Griffin's summer

I think I owe my blog an update about the summer events around here.  I've been putting it off for so long that I'm afraid my memories are tainted by the future decisions I need to make, but I'll give it a go.

The last time I wrote, I had just left Griffin at Jessie's place for a month of training/riding.  I'd worked with him with saddling, ponying, yielding to the bit, moving off of pressure on his sides, and yielding the hindquarters and fore-quarters separately.  He was lunging well, and responding in a relaxed manner.  A couple weeks before he went to Jessie's, I mounted him for the first time and asked him to just flex to the bit and yield his hindquarters to a leg cue several times.  He was pretty relaxed and did not once over-react, so that lesson was brief but ended on a good note.  I was afraid to continue with him because I felt like I didn't quite have the confidence that he needed to go further. 

I had a little bit of apprehension, mostly because I hadn't been able to work with him as often as I'd like, and I'd not yet been able to do all the crazy things that I had done with Chico to convince myself that he would not buck with me on him.  If you remember, I had ponied him off Cody, lead him through the woods, saddled and unsaddled, and he was unflappable through it all....yet, there was just something that I couldn't quite identify that put me at unease whenever I thought about giving him his first few rides.  I felt like he trusted me and he would let me do anything to him, but I also felt he was holding back a bit with his trust.  I had him lunging well in the round pen at the walk and trot, and he was catching on to voice cues, but I also felt like even though he seemed to go willingly, he wasn't quite as free as I'd like.  I hadn't worked much with him as the canter because my round pen footing was not very good, but I don't think that had anything to do with the apprehension that I had.  The things that I noticed in him were very subtle and I had a hard time explaining to any one else what it was that I felt uneasy about, and no one else that wasn't intimately involved with him like I was could see it at all.  My husband scoffed at my fears, and I chalked a lot of them up to having a lot more fear of what could happen on horses in general now that I was a mother.  I felt more vulnerable.

So given my lack of confidence, I thought the best thing to do for Griffin was send him to someone I respected who I also knew had the confidence to ride a young mustang.  I knew that Jessie would know how to read him, and would feel him out and see where she could get with him.  Jessie spent the first week getting to know Griffin on the ground.  She said the first time she went to catch him in his paddock, he wouldn't let her near him, but she just worked with him in there and in a short time, he gave that up, was facing up and letting her approach and halter him.  This is pretty typical for a mustang that has only been handled by one other person.  After the first lesson he became pretty easy for her to catch. 

She spend the first week doing groundwork and working him up to saddling.  She reported that he was very respectful and seemed to have a great foundation.  I glowed hearing those reports.  The first time she rode him, she said when she put her legs on him, he just wanted to pivot rather than go forward (probably because that's all I had asked him to do the first time I sat on him).  He eventually went forward, but was very spurty.  She got him going.  I asked her about whether or not she felt like he was a little "sticky" because that was the only word I had been able to come up with the lack of freedom of movement I felt from him.  She thought that rather than being "sticky", he seemed to be "calculated".  Once he was moving forward in the small arena, she said he was extremely smooth to ride, like he knew exactly where he was placing every foot.  She said, often, other horses she rode had a hard time with the uneven footing at first as they learned to carry her weight...but not Griffin.  Then again, he was 5 years old, so mature and balanced.  She progressed with him, moving at the walk and trot, turning, yielding hindquarters, then moved to riding him outdoors in the larger paddock area.

She had been riding him for about 2 weeks when one day, she was asking him to move at a trot, then turned him from going on a circle to the left to a circle to the right, and pushed his hindquarters to the left with her right leg at the same time.  He seemed to panic, pull his head straight and set to bucking.  She said he bucks really hard and he is really strong, so she couldn't pull him up and she came off.  Thankfully, she was okay, so she then took him back to the small indoor arena and was able ride him in there without any issues.  On a ride shortly after that (I'm not sure if it was the next ride or not), the same thing pretty much happened again.  Again Jessie took him to the indoor arena and rode him fine.  And then it happened a third time.

At this point, she decided he had some holes somewhere that needed to be worked through.  He needed to learn to deal with more pressure without over-reacting.  And she wanted to teach him that bucking was not the answer to any problem.  She worked him from the ground using a flank rope that she could immediately loosen and give him relief when he quit bucking.  He was starting to understand that bucking was a lot of work and was reacting less and less to the flank rope.  She also worked with desensitizing him with a feed sack tied to a rope.  Her thought was that he had panicked and bucked the first time because he suddenly saw her out of his right eye - he just seemed a little one sided and she wanted him to get used to seeing things following him out of both eyes.  She used a long rope tied to the feed sack that she could loop over the saddle horn and hold on to, so that she had control of where it dragged as he moved.  She also could toss it toward him and get him used to objects moving quickly.   Jessie reported that with the feed sack, she got to see Griffin's "wild" side.  This was all conveyed over email and she didn't go much into detail, but we decided he'd stay with her another 2 weeks for a total of 45 days to see if she could get him past the bucking.  She didn't have time beyond that because she was starting a new job in August. 

Two more weeks passed, and it was time to go pick Griffin up.  Jessie has warned me that she had not been able to ride him much in those two weeks...there were days when he was so tense she didn't even feel she could mount up.  I wanted her to show me all the work she'd done with him so I knew where to pick up.  When I arrived with the trailer, she was saddling him up in the barn.  She said he had learned to stand ground tied and he always did accept saddling without any concern at all.  She also wondered if his bucking might have had something to do with her saddle not fitting right, and she had added another pad to it.  Griffin is narrower than most of her other horses.  Then she proceeded to show me the ground work she'd been doing the last few weeks.  He was definately reactive with the flank rope still, but really not bad.  He would hump and jump a few strides but then quit and stand and face her.  Then she got out the feed sack.  I could immediately see the tension rise in him.  The feed sack was all tied up in a tiny ball, not even big, loose and floppy.  But still, the meer sight of it got him ramped up.  She tossed it at him...he alternated between strong reactions, and then just flinching as it came at him...but he wasn't accepting it, just barely tolerating it.  Then Jessie looped the rope over the saddle horn to let him drag it.  As soon as it started following him, he started scooting forward, occasionally kicking at the feed sack that was dragging about 10 ft behind him.  At one point, when he kicked at it, his leg got tangled in the rope and the feed sack was sucked up against his leg - then all hell broke loose!!!!!  Griffin went crazy bucking, kicking, striking, all the way around the arena until the rope came loose and the feed sack and rope fell away from his leg.  Then he skidded to a stop, facing Jessie in the center of the arena, blowing hard with a little bit of a confused look on his face.  WOW!!!  He bucks BIG!  He got huge air in those jumps.  Jessie said THAT was the "wild" side she was describing before.  He was super defensive about that feed sack and absolutely did not like it.  He seemed to tolerate it okay during some lessons, but when something unexpected happened, like during this short lesson, he'd come unglued.  Jessie just shook her head at him.  I could see that she was a bit confused by his reactions too.  Why did he seem so calm, but yet so "wild"?  Why was he going so well at first, but then seemed to have this huge setback.

Well, I took Griffin home fully understanding what he was capable of.  To say I was intimidated was an understatement, but I also thought maybe he reacted so strongly to these things because he didn't fully trust Jessie?  Maybe he trusted me more, since I'd worked with him more, and he'd settle down with me?  I'd also never quite pushed him to the extent that Jessie did, and maybe he was pushed too fast?  But then again, maybe I was holding him back by not pushing him along a little harder?  It's difficult to know when you need to actually push a little bit to get the horse able to increase the size of his comfort zone, and when you might actually be pushing too much.

Now I have to share this little side story...it embarrasses me to no end to share it, but it illustrates Griffin's steadfast nature...the rock solidness of him that makes me question how he can be so worried of certain things and so sticky and...well, let me get on with this story.  So, on my way back, it was about a 3 hour drive.  I checked the gas guage on the way down and estimated that I should be able to make it home without filling up.  Well, I underestimated how much extra fuel it takes to pull a trailer and I wasn't paying close attention to the gas guage, so I ran out of gas...ON THE INTERSTATE!!!!  Yes, I was going along when the power suddenly started to stall out.  I immediately realized the stupid thing I had done and started searching for where to stop.  Luckily, I saw a road crossing the wide, treed median (I was in the left lane), and was able to pull into that between the two lanes as the truck died.  I felt this was a better option than alongside the road on the right side because I could be farther away from the traffic, and there were a few trees.  So another awful fact that made this such a stupid thing was that it was 99 degrees F!  Griffin was just fine going down the interstate at 65 mph with tons of airflow through the trailer, but he was going to cook in there while we waited for my husband to bring a tank of gas (we were now only 30 minutes from home).  I had no choice but to take him out of the trailer and stand under the trees.  I had awful visions of the terrible things that could happen to a loose panicking horse on the interstate as I opened the trailer doors.  But Griffin just stood calmly, a little confused about trailering in general.  He was totally unconcerned as I lead him out of the trailer into the bright, hot sun with 4 lanes of heavy traffic (including semi's!) whizzing all around us.  We walked into a little pocket between some trees where the state trooper usually likes to hide and got to know eachother a little better.  I rubbed him, and let him graze the drought ridden grass.  A state trooper did pull in to see if we were alright, and then my husband showed up.  Griffin loaded right back up into the trailer no problems at all, and we were on our way home with no further happenings.

Once home, he was ecstatic to be back with his herd.  Right away, I started working him again.  He had become so reactive simply to ropes touching his legs while he was moving (he had never been reactive before the feed sack), so my first goal was that he had to get over that.  We spent several lessons dragging a long rope tied to the saddle horn that touched his legs that he occasionally stepped on.  When stepped on, the rope pulled at the saddle horse.  The first lesson, he did buck some and kick at it repeatedly, but he did get over it.  I pushed him to keep moving at a trot while the rope touched him.  I wanted him to just ignore it completely.  The second lesson, I started with a shorter rope, then progressed to a longer rope and he really did well, only bucking the first time the rope touched him going in one direction and not at all after that...just a little scooty at times.  After several lessons like that and also working with a rope draped around his rump without negative reactions, I decided to start with long-lines.  I had not done this with him before, but thought it would be the best way to make him deal with things touching him on the sides, legs, and also dealing with bit pressure at the same time.  When I use long-lines in the round pen, I stand in the middle and have the lines looped through the stirrups (tied together under his belly) to the bit.  He has to deal with the outside rein either over the saddle, over his rump or around below his rump above his hocks.  He has to follow bit pressure and turn to the outside to change directions when asked.  This is a lot to deal with and he was absolutely awesome the very first time. 

We did this several lessons.  He was so awesome that at times, if he chose to turn the wrong way and started to get all wound up in the ropes, he would stop, think and then turn back the other direction and unwind himself, all without getting reactive.  I decided at that point that he should be able to deal with a rider, especially since he'd been ridden successfully for a few weeks before he every started bucking.  As I got ready to mount, up I did the same pre-mounting things I did every lesson, flexing to the bit, slapping the stirrups against the saddle.  Then I stood in one stirrup and laid across the saddle.  I asked him to flex to the left, no problem.  When I asked him to flex to the right, he would turn, but then immediately pull his head straight again.  As I did this repeatedly, standing in both sides of the stirrups (but not mounting fully), I could see his head coming up higher and higher, and he was getting more tense.  And still, when I asked him to flex to the right, he seemed to not want to see me out of that eye at all.  At that point, I chickened out and decided I was not going to mount up and try to ride.  And then my husband pulled up to check on me, as I had told him I was going to ride Griffin and I needed someone to be there, just in case.  I showed him the tenseness and one-sidedness I was seeing and he didn't seem as concerned as I was.  So I asked him if he wanted to get on, and I'd just lead Griffin a couple steps.  He made friends with Griffin, petting and rubbing him and mounting slowly, then continuing to pet and rub while he was up there.  Griffin knew he was up there, and was hesitant, but seemed okay.  I asked him to take one step forward and then stop.  When he stopped, he swayed a bit with uneasiness, but I petted him and talked to him and he steadied.  Then I asked for another single step...that's when all hell broke loose, again.  I had told my husband to just bail if Griffin started bucking, so he was already half ready with his feet out of the stirrups, but that didn't help him any.  I felt totally helpless watching as Griffin went crazy bronc bucking, with the one I love stuck in the saddle.  He finally cleared himself and landed in the sand, and Griffin stopped bucking immediately.  My poor honey was mostly unhurt, just a few bruises, a cut on his eyebrow and a black eye (from the saddlehorn).

Needless to say, I was mortified.  I could have gotten my husband seriously hurt.  And I felt that there was really no reason for Griffin to have reacted as strongly as he did.  Sure, my honey is heavier than I am, but he is also fairly familiar to Griffin too.  I felt that bucking episode was uncalled for and illustrated to me that he had learned that it was okay to buck to unload what was making him uneasy.  He'd done it 4 times now. After the bucking, I lunged him aggressively to make him work hard, but neither of us was about to mount him again.

Now I want to clarify that I'd checked Griffin's back when he came home from the trainer and he wasn't tender in any areas.  He seemed equally flexible in both directions.  He moved readily at all gaits in the pasture.  I'm pretty sure his one-sidedness is in his brain.  And Griffin is definitely still leary of people.  Even with me.  When I have him caught in the round pen or on the lead line somewhere, he is really obedient, willing, and calm.  When he is loose in the pasture, I can approach him readily, but it doesn't take much to make him move away and take off.  If I'm walking near him in the pasture, he almost always takes a few steps away from me, then turns around to face me.  I generally stop moving and wait till he stops and faces up, then I can walk right up to him.  I always have to let him sniff my hand, then I can move to rub his neck and halter him, or just rub him  or pick up his feet if I don't have a halter with me.  Another interesting note: Jessie said she was catching him pretty easily right up until she started working with him on more desensitizing after his bucking episodes - then he decided getting caught wasn't fun and she had to work to catch him every day.  And the first time I tried to catch him in the pasture at home after bringing him back, he couldn't let me near him.  I decided to bribe them all into the mustang pen with grain so I could close him in there and then catch him, but all I really had to do was start calling all the horses.  Then he walked right up to me, almost like "oh!  It's you!  I remember your voice!"  Then I never had another problem catching him.  Of course, I use treats, and Jessie doesn't. 

So, I think that Griffin needs a LOT more work.  His little bit of distrust and stickiness has turned into a HUGE problem.  I don't have the experience, nor the time to work him through that.  I'm just not sure what else I need to do to earn his trust, other than to push him harder to deal with scary things.  I feel like I've already been working very slowly at it and it hasn't gotten us very far.  Maybe he does just need more slow work.  I don't think that Griffin is beyond help, but I also know that I can't get him to where he needs to be.  To put it simply, I am not going to risk my safety to do it.  It really sucks, especially considering that I have a lot invested in him, emotionally and financially.  Even if I was able to justify spending the money to send him to another trainer for several months, I could never guarantee that I could keep him going when he came back.  I wish I had known what life would have thrown at me later before I adopted him, but I didn't know.  I think if he'd have been as easy as Chico or Catlow, the time wouldn't have been an issue really.  But the point is, I can't do it.  And I also can't justify him living out the rest of his life here as a pasture ornament.  He is only 5.  I want him to go to someone who wants to work him through his issues, but I have contacted several trainers, and Jessie has also asked around in the mustang world, and no one is willing to take on another horse.  I've been looking for several months now.  Part of the problem I think is that this has been such a bad year for hay.  Very few people want to feed another mouth this winter.

I just recently listed him for sale on craigslist.  It's sort of my last hope.  I really want to be sure that he goes to an experienced home, because he is going to need it.  And I fear what might happen to him if things don't work out, or where he might ultimately end up if I lose track of him.  I would feel better letting him go knowing he was with an experienced mustang trainer, but no luck there.  I have few other options.  I've been hesitating describing Griffin's story because I'm still not sure how it is going to end.  And I go back and forth constantly on the decisions that I make regarding his future.  It doesn't help that sometimes he is really sweet.  For example, today was in the 40's but sunny, so I hauled my trimming equipement into the pasture to work on Catlow and Cody.  Griffin hung out with me the whole time, standing nearby, sniffing my hair, overturning my bucket of rasps and nippers, and then when I turned to him to pick up a hoof, he was ready and willing to stand without a halter.  He loved me brushing the burdocks out of his mane.  Sometimes he can be very appreciative of me, but often he is a little reserved until his curiosity gets the better of him.

Feels a little lonely with only 4 in my pasture

It's not what you think.  Some of you may know that I listed Kachina for sale, with one very interested party, that soon after fell through.  Since then, I have not had a single call about her.  So, she is still in my pasture.

It is Griffin who is not in my pasture, but it is only temporary!  He is with a talented young mustang trainer, Jessie of If Wishes Were Horses.  For those of you who don't know, Jessie placed 8th in the Extreme Mustang Makeover in Madison, WI this April!  This was her second time competing.  I've watched her since she trained her first mustang for the EMM a few years ago and I respect her methods and like her results.  So I asked if she'd be interested in taking on a little summer project.  She said she was excited to work with another mustang.  I think she'll have fun with him.  I think he's pretty close to being ready to ride, and I am relieved to have him at a place where I know he'll get consistent work and a good foundation. 

I've been working a little with him since school got out, but primarily walks on the trail and ponying on the trail.  I've also really been getting him used to the trailer.  After his first trailer loading experience back in February, I've not tried since.  He was so uncomfortable with it then, didn't want to load, and was having difficulty listening to me when I was asking him to load.  So I wanted him to have some more time with me working him on the ground.  I think it paid off.  I first lunged him at the opening (something I didn't do in February because the ground was so squishy), and then asked him to send in.  When he was making a good effort sending in and coming out, then I lead him in, and he followed me right in.  He was still a little nervous about it, but I just tried to make it fun and never made him stand in there too long.  I wanted to be able to close the divider on him by the time I drove him to Jessie's but he wasn't comfortable enough for me to feel safe tying him and closing the divider.  He was just a little claustrophobic about it.  So I never tried, and just let him ride loose.  For me, it was a big success because he loaded up with very little insistence from me.  Time will come when I can close the divider too.

He rode in the trailer very well.  I could feel it when he turned around in the trailer twice to change the direction he was facing.  He prefers to face backwards.  This is a picture of Griffin checking out the scenery at a rest stop along the way. 

The drive was about 2.5 hours.  When we got to Jessie's he unloaded easily looked around with interest, then started grazing.  He was so relaxed about being in a new location.  I was really pleased to see that.  And he settled right into his pen.

I'm looking forward to hearing updates on his progress!

More Griffin time

I worked with Griffin again this weekend. He was awesome once again. This time we added the blanket under the surcingle. He is completely non-reactive to it, even when I push him really hard. We began learning voice cues today for "trot" and "canter". I don't like to drill it into him...I just use the works as I ask him to canter with the stick and string. I don't expect it will take him long to connect it, since today I noticed that he knows the word "back". Imagine my surprise when he took a step back when I was just talking to him and my sentence happened to include the work "back". I have never tried to enforce just the word cue since I usually give a leadrope cue as well, but it seems he has figured it out!

We took a walk to the pond and he drank from the pond, and then followed me in.

But the duck that my dogs scared out of the cattails gave him a bit of a start.

The apple tree we came across was heavenly!

Back to school

Today, Griffin learned some new things in the round pen.  First, we lunged, did desensitizing, yielding the hind quarters, yielding the forequarters, lateral flexing and backing.  He's done all that before, although it has been a long time since I've consistently asked him to do any of it.  But we worked on perfecting his response to all those cues. We also learned to back up with a wiggle of the rope today rather than just the lead signal.   Then, I used a small lightweight saddle blanket to desensitize him and get him used to wearing it on his back.  He did great with this.  I expected that since I've put a fleece cooler on him before without any problems.  Then I got out the surcingle.  I wasn't quite sure what he'd do with it, since the rings on it were very jingly, and there were strings hanging off it, but after the blanket, apparently the surcingle was absolutely no big deal.  I practiced pulling it tight without buckling it first (no reaction, he got a treat reward for standing), then buckled it up snugly, but not tight.  He paid no attention to it, even through flexing and lunging.  And he's now becoming more comfortable with lunging.  He's finally starting to understand that I'm not just chasing him around (he responds by snorting at first, whenever I begin asking him to lunge).

Griffin says "What do we do now?".

Friday was my first day of classes.  Silly, I know, since then we got a 3 day weekend.  But both Wren and I made it through, although not without tears on my end!  I'm really dreading the next 3 years.  It's going to be so hard to sacrifice my time with Wren to school.  But I'm focusing on the end.  We'll make it...I hope.

In the meantime, I really love blogging (posting what I'm doing and reading other's posts), but it takes a lot of time.  Now my schedule is even more packed and to keep up with all the things I want to do, I think I'm going to have to let the blogging slide.  I will still check in once in a while (probably once or twice a week), and I think I'll still post, when I actually get to do things with my horses (which I plan to try to do every weekend), but my posts might be more brief...and I might let the photos do the talking more than me.  We'll see.  I am just letting you know that I'm not going to dissappear forever, just become a lot less present. 

In the meantime, you can see more of my horses in the pasture, since that is the view that I will miss the most while I'm down in Madison during the week in school.  Well, that view and my daughter's beautiful face, but at least she is coming with me to Madison so I get to see her every evening and we'll be together all night long.  Daddy is the one who will be missing out the most.  He only gets to see us on weekends now.  And now, I must go and enjoy my long weekend home.

The herd heads back toward the barn...probably for water.

Griffin lags behind.

But the herd is lolly-gagging so he easily catches up.  He shows Kachina he's her boss by pushing her forward in front of him.

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.

Cody came home from the trainer last week

We brought Cody home from the trainer last Friday. I just haven't gotten around to posting about it, but I actually did take my camera along this time and took some pictures of the trainer riding her. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any cantering pictures because the dust created by it prevented my camera from focusing on the horses.

There were many other horses in the arena when Patti rode Cody for me. Patti has a very busy barn. She rides and trains quarter horses for showing for both herself and clients. And she trains trail horses as well. She also offers 2 lessons per month on your horse as part of the training fee to make sure you know how to ride your horse. I didn't ride her, but Patti invited me to come back later in the fall to ride with her, especially if I have any questions. She also has a small number of young women that ride horses for her, since Patti couldn't possibly do it all herself. So, in the arena, there were a couple of people there riding their own horses that Patti had trained. One it seemed was just a trail horse, but a fairly green one. The other rider seemed like she had her horse there for Patti to train for showing. In addition, there were a couple other horses there being ridden by Patti's help. One I know for sure is a show horse. The other, I wasn't sure. So, it was a pretty full arena including Cody. But, Cody did very well. She seemed to have really gotten over being afraid of other horses coming too close to her or coming up behind her.

In this picture, Cody is the horse directly behind the red dun.

Cody stood very patiently everytime Patti stopped to focus on another rider and give instructions.


Then it was time to load her up and take her home! My mom accompanied me on this trip. My husband was busy but didn't want me to drive an hour and a half away from home alone. He said he had visions of a state trooper delivering our baby on the side of a road with a horse standing in the trailer. Didn't happen, but would have made for a good story! (I'm still pregnant...8.5 months now!).


At home, we had an eager line-up of greeters, but Cody was only interested in the grass. She was stalled most of the time with only a couple hours a day on turnout. The turnouts were very green, but on closer inspection, the green was primarily all weeds and very little grass.


My mom took this picture of the wild ones. It kind of makes me smile. Kachina, the untrusting little mare that she is turns away from my mom who is holding that crazy black thing, while Griffin just looks on calmly. If I was holding the camera, Kachina wouldn't have turned away. She trusts me more :)


Cody is in fabulous condition after being in training for 2 months. She lost her pudge and gained a lot of muscle. Plus she is just sleek and fit. She is darker than when I took her there because she has already started to grow in her darker winter hair with the shortening of days. So has Chico.



The only thing I was unhappy about with Cody in training is that they trimmed her face up like a show horse. I probably wouldn't have minded them just trimming her whiskers, but they also trimmed all her whiskers (around muzzle and eyes) PLUS they trimmed her eyelashes! I never knew anyone does that and it seems like it would be so detrimental to the protection of their eyes! Cody is not a show horse. She lives in a very rugged pasture with a lot of brush, trees, and other things. She has to deal with flies and crazy weather. I was not happy about the trimmed eyelashes at all and I think one of Patti's help heard me tell my mom about it. I didn't think it was a big enough deal to address it with Patti. If I ever took her back there, I would for sure ask them not to trim her face up.

Chico was so happy that Cody was back, but she wasn't really interested in meeting her old buddies again. She was much more concerned about grass. Chico, stood at the gate hoping I'd let him out to greet her.


Here are some pictures of Griffin and Kachina, although they don't really show how much they've grown.


See, if I hold the camera, Kachina will still come right up to me!


Again, Chico really wants Cody to greet him, but Cody is too "busy".


Finally, she obliges him with a sniff.


I kept Cody in off the pasture and introduced her to it slowly this past week to make sure she didn't get sick on it. It was a non-event when I first turned her back out with the others. Well, actually, they all filed into her pen to eat her hay, while she went out and explored the pasture on her own, having not been home in a while. She kept coming back to check on them and whinny to them, but they had absolutely no interest in following her around. They just wanted to stand in the barn and eat hay. Finally, she settled and started grazing grass just outside the pen so that she could still see her buddies.

And now that she's been home for almost a week, it is interesting to see how things in the herd have changed since before she left. I think she is still the "boss", but I rarely see her pushing the other horses around at all. I think she's just happy to be back with them. Catlow is definitely lead mare. She leads, and they all follow. Cody is the first one to follow Catlow, practically right on her heels. And I think that Chico is not as attached to Cody as he used to be. I see Cody and Catlow together the most right now.

One month left!

Wow, I noticed that it's been well over a month since I last posted anything. Sorry about that, but I'm not really doing all that much with my horses right now. In fact, the summer has been so hot and uncomfortable that I'm not doing much of anything outside right now.

As of yesterday, I have exactly one month until my due date! So I guess, baby girl could come anytime now! I should post some updated pics, but I haven't taken any lately. I think I need to remedy that. I am definitely getting a big belly, but it's not too out of proportion yet. This picture is from a trip we took to go cherry picking and hiking in Door County, WI last month when I was about 7 months along.

I've seen some pregnant women with hugely protruding bellies. But, this is my first, so my stomach probably holds her in a little tighter. I promise I'll post some pictures of my current belly and of my growing horses soon!

I visited Cody at the trainer after she'd been there for a month. Cody looked great. She was fit and had settled into the training routine nicely. The trainer showed me everything she'd been learning, including how well she was doing with riding in the arena with other horses. She is also neck reining okay. Neck reining good on one side, but having a little difficulty sometimes with turning to the cue on the other side. Even though I didn't really want to keep her there another month, the trainer was very persuasive about wanting to keep her and further her more. Finances were the biggest reason I wouldn't have wanted to keep her there...I really wanted to just get a month on Cody, then possibly send Griffin to her in the fall. But my husband and I discussed it and since Cody is a forever keeper horse, while I am looking to most likely sell Griffin at some point, it is more economical to invest in Cody, since we know we will use her, she's already a great horse. But with Griffin, we are not even likely to get the cost of training back out of him if we do sell him...so, the decision was made to keep Cody there another month. Griffin's training will be delayed another year, since we still have not managed to get the round pen up this year anyway. And when we do, I've decided that I will do all his training, instead of sending him off. That should be do-able, since I won't be pregnant anymore by the time I get back to him! And now, it is almost time to pick Cody back up. She gets to stay an extra 5 days though because the trainer called me last week and said that Cody had caught a cold that was lingering, so she was going to give her 5 days off. This year has been a really bad year for respiratory infections...I've seen several cases of pneumonia in cows when I've gone out with the dairy vet. It's just been so wet and warm this year. Thankfully, Cody doesn't have pneumonia, but she does need her rest.

I feel bad that I haven't spent much time with my horses lately. But I see them everyday. I try to give them all scratches when I fill their water tank, but sometimes they are not all down at the barn. However, lately, I've noticed that they are spending a lot of time in the barn trying to stay away from flies, and the few times I've seen them out the pasture, they've been really irritated by flies. I've been trying to avoid putting fly stuff on them because it always inadvertantly gets on me too, and I don't want to expose my unborn child to pesticides. I have wiped fly stuff on them before the farrier comes though. But they were being driven so crazy that I decided I needed to get out there and get them all wiped/sprayed right away. I decided to try spraying them because it's faster than wiping and easier for me, since I don't have to bend over to get to their legs (hard to do now that I'm so big), However, I always fear that spraying means more exposure to me, especially if the horse dances around a bit while I apply it. I decided to risk it anyway. None of these horses have been sprayed since last summer, and Catlow can sometimes get a little dancy about it anyway, so I was concerned...but they actually all stood perfectly! I know that they knew the spray makes the flies go away. I did Catlow first, and she did jump at the first sound of the sprayer, but then stood perfectly still, and I did every inch of her whole body. By the time I was done, she was standing in complete relaxation with her head low and her eyes half closed and didn't even move an inch after I let her go (I caught them all in the barn and sprayed them in there). One by one, I got every horse. And I swear when I got to Griffin's turn, he was waiting for me to get to him because he approached me, I haltered him no problem and he didn't move a muscle the whole time I sprayed him. Kachina was last, and even she didn't move around at all. Darn smart mustangs. They impressed me today. They didn't forget a single thing about being sprayed with fly spray from last summer. After everyone was thoroughly coated, I was so amused by the look of utter relaxation and bliss on their faces. For the first time in a while, they had no flies biting them! And I don't think I got any spray on me. I made sure to stand upwind, and since they were all standing so still, I didn't have to worry about getting on the wrong side of the wind.

We've been working on quite a few projects around our house this summer.

The garden is giving me tons of tomatoes now.

I've started canning. So far I've canned lots of green beans...

..,some jam (jalapeno-apricot jam is so yummy), and a batch of stewed tomatoes, including cherry tomatoes.

Next I am going to try canning salsa. I've already dug up all my onions because they were finished growing. Most were kinda small because the soil is not the greatest in our garden. Broccoli is giving us lots, carrots are big enough to eat, although I want to let them keep growing till fall. And we have a couple ripe squash already! We ate a delicata and a japanese curry squash just the other night and they were awesome. I need to get some pictures up of my giant hubbard squash. I haven't tried to pic any of them yet, but they sure are huge!

Another project that goes along with the garden is our cold room in the basement. We started that this spring, and with the hot muggy weather, it became fun to work on it in the cool basement again, so we just finished it this week. It will be a great place to store all our squash, potatoes, onions, carrots, and canned goods!


The garden has been a big project, but we also put in a flowerbed with a retaining wall near our deck. It turned out to be a huge project because we got some advice from a professional landscaper friend, but we are finally done with it! The yard was really tore up for a while. All this equipment is part of Todd's irrigation business, but it came in really handy when we were digging out the wall and filling the bed!


Finished product!


Because we put in the flowerbed, we then had to reseed in our yard because it got all tore up, so we are currently in the process of getting some better topsoil in from some of the cow pastures so that the grass will grow a little better than it had. We'll get some good topsoil for the garden too before we plant next year.

Another project that turned out really well was putting a door on the back side of our house to go into the laundry room. We had a local contractor do that and also build a small deck off the back door. This door will be so convenient for entering with dirty/manure-y clothes. Plus, the deck is big enough to put one of those circular clotheslines on so we will try to save energy by line drying a lot of our clothes. And I want to do cloth diapers with the baby, so the line will come in handy with drying those too! And all just out the back door!

The back door will also be convenient for accessing the chicken coop that we are still working on getting finished. The chicks and turkeys are rapidly outgrowing their little pen and are ready for their permanent coop. We just need to get that done now.




And of course, the last big project that we are working on is getting the baby's room ready! My sister's are throwing me a baby shower this weekend, so that should be a big help in getting ready, but we do already have a crib, a changing table, and some dressers.

So, I promise to get some pictures of my 8 months pregnant belly, and some of the horses up soon. Griffin has grown so much, both in size and in his attitude toward me - he's actually become quite trusting of me without me even doing anything with him. I'm really excited to work with him, once I'm no longer pregnant and the weather cools off. I'll also try to remember to get pictures of Cody at the trainer when we go visit her next.

Update on Cody at the trainer

Cody has been with the trainer for 2 weeks now. I called yesterday to see how she is doing and got a return call today. Patti said that the first day they worked with her, Cody acted like she'd just been ridden last week (when in reality it was last fall!). I was pleased to hear that. She's never had a break this long before, so it's good to know she is a horse than I don't have to consistently work with to be able to trust. She said Cody is doing great, but she feels like she lopes like a young horse (uncoordinated and uncollected). I've loped her a lot in the past in arena and on trails, but she was very overweight and pretty out of shape when I took her to the trainer this summer, so that could have something to do with it. She also said that she was dropping her shoulder out on circles, but that's typical when a horse hasn't been ridden in a while. Cody's biggest problem, the trainer said, is that she is afraid of the other horses when ridden in the arena with them! I was surprised, since I've ridden her a ton with other horses, but I guess I've never ridden her in huge groups with horses coming up behind her and passing her. She said she is better when they ride toward her, but horses coming up behind her really scares her. So, she's working her through those issues and now she'll introduce her to a bit with a shank and start teaching her to really respond to neck reining cues. The trainer would really like to keep her for two months, but I really just want to do one month. I know she'd benefit, but we have a lot of expenses coming up soon with a baby, plus I'd maybe like to send Griffin to her this fall (if I ever get the round pen in and start working with him). So, I need to keep that in mind. I think she'll benefit from just one month too. But, overall, I was pleased her hear about how she was doing. I was unsure, since she's been a pasture ornament since last fall. Good to hear there were no attitude issues or laziness.

training

A beautiful summer is full in swing here! We are getting tons of rain (too much for right now - can't get any hay cut and the dairy folk are losing good hay because it is too mature for dairy cattle now). Even though we've had a lot of rain, the temps have been nice (in the 70's), and we actually had a sunny weekend.

I had some friends come up to visit and we went strawberry picking. It was a lot of fun, but waiting a day to process my strawberries was not a good choice because they mold very quickly when they've ripened in such wet conditions! I think I probably salvaged only 2/3 of the box of berries. I may try to pick more today. I'm going to freeze them so we have a nice stockpile of berries for the winter months when we'll really want fruit.

I took Cody to a horse trainer for a month to get someone riding her and to have someone more experienced with me advance her training a bit. The trainer works with show horses and also trains trail horses. She has a really nice facility and a number of younger people working with her that ride with her as well. Our goal with Cody is to get to neck reining consistently and just get her more exposure and time with a person other than me. The trainer is going to help me graduate her to a more advanced bit that will work well with neck reining - a snaffle with a shank. I'm just not very experienced with the advanced world of horsemanship...I like to primarily trail ride, so what I've been able to do with my horses so far is perfectly good for me. But I think that it will be good for Cody to advance, especially since she is the horse that I put most visitors on when they ride with me. And I'd like her to become Todd's riding horse when I can finally get back in the saddle later this fall. I think he'd enjoy riding her regardless, but would be much more likely to come along more often if Cody was more responsive. The trainer offers lessons on the horse that she's training to teach the rider what the horse knows as well, and Todd plans to take those lessons, so it will be a good experience for all involved.

Poor Chico is so lonely without Cody. He is pining for her. It's been almost a week now, but I'll still look out in the pasture, see Griffin, Kachina and Catlow grazing, but not Chico. I get worries, so I go out to find him, and he's standing by the gate or in the barn all by himself. He isn't whinnying for her anymore, but he still goes off searching for her. When the 5 were together, they NEVER went off by themselves (with the exception of Catlow, who would graze away from the others, but never completely be in another part of the pasture).

And my flower beds really are starting to explode with color now! Right now it is mostly poppies and bachelor's buttons blooming, but soon, the blazing star, black-eyed susans, and coreopsis should start!

Griffin gets a little attention

Kachina is settling in nicely. The 4 pasture horses are truly becoming a unit. I'm glad. I'd like to try to turn Griffin out with them before the snow all melts so that he can transition onto pasture in the spring with the rest of them. Because he needs so much work though, I've been making it a priority to work with him.


Poor Griffin is lonely in his pen.


Standing on top of the hill in the pasture here, this is the place where Kachina went through the fence that first day. You can see how she would have difficulty seeing it without the yellow and teal tape as she was galloping over hill looking for Griffin.


Griffin (and Kachina too when she was with him) are so neat about their poop. Neither of them would poop in the front pen where I feed them hay.


Instead, they poop in a big pile in the back pen. Silly ponies. It's kind of nice, but it means that their poo pile is a frozen mound at least a foot thick at this point in the winter.


I want Griffin to face up to me when I enter his pen. What he does now is sidle himself up against the fence and keep his head straight. He will look at me if I don't put too much pressure on him, but if I do anything that he feels makes him uncomfortable, he will straighten out, look at me with only one eye, and sometimes even move off while snorting. If I catch him and halter him, he's actually pretty good about facing up and leading, but when left to his own devices, it's still his first instinct to sort of distrust me. If I'm deliberate about approaching him, he will stand and wait for me and let me do pretty much anything to him, but he's still so unsure if I move too fast, especially if I jump up and down.


Today, I worked with him on basics. I did tons of desensitizing. He is completely fine with me throwing a rope and stick and string at him, but if I jump up and down, he'll snort and move away. So I worked with him on that, and toward the end, he wasn't flinching hardly at all when I would randomly jump. I also did some refresher work on moving his hindquarters away when I asked and moving his shoulders away when I asked. I haven't done any of this in a while so it took some coaxing. Griffin is so unafraid of objects, that he is not worried when I tap him with the stick. This does create problems getting him to move when I want him to. I try to really make sure my body language is asking him to move, but he's not tuned into that yet. I also use clucking to signal I want him to move and that helps him get it quicker.


I ended our session with putting a fleece blanket on him just for fun. He's never worn anything before (accept for my shirt last summer), and he took this very well. He was a bit snorty about it at first, but quickly got over it. He is so unspooky that when I lead him around and the wind caught the blanket making it flutter all over, he didn't worry about it at all! I do have high hopes for this horse. I think he will be a fabulous trail horse, but he needs to like me more.