Oh and did I mention they are ninjas? Talk about natural camo

 J has owned, raised, and trained Chief since he was a few months old. He is a big ole dork, in the best way (and sometimes the worst). The Renegade hoof boots are working overtime sticking with this stumbly, obstinate fellow, who is also newly transitioning to barefoot performance. We haven’t lost a boot yet.. Chief is in better shape now than he has ever been in his life and sustained a few beautiful extended trots today. A solid guy with lots of potential.

 

 It was hot today, I got home from riding just a sticky, sweaty, sunscreeny mess, an effect truly topped off by the insanely juicy, ripe plums and peaches I snagged at a fruit stand and then devoured on the drive home. I was putting my gear away and had to laugh at my boot shelf:

 Tomorrow I am up bright and early to be a judge at a trail trial! The ride is in a beautiful area and is donating some proceeds to Back In the Saddle Project , a worthy local group–I hope there is a big turnout!

 He’s filled out a little!!

 Looking so grown up, and btw she has GREAT feet!

 Sheza and Desire are both good at the ole rigid leg trick, it’s like trying to bend a cement post when they’re in that mood. 

 Sheza always starts out a little squirrelly for her trims but usually settles down. Today she tried a few push-off-D’s-hand into a half rear but that didn’t get her anywhere and D still had her hoof she gave that up. A great trick for her is paralyzing her with neck scratches. Her hooves get done in no time!

 Mom and baby portraits are getting more alarming every month..

 As D said, can’t I just ride her now? She’s the right height already! 😉

 Desire and Blaze had uneventful trims–typically tense, and lazily unhelpful, respectively–and then it was Joey’s turn. He got a little nervous about his Precious right side as usual but D got both fronts nipped and rasped with relatively minor theatrics.

She handled his left hind leg as usual, not trimming the hoof since she can’t trim the right yet, but today she also handled The Precious itself, the right hind leg/hoof. The first time he stepped nervously away but the second time she ran her hand all the way down and rubbed his fetlocks for a brief moment and he didn’t move a muscle! Gooood stuff. That was enough and everyone went home with tidy toes.

I have some rasping instructions to implement on the herd in the next few weeks, to work toward stretching the professional trims out and maintaining their quickly growing hooves. Lately it has just seemed silly to let them grow enormous amounts of toe for 4-5 weeks and then correct it all at once, as opposed to some continual maintenance when I have the time and strength and tools (well everything but nippers and a stand, working on that). Also, I don’t know about you but it’s hard to afford professional hoof care every 4 weeks for 4 horses, and I do mean every 4, max 5, weeks or there is so much new healthy hoof things start to get too long and messy. So I shall be brave and sally forth, rasp in hand!

2 weeks since his last session with the trainer, how will he be? Let’s find out

Joey was pretty polite from the get-go, a little nervous about me walking behind him down to the round pen again but otherwise he got right to work in the long lines for B.

He’s getting a rump on him from the pony trail rides!

She wanted to make the session short and sweet so after a few circuits of trot she asked for some whoas, turns, a few steps of backing, and then went right into ground driving him, but from behind. So far she has been in the middle of the round pen, or back but just off to the side of him, she had even stood behind him with the lines but had not been behind him in forward motion for more than a step or two up to that point. This time she put him to the test, and he accepted it.

Anyone who has seen the War Horse play or movie will get this! Here is Joey’s TOTAL War Horse moment as he leans into the traces and pulls that crucial plow (and the War Horse horse is even named Joey, people!)…or in this case, long suffering Arabian Joey tolerates the annoyingly persistent human ground driving behind him!

You can see in the photo below that he was quite unsure about her walking behind him, and he did squirt forward and try to flee a few times but she was able to Whoa him back to a halt with the reins and voice, the first time that has happened! She has slowly been getting him acclimated to a feel of the bit and has not been “pulling” on him at all, but today showed us that he *can* be shut down with the bit when he looses his cool, another great step forward toward becoming a saddle horse!

He was nervous, but after she shut him down a few times on attempted trot-offs, he contented himself with lots of bit chewing, some head tossing protestations, and some rather fancy half passing whenever he went by me. Passing mom leaning at the rail is always a good excuse to lose your composure a little!

After ground driving him from behind in a couple of successful, calm, full circuits in each direction, you could see the fear leaving Joey and the new, more unimpressed/mildly annoyed Joey coming out. Watching his little ego form is truly fascinating!

On a perfectly executed halter, turn, walk off, and whoa, B called it a day with the long lines. She got the point across, Joey was accepting and used his brain instead of his Go, and that’s all that was required. She let him off the lines to relax in the round pen but Joey was on her like white on rice!

Okay, now this way, ladedaaa following humans

Finally when B put the ropes down and jogged to the other side of the pen Joey stopped and stood on his own for a minute..”hmmm, she is confusing me again”

..but not for long! Come back, human!

He’s cute when he’s confused!

You must pass the Goat Inspection to get out of the work area

It was hot and humid in the evening when they were done and Joey enjoyed his bath

Look at that butt and shoulder muscle building already!! 

B is very persistent and Joey is often very un-amused, but he always forgives her 😉

Mutual Shower

When we turned Joey back out he cantered all around and bucked and flung his head and pinned his ears at Blaze, blowing off steam and putting on a show. B wasn’t so pleased to see his bucking skills since she will be the first one on him 😉

Mighty Man

The weather was really changing last night, thunderheads were rolling in and the humidity was high. We got a few sprinkles of rain but nothing significant, never did hear thunder.

Grey mare parade

 For the first time since I’ve been riding there, another truck and trailer pulled in and some endurance-y type folks went out for a ride at about the same time as us, though they didn’t take the Hill. Also for the first time there was a water district truck out in the middle of nowhere, working on ditches, which got some heavy eye balling and snorting from the grey mare brigade. Both gals conquered the hill admirably and we both hand walked them back down to the bottom. 9 miles in 2 1/2 hours, but some nice hill work!

Desire is in great shape and the Renegades are working so well for her, so after re-examining calendars and maps and musty mental spaces, I’ve committed to the Trinity River Challenge 2 day ride next weekend, the 15th/16th. I was planning on a 2 day at Patriot’s Day in Greenville that was due to happen this coming weekend, but it got cancelled due to wild fires, so Trinity is actually quite conveniently timed in the swing of things for us! It’s a first time ride with experienced endurance riders managing it, will be interesting to see how it all goes, but we’re game for it. Looks like a beautiful area and the weather should be decent, my mare is in shape, it’s a 2 day–LET’S GO!

See the taken aback mare stance? She is still weirded out by how often and from what strange angles I take her picture

1..2…3, strike a pose!

  Joey learning to climb hill with an icky Thing strapped around his armpits. He’s awful accepting of all the new stuff we keep throwing at him

 Blaze has always been rather disdainful of other creatures, but he and Joey are really good buddies. Despite the fact that Joey gooses him constantly out on the trail, turning his long nose back and forth to ogle. Blaze grows about 4″ every time but never gets grumpy 🙂

Blaze teaching Joey his, “Old Farm Plug, a Study” pose

 Today was for cleaning paddocks & pastures and starting the stall stripping efforts. Our 6 stalls are all oversize, fortunately only this one, the Birthing Stall, was still bedded down about 3 feet deep. I have lots of new blisters after today but the barn cleaning project is started–and the other stalls should be much easier!

 We had to bury one of our SuperTurkeys, Clark, yesterday. Now we have a solo SuperTurkey, Lex. Here he hangs out with 5 month old Count Hector Goatula and mini (emperor) Napoleon at evening feeding time

Sheza and I having a pose off in the sunset

I had a pointless 80 mile journey yesterday and schedule kerfluffle, and this morning was suddenly open and agenda-less. I knew just what to do. Into the trailer went Desire and away we went for some solo miles at the lake.

 I hadn’t bothered to check the forecast but was hoping/assuming it would be in the mid to high 80s like the last few days. Once out on the trail I quickly discovered it was feeling much more like 90, or even higher. I was really glad I had frozen my water bottles and brought my Cool Medics vest, though I hadn’t thought I would really need it. I submerged and “charged” the vest at the first water trough a mile out on the trail and we headed off up to the ridge and over down the other side of the dam.

Berries are getting ripe…Desire had carrot bites and I sampled some berries

 

 We ended up riding the same mileage as on Monday, 16.5 miles, but from the opposite end of the trails. We didn’t do Sycamore Hill but we did descend and ascend the dam, which is a significant grade, and we worked the trails almost a full hour faster than we did on Monday. Desire grazed and drank and pooped a bunch and I knew she needed to pee again but she held it until back at the trailer for the second ride in a row. She used to pee indiscriminately but I guess my rides are consistent and/or short enough that she thinks she can just hold it til we get back to the trailer. These last two longer rides she has stopped a lot but wouldn’t stretch out and pee, even when I dismounted. And then peed a ton back at the trailer both times. Silly mare. I guess I need to ride longer at a time so she has no choice but to get back in the trail-peeing habit?

Tanking up at the Visitor’s Center after climbing the dam

 My boots stayed on wonderfully today, I didn’t touch a one. We crossed water and some mucky spots and climbed hills and moved out,even cantering a couple straightaways. I am still getting used to how much louder the Renegades are than Easyboots, they really slap along especially with Desire’s decisive gait. They are funny to listen to both on and off the horse. I’ve been walking all the downhills with Desire lately and I did some extra footwork today just to burn some calories so I probably got about 3 miles on foot in there.

Boots Post ride

 It was about 95 degrees by the time we were heading back to the trailer, pretty warm after enjoying a few days in the 80s. My back adjustment, Arabian style, came within about a mile of the trailer, headed back. We trotted up the last hill nice and loose and then right at the top Desire saw a rock in the bushes on her left, slammed on the brakes and jumped about 5 feet to the right, all in one go. Back, consider yourself adjusted! Or un-adjusted, as the case may be.

Back at the trailer Desire had a long pee and was lazily eating hay and the rest of the carrots I had packed, but was pretty much sleepy and tuckered out.

She was even quiet in the cross ties at home but of course gave the hose it’s usual heavy eyeballing. About a 1/3 of her breakfast hay was left and she dove right in while I fended off the mini and filly with carrot bites.

I think I’ll give Desire the weekend off, we cranked out about 50 miles in the last 9 days and there was some serious hill work in there, too. Time to get Blaze and Joey out!