson at that. She was glad to follow me back down to the pasture.

I had fun with them, and I'm so excited to do things with them. I want to start leading them out on the trails, and maybe I can pony them along soon. But school starts up in a week and a half. I wish we'd gotten the round pen up at the beginning of the summer. But really, I just started riding a lot this last month. The timing is what it is.

Colors galore

I visited with the horses for a bit today. Pumpkin and Chico followed me asking for fly spray, but I couldn't because I was holding Wren. I'd just sprayed them down yesterday, but the repellancy does not last 14 days like the bottle claims.


A while back I posted about noticing that Pumpkin had a very poor hair coat and took forever to shed out last summer, which was her first summer with us. Over the winter, her coat was lush and dark. I said we'd see how long it took to shed out this spring. Well, I learned something between then and now...donkeys shed out much much later than horses, and mules (because they are a cross between donkey and a horse) also shed out later than horses. So, this spring, long after the horses had unveiled their bright summer coats, Pumpkin was still shaggy. But, her shaggy coat was not quite as dull and rough as it was last summer. And now that she's all sleek and shiny, she has dapples galore! The dapples are new! I've been told that dapples on horses that are capable of getting them (usually the sooty colors) is a sign of good health and nutrition.

Click on the picture to view it large to get a good look at her dapples.


I have been calling Pumpkin a chestnut mule, but on closer inspection, her mane and tail are faded out, while her legs show a darker brown color. I think she might actually have the silver dapples gene. The silver dapples gene dilutes black, so that would make Pumkin a bay with the silver dapples gene (mane and legs diluted). It's a color gene that is common in some pony breeds, and Pumpkin definitely resulted from a cross with a pony given her size. Regardless, she is quite beautiful.


And another color question. Has anyone else seen these white spots pop up on their horses? Kachina has a few white flecks on her face, her neck, her sides and her hip...pretty much all over her whole body. They are small, and not very noticeable. The ones on her neck are the largest. She seems to have a few more this year than last year. What could they be from? Are they from injuries? Insect bites? Ringworm? She hasn't had ringworm since I've had her, but I'm pretty sure she had it while with the BLM - when we adopted her 2 years ago, it looks like she has healed ringworm spots - the hair was shorter in some circular areas on her body. But of course, I don't remember if these were the areas. The scuffs are bite marks from either Chico or Griffin (don't feel sorry for her - she generally asks for it).


Maybe she's an appaloosa?!

Fence buster

I love this horse, but sometimes she can make me so mad! Catlow is quiet and cautious, but she is also the one that tests the fences. The burdocks have grown up into the electic fence and so it wasn't very powerful. Of course it didn't take Catlow long to figure this out and crawl through the fence again. She doesn't go anywhere - just grazes the lush grass just outside the fence and walks through my grandma's garden once in a while, but she doesn't really want to get caught, so I have to persistently follow her around and cut her off from where she wants to go. And of course, she bags out the fence, so we had to fix it AGAIN!


Needless to say, we cut the burdocks down today using a saw attachment for the weedeater. It worked awesome. I was so impressed with my wild horses for how they handled the noisy saw. Kachina especially was right on our heels investigating the cut foliage and as I pulled it out of the fenceline and tossed it behind me at her feet, she didn't flinch or shy at all! She's really calmed down a lot since we got her.


And hasn't she filled out? You should go back to this post if you want to see what she looked like when we first got her. Of course, she is still a small petite horse, but she is a great weight. And I daresay she has grown a bit. She's 5 years old this year.


Kachina's dorsal stripe is thin and light brown, compared to Griffin's whose stripe is thick and black (not pictured).


I really do love my horse. Today I rode Chico again and this time we went to a new area I've never ridden on before. We walked, trotted and cantered and aside from being out of shape, he was great. And he loved walking along the field of oats and snatching mouthfuls as we went.


It sure is nice to ride a horse that is not herd bound. It makes a ride very enjoyable when the horse's mind is forward with your's instead of back home (always wanting to turn around and speeding up when aimed toward home).


In this picture you can see the scar on his hindleg where he was cut all those years ago. You can see the old cut here in this post, and this post, and this post. And then this post shows it starting to actually heal up.

Curious ponies

We had to fix fence yesterday and all the horses had to come over to investigate. Catlow leads the pack. She always leads the horses from place to place, to water, to salt, to graze, to the barn.



Kachina was the most inquisitive of all. She watched my husband closely as he messed with the wires.







This is Chico this summer. He is glossy and lovely, but a little overweight. I tried a grazing muzzle on him earlier in the year, but within 3 days, he figured out how to rub it off and now I can't keep it on him. He rubs it off his nose and then it dangles around his neck like a necklace as he grazes to his heart's content. I'm sure if I start riding him, he'll slim down. He didn't get fat until he had a whole summer off from riding.

More than a month late

It's amazing how spring really has stalled out here. We are finally getting some warmer weather (highs in the 60s!), so I expect this to change fast! Just look at how the deciduous trees look in these photos! I don't even think they are quite where the header photo is (remember taken on April 3rd last year).


Even so, the grass has decided to not wait for the trees. It greened up a while ago and now with the warmer weather the last couple days, it is getting longer.


I have kept the horses off the pasture for the last month to try to give it a chance to get a head start. Today they got to spend 2 hours out there munching all the green grass they could. And they never picked their heads up until I appeared with a grain bucket to call them in.


And speaking of grain bucket, I found another vice that Sassy has, and I really hate this one and will do my best to break her of it. I never go out with a grain bucket to catch a horse...I use the bucket to call them in. My horses know that they are not allowed to eat from a grain bucket while I am holding it and they maintain a close but respectful distance, even as they all follow me back to the barn where their feed pans are. Some of them beat me there because they know that the pans are the only place they'll be getting grain. Well, Sassy doesn't know this routine yet. When I appeared with a grain bucket and yelled for them, she was the first one into the small pasture, and as I turned around to walk back down to the barn, she almost ran me over in her haste to get to the bucket (and none of the other horses were even remotely close yet). She tried several times as I was walking to try to get into the bucket. Grrr! That is a pet peeve of mine! I hate horses that do that! I chased her away repeatedly, and she did finally get the message, but she followed hot on my heels. And by that time, Cody (lead mare) had caught up and was following me and I was worried that she might get after Sassy and chase her into me. Sassy is the only horse that I worry might run me over if they get into a disagreement. The other horses respect my space too much to do that. One nice thing about a mustang is that because they started with fear of you, jumping on top of you is usually one of the last places they'll go (with exceptions of course). Domestic born horses who grew up with no fear of humans will just as soon run you over to get away from another horse, as they will run you over to get to a grain bucket! The respect can of course be taught to them, but it just seems inherent in a mustang. Sassy will catch on. She's just obviously not been taught those manners.

Another funny thing I see...every time I go through the pasture gate (it clanks as I do it), Pumpkin and Sassy come streaking down to stand at the gate. They are obviously not really a part of the rest of my herd. The others are usually interested in what we do at the gate, but if they are out of sight, they don't come running down to see us. They are a bit more independent.

I finally got through trimming all 7 horses. This last weekend I did both Kachina and Griffin. Griffin's feet seem to grow really fast and they were very long and chipping. Now they are a good length, but are going to require a couple more trims before they are nice and tight due to my slow/weak return to trimming them myself. But, now that they are done, I need to just keep at them and they will stay good the rest of the summer.

After I was finished trimming Griffin's hooves, he was really interested in hanging out with me. I always start a trimming session with grooming, then I toss a rope around his body and legs and slap the ground to test how jumpy he feels. Both him and Kachina were very quiet with all this. And after I was done with Griffin (he was the very last horse), I led him out into the pasture and just messed with him a little. We did some leading with working on Griffin reading my body language and stopping when I stop, backing when I back. Then we did some moving the shoulder over by stepping across in front, and some disengaging the hindquarters. He was really good and interested in what we were doing. When I was done, I took the halter off, and instead of heading out to see where the other horses went, he came down with me to the gate and then nosed around in the corral for a bit. And I've noticed him really watching me today too. I think he likes the attention and the stimulation. I really really want more time to work with him, and Kachina too. She is my sweetheart and just wants to stand and be petted all the time. She always follows me everywhere I go in the pasture.