Laser Sheen is a Girl’s Best Friend

My local feed store had a sale on Laser Sheen this month, so I bought some. I’m happy to say it’s magic, and I finally managed to comb out Natty’s entire tail today – for probably the first time in her life, there’s not a tangle to be seen! She was a very good girl and stood still for the process, and actually she didn’t seem to mind at all. She is not quite as good with her mane, so I threw some alfalfa in front of her and combed as fast as I could, but now the whole horse is combed out. Chance is my perfect angel of course and loves to be (insert any word you can think of here) so his mane and tail are always tangle free, but today I braided them too. The mane didn’t stay in as well as I had hoped (meaning not as long as it took me to run 6 feet for the camera) but the tail braid stayed in pretty well.

After all the grooming, I put out lots of obstacles in the arena (cones, poles, barrels), and I decided I would bring Chance over to play while I rode. I turned them both loose in the arena while I went for my helmet, and Natty leaped straight up in the air and took off! I haven’t turned both horses out together in awhile, and I guess they got each other all fired up. I almost wasn’t brave enough to ride her after that, but she settled right down and we had a great ride. Chance entertained himself part of the time and tagged along with us the rest of the time. He even trotted for me a few times when I asked him to, so I gave him rewards. I’m hoping Nats will figure out why he’s getting a reward just like she did when I was on foot, but so far no luck. Anyway, I’m glad I brought him with us, because now I know Natty will still pay attention and behave, and Chance is sorta learning about ponying. Making progress, slowly but surely.

Here are today’s pictures. There is a video uploading, too, but it’s a long one today so might take forever.

Ooh, right there, that’s the spot! More! More!

Not one tangle!

Getting closer and closer to the same size:

Finally, here’s the video:

Riding Videos

I shot some videos while I was riding Natty today. We’re just working on go, keep going, and stop at this point. I’m just riding bareback with only her halter and lead rope right now, but mostly I don’t even hold the lead rope. She is learning leg, seat, and voice commands first, and I’ll add the bit/hand signals in later. She’s doing fairly well, although since I’m shooting the videos, you really can’t see anything but ears… but you can probably tell she has a nice smooth gait! The real reason for shooting the videos while riding is that you can hear her talking to me – she does some little nickers and whinnies in response when I whistle (her signal that she did something right and is about to get a treat). Unfortunately, she also squeals when I dismount – I’m trying to figure out whether it’s a pain thing or something else. She did it today when I hugged her neck while riding, too, so maybe it’s just a “hey, whatcha think you’re doing up there???” kind of noise. Anyway, here are the videos: (close up of ears means I’m hugging her neck)

There are 2 more videos still uploading. I’ll add them to the blog tomorrow.

And here are a few pictures of the big ‘uns today:

Today’s Pictures

The theme for the day is wooly mudballs! Spring is coming, spring is coming – I just keep telling myself that

Chance brings all new meaning to the phrase “Baby Got Back.” That’s a 4-foot gate behind him, and yes, he’s only 9 months old. Yikes.

Natty doesn’t really have any milk left, but she lets this moose go through the motions anyway.

My girl is never far from me:

After an hour of grooming (above) and won’t stand for an hour of grooming (below)

I learned something fun about Chance this weekend. He has had mud dried on all over his face, and of course a nice soft face brush doesn’t help at all – so I finally took a rubber curry comb to the poor guy yesterday. Turns out he absolutely loves it! I did all around his ears and the ears themselves and his eyebrows, and he stretched his neck out nice and low and leaned into me! He was in horse heaven! And some horses are shy about having their ears touched – they don’t know what they are missing!

A beautiful girl on a beautiful day

I took Chance for a pasture walk:

Chance likes to stop and chat with the girls more than he likes to walk. I think he must be in his teenager horsie stage.

Here’s Chance with a full-grown, regular-size horse. And no, the ground isn’t lower on her side of the fence.

Here’s Chance with a different full-grown, regular-size horse – and the ground still isn’t lower on the other side of the fence. When did he get so big?

I don’t have a lot of pictures of Natty right now because she’s filthy and looks terrible and hates to be groomed, but we did have a great ride today. We finally moved past her refusal to budge in the arena, and now she’s going really well. We just practice walk (and don’t stop til I tell ya!) and stop and a little steering, but she’s picking it up well now. She will even do regular walk and faster walk now. She’s such a good girl. Today I just rode her bareback with her halter and a leadrope, and she was very good. I can’t wait until she understands enough to go for a trail ride safely.

Saddled Up

Chance puts up with everything! Here he is, saddled for the first time, girth and everything, and he doesn’t even care.

New videos!

More Pictures

Natty and Chance had bran mash today, made special with sliced apples and carrots, molasses, and lots of love. They were big fans! Natty loved bran mash from the start, but this was the first time Chance really got into it. And yes I do mean that literally!

“Hey Mom, can I have some? This is my bucket!”

Mash Mustache

The mash up the face and over the eye came from Mama’s mash mustache as she helped herself to Chance’s bucket.

A good roll and back to the mash bucket!

My pretty girl

I used Cowboy Magic for the first time today to comb out Chance’s mane and tail, and they sure look pretty. I will tackle Natty’s eventually, too, but she was in a very anti-grooming mood today.

I tried to clip his bridle path yesterday, but he was a huge brat about it, so I only got halfway done. I think he might be in his teenager stage or terrible twos or something. He has been incredibly difficult to handle when I try to walk him in the front pastures recently – rearing and trying to run and stuff. He’s getting really big and strong, so he’s a handful and a half when he acts up!  Hopefully he’ll grow out of this stage soon.

I guess that’s enough pictures of muddy, mashy horses for today!

Today’s Pictures

Continuing the theme of laziest horses ever… once again the lighting isn’t good, but Natty is too cute not to post these.

Here’s Chance – he and Natty are both starting to shed out their teddy bear coats, but he still looks pretty scruffy and nothing gets all the mud off. That’s his new halter in size Average Horse – yikes he’s huge!

And here are some just for fun – these are Natty taken while I was sitting on her while she grazed this afternoon. We did some walking around, too. I tried to get video of Chance while I was riding Nats, but it was too shaky and too far away.

I hear Natty and Chance met a stray cow on Friday, and they reacted as one might expect – they just stood there and looked at it with great curiosity.  Actually, I just discovered that one of Natty’s “uncles” is being used to work cattle in addition to his stud duties. Who ever heard of a Morgan cow horse? Maybe that will be Chance’s calling if I can get him to give up his dream of being a jumper.