More Arctic chills

Our weather has been so strange this year.  We'll have days of bitter cold, often with high winds, then there will be 1 or 2 days where it suddenly jumps up 25 degrees into the mid-20s to low 30's.  This weekend was pretty horendous with very nasty blowing snow and highs in the single digits, though you wouldn't think it given how bright and sunny this picture is.  The horses choose to stand on the lee side of the hills in their pasture and soak up the sun on those cold days.  Catlow of course notices that I came out on the deck to take their picture...is it time for hay yet?

Thankfully, many of those 1 nice day here and there's have happened on the weekend when I have actually been home.  And I've taken full advantage.  If the weather is at all bearable (minimum 15 degrees, and not too windy), I've gone for a ride.  Usually I ride bareback in the winter, but I have ridden in a saddle a couple of times.

I've been alternating between Stormy, Cody, and Catlow.  I'm not even going to try to ride Chico until next summer and I know he should be fully healed from last Fall's injury.  Then I'll be able to more adequately assess his long-term soundness potential.  Chico's wound is looking pretty good, by the way.

 

 

 

His hair on that leg is all crimpy, I think because the winter hair was growing in while he was wearing a bandage.  It tends to collect snow and ice-balls more than his other legs. 

It also makes it hard to tell just how big that fetlock really is.  It is bigger than the other, but I think it looks even larger with the crimpy hair.

Since it was so windy and cold today, I didn't ride, and I pulled the horses' hay over to the lee side of a hill to feed.  Usually they are fed on top of the hill next to our house.  Out of the wind, the sun made this weather totally wonderful.

And my dogs like the cozy little leeside as well, digging up frozen horse turds and doing their best to chew them up.

 

 

So, I like horse butts.  I'm sure everyone does, right?  All my horses have very different, but equally nice butts!

 

 Stormy

 

Catlow

Cody

Chico

 

My dark horses' coats are getting that faded late winter look.  I can't wait till they shed out this spring.  I'm ready for winter to be finished.  Usually I really like winter, but I've been so busy, away from home, and last winter was so long.  I feel like the majority of the last year has been winter for me!

 

Chico and Cody

Stormy again

 

So, have I mentioned that I love Stormy?  I do.  When I bought her, I thought I was going to keep her till next year and then look into selling her.  I may still do that...but the longer I have her, the less likely that is looking.   I just love her.  And she loves me too.  I love my other horses too of course, but she is just a sweet little peppy mare.  She's the bottom of the pecking order in my herd, but she still has her own "personality".  My horses have taught her some really nice manners.  She is not nearly so pushy about food as she used to be.  And she is so fun to ride.  She hesitates occasionally about going out alone, and we might have a very brief second of discussion about it, but really, she does whatever I ask of her.  I want to try to get her a little more fine-tuned at this point.  She still doesn't know a whole lot about leg cues (other than squeeze to go faster), but she is slowly catching on.  I am getting to the point where I can feel her slightly responding when I ask her to step over one direction when riding.  The reason we haven't gotten far yet is mostly my fault.  I just haven't been working with her.  I jump on and we go out for a ride.  I try a little bit on the trail, but I think some of this sensitizing of her body needs to happen on the ground, because she just doesn't realize she is suppoesd to respond any other way than she currently knows.

 

 

 

Last weekend I rode her with my 1964 Simco saddle.  It is a really nice old saddle that I restored and it doesn't fit any of my other horses.  I've been having trouble finding a saddle to fit Stormy.  She is narrow, but short - backed, so Catlow's saddle fits her back well, but the rigging is not in the right place for Stormy.  As is, Catlow's saddle rides up over Stormy's withers, all because the rigging pulls it up there.  It's really annoying and makes me not want to ride down hills in it at all.  I actually was thinking (daydreaming) about trading Catlow's saddle in for the same brand and style but a more typical rigging.  But that is going to cost a lot.  Then it dawned on me that I need to try my super old almost antique saddle on her.  And it fits!  So I dont' have to look into anything new for her.  The only downside of this old saddle is that it is heavy.  And with Stormy being my smallest horse, it makes me feel bad for her!  But, I have to give the little mare some big credit. 

 

Two weeks ago, I rode Cody bareback and we cantered up the snowmobile trail, which starts out at a gentle incline, but then gets really steep to get up to the top of the ridge.  We cantered along, and when we got to the steep part, Cody was already tired, but I urged her a little and she dug right in to get us to the top.  Then we had to stand at the top for a good 5 minutes without moving while Cody huffed and puffed and caught her breath.  Now, this weekend, I did the same thing with Stormy.  But I was in my 40 lb saddle on a tiny little mare.  Stormy started out cantering much faster than Cody, and when we got to the steep part, just chugged right up to the stop.  She wanted to stop and rest for a second too, but she was not huffing and puffing like Cody was.  Both of them have had the same amount of activity these last several months.  Stormy just has some really nice drive that is fun to play with.  She can be really fast!

 

 

 

And I think Stormy's delicate face markings are so cute.

 

So, two more pictures and these are not of horses.  This is one of our cows. 

 

 

A few weeks ago, my husband noticed that she had some pretty nasty eye discharge.  We got her in the chute to look at her and saw that she had a big tumor of her third eyelid (likely a squamous cell carcinoma).  It was so large that we couldn't cut it out in its entirety and to leave any in was just asking for it to grow right back.  These tumors can be really invasive into the surrounding bone and are one of the more common reasons that carcasses are condemned and not allowed to be used for human consumption.  It's commonly called "cancer eye" and is usually seen in white-faced cows because of the carcinogenic affects of UV radiation on unpigmented skin.  This cow is a middle aged brood cow and is a valuable member of our herd.  With her "cancer eye", she is worthless and will be condemned if sold.  But by removing her whole eye along with the tumor, we can be pretty sure to get the whole cancerous growth and prevent it from recurring.  Now she will have a long comfortable life having more babies.  I'm proud to say that my first enucleation/eventeration went pretty well, and she is healing as expected!  She is a little more wary after all is said and done though.

 



Riding Chico and using the new round pen

I exercised Chico in the spot where the new round pen will go, but all that is there right now is the flattened base and stakes to mark the edges. Despite the fact that the location does not have any fill/footing yet, it was so wonderful to lunge a horse on a flat spot! I've been doing it for the last couple years in the yard which is sloped. I really wanted to evaluate him to see if he's stiff, or if it might be the saddle that made him reluctant to canter last time. He's never been reluctant to canter before. He's always had a lot of go, but he is older now (7 years), and a bit overweight. Well, I saddled him up with the new saddle, but a different saddle pad (one I usually use with him). When I lunged him at the trot and canter, he was quite full of himself, arching his neck and really floating at the trot, and then at the canter he was still arched but sort of jumping...not really a buck, but not a nice fluid canter either. He did that last time I lunged him too (actually, he often does this almost buck thing when lunged at the canter when being warmed up), but I just wondered if he was doing it out of discomfort or out of freshness. Well, he did the jumping canter for several rounds and through several changes of direction, and then suddenly he switched to a relaxed 3-beat canter. So, I know he can do it. I'm still uncertain about the cause of it, but I suspect it is freshness.

Even so, I do think that he is a little stiff. The leg that he was cut on is his right hind, and he toes in a little on his left front (always has). Being a little stiff on that hind might make his diagnonal front compensate a bit more which might make him even more asymmetrical than the simple toe-in when he moves. Last time I rode with this saddle, he has a dry spot on the left side of his wither. While out on the trail after we warmed up, I noticed that my saddle kept feeling like it was crooked. I kept straightening it, then realized it was centered on his withers, but the rear of the saddle kept tipping off to the right. So, I think his left wither has a little more muscling which is pushing the saddle crooked and also giving him that dry spot. It's interesting, but I never noticed it in the old saddle that I always used on him. Chico didn't seem as reluctant to canter today on the trail either. He did seem to tire quickly, but I think he's overweight, and he's always been good at looking out for himself. When he's tired going up a hill, he has no problem stopping to rest. I stayed on my parent's land for my ride today because my dogs came along. We stopped at the pond so they could swim. Chico walked right in too and set to pawing the water.

I'm happy to report that he didn't really have a dry spot today after our ride using the different saddle pad with the new saddle.

Chico really has wide, round withers. And I've said this before, but sitting on him bareback is like sitting on a recliner. He is so comfortable. He might be a bit more round nowadays and more difficult to stay centered on though!

I wish I had more time to work with Chico, because it seems that he might need some work with getting the two sides of his body to match in flexibility and strength. He was a very good boy today. I took a pocket full of treats along with me when I lunged him, and then also had them out on the trail. It's amazing what a little treat will do for Chico's willingness. Not that he's bad without them, but his try is so much more obvious when he knows a treat might be in the future. And after I turned him back out in the pasture, he hung around the gate, waiting to see if I perhaps had a few more treats, even though all the others were grazing in the big pasture out of sight.

I am so excited about finally having a round pen to work horses in. Now, I feel like I can actually progress with the two wild ones. I'll have a large safe place to do exercises and introduce them to new things. And it will be big enough that they can actually move out! I used to work with them in their little BLM approved pens. I've messed around with Griffin out in the pasture on a lead line before, but he was confused about lunging because I never really do it with him - I've always been more about getting him to come to me than getting him to move away from me. My time with them is so sporadic and when I do work with them, it is totally unstructured, but I guess every little bit helps. Now, with a round pen available, I feel like I will be able to make more of a schedule to work with them...wait, except that I'm heading back to school in a few weeks. Oh man!

So, a bit more about the round pen.

A year and a half ago, in spring, I went researching prices for 50' round pens. I was specifically looking for 6 ft high panels to use with working wild ones, and I wanted extra heavy duty panels...nothing lightweight that would bend easily if they were bumped into. I found some but the cost was so prohibitive! Finally, I found a company, Chubby Baird Gates, that makes and sells the heavy duty round pen panels for much much cheaper. The panels are not fancy, but they are completely functional. And we actually got them cheaper than listed on their website because the dealer we went through gave us a bit of a deal. My husband was actually so impressed with them, that they purchased a ton more this year to use with their cattle.

And I've called a couple places about getting fill in for footing. The limestone gravel screenings will pack too hard, and crushed granite is just too cost prohibitive, especially since we aren't even sure how well it will work, so we've decided to use sand for now. If the sand is too cushy, we will find something to add to it to firm it up.

Cantering

I had a great ride with my neighbor on Thursday. He wanted to work on faster gaits, especially cantering, with Belle. I rode Cody with her curb bit. We took a nice trail that a variety of terrains. The first part is a wide grassy trail through the shady woods lined with blackberries. Other parts are open freshy mowed hay fields. And still other parts are rougher trails up and down a big hill on the property where we rode. It is a pleasant area. It was also the perfect temperature. It has cooled off a bit here and I think the high was only around 80 and the humidity was not too bad. And on top of it all, we did a lot of trotting (his horse gaited, of course), and cantering. And it was just a great, fluid riding relationship...we just rode and whenever one wanted to go faster or slow down, we did...no asking and making sure it was okay...we just did it. Both of us like to train and make sure our horses respond to their rider, not the other horse's actions, so it was great practice for them. And both of our horses were well behaved on our ride. It really was so much fun. I wish I had taken pictures. I never take my camera along when I ride, but I should...I only have this one picture of her in the pasture from that day I rode her.


Another great thing was that I discovered that the new saddle I was trialing fits Cody pretty well. It is a Circle Y Omaha. I love how comfortable it is to ride in, so I was really hoping it would fit Cody and/or Chico. My husband and my dad both sat in it and it fits them well too, which was my main goal in getting another saddle.

I rode Chico in it last week, and he seemed reluctant to canter, even half-heartedly putting on the brakes and giving a little buck at one point. I'm not sure if it was the saddle or if it was just the day. Or maybe he was stiff from a previous ride. I do think that he is a little stiff from old injuries he's had and I think he needs some conditioning to evenly build muscle.

He sure does look nice in it though! It looks black here, but it is actually dark oil.


After that ride, I checked the saddle's sweat pattern and it has left a dry spot on the left side of his wither, but not the right side.



I also used a different saddle pad than usual, so I'm not ruling out that the saddle won't work for him yet. I think he needs a little conditioning, and a different saddle pad, then we'll see. But it does fit Cody! So now I have a saddle that will fit each fat horse, so I can have others ride my horses with me!