horses – Page 35 – The Hermits' Rest

I Could Do Whatever I Wanted to Today

Whee! I’m not supposed to work this week or next Monday (Dell employees get the week off paid plus a year-end bonus, contractors get six days of no pay…well, it’s a job at a good rate so I’m just stating facts, not complaining).

So, what did I do on a day with no mandatory activities? I cleaned my closet and hung clothes up, then cleaned the leftover dishes from last night, even though the house cleaner came today. I guess I don’t want her to clean bonus mess. I’m a wild and crazy kinda gal!

This gift tag from Lee shows I’m the wild and cheery one with a rainbow-farting reindeer!

Then I paid some bills. Whoa, responsible.

Okay. I then spent the entire afternoon having fun! I enjoyed cleaning my saddles and writing in my horse journal. Then I played with Drew for a long time. I made him all beautiful and had a nice time exercising him. We had our best solo ride ever. We are improving!

Since I was in no hurry, I took him for a walk around the property that ended with a chance to graze where there is still some green grass (frozen but still green). He seemed pleased with the treat and walked back happily.

Then I took Apache out. I won’t say I got him clean, but he certainly looks better. He was itchy where some of the mud was, so he got a lot of bonus rubbing. We had lots of fun, and then had fun exercising. His lateral movement is so much better.

Sara and I decided to ride around, so I bravely rode Apache off to her place. We did just great! We went into her wooded area, which is yet another of his scary places, and he did indeed get antsy. But we got up and down the hill there, and did some tree circles. I was proud of him.

I got to see my beloved Spice. I just wanted to go see her.

On the way back, along the exact same trail we took to get to Sara’s, he kept breaking into a jog and acting like he forgot I was there. So I repeatedly reminded him, just like I’d been practicing. By gosh, he settled down and walked to the gate and was calm once I got off to walk back. He’s making great strides.

I hope he didn’t do too much today, but I happen to know the horses have been running and playing a lot the past few days, so it’s not like he was confined to a stall the whole time it was cold.

I hope to get to do horse stuff every day this week. I think the weather will hold out. Today was great! All I needed was a long-sleeved sweatshirt!

Happy Boxing Day and first day of Kwanzaa or whatever you’re celebrating!

A Hermits Christmas Eve

As the years pass and our circle grows smaller, the holidays have stopped being about visitors, travel, and togetherness. Television commercials keep saying that’s what we should want.

But Lee and I are happy to spend time with just each other these days. We have plenty of animals to stand in for friends and family, and they’re certainly entertaining. The dogs have been going all out to make us smile!

The horses have been playing a lot, as if the cold weather makes them frisky. They do have really thick coats right now.

It was a beautiful day, though, so I did the usual bird watching (highlights were cranes and a butcher bird) and weather observation. All the ponds iced over, but melted when it got above freezing. I have new inexpensive base layers that made being outside okay. Nice!

It was lovely spending time with myself, giving myself holly nails, watching football, cooking dinner, and working on a present. It’s important, I think, to be comfortable enjoying each phase of life, and each new situation. That’s the way to inner peace.

Tomorrow and next week will bring more people to the ranch and that will also be enjoyable. You can’t hermit every day! it will be good to celebrate with people.

I’m hoping you find peace with whatever life hands you this time of year. Maybe you’ll find comfort in traditions and maybe you’ll try something new. Just remember that we’re all dealing with “stuff” and doing our best. I sure remember that and just want the members of my own circle to know they’re loved.

One More Nice Day

Today was cold, but the sun was shining, so I spent as much time as I could outside. It’s gonna get icky again, so I wanted to enjoy one last nice day for a while.

The horses were out in the far pasture, where there is plenty of grass, apparently, since they’ve ignored their latest hay bale. Drew has been mowing down bur clover, which I’m ok with.

Apache doesn’t like clover, thankfully. It wound probably make him sick. He’s moody this weekend, anyway, and he managed to find more burs, but he was easier to groom than last week!

I looked at a lot of birds today, too. All the savanna sparrows were using the new pond as a bird bath this morning. It was so charming to watch them wading and splashing. Too bad my photos don’t show them well. It entertained me, though.

It was frosty, too. I love the shiny grass. The winter here can be wonderful. I can see birds better in the bare trees, I’m not sweaty, and it rains some. Droughts are no fun.

You can’t miss the mistletoe in the trees, which is our main seasonal decoration this year. I laugh when people say they are looking for it. We have plenty to share!

The moral to my story is enjoy your good days, and don’t take them for granted. Enjoy a few more pictures from yesterday and today.

Not Too Bleak Midwinter

Ooh doggies, it was nippy today. It wasn’t that cold, really, but the wind was fierce. And it kept drizzling all day. What a great day for horse lessons, right?

That’s a big NO from both Apache and super-bundled Tarrin.

It hadn’t felt too bad in the morning, but it got worse and worse. By the time Tarrin got to my house, I think she was glad to go in the tack room and warm up a bit. I needed to defrost from scraping the layers of mud off Apache. He literally had mud balls hanging from his mane and scattered across his coat.

But look, I’m a magnificent steed, he says. There is still mud on him; don’t be fooled.

That was the least pleasant grooming session I can remember. And he was not a happy guy at first. As you can see, he was physically great. But mentally he appeared to be elsewhere.

Magnificent steed, magnificent steed, going where I please…

It was pretty hilarious when I rode him. The wind was whipping through my layers and my teeth were chattering, but I soldiered on asking him to walk briskly then stop, a thing he is normally fine with. Nope.

No one said it would always be fun. Here he’s backing up. Again.

He got to do it a lot until he deigned to stop like he should. Then he got to do something else. Hooray. Funny boy.

Drew would like it to be his turn. Note that I, too, am bundled. The wind whipped through even my heat-reflecting layer.

That’s Drew in his new fancy rope hackamore that Tarrin re-tied after I botched it. Knots are not either of our strong suits. It’s pretty, though! I now know how to loop it and stuff. What a cowgirl.

It was not ideal to learn to use the new bridle and two pairs of reins with frozen hands, but now I figure it will feel great when it’s nicer outside. Drew was very patient getting his chin strap put on (it came from my surplus collection from when I got the trailer, so it doesn’t match yet), then with me putting the bridle on and off repeatedly.

I’m tired of the fiddling, says Drew. I’m jealous of those mittens, says Suna.

Drew was way more cooperative than Apache, since he’s used to riding in bad weather. We even side passed better. I’m working on reins, but getting there. It’s fun learning with him. He tries and so do I!

The picture of endurance. Thanks for the photographic proof, Tarrin!

After Tarrin got to go home, we took a road trip to look at yet another potential mobile office for Lee. The weather was spooky. That’s what got “In the Bleak Midwinter” going through my mind. It was gray on gray.

Nonetheless the day was saved by the treat of going to dinner at the famous German restaurant in Wahlberg. We hadn’t been in years. I sure enjoyed my Hefeweizen and the sauerkraut. Ahh.

The place wasn’t too crowded, so it didn’t feel all germy and they had a huge fire in the fireplace. I even enjoyed the Wahlberg Band, which featured much excellent yodeling. No, honest, it was good! What a pleasant change of pace.

Tomorrow should be sunny, so it won’t be so bad riding and exercising. Maybe Apache will act like his mature self! If not, I’ve always got crochet and football.

PS: hi to my step-sister and spouse. Loved your card.

What’s Wrong with Normal?

Today was a normal day. Nothing stressful other than software glitches, and repeatedly sending out the wrong minutes for a meeting, today was low key and calm. I love calm. I got all my to-do items done. I’m cooking dinner. Ahh.

I got to spend quality time with all the horses in the calmest possible way as they got their feet trimmed. So much time spent petting soft noses. Ahh. I love farrier day.

I’m not sure what I think about it, but Drew’s new fancy bit arrived today. I believe we don’t use the chain part. It’s just like the one he already uses at Tarrin’s. Who knows if I’ll master it or not, since Apache is bitless and likes it.

I got to enjoy the cranes flying by. These must be stragglers. Never a bad day if you see them! And I’m hearing all the winter birds in the woods. That’s the best part of winter!

And finally, my day was made by the arrival of a nail polish strip box. It was all gold and black, with art deco accents. I gave no idea why I’ve always loved nail polish, unless it’s just that it reminds me of my mom. My one ultra-feminine affectation, I guess. (Shut up, people who know me, don’t tell the readers about all my shoes and turquoise jewelry; guess I’m more femme than I think.)

Happy Tuesday. There’s nothing wrong about normal at all!

Roller Coaster of Love

I didn’t take pictures of the wonders of today, so check out my very silver nails. They nearly blind me.

I was wondering if the highlight of my day was going to be learning about a new kind of moth, the plume moth. These look like flies, but nope, they are weird looking tiny moths with small, plumed wings. I’m not sure what kind the one that flew into my napkin was, but it was cool.

I like it when new-to-me species just show up and present themselves.

It turns out, though, that I’m on a LOVE HIGH this evening, after feeling like my emotional roller coaster of horse love plummeted. After struggling with teen Droodles yesterday, I wasn’t looking forward to today’s lesson. Plus it was raining.

But, we showed up anyway, and I got lots of good information on how to deal with anxious and boundary-testing youngsters. Tarrin told me I had to be tougher and not let him do stuff just to try to get through stuff. That’s what I did at Sara’s, not wanting to delay her filming. I should have stopped and worked with Drew until he was calm. Next time!

Then we worked with him, and that’s when the roller coaster started heading back up. I got some stuff figured out during ground work, as Tarrin kept reiterating that if he messes up, nothing’s wrong with performing a reset and starting again.

She got on and repeatedly stopped and started as he fussed around. In the end he looked great, and she said he was much better than last week. My work with him had helped!

I wasn’t looking forward to getting on him and struggling to make progress. But I got on! And lo and behold, we calmly walked three barrels in small circles. Then we did bigger circles. Wow!

I kept stopping every time his head went up or he started to go off track. By the end, we were smoothly trotting the circles. Tarrin asked how the last one felt, and I said, “It felt like riding a horse!” I was thrilled.

After improving our hill climbing circles with me on him and doing better on side passing and leg yielding, we very calmly walked back to the trailer, even though one of Tarrin’s horses was in our butt. It felt like riding Apache in a place he feels safe. It was fantastic. What a roller coaster. Patience paid off.

We also made him much happier on the ride home with a longer trailer tie and hay to eat. He pooped less. I’m so grateful that Tarrin helps me problem solve. I want to give Drew and Apache good lives and that helps.

Ready for more ups and downs!

Droodles Has Teen Angst

Sara and I had this great idea to film our Functionality test for the delayed Winter virtual show for Working Horse Central this morning. Yep, the day after Drew and Aragorn worked hard on the in-person show. Great idea. It’s a good thing we had no time pressure and good humor, because we had some challenges and neither horse was enthusiastic about doing more fancy stuff. Droodles had a lot to say about it, too.

At least I had another outfit I could wear. and Drew looks happy here.

To start things off, I went to the trailer to get Drew’s fancy halter and saw a saddle in there. Uh, was my saddle there all weekend? No. It was Sara’s. So she had to drive over to get it.

Drew and I had a calm warmup and nice walk over to Sara’s. But that boy just can’t settle down over by her dressage arena (no, nothing fancy, but it works great thanks to her creativity). My horses just don’t like their trees or something, because I’ve spent hours with Apache over there. Once Drew got wound up I could not help him settle down. He pitched a fit and tried to buck and spin. Joy.

We were also challenged by the fact that we didn’t have any place to tie whichever horses weren’t being filmed, so we had to monitor the Pevo filming software and hold two horses.

Sara’s two get along fine. They were no problem with Drew’s filming. He was the problem. He spooked at a tree and was not able to act normally. We tried once and I ended up cussing at him on video. He wouldn’t slow down, wouldn’t turn right, kept bumping me (he does that when nervous), and acted like a surly teen. It was no fun. As they say, you ride the horse that shows up (or lead it in this case).

But Drew and Aragorn aren’t overly fond of each other so Sully’s filming was not easy. She at least did her bit in one try. Blue ribbon time for her—no matter what little issues she had, at least she was compliant!

The challenge when Aragorn was filming (which took three tries—Sara and Aragorn each had an oops) was that Sully and Droodles like each other, so Drew was hormonal and wanted to be in her face or nibbling on her. I could just imagine her getting irritated and backing into the arena, or him bumping the tripod and messing up the filming. But, we did it. Aragorn looked good for being tired.

Was that the end of Drew’s teen angst?

So, no, Drew was not done. I had a heck of a time getting his normal halter back on, but he did walk nicely to the cabin. The problem is that there’s an old gate there we have get through. Cows have apparently been stomping by the cattle guard and pushing on the gatepost. The post now leans, so to unlock it, you have to push up with one hand and use your other two hands to open the rusty hook that locks it shut. Oh wait, I only have two hands.

Thus, when closing the gate, I turned Drew loose to eat grass, like he had done all day (he eats frantically when nervous). As I finally got it locked, Droodles decided grass was not interesting. Cows were.

He galloped over to look at the cows. Then Sara drove up, as she was coming to get the grooming bucket she’d also left in our trailer. Off Drew went with tail flying. He ran back and forth at the edge of our pasture, having spotted his buddies. Then he got tired and just waited for me at the gate. I hope he had fun.

You’re sure slow, Suna. I’m right here waiting.

Geez. But, I just laughed and took him back to his pasture…the long way. Yeah, I’m the human leader here.

Little does Drew know he has another lesson tomorrow. And there’s a chance we may have a chance to record the other part of the virtual show. Now, I’m thinking Drew’s behavior had reasons. He was NOT happy in the trailer yesterday. He pooped so much that even shavings didn’t make the footing good. He might be tired from the long trailer ride, too.

I’m sure I’ll hear lots of ideas for how I can deal with this better than I did! There’s always room for improvement.

Life and Goodness Return

Hey, I got through one of my extra-long days and I’m not totally wiped out! I have my life back! Yep, I even woke up for my 7 am meeting at 6:45, having forgotten to save my alarm clock setting, and made it in time. Woo!

I wish I could say I spent all day watching Apache run around in circles with Camina at my side. But I enjoyed a few minutes!

I got all my work done, then had two hours of horse lessons, then a Zoom meeting. Whew. That’s a long day, but it was full of goodness. Even the weather is pleasant.

I’m so relieved to feel well enough to get all this done and enjoy myself. Apache was so much fun in our lesson, too. We are making progress and having a good time. He tries to do whatever I ask, which is fine with me. Poor guy is hot, though. He has his thick winter coat on, which makes trotting faster and slower and faster and slower a sweaty activity.

Here Tarrin is checking his muscles. You should have seen him jump! What a guy.

I’m so glad our hard work is paying off and we’re getting skills! On the other hand, Drew and I are very obviously at the beginning of our journey. We both have so much to learn, but I’m willing! There’s a lot of patience involved, but it’s ok.

Tarrin kept telling me it’s all normal and not to be upset. I really felt fine the whole lesson; I was just thinking about all the things I had to do. You know, learning overload! And Drew did reward me by walking like a true gentleman back to the trailer. This was down the path that scared Apache so much, and in the dark!

I did not mean to write another boring horse blog, I just wanted to say how great it is to be able to do things and enjoy them again! Maybe by tomorrow I’ll stop needing to blow my nose!

Barrel of Fun

My day has already been made! Playing with my little Droodles has lifted my spirits as my nasal passages flow (I feel better, though!).

Was it just the sight of a donkey in the sunshine that cheered me up?

I don’t want to push myself again and slow down my recovery, but it’s a pretty day and I need to work with the horses despite the fact that it’s still sopping wet here. So, I walked out into the soggy pasture to do some bonding.

Drew came up to me, of course, so I practiced asking him to back up at liberty (no halter or lead rope). It’s something Apache does well, so why not try? He needs to do his backing exercises…and he did great! I was so proud.

Then I spotted the rogue barrel that had blown into the pond. It was finally in a spot where I could get to it, so I brought it up to high ground. It occurred to me that I could leave it there as a toy. Drew read my mind.

I was charmed and entertained as Drew checked out that barrel. He sniffed it, licked it, then pushed it around for a while.

Then he picked it up and stood it upright. We both enjoyed watching it roll around until it settled.

I tried to make it a video but it didn’t work.

He must have spent five minutes chewing on the holes in the barrel and seeing what it would do. I love how curious that guy is!

I ended up filming him pushing it around, and had to laugh when Apache joined us and had no interest in the barrel. I happen to know he does like barrels, so I bet he plays later!

I do wish I’d remembered to turn the phone sideways. Sigh.

Once Drew went back to eating, Apache got to practice backing up and walking with me. He was not at all into it. He is so incredibly dirty, too. I will be doing a lot of grooming next week. I’m almost up to it, but need to be able to breathe better.

I hope you enjoy watching my boy have fun. Happy Sunday.

I Can’t Breathe, but I’m Happy

Finally, the strep symptoms are fading away, but I think I also have a common cold or something causing me to be rather stuffy nosed. That, I can deal with. I took some decongestant and felt all right the rest of the day (and I got nice soft tissues, so I’ll survive). And not only that, I’m in much better spirits. Hooray!

The day started out pretty fun, as I tried to help out Declan as he figured out how to move round hay bales. There’s a first time for everything, and the two of us managed to figure it out (me with ideas, principles, and horse moving, and him with actually wrangling the tractor and hay).

I think I can, I think I can, says Declan

There was a lot of horse moving involved. They were fascinated when we moved the hay ring and had to try to see if they could knock it over. Then they were extra fascinated when the new bale came in (after Declan heroically figured out how to stab the rather unstable bale with the hay forks so it could move).

Once the bale went down, we realized it needed to be set upright, but the horses were having none of that and began eating as if they had never seen hay before. Mabel was especially excited, but at least she moved out of the way. Droodles stood in front of the bale like a statue, but once I asked him to move, he was a good boy. That impressed Declan.

Mabel demonstrates why you have to remove the hay net. She made it into a hat.

We were very proud of our ranching selves once everything was set up and the intense munching began. Maybe now Drew won’t keep eating in the bur field (he had a solid bur tail when I went to groom him). And next time we’ll be like professionals.

This afternoon was Tarrin’s monthly visit to the ranch. We were disappointed that the promised sunny day didn’t appear, but when we had a few sprinkles, we were rewarded with a rainbow that ended in Sara’s horses. I always knew there were attractive horses at the end of the rainbow.

Let me tell you what, there are two reasons I am so happy today, and their names are Drew and Apache. My horses lifted me up today, and I lived up to their encouragement and did pretty well, myself. Tarrin and I were both pretty darned pleased by the end of our lessons. We are having success!

Drew showed no signs of backsliding after getting back here and having two days off due to my sickness and the rain. He was lovely to watch when Tarrin rode him, and when we moved into the round pen, he and I made a lot of progress. We are figuring each other out and enjoying it at the same time, I think. I petted him and praised him so much! Plus, the new saddle felt great. I forgot all about it, which I figure is a good sign.

Apache, though, oh my goodness. The bodywork he got last week seems to have made a huge difference in how he feels. He was so calm, relaxed, and cheerful for his whole lesson…seemed like a new guy. Tarrin says his rear end really looked better, with no dragging of his hooves, etc. He could move sideways way better, even side passing adequately. I was right that it was hurting him, I guess.

Who’s this? Why is this in my Apache section? Well, it’s Apache’s mother, Nytengale! Sara found this picture today. You can see how he got his bay good looks.

Riding him was so much fun. He was so responsive to everything I asked him to do! That’s what I’ve been trying to get to with the horses. It takes me learning how to ride, the horses learning what they need to do, and getting everyone healthy and in shape. Tarrin’s so right that a pain-free horse can learn better and definitely in the case of Apache, they can listen better.

I’m not kidding, though, Apache seemed to be enjoying himself as much as I was. We are turning into a team. I think that’s good for both of us.