The Maybelline Model

This pretty girl I bought two years ago has pissed me off. All over food. She wanted to be in the stallion's stall, but that wasn't going to happen and the red head was in her second choice of eating rooms. She couldn't get that the BIG stall had a BUCKET instead of a tub. Which is funny because she used to eat only in this stall since it's open in the back and she had to watch everything. This kept her from pacing, actually let her eat quietly.

Well she ran out the back. I knew where she was headed: the stallion's stall which is left open in back so he can eat in peace (slow eater). I waited by the door and threw the bucket when I saw her head come in frame. She didn't get it. So I went out and got her. (Both of the girls have not learned that they are not allowed to go into the stallion's stall while he is eating and kick him out, he's old, he needs his calories. They meet a lot of random flying objects from no where outside the doorway.) She didn't trust me to put her in the back of the big stall (it's a funky angle), so she split. Got her again, then awl hell I TOUCHED HER POLL! Like behind her ears, not just down the crest like normal. And as a result I TOUCHED HER EAR!!! She split. I'm still okay mentally, she's just going to need a redirection, no biggie.

She goes in the red head's stall then I work her butt in there. Make it a little scary but the heaven's open up when she keeps her front end slightly towards me. Good girl steps in and I go to working on her poll. I hit that same point and she pops up. I pop her back down, put on a halter and lean. Fault is I didn't grab the rope halter and I was not in the mood to wait so I just place my hand on her head. Nothing. Now this is a sensitive horse, you get reactions pretty quickly, so she is telling me I need to apply more pressure. Keep loosening her neck to keep her from tensing and thus ignore what I am asking. Still pretty dull to the question.

So I apply my finger tips in a more pointed direction and she didn't like that, but after getting her to calm again I was able to apply more than the mild pressure (however still not at the strong pressure that makes her pop). Then red head was trying to break into the other stall which had the Maybelline model's reward dinner. Luckily the red head has been with me all of her life so she knows what I say even if it's from behind a wall.

I flip the lead rope out of the stall and the red head immediately knew what I wanted. The model did not. She thought it was for her even though I purposely placed her behind me and turned myself completely off from her direction. So she went out of the stall. Red head knew what was up and high tailed it out of there, Mom was about to get mad. So I made that decision for the model really really hard. She had no idea that making that decision was going to go so horribly wrong for her. Just when she thought her feet couldn't spin anymore, she found an opening and took it.

After a little galloping around calling for the horses, the stallion responding and giving her "there, there." cuddles she got shooed to the back pasture and locked in. Stallion and red head got the extra grain out front. Maybelline model got a halter with a lead rope left on and a night to think about what is going to work out better for her. Listen to mom or be separated from her herd matron duties.

I don't hear any excessive calling so she is probably thinking things over.

Best laid plans of ponies and babies

I don't know how it happened, my daughter went from three months old to seven months old, acquired a few clients, Christmas came, paperwork was filed, hosted a wedding, started vet school, went from four horses to seven and had three vet bills in one week. These are just the cliff notes too. My direction in the breeding program is downsized, all for the better I am sure. I have three foals by my Bay due starting in March. Finally something to do, sort of. The Gray mare will be leaving as soon as she is weaned pending her pre purchase exam tomorrow. The Chestnut will be going to a very dear and very tolerant previous employer's warmblood stallion. He approved the cross so I am not one to argue because I want a BIG show horse and his stallion will give it to me. Then the Bay will be going to a pony stallion. I am still undecided on which stallion to go to. Both are local because there are so many amazing pony stallions in this wonderful state and they have a great pony breeding program, albeit not as good as Virginia's but comparable none the less.
A great desire of mine is to breed my size silver hunters. There are only a few breeds that actually carry this gene and Thoroughbred is not one. Quarter Horse is one but for the actual type I want, the silvers of that breed do not match it. Welsh fits the bill, however, the color is extremely rare. I had the notion to find a large Shetland or Welsh mare to show for my daughter then breed to my Bay Boy for larges and eventually regular working hunters with the right crossings. But then came the opportunity to breed to the Cremello you see to the left. He just recently tested positive for the silver gene and is a section A welsh. He will give me the color I want, a chance for silver buckskin hunter pony and it weighs very heavy on my thought process. Then there is the full welsh son of a particular pony stallion I adore. It helps he is winning every line class he is entered and he is just a regular bay without a stick of white on him. But looking at him and imagining him full size makes me want to have him in my barn. Plus his owner and I know a lot of the same people and can talk for absolute hours. I think our first phone conversation was two hours actually. She loves my Bay and thinks it will be an extremely smart match. Both are the same price so it all works out accordingly. Then there is the pony stallion I have desired to breed to ever since working with his offspring in Maryland. He throws chrome and pretty consistently will lend his dilute color. His foals win on the line and over fences. Needless to say he is a sure thing and he is the oldest of all so the decision on which to pick needs to be made soon.
So I will have three Bay Boy babies this year and next years breeding plans are purely personal. Everyone is being affected by this economy and I didn't listen in the slightest about breeding three mares to my Bay Boy. He will be seventeen this coming year and I need to put what I need on the ground or else it will be too late. After his recent health issues I think retirement is closer on the horizon than originally planned.

She's got a new angle

After further research, yet again, and late nights, yet again, I have decided to market the gray one as a broodmare. No more of this performance prospect nonsense. One thing is she will be turning eight and eight in this business means winding down, ready to retire. Not green with 90 days before a showing. I am so sick of her not selling I just want to get rid of her. Has NOTHING to do with her because I LIKE the mare. A lot. But feeding three is easier than four and selling a mare in foal to my stallion will be good marketing for my stallion and even though I thoroughly enjoy riding her and currently the only one I trust for beginners I can not justify keeping yet another personal riding horse when I already have two and I do not teach beginners. Oh and it will be a perfect way to pay for college and I can't think of a better reason to sell. She will help make me a better horse owner by putting me through vet tech school. Yay!

The stallion gets covered

I love the bits and barter board. I got a very nice fly sheet and two wormers for a pair of smb's I never use (because I never ride enough to want to put the extra effort of hind boots) and a very nice centaur baby pad that doesn't fit my dressage saddle. The deal is coming out about even because my smb's I paid next to nothing for brand new, the baby pad, I never had to buy. Part of the going out of business bonus I gave to myself when my favorite tack store that I worked for went under. I think it was used maybe once to lunge an old pony I miss dearly.
I should call and see where he is now, maybe steal him back but the shipping from Maryland is going to suck. He was the first silver bay I ever saw and the first really recluse ferrel horse I ever worked with. He responded so wonderful to everything I did with him and I just grew so attached I even offered to trade a holsteiner foal for him. Good thing I didn't because that holsteiner foal, even out of my silly gray mare, would have been something so stellar and high quality the woman wouldn't have deserved it. Maybe if I sell the gray mare it will all happen. Cheye boy has never left my mind.
But my stallion gave me the first out of sight out of mind routine in our entire eight months together. I went to go add the back straps to his fly sheet and the ungrateful poop left to go play with his ladies and would not come back to me for five minutes! I could have killed him! Lucky for him Kylie was completely out like a light when I decided to do this because I would have felt like a bad mother if I walked in the door and she was crying. I will take a few photos of him in his spiffy new sheet if he doesn't rip it by tomorrow morning! However, for now a favorite photo of Cheye boy.

An Amateur gets a boarder

I have a couple of my horses advertised and I have a little info about my farmette with a few of them. I don't advertise. Somehow, every now and then, I get a call from someone who is looking for a horse to be trained or lessons or guided trail rides. Since I only have two saddles, I can't always accommodate. But I try because who doesn't like money?
Right now I have no beginner horses. The gray, Silvie, comes close but she is no way capable to teach a beginner how to canter. It's an ex-race horse with trash can training that has made it that way. Plus if you do something wrong enough to piss her off she will plant her feet and I don't think even a cattle prod would get her to move. She's a horse who demands respect of her rider and expects you not to push her past her level of schooling. She's a great horse to ride when you keep this in mind. I have tried pushing her a couple of times for something she had not done in months and she very sternly told me it wasn't going to happen. I went back to doing what we were doing before and she was as happy as a clam.
I sold my one lovely every person horse because I wanted to buy a lovely unraced broodmare, Nifty. My perfect horse died last December. I have never come across a horse as well trained as her or as loving of her rider. Dan is close, but he is still a stallion so it's a different feel from a mare even if the training is the same.
Anyways, today I received one of those calls. Someone in Jasper, a solid 45 minutes from my house and five miles from the state line, has a Quarter Horse mare they have lost control of. Something I learned a long time ago from my good old cowboy days with Ray Hunt is the uneducated will blame the horse and tell you what the horse is doing wrong rather than the horse is reacting to something they are doing wrong. These people were really no different. Not complete novices but there was a bit of 'personal feelings' put in about how the mare is treating them when they handle her. From what it sounds like the mare is smart and she figured out through her little tests that a lot of people ignore that she could have her way if she kept at it long enough.
Anyone who knows me will tell you I like a very smart mare with some sensitivity. This girl sounds just fine.

The day of the Bays

Since I have a moment or two in between the rain storms and dirty diapers, I will go over the day of the bays. I currently have two bays, my stallion Dan and my mother's mare Nifty. Dan was a present to myself as I wanted a stallion for a long time so I found him, bought him and he turned out to be beyond perfect. He's the complete package and I am convinced the "boy" horse I was always supposed to have. I don't like boys of any kind, so I knew one had to be damn special if I was going to consider putting my name on his papers. Nifty was a present to my mother for mother's day since I decided to sell the gelding worth his weight in gold as I had about as much use for him as a paper hat in a Florida squall. I was hoping to get another dead broke, shorter, pretty thoroughbred mare that I could add to the breeding program... I guess two out of three isn't bad! Nifty is an unraced broodmare so I currently get to be her rider. Oh joy.

Don't ask me what prompted me to grab my cheap pink beaded western bridle with the copper roller dee to hop on a horse who I was not even sure ever had a person on her back without a helmet, but I did. Mounting was a fun endeavor as she's not one for standing still, but I did know this before hand. I was sending her happy mental vibes that we would just walk once in each direction. She got the message. By the end I came to the conclusion this horse has had someone on her back but only a half a dozen times. I can work with that as long as I keep the job positive as I am even in less of a mood to start the lunge work I use to start all my horses. There just isn't enough time unless someone can give my daughter a four/five hour sleeping pill.

Now it was time for my boy. Dan has had the last five months off due to my growing belly but I knew he should be no problem because he is a career horse. He was a level 7/8 jumper when he was campaigning and has shown an obvious willingness to be my amateur hunter mount. However one thing Dan has now that he didn't have five months ago is a personal harem of three very attractive ladies. I was taking him away from his ladies. How dare I! So there was a lot of circling and half halts and serpentines and leg yields. Not all of them pretty or even recognizable but it was more about keeping his mind busy and not bouncing my pony tail every time he whinnied to check where his ladies were. He knows his stuff, he just needs reminding that I am his herd when I am on him and not just "she who feeds."

All in all I wasn't expecting the two bays to just wow me today. But I was hoping for it.