Pre-Posse Worries

Lizzy might not be the purdiest truck, but she'll get the job done.

Skeeter and I start Posse training tomorrow morning. I'm not at all stressed out by riding her in the arena with other horses, but I have been worried about the whole trailering thing. I've pulled a trailer with a horse in it exactly *two* times in my life. Once was with this truck/trailer to take Estes to the Lodge, and the other time was with my friends' big truck/trailer to take Skeeter to Jessica's for training.

There are two parts to my stress about trailering tomorrow:

#1, will Skeeter get in the effing trailer? Remember when we went to Colorado Mustang Days, we had to call in reinforcements to get her and Copper to Denver.

#2, can I get us there safely? Hwy 85 is one pot-holed mess and I am not 100% comfortable driving Jay's truck.

Because I'm a bit stressed, we had a game plan. Jay went with me while I towed the empty trailer to the gas station and got gas. This required me to drive on parts of the same road I'll be driving in the morning. We also had to go to a second gas station to get to an air pump (which didn't work, btw). I got a feel for how the trailer tracks on a dirt road and on pavement. I was feeling pretty good by the time we got home. Since the air pump that we paid for didn't actually put air in the tire we needed, we borrowed L.E.'s air compressor. When I asked to borrow it, she said, "Sure, just back the trailer in here.". I laughed, but attempted it. Luckily, I managed to NOT hit either of the 500 gallon propane tanks in my eighty thousand attempts. Eventually, Jay just took over, backed the trailer in on one try, and we filled our low tire.

I guess that means I'll be practicing trailer backing in the near future (but not today).

The next hurdle we had to get over was putting Skeeter in the trailer. She's been in it before, back when it lived in the pen with them. Heck, she's self-loaded lots and lots of time, but that was on her terms. Jay was willing to help me work with her on loading before he had to leave for work, but then looked in the trailer. Stupid wasps had started building nests in the trailer, which derailed our plan for a bit. I sprayed the nests, then Jay knocked them down for me to stomp the ever-loving-shit out of. I stomped those nests - and the dying wasps within - to dust, then stomped them some more.

I'm lucky that Jay looked up in the trailer, because if I'd tried to load Skeeter and she'd gotten stung, there's no way I'd ever get her back in our trailer again. 

I knew that there was no way Skeeter would load while the trailer stank of wasp spray, so we decided we'd just get up really early tomorrow to work on getting her loaded. Jay went off to work and I went back to stalking watching the EMM in Fort Worth (I love FB live right now).

It's so nice out and I really didn't want to fight with Skeeter in the morning, so I thought I'd give the trailer loading a go. She was doing so very well with her front feet, but wouldn't load her back. I was kind of cussing and thinking the EMM horses get to cheat on their trailer loading, because they get to load into a stock trailer, not a two-horse straight load like we've got.

That grumbling got my little brain a thinkin' and I realized I too could have a stock-type trailer if I just took out the middle divider. I tied Skeets to the outside of the trailer, and started removing the pins holding the divider in. There were a couple that I needed some leverage to get out, so L.E. was kind enough to help me lift the divider enough to take the pressure off the pins. We got the divider out and now the trailer looks HUGE inside.

We fiddled around some more. I introduced Skeeter to the trailer again with both back doors open, because I know it looked different with the divider out and I didn't want her to freak out. She climbed partway in and then backed out. Good enough for me, so I closed one door and tried driving her in while L.E. bribed her from the front with her very favoritest treat on the planet.

Boy, I wish I'd had my camera for that. Skeets would walk her front legs in and then go up on tippy-toes with her back legs to try to reach the granola bars. After we figured out that she was smarter than we are, we changed the doors. I closed the one I was trying to drive her in, and opened the other one. L.E. went to the other window at the front of the trailer and in went Skeeter to get her reward. She stood quietly in the trailer for a minute or two before calmly backing herself out.

I don't think loading her tomorrow is going to be any trouble at all and my stress level has plummeted. As long as I don't have to back the trailer into any tight spaces (or back the trailer at all), and as long as she goes in as calmly as she did today, we're set for tomorrow!

8-6-16: A Monumental Day (Lots of pictures)

Last week, Jay and I went on a guided trail ride up in Estes as a "confidence building" ride. Jay hadn't been on a horse since Pearl bucked him off in May. It was his idea to go ride a dead-broke horse, and it was an excellent idea. The horse he was assigned was perfect for him - easy-going, calm, and willing. My assigned horse, on the other hand, was head-strong and bitchy. She had a bad habit of cocking an ear back at Jay's horse, then spinning 1/4 turn to challenge his horse. What I learned from my confidence-building ride is that my Skeeter has never behaved that way and is much easier to ride than that mare was.

For a while now, we've been saying, "we have to get up and ride". The stars aligned on Saturday and the three of us (Jay, L.E., and I) were all in the same place at the same time, and our neighbor's arena was open.

With the trail ride under our belts, and some solid rides on all the horses by Annie, we were ready! Off we went to the neighbor's arena.

It was truly a monumental day - I know how hard it was for me to climb up on Skeeter after being bucked off of Pearl, and I have years of riding under my belt. Watching Jay make two big achievements in one moment seriously choked me up.

Achievement #1: first time on Copper since riding in Jessica's round pen in February/March. No support person on the ground, no trainer talking him through, and in a much larger space than the round pen.

Achievement #2: first time up since getting bucked off. For an experienced horse person, stepping back into the saddle the first time is hard - for a green rider, it's a make-it-or-break-it moment.

L.E. rode Pearl beautifully (I took pictures, but they were all back-lit and didn't turn out) - she can really make Pearl glide. All that classical riding training from her past is very apparent. While the two of them were prancing around the arena looking all fancy, Jay and I were happy to work at a walk. Jay's goal had been to just get up and sit on Copper, but took it a bit further and rode him for fifteen minutes or so. Skeeter and I worked on walking over things; walking into a "box" and turning around in the confines of said box; backing through and over things; figure-eights around jump standards; just "stuff" to keep us both interested.

It was amazing to get to ride with my hubby and L.E. and I look forward to doing more of it. In fact, I'm so thrilled with how Pearl is going with L.E., that I think she's ready for Autobot to ride. Pearl's not quite "kid" ready, but I think Autobot can handle her in the arena.

Proud Mommy moment - Skeeter stood where I parked her.

Jay and Copper getting ready

Skeeter offering her emotional support to Jay. (Or she might have been sleeping.)

Checking out Copper's reaction to Jay's saddle

This, right here, is everything. First time up on Copper since March.

Seriously, such an important step for both of them.

And off they go!

Look! My hubby is riding *his* horse!

Copper took such good care of Jay.

Just because I think she's pretty.

We had to re-create this picture because I missed the first, but it's still heartfelt

The three of us in the same place, at the same time, on the 3 Mustangeers :)

Annie

We knew getting into this three-horse thing, we wouldn't have time to work all of them on a regular schedule, so we've been looking for someone to help us put wet saddle blankets on them. They are all three green-broke and Pearl has the most riding under her belt, but we have been struggling getting enough hours on them to help them progress.

I'd approached our neighbor, who owns a riding school, about finding a rider back in March (before we even had Pearl) and she put me in touch with someone she knew. The person she put me in touch with is an excellent rider, but doesn't do much western riding and was uncomfortable taking on a discipline outside of her own. I was disappointed, but completely understood.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a text from my neighbor telling me she thought she had someone else who was interested in working the horses. I was really excited until I read that the rider she wanted to send me was 15. I was pretty conflicted about how a 15 year old girl would handle three green-broke horses and struggled with replying for a few hours.

On my way home from work, I got a call from the rider, Annie. It took about 3 seconds to calm my fears about having a "youngster" ride for us. As my neighbor said, she's 15 going on 35. She's been riding her whole life and is currently re-training an OTTB. I invited her and her mom out to meet the horses to see if it was going to be a match.

She worked with confidence and quickly identified areas in which Skeeter and Copper needed work. She rode each of them and was able to respond to both of their very different personalities.

Skeeter was a bit mare-ish, but what do you expect?

Cops was worried, but that's his default with new things.

The day Annie came out, Skeeter developed some random soft tissue swelling in her right hind, but I had her ride anyway. I did cancel the next Skeeter ride, just in case she had an abscess brewing. Turns out it was just random soft tissue stuff (she probably did it while Pearl was chasing her all over Estes' pen) that went away in a couple of days.

Annie came back out and took Copper for a ride at the neighbor's arena and it turned into a great lesson day for him. A storm came rolling in, so Copper got to stand in the barn while it stormed. When he got a little too antsy, he went into a stall. He does not like small horses, so the stall was perfect - his next-stall-neighbor was a pony mare with a baby. Belle's not as small as a mini, and neither is her baby, but they are definitely much smaller than Copper's used to.

Finally, the storm passed and Annie was able to take him out to the arena for a ride. I haven't talked to her much to see how the ride went, but she said it was a good one.

She was on vacation last week, but starting tomorrow she'll be riding all three horses twice a week. I think the horses will respond well to a structured riding schedule, which will make it a lot easier for Jay and I to get up on them on our days off.

Pearl Update

Pearl has settled into the herd nicely. So far, the herd dynamics have not shaken out the way I thought they would. Just over a week in, it's Copper as the alpha, followed by Pearl (very, very recent), then Skeeter. I would have thought Skeeter, Copper, then Pearl. Copper stepped right up the minute Pearl moved in, which bumped Skeeter down, but she still out-ranked Pearl until yesterday/today. They're still fine-tuning the hierarchy, but I think this is pretty close to being done.

Jessica came out on Sunday for our first lesson with Pearl. We'd not done much other than just let her settle in and give her some loves, so Sunday was her first work day. Jay and I have both worked with Jessica, so we had L.E. do the groundwork lesson. It's overwhelming, because Jessica knows so much and when you're trying to learn it, it's like drinking from a fire hose.

Pearl was a bit worried that we'd taken her away from Skeeter and Copper, so we brought them over and tied them to the trailer. She calmed down immediately with her "support crew" near. It was good for Skeets and Copper to stand tied at the trailer for an hour, as well.

L.E. learned about how/why Jessica does circling work the way she does. It's helpful to have had the same trainer with all of our horses, because we can work any one of them the same way. After trying on a few saddles, Jessica decided Jay's brown Aussie fit her the best, so we tacked her up and L.E. did more work with her.

It didn't take long for Jessica to decide it was time to mount up. L.E. was a bit nervous because it has been about eight years since she was on a horse. I can certainly understand her apprehension. It's hard to climb back up on a horse if you haven't been on one in a while.

Even though the saddle is way too big for L.E.'s little rear end, she did really well. Pearl was perfect and L.E.'s grin was infectious. She's pretty in love with Pearl about now.

At the end of the lesson, L.E. wanted to make sure Jay got up on her while Jessica was there. They lengthened the stirrups and Jay started to mount up. The step-stool/mounting block was a bit far away, but not too far away. It was just far enough that he had to reach a bit to mount. He dragged his foot across her butt, which was no big deal, but then got his leg caught on the cantle, which causes a bit of worry. By the time he got his butt in the saddle it was too late, she was well and truly worried and set to bucking. Jay managed to ride out a little buck and then she let loose with a big buck and off he came.

Luckily, we were out in the middle of the field, so there wasn't much to hit on the way down. His years of TKD training as a kid paid off and he managed to tuck and roll before going splat. Pearl has never offered a buck - ever - so Jessica was stunned.

She asked me to climb up on her, as we assumed it was just too much for her with the foot dragging across the butt and the getting hung up on the cantle and the general awkwardness of the mount. We started off just like she was a new colt: foot in the stirrup, add weight, get down; foot in the stirrup, add weight, lean over, get down; rinse, repeat. She was calm and taking it easy, so I threw my leg over and plopped down to simulate an uncoordinated mount. Pearl took offense to that and off I went. I landed stuntman-perfectly - flat on my back. The only thing missing was the crash pad. The air whooshed out of me and I had a moment of panic before I rolled over to my hands and knees to attempt to catch my breath.

As much as it hurts to admit it, it was good for me to get bucked off. It's been a while (about ten years or so) and I'd let it build up to be some horrible, horrible thing. But it's not. I hit the ground, which hurt like a mofo, but I managed to get back up, which reminded me that I just lived through what I'd built up in my mind to be the worst thing that could happen on a green horse.

There were things I could have/should have done differently, but I'm not sure it would have changed the outcome, so it's not worth entertaining the "what ifs".

Jessica told us that she would not have believed it if she hadn't seen it with her own two eyes, up close and personal. Hell, I wouldn't have believe it, either. We discussed what happened, but couldn't really come up with a good reason. Jessica climbed back up on her and rode a circle without a problem, then she changed to her own saddle, which she's more comfortable in, and rode around some more. Pearl was an angel.

After a couple of days of thinking on it, I have a hypothesis. Jay's saddle has a channel down the middle, with pads on either side. Neither Jessica nor L.E. are heavy enough to compress those pads. However, Jay is. My thought is that when he finally got into the saddle, those pads compressed (bulged) inward toward her spine and "bit" her. Pain will definitely cause bucking in a horse who's never offered one.

While, I'm not as heavy as Jay, I've got fifty pound on both Jessica and L.E. When I plopped down into the saddle, I also "bit" her on the spine and she said "ouch". If I'd eased into my mount properly, she might not have bucked, because the compression of the pads wouldn't have been so sudden and ouchie. We might have had problems later, at a trot, if I'd missed a post or inadvertently slammed down on her back.

Both of us are sore as all get-out and Jay has some amazing bruises, but we lived through it and now we know that his saddle is not one that we should use with Pearl (and we both should lose some weight).

We hobbled through getting the horses put away and had to get pretty for family pictures later in the afternoon. We both knew it was going to suck and it did, but we managed to smile, not grimace, through the pics.

I had no sooner crawled into bed after an eventful (and painful) day when there was a knock on the front door. Jay was in the living room and yelled out, "babe! Someone's at the door." To which I reminded him I was nekkie and in bed, so he pulled on some britches to answer the door. It was one of our neighbors to tell us that the horses were out.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" I grumbled as I pulled on some clothes to join them outside. Turns out, it wasn't our horses who were out, but the across-the-street neighbor's horses. Since Jay and I horse-sit for them when they're on vacation, her horses associate us with food. They allowed us to catch them while they were grazing in our yard and let us lead them back to their paddock.

It was reminiscent of the livery's break-outs, but much, much easier to handle, thank God. I don't think I could have dealt with one of those scenes.

Big News! It's a Girl!

A pearl is a thing of natural beauty, formed by grit, and when polished up and shown off is a understated symbol of class and elegance. And a wild pearl (not farmed) is rare, highly sought after, and highly valued. - Jessica Dabkowski

Jay and I have been keeping a secret. We fell in love with one of Jessica's makeover horses and decided to bid on her. Jessica pretty much always places in the top ten and as a general rule, her horses go for good money at the adoption auction.

We were looking for a spare horse - one that the kids, nieces/nephews, and L.E. could ride - and thought she would fit the bill perfectly. We had the opportunity to meet her while Copper was still in training at Jessica's and she was every bit as sweet as we'd hoped. Jay and I talked it over with L.E. and she agreed to let us bring a third horse onto the property. Then she surprised us even more, by offering to go in on her with us!

The three of us were pretty nervous at auction. The first horse on the block went for way outside our budget and we were certain that there was no way we were going to get her. After the first horse, though, prices came down to a more affordable range and we started to feel some hope again.

Jay did a great job of bidding, and waited until just the right time to jump in. We got her for a great price; not so low that Jessica didn't make any money, and not at the top of our budget.

Our trailer is not BLM approved, so we borrowed another neighbor's stock trailer to bring home our new little girl. She's five years old, a 2011 model out of the Divide Basin HMA (Herd Management Area) in Wyoming. Copper's from the Adobe Town HMA, which is just across I-80 from Divide Basin.

Bringing her home

Her homecoming went very well. We put her in Estes' old pen for a couple of hours so she could graze and relax a bit before introducing her to Copper and Skeeter. We hoped for a smooth introduction, as she and Copper lived right next door to each other for about two months at Jessica's.

(Turn off the volume - there's a fair bit of wind noise and some inane chatter.)


I didn't realize how much Skeeter and Pearl looked alike until we turned them out together. Skeeter is a true black, but with the sun bleaching looks like a dark bay, which is what Pearl is. Neither of them have much in the way of chrome on them except for their different facial markings. Thank goodness for the semi-permanent 16 on Pearl's hips.

I was concerned slightly on Monday that she wasn't being allowed to drink because Copper kept moving her off the water, so Jay pulled her from the pen and took her back over to Estes' pen. Oh boy, did I make a mistake in suggesting that! All hell broke loose. I figured that because Copper and Skeeter kept moving her off the food and water that they wouldn't give a damn if we moved her.

I was WRONG.

Wrongwrongwrongwrong.

Despite Copper being the one to keep moving her off the water, we moved him over to be with her in Estes' pen. He does not do alone well, and Skeeter throws a fit, but does alone slightly better.

They hollered back and forth and generally raised a ruckus for about half an hour. Then it got quiet. Like, suspiciously quiet, so I snuck out of the house to make sure Copper and Pearl hadn't jumped the fence and made a break for it.

They'd decided to make peace and each of them were face down in the grass. Even Skeeter finally quieted down once she realized they hay was all hers.

After another half hour of peace and quiet, we took Copper and Pearl back to the pen and turned them loose. Immediately, Copper started moving her around again. I kind of threw my hands up and said, "screw it".  My biggest concern was that Pearl wasn't getting enough to drink, but after grazing on fresh grass and drinking in Estes' pen, I knew she'd be fine for the day.

I felt much better when L.E. posted a picture of the three of them laying down in their pile of hay.

They called a truce.

This morning, Skeeter moved her off when I went to scratch her, but for the most part, I think the integration has gone pretty well. The plan is to give her the week off, and then Jessica will come out and do a lesson with us over the weekend.

I look forward to all of our adventures :)

Photo Shoot

This is not the post I should be doing, but it's the one I'm going to do. I'm behind a bit - there's a post about Skeeter's trailer-loading lesson last week, and one about Mom and Bill working with the horses yesterday, but I don't feel like doing those quite yet. Instead, I bring you our fashion shoot.

The U.S. Wild Horse and Burro Association sells these beautiful red, white, and blue "American Mustang" halters. I bought one for each of Mom and Bill's horses for Christmas last year, and Jay and I each received one for volunteering with USWHBA at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo (Colorado Mustang Days).

They are not our "every day" halters, but will be used for any "ambassador" duties the horses have; any place they go with the USWHBA. We hadn't put them on the horses until today. For Mother's Day, I bought Mom lead ropes for Jesse and Washoe that match the halters, and while I was doing that, bought lead ropes for us as well.

Since both horses' halters and lead ropes are identical, I put Skeeter's "gotcha" present on hers so we can tell them apart. We need to get one for Copper's halter as well, because when we're at a mustang event everyone has these halters and it would be very easy to end up with the wrong halter.

Skeeter's halter tag; a gift from my dear friend Glenna (Tara Janzen)

The back of the tag.

Can you tell Copper's not very excited about his photo shoot?

"Please Dad, can we be done?"

I just love this tag :)

Big Red Horse was d-o-n-e with the photo shoot.

Sleep Over

A couple of weeks ago, L.E. was out of state and I was tending the chickens each evening. You may know that I *hate* birds.

Hate them.

Hate.

Them.

But I kind of really love "our" hens. They're a hoot and they don't try to peck me or get too close and they lay delicious eggs.

About the third day L.E. was gone, I came home from work just as the sun was setting and noticed things were awry in the farm yard. Items that were normally stored to the south or east of the buildings were lying in the middle of the drive and the gate to the hens' pen was mostly closed, with the bar that normally holds it open lying on the ground next to it. Now, I know that the hens can't budge that metal bar, so something was not right in Paradise.

I quickly picked up the errant items and put them away before I want into the hens' pen. It looked like they had already tucked themselves in for bed, but since things were not quite right when I got home, I decided to open the coop to check them.

One hen.

Two hens.

Uh, where's the third hen?

Crap. I always worried when L.E. went away that I'd lose one of her hens to a critter. I stood there in their pen looking around and it dawned on me that we'd probably had a microburst while I was at work. The microburst would account for things being out of place and the gate being partially closed, despite the metal bar that normally holds it open. I dared to hope that the hen had roosted somewhere else and set out on a walk-about the property to find her.

Twenty minutes later, I gave up and hoped that she'd found herself some place nice and secure to hole up for the night. When Jay came home, I told him that we were missing one of the hens and said that the best place she could have roosted would be in the horses' hay. I'd looked around their round bale, but didn't see anything, but it was getting dark and she's a red hen, so I might have missed her.

About one a.m. I was awakened by loud, continuous banging. At first I thought it was the horses kicking the round feeder, but the noise wasn't quite right for that. I figured they'd stop in a few minutes and tried to get back to sleep. The horses were having none of it.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

I listened for snorting and running, but it seemed to be quiet out there except for the banging. Whatever those horses were doing, they weren't panicked. I finally dragged myself out of bed and put on my glasses so I could peer out the window.

I couldn't see Copper, but I saw Skeeter walking around the pen with something in her mouth. "Aw crap, that better not be the hen. Wait ... that's way to big to be a hen. What the hell is in her mouth? Did they stomp a coyote to death?" Since I had no idea what she was swinging around, I slid into my clothes, grabbed a flashlight and headed out to see what they were doing.

By the time I got out to the pen, Skeeter had dropped whatever she had been playing with and met me at the fence.

"Hey Mom, whatcha doin' up?"

"What the hell, Skeets? It's the middle of the night, what are you guys doing?" I shined the light around the pen and found what she had been swinging around - their big rubber feed tub - but it didn't account for the sound of hooves on metal. I kept shining the light around the pen until I saw a reflection in the middle of the pen that didn't belong there.

"Copper, really?" The water baby had dumped the metal water trough and kicked it all over the pen. In his defense, I knew they were low on water and had intended to fill it when I got distracted by the missing hen, then I forgot. It wasn't empty, but it was low. The big red horse decided that the middle of the night would be a good time to play with the trough and that was that.

Cussing under my breath, I dragged the trough back to where it belonged and started to fill it. Even with the hydrant wide open, it was taking forever to fill, so I thought I'd wander around the round bale and see if the missing hen had roosted there. Sure enough, she had burrowed herself into the hay and was practically invisible. I stood there, flashlight shining on her, contemplating whether or not I should try to move her to the coop.

Skeeter ambled over, looked at me, looked at the hen and lowered her head, "Mom, we're having a sleep over. Leave her alone, we got this." And with that, the big black horse ushered me back to the water trough. As soon as she was certain I was going to stay at the trough, she took up a guard position near the hen. She guarded the little red hen in the same manner she stands guard over Copper when he's flat-out.

All I could do was laugh at the goofy mare, finish filling the water trough, and go back to bed.

The next morning, all of the hens were back together as though nothing happened.

Last Work Day Before CMD

Sunday was our last work day. Jessica wanted me to go out and ride Copper before he comes home, so I headed out there with Mom and Bill in tow. Actually, the trailer was in tow and Mom and Bill met me there. I dropped off the trailer for Jessica to work with Copper on, because it's such a small trailer compared to Mom and Bill's. It took an hour to get him into their big trailer to take him to Jessica's, so we knew he'd take some work to get into our little two-horse, straight-load trailer.

Jessica had me do his whole routine - round pen work, ground work, and riding. He worked like a perfect gentleman and his power steering is much better than Skeeter's. I know this after riding them back-to-back. He really was amazing. I spooked him once by slapping the saddle strings against my leg, but he recovered quickly.

When we were done, we headed back home to work with Miss Skeeter. She and I had a really bad work day on Friday and I wasn't comfortable working her by myself. When I say bad work day, I mean bad - she got all hard-eyed and kicked out at me a couple of times while working on the circle. I thought maybe just she and I were feeding our frustrations off of each other, so I had Jay work her and she did the same thing. One moment, perfect, soft-eyed and willing; the next, hard-eyed and kicking.

I had been bragging about how she'd gone through estrus without me even noticing a change in attitude and it bit me in the butt. I think she just wasn't feeling well post-estrus and was letting us both know. No matter the reason, I felt it prudent to wait until I had back-up just in case she was able to connect if she had more "episodes".

Of course, once I had more ground support, she was excellent. Truly amazing, which makes me believe even more that she was suffering from some post-estrus nastiness.

She was so good that I rode her (in her beautiful new saddle) around for about ten minutes.

And then Mom rode her around for about ten minutes ...

The stirrups were a bit short, but Mom made do

Finally, Bill crawled up on her. By that time, she was pretty close to being done, so he only rode for about five minutes ...

If that look doesn't say "I'm done", I don't know what does.

I'm pretty proud of her for being so good. Three different riders on a horse with less than fifty rides - only about five rides at home - without a fit is wonderful. I could not be more pleased with her.

Unfortunately, there hasn't been any more time to work with her this week, so the next time I'll be up on her will be at Mustang Days on Friday. This week has been filled with brand inspections and vet visits for their health papers. Jessica has been a God-send; she handled the brand inspector and the vet for Copper so I didn't have to take even more time off of work. Additionally, she has worked Copper with the trailer so when we go pick him up at 5:30 a.m. on Friday we shouldn't have a battle.

My hope is that Skeeter loads up nicely, because I haven't worked with her on it at all. She's been trailered places, but not in our trailer, though she has loaded up into it previously. Positive vibes for an easy loading at 4:30 a.m. would be appreciated.

Colorado Mustang Days

Jay and I might have lost our minds. You know, even more than usual. Last year during the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo, we spent a great deal of time watching the Mustangs compete in Colorado Mustang Days (CMD). We decided it was a good goal to strive for this year.

We both entered in three classes as amateurs: Pleasure, Mustang Race (similar to extreme trail), and Freestyle.

Skeeter spent 45 days or so at Jessica's getting green broke, but I haven't had as much time to work with her as I had hoped. If I'm lucky, we work twice a week and I've ridden even less. Copper is still at Jessica's for training - his 60 days is definitely getting stretched out because of the weather. When Copper comes home, Jay will have approximately four weeks to work with him before we head out to CMD in Denver. I feel like Jay's going to have an advantage because Copper will be fresh from training, while Skeeter has been sitting more than working.

Needless to say, I'm a bit nervous and a whole lot terrified. I've never shown at all, in any way, shape, or form, in my entire life (and neither has Jay). I know that we'll be fine and that should anything happen, we'll work our way through it and that this is supposed to be a learning experience.

Jay is handling it like he always does - nice and calm. Talk about someone who is unflappable. He and Copper are mirror images of each other.

Skeeter and I are mirror images of each other, too, and that might not be a good thing. I tend to be more high-strung and prone to blow-ups. The good thing is after a blow-up, I'm calm, so there's that.

If you happen to be in the Denver area in March, swing by - we'd love the support.

Sunday Fun Day - Skeeter

Since Copper was 1,200# of Nope on Thursday, we scheduled Jessica to come out and work with both of us. First, she worked with me and Skeeter, and then she worked with Copper on trailer loading. It was a long, amazing day.

My niece, Autobot, came over to observe our lessons. We were trying to talk her into doing the Youth Division of the Extreme Mustang Makeover next year, but she's decided that it's too much of a time commitment. I completely understand. Jay and I were willing to sponsor her (adopt the horse, pay for the feed, etc.), but it's an hour and a half round trip from her place to ours so I agree with her decision not to do it. I wouldn't want to make that commute every day before or after school either. But if we had a spare bedroom, we'd just move her in with us for three months and it would be a totally different story. :)

Anyway, I pulled Skeeter from the pen before Jessica got there and started grooming her, but she was wound up. I should have worked her first. I managed to give her a half-hearted grooming session and then we got to work.

Skeeter didn't get worked on Friday or Saturday after she came home because we had chores in town most of both days, so she got two days off to settle in. Boy was that a mistake. She had two days of pent-up energy when we went to work.

With Jessica's coaching, we worked on circling and longing. Now, I worked at a livery, we didn't have much time for "fancy" stuff like ground work. Once a horse accepted a saddle, we just rode its hide off until it was well-broke. This round pen, circling, and longing is all new to me. I've been working on it for the last couple of weeks at her place, but I'm still not very comfortable with it. Since we don't have a round pen, it's important for me to be able to longe her when she needs it. I am not a proponent of longing every horse before they get ridden, but during the training period it's nice to get the "woo-hoos" out. I'm getting way too old and the ground is way too hard for me to "buck it out".

Skeets had some attitude issues that included throwing a hoof at me and telling me very clearly to eff off, but we worked through it. Once her energy came down to an acceptable level, we threw a couple of saddles on her to see which of the two I had to choose from fit the best. She's got thoroughbred-y withers, so finding a fitting saddle could be tricky, but I have one that's okay.

The saddle that fits her the best is the one we started her saddle work in, so I feel good about choosing it in the first place. She was still feeling a bit "up", but not dangerously so. I might have put off riding her, but who knows when I can get Jessica back for a lesson and I definitely wanted other people there on my first ride at home. We don't have a round pen or an arena, so all of her "wet saddle blanket" training will be done "in the wild". I think I rode for less than half an hour, but feel much more comfortable than before I rode. We worked on steering and I worked on not neck-reining. I've got to break that habit for a while.



Her 'workout' schedule with me is going to be much different than with Jessica due to my crazy work schedule. The way I think it's going to work is groundwork on Tuesday/Thursday and riding Friday/Saturday/Sunday, weather permitting. I can't just let her sit, not with Copper gone, because she needs constant stimulation or she'll get destructive.

Fingers crossed it will work out nicely.

Skeeter's Home!

Copper is still here, though he was supposed to go to Jessica's yesterday.

We gave ourselves an hour to load Copper, thinking that would be plenty of time to be patient and get him in. I had let him explore the trailer earlier in the week and he was not afraid and was willing to investigate, so I truly thought an hour would be plenty to gently introduce him to the trailer.

Thursday morning came and Jay got Copper ready. I opened the trailer and Copper walked in just like a pro. But ... we had thought about the work it was going to take to get him in the trailer and not given one thought to how we were going to secure him. I was trying to talk Jay through how to close the slant gate and he was trying to do it with his left hand while keeping Copper in place with his right, but there's a super secret way to release the gate that neither of us knew at the time. We decided to leave the slant gate open and treat the trailer like a stock trailer, so Jay released the pressure on Copper and made to get out of the trailer. Copper took that as an invitation to get out as well and backed out right behind Jay.

I got in the trailer and fooled around with the gate release until I figured out the super secret way to open it. Since Copper had loaded like a pro to begin with, we didn't give loading him a second thought.

Two hours later, we still couldn't get him loaded into the trailer.

We tried everything: being patient, adding pressure, adding bribes, moving his feet, and plain old brute force. It was not happening. I texted Jessica and told her that he must be part mule, as stubborn as he was being. She laughed and said we could probably see his ears get longer by the minute. She was right.

Copper was done, Jay was done, I was done. Even Grandpa Bill was done.

After a flurry of texting, she offered to come out and do a loading lesson for us over the weekend. We headed out with the trailer to pick up Skeeter, even though Jessica offered to keep her until Sunday when we took Copper to her place. I had my heart set on getting Skeeter home, so off we went.

We were disappointed that poor planning on our part (not knowing how the gates worked) meant that not only did Copper not get to go on Thursday, but that it caused frustration and stress all the way around. I tend to think that everything happens for a reason, even if we don't know what that reason is and even if we are disappointed at the time.

When we got home and got Skeeter unloaded, she was a bit distracted and 'hot', so we spend five minutes or so doing groundwork to get her focused. I would have worked her a bit longer, because she was still a bit distracted, but Copper was losing his mind in the pen. With the moisture we've had, the pen is a slippery, mucky mess and we were worried that he'd slip and hurt himself, so I turned Skeeter out into the pen.

They settled in with just a couple of bucks and dove into the hay. Not nearly the homecoming we thought we'd get to see, but they were obviously happy to see each other.

This morning, watching them both back out in the pen, I decided the reason that we couldn't get Copper loaded was because we needed them both home for a while. My heart is happy having both of them here; Jay's heart is happy having both of them here; and even L.E. has mentioned how nice it is to look out and see them both.

Copper is going to training on Sunday, we're sure of that since Jessica is coming out to the house to do a trailer loading lesson, but I needed them both home for a couple of days (even if I didn't know it). I'll also get a riding lesson at home to help transition us to working and riding here.

Skeeter Goes to Camp

I haven't said anything about sending the horses to a trainer because I didn't want to jinx it. Jay had a trainer picked out for Copper, one who placed top ten in the Colorado Extreme Mustang Makeover (EMM) in May. The plans for Copper to go to that trainer fell through, so I was afraid to say anything about Skeeter going away until it actually happened.

I was super jealous of Jay's decision to send Copper to a trainer, and decided to re-allocate my "new gun" money to "Skeeter's Camp" money and talked to Jessica from Pony Peak Stangmanship. I met Jessica when she was a cast member on Horse Master a couple of years ago and have loved watching her work her 'stangs in the EMMs ever since. She is very zen-like in her approach to training and it shows in her horses.

Here's a video of her freestyle the year she won the Colorado EMM (2012). (You'll have to click the link, for some reason it wouldn't embed properly.)

We agreed she would take on Skeeter after she got back from the Fort Worth EMM (where she placed top ten), so on Monday I borrowed a friend's truck and trailer and hauled Skeets over. Mom came down to experience this milestone with us.

Remember last year when she didn't know her name? Now she comes when called.

Just some showing off for Grandma

When my friend offered me her truck and trailer, she didn't ask about my trailering experience. If you've been reading this blog a while, you might know that it's ... limited. I hauled Estes up the hill once in our small, two-horse straight-load bumper-pull trailer, and I hauled hay up the hill once on Jay's 21' flatbed bumper-pull trailer.

My friend's truck/goose-neck trailer combo was the biggest thing I've ever attempted. It was nerve-wracking because we had to go through miles of road construction, city traffic, and some dirt road driving.  I'm happy to say that I rocked that shit!

Stock trailer. Skeets did not approve at first.

I had just a passing thought as to how Skeeter would do getting into a trailer that hauls cattle, but then it vanished. She started to follow me up into the trailer and the she smelled the cows. I'm not sure she's ever seen cows, much less been close enough to smell them. She backed off the trailer pretty quickly, but didn't go far, just far enough away that she could get a good sniff.

It took about ten minutes for her to decide that the trailer was an okay place, then she walked right in like she had been doing it forever. Meanwhile, though, Copper was losing his mind that I'd taken Skeeter from the pen.

What a sweet face, right before all hell broke loose.

I'd like to say that Skeeter behaved herself once I took off her halter and closed the partition, but that would be a lie. She and Copper started screaming back and forth and she started kicking the trailer. Mom and I loaded up her bale of hay, told her to knock it off, and headed to Jessica's.

It took almost an hour to get there, and Skeeter did really well until we got parked. Funny, when she's concentrating on staying on her feet in a big ole stock trailer, she's too busy to kick.

I knew she was keyed up and was nervous about having to halter her and get her off the trailer because she was so fired up. We decided to keep the back gate of the trailer closed in case she decided to bolt when I opened the partition gate. I opened the partition and went in with the halter, while Jessica held the partition gate closed by reaching through the "windows" of the trailer. Skeeter put up a bit of a fuss about putting her nose in the halter, but in just a few seconds it was on.

I continued to be nervous about getting her off the trailer once the big back gate opened, but she followed me down nicely. Her head got high and she got just a smidge charge-y, but not like when we were at Julie's. It was a vast improvement.

We got her settled into her temporary home and discussed the goals for the next 30 days. At the end of her 30 days, I'd like to have a walk/trot/canter with good stops and left and right turns. Very basic stuff that a green broke horse should be able to do. One of the best things about sending her to Jessica is that I'll get a weekly lesson with Skeeter so that I can learn what Jessica's doing and continue it at home. My first lesson is Friday and I'm so looking forward to it.

The trainer that Jay had asked to train Copper has been pretty incommunicado, so we asked Jessica if she could take on Copper, too. She agreed, so when Skeeter is done, we'll swap out with Copper. It means that they will be separated for about 60 days, which is perfect. It will be good for them to have to rely on themselves and a human for a couple of months.

Horse Garden

While planting our garden, I decided to plant some carrots for the horses.  The carrots are doing lousy, by the way, but my carrot idea grew.  You see, I was telling my friend that I must be more horse crazy than I thought because I'd just planted food in my garden for my horses.  Specifically for my horses.  Yep, I'm definitely losing it.

But then I read an article that lettuce is okay for horse to have, too!  I'd already planted lettuce for me, but it wasn't going to be enough to share with the horses, so my brain made another big jump and said, "well, why don't you just plant a garden for the horses, in their pen, that they can graze on?"  And then the other half of my brain said, "That's a GREAT idea!".

So I dialed up Deejo, who provided me with the pallet collars for the human garden and told him I needed more because I was going to plant a garden for the horses.  Luckily, having the Bionic Cowgirl for a mother has rendered him immune to crazy horse ideas.  He didn't even sigh very heavily when I told him what I needed the collars for.

He turned up at the house with the most amazing planting boxes.  I thought the pallet collars were cool, but these were even better!

I didn't have nearly enough left over soil, so I headed to Home Depot to get more.  I picked up some sand for drainage and more soil and as I was standing there at the checkout line, there was a bag of grow anywhere grass seed!  In an instant, my whole plan changed from a lettuce bed to boxes of grass!  If I could get grass established, I wouldn't have to replant every year!  Trust me, I was feeling really brilliant at this point.

A couple of weekends ago, Jay and I had time to work on house projects and I was determined to get the horse garden in.  He set to work on making picnic benches and I started the garden.

I drilled random holes in the bottom for drainage (and only broke two drill bits)

Then I put down weed barrier to keep the sand from falling out.

It went pretty smoothly for the most part.  I got the boxes prepped and then had Jay help me lift them over the fence into the pen so I could start filling them.

Random sand for drainage

Then soil and grass seed

I knew that the horses, Skeeter especially, wouldn't leave it alone, so I bought some chicken netting.  I really wanted the 1cm x 1 cm wire mesh, but couldn't find it anywhere at Home Depot - I was stuck with the chicken netting.

I used a million staples to attach the netting and chased the horses away from their garden two million times.

You can see how well chasing them away worked.

They finally lost interest in the garden and I breathed a sigh of relief.  But it was short-lived.  The next morning, I found they'd "helped" me by removing the netting.

No more chicken netting

They very helpfully rearranged the dirt as well

I smoothed out the dirt, watered it, yelled at the horses, and then laughed at all of us.  They were having so much fun digging in their garden with their noses, I couldn't actually be mad at them for very long.  Skeeter had dirt up her nose and Copper had it in his hooves.  They were very happy with the sandbox I made for them to play in.

Each day for a week, I went out with the rake and smoothed out the soil.  I even watered it a couple of times, because I was still determined to get a damn garden for them.  Just as I was about to fall asleep one night, I thought to use my Google-fu to find the wire mesh I wanted.  Google assured me that Home Depot sold just what I was looking for, but I had been looking for it in the wrong department.

The next free day we had, Jay and I went to spend our Jax gift certificates at the farm and ranch store.  While we were there, Jay looked at me and said, "this is a farm store, I bet they have what you're looking for!"  By jove, he was right!

I was a happy, happy girl.

Last Saturday, while Jay was at work, my sister Nebalee came over to help me with the horse garden.  I could have done it alone, but it's more fun with help.  The horses had pushed a lot of the soil out of the boxes, so I picked up a couple more bags of soil and another bag of grass seed and we started again.

Apparently, Mr. Nebalee doesn't allow her to play with the power tools.

I was surprised to find that despite all of the horses' play time with the dirt, the seeds had sprouted!  There were tons of roots growing in the rearranged mounds of soil.  That grow anywhere stuff, really is grow anywhere!

It's not quite been a week since we put the wire mesh over the top, and we've had to add another piece of wood to help anchor the mesh, but the garden is still intact and (here's the best part!) grass is growing!!!!

Real grass!

That you can see and everything!