Today I pulled Sheza and set myself to trimming her very long hooves. She went almost 6 weeks since D last trimmed her, and some half assed rasping with a crappy rasp done by me. I won’t let her go that long again, now that I have the tools! Anyhoo Sheza was a complete and total Spazzatron. Pulling, squatting, leaning, leaping, pulling back, etc. OH yeah, she put us both through our paces. I probably picked up each of her front hooves a hundred times to get them done, I swear. Sometimes I didn’t more than 2 seconds of work done at a time before she was doing something silly, so I worked as fast and accurately as I could as an amateur and with my filly flailing and leaning, alternately. Phew, working on an 18 month old is a hard way to to learn to trim and I didn’t have a breath left to work on her hinds. I will tackle those tomorrow.

Left Front, untrimmed

 Right Front

 Me and my filly dork

 LF untrimmed

 LF in progress

I still don’t have a hoof stand and I do my mustang rolls the hoof on my knee pretty much, haha. So by the time I got to her right front mustang rolls I was plum tuckered, not gonna lie. Luckily I can screw with her feet every day if I want!

 LF

 LF

 RF, untrimmed

 RF in progress

 RF in progress

 RF

 RF, sloppy but I was exhausted

Willow puts her head in up to her eyeballs and blows bubbles! Not productive but hilarious

Beautiful fall tralls

The girls did well together, though by the last few miles they were both grabbing mouthfuls of grass like they’d come 100 miles and eaten last Tuesday.

We were smugly talking about our Renegade booting experience when Desire took a funky step and her right front boot was suddenly off and twisted around. Turns out the cable broke at the toe strap. I have all the replacement parts and they are used boots that I have since put a few hundred miles on, so I’m not too bothered. Still it was *too* funny that after weeks without a boot issue we start talking about how flawless they are and something promptly breaks!

Sheza demanded to come out when I put Desire away, so I left in the cross ties alone for a while, and watched her through the living room window. She was Not Amused. Btw she’s not rabidly foaming at the mouth here, just ate my apple core is all

In possibly unexpected news, Joey has a possibly uncertain future here with the herd. He is so stressed out by humans and doesn’t behave consistently or predictably. I’m often gone and non-horse person husband kindly takes care of all the horses, meaning he has to handle (and has already once saved) Joey. After a particularly hard session with the trainer on Thursday afternoon, we were discussing how intensely prey-driven Joey is, and his spectacularly amped up flight instinct. My husband happened into the conversation and mentioned that he was quite uncomfortable around Joey and worried about my handling him and getting hurt trying to get him under saddle. He has a fair point in all of the above. So I am working on figuring out a better situation for Joey, but in the meantime he is here and will continue to get as much work as I can give him.

Evasion

Georgia cam, watching pony wrangling

Goat on my Heels

Joey at work

I have hopes for a great home for him with all the experienced trainers needed, everyone please cross your fingers it works out!

 Encountering a friend out ponying her 18 month old Arab/Mustang filly, who is just a week younger than my Sheza. A real beauty and not much smaller than Sheza, either!

 J and Sedona 

 Cruisin’

 After a few miles of trotting and a good hill climb, the girls had long drinks and took a breath

 ..or a Major snoozefest

 Of course he got behind the bush at the wrong minute but this is a nice buck with a big rack!

 Fall afternoon on the trails

 I used a new Woolback pad on loan from N, under my Eurolight today and I really liked it! It is a little thicker than my now well-worn Specialized pad and I think I’ll use it on Desire from now on.

 My go-go gal after 16 miles

After ponying Joey out the other day it was Sheza’s turn. She joined Desire and I and we did a 4 mile out-and-back with a few short, steep hills. Sheza trots nicely while ponying now and is quite game for the challenge. She had to trot to keep up to mom’s power walk and sometimes trotted when she didn’t need to but she mostly stayed in line pretty well. I did watch her carefully though, because she gives very telltale signs before she does something Naughty! Her ears kind of flop sideways, she flashes the whites of her eyes, and if you don’t stop her then, she does something totally ridiculous. Like try to bite me, or her mother, or spook sideways, or something else random. If I caught it at the eye-white rolling and gave her an “EH EH” she wouldn’t bother escalating, and Desire was just wiggly enough about ponying her that I always knew if Sheza  went even a step out of line. 

Sheza Looking and Looking and Looking!

Considering the Pond

While handling two horses out on the roads is certainly dangerous, I feel safer on a good saddle horse ponying than handling a greenie alone on the ground. Having ponied both Sheza and Joey alone in hand and off of pony horses, I am reminded again the power of a good Pony.

 Joey carrying the saddle up the hill for the first time, he also borrowed Desire’s breastcollar!

Quiet boys back in the yard. Georgia does some Arab training. Hold em steady, ole gal

🙂