Tuesday, July 29, 2008

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.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

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.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

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.