Thanksgiving Pictures

I’m thankful to have these wonderful horses in my life!

How many horses fit in a barrel?

Quick Video

Toys for the Teether

I got an assortment of things to give Chance today since he’s chewing everything under the sun. Of course, he would have been happiest with a simple  lead rope, but I didn’t think of that until after I got the other stuff. I picked up a few dog toys with ropes and chewy parts and some turnips to hang around the stall. I hope to add one of those black rubber feed pans soon but haven’t been to the feed store yet. Here are the pics:

I didn’t actually expect Natty to play with the toys, but maybe she’s making up for her own deprived foalhood.

Here’s Chance with the hanging turnips. I helped him check it out at first and then left him to figure out how to catch it.

And here’s dinner time – Natty eats right over Chance, so he ends up wearing most of his dinner. He’s starting to return the favor, though!

These are from a video I shot today. I just posted them to show how HUGE Chance is these days! Look how their butts look almost the same size!

Bareback Riding in the Sunshine!

My girl is so great! I rode her bareback for the first time today, and she couldn’t care less. She walked around a little bit better in the arena. At one point, I thought I saw my first fall coming – the neighbors decided to race a pickup and a tractor across the field next door, honking at each other and swerving all the while. Chance came running up to us, and then both horses just stood and watched until the scary monsters were out of site. No spooking, no rider thrown to the ground. And when the vehicles came back later, Chance actually trotted toward them! If it didn’t kill him the first time, it must be fun and exciting I managed to get through the arena gate on Natty, but I couldn’t get back around to latch it. Natty and I headed into one of the other open paddocks, and Chance managed to get the gate open and head for the front lawn. We went out after him, and Natty and I circled the grass and worked on steering while Chance alternated between grazing and running around kicking up his heels. A good workout for Chance and for me (legs tired!) and Natty did a little walking, so it was a good ride! (I’d also like to mention how proud I am of myself for being able to get up on that big old girl bareback!)

I meant to take before and after shots of Chance the muddy mess and clean Chance, but I think I forgot to take the clean pictures, oh well.

I’ve noticed Natty and Chance’s water tub has been pretty muddy lately, and I couldn’t figure it out because I could tell it had been cleaned and refilled, but it was still muddy. Also, there is standing water in the paddock around it for no good reason. Today I was told the water is muddy because Chance keeps sticking his feet in it! I need to find a pond for him to play in next summer. Also, the flooding is due to Natty dipping her nose and swinging her head back and forth fast and splashing the water out. Silly horses!

Chance has been chewing everything he can get his little teeth on. I wasn’t quite sure whether he was just bored or maybe teething, so I looked it up on the internet. He’s probably teething – he should get his third incisors and wolf teeth (no, I don’t know if they’re the same thing) between 6 and 9 months, so I bet that’s what is going on. I need to find him some more chew toys. He has a Jolly Stall Snack,  but he really ate a ton of that last night – more than he’s supposed to have in one day. I’ll have to find something better.

Here are the pictures:

Chance before grooming:

No wonder he has runny eyes! They are probably full of mud. And below, here’s Natty pre-grooming, looking spotless and stunning as usual:

And here’s Chance’s teddy bear coat – wouldn’t he make a great rug? It was about 50 degrees here today, and Chance worked up such a sweat just grazing that this whole thick coat was sleeked down to his body by afternoon.

Grooming is exhausting! I have to post a bunch of these because his expressions are just too cute (and believe me, I’m not even posting all the ones I took).

Here’s the video – not very active, but neat to watch:

Riding Updates

Natty let the cat out of the bag big-time today. She has been trying to convince me she’s really lazy and not at all maneuverable, but now I know better. I managed to open the pasture gate while riding her today, and after we were out, she picked up the pace to a really nice brisk walk all over the property. Now I think she’s only interested in moving if there’s something interesting to check out. I hope to take them on the trails soon, but the stable is surrounded by Christmas tree fields, and there are lots of helicopters and semis all over the place right now harvesting the Christmas trees, and I don’t want the horses getting spooked when they don’t know how to get home.

You know how little kids tell it like it is? Well, the farrier for the other horses was at the barn today and had his little daughter with him. She wandered out to the arena and was watching me trying to ride. She asked me, “Is she really lazy?” and I just laughed and said yep, sure is. Then I walked her out to the pasture to try to ride there, and the little girl said, “She’s huge!” and I laughed again and said yep, sure is.

I’ve tried the sideways-pull business people are writing about to get horses to lead and Natty just turns her head all the way around so her nose touches her side. So I started testing her to see if anything else will make her walk. I lay down on her neck and throw my arms around her – nothing! I rest my hand on her rump and lean way back – nothing! I swing my legs back and forth – nothing. I swing my legs forward and wrap them around her neck – she turns her head around and gives me the evil eye, but that’s it! The horse tolerates everything! Almost makes me wish I hadn’t tested her quite so much before riding because now she just expects this kind of shenanigans from me.

And in the weekly Chance update, little fellow must love mud! He was filthy from head to toe when I arrived. I got most of the mud off, but there is still some on his face and ears that I couldn’t get off. He has had a runny eye this week (I think probably got something in there when he rolled because he rubs his face on the ground) so I got some ointment to put in it, and he was fine with that. We’ll see if it helps. I found a fun foal growth chart and some good articles on the internet this week, and Chance’s size/growth rate has been right on the line between warmblood and draft his whole life. According to the articles, he should mature to about 16.2 and 1500 pounds. Big fella! I’ll try to get pictures today.

Sun came out today!

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Today was a lovely, sunny warm day! These are rare in Oregon, so I took full advantage of it. I had Jess, the teenage daughter of the family Natty and Chance live with, show me the how to get to the BLM land down the road. I had heard there were nice trails in there but didn’t know exactly how to get to them. Jess and I ended up walking down there and then she showed me a good easy loop trail, so we had a fairly long walk. I’m looking forward to taking Natty and Chance down there. I think they’ll really enjoy it. The trail was beautiful, and we even saw the lady who drives her Morgan on the trails. The only down side was that people dump animal carcasses at the entrance to the BLM land. Today there was something I think was a cow – it was skinned, but the size of it and the leg bones made me think cow. I can’t believe anybody would just dump something like that (and on top of a creek no less) but Jess tells me there has been a cow dumped there before and also several deer. Wow. Hopefully the coyotes will get right on the clean-up.

After my trail tour, I rode Natty. I started in the arena, but she seemed pretty bored, and it was such a nice day. I ended up taking Natty and Chance out to the pasture and riding her there instead. I learned that I can mount without a mounting block, so that’s good to know! In typical Natty fashion, she wasn’t bothered by this. She was a little frustrated that I wasn’t letting her graze, but on the whole it was easier to keep her moving out in the pasture. She is steering better, also, although a subtle que from me makes for a fairly sharp turn. We’ll work it out. We also had to practice back a couple of times when the steering failed and we ended up in low-hanging trees. Luckily, she backs on voice command from the ground, so she did it while I was riding, too. The other benefit to pasture riding is that Chance is occupied. He chattered with the other horses in the adjacent paddock for awhile, grazed some, did some crazy galloping and bucking (luckily Natty didn’t join in today), and generally entertained himself. It was nice to be able to totally focus on Natty without worrying about what kind of trouble Chance was getting into. Now I just need to teach him to pony so we can hit the trails!

Here are today’s pictures: Chance’s teddy bear coat was too heavy for the sunny day, and he was sweating like a pig. His coat was all sleeked down and practically dripping. There is a picture of Natty in front of their new shelter in their paddock, too. They seem to really like the shelter and spend a lot of time inside it.

Riding with the bridle today

Natty and I had our first ride with her bridle today. Before, I used her halter with two lead ropes for reins. She did just fine with the bridle! She is definitely learning about stop and go, and soon I think we’ll have steering down better, too. Mounting and dismounting don’t bother Natty at all, and today I did a ton of squirming – standing in my stirrups, riding without stirrups and then picking them up again, leaning back and patting her on the rump, leaning forward and giving her a big hug around the neck, swinging my legs forward and back. She’s totally ok with all of it. I’m sure she thinks I’m insane, but she knows I’m not going to hurt her. After our ride, I turned Natty and Chance back out in their paddock, and I didn’t turn the hotwire back on. Well, mouthy little Chance chewed it. Dratted animal! That will teach me to leave it off.

I don’t remember if I wrote that Natty and Chance were misbehaving when it was time to turn them out after the started going in a stall overnight. Luckily, they have straightened up and are now behaving well. I’m relieved because I really don’t want them to act up and get thrown out of the barn! Turns out they are being good now. Except “that damn Chance” is sucking up by sweetly nuzzling the face of the lady who turns them out the morning. Smart colt, eh? It’s a good thing he’s such a doll because people get to liking him enough that they overlook some of the bad behavior from both Chance and Natty. Not that they are very bad – turns out the have excellent stall manners (I even got them a Jolly Stall Snack toy and they are playing with it!) and are learning that it’s ok for other people to handle them. I’m thrilled they are adjusting to the new barn so well!

More Still Shots

These are from older videos, but I’m having too much fun! Is this a gorgeous mare or what?

And here’s little Chancey the jumper. Just look at him go!

And here’s where Rodeo Baby learned his moves:

The First Riding Pictures

These aren’t great – Natty isn’t terribly easy to maneuver yet, and the girl taking the pictures was trying to hold her own horse and fend off Chance, who desperately wanted to get in every shot!

I’m 5′10″ so you can see this is a pretty big horse.

And these are fun pictures because I just learned how to capture still photos from video! Imagine the pictures I could create if I learned how to photoshop stuff! I always suspected Chance was every bit the rodeo horse, but now that I’ve seen it on slow-mo I’m convinced!

Here’s the whole video:

Riding and Hoof Trims!

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I’m going to start at the end today, since it’s more exciting I rode Natty for the first time today! She was wonderful, as good as I could possibly have expected her to be. I would almost think she’d been ridden every day of her life. I wanted to keep the first lesson short and sweet and end on a good note, so we just went twice around the arena at a walk and then I got off, but she was totally calm about it. She acted the same as she does when she’s just loose in the arena – walking around, looking outside, sniffing things from time to time. I did a tiny bit of steering, and she turned just fine (sorta like neck reining since I was just riding with her halter and two lead ropes), and she stopped for me to get off, too. I rode the first lap without stirrups in case she decided to toss me off and then picked them up for the second lap, and she was fine with the flopping stirrups and my moving my feet around to pick them up. After I got off and took the saddle off, I gave her big hugs and whole handful of berry treats to reinforce that she behaved exactly the way I want her to. Then I turned them out in their paddock with a bucketful of alfalfa cubes and more hugs!

Here she is all saddled up with her new draft horse girth and the stirrups on!

Ok, NOW I’ll start at the beginning. Natty and Chance had a hoof trim appointment this morning. I stopped at the post office on my way to the barn to pick up the package with Natty’s girth in it (size 64, ordered from the draft horse supplier). I got to the horses just in time to groom them a little, and then since it’s a new barn, I walked them down to the end of the driveway to flag down the vet and farrier. There’s an apple tree at the street and grass all along the driveway, so I figured they would be happy enough. Well, when the vet arrived, Chance decided he was afraid of her truck, so he acted like an idiot and I had to lead both back to the barn so she could pull into the drive. Figures. I seriously doubt Chance is afraid, but I’m still going to work on this! Anyway, we got back to the barn, and the farrier managed to find the place without the horses for landmarks, so all was well. Last time, Natty’s dose of sedatives seemed good, but it wore off just a little too soon. That time we had sedated her right before starting Chance’s trim. This time we gave her the same dose, but we did 3 of Chance’s feet first so we’d have  more time before Natty woke up. Chance was really good this time! I was so proud of him. Not that he’s ever bad, but he was really good this time. Everybody just loves him. Natty was pretty out by the time her turn rolled around. The goal with her is to get her sleepy enough that she won’t struggle but can still stand up by herself – and let me tell you that’s a fine line! She was leaning and standing with legs very splayed but still trying to pull her feet away at first. By the end she was doing better. She was a little better than last time, I’d say. The vet says she looks perfect and doesn’t want her to lose any more weight, and she said she wants them to have at least 1 flake of alfalfa per day, so I’ll be adding that to their diet. Chance got his baby shots today too, and he’ll get his boosters in a month. I put Natty and Chance both back behind the arena on some good grass after their trims and poked around cleaning their stall, giving them fresh bedding, scrubbing their buckets, etc. – I actually enjoy barn chores, so this was great for me. Since Natty will tolerate anything when there’s grass, I hauled the saddle and girth out there to try it on her. She did really well as I tightened the girth one hole at a time over a period of several minutes. Then, she just kept grazing, so I went and got out the stirrups and put those on. She didn’t mind them either, so I decided to try to ride her for the first time. I took them both back into the arena and put the two lead ropes on Natty’s halter. I stepped up in the stirrup and laid across the saddle a couple of times, and she was fine with it. I then actually mounted, and she started to walk right away but not with any fear or anger. That time the girth was pretty loose and the saddle slipped when I mounted, so I just rode the length of the arena, hopped off, and fixed the saddle. She isn’t bothered by dismounting, either. The second time, I got on her and we did our two laps, complete with a turn and a stop. Sounds silly, but it was a very exciting day for me and a real milestone! I’m so proud of my big girl for doing such a good job!