Training Updates

 

It’s either feast or famine around this blog lately.  I either hit you with multiple posts in a week or zip, zilch, nada for weeks at a time.  Sorry about that!  Here’s what you’ve missed:

1.  Jethro was adopted and just left today.  The kids were also trying to sneak Amigo into the trailer without me noticing.  It didn’t work, but it was amusing to watch them lead him around with just their arms around his little neck.

2.  Traveler went for his fourth ride and first trail ride ever on Wednesday.  He was AMAZING!  Read all about his ride on Tamara’s blog.  Traveler heads over to my pony foster next week for daily riding and further training.  Then, it’s likely he already has a home waiting for him with Jethro’s adopter!

 

3.  At the same time Traveler heads to the foster, Chip will be headed to the vet for some much needed brain surgery.  Then he’s off to the foster as well for training.

4.  Did I tell you the story of Whiskers?  She was actually rescued by a friend, but turned out to be too dangerous and unpredictable for her to keep at her barn with larval humans running around.  She’s three, but I wasn’t going to start her training this year because we had so many other youngsters.  However, she kept hanging out around the round pen, watching everyone else and  looking left out.  So just to see how crazy Tamara really is, I asked if she wanted to work with Whiskers and see if she accepted the saddle as well as I thought she would.  Whiskers never batted an eye when she was tacked up, so Super Crazy Volunteer laid across her back, then swung on up.  Whiskers went berserk!

 

 

Can’t you tell?  I know it’s not a video, but that’s what happened.  Whiskers stood statue still, just swishing her tail at flies.  Tamara dismounted, untacked, and called it a day.  Now that we know Whiskers accepts pretty much anything, we’ll start her ground work and teach her voice commands and cues.  Once that’s done, the rest will obviously be pretty easy.

5.  Jasmine is doing so well that we’ll probably take her out on trail for the first time this week.  I’ll take pictures this time because I just know she’ll do awesome!

 

6.  Quill.. what can I say about Quill except that he’s incredible?  We should have him out on trail soon, too.

 

I never imagined having this many Maverick-wanna-bes in the herd!

Overdose of Cute

Anne and her daughter, Emily, came out for a photo shoot this morning so I could finally get some pictures of the horses up on the rescue site.   We took pictures of Gentry, Jewel, Maggie, Ellie, Apache, and Cheyenne.  Then, wouldn’t you know it, Gentry and Cheyenne went and got themselves adopted this afternoon!  Gentry will go home next week and Cheyenne leaves once she’s broke to ride.  They’re both going to the same home and will have tons of fun in 4H with their new humans!

But let’s get back to the cute, shall we? 

Maggie and Kenzie may miss Marbles, but they’re not showing it.  These two have formed their own mini herd that usually hangs with the Jewel/Jasmine herd, but just as easily hangs with the big guys, like Kita, Junior, and Sadie.

 

Since Meghan left, Jewel has befriended Jasmine and her two offspring.  There’s plenty of grass and hay to go around gang, you don’t all need to try and eat the same blade of grass!

 

Just so you know, I love this pony.

 

After  we took the “necessary” pictures, I had to show off Sky.  Emily loved him (who doesn’t??) and just wanted to hug and cuddle with him.  Too bad he doesn’t feel the same yet!  He is getting a lot more curious and actually snuck up behind me and nudged me in the elbow the other night.  That was the first time he’d voluntarily gotten close enough to touch me.

 

 

 

Someday, I’m going to have a big butt, just like mom and Auntie Jewel!

Equine Photo Overkill

I have a new volunteer and her name is Amy. She’s 18 and wants to be a vet. She has long blonde hair, legs up to her neck, and if I was half as beautiful when I was that age I would have been dangerous. Glenn is not allowed to meet her.

Amy loves horses. So much so that she wants to smell like them. All the time. Except for the beautiful part, she reminds me a lot of me at that age.

Amy’s mom has an awesome camera, even better than my new toy. She even knows how to use hers, unlike someone else I know. They both came out on Thursday morning to take pictures of the horses in the rain. Not only that, she took one hundred and fifty pictures! And I thought I was crazy for taking 50 pictures of a rabbit!

Well yeah, ok. Maybe that really was crazy.

So here are the ones that I really liked. Yes, there are a lot of Kita pictures. So sue me.

Somebody help me, these mares are nothing but trouble, especially with Willow in the lead.

Beet pulp nose. Kind of like a milk mustache, but even cuter.

Oddly, out of all of those pictures I didn’t see Jewel, Duchess, Maggie, Marbles, Frisky, or Kenzie. She did get a couple of pics of Ellie, but they were very far off. It turns out Ellie was terrified of the umbrella. Did you know umbrellas can eat small ponies? I didn’t either, but it must be true!

I’m too brain dead to come up with a title

Please forgive me.

The first family that I hired to work around here did not work out.  I won’t go into details because I’m over it.   Luckily, I had already hired someone else to replace fence, who said “sure, we can mow and weed eat too, and whatever other little projects you have”.  GREAT!  How about starting with the outhouse remodeling?

They started yesterday and the outhouse is now the “in” place to hang if you’re a young chicken or guinea.   The guys are sinking fence posts today and I think it’s pathetic how excited I’ve become over new fencing. 

 

The only thing left to do is put a different handle on the door.  The one that’s on there now is a lever and I’m pretty sure there’s a certain black and tan dog around here who is smart enough to get it open. 

Do I need to tell you how STUPID the meat birds are?  They go out, but can’t figure out how to get back in.  So last night I’m out there in the dark with a flashlight, lying on the floor of the outhouse hanging halfway out their door and trying to catch the eight moronic meat birds that couldn’t find their way back in to safety. 

Maybe I’m the stupid one?

Looks like I’ll be doing the same thing tonight.  This one has been sitting outside for hours, which is why I put some water and food out for him. 

 

At least the guineas and young pullets are a bit smarter.  They’ve been going in and out without any help from me.

Hello incredibly ugly little dinosaur.

 

I got home late last night to find Jasmine and Sky marching down the road looking for me.   At least I’d like to think they were looking for me, but probably not.   I went home to get a bucket of feed, but they were already headed back down the driveway.  I guess the smart little hussy knows Bessie truck = food lady.  Rather than try and fix the fence at 9:30 at night, I put them in with the main herd.  Buh bye, have fun, see you in the morning.  I was really too tired to care at that point.  Loading 640lbs of concrete mix, 30 fence posts, and a 25 cubic foot chest freezer on to the truck and trailer does that to me.

I spent most the night wondering if they were ok and if anyone was chasing them.   I should have known better and just gotten some sleep!  When I went up to the barn earlier, Jasmine and Gentry were cozied up together whispering sweet nothings at each other.   Neither her or the baby had a scratch on them or any sweat marks like they’d been running all night.  Jasmine gave me her familiar nicker that she uses to greet me every time I’m near and Sky gave me a sideways glance to see if I had a bucket of food, then went back to snoozing.

I would really like to do the same right about now.  But after work I need to feed everyone, go get more feed, come home and unload it, then go back out to get four more hay rolls, come home and unload those, then go back out in the other direction for horse water, then come home and fill up the troughs.

Ugh.

Sky

Since the last three horses have shown up here, there’s been all sorts of interest in Sky.  He’s garnered almost as much interest as Maverick did in the beginning.   What is it about those adorable little boys that makes all us women swoon and want to just hug and kiss them to death?  I think in Sky’s case, it has a lot to do with those beautiful baby blues of his.

 

 

Or is it the case of “diaper rash” on his cute little bum?

 

Or is it all those little baby muscles?

 

Maybe it’s his shy side that makes him irresistible?

 

 

Poor Jasmine.  Doesn’t she realize that if she lets me get a halter on her I will pour a gallon of Cowboy Magic on that mane and make her look beautiful again?  At least she’s finally more comfortable with me being close to her while she eats as long as I don’t try to touch her.  If I so much as move a hand towards her, she gets this nasty little ‘tude and lets me know in no uncertain terms that she will eat me if I try to touch her again.  So far the best I can do is rub her head and neck as long as she’s got her head in the bucket and I’m holding the bucket for her.  She did take a few carrots from my hand the other night for the first time.  Progress!!   I have another four months or so before I need to wean the two, so time is on my side.  She’ll come around eventually or I’ll get stomped.  It’s looking like 50/50 right now.   Bets anyone?

 

Photo credits go to Anne on this one!

I say goodbye, you say hello

I said goodbye to Glenn today at the bus station when I dropped him off to head to Iowa for his first truck driving job. I’d like to say it was very tearful and romantic, but how often does that really happen anymore? The sun was shining and I wanted to get back to the farm, durnit! Besides that, on our way in we noticed three horses in Cattle Baron’s pasture – the same three that were supposed to be coming to us. They were from the same people that turned over Maggie, Marbles, and Frisky and they were going to call us when they were ready to bring over the other three. The guy assured me that he knew where we lived.

Apparently not. And the phone never rang.

He brought the horses over last night and went right past our place with all the horses and dumped his horses off with all the cattle. My mind is still boggled.

We stopped by and talked to Cattle Baron to find out what was going on and he said that he didn’t mind keeping them because he wanted a well-broke horse for his wife. Let’s review here: 6 yo mare, her 1 month old foal, and her yearling colt. None of them are even halter broke. But I’m sure you already guessed that.

Now trust me, I felt no great need to bring in three more horses. And if Cattle Baron knew anything about horses, I would have considered leaving them there. Or if he took care of his cows. Or if he spayed and neutered his dogs and cats. Or if he didn’t leave dead cows lying in the pasture for weeks. Because of all the previous evidence of his lack of animal husbandry, I felt obliged to whip out my power of persuasion. I barely had to twist his arm before he told me to go get them and take them home.

Let’s do a little math.

20 acre pasture + 3 untouchable horses + going 1/10th a mile down a gravel road + just little old me = DISASTER

So who ya gonna call when life deals you lemons and you have no sugar? Anne to the rescue!!!! It took about an hour and a half, a bucket of sweet feed, and more patience than I thought I had left in me, but we did it! Mama and babies are snoozing peacefully in the quarantine pasture as I type. I can get fairly friendly with the yearling and he lets me scratch him all over, but as soon as I try to get a lead rope around his neck he’s gone. I was able to scratch mom’s shoulder for a brief second, and rub her head while it was in the bucket eating, but that’s it. Baby wants absolutely nothing to do with the scary humans and spends most of his time sandwiched between the other two.

Since it seems that they’ve just had a lack of handling, rather than bad handling, it shouldn’t take too long for them to buddy up to the food lady. Marbles and Maggie are coming around quickly and Marbles now shoves his back to me in an effort to get a scratch. Maggie still lays her ears back when I reach for the halter, but at least she’s no longer biting or striking. We actually got all the little monsters wormed last night, which was an adventure in itself!

Your turn to say "hello"!

Jasmine, Sky, and ? I need a name that fits that adorable pointy blaze on his face. Help!

Check out the divit in mama’s face. It looks like someone left a halter on her when she was younger and her face was forced to grow around it. Poor girl!

They didn’t know what apples or carrots were, but after Anne threw some pieces on the ground for them, they quickly realized that apples were worth almost overcoming the fear of humans.

For horses that have never had their feet trimmed, Jasmine and the colt have incredibly good feet.

Those ears… I really want to play with those soft, furry, curved, uniquely colored ears.

I’ll start ground work with Jasmine once Sky is weaned and hopefully have her broke and adoptable before the end of the year. Sky and his big brother will spend the Winter in the back pasture with Maverick, Marbles, and Stride.

Oh, and OF COURSE Jasmine originally came from the Krazy Kolor breeder down the road from us. ARGH!

THIS IS IT! At least for this year. Tabby, Meghan, and Abby are headed to their new homes soon. Genesis is heading over for pony training with Anastasia next month. Once everyone finishes shedding out and don’t look like they have mange, Anne is coming over for photography day and we’ll get new pictures up on the rescue site. Once all the colts are halter broke, Doc will have a field day out here gelding them all. Let’s hope none of them are shy about dropping that second dangly like Maverick was!