Training Journal / Blog

I'm not sure if I am training my horses so much as they are training me. Either way, a journal will be a fun way to keep track of our progress. This way, the non-horsey members of the family don't have to read pages and pages of horse-related rantings and ravings while looking for general family news.

God bless the horses; bless God for the horses

______________________

April 18, 2008

On my way to work today, I saw two horses eating the lawn in front of a cute yellow house down by the school. Things like loose horses get my attention. I thought about stopping to round them up, before common sense told me they'd be better off without a total stranger spooking them deeper into trouble. Besides, like "Blackavar" the colt on the corner of County Roads 305 and 214, they were sickeningly skinny. The little Arab mare, with her entire backbone, ribs and hip bones sticking out like those of a dairy cow, was very pregnant. Let her eat, I thought!

I really need to find that Horse and Pack Animal sanctuary...

When I came home today, my three horses were acting like absolute nuts. I saw their backs bouncing into the air from below the top of the hill as my truck crawled up the steep driveway. The show was spectacular! Minx, 18 this year, was doing things to put a colt to shame. She can rear, buck and twist all at the same time and get all four feet off the ground to do it. After all these years, she's still got it! Sharjah was doing his own thing, different than Minx, but achingly beautiful the way he carries himself, all curvy and graceful. He floats even when he's tearing around like a maniac.

Even Zipp tried a few antics, but he doesn't get into it like the other two. Twice, I saw Sharjah rush Zipp's butt with an outstretched neck, bite his tail head, and turn and run in the same motion.Whoo, he's sneaky! He'd better not pull that trick on me. ;-)

April 17, 2008

I add a scoop of Moorman's Grow Strong minerals to the feed rations every day. Every day, the horses leave a bit of it behind in their feeders. We all know how horses can sift even such fine material out of their food if they don't like it. Apparently, they don't like the taste of those minerals, unless... well, circumstances change.

My horses have hardly reminded me of human children more than they did this morning when I left for work and found them mobbing my bucket of minerals out in the pasture. It took awhile for my brain to realize that the familiar bucket was indeed my minerals bucket (a reused Meow Mix container, of course), because the last time I'd seen that bucket, the night before, it was safe inside the barn, far, far away from the reach of horses. In puzzlement, I watched all three horses happily smacking their minerals-covered lips and pawing the bucket, now empty. There's a certain creepy feeling that comes over you when you see something amiss in your carefully horse-proofed world, and you can't quite figure out what it is.

I'm glad I didn't accuse Jim or Tessa of messing with my system. Later that day, Jim reminded me about Daisy always stealing the neighbors shoes and leaving them (un-chewed) in our yard or the pasture. Of course, it had to have been Daisy who stole the minerals! She's always inexplicably hauling dog food bowls out of the barn and leaving them in the pasture. In all these years, I've never actually seen her do it, but I just know it's her. The minerals bucket must have been her biggest haul ever, even if the bucket was down to the final inch. (It weighs 25 lbs when full.) How she got it under or through the fence (and without spilling it) remains a mystery. I hope she doesn't decide to feed the horses anything else.

It's still funny to me, that illicit gain is always so much more pleasurable than the same thing when it's given freely. The horses tore into their usually rejected minerals as if they'd found a batch of treats.

Horses are fascinating!

March, 2008

I saw Sharjah playing and instigating horse games one sunny Saturday afternoon. First, he went up to the rail road tie at the round pen gate. I have an old lead rope attached there for tying the gate. It's attached by the snap when not in use to keep Sharjah from stealing it. He stood there for several minutes with the end of that lead rope in his mouth, twirling it around at the end of his nose. He's a champion twirler. I'll never forget the day I saw him twirling a lead rope around his nose like it was a propeller. With incredible timing, I watched him let it go on the upswing. It went really high, like a tossed snake. It came down, he turned and kicked both hind feet at it as it came down, and he nailed it! It was one of the most amazing things I've seen a horse do. I think if I worked with him a bit, I could teach him to swing a jump rope.

Anyway, when he grew tired of twirling the rope, he trotted over to Zipp to pick on him. The naughty "Dennis the Menace" look on Sharjah's face was unmistakable even from seventy yards or so. Sharjah stood at a distance and swung his head until Zipp looked up from grazing. Then, Sharjah feinted at him, turned and double-barreled at him. At this point, Zipp felt obliged to defend himself. He turned and double-barreled back at Sharjah, who ran with great delight back to the post to swing the lead rope some more. Zipp actually walked over to watch him. Even more delighted to have interested Zipp in play, Sharjah deliberately moved to the other side of the round pen panel and picked up one of the poly poles in his mouth and simply held it while he stared at Zipp.

I had to laugh at Sharjah - he wants desperately to play, but he's rather cowardly around Zipp. Smart boy that he is, he's found the perfect solution in the round pen. It explains why I keep finding round pen damage. He can feel safe with the poles between him and Zipp, and he can nip between the poles all he wants. Zipp seems content to go along with this. I watched them stand and nip at each other between the poles for a good ten minutes or more. The funniest thing was how Sharjah would nip, duck, and then grab up a pole in his mouth and just stand there with it (my round pen poles are hung from a few links of chain at each end so they will swing a little if hit by a rider's leg or a horse's body). It was as if he was a dog with a giant bone, daring Zipp to try to take it from him. Later, I went out and saw how squashed that end of the poly pole was from no telling how many times Sharjah has played that game.

February 9, 2008

This has nothing to do with horses, but I wanted to note it somewhere, and this seemed like a good place until I update my news page. On my way home in the darkness after work, a huge wing suddenly appeared in my windshield. It was so big, it stretched from the passenger side halfway across the truck. It happened so fast, I had this "sting" in my brain that I was about to hit something like a deer, then I realized a split second later I'd seen feathers and wing barring. It made no sound whatsoever and made no impact. I'm pretty sure it was a great horned owl. He was probably as surprised as I was! I thought those critters were supposed to have great vision? Hah! Jim says he was probably concentrating on prey and didn't notice me. He couldn't have missed me by more than a half inch.

June 18, 2005

Of injury and horse herd behavior

It costs more to treat an injured horse than it does an injured child these days. I wouldn't be surprised if Carlie's broken arm (in two places) didn't cost as much as the $272 I was charged by the vet to treat a cut on the back of Minx's lower hock. I am grateful the blow that caused the cut, hit in the absolute best place it could have, considering. The vet said it was an inch deep, all the way to the bone.

Minx is in for 10 grueling days of mega-shots (heavy on the meds, he said, since it's a joint injury), yet, she's almost sound on it. The wound is in a non-moving area of the hock. How lucky is that? How unlucky to have the injury at all, but I was expecting *something* considering the hot nature of all the horses involved in the formation of a new 'herd'.

It's been fascinating, watching the behavior. Today, I watched "Zip", (yeah, that is his *current* name, in memory of John Lyon's Bright Zip) gap-mouth at Sharja and get the base of the underside of Sharja's neck fully in his mouth. Sharja flung himself backward to escape, and in the process did the itty-bitty foal mouthing response AND did something I've never seen a horse do before, as part of horse communication. It was rather like a dog when it rolls over to expose its belly in submission to a higher-up. Sharja rocked back on his heels, lowering his entire body almost to the ground, neck fully outstretched and front legs bent as if getting up from rolling, or a backwards bow. He practically sat himself down in submissive display as he 'mouthed' the air, even though Zip was a good two or three lengths away from him.

Later, though, Sharja caught Zip unawares and landed a VERY solid kick to Zip's chest, scraping away skin and hair. Zip remained unfazed.

In other fascinating behavior of note, Sharja and Minx have reverted to amazingly foal/mare behavior, almost birth-like. I stand agog to see time and again as Sharja places himself crosswise to Minx's butt to keep as much of her as possible between himself and Zip, just as I've seen newborn foals do. And when Minx moves, off, he follows at her side like a foal, brushing sides with her, and both Minx and Sharja consciously keep Minx between Zip and Sharja at all times. You'd think after five years, they wouldn't remember their mother/son relationship, but it's obvious they do. Talk about a Mama's Boy! Omigosh! At one point, I watched Minx, who is in raging heat and enamoured of Zip, defend Sharja. Minx was teasing with Zip, when Zip decided to be all stallion-like and lunged past her to run Sharja off. Minx defended her son as if he were a foal, flattening her ears, whirling and solidly kicking Zip with whom she'd just been flirting. Heh, you learn something new every day, and today proved horses have good memories and stronger familial bonds than we probably realize.

June 5, 2005

And God said, "Let there be color! Color on Coyote Creek Farm!"

The new horse has been removed from his former home and installed on our knoll. Everything went like clockwork for the changeover. Let's hope the settling-in goes as well. Minx and Sharja are excited, but not so much as to be ninnys about it. I don't think anybody has so much as neighed yet.

"Dodge", as we have begun to call him because he's built like a truck, really stands out on the freshly cut green grass, his mostly-white body, sorrel shadings and spots shout from the various hill perspectives around us, such as at the neighbor's house. He's a handsome boy; a model for the cowboy type. Ropers, reiners and cutters drool over horses like this one. As the sun hit him so golden at one point as Pup led him around the pasture, he stood up like a halter horse. I wished I had a camera to capture that. I knew Jim would really like this guy, too. He always likes the macho-looking horses best.

While Dodge hasn't figured out he can back out of a trailer, he was absolutely awesome leading cross country from the church to our pastures. Our driveway was really bumpy and steep, and I didn't want him to suffer that ride, so we unloaded him at the church and led him the rest of the way, taking the overgrown trails so Thumper the neighbor stallion wouldn't see us. Dodge impressed me hugely. He followed along like he'd been born plowing through underbrush and ducking branches, never once pulling, never questioning or invading my space. It was almost like he wasn't there. Such a pleasure, compared to what I'm used to with Sharja and Minx. He marched calmly through brambles and over and down steep embankments without batting an eye-other than to shoo the swarms of flies that attacked us the entire way. They were awful! I could constantly swing my free arm over my head and hit three or four flies every single time.

If the flies are the only thing we have to worry about this summer, we'll be in hog heaven. So far, so great. :-) Let's hope today marks the start of a great team relationship between Tessa and Dodge. Long live Team Dodge!

Ps. We weren't able to buy a disposable camera today, since we went to Lowes to pick up some fencing items and they don't sell cameras there. We didn't have time to stop anywhere else. I hope to rectify the situation after work tomorrow, so I can post pictures on the gallery section of this site later this week.

Pss. I have a feeling, I am going to have a major outbreak of poison ivy after that trek. I think I walked through huge, healthy patches of it. The things we do for our kids, yeesh....

May 31, 2005

While my energies have been focused upon getting this web site up and running these past few months, the focus may be about to take a sharp turn toward horsey pursuits. I have been working toward this very thing for quite some time, and factors seem to be lining up like they should. For instance, we looked at a horse for Tessa today, that shows a lot of promise and a lot of hazard, depending on how we handle him. Tomorrow, I think we'll take the next step and announce to the owners that we are ready to put our money where our hearts are. I still would like for Tessa to have some getting-acquainted time with the horse before we bring him home, and a short trial period of one to two weeks before we consider him ours lock, stock and barrel. (A very wiiiide barrel.)

This means I get to call the Pat Parelli hotline and order up those Cds! I'm going to need them. This horse isn't as far along with experience as I'd hoped to find, but he's one of those that could be anything. He's a total cowboy type of horse with a lot of spring in his step; a lot of "go" and yet, he's...stolid. I can't really think of the right word to describe his personality. Then again, I hardly know him. I imagine there will be tons for Tessa and I to learn about him, and with him, and we're going to have to get started somewhere.

The gelding we looked at is a 9 year old son of Ghosty, which is good. I'm a fan of Ghosty's. It also means he's a registered Appaloosa, if too large to show as a POA. He's about 14.3 hands and seems almost as wide as he is tall: all muscle. He has Ghosty's shapely hindquarters and neck. His coloring is surprisingly easy on the eyes. When I heard he was a leopard, I was thinking something like Nifty. But he's more of a color combination between Nifty and Dash, with mostly dark legs and face. Like many Apps, he has almost no tail. It's nice and full, but it's short, very much like the show fashion of the 70's. All-in-all, he's a rather handsome fellah, despite a couple of blemishes from old wounds. Nothing that would interfere with anything. He seems to be a nice mover, too. We'll see how things go as this horse search thing develops. I hope this horse is one that God has picked out for us. :-)

May 31, 2005 (b)

I decided today that I want to put more than only training-related horsey tidbits in this section of web site. Why not include fun stuff like an account of the awe-inspiring Preakness the Saturday before last? Holy COW, that was incredible. It's no secret that I fell for Afleet Alex when I first saw him on TV before the Derby. Not only does he have a campaigner attitude about him, but I met his grandsire in Paris, Kentucky some 14 years back. At least, I think Afleet is this horse's grandsire.

I was rooting for Afleet Alex in the Preakness, but I wasn't expecting the heart-stopping performance he pulled off. Anybody who knows horses or has felt them 'peck' under you, going down to their knees when in a gallop, knows the feat it is for that horse to recover, much less recover and go on to win a race. It's the stuff of champions, when horses do that.

It was one of those great moments in sports history. I watched Afleet Alex make his move around the final turn and you could see the moment the jockey asked him, it was that explosive. He was really moving heading into the stretch, as were some others in the hunt. Scrappy T had a lead, but with the ranks thinning, it looked like everybody had running room. Then Scrappy's jockey started hitting his horse (a horse known to veer in stretch runs) on the left, which caused the horse to shy to the right so badly, he left his jockey hanging in mid-air for a heartbeat or two. Scrappy lugged smack in front of Afleet Alex as Alex was bearing down. Alex seemed to clip Scrappy's heels and went down nearly to his knees from his flat-out-all stretch drive. I thought for sure I was going to see horse heels flipping end over end and jockey's flying through the air. But somehow, that game horse picked himself up, kept the jockey, and not only got going again, but hauled you-know-what down that stretch and won going away!

A bobble that bad should have taken the heart out of Afleet Alex, if not crippled him if he'd of grabbed a pastern or bowed a tendon, but I guess he had plenty of heart to spare. I was agog and amazed. Stuff like that you usually only read about in books.

I got to thinking about what happened the next day, and it hit me- Scrappy's people *knew* their horse had a bad habit of veering to the right in the stretch, yet they failed to tell the jockey not to hit him on the left? It makes no sense! No sense, unless they *wanted* Scrappy to veer a little bit, to cut off closing stretch runners. Hey, I've watched some NASCAR. I know how it works. I think Scrappy reacted a lot more violently than expected is all. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

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