Man, its only been two weeks and I already consider raising a foal an emotional roller coaster. I guess because I have been on the grown-horse end of bad behavior and issues I am always forecasting into the future and wondering and worrying about issues today and issues to come. Really I need to just settle down and enjoy every day of Sheza’s young life, which I do for the most part. Just when I was getting concerned (for no good reason) about her always running away from me despite being handled at-and-since birth, she has decided that I am her new favorite thing! She consistently nickers when I call her and is now walking boldly up to me every time I am in the paddock, and sometimes when I am just outside the fence. She is also walking up, more cautiously, to strangers outside the fence (this filly should be used to a crowd pretty quick, she has been “on view” since birth!) and sniffing noses with the dogs. It is SO gratifying to have her walk up to me and want to sniff and be scratched rather than flee like I’m the Filly Eating Monster. I have to remember that they are relying on instincts in the first place and it is my job to calmly and patiently teach her all the things I take for granted in my adult horses.
My granny and mom came to visit yesterday (and will be up for today as well). My granny made me laugh because after watching Sheza’s leading lesson she said “you know, I never considered you patient at all but you are really patient with that filly!” Haha! I am definitely not patient but something about a little creature picking up on things in five or ten minutes just makes your heart swell and sing and how can you BE impatient?? I know, I will be, soon enough. But right now I am just lovin’ that filly of mine!

Hill work, hill work. Sometimes I forget that riding out my own driveway and turning left will take me on a miles long, gradual (some parts a lot less gradual than others) uphill dirt road (after about a mile of pavement, with room to walk on grass on the edge). I’ve been hauling to the lake 3-4 times a week for a couple months now and its getting a little old. Same trails, different day. Not so bad when my riding buddy joins me but Blaze and I both get a little bored alone. Today I decided to take the home dirt road route and it was a good ride. It’s that lovely time of the month that posting a big trot doesn’t sound THAT appealing so I mostly just let him take a nice swinging walk (with much encouragement on that “nice” and “swinging” part) for 6 miles. Trotted maybe a mile total, but mostly the walk. Partly sunny weather and a cool breeze and only one car showed for the whole hour and 45 minutes. Sometimes breaking routine and trying something completely different is just the ticket!
Now to Sheza All Star Leading Filly! I decided it was time to introduce my filly girl to brushing and do some leading work, since they are now consistently staying outside in their paddock w/ shed instead of going back inside to their stall at night. Without the stall and back leading practice built in it was time to be proactive. First I haltered mom and tied her to a corner post inside the paddock. I had to figure a way to handle mom and baby alone so I thought having mom under control and tied (since she stands so quietly) was my best option, then I could work with baby inside the orbit of mom’s watchful eye. I groomed momma D out thoroughly first and that gave Sheza a chance to watch and then, sure enough, investigate. It took her about three strokes of the brush on mom to be up sniffing me and checking things out. After brushing and lots of satisfying belly scratches for D I turned my attention to Sheza. She acted a little sketched out as she always does when I turn my full attention to her but she stood to be petted and haltered fine. I went with the same method of a little pressure on the lead rope and an encouraging pressure on her hindquarters. She fought me like a little fish for the first 10 minutes but nowhere near as dramatically as last time. I held a constant light pressure on her and let her figure out that flinging herself around like a silly filly wasn’t getting the pressure to release. Then she stopped, took a step toward me and voila, the pressure was gone. Ahhh, this made sense to Sheza. Took about 2 more minutes for her to be consistently taking a couple little steps forward at pressure from the halter. I untied mom and had her at my side, backing mom a step at a time down the paddock, and baby was following a couple steps at a time from light pressure on the lead rope. It had to be maybe 15 minutes total and I was leading mom and baby, one on each side, for a full, non-stop circuit around the paddock!! So cool! Applying pressure and then releasing it the second they start to give to it (making the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult) really has proven to be the quickest way to teach horses things, young and old, in my experience. I had a friend snap a couple quick photos of us 3 ladies and then it was time to let filly go enjoy herself after doing such a great job.
I am a happy horse mom today!

Only got about 9 miles today due to a lurker. I drove out to Lakeland to ride, which is the problem. Lakeland is waaayyy down little back roads and then finally down a dirt road to nowhere. So if you park out there alone, you are on your own. And so is your vehicle while you are off trotting merrily down the trail. I always worry a little when I go and take my wallet with me in my saddle bag. Today I was about 1/4 mile from the trailer and a sketchy looking guy in street clothes came flying down the other branch of the road (the branches meet in the parking lot) on a dirt bike, looking over his shoulder. Furtively I say! Dirt bike aren’t allowed in the area but mostly this guy just wasn’t dressed for recreational riding. He was dressed like a sketchy fool coming to scope out my lonely truck! I turned Blaze around trotted back, then went full paranoid by hiding in the bushes and scoping the parking lot. He apparently needed to use the porter potty…..? Bike was leaned against it. I parked Blaze and I next to my truck and made myself look busy on the cell phone. The guy came out, took one look at me, jumped on his bike and hauled ass out of there! Now he could just not want to be reported for dirt biking back there but he sure seemed like he was a little more surprised to see me than that.
Anyhoo I couldn’t get comfortable being out riding while my truck was there alone (not that there is that much to steal inside it, but I have a serious problem with people violating my personal property). And I just bought rice bran, beet pulp, and momma D’s grain. Come on, those are hot items. So I jammed up Sycamore hill, meandered down the other side (I swear if Blaze watched WHERE he was going as much as he tried to watch what is behind him..well..it would nice!), and pulled a U at the road intersection and went back, but along the flat road and through the tunnel. My plastic water bottle crinkling inside the tunnel made Blaze jump out from under himself like something was grabbing his feet! Too funny, he really rarely spooks at anything (though eyeballs each and every rock while trotting by). There is a nice wide open half mile stretch that we hand-galloped along.
On the drive home came the morons. There is new road construction out by Lake Oroville and its a big long stretch of it with a big intersection and side roads as well. Well the flaggers were total morons and almost caused a wreck by starting to wave the rig in front of me through while a fire truck with lights flashing, but no siren, came barreling over the crest of the ridge and down the road behind us. Um, standing facing up the hill seeing a fire engine roar down towards you, yet you wave traffic onto the one lane road??? Go back to flagger class. Then the guy at the turn I was taking was standing in the middle of the turn waving us on straight. I pointed at the turn (my signal was on) and he stared at me then got the picture and got out of the middle of the road. Le sigh. People are bad enough drivers without throwing crap flaggers into the mix. I was glad to get home safely!
As for leading lessons, we brought D & Sheza out this morning for turn out. I put a lead rope on the filly’s halter for the first time, and was leading her with that and pressure on her hindquarters. She fought me quite a bit at first when she felt the steady light pressure on the lead rope. But after ten minutes or so of one step, freak out, one step, freak out, we walked quite nicely to the paddock and into the gate. She had a moment where she sort of gave in and started mouthing and sniffing me, like her blind instincts clicked off and her brain kicked in. That’s when we started making leading progress across the yard. This afternoon I called to her three different times and she whinnied at me and came towards the fence!

Its been rain, hail, and wind for the last two days. Blaze and the mini were standing out in the most horrendous pounding hail and rain yesterday afternoon, despite their lovely solid shed..I think it was too loud on the roof and they couldn’t handle it. At least Blaze was blanketed..
Sheza and momma D have been stuck inside due to the bad weather. Yesterday I wasn’t feeling well and today I don’t feel much better, feel like I am getting a cold. Its supposed to be sunny and warm starting tomorrow for the whole week and the race is in a week and a half so I really want to keep to our schedule and keep Blaze moving. I took a crap ton of Vitamin C so hopefully will be ready to ride tomorrow.
Sheza is SO strong already!! Today she was being a pill when I was trying to handle her in the stall and man her body just feels like pure muscle and energy, I won’t be able to man handle her for long!
Here is hoping for sunshine and feeling good tomorrow!

That is the approximate noise Sheza filly makes when she hears my voice. It is SO endearing. She has done it consistently the last few days every time she hears me. Yay!
Another gray day..was going to go bass fishing with the husband but zooming around in the cold gray icky didn’t sound THAT appealing. I was a slow starter today too, hey, its Saturday. Time to brew a pot of tea and relax. Blanketed Blaze last night, a nasty cold wind picked up. He is outside lying down napping now. He has started lying down and napping more since becoming a fast fit fella. I’m paranoid and have to call him and see him lift his head so I know he isn’t ill..and I’m convinced someone is going to steal my filly because cars keep slowing down when she is in the front pasture and the cars crawl past the house staring out the window. PARANOID MOM. I’m sure they’re just admiring her but I tell ya..having a flashy chestnut with those markings and beautiful mom out there trotting around as classy as can be..ooh I want to wrap them in bubble wrap and and and..love love my Arabs!

13 miles at the lake again today. This time from the Lakeland end, Sycamore hill, etc. Switched off between a steady medium trot and walk. Took us just under 3 hours. Blaze did well. He peed when he got back to the trailer but that was it, no extra stretching out. Didn’t drink water from the bucket and ate a couple of carrots. He really seems to be in “ok, done, take me home” mode when we finish training rides, no matter the pace. He gets home and is a happy camper. I guess I am technically still learning him since I have never ridden him this much, consistently, over mileage, before this year. Josh got the hot water going at the wash stall again which was nice since I got to scrub his couple dirty sweat marks off without worry. It was supposed to be sunny today but was totally gray and I didn’t want to chill him.
Now, for Sheza good little filly! This evening when we were walking momma D and Sheza back to the stall, Sheza was the best she has been yet. I barely had to give her hindquarter pressure and click and she was walking forward 10 or 12 steps at a time instead of her usual locked legs. I usually have to semi manhandle her to get her from here to there but t
his evening she really did it herself off a little halter pressure and clicking (and a couple encouraging hindquarter pressures). It was so gratifying! I haven’t been through this before so I don’t know exactly how much progress and how much stubbornness to expect but I say walking nicely after only her third outing is great! She’ll probably be a little shit again in the morning but it sure is nice to see encouraging signs like that!

“That’s right, I’m smart!”