I can’t believe it’s been over a week since I last sent a post. Much has happened. The days have been cool till about three or four, most days at least. There has been rain to the east, west, north, and south, but we have only had one rainstorm. A little of the topsoil got some moisture, but no more than that fell. It will come, it’s just taking a long time. Still the clouds are appreciated as they bring cooler weather if no rain as of yet. The sunsets, and sunrises are spectacular, and I enjoy my morning coffee in the stillness of the morning calm, or sit at days end watching the last kiss of the sun before it leaves us in a world of semi-darkness.
As for the new arrivals, I left the two little girls (Star, and Cupid) in the arena feeding them extras before I put them in pasture with Angel, and Sere. They will be on the bottom of the pecking list, which will be new for them, and I wanted to get a few more groceries on them before they had to compete for food. Both are very sweet, and definitely not dominant, just sweet little girls who are totally inseparable. They do everything together, running up when I come down to feed or putz at the barn. I love watching them each with their own kind of beauty as they munch on the same flake of hay, or nibble on the sparse dry grass in the pasture. One couldn’t ask for two more beautiful little girls.
Zara (Lightning’s dam) had a cut when she came, and I didn’t really think anything of it, but of course it got infected, and I had a time of it trying to clear it up. Dummy me I didn’t remember our silver spray until a few days ago. I was washing her wound twice a day, giving her antibiotics, watching carefully as it the swelling slowly went down. When I finally remembered the spray the cut was still a little swollen, and still oozing. 24 hours after I applied the spray all the swelling was gone, the old ugly stuff had pealed off, and there was new pink skin. Not to make excuses for myself, we haven’t had to use the spray for years, and even Rudy forgot we had it, and how well it worked. The worst part is I spent over $40 on another product, and I didn’t have to. Oh well I’m sure eventually I’ll use the other product as well, but if you ever have a wound that you can’t wrap, use Aluspray. It’s fantastic, cheap, and keeps all flies, dirt, and whatever else away from the wound.
Zara, and Aulina I have in the barn. Bobbi Jo wants to breed Zara to a stallion down the road, but Zara needs to put on some weight before we breed her. First of all he’s a big (and I do mean big) APHA stallion. Zara will cross wonderfully with him. You just have to look at Lightning to see how well she out crosses with other breeds. Then there’s the cut. It’s right at her girth across her ribs, right where the stallion will grab on with his front legs. I want that to be well healed before it is subjected to those powerful legs.
Zara’s a beautiful dark bay mare. Bobbi Jo doesn’t particularly like her gait (I’ve not ridden her yet) but you can’t argue with what she produces. We thought of keeping her for a season to breed with Ibn, and now that she’s here for I don’t know how long, we may yet. She’s not fond of her new digs (a stall with no paddock), and she doesn’t particularly like the oat hay I’ve been giving her, but she definitely remembered the goodies we gave her the last time she was here. She’s so funny she won’t touch her hay until she has her goodies. Aulina remembered too. I’ve had a time of it getting Aulina to eat the oat hay, but it’s better than alfalfa. It has great roughage, doesn’t make them buzzy, and fills them up. I feed less, and they put on the pounds. They don’t gobble it down so it lasts all day which means they aren’t starving when it’s time for their next feeding. Unfortunately, unlike alfalfa there is only so much so when it’s gone it’s gone, like the wheat hay. Over the winter I’m going to try to put money aside so I can get enough next year to last through the summer. I’d like to store enough to last a whole year, but I can’t see that happening, not unless we suddenly get popular, and sell a bunch of horses we don’t have yet. The oat, and wheat hays are not that popular so I can only get it from one feed store. With the price of gas, and the price of hay going up because of the drought in the southwest, I don’t think I will be able to get any more this year. My friend upstairs will just have to plan ahead, and make it possible for us to buy a truckload next summer (You are listening I hope).
Aulina is Marina’s daughter (how’d you guess that one) by Ibn. I’ve seen her in videos, but was still surprised when I saw her in person. She is so beautiful, and taller than I expected. The more I look at her the more of Ibn I see in her. She has a beautiful dish deeper than either Ibn or Marina. Her gait is more like Ibn as well. She’s a little longer waisted than Marina, and that may account for it. She’s also taller. She’s a bit of a pistol under saddle (wonder where that came from), and not near as well behaved as Marina, but that’s the fault of the trainer she had. Rudy could have her minding her p’s, and q’s in no time I’m sure. We’ll see how well I do with her. I would like to get her to the point that she can be used in showing. She’s quick, and agile like Marina. and I think she would make a great reining horse, but I have to get her to mind first.
Our first trail ride was an eye opener for her. She has become citified to say the least. The little I rode her while Bobbi Jo was here told me a lot, but wasn’t enough for her to realize that she was not in the city. She was all excited, and rode out smartly, but we only went to the big meadow across from our property. After they left I took Aulina into the real woods, and she learned all kinds of things she never knew she could do. There was this huge, and dangerous crevice (water runoff rut) I expected her to walk over time, and time again. Finally she actually jumped over it (I was told she freaked when asked to jump), and then walked back, and forth over it. That was scary. Then there was this steep mountain (rocky gully) I asked her to walk down. She was sure she would die, but discovered that she could go down a rocky mountains without killing herself. The worst was I expected her to walk through scrub oak. She just couldn’t go through it, without being torn to shreds, she just knew she couldn’t. Lo, and behold I was right, and she survived it all. By the end of the ride she calmed down considerably, and pretty much went where I asked her to go. Lucky for me we didn’t meet any elk or deer. That’s going to be really fun. I hope to get back on her back again soon. This time I will work her in the round pen first to get some of the jitters out, and we will go farther, and do more scary things.
Before I start working Aulina in the arena I want to build her confidence in her own abilities. I want her to be responsive to my cues, and believe that whatever I ask of her it will be fun, and I won’t ask her to do anything that she can’t do. To me teaching horses (I don’t like the word training) is like teaching little kids. You open a world to them that is fun, and exciting, and they become all they are capable of being. If riding isn’t fun for the rider, how can it be fun for the horse? If they don’t enjoy what they are doing, they aren’t going to do it well. People have drawn a hard line between humans, and animals, yet I see no line. They are not people, but we all share common traits. You have only to see a bear, or cat, or horse, or any animal defend her baby to know that we are alike in so many more ways than we know. The responsibility of teaching a horse to be all it can be is the same as teaching a child to be all they can be, and the reward is just as great. That’s what I want for Aulina. I want her to discover all that she can be.
I didn’t spend the entire week just playing with the new arrivals. I started working with Ser-Haat again, moved the little ones to pasture with the older mares, put the two love birds (Jeri, and Sadie) back in the arena for a second try at breeding Sadie, and got frustrated trying to catch Lizzie when she is in season, but those stories will be told in my next post.
I have one more month of the freedom of being a full time rancher before I start working in the real world again. This is what I love most, but it isn’t paying the bills. I have to go back to work to be able to pay for all this fun. Meanwhile I will continue to spend my days working with the kids. I have to spend more time with Sierra. I want to make the big step to the round pen, and then to the arena. Hopefully the summer will be long because once winter comes there will be few days I can do things with the kids unless we have another bad winter with no snow. But I’m getting ahead of myself, right now is what’s important, and right now it’s time to close, and leave more stories for another post.
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