October 2007

The red horse spent his first night in a stall and on Monday morning, I put Zini in with Provo and Jack. Jackit has acquired a few bite marks - evidently he and Zini need to figure each other out a bit better, which is interesting, since Provo is the one who normally causes such problems - I'm guessing that he and Jackit must have come to a happy arrangement. So I spent some time on Tuesday morning changing some panels around in the barn, so that he was less likely to get cornered.

Of course, now the red horse has managed to scrape up his back leg (on what, who knows) and now it is all puffy, but I'm pretending not to notice that part.

Roo's leg looks better. I think he did whack it, rather than pull something, since once the swelling went down I could feel some lumps.

More Chooks - Someone at work gave us three laying hens (she lives in Sac City and is only allowed ten and had 13) and we picked them up last night. The boys think they are *very* lovely. The three remaining hens we had (with the four roosters) aren't old enough to lay eggs yet, so this is nice (not that we eat the eggs, we just give them to Ann).

The red horse finally has a name. After trying various ones out, we've settled on "Hopi".

I trailered Zini, Hopi, and Chili (the dog) to Cool and met Patrick on his way home from work for our first real ride this afternoon.

Hopi loaded well (I was able to send him in without having to go in with him) and Zini was as good as gold, but when we got to Cool, I was quite alarmed just *how BIG* the red horse actually was compared to Zini (who, prior to this, I thought of as being big). And he was a bit squirrelly too. At one point I ducked under his lead rope to go and fetch something from the trailer and he started. He was scareded of the sound of the velcro opening on Zini's epics and he was worried about us moving around and generally acting very green. I decided I might just tack him up and lead him along the trail with Patrick for a few miles and be happy with that.

We set out and he was all over the place - coming up too close behind me, falling off the trail to the right, falling off the trail to the left, moving around, wriggling, acting green, not paying attention to anything, etc. I continued to think I would just lead him the whole way and call it a groundwork lesson (wondering if perhaps I'd screwed up and did I *really* want a greenie or was I deluding myself? This horse was going to need *tons* of work, nervous stomach, etc.)

Finally, after about half a mile, I decided to get on and see what would happen, figuring I could get off again if need be.

Couldn't get him to stand still very easily - he kept moving around and tripping over his own feet, etc. Not very encouraging or calm-inspiring. Managed to scramble on, none-too-gracefully (he's *big*), and off we went.

I'd put him in a snaffle and checked and the steering and brakes *seemed* to sort of work, although he would toss his head whenever I tried to ask for anything. He zoomed off down the trail, in front, leaving me feeling very exposed. After a short bit, we put Zini (who was still being good as gold - too strange) in front and that made me feel a little more secure - at least we were going at a sensible pace instead of crashing down the trail.

We walked past the Tree Stumps of Death (that have caused various horses over the years to suffer small melt-downs) and he looked at them with vague interest. We passed rocks and trees and leaves and bushes and his only indiscretion was tripping over the trail now and again when he wasn't paying attention (can't wait to get his feet done on 12th).

Finally, I suggested to Patrick that we trot about 20 paces to see how he was. After 20 paces, he felt pretty good, so I told Patrick to keep trotting. Had to stop to duck under a tree limb (ah, I forgot the *other* major disadvantage of tall horses) and then we ended up in front... and we more or less stayed in front and I let him walk out properly without clinging to him like a monkeycat and OMG OMG OMG (as a friend of mine would say), I *love* this horse!!!!

We ended up passing the barking dogs on the edge of Cool, going up the hill, and I tried to maneuver it so Zini went in front, but she wasn't having any of that, so we ended up in front (me in my fixed "chin up, open your shoulders, sit deep" default anti-nervous position) and he barely cared about the barking dogs (was more concerned about some odd looking footing we crossed). I'm guessing his former life at a place that bred dogs has stood him in good stead. He wasn't at all bothered by Chili running up behind him either.

He went up the hill like a horse that doesn't consider *that* to be a hill (wow). We trotted some more and I concluded that I didn't have to hang on to his head in case of violent stupidity on his part, so we trotted on a loose rein (the only maneuver he did was when Zini twitched her tail and he'd duck "just in case").

And as we got near the trailhead, I suggested to Patrick that "maybe we should go just a bit further?" (in my initial write-up to friends after we got back from our first visit to you and my five minute session in the round pen, I'd said that I could imagine just wanting to ride this horse and ride this horse and ride this horse? Yup).

So against the pones' better judgement, we turned left and went around again, this time going north up the short steep ridge (with the lovely view) and the red horse was walking at 4.4 mph, totally relaxed and looking and feeling like he wasn't doing anything (did I mention OMG OMG OMG, I *love* this horse?). The red horse then zoomed down the really steep hill (me wondering "did I need a crupper?"), only stopping when he got worried that Zini was being left behind and he saw the big lake at the bottom which was cause for concern (well, stopping, at least).

Oh, and at one point he was a bit worried about going over some black rocks in the bottom of a dry creek bed, but once Zini went over them, he didn't care - he was just checking....

And then we looped back around and came in at 4 mph at a lovely smooth gliding walk (occasionally interrupted by having to make wide circles off the trail to let Zini catch up). And he was perfect - it was getting dusk and he was such a good boy, just trolling along.

(we got home and he is by far the noisiest horse when it comes to "WHERE'S MY SUPPER??!" <g>).

See how pretty he looks in my new saddle? And lookit how nice yellow tack works for him too! (I'm as hooked on yellow as I am on grey horses... a pathetic addiction <g>)

I never particularly liked big horses (given that Jack - all 12 hh of him was my previous purchase), so it's a bit surprising to find myself with one. :)

Feeling around the other night, most of the "thickening" feels like fluid, rather than scar-tissue, so I wondered if it was something like windpuffs - that the stuff leaked into the area and will always do so with no significance.

Be interesting to find out, so I will take him to Marty, just to have him poke at him.

Gah, I love this horse. I suspect someone has spent quite a lot of time riding and training him from the saddle, but a lot less time training him on the ground and moving around him - he's squirrelly on the ground but pretty solid under saddle. It's a strange mixture.

We got home about 8:45 tonight, after setting off about 10:45 this morning - had a blow out up by Lake Shasta (wondered what that funny noise was <g>), and stopped a couple of times to let Uno rest and eat (which he didn't really).

About an hour out of Sacramento, Darlene called to see how it was going and mentioned that Uno wouldn't pee in the trailer, so we stopped at the next exit and let him out to perform (which he did beautifully).

He has these big worried eyes, wanting to know what's going on all the time - he's still young in the head and a little jumpy. pft is totally in love. He rode him a couple of times on Saturday when Darlene and I were out helping with the ride - and the second time he rode him properly - out on the trail, up a long hill, did some trotting, fell off (apparently he's good at spooking)... :)

For tonight, we stuck Uno in a stall and will rearrange everyone tomorrow and hopefully it won't be too traumatic. Haven't figured out who's going where, yet.

Note next morning: He's like a dog in a crate. I wondered if he'd pee in the stall overnight and the answer was "nope". <g> Nice tidy poops, but no pee.

It was a *tough* ride for the 55s - winning time was 8.5 hours and the last people came in well after dark.

I ended up doing in-timing at VC#1, and vet secc-ing at VC#2-3 (same location). Many of the horses were pretty stiff coming in at VC#2 and had to come back for a recheck (by which time they were loosened up again). I think they only had two pulls, which is really good - but the horses earned their keep.

So I stand there, mixing, mixing, mixing and tell Katie "when I say 'now', you have to hold his foot up and whatever happens, don't let him put it down".

It starts to thicken (if you've ever made bechamel sauce - it's a bit like that - lots of nothing, followed by frantic activity when it starts to thicken), so I say "NOW" and we whip Shrimp's foot up. I've poured half the mixture in and it's going beautifully - filled up either side of the frog nicely and starting to spread it across the sole when Shrimp whips his foot away and slaps it on the ground. Luckily we'd put my piece of carpeting down, so it went on that. "Never mind, I say to Katie, his foot is still clean, I can probably mix a bit more and add it to what's in there" - at which point, Shrimp stepped backwards into the nice crunchy grass, which promptly glued itself to the bottom of his foot. I picked it up and it looked like a hedgehog - completely coated in dry grass. Oh.

Katie's next ride is Lake Sonoma, so I've decided that I'm going too. I don't want Roo to do too much (i.e. two day ride) after his leg swelling (although I'm more convinced it was from whacking that leg - I can still feel the lumps on the front), and I love Sonoma, so we're going.

It was a lovely toasty day here in CA.

I finally got the accommodation sorted out a bit better. Uno spent his first night in a stall and then I swapped him with Roo, so Roo spent Mon day in the stall (since Roo does little except eat all day, I didn't think this would be too much of a hardship for him).

This morning when we woke up, Roo had managed to let himself out of the stall and had been wandering the properly - by the looks of the number of poops, for quite a while (I wondered why his stall was so clean?). No harm done - thank goodness for feed room doors.

Anyway, I removed the pile of hose and various other debris from the orchard, set up a bushel bucket for water, and installed Roo in there for the next few weeks. There's no shelter, but there is a tree to hide under and I can always blanket him.

I still need to pick a bunch of apples of one tree, some pears off another, and some peaches, but otherwise the trees are pretty much done for the year [note, I didn't do this, and Roo hasn't figured out they are there... he was a very good choice for orchard living, since he isn't "in" to everything all the time - the way I suspect Uno would be <grin>]

This morning I let Uno in with Hopi since they'd been adjacent to each other for 24 hours. They were pretty disinterested in each other (a good thing ). I asked them to run up and down, which they did half-heartedly - they weren't exactly feeding off each other.

Left them in together, since Hopi was standing in the sun and Uno was standing with his head in Hopi's tail. Later I watched and there was a slight ear pin from Hopi about Uno being allowed to stand in the big shelter, so he wandered off and went to eat hay in the small shelter in the adjacent paddock (with a "party wall").

Although both of them are fatties, neither seem to eat quite the same amounts as the other horses: Roo eats 2 flakes, plus a bit of alf.; the non-workers get five flakes between three of them and don't think that's quite enough; but these two newies only eat about a flake and half each. I'm not complaining. It's just interesting.

They'll need separate shelters/eating spaces, but I suspect those two will work together.

For now, I've left the gate between the two open and will shut the gate when dinner is served later today.

My farrier came today and we trimmed Hopi up and put shoes on the front. My farrier actually said "He has nice feet" (high praise indeed from my farrier, who rolls his eyes at the rest of my horses' feet <g>). He was a good boy and stood nicely (except for one point when he had to wriggle because Zini tried to bite him through the bars - it started raining, so we had to retire to the barn).

The only embarrassing part was that Hopi refused to be caught - he's gotten leery of me in the last week since:

I'd hoped to ride him this afternoon, but it's going to be wet, so I guess I'll wait until tomorrow.

Patrick and I rode this afternoon and had a nice, easy time - no excitement or adventure- just what we needed. I took some video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGf-ZtaCoco

The place we rode - Cronin (or Cronan) Ranch is about 20 minutes away and is a big bowl shaped area. We rode up along the west ridge which has lovely views. pft hasn't been up there much, but I rode up there a bunch last winter - so I was able to show him the rock that Roo spooked at on Christmas Eve and dumped me :))))

Once you get down off the ridge, you can ride alongside the south fork of the American River and there are several places you can take the horses in the river.

And then there's a nice long road on a gradual uphill all the way back to the trailers - a good place for trotting practice (we don't have much long-trotting trails around here).

Both pones did really good, even when we took them in the river. Uno was fine with it, but I don't think Hopi's been in a river before, so was doing his best to stay glued to Uno - except Uno was going deeper into the river. Poor scareded Hopi couldn't figure out what to do - falling over the river rock and trying not to touch the water.

He was really solid today - except didn't like the ground where there had recently been puddles, so the dirt was flat. And he didn't like it when there was a lot of rock on the ground - it looks funny, apparently.

He has loaded beautifully every time and does an excellent job of backing out of the trailer in a thoughtful way (all of mine turn around and come out frontwards <g>).

Today we opened the gate between Uno and Hopi's paddocks full-time and they were fine together - neither seems to have the upper hand (and Hopi's barefoot in back, just in case

) .

We've been working on the "not running away whenever we go in his paddock". I've made a rule now that if he wants his dinner/apple/whatever, he has to suffer having his neck hugged first. He's getting the idea, esp. as yesterday we had a session of "either you stand and get your neck hugged, or you'll have to run up and down and it'll be more trouble than it's worth". :)

(I really wish I had access to a round pen - it would make things a lot easier).

I did discover riding Hopi that if I think of him as a "greenie", I ride much less well. Whereas if I just think of him as "ignorant", I'm much less tip-toey and more firm with him, and I think ride better as a result. I'm not saying forceful, just not "namby-pamby, uh-oh what's he going to do next" tip-toe riding.

He doesn't like "weird footing" - places where the dirt looks different, or there are suddenly weird-looking (honest) rocks. He couldn't care less about stumps (which is what Uno is alarmed by) and other "shapes" by the side of the trail.

When we rode on Tuesday, he did one spook at a pink rock - his spook consisted of a fast sideways step and that was it. Roo, OTOH, has spooked big at the same rock (a lurking pink one), even when I was ready for him to do so, since he does it every time we pass that rock, and I'd already fallen off 200 yards before from him spooking at a similar-coloured, less-hidden rock (as featured in Tuesday's video <g>).

He is v. v. light and doesn't like you messing with his head, so I have to ride with pixie hands. Tuesday I tried him in a full-cheeked Dr Bristol double-jointed snaffle and he played and played with it while walking along. I need to work on him giving to the bit, rather than fighting it, which is what he does now. But I also need to work on my own hands and keeping them super-light (that's what I was doing when I fell asleep on Sunday afternoon - reading the chapter on hands in the centered riding book).