Well our little monsoon trail dried up, and we are back to sun & wind. It’s not too bad, and I have been able to ride, and work the horses. Lightning broke the water pipe in the pasture again so yes I’m hauling water again. Yesterday I took the opportunity while filling their tank, to take Sadie out of the pasture, and put her in a barn stall. I want to breed her, and she needs extra groceries. She has always been slender, and keeping weight on her is a bit of a challenge. Ok, more than a bit. Being older doesn’t help either, I need her nice and round. I like to keep her in the pasture to keep her feet trim. She grows way too much toe otherwise. On the way to the barn I passed the stallions to see if she might be in season. Oh yeah, she’s definitely in. Everyone got excited. Sadie’s our harlot. I can always count on her to be an easy breeder. She looks at the stallions, and she’s good to go in or not. I pull her away from the stallions, and put her next to Marina, as they are old friends.
Later, I moved Lightning because I want to start working her in the round pen. Lightning has been in pasture for about two or three years, and she was not pleased. I put her next to Ser-Haat thinking they are both young, and he’s a gelding so it should be fine, emphasis on should be. Remember this is me talking. Well guess what, she’s in too, and Ser-Haat didn’t understand that when they cut his cajones that meant he no longer had the plumbing to be a studly. That’s how I found out Lightning was in. Ok, I switched Sadie, and Lightning, but then Lightning missed her old buds, and kept calling to them. I was hoping putting her next to Ser-Haat would make it easier on her, but since that was not an option, she was in-between two old ladies. Now be3 honest, if you were a teenager how would you feel about being stuck between two old fuddy duddies, one of which wanted to kick the living you know what out of you. Yes Marina is a very dominant mare, and she makes sure everyone knows it.
Now that the stallions were all excited, there was no way I was going to ride Ibn. A fool I am not. I brought out Marina, let her run some of her energies out, and saddled up. We had a nice long ride, only either my new pedometer is off, or my first pedometer was wrong. I loosened Marina’s breastcollar because it was rubbing, and I’m hoping that that is the problem. I’ll make it a little tighter next time I ride her. According to the pedometer we only went 8.4 miles, which is not acceptable. We need to do at least 10 miles. We’ll see what happens when I tighten the breastcollar one notch.
I also went to the Lazy J Ranch down the road to look at a stallion for a friend. I had thought to breed to him some time ago. My friend wants big, and Dakota defiantly qualifies. He’s 16.1 hands, and pure muscle. He’s very correct, has a nice head, good feet, and beautiful coloring. He can jump , and was in training for dressage when Jan moved from West Virginia to here. He’s a buckskin paint, with a lovely iridescence similar to the metallic sheen our horses have. In the show ring he will defiantly catch your attention. She wants to breed for color as well as for performance, and he’s a very good candidate.
Jan, wants to retire, and get down to about eight horses. She’s seventy so I suppose it’s time, although if I were as fit as she is, I’d be raring to go. She has TB’s, Walking horses, and Paints of which her stallion is the best. She also has a 30-year-old Arabian stud. He’s an Indraff son, and if I can swing it I, want to get a breeding by AI from him. She said he’s still fertile, however he doesn’t have the strength to mount, and do his stuff too. Give him a break, 30 is quite an age for a horse. The chance to breed to an Indraff son however (I’m not sure there are any other living sons) is something you don’t pass up, funds not withstanding. I’ll figure out something.
I reported back to my friend, and I have no doubt that she will work something out with Jan, probably a lease to purchase. She’s assured me that her stall setup has been seriously upgraded, which is of the utmost importance if she is to have two stallions, and mares on a little more than an acre of land. I’m not sure how she is going to manage the breeding part especially since she’s not that good with boys. Oh well, I’m sure she will figure something out. She’s a good horsewoman so I trust that everything will work out fine.
Today Lightning was still missing her buds so to help get her mind off of them I decided to start her round pen training. First I brought her out, and groomed her. She’s been tied up before only not when she was missing her buds. She was antsy, and fidgety, but otherwise mostly did ok. At least I was able to do what I wanted to do, and that’s what’s important. Next time she will be better. Now to the round pen, she led fine even though she was high. Mind you this was her first lesson in the round pen. She was doing fairly well, but there were times when she wanted to reverse when I didn’t ask her for it, so I wouldn’t let her. It was a bit confusing, and in spite of being upset, she did pretty well until she decided that in order to get out of her lesson, she would simply jump the fence. It’s a five foot round pen. Granted it’s small, but no matter how good a jumper a horse is they can’t jump a five-foot fence from a standstill. Luckily the panels gave way some, and she only got her foot caught. She raised up, and got it out without hurting herself. Thank you for that Lord. She scared herself (and me), but I checked her over, and other than a little scrape on her foot, she got off Scott free. Rudy has had two horses that tried that little trick. One made it, and one got stuck half way over. He had to cut him out, which was not an easy shore. I lucked out.
Next I went to Ser-Haat working him in his stall. He has gotten so good about it, and even came in when I asked him to. I was very proud. I brought out my brushes, and he let me groom him standing still even when I sprayed his mane, and tail. He also let me pick up all his feet, and pound on them. I’m not a farrier, but I want to make sure that when the time comes he will be a good boy. I never tied him up he just stood there like a champ. He got lots of pets and praises for all his good work.
On to the girls on the other side. Espree’s mane is a mess again, naturally, so I get her all spruced up, and go to clean her feet. She has thrush in one foot I need to attend to. I thought I had just bought some Kopertox, but I couldn’t find any so I guess not. I’ll have to make a trip to the Mercantile. Thank you Espree. Jazzy’s feet were fine, and so were Lizzie’s. Lizzie needs a trim really bad, but since we can’t get a farrier up here, I’ll see what I can do with her in the arena I have set up. The hard ground here keeps their feet trim, but only if they move.
Sierra is last, and I plan to work him on leading as well as grooming. Opps, what’s that, another cut? Boys you can’t trust them. He has another cut on his face, and it hits right where the brass is on his halter. His muzzle is so tiny that I have a hard time getting a halter to fit him. If I have it too long on top it falls down his neck. Still I loosened it so the ring wouldn’t be right on his cut. The cuts not bad, so I just put some crème on it. When I fed tonight it was a little swollen but not too much. If it’s still swollen in the morning I’ll give him some antibiotics. I have some left from the last time he cut himself. It’s not been a good week for horsies.
Of course I couldn’t work Sierra, but I did pick up his feet. Ok I only held them for perhaps half a second, but that’s enough for some good pets, and praises. He’s still a baby as far as I concerned. It’s a tricky proposition with him anyway since he still wants to nibble. He got me once on the back, but not bad. I tried the knuckle thing to no avail. All he did was get frustrated because he couldn’t grab anything. It’s an Aulrab trait, and all the boys have it except Ser-Haat. Next comes hot sauce. We’ll see how he likes that. With my luck he’ll love it, and will be even nippier. Boys, I love them to death, and they will probably be the death of me.
Poor Storm didn’t get any attention. By the time I finished with Sierra, I had just enough time to go to town. I feel really guilty about Storm. He’s always last, so half the time I run out of time before I even get to him. He’s got all kinds of scabs everywhere not from Ibn, but from Jeri. They are constantly play fighting, and Storm gets the worst of it. Ibn is too concerned about staring at the mares to bother with Storm, besides he love his kids. Provided no one does anything to themselves, I’ll give him a good workout next time I work the kids. Tomorrow I’ll ride. If I think Ibn will behave himself, I’ll ride him otherwise Marina gets another ride. She won’t mind she loves being ridden. Lord, no more surprises please! I’ve had quite enough for a while.
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