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3 September 2006
Mt Charleston Trip to Fetch Jethro

Finally got home at 10:30 Sunday evening - it took us 11:45 hours for the return journey (10:30 on the way down - it's 550 miles).

We met at Mt Charleston, about 30 mins north of Las Vegas - gorgeous spot, and nice and cool at 6000'.

Practised loading Jethro in and out for ten mins after Kevin and Rusty left. Finally got him so that I could send him in and he'd turn around and stand in there contentedly, at which point, I put him back on the high-tie while we finished packing up.

Put a fly mask on him and he loaded very nicely with nary a murmur.

We stopped in Beatty for gas and to throw water at Jethro (it was in the high 90s... I suspect we were a lot more uncomfortable than he was).

We stopped in Tonopah to raid the supermarket for sarnies and carrots. Jethro thought the carrots were very fine, although he eats them like a dainty wimp, biting each piece in half, instead of scarfing them down like a pig like normal horses do. It was 100 degrees.

We stopped in Hawthorne for more gas, gave Jethro some BP, which he ignored. Gave him a carrot, which he ignored. Gave him an apple core, which he ignored. Hmmm. It was 95.

Came through Fallon and saw that they had the rodeo on, so we drove in there and unloaded him. He was very happy - there was grass to munch on and other horses to look at. He peed (I'm not surprised he can't pee under saddle - talk about stretching out - he stands on tippy toes and parks himself as far out as possible so he's really close to the ground to avoid splishes... there's no way he could manage those contortions with someone on his back!), drank about two gallons of water, and then, while grazing, managed to step over his lead rope, turn around so it was wrapped around his front fetlock, started to panic, at which point I dropped the lead rope and he was so busy gawping at it and jumping up and down that he didn't go anywhere and I was able to grab it under his chin and unwrap him before he vacated the area... (running through my head: "my new pony... mine for several hours before he killed himself in a senseless accident...") Other than a high pulse for both of us, no harm done (but a mental note to work on that with him).

Tried to get him back in the trailer, but he wasn't keen. He wanted to stay there, with the other horses, the grass, etc... getting back in the trailer for another five hours didn't seem to be his idea of a good time, although he finally loaded after a half dozen tries... can't blame him really.

We stopped in Truckee for gas and offered him more water, which he ignored, but he was eating the hay in the manger that he'd been shunning up until then.

Got home, unloaded him (amongst flying gravel as he shot out), took him down to the barn (the other pones looking like giraffes trying to see him in the dark), he snorted unhappily at the lawn tractor that lives in the barn, puffed a few times, went into the stall (panel stall, so open sides) and immediately started eating from the three flakes of hay I'd put in there (soon have that boy plumped up for TG).

I've put him in the stall tonight since I didn't want him crashing around a paddock in the dark.

Provo rushed up, played nosies over the panel with him, and started to eat hay with him, very happily, very contentedly. No ear pinning, no snipping.

Zini came up, went in the next door stall, sneered at him, lifted a threatening back leg, sneered some more, and went down into the middle paddock to sulk.

Provo and Jethro continued to eat under the panel with each other.

Zini came back up, came up behind Provo, sneered at Jethro, tried to strike at him with a front leg (never mind she was 10' away), and Provo went "EURRRRRRGHIIIIIII" at her and kicked out with both legs. She tried again, he repeated his "This is my new best friend and you're not coming anywhere near him" threat and she promptly retired back to the middle paddock.

I shut the gate and opened the one connecting with Mouse, so Mouse and Zini are in together and Provo is in the paddock next to the barn with his new best friend. That way, peace shall reign.

So I'm a very happy girl - having a new pone is fun enough, but having a new pone that my old pone really likes is *brilliant* :)))))

4 September 2006
Jethro's First Day

At 7:30 I go down to see what's going on. Jethro is sick and tired of being in the stupid stall and wants out, poor guy, not helped by Provo wandering off and leaving him locked in the barn...

30 seconds and the honeymoon's over... Provo takes off after poor Jethro amidst clouds of dust and Jethro demonstrates his athletic ability by leaping and jumping. So much for that... Provo is now locked next door with Mouse and Zini (who is keeping completely out of the way).

And every time Jethro gets within 10' of the fence, Provo charges him. Jethro opts to go over and sniff the ground somewhere else.

After a while, Mouse seems to be the quietest towards him, so we decide to put them in together to see if that works.

Initially, it looks promising - Mouse immediately rushes into the barn to check out the food situation, and Jethro follows her, looking hopeful that he's got a new friend. 

Hmmmm, so much for that... Poor Jethro. No friends for him today...

So we've abandoned integration attempts for the time being. Big pones will live in one paddock, small pone will live in another until they grow bored with each other.

> ...I would suggest not feeling bad about letting Jethro have his own
> paddock and the others sharing a paddock, FOREVER...

It wasn't that *I* wanted them to be in together, it's that I wanted him to have a friend. This morning he was jumping up and down because he'd been left alone.

This afternoon I was sleeping and woke up to whinnying - he was running the fence because the other horses were "over there" and he wasn't.

We finally went and opened the gate to the middle paddock, so at least they are on adjacent fences now. Provo and him have resumed nosies over the fence and Jethro's a lot happier. He definitely misses having pony friends.

5 September 2006
Jethro's First Ride

Ann had volunteered to come over and ride Provo with me n' Jethro as chaperone on our first ride. I figured I didn't know if he'd do something freaky, so it was best to have a "Responsible Adult" present.

After catching Provo (who didn't realise he was being caught and forgot to run away), I took him into Jethro's paddock to introduce them under supervision. Jethro got to sniff Provo all over, and Provo just stood there looking bored. Hmmm.

I tied Provo to the trailer while I washed the orange crud off Jethro, who proceeded to wriggle and complain because his "new best friend" was "all the way over there" and he wasn't. He wasn't the most cooperative about bathing the left-hand side of him (which meant turning *away* from gawping at Provo), but I marvelled at how you could just spray his head without him suffering a melt-down. He was less keen on the dragging hose.

Took him over to sniff Provo and then walked him around the property, up around the back (where he can't see Provo). He shrieked and danced and generally made a fuss, but did listen to me a little. We did some lead rope lunging, some practice trot-outs, some backing, some inspection of dead cars, bits of wood, and walking in between close bushes. Finally took him back down to Provo, tied Provo really short, and Jethro really long (so he could get away if Provo decided to play bully).

Not sure why I bothered, really.  :)

Jethro thought it was the coolest thing - he got to rub on Provo, he got to scritchle Provo's withers, he got to chew on his neck, he got to itch his head against Provo's, and he even got to nip Provo lightly in the cheek which I thought was interesting.

Provo just stood there, looking bored. Hmmm.

I have a theory that Jethro is using Provo as a Wyatt substitute... He's grey and a boy... basically the same...

The lovely Ann demonstrating what a perfect pony looks like...

(so what d'you think - yellow zilco? or green? He's wearing Mouse's green bridle and Zini's yellow breast collar... and the bit I'm using is about a inch too big for his tiny mouth.) 

And lookit, the orange is already starting to creep up his legs from his feet...

And here we are, finally ready to go.

The one naughty thing Jethro did (and we really are grasping at straws here, to find something), is he wouldn't stand still. He wanted to "get on with it". As soon as I got on, he was busy, busy, busy (which explains the blurry photos). We stopped twice on our ride and he wouldn't stand still (even when Provo was eating grass <gasp>). 

We rode from home and went up around the back, along one of our "home cooked" trails (which means it need clipping badly, since we mostly use these trails in the winter when daylight is sparse and we need to ride from home because there's no time to drive to a trail-head. In the summer they are totally overgrown).

I worried that Jethro might not think bush-whacking was a good thing (thinking that he hadn't had much opportunity to do that in AZ) and get uppity or scareded about it, but he just followed Provo meekly along with nary a murmur.

At the top of the trail, we put him in front and apart from hesitating at the scary log lurking beside the trail, he trundled along, quite happy, pushing through scotch broom (although one long one at knee-height was a bit tricky - it kept moving when he pushed on it and he wasn't quite sure what to do for a minute), clambering over the tall downed log that blocks the trail, and only startling mildly at the skunk that was at the bottom of the trail, scuttling into the culvert. He also did really good on the downhill which is a little slippery from old gravel.

We went along the road, him doing his power-walk (esp. when I lent down to tighten my girth <g>), and merrily out-walked Provo (who was doing his "we're going *away* from home" walk).

He never jigged not once (not natural).

He was disinterested in the man on a scooter who came past, in the diesel truck, in Chili doing drive-by galloping, or in the yappy dog at the end of the road.

He inspected the pones behind the fences along the way, cheerfully passed the large pile of logs despite it getting dark, crunched through small manzanita, ignored the barking dogs again, and offered the most gorgeously smooth trot going along in the dark with the nearly full-moon glinting off the lake.

When we got to the end of the lane and it was time to turn around, we stopped for a minute to let them graze, but he didn't want to - he just wanted to get on with it. Methinks it's time to give him some real work to help him settle down. :)

Friday I'll take him on another short jaunt, probably on our own, and then do something a bit strenuous at the weekend. :)

(Oh, and the one time he did kind of slow down - going up our driveway. Since we'd gone out the back way, when we finally started up the driveway, he had no idea where we were - until Mouse whinnied and he suddenly brightened up, speeded up and practically scrambled up the last part. I should probably just walk him up and down the driveway <g>).

The weirdest thing was that Provo, having been all patient and pleasant, immediately charged Jethro over the panel when I went to put everyone away (I put Jethro in a stall and Provo in with the girls who I'd let in to clean up Jethro's leftovers). Something to do with protecting his girls, I think (he does have a tendency to strut around displaying to them when he's been out somewhere. I'm sure they're always impressed...

It reminded me of people saying that their stallions would only act studly when wearing the 'special breeding halter'. Almost like Provo knows that he has to behave in a socially acceptable way when he's attached to a lead rope - but when he's loose, he can do whatever he wants.

I'm now wondering what the chances are of *ever* being able to have two boys and a girl in together (naive that I am, this hadn't occurred to me). I might end up with a boy paddock and a girl paddock (or a girl/boy paddock when Mouse goes and Jack arrives <evil plotting>).

7 September 2006
Ralston Fire

It's really smokey in Cool/Auburn at the moment, although not too bad where we are because we're south of the canyon so don't get the smoke funneling in quite the same way. If the wind shifts, it'll get really smokey. With no containment in sight (the canyon walls are *really* steep there), it could be a week or so before they get it under control.

We saw this one starting on Tuesday afternoon. It's just south of Michigan Bluff, but on the south side of the river.

8 September 2006
Ralston Fire/Tug

I was planning a "long" ride (15 miles?) this weekend, but it's really smoky - the canyon is on fire on the slopes below Michigan Bluff - it has grown from 300 acres yesterday, to 600 acres this morning, to 1,900 acres this evening. They are recommending that Michigan Bluff residents evacuate :((((

We had an... er... "accident" on the way home from work today and came home with a new "puppy"... We shall call him "Tug". It's Rusty's fault because he *forced* me to drive his miata to the airport when I was coming home, and it was really fun. Those cars are just designed for people my size and they aren't ridiculously expensive...

pft has had convertibles for years - which is how come we have five Fiat Spider convertibles in various states of repair "restin" out back (Dana can relate).

Our green Subaru Outback Sport is a nice little car and now has 135,000 miles on it. It'll probably cheerfully go for another 135k, as well (so long as we remember to do some upkeep on it), but after I got back from AZ we started talking about maybe swapping it for a Miata.

Of course, it didn't make sense. Miatas don't have 4x4 so it would slip n' slide up our driveway in the winter, and Miatas can't carry large dogs, and Miatas can't carry large quantities of BP (although Rusty did tell me that they were able to carry two sacks of horse feed *and* some groceries [lined up on the back shelf, sitting on the downed-top] home the other day, so how bad can it be?), and at 6ft+ pft doesn't fit great in it, and, and...  but it was still tempting.

So predictably, pft started looking on the web and found this one in Sac. It was sorta low miles (32k) and going a little bit cheaper than the going rate (it wasn't immaculate) (thank goodness), and it just so happens that the money from his Mom's estate (that is going *straight* into his retirement account... less a little for a gift for him, and some stuff that needs doing around here, like getting the driveway graded/gravelled, getting the barn finished, and getting electricity to the garage) turned up in our bank account yesterday (talk 
about burning a hole in our pocket).

So we dropped by yesterday on the way home and kinda came home with it.

The nice thing about it, is it's a limited edition one that they only made 3000 of, so it's a bit unusual in an understated not very obvious way.

I'll feel a lot happier when it's grubbier. :)

9 September 2006
Shoeing

Farrier Ted came today and redid Provo's shoes, put front shoes on Zini (have to see if she's still gimpy on that left front), and put Mouse's (somewhat worn, but still good) Sneakers on her front feet (that's the fourth setting those things have had!).

He took a look at Jethro and said "he looks OK" - which I suspect is high praise indeed <g>). Jethro will be done in three week's time.

So both Provo and Jethro will have shoes for any potential High Desert/Lake Sonoma forays, and I can ride Mouse a bit to get her primed and going along nicely before she leaves at Thanksgiving. Hopefully she'll be nice and sound in her Sneakers.

Didn't ride on Friday afternoon as planned - lay down to talk to pft who's fluey, and ended up sleeping for two hours instead. <roll eyes>

This afternoon, I took Jethro up to Third Gate and rode down the hill and along the High Trail (Robie Trail) to the top of Maine Bar and back.

This ride finishes in the last mile with a 400' climb out of the canyon. I ran down with him on the way out, but on the way back, Jethro hit the bottom trotting and went several hundred feet up before I suggested to him that, even though he thought he could, he probably didn't want to. He objected, but by the time we were about 3/4 of the way up, he stopped in exasperation as if to say "Is this hill *ever* going to end??".  :))

For the first mile or so he was pretty jumpy, scaring the heck out of me when he'd veer around trees/rocks/plants - that's the trail I fell off with Provo a couple of months ago - it's a bit narrow and drop-offy for jumpy horses. He was looking at *everything*. It was pretty funny.
A bit different from AZ desert, methinks.

My main scare was he wasn't being very careful with his foot placement and tending to gawp and trip, instead of going straight - and the trail is *so* narrow, it was giving me heart palpitations. I ended up asking him to walk on the more scary narrow parts, just because I wasn't confident that he was paying attention enough to not fall off the edge of the trail (Zini was exactly the same when we started riding her on these trails - I'd watch pft on her, heart in mouth, as she merrily stepped off the side of the trail <gulp>).

There's one section where the bushes are quite overgrown, so you have to lie along the horse's neck to avoid them. When I've ridden Provo along there, he likes to take advantage and start to canter... well, Jethro didn't canter, but he certainly accelerated and I nearly got skewered in the eye. :) Bad pony.

Oh and he did pretty good on the downhill too. There's one very steep bit. He was a little trippy - but seemingly more from inattention than technique. And coming back up the same short, v. steep hill, he went a little bit bug-eyed <snicker>

I'm riding him in a double-jointed french snaffle with full-cheeks. It's a bit big for him, but seems to do the trick. He's not yet used to my habit of stopping suddenly and turning (usually to check that Chili dog is drinking/see where something is/trim bushes, etc), so getting him stopped is sometimes hard. I'm tempted to try him in Provo's kimberwick, but also tempted to try him in an S-hack (I can borrow one, I think), just to see how that goes. I like the idea of them for eating/drinking easily. I'm sure he'll get better as he gets used to the idea that I stop and turn at strange moments.

We also had to go through one open area where someone had left some big 50-gal drums... it was like running the gauntlet of the Drums of Death, but somehow we made it through. And he was a good boy and even stood still when we got to the creek and it was dry so I got off to give Chili some water.

He settled down nicely on the way home, even offering me a twisty-head leap in exuberance at one point (that surprised me <g>).

The one thing that concerned me was, if he started to pick up speed he was interfering front to back - I could hear metal clicking on metal. So long as I kept him slow, he didn't do it - so it actually works as a rev. limiter. :)  I'll talk to my shoer about it - maybe get him to roll his front toes to get those feet out of the way. I don't remember him doing this at all when we rode in AZ, so it could also be in response to the harder ground and not having the delay of working in sand, so it might improve as he gets his different muscles working?

He needed better "dead leaf training" for when he goes through dead leaves - talk about scuttling :)))

And he didn't like the memorial to the dead lady who was eaten by the mtn lion.

We went about 7+ miles, maybe 900' total of descent and 900' of climbing, and it took us a couple of hours, so we weren't blitzing (he wanted to :)  ).

Tomorrow morning my friend Sheila and I are going to the forest to the east of here to ride maybe 15 miles. There are fewer big climbs - more lots of little steep hills, so he shouldn't be overdo-ing it.

He feels so "clean" when he moves - it's weird. :))))

We ate dinner on the front deck, but we're having a weird cold spell and it's chilly. It went down to *55°F* last night and we nearly froze to death. I went out at 12:30 to check the pones before I went to bed and even considered blanketing Jethro, before concluding that that was too stupid - he was busy munching hay. It has only been in the low 80s/high 70s during the day, instead of the high 90s it normally is. This has been great for that fire, though, and it really helped overnight - it sounds like they are actually making progress with it and have lifted the voluntary evacuation for Michigan Bluff.

10 September 2006

No ride this morning. The wind shifted in the night and blew all the smoke down this direction - lying in bed this morning you could smell it before even going out there. This is what it looked like when I went out to feed the horses at 7 am. :(

pft and I will have to go to breakfast in the miata instead... hey ho... hard life (makes me glad I rode Jethro last night).

11 September 2006

We've already put 400+ miles on Tug since getting him on Thursday night.

12 September 2006
Jethro Ride, Cronin Ranch

I rode with Sheila out at Cronin and we only went 6 miles or so at 4mph. Per the GPS, did about 800' of climbing/descent and some trotting. Sheila's horses walk *really* fast, so he jogged to catch up most of the time - he's so smooth it was OK, but I'd rather he didn't learn that. We determined that he needs a fair bit of groundwork on trailing things (lead ropes, hoses) and is nervous of the schooling whip/carrot stick, so that needs work too.

But he was a good guy - din't tailgait, very polite, went along nicely. We did a little bit of uphill trotting and a little bit of downhill trotting and he did good.

14 September 2006
Jack Visit Scheduled/Clicker Training with Jethro

Speaking of plans - I just emailed Irene Harvey, Jack-the-welsh's mum and we're tentatively scheduled to go and look at him on Wednesday evening next week on our way home from work (we tried to go last night, but I couldn't get hold of her because she was outside "with the ponies"... hey, she can say that and mean *ponies*).

(I can't get him out of my head. Even though getting him may be a bad idea, until I go and see him and either fall madly in love, or look at him and think "oh" and lose interest immediately - until I do, he'll keep bouncing around in my head)

(it was made worse by looking at that Pucker Point video on Tuesday and then noticing the Tevis videos of Meggie-the-Tevis-Pony. Strange what your dreams develop into  - I think it would be the coolest thing to do Tevis on a pone... Maybe one day).

* * *

I did some clicker training with Jethro last night - his first introduction. He nearly got it, but wasn't quite sure (mostly because I was using Sheila's borrowed alarming carrot stick as the target, and he's nervous about it - which was the reason I was using it - to make it a Nice Thing). I'll do some more this evening. He thought the food aspect of it was quite good, but wasn't sure he wanted to do the work to get it. :)

I did end up rubbing him all over with it, which he submitted to, but wasn't 100% relaxed.

Thinking on Jethro...

He's an odd mixture of being very steady, but having holes in his training - mostly groundwork stuff: he's very one-sided and doesn't like me switching sides at all - he doesn't like to be led from the right, didn't like it when I switched the carrot stick from one side to the other, doesn't like it when I'm on one side and I poke the carrot stick over his back so that it appears on the other side. Odd little handling things. OTOH, he's quite happy for me to do off-side dismounts and mounts without any problems.

I actually like that he's not an older, "finished horse" - there's still plenty that needs doing with him, although I can hit the ground running because he does have enough fitness to do a 50 - just so long as I'm careful with him. He's been brought along perfectly with lots of LSD.

But I don't have to have that guilt about having bought a "made horse" - I'll know that, to some extent, any success we have is not just due to his previous experience, but that I will have made a big contribution to it (again, that double edged sword - if he goes wrong, I'll know I screwed him up <g>).

15 September 2006
Jethro/Provo Ride, Cronin Ranch

Ann rode Provo so we opted to do the "lollipop/connector" at Cronin, which has lots of good fun twisty trotting on a singletrack. Jethro did good and only scared me once when he tried to avoid a killer log. I definitely have to ride him facing towards the front (not yakking over my shoulder <g>). He is *so* smooth to ride it's just amazing... I can't wait to do real rides on him and not be exhausted at the end. Now I can see how one does 100s!! <BG>. Poor Ann was riding Provo who was jumping up and down, soaked in sweat, while Jethro was all spiffy and dry - no sweat at all. :)  He did have to stop once on the long hill on the way home when it was more than he could deal with.

pft turned up just as we were tacking up, on his way home from work... just as well, since he was the one who noticed the coolant pouring out of the bottom of the truck engine :(. Apparently my water pump just went out. Bless him, he already has a new one lined up in Auburn and is going to fix it tomorrow. We're now seriously considering the "New Truck" idea. :(

OH!!!! JETHRO PEED UNDER SADDLE!!!!! Right when we were getting back to the trailer and we were in some long grass. Up until now, he always peed as soon as we were done, but this time he decided now would be a good time, for which he got lavish praise (and he didn't even fall over!)

...

...a whoa is a Good Thing. Does Jethro have one? I was wondering, since he's always such a good boy and stops, but I wasn't sure if he really knew to stop when told, or just stopped because he's not an idiot. :)

17 September 2006
Virginia City 100/Sunday Evening Ride

Got to do some vet sec-ing which is always interesting. Jamie Kerr was head-vet. Nice group of people - volunteers and vets. Finally crashed in a pile of blankets and sleeping bag in the back of my car ~4:30 before the last six horses came in (there was no-one else awake at the finish line to entertain me). Got up at 8 am for BC judging (gah - talk about bleary)... All the horses that showed looked pretty nice (in fact nearly all the horses that finished looked really good - no *really* tired ones, which always makes me sad). But best of all, SANDY WON BC!!!!! wooo hooo! I was so pleased and proud <beam>. (that's her second BC now - she also won BC at NASTR 75 shortly before Tevis).

Got to talk to Marcia a little about her - she said she's a good worker, good on hills, and never grows any coat - they have to liberally sprinkle her with talcum powder before tacking her up/putting on splint boots to stop rubs. Marcia said she galls really easily because of it (I can see what she means - Jethro is now bald in places from rubbing halter, rubbing in the trailer, rubbing on the apple tree, etc). She said she's a really nice horse to ride.

Having stood and watched her, she's a lot like Jethro in temperament and habits. She looked his spitting image when she was eating and looking around. Very quiet and low-key in camp, and very business-like in her work. She's longer in the back, and she is also different in the  jowl area, but I'd still do a slight double-take on her whenever I saw her being walked around camp. Weird. :)

It didn't seem that Marcia knew anything about her "baby", but she was interested and wanted to meet him, so I'll take him to be introduced next time we're at the same ride.

The BC trophy is a sculpture of the horse done by one of the NASTR members - she took some pics of Sandy to base it on. Pretty cool.

Anyway. We rode this evening, briefly. Got pft out on Zini who was leaping about so excitedly that we couldn't really tell if she was sound or not <g>. She was so naughty, but pft did really good with her and got in some well-timed spanks. He only went a mile or so with me, after which he went on up the driveway while Jethro and I went zooming down the lane, trying to avoid the Killer Tarmac patches (I didn't nearly fall off... honest).

I asked him to trot the entire half mile or so to the top of the hill - reasonably steep and definitely a good work out. Then we went down the next steep hill, which is shorter, but steeper (Provo tries to canter it) and then turned around and trotted back up it. He did really good. He was somewhat "enthusiastic" from being out there on his own, but he didn't even ask to stop, so I was pleased. It was only about three miles or so, but he did good work. I'm still waiting for him to break a sweat ;-) Oh, and we worked on moving off my leg, since he seems to ignore it half the time.

20 September 2006

Visit to See Jack for the First Time

Biggest surprise of the evening was that Jack is actually only just a year old (July baby) where for some reason I thought he was 2. I have no idea why, since I see that it clearly says he's a 2005 baby on the website. 

He's a real sweetie - with a mischievous look about him. He has a little white around his eyes, so that when he rolls them (usually to look at something he shouldn't) you can tell straight away. 

When we arrived he was tied to the washrack and doing his best to figure out what he *could* do while tied - going around the other side, pulling a bit on the rope (not pulling back, just seeing how far he could reach with it). He was happy to have chest scritchies, to have his butt scritched, for me to pick up his feet (just a bit wiggly), nibbled on my fingers (but wasn't really mouthy in a scary way), and be poked and prodded all over.

He's probably about 10-11 hh right now, but already has a good big butt and good back legs. The front of him hasn't quite caught up with the back though - he's still got baby feet (tiny and upright), skinny legs and a really narrow chest - with a big hay belly out the sides. The lady, Irene, said that he'd broaden up a bunch and get much more robust looking - like his Daddy, Bristol Encore: http://www.briarfairfarm.com/encore.htm

So she goes to get his Daddy so we can see how he'll look when he's older and OHMIGOSH, this guy is built solid. He has *great* legs (better than Zini or Mouse or probably even Jethro), nice round large hooves - probably 0s, but they looked like 2s on his legs - being in proportion. He's 13:2, I think she said, with a broad back, great butt, and about five hands worth of space between his front legs - he's built like a coffee table with legs in each corner. <g>

She warned me that of course Dad is now 7, so Jack will take a while to catch up to that, but that Mum, Fannie, was also built solid and was 13 hh, so Jack will mature to at least that.

He hasn't yet been gelded - she said she wanted to wait until he was a least two to make sure he would get a more robust physique (must go back and reread that thread on RC about gelding early v. late). I can see that being good, but I'm not sure I'd want him as chunky as dad, just for cooling purposes. She also said that welsh pony studs tend to be very nice and easy to deal with and that kids can ride them - so I don't know if I'd necessarily automatically geld anyway. Maybe see what happens (and the second he causes trouble...snicker snack, the vorpal blades).

He has a girly whinny which he demonstrated for us several times (he and Zini could do duets). :)

Oh and while he was standing tied, he decided he wanted to pee... and he practically peed clear water... and peed...and peed... and peed... Irene was off getting Dad and I commented that he must drink well and she said oh yes, he loves water, likes to be sprayed, have his head hosed (not natural), etc.

He's currently living in with a very large QH type horse (15:2 hh+?) who "makes sure he doesn't get away with any studly behaviour". She tossed in some hay for them when she put Jack back - and Jack promptly peed on the hay. <roll eyes> She says he always does that... I guess he's the one who has to eat it. Stud behaviour? She also said that she puts out straw for them to munch on so it keeps them busy without them getting any calories. He was funny and prancey when she put him back.

In conclusion, I think he would be really fun to have around. He's likely to grow to be built a lot more solidly than I thought he would (thinking that welshs would be lighter-weight), which is good in terms of not getting hurt. pft says I should get a pre-purchase done on him, but I'm not sure what I'd have checked. Any thoughts on that? We'd also like to go back and watch how he moves in person. Mostly all we did was stand around and didn't see him go through his paces, so to speak.

He makes me giggle.

And the fact that he's only a year old is even better - it gives me more time for him to be on the back burner to get the others sorted out.

22 September 2006
Bits about Jack's ancestors and Section B Stuff 

Some blurb by on Bristol Encore's (Jack's Dad) previous owner
when he was living up in Oregon (from 
http://www.welshponies.com/19992000news.htm and
http://www.welshponies.com/2001news.htm):

* * * *

October 17, 1999

Our new Section B colt and future herd sire, Bristol Encore, was picked up by our hauler...last Sunday....We...decided to meet him ...about 3 hours north of us...I could finally see in person this pony I had waited seven years to have!

Well, let me assure you-- he was definitely worth the wait. Worth every minute. He is absolutely SPECTACULAR. I could not be more pleased with him. He is gorgeous. Super kind and calm disposition combined with truly outstanding conformation. He is one of the most elegant Welsh Ponies I have ever seen, coupled with incredible bone and substance. He has super action-- action to burn! He *floats*!

* * * *

May 10, 2000

At the beginning of March I went to Texas...and spend the night at Bristol Pony Farm...For the first time I was able to see the great Bristol Elan in the flesh. I have never been more impressed by anything I have ever seen anywhere. She is simply magnificent. Every enthusiastic adjective you could use to describe extreme beauty could easily fit Elan. She is a pony that does not capture on either video or photos, which was how I had seen her before. It was wonderful to be able to compare her and her son, Encore.

* * * *

Spring and Summer 2000

We attended 3 Welsh Pony shows this year with our wonderful yearling colt, Bristol Encore. He has matured incredibly. Every time I look at him I am just thrilled. He is so much everything I have ever wanted in a Welsh Pony. With his near perfect conformation, tremendous bone and substance, excellent movement and a sweet disposition, he is the total package. Not to mention he is a rather spectacular color to top it off! At the Oregon Welsh Pony Society show in June he won his class under judge Valerie Lapicola, and then won the Junior Championship as well. At the Emerald Empire Welsh Pony Society show in July he won his class under judge Jane Fischer DeThours, and also won the Junior Championship again. In August we traveled to the NorthWest Welsh Classic in Washington where Encore again won his class under judge Molly Rhinedollar.

* * * *
June 22, 2001

The show season is off to a great start! We took Bristol Encore to the Golden Gate Welsh Classic in Woodside, California on June 8. Master showman, Gerald Verkyl of Goldhills Welsh, showed him for us there and did a terrific job. It was a double Gold rated show with two judges. The 2 year old Section B colts class was a group of beautiful ponies and Encore did very well placing first and second. He then went on to win the Junior Champion and Reserve Champion. We were VERY pleased with his performance! Not to mention that the Welsh folks in California have to be some of the nicest anywhere and we had a wonderful time visiting with everyone.

We were delighted to have the American National show come to within 2 hours of our hometown just this past weekend (June 15-17), so it made for an easy trip to the showgrounds. Again, Gerald Verkyl did a sensational job showing Encore for us. It was a double Gold rated show, with a judge for the American Nationals and a judge for the Oregon Welsh Pony Society, who put on the show. Encore won his class under the American National judge and placed second under the OWPS judge. He then went on to become the American National Junior Champion, and also won the Reserve under the OWPS judge. We are THRILLED to have our own National Champion!

These digital photos were taken at the Woodside show:

 


* * * * * * *
Bristol Fandango:

This was her ad:

10 year old reg. Section B mare. Has been used successfully 
as a broodmare. Fannie is a very good mom and throws nice
size in her foal. She is very easy to breed and has an
unbeatable temperament that her foals have also gotten
from her. If you need to add great bloodlines to your
herd Fannie is a mare you should not pass by. She was
also shown in lead-line classes and always placed first!

Fandango foal, Clanfair Sir William (Jack's half brother):

He has his dam's calm and confident personality....

RosMel's Quadrille (Fandango's sire, Jack's grandsire):

Quadrille is loaded with presence. He is an incredible
mover with bold sweeping action. He is a champion in hand
and is producing champions in hand and in performance. His
offspring have his gorgeous movement and trainable nature.
They have all been very quiet and easy to train.

and

Quadrille is a stunning black Sec.B 13.1 hand son of Sire
Legion of Merit, GlanNant Tango.

He is an awesome mover and floats on the ground. 

Quadrille is producing exceptional, kind ponies that are
very athletic and are lovely movers.

Section Bs

I read a whole slew of stuff about Section B's this afternoon.
Like show arabs, they started breeding mini-TB style pones.

However, Jack's line - Bristol Farm - comes from old style breeding - i.e. a useful pone with substance, instead of a weakling

(this from Bristol Pony Farm website

http://www.bristolponies.com/TwoBs_breed_standard.htm):

Excerpts from
Welsh Pony and Cob Society Journal, 1975, Wales
...
The Welsh breeds in their true form are unbeatable and, 
thank God, we have good breeders who are breeding true 
to type come what may. We do, however, have the others 
who are prepared to breed for fashion and, as well we 
know, the same people wish to hide behind the word "Welsh" 
because over the years it has proved its worth. We also 
have some members who are breeding rubbish in all sections. 
Any member who is not prepared to breed to the Breed 
Standard should be asked to mend their ways or to leave 
the Society. This applies, even more so, to the judges 
who put up anything other than ponies conforming to the 
Breed Standard.

To return to the B's, they were bred to enable the 
shepherd to work the hill with his dogs. Can anyone, 
quite frankly, see most of the B's today working the 
hill? Most of them today could not take my maiden aunt 
down the high street without going lame, and certainly 
not without its rug on.

Some of the older shepherds must wonder what day it is 
when they see the B's in the riding classes. The moment 
they are called in after having walked around, out runs 
mum with the rug to keep the pony from getting a chill. 
Mum would have been very busy running after the shepherd.
...

23 September 2006
Jethro ride, Brown's Bar Loop

Managed to do a 15 mile ride with Jethro today. We didn't quite make it all the way to Auburn...we didn't even make it to Cool, which was Plan B. I ended up working this morning, so instead we opted for Plan C and did the "Brown's Bar Loop" (down the canyon to the river, past the Poverty Bar Tevis river crossing, along the River Road/Tevis trail until Brown's Bar and then back up the canyon and back along the "High Trail" - which is a twisty singletrack that closely follows the canyon wall).

I am officially "tard" - trot, trot, trot we went and I can't relax much for fear of him spooking over the side :) so have to pay attention, which I'm not accustomed to (slacker riders R us).

We had a bad start to the ride when he found himself unable to step down 10" off the asphalt onto a narrow, brambly trail across the road from the parking area. It took me 20 minutes to get him down there and made me realise that: 

a) we need to work on trust issues and b) I need to teach him what I taught Mouse from the very beginning - when Mum says to do something, you do it (that was about the hardest thing I had to teach Mouse, because after years of doing her own thing it came as a bit of a shock for her to realise someone else was in charge).

He got in such a tizzy that he even offered me a little rear at one point <shock>. Still, he was nice and calm when I finally persuaded him that he wasn't going to die instantly if he went on the trail and we proceeded slowly along the trail while I snipped overhanging spikies.

I wondered if it was a bit claustrophobic for him, since he's used to wide open trails and this one was very narrow, with high brambles each side. <shrug>

After that, except for spooking violently at:

• chalk arrows on the ground (twice)
  (I nearly fell off both times <g>. How stupid is that?)
• the White Sign of Death hiding in the rosemary (it was there last time, and he spooked at it last time too).
• the Grape Vine of Death (ok, I set him up for that one and regretted it afterwards. There are grape vines all over the canyons, planted years ago by miners. In this case, someone had pulled a loop down to get to the ripe grapes. I was trying to pick him some to give to him, but to do that, I had to get him to step forward into the loop of vine (about an inch thick) and of course he got his foot snagged in it and had a minor melt-down and I thought we were both going to die, but luckily we didn't).

he did really good. I was able to push him through his leeriness of a lot of rocks/stumps/dark foliage without hardly any hesitation at a trot and he did some *great* downhill work - tucking his butt and staying balanced down a couple of really steep things, as well as joggy trot down not-so-steep things.  I was really pleased with him. He's so funny though - trotting along until he decides it's time to stop. Works for me - he knows what he feels like. I ran down the first couple of miles leading him.

On the way back, we stopped at a trough where there is a little bit of green grass. He didn't want to drink, which surprised me, as he actually worked up a sweat on this ride - it was about 85 degrees when we started - but he did want to eat the grass.

He seems to have problems eating with the bit in - I watch him stuff grass in his mouth as quick as he can, and chew and chew and chew and he ends up with a big wodge in his mouth that he carries around and can't seem to swallow. I'd almost like to put him in a bitless "something" so he can eat easier, but he seems to get confidence from a nice square way of riding, supporting him with both hands, and I'm not sure he'd get that with an S-hack or a vosal?

Anyway, after five minutes rest, eating, he was quite cheerful again and scuttled along speedily (it was either the rest, or recognising where we were). He was very miffed when, a mile from the end, I detoured a quarter mile out of our way to visit a creek (that he refused to drink from).

He did good and I was very pleased with him. We did about 2000 feet up and down and it looks like we spent most of our "slow time" at 4 mph and most of our "trotting time" at 7-8 mph, which is pretty much what I wanted.

See if this link works:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=1411496

that's our ride today.

25 September 2006
Visit to Watch Jack in Action/Colicky Provo

Dana and Ann demonstrate his smallness

Irene took Jack down to the arena and tried to get him to trot out in hand, but he wasn't having any of that, so she ended up turning him loose, shaking the lead rope at him and off he went. Round and round he went at a canter, galloping the back straight, then cantering, then galloping the back straight again. I don't know how many laps he did, but I was getting dizzy following him. When he finally stopped, he was hardly breathing... the makings of an endurance pone? <g>

He did finally settle down enough to start trotting, and what a lovely trot he has too. He has a nice long stride and flicks his legs out. He doesn't have the short, high stride you sometimes think of in ponies.

Once he'd gotten bored with racing around, we were able to look at him from every which angle. We inspected his little white teeth, stuck our fingers in his ears and pulled on them. At one point I went up and was scritching his chest and he nipped me on the upper arm. I was a bit indignant about it until I realised he was probably being friendly and "scritching" me back (thanks, but I think I need to discourage that one). Once we'd finished torturing him, we took him back up and tied him to the washrack (where he stood like an angel... looks like he'd already be happy camping tied to the trailer).

Irene then went and fetched Encore, who came to the gate at a canter. He was all riled up because there were *girls* right there, next to the arena, so he strutted around doing his best to impress them (never mind that they're already pregnant). He trotted around, looking like a mini-Belgian or a halflinger. Irene told us that the judges like to see them in "fine flesh" and will mark you down if the pony is any thinner. Encore has a nice solid way of moving - lots of power from behind. She said he's super-smooth to ride and pft (who'd turned up at that point) said that he could hardly see his back moving at all. His way of going wasn't quite as flashy as Jack, but then he's got more muscle to tout around. Irene also said she'd been working a lot with him on collection and now he's got that pretty well, he seems to have forgotten how to extend.

Encore is a most peculiar tromp d'oeil - from afar, he looks like a really big, stocky horse - and then you get close to him and he's much shorter than you realised - but you can't tell that by looking. He is certainly stocky enough to carry an adult person with no difficulty. Fingers crossed that Jack ends up with as much bone in his legs and those nice large round feet.

We asked Irene why she was planning on gelding Jack and she said because she can only deal with one stud at a time. Apparently Cherry Wilson the matriarch of Bristol Ponies told Irene she should keep Jack intact and campaign him as a junior stallion. Trouble is, she would have problems transporting and dealing with both Jack and Encore together for studly reasons. She said she didn't really want a stud in the first place (but doesn't seem to be regretting having Encore <g>). Either way, Jack's not acting studly now (has two mares through a wimpy fence and isn't interested in them), so we figure we'll keep him intact as long as possible, to develop his neck a little more (it is a tad wimpy at this stage). I suspect that Zini will cause the most problem, since she tends to mareishness, esp. when in season. We might need to keep an empty paddock between her + Provo and Jack + Jethro.

So finally, we get around to it and I say to Irene "Yes please, I'd like to take him". She said "well, go get your trailer" <gulp>. It was 6 pm by then and I didn't want to bring him home and deal with him in the dark, so we agreed on coming over on Sunday to get him. That way I have all day to figure out what to do and how to do it.

The other thing Irene said was "You are going to keep him for ever and ever?". Awwww. :)

She was telling us how three people wanted to buy Jack - from Virginia, Florida and somewhere else east-coast like. She refused, based on the fact that she couldn't send him on a five-day haul. She was pretty upset about sending Fanny, Jack's mum, to Texas, which was a three day haul.

This Saturday I plan on working on the fences and reinstating the hot wire around the paddocks - right now it is purely for ornamental purposes.

Colicky Provo

So I go out to feed later in the evening, and find Provo lying down in the dirt which was a bit strange and sure enough, he was having a colicky episode. He got up, lay down again straight away and didn't want to get up. I finally got him up and walked him around a little and he pooped, but didn't seem much better, so I put him in the stall and ran indoors to get my phone and a headlight.

He was down in the stall when I got back out, but jumped up again as soon as I was back and was doing weird "I've got cramp" motions - holding his legs oddly and stretching out oddly and hanging his head down. Didn't want to eat, didn't want to move, etc.

I called the vet and I called Ann. Ann got some banamine from her neighbour, Charlotte (this was deja vu all over again after Zini did this last time when she gorged on acorns... only that time Charlotte didn't have any banamine) and really kindly drove it over. Vet suggested 8 cc, feed him sloppy BP and don't let him eat hay.

The banamine was 10 ccs and I got about 2 cc into his butt before he kicked out at me (I should know better than to try and shoot his butt <g>), the syringe went flying one way, the needle the other, and Ann and I then spent the next 15 minutes looking for the needle. Thank goodness it was a bare stall, not one with shavings/straw in it.

Got the other 6 cc in his neck and he already looked better and was eating the BP, and mostly drinking the water from it, so I kept adding more water to it.

Ann went home after an hour or so, so I stretched out on the hay bales in the barn and watched him wiffling up the tiny bits of hay he could find, interspersed with eating the BP.

pft woke up at midnight, wondering where I was. Provo looked a lot better - had finished his BP nearly and was looking perky and comfortable. I was getting cool dozing in the barn so I came indoors to bed.

I woke up at 3:30 and went down and inspected him. He was sleeping, but I gave him some more BP slurry, in case he was peckish and it was all gone the following morning.

He seemed a little subdued, but that might have been from being full up. I threw some hay in and he commenced munching on that. I opened the stall up, but he was too busy snacking on the grass-alf to notice.

He'd pooped a nice big pile and peed twice (presumably from slurping down all that BP water) in the night, and I could here cheerful gurgling gut sounds with the naked ear, so I pronounce him mended (of course, I'll get home tonight and he'll be flopping about again - makes me wish we had a web cam set up).

As to cause, the only thing I can think of, is that I normally give BP slurries every evening. Only because we were gone Sunday, and I didn't get home from work until 9:30 pm on Monday, they only got hay those two evenings. The BP has salt in it, plus all the slurry water, so it's possible he wasn't drinking as much just got dried out.

Mar:

Mar:

Mar:

29 September 2006

Mouse is very indignant because she's on a diet and in the paddock next to Jethro who eats his meals veeerrrry... verrrrry... sloooooowly... dragggggging... theeem...outtttt just to torture her.

Jethro is doing good, food-wise. I think he's eating about 24 lbs of hay, plus ~2 lbs (dry) of BP. I still haven't measured him with the weight tape, so don't know if he's putting on weight. I can't see it, but I'm looking at him all the time, so it's hard to see gradual increase. He certainly isn't growing any coat.

I was looking at his nose this morning and he's practically rubbed bald along the two bones running the length of his muzzle. I'm guessing maybe the flies are plaguing him and he's rubbing his nose on his leg (the rubs are too low to be from the fly mask or his halter and my bridle doesn't have a nose band).

We're having temps in the low 90s during the day and maybe mid-60s at night, so he's OK now, but I'm going to get to the stage soon where I'll need to tuck him in a blankie at night to stop him getting chilly.

Provo seems none the worse for his ordeal on Tuesday night and Zini is looking decidedly plump and content. She has taken to charging Jethro through the fence. Jethro stands just out of reach and ignores her. I really hope he and Jack buddy up and that he'll have a friend, as I think he needs one. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do the feeding thing with the two of them, though. The speed Jethro eats, Jack might get a chance to turn into a blimp. :)

Shoeing

Farrier Ted came today to do Jethro for the first time. He said, if I wanted, he could shoe him so he didn't toe-in any more and so that he'd go lame.

I said, no, that was OK, could he just shoe him so that he could go along and not forge. :)

Kevin and Rusty said that they thought his heels had contracted since he'd been with them. So Farrier Ted spread the heels wide to make sure his heels didn't contract any further. He put him in a slight rocker shoe. He's in size 0 shoes.

His heels are more underslung on the outsides than the insides. Maybe that's what makes him toe-in? (doesn't make sense to me, but I can see it).

He commented that it didn't look like the AZ farrier had done much in the back, except put him in too small shoes <g>. So he's got nice wide heels in the back too to smoosh into. He squared the backs as well.

He said his RF is slightly smaller than the LF (not that I can see) and he's got slight hi-low going on... but again, not so’s I could see, so it must not be there, right?

On Endurance Pacing

Looking at the results for Tevis is quite an interesting exercise. I see that John Crandell was an *hour* behind Potato coming into Red Star.

Makes me see that chipping away at it, little by little, making sure you pick up time here and there by coming into a check with the horse *down*, not wasting time, and keeping a steady pace really gets the job done.

And seeing how Jethro goes and how we can keep that consistent, easy pace, makes me see how that's done.  :)

			30 September 2006 Cool to Third Gate, via China Wall
			It's this sort of trail that makes me nervous when he thinks about spooking. Today, however, after the first mile when he felt very "young", he did really good and didn't spook once.

The year before I started riding these canyons, a lady who was running on the High Trail got pounced on and half-eaten by a mountain lion. They built a stone bench on the hillside, looking out at a lovely view in her memory. There are stone steps leading up to the bench. Jethro managed not to spook at the "don't tromp the bank" signs in the rosemary today. Jethro admiring the view at the Barbara Schoener monument, looking down on the Middle Fork of the American River.   This is the spot in the trail where Zini did her U-turn and barged Provo and I off the trail over the side. It looks like if we'd been 6' further along the trail, Provo would have had space for his feet. Luckily, the drop off part stopped after about 15' and leveled off a little in a creek bed. We managed 16.5 miles at a moving average of 4.5 mph, (with 2,600' of climbing, 2,300' of descent) which wasn't bad, since about half way along he suddenly stopped and tried to turn sideways on the narrow trail, losing his back legs off the side. He then wobbled a bit and went off the side with his front foot, at which point I got off in a hurry. I *think* he was having cramps - at least that's the only thing I can think of. He looked really tucked up in the flank and sort of crampy. A few hundred yards up the trail we thankfully came across the only water on that 8 mile stretch. He took about 16 gulps (what's that? half a cup to a gulp? a whole cup to a gulp?) and I hand-walked him for about another half a mile and he seemed fine again, so I got back on and he was fine for the rest of the ride. Very weird. He was even very cheerful about five miles later, tossing his head and leaping and wanting to go zoom. The only other thing I can think that he may have been doing was objecting to the lack of horsie-company, and acting up. <shrug> Rusty, did you mostly train on your own, or did he have buddies to ride with most of the time? He doesn't look particularly tucked up in this photo (just very grubby, even though I hosed him off before we went out this morning) which is nice to see. Towards the end of the ride, there are three creeks in quick succession and he drank from all of them, so maybe that helped? I hate it when they do weird stuff like that and you don't know why. He did some *really* nice work on a very steep section at one point. He was getting kind of stringy and without any urging from me, he stopped his front end, brought his back end up underneath himself and proceeded to toboggan down the rest of the hill on his hocks <beam>. Talk about feeling engaged! I need to work on my electric tape today and tomorrow. It is currently purely ornamental and I want to make sure it's in fine working order before Jack turns up on Sunday - more to stop Zini getting amorous than anything else :)

On to October 2006