Sheza was a Sheza Good Girl today! I really was impressed with her. This was my first time catching her since she rejoined her mom and I wasn’t at all sure how she was going to be. So far she had been very friendly and in my face at feeding time, since Desire always is. Happily this morning they all crowded around me (even the shy mini! The piglet girls must be motivating him) and Sheza bowed her head into her halter and let me tie it without even a head toss! Shocking. I figured she would be fresh and cantankerous as usual and I didn’t relish my arms getting yanked trying to lunge her so fresh, so I turned her loose in the arena thinking she would burn off some steam. Again she surprised me by trotting and cantering around a couple times (as I clicked photos furiously as you’ll see) and then coming right back to me. 

LOVE this one:

Sheza Good Girl, all sweaty and docile after some lunging:

Pretty head:

Her mane grows in so nice and straight!

I sprayed off her front legs and chest and she didn’t seem to mind very much. The benefits of getting them hot and sweaty and tired first!

I ninja’d her with the de-wormer, rubbing it all over her face and muzzle and nostrils until she kind of liked it and then slipping it in and depressing the plunger like lightning so she didn’t have time to spazz. I pride myself on my de-wormer ninja skills, it almost always works. She wasn’t very bothered by it and just chomped at the wormer like, “Hmm, tastes like shit, hmm..”

Sheza thinking about that bath and that nasty taste in her mouth…

She was pretty polite on the walk back to her pasture and she bravely went under the Scary Branches of Doom that are just low enough to brush the top of her ears–she balks at them every time without fail. Good girl for removing the halter, no trying to rub on me like she sometimes does. She really was a satisfactory filly today!

She is 14 hands and 600-something pounds, and will be one year old next Saturday, the day of Whiskeytown Chaser! Time has FLOWN.

Then it was the bay boys’ turn.

I took a little video of him lunging at the trot to show my husband. See, the other day my husband made the mistake of saying, “I don’t think Joey will ever be an endurance horse.” I’m a pigheaded redhead, and I took that as a bit of challenge..so we’ll see where it goes. I’m not saying he’ll be the best thing ever or claiming any great future, but he does have potential and seems quite naturally athletic with a good mind. Time will tell!

After he had trotted and cantered, listened to my verbal cues pretty well for transitions, switched directions a bunch, and let me pick up both his front feet and run the lunge whip over his rump and all down and inside his hind legs, we called it a day for arena work.

Sweaty boy:

He is starting to look good! 🙂

He was very sweaty so I decided to give him whatever sort of shower he would tolerate, too. To my surprise he seemed very curious about the light spray of the hose, so I put the hose right in front of him and let him sniff the nozzle itself. He quickly stuck his gums in the water and was actually playing in the hose spray! I never would have guessed that would be his reaction, I expected him to tolerate it but not like it so much. So that was a nice surprise!

Snorfing the spray:

I sprayed off his shoulders and back but left his hind end alone so it was a fully pleasant experience for him.We’ll get to the hind end in time. He left me pick up and tap on his front feet again in the cross ties. Oh, speaking of, since last time he charged forward in the cross ties and tried to *ahem* hang himself, this time I put a rope across the front to give him the box stall sort of idea, then only attached one cross tie so it was like he was hard tied, which he does well from his previous owner. He seemed pretty okay with that and then started leaning over the rope to clean up spilled grain from Sheza so I attached the other cross tie to keep him in line and he was fine with that too, aside from trying to eat the rope cross tie at first. The other stall has chain cross ties with hose over the chain, he will graduate to that, especially if he persists in nibbling the rope, but that stall is also the more enclosed of the two and I like to start them in the more open tie stall. He threw a couple big yawns in the cross ties too!

 After he dried off, definitely starting to fill out some! His fitness continues to surprise me:

My cruise on Blaze was just perfect, 4 miles or so meandering on the dirt road, he had a few Oohh Aahh Arab moments at the cows and a particularly large and terrifying rock, but was mostly just plodding along . It was relaxing and perfect after focusing with the greenies. I gave him a little of Joey’s post-workout mash and he gobbled it up in no time. He is on regular maintenance rations, no extra goodies as he isn’t doing mileage or working too hard, and isn’t exactly a slender type. He will be my good pony horse for Sheza and Joey, and is doing just fine as he approaches 16 yrs old. Next month he’ll have been with us for 3 years! Wow.

Finished off the day with a great dinner date with my husband, now that’s a fine Easter Sunday!

As for miss Sheza–what a difference a year makes!

Love this one:

Onto the lunge line, remembering our manners and cues, and boy has she gotten GREAT, attentive, responsive since we started last fall.

The photo below looks ordinary BUT it’s just simply not. Desire spends 98% of her time on the black mats in the cross ties tap dancing, stretching, leaning, just generally expressing her impatience and displeasure. Some combination of being ready to get going and hating black mats, as per her previous owners. So this photo, showing my wild endurance mare *snoozing* on the black mats, is simply priceless. She was so mellow that I got totally sidetracked and took a good 45 minutes to tack up while she just kicked it in the cross ties. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I felt the needs for braids today. Awww ain’t she precious..

This is the kind of day it was. How can you not just be stoked on life with this kind of scenery, the sun on your back, riding a good horse..

I didn’t quite manage to capture it in the photo but the flowers pictured below were this intense, vivid, almost *glowing* ruddy pink color, it was really something.

The creek was up quite a bit from last ride over! Good news.

I rode down to and then skirted the Bangor Wildlife Area, and continued on the dirt road as I had when I rode over to my friend’s to feed his chickens a while back. I hadn’t gone to the end of the dirt road before so I cruised about another mile past our friend’s house and turned around for home right at 6 miles out. We were just cruising, we trotted maybe 3 times the whole ride. Today was just about having a nice relaxing ride, as Desire so clearly has the conditioning and speed under her belt what she needs now is calmer work, more on fixing her race brain than priming her race body.

Okay, so I gotta say, she was SO responsive and light on the bit today, Bahahha! I can’t help but laugh because last time I rode her she was pulling my arms out of my sockets for 105 miles and slapping her feet down in a bouncier-than-usual pissed off trot. Today was light as a feather to the bit and the smoothest 6 mph jog when I asked, it was more effort to post than sit. Really something.

We had an exciting moment on the way back. We were trotting up a pretty steep short hill on the dirt road but were well over on the grassy shoulder, out of the road, and a car came around a blind turn. They were going slow and were well on their own side but Desire decided to slam on the brakes and start to surge right away from the car. My automatic bad-horse noise flew from my lips, a loud harsh “EH EH,” and it was enough to stop her surge so I could right myself and not hit the dirt. I was well over her left shoulder and clinging on her neck with my right arm and back with my right leg, so that instant she stopped at my correction was just enough for me to pull back into my seat and continue riding like nothing happened while the girls driving by gaped out the window at the almost-tumble. The balk was pretty unnecessary but she did listen and snap out of it and I didn’t come off, so I’ll call it a win-win. She was really good about listening to the EH EH today, whenever she started to get crazy eyes at a rock or stump I would voice it and she would straighten out and continue forward. Ooo so responsive, me so likey!

I didn’t see a very big patch on the ride but I just love California Poppies, the contrast against the new green grass is just something. So here’s a couple:

Okay so I was on a flower kick. Again, photo didn’t quite get it but, the bush below was on FIRE with orange blossoms.

Random balloon caught on our fence line..

We woke Joey up from a nap as we strolled up the driveway!

 mom has a good roll:

Not so small at her side anymore!

Sheza is about Blaze’s size now, but not quite as big as mom–yet!

Some definite blonde coming into Sheza’s mane!

Stopped by the cozy stall to say hi to our buckling, now named Hector, but formally Count Hector Goatula. My best friend from high school came up with Count Goatula on Facebook and I am still laughing about it.

Here we are:

The Bay Boys! Aww those two just warm my heart, they are toooo funny but so kind and gentle. A great antidote to pushy mares.

We left the house pretty early this morning and did some errands and necessary evils, then stopped at a local spot to pan for gold for a couple of hours. We got some nice little chunky pieces and some finer material too. I really got into the panning today because I found a nice gold little chunk in my first pan and got fired up. MAN is it physical work, after a couple of hours I was done. I was also already sore from my last few days of teaching greenie beenies to lunge in the arena, but yep no doubt, gold mining is hard work.

Working away:

When we got home we were counting goats and found there was one more than when we left!

Bit smaller than last year’s baby. Speaking of, she isn’t much smaller than mamma these days:

Hooo boy that could mean SO many things, the prospects of where I could take this post are sinfully delightful. Fortunately for all (and perhaps my marriage) what I am coveting of my neighbors are: round pen panels! A whole big friggin stack of them sitting out in their back field, untouched for the year+ that we’ve been neighbors. I think I’m going to leave a note on their gate with my phone number, see if they want to trade/sell any of the panels. As my work with Sheza–and now Joey–moves forward I am jonesing for a round pen more than ever. To be sure I have an arena, which is a hands down luxury, but I just know how convenient training in a round pen can be, especially with a hot horse that needs to go around and around a few times before the brain returns. Turns out that description applies to Sheza AND Joey, though I won’t say yet that Joey is “hot”, per se, but he is definitely energetic and has surprising stamina for his outward physical condition.

That’s right, after I finished up the mowing today, Joey (re?)learned to lunge. I’m not 100% clear on what was done with him at his previous owners, and anyway choose to approach things with a new horse as if it’s a clean slate and we’re learning together from Day 1. At least with a greenie as green as Joey. After his loose-blanket-strap-cinching-down-on-hind-foot-cue-blanket-ripping-half-off-and-chasing-him extravaganza that my husband rescued him from while I was away at Cuyama XP, he is more sensitive than ever to having his hind legs handled, not to mention feet being picked up. He did keep his head quite admirably for the situation and let J help him out of the crisis, and still lets me put on and remove the offending blanket without being haltered, so he really does have a good head on his shoulders. But like I say–stamina! After the initial “This is how We Lunge” discussion just on the lead rope, I followed the same progression as I did with Sheza yesterday, but he lasted quite a bit longer on the still-sensitive, send him off for more circles and repeat thing. He was stickier going to the right but did eventually lunge and stop and face me in both directions, and I called it quits after he stood quiet and let me run the dressage whip over his rump and down his hind legs without lifting either hind foot (or taking off, as previously).

He was very sweaty by the end of the 40 or so minutes in the arena and I broached the topic of hose showers with him, but in a very minor way. First just turned on the hose and let him watch the water stream and snort at the moving hose, then slowly approached him with it and he stuck his nose down in the light spray. He snorted of course, then stood and let me lightly spray his front hooves and up his front legs and I called it a day at that. He was in a good place and stood for scratches after I took his halter off. and he got another beet pulp mash since he worked so hard and isn’t quite up to the weight I’d like yet.

Blaze was next and got a good workout in the arena, he was a little punky and crow hoppy but was obviously just feeling good and worked as hard as can be expected for a little horse that is deeply bored by the arena. The Specialized with his fitting cushion set up left a nice even sweat mark and I gave him a thorough hose bath afterwards. It’s a treat to run through and work all the horses and end with Blaze, who is so quiet and tolerant. Definitely a good plan to start with the hot nutty ones and work my way down to Blaze who by that point looks like a saint, if he didn’t already!

There is war in the Kingdom of Goat, the boarder goats are unimpressed by the subtraction of Sheza and addition of our two goats in their pasture, but there is plenty of space and grazing to be done so I’m not very worried about it. Eh, goats.

My Cuyama ride photos from Lynne Glazer should be coming home in the mail with my husband this evening! Can’t wait to ogle at their splendor 🙂

And it isn’t pretty! I could have told you that well before the fact, but it had to happen sooner or later. Of late Sheza has declared herself High Queen of Goat & Turkeydom and has been getting QUITE an attitude on her little red self. When I threw hay for evening feedings she would spin and kick the hay, and was getting a little too vicious herding the goats around, not to mention a rather serious go she had at one of the turkeys the other day. She stomped him and he hid in the bushes for the rest of the day, luckily he came out alright but what a blazunhaat biznatch she is!

I had a confidence boosting talk with A on the drive home from our Cuyama XP trip re: handling Sheza’s Wild Red Self. I do have quite a bit of horse “training” if you want to call it that under my belt, but tend to doubt and question myself to the point of hopelessness lately. I want to do right so badly that I get a little cuckoo in the head about methods. And I find watching/reading things and then trying to translate it to a working scenario not always the easiest. My hang up with Sheza was worrying about lunging her too hard as a youngster, but with her becoming wild with energy it seemed like one of the next steps in getting her to focus and move forward instead of existing in Spazzdom as she naturally does. She IS intelligent, and sensitive, and I suspect slightly bi-polar…I mean. Anyhoo A and I agreed that at yearling age (Sheza will be 1 in about two weeks, day of Whiskeytown Chaser!!) she could surely stand up to 20 or 30 minutes of lunging in conjunction with focusing and learning new things.

My kingdom, my kingdom for a round pen! I know, I know, I should be able to voodoo-whisper my filly into submission without the security blanket of a round pen, but BOY does it make it easier to teach lunging and join up with a young horse in a pen than on a line. The first 10 minutes of our lunging expedition was a comedy of errors. I had sorta-kinda taught her the basics on her lead rope as a youngster, just getting one or two circles out of her, so she started out with a glimmer of an idea of what I wanted, but definitely was getting stuck in reactive mode. I started with her on a lead rope so I didn’t have to juggle my (way too bulky) lunge line while she re-grasped the basics. I used my dressage whip as an extension of my arm and rubbed her all over with it and then used it as pressure behind her to move her around. There was some literal lunging and generally spazzy behavior but she got her right circle down pretty darn quickly. I moved her to the lunge line as the short lead rope was starting to impede her forward momentum, and she trotted some nice circles around me. I worked on stopping and facing me some, sending her around again if she didn’t turn in and pay attention to me. She has the rope jiggle back-up pretty much down, I had to turn my cues way up the first time and then half again that much in further attempts.

I found her to be much stickier going to the left. When we were doing too much fighting I sent her back around to the right and she went right into it and it seemed to refocus her on what was at hand instead of just going BLARGH at the dressage whip aid. We got the left hand circle going pretty well after that and after a few successful circles I asked for and got a satisfactory stop, back up, and THEN she went off my point  and just a suggestion with the whip back to the right! I mean NICELY. It was sooo thrilling.

All told we were in the arena for probably 30 minutes. She was in a much better frame of mind at the end though we did do a couple of slow walks back and forth through the arena gate as she still likes to squirt through gates like a spazz if she thinks she can get away with it. Unfortunately she did when I brought her out to work since you have to squeak through the gate and get it closed again before the goats escape! But after our little session I turned her out with Desire and mini Bandito who had their gate open and were out grazing all around the barn in the fine grass. Now the other goats can go out in a goat and turkey herd and no one’s lives should be in danger!

I’m hoping Bandito and Desire will teach Sheza some herd manners and take her ego down a peg or two. I did see Sheza trying to nurse from  Desire this evening and mare was even cocking a hind leg back like she used to but every time Sheza made contact she got a squeal and pinned ears. Hopefully that won’t last long!! What a DORK.

In addition to our lunge session I battled it out with mowing two ft tall grass through a couple of our lawns and cleaned the hay barn and stacked the bales of beautiful grassy alfalfa we got today at the feed store. Oh yeah and spin class this morning! I have my ankle brace on and my dogs are barking!

Hoping for another decent weather day tomorrow so I can work Joey 🙂