Today is the 4th of July, but no fireworks here. It’s evening, and as has become the norm the smell of smoke hangs thick in the air. I don’t know why one can only smell it at night, but that’s the way of it. The Donaldson fire has now gone over the 100 thousand mark making it the second largest in New Mexico history. The Concho fire in Los Alamos is number one at over 125 thousand acres. The Donaldson fire has crossed into Mescalero land now. At least there are no more homes threatened, that is no human homes. Many wildlife families will have to search out new meadows to lay in, and browse. There is no sign of rain either. We did have one good day of rain, and the firefighters were able to get the fire 51% contained. Slowly but surely both fires are coming under control.
Bobbi Jo, her family, and the girls came in Saturday morning. There was no room for Sammy but that’s ok, when she brings Lightning back in about a month she’ll bring Sammy. The girls are painfully thin, and Zara has a cut on her ribs. Their little Haitian man has not been feeding them properly they discovered, and Kaytlin has had to go back and give them more food. We also like our kids to have plenty of groceries, so what I call painfully thin may not be quite that bad. I told Bobbi Jo that she has to remember coming from a third world country what he thinks of as well fed is far different from what we in the land of plenty call well fed. She is just going to have to make sure that they feed everyone before he gets there to do his little chores. That way there won’t be any more issues. She doesn’t want him riding the horses anymore either, seems he has been using a very severe bit so she said she is going to find him a $50 horse at the auction so he has his own horse to play with.
It was wonderful to finally meet the family I have only corresponded with over the Internet. We made introductions first, I to them, and they to the horses. Sunday I let Kaytlin ride Marina while I rode Aulina to see what she did or did not know. They spent a lot of money on her training, and Kaytlin worked her tail off paying for lessons for little more than groundwork. Poor Aulina doesn’t know diddlysquat. Of course part of that is her own fault. She figured out how to get out of being worked by pretending she was lame. They finally got a good farrier who informed them that she had some of the best feet he had ever seen in an Arab, and there was no reason not to ride her. She doesn’t pretend any more, the little stinker.
Kaytlin had a wonderful time riding Marina. She’s used to having to prod her horses to do what she wants them to do, and of course Marina is always ready to go. I told her what Marina’s cues were, and off she went, first in the round pen, and then out to the meadow the other side of our property. That’s when she really had fun, Aulina not so much. I do have to say that Aulina stepped out sharply only she wouldn’t go into a canter, and her trot was way too fast. Forget trying to collect her, she reminded me of Marina was young flipping her head in every direction. I’m going to have to do basic schooling on her while I build her up, and give her extra groceries. I’m not even going to attempt to ride the little ones. They are way too small to ride at this point. They are only three as it is, and underweight to boot. I’ll simply put them in pasture with Sara, and Angel. They can build up their strength, put on some muscle, and learn some herd etiquette.
Aulina I will ride in the mountains for a while before I try teaching her a few things. She needs some more muscle, and most importantly, she needs to get experience only a good trail ride can give her. Riding in the mountains here will settle her down, keep things interesting for her, and teach her to expect the unexpected. I can’t wait until she sees her first elk or deer. She’ll probably jump out of her skin, but hopefully she won’t bolt. That would not be fun. She looks so much like Marina, but her gait is more like Ibn. She doesn’t collect so that makes her a bit choppy. She’s also a little longer waisted, and taller I think than Marina. It’s hard to tell because she’s thin, and I’ve been riding Marina regularly so she is built like a brick poop house. Marina is also older giving her more bulk. Cupid is taller, and longer waisted yet again. She got the bulging forehead from her sire giving her a deeper dish, but thankfully she got the square muzzle I like in our horses. The three together make a beautiful picture of grays. That single dominant gray gene is in all three even though in each case the sire has been chestnut. Marina’s only chestnut foal was when we bred her to a black.
As for Zara, I can’t ride her right now because of that cut. I looked at it again tonight, and it’s slightly infected so I gave her a little antibiotic, put Neosporin in it, and covered it with swat to keep the flies away. Tomorrow I will wash it with Betadine, and put more Neosporin, and swat on it. Hopefully it will heal quickly. Bobbi Jo wants to breed her to Dakota for a paint foal. Zara crosses well with other breeds, and since she won’t be buying Dakota, this is the next best thing. She is taking home a palomino gelding of his for 30 days to see if he will be what she wants for barrel racing. After riding Aulina I told her that Aulina would be a perfect reining or barrel horse. She’s just not an English horse. She is however, very tight, agile, and quick. We just have to get Kaytlin to sign on to reigning. She really wants to jump, and I can understand that. Hunter or English pleasure is too boring for me let alone a young teenage girl. She has no clue how fun the western classes can be. If I can get Aulina doing reining she just might change her mind.
Zara crossed with Dakota will produce a good western or jumper prospect. Zara is 15.1 or 15.2, cross her with a 16.1 hand stallion, and you can’t help but get a tall well built horse. Dakota is massive, and Zara will refine that into a lean mean working machine. Bobbi Jo was also talking about bring her Cob mare Gwen over to breed to Dakota. It will be getting late in the year for a foal, but maybe we can do that too. We’ll just have to see.
All in all it was a wonderful visit. We went to a rodeo, they saw our small, but sweet 4th of July parade, Joe, and the kids got to see Jan’s farm, Lincouln and the jail that held Billy the Kid, and we talked a lot. I petered out today, but other than that we did a lot. Kaytlin wanted to take home Sierra, Ser-Haat, Lightning, and Bear, but since I wanted to keep Mocha (their Siberian Husky) I guess it came out pretty even. Joe actually liked our little town, which surprised Bobbi Jo since he came from Pittsburgh, and lived in Florida, and Phoenix, all big cities. I’ve been telling her for years she needs to move out here, and maybe, just maybe they might consider it sometime in the future. It really piqued Joe’s interest when he saw his old boss on the news. It seems that he knows the Police Chief of Los Alamos. Small world. Whatever they decide to do in the future, we have come closer together, and I’m sure we will do more together especially when it comes to the horses. We have no children to pass on our legacy of breeding, and none of our nieces or nephews are interested in horses so maybe this will be the family we pass on our passion for the horses we breed, and love. I’ve always said God has a plan, and maybe this is the beginning of the fruition of that plan. Only time will tell that story.
No comments:
Post a Comment