Today was a beautiful day full of sunshine, and no wind. The next two days won’t be nice, so I took full advantage of the lovely weather. I wanted to get video of both Marina, and Ibn. Some of the girls are in season so Ibn was on the “I don’t think so” list. This child is not stupid enough to try to take him out when the mares he has to walk past are all making goo goo eyes at him. Even in his stall he was prancing around making sure everyone knew that “he was King of the hill.”
Even when Marina is higher than a kite, or in season, or whatever, she has perfect ground manners. I already had a little bit of video on her so she was elected to go first. Marina’s always full of it so I had no doubt I would get some good footage. I brought her out, brushed her down, silkened her mane, and tail, and couldn’t help but notice she has put on a little too much weight. Everyone has put on weight with the wheat hay it seems, and she is no exception. Most of her weight is solid muscle, still I think I need to cut back a bit. I have 20 bales of wheat hay coming this week, and that will be the end of the wheat hay till next year. I had seven bales left on Saturday when I bought hay, and all they had was alfalfa so right now they are getting half, and half, or just alfalfa. I’ll keep them on a mixture until the oat hay comes in, in three or four weeks. Oat hay will also keep the weight on so I’ll still mix the alfalfa with the oat hay. I don’t want rolly poly’s in my barn after all. Besides, if I get alfalfa from the Mercantile it will be cheaper, and I’ll save a little, especially if I cut back on the wheat, or oat hay.
I took Marina to the arena, and true to form off she went like a bolt of lightning. Taggot was chasing her on the outside of the arena so I got video of some small bucks as well. They were only half hearted ones, but enough to get the energies out of her. I cut out all the funky stuff on the video, you know the ground, my feet, half of her shots, and things like that. I’ll spend the next few days editing the rest of the video. I have more than enough footage to make a nice video for our website.
Instead of riding or attempting to take Ibn past all the mares, I decided to work the kids. It’s been a while, and they needed some lessons. First came Lance. Each of the boys has their own little idiosyncrasies. Lance comes right up to you for pets, works better with a lounge line, but needs work being tied, getting sprayed with fly spray or mane tamer, and working with his feet. All the kids have large paddock areas so they can run, and buck to their hearts content, still when I work them they get over excited. The lounge line came first to get some of those energies out. Lance knows exactly what he is supposed to do, and takes off cantering around the paddock. He canters some, and trots some all the while showing off like all kids do. When I stop him, he immediately comes to me for pets, and praises. He has that part down pat, he loves his pets. I shoo him off, and he goes the direction I cue him for. Once some of the edge is off, I switch to the lead rope for some walking. He’s still a little high, and it takes a bit of convincing for him to walk like a gentleman. He finally simmers down, and I tie him up.
First comes brushing. He does fine till I come to his legs. He doesn’t sit back, but he definitely thinks about it. It hasn’t worked in the past, and this time he finally seems to understand that standing still is the best course of action. He gets plenty of praises for this, and decides maybe it’s not so bad after all. Next comes combing his tail. I get the spray, and all goes well. This is also a first since for some unknown reason combing his mane, and tail has always been something of a trial. He loves getting his body brushed, just not his mane, and tail. I know spraying his mane is going to upset him, so sneaky as I am, I give two quick squirts, and immediately I comb that portion of his mane. He starts to react with the spray, but the comb comes so fast that he stops, and stands still. Using this method I get his entire mane combed. He gets plenty of praises, and is quite proud of himself as I leave. He has done very well today.
Next comes Ser-Haat. Now Ser-Haat doesn’t come right up to you, and he doesn’t like the lounge line at all. I take the whip in with me, and off he goes just as if he was on a lounge line. He also knows what he’s supposed to do, and while I have the whip in my hand all I have to do is to circle it behind me a bit. Ser-Haats’s thing has been to kick out. From the very beginning as a baby he has kicked. It has been a hard habit to break, and I’m very pleased that only once did he try kicking today. Not only that, but when I stopped him he didn’t turn his butt to me, but faced me the way he is supposed to do. He didn’t quite come in like Lance, but he stood still while I went up to him. This is an improvement, and he got lots of pets, and praises for his good behavior.
As with Lance I traded the whip for the lead rope, and for some reason, Ser-Haat shied away from it. This has not been a problem for quite a while. He has no problem with me leading him by the halter, but wanted no part of the lead rope. Eventually he got over it, and I led him with the lead rope. He doesn’t lead as well as Lance, but we’re working on it. On the other hand, unlike Lance he has no problem being tied up or being sprayed. The first time I sprayed him with fly spray, he stood there like a champ. He also has no problem being groomed tied up, or giving me his feet. Of course I worked with him a lot when he was a yearling on his feet. I would pick them up, and play with them while he was eating his goodies. I didn’t work with his feet this time because Ibn was being such a brat, and wouldn’t leave him alone while I was working with him. I’m going to have to tie him on the other side of the paddock I guess until breeding season is over. What a pain Ibn can be.
I let Ser-Haat go, and proceeded to play with Little Big Man. Now he is not quite a year old, and still a stallion. Since we are keeping him a stallion, he has hormones the other boys don’t have. He’s also easier to handle than the others ever were even when they were babies. From the very beginning LBM would always give in easily. He is a stallion however, and no matter that he is little, he has little boy things he hasn’t learned not to do as of yet, specifically, his nibbling. He’s an absolute sweetheart, but doesn’t understand that nibbling other horses is fine, but humans have thinner skin. He’s not being mean, in fact he thinks he’s being loving. I doubt I can completely break him of the habit, but like Ibn, he can learn how to do it without his teeth.
LBM has a very heavy coat (typical of buckskins I’m told), and is still shedding out. I seem to brush forever, and still when I pet him I get full of fur. I spray his tail, and comb it, then his mane. My biggest problem is keeping his little nose away from me. Other than that he does great. I brush down his legs to his feet, but don’t really try to do anything with them. He’s fine with that, and right now that’s good enough. I put the lead rope on, and then the fun began. He’s learned not to rear on me, but leading is still too much of a game for him. He would rather eat the lead rope than be led by it. So off we go with the lead rope in his mouth, walking around his paddock. His paddock is long, and too narrow for anything but walking up, and down, but he’s too little to work anyway. He’s right across from the round pen so when the time comes I will simply take him to the round pen to work. First he has to understand that being led with the lead rope isn’t playtime, but a means of getting from one place to another. He really was cute walking around with the lead rope in his mouth though. He’s such a sweetie.
Lastly I went over to Storm to brush him, and just give him pets and lovings. At four he knows all about leading etc. He has gotten a little head shy, but I work on that, and by the time I was done, I was petting his head with no problem. I need to start working him in the round pen again so he doesn’t forget his p’s & q’s, and gets some good muscle tone. He’s ready to sell, and I want to make sure his ground manners stay good. Once I can get Rudy to put the trailer in the arena we will start trailer training. Its always such a chore so I want to simply want to leave him in the arena and feed him in the trailer until he has no fears of going into that big scary cave. After all, you never know just what might be hiding in there. I could be a beastie that wants you for dinner. It could be….
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