Paris made her first appearance to the world

Almost 3 years and 850 pounds ago Our little baby "Paris" hit the ground about 5am on 4-25-2012 (4 or 5 hours before this video)
This was our first interaction.

Names have changed but the game remains the same!

It is interesting how over time we go through so many things that change our lives but ultimately make our lives come full circle.

Horses have a tenancy to make that happen.

It has been some time since posting here because our lives have been literally turned upside down.

Megan and Fiona have been sent down the road to what I hope to be better and more skilled owners. They were both basically "Rescue" horses and needed to get out of where they were.

I took them both as far as I could with my knowledge and knew they could get so much more from someone way more advanced.

Since then, I have learned a lot and have gained confidence like never before.

Beauty was literally stolen out from under our nose (by the person that "Sold" her to us)
there is a story for another post.  Something to learn from Beauty!

Since Beauty, we bought "Taffy" (Name does not fit her) and changed her name to Momma. She has been a brood  mare most of her life and is an amazing loving mare. We are her final home and ask almost nothing from her except be comfortable.

Since getting her, we were amazed and surprised by a little unexpected package named Paris.
Walked outside one spring day almost 3 years ago and found this little ball of brown in my corral.
She is a firecracker with a huge personality and curiosity that will not quit.
Paris is my baby at almost 900 pounds.

Photos will be posted soon.
Subscribe to the blog, keep an eye out for future posts and updates at least on a monthly basis in the coming year.

Thank you for stopping in, let me know you were here and I will keep the blog alive.
Enjoy!

Megan and Fiona's last night with us.

These are photos of Megan and Fiona on their last days in our pastures.  They are heading to new homes tomorrow (Sunday) morning.  It is going to be a difficult few days because I have spent so much time over the months with the horses. I just hope the homes in which they go to are as good or better than what we have been able to provide them.  Yup, I doubt I will keep my eyes dry tomorrow!  :-(

 

Here we go! Another hard decision has been made.

We just made a decision on Megan and Fiona. They need to find new homes ASAP.  Yup, time to go because we (humans) are just too big for either one of the horses and Fiona is another year out before anyone of size or weight should ride very often at all.  So, my loss is your gain.  If you are interested in one or both horses please leave a comment or email me and I will contact you back.

Our timeline on placing the horses is to have a new home by the 10th of April.

Little bit of snow makes the camera come out

After freezing weather and an inch or more of snow, I felt it was time to break out the camera and create a few photos of the horses. They were not very cooperative but I did get a few shots that were editable.

The Star of today was Fiona, she would not walk away from me and wanted to see what in my hands was making the clicking noise.  She was quite a ham of a horse.

Enjoy!

 Megan did not want to be in the stall or out in the snow, she also did not want anything to do with me today.  Time to start working her with the halter again! Spring is coming up fast and she will be finding a new home in no time.

Fiona was being goofy so I put the camera almost on the ground and started shooting, she would not leave it alone so I kept shooting.   I think I got a couple good photos. What do you think?

Our new horse, Beauty

Here she is, New photos of our new addition "Beauty" that we have recently acquired.

Beauty is ours!

Yup, you guessed it, Another horse :-)

Last month we acquired Beauty, aka "rcr ima workincowgirl"

This mare is a young but large registered Quarter-horse Paint that stands about 15.2 hands high, very broad in the shoulders and the hips and she is due to foal in June. However we do not own the foal, it goes back to the prior owners.

We are so excited to have her, she is very smart and sensitive and wanting to please.  She is still a little headshy but is very easy to get along with and be around.  I think she is a keeper!

I have been working with her for the last month using the halter and rope, she has come so far in one month that just last week we started riding her.  She is out of shape (takes after her owners) but is working on gaining muscle tone and getting exercised almost daily.  It will not be long before we are able to go on rides with her enjoying the beach or mountain trails with others.

I will post photos of her later this week, it is surprising that I have not taken many of her but I have been working with her more than watching.  You will see her soon, I Promise!!!

Have a great day and get outside in some of this Pre-Spring weather.
Thanks for looking and dropping comments.

Enjoy!

Cross post of Noble

Noble is a cool stallion at a local horse farm, 3 year old QH/Paint Stallion that can be a handful when he wants.

Slowing for the winter while keeping horses dry

Not a lot has been going on in the horse training arena because of the weather and we have been very busy. 
I installed box feeders in both stalls, we got the pasture areas tilled and seeded. We have a lot more fencing to do before the spring when we will be getting 3 calves to roam the pastures. 

Last week we had some very strong winds along with cold weather and rain, Lots of rain! We have been putting horses in their stalls at night and during very bad weather but last week we had a small issue with the rain and wind.  I thought if I opened a stall door and blocked the wind from the South and closed the North door on Megan's stall, it would block some of the rain and wind from coming inside the stall and keep her warm.  Well, that plan kind of backfired on me.  By the time I saw that there was a problem, Megan was shivering to the bone, she was so wet and cold from the driving rains she looked miserable. 

Why was she standing in the rain?  #1 the stall door opening changed, she does not like change very much and the second problem, there was water running through her stall and she did not want to cross the flooding waters. 

I immediately put the doors back to their normal positions and shored up the water from coming further into the stall.  Megan came inside out of the bad weather and watched from the comfort of her mostly dry stall.  I felt bad for her but I also felt, "You stupid horse" but I still fed her some grain and hay to get her body heat up a little and convince her to stay out of the rain. 

Since that incident, I have been working on closing her in the stall and holding the door for a few minutes at a time.  I need to train her that the stall is a safe place and a place to rest and let her know the corral is a place to work and not a place to just hang out.  That will be another post in the future but for now we are just keeping the horses active and feeding them to keep them healthy through the winter.

Happy Holidays everyone!

And the future holds....

I got a call yesterday from our horse trainer/neighbors Eric and Cheri, she said they might have a great deal for us, well, you might say that if you like horses. :-)

They have a friend that lives down by Eugene that has been hit by extremely hard times and has to get rid of 13 out of his 15 horses. Some of the horses were given or sold to him by Cheri and a few were pregnant and bred by Cheri's stallion a few months ago.  So, one of the mares is a 6 year old paint (all black with a small blaze) that stands just over 15 hands high, is pregnant and has won many halter competitions.  Beauty was originally trained by Cheri and she then bred her and traded for another horse and has now received her back into her herd.

There is a high probability that we will acquire Beauty within the next few days (Merry Christmas Tammy) but Beauty will stay at Cheri and Eric's until she has foaled in the early summer and will come here only after her offspring has been weaned.

What did we get? Well, Beauty is a big horse (over 15 hands) and has bloodlines from Champion, Grand Champion, Supreme Champion Quarter Horse bloodlines (King, King Fritz, Poco Bueno, Little Joe and Traveler) 

What did I do?  I saw Beauty in her (temporary) stall and was amazed at her disposition and size. I will be able to ride her without a doubt and I can't wait.  I started working with her, this was the first time in close to two years she had been worked under the halter and she was very well behaved and remembered what she was supposed to do very quickly.  I worked desensitizing her with the rope and she really had a hard time at first then was able to stand without flinching, we quickly moved to the saddle blanket where it took some time but finally stood still allowing me to put the blanket all over her body.


So what does this mean for Megan and Fiona?  I will continue to work with Megan and Fiona until we are ready to receive Beauty and then we will be finding a new home for Megan.  I hope to have her broke and riding by then but there are no guarantees about what she will or will not do.  The reason I want to continue with her is I truly think she is a smart horse and will make an awesome horse for someone. She is young  and willing to learn but has some trust issues and I am willing to work with her as long as I can.  This is not to say Megan's fate is sealed at this point but It has a high probability of moving her to a new home and hopefully an educated horse owner.

Fiona does the bunny hop

The horses have been a challenge lately due to the abscessed hoof on Megan and right at the end of the abscess we get hit with a deep freeze for a few days. Hopefully this cold weather will kill off flies, fleas and other bugs that have been hanging out in the valley just a little too long.  

Fiona has showed that she is feeling good and wants to show what she can do when I let her out of her stall. She has started playing and showing off a bit, she jumps, kicks, runs, bucks, bunny hops and snorts all in a playing manner.   I found that I can get her to interact with me this way most days but only after I watched part of  "dancing with horses" with Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling.   I started playing and running with Fiona and got some great responses but now she will actually play and have fun for about 10 or 15 minutes.  


Fiona is a funny little girl, she does learn quick and is very lovable. She is always wanting someone to scratch her neck or give her hugs but then will do what you ask of her.  The funniest thing she does is a Bunny Hop when she plays.  She will run flat out from one end of the pasture to the other, stretching her head out and making full strides leaving Megan in her dust. When she gets almost to the end of the pasture she starts putting on the brakes, stiffens all four legs and hops to a stop. This is something that will need to be trained out of her when she is under saddle because that hopping ride is bone jarring and not something you want to experience if you do not have to. 

Horse hoof template and Duct tape pad

As you may well know, we have been nursing an abscessed hoof on Megan for a few weeks now.  Each time we go out and have to put on a new absorbent pad or insert into the soaking boot so her foot will dry out and heal correctly.

A couple days ago I wanted to try an experiment and see if I could make a template of Megan's hoof so I could make some hoof pads up ahead of time.

It took some time but I found a block of wood and started cutting on it with my cutoff saw which was not even close enough to start and barely a rough cut.  I got out a coping saw and the wood was too hard (black walnut)... My sawzall came to the rescue and I was then able to create a hoof replica so I could mold hoof pads for Megan's hoof.

 

  Hoof Template

 

 Hoof Template and used Duct Tape pad

 

 used Duct Tape pad bottom

  

 used Duct Tape pad top

 

 Hoof template in used Duct Tape pad top view

 

  Hoof template in used Duct Tape pad side view

Eureka, we struck brain matter!

 We got Megan in July and have been working with her since then.  We started with essentially a wild horse that had basically no human interaction for over two years. I thought from the start that we had something special that we were getting and today, I think I finally found out what exactly that "Something Special"  was.

Megan has challenged me every step of the way since day one, she has ultimately been the top dog, alpha horse and lead mare up until today.  Something happened today that I will try to explain but may take some time.

We went through the regular catching routine, desensitizing and sensitizing working the feet and trying to break through that thick skull and into the brain.  Once I see Megan drops her head, I know I can safely proceed with cleaning hooves, more advanced movements and  training techniques.  Today I did just that and got the same as usual results, which compared to two months ago is amazing but still not getting into the horse's brain.

I finished cleaning her hoof taking dead tissue from around the abscess area, making sure nothing will be getting into the hoof, I then went on to fitting and securing the Duct Tape pads to her front left hoof to keep the remaining abscess hole clean and mostly dry for the day. I started to work with her a little more and found that after 10 minutes of working with her, I saw something that I would consider a breakthrough.  She let down all guards, trusting my judgment and followed my every movement and direction from one end of the corral to the other, around and over obstacles all while moving her feet in every direction possible without reaction of flight or fight.  

The moment I noticed what was happening I got a little curious as to what I was seeing and was it true. I stepped in front and faced her, she stopped, I moved a step to the left, then to the right (sorry, not Rocky Horror) and she tracked me in her every move and would not let me get more than a half step around to her side or away without her making adjustments to her feet and keeping me in her total vision and focus where nothing else mattered.  I found what makes her tick, FINALLY!

Do not drive her, do not whip her, do not push her... but Direct her and Allow her to follow and do what comes naturally for her. Be Megan the Horse!

She took my direction, did everything I asked her to do, all while Megan gave me total control and respect.  Don't get me wrong, tomorrow could be back to the same beating my head against the stall door and using pressure to get her to do what I ask, but as far as today goes.... It was amazing!

Farriers and feminine absorbent pads heal abscess.

All is well if you call a hole in the bottom of your foot and you are a horse.

We had our farrier (Lincoln Todd) out on Monday to trim both Fiona and Megan's hooves and find the problem with Megan.  Lincoln got Fiona all trimmed up and looking pretty good but only after a small fight with her feet.  I have not put as much work into Fiona as I wanted or should have and it has been about a month since I picked up her feet.

Megan on the other hand was a little more challenging at first.  I caught her and worked with her just a bit, although with her pain I was cautious about how much I worked with her.   Lincoln grabbed her front left hoof and started trimming away and did some pressure tests on the hoof where amazingly enough, he found a abscess in the hoof just like a local trainer told me it would be.

Once he found the abscess location he dug out some of the hoof and was able to get some drainage, then he dug out a tiny bit more and the abscess let go.  "Yaay, no more pressure" is what Megan was saying at that point.  It was time to trim up the rest of the feet so he went to the back left, she wouldn't stand still.  At that point I had to tell Lincoln, "Let me work her feet for a few minutes" and I did just that.  Foreward, backwards, yield her hind end left, then right and the front end left and right finally getting her to listen, calm down and drop her head so we could work her hind feet.

Lincoln went to her left hind foot and she moved away again, so I worked her again.  I remembered, she does not like her rump to be petted as you are getting ready to pick up her feet, bypass her rump and go right down the leg and lift the hoof.  She knows you are there and will lift every time.

We were on a roll, she picked up all four feet and got all trimmed up for the first time since April when we got her. No telling when the last time she had all four hooves trimmed or had shoes on.
 

Megan now has a hole in her foot we had to do something right away to keep it clean, clear of mud, sticks and horse poop.  It was now the perfect time to get a boot so we could have her foot soaking in Epsom Salt water and draw out the poison in the abscessed hoof.



We got the boot and mixed up some saltwater, that was the easy part and the hard part was soon to come.  Putting the boot on was more than I expected and at one point it put me in a position of questionable safety, That was not fun at all!!  She was flipping her foot in the air kicking off the boot once, then finally stopped. I got the boot back on and she was much calmer but not completely liking this huge chunk of rubber on her foot.  I got Megan calmed down again and was able to pour saltwater into the boot and without her freaking out and sloshing out all the water.  We have done this over three days now and it is time to dry out the boot and hoof.

After doing research on the web, calling trainers, farriers and the local horse people, everyone said they used diapers to draw out the moisture. Well, I know diapers are expensive and there will be a lot of waste in cutting down the diaper to fit her foot. I did some thinking and went to the local drug store (Bi-Mart) and asked one of the pharmacists about using a feminine absorbent pad for something like this. She felt sorry for the horse but was very understanding and helpful finding the correct product to draw moisture out of the open hoof.  I stuffed 3 absorbent pads  (with sticky backs) into the bottom of the soaking boot and wrapped the top with two more. There will not be any moisture, dirt or sticks floating around in that boot!!

Tomorrow we add iodine to the mix and will be done with it in a few more days once the hoof closes up.

A lame end to a new start!

A New Start!
I took a chance on Megan and now she is lame. 

I wanted to start getting Megan out and around to see how she would be in unknown areas to her so I took her for a walk out of the corral through the hall/stall about 4 times until she was mostly calm and used to the surroundings, smells and grass. 

Yaay, there was clumps of grass to eat everywhere and she found them.

After taking megan out and back in then working her feet for a few minutes she was ready for uncharted territory and get to work.

She was very curious and wide eyed but I still had control of her feet. If she pushed into me I moved her hind feet with the hindquarter disengagement exercise and had her back down a bit.  We would walk another 10 feet and she would spike back up again and we would do another two or three circles until she calmed down again.   I think we did this four times in about 300 feet.

We got to the well tilled area where our round pen will be built soon and just walked her in circles, and then went through a whole group of  exercises moving and controlling her feet forward, back, side to side with her front and hind end.

We are now ready to work!

I sent her into a trot with the lunge line (only 12 feet) and she loved it.  Her head was up, tail and mane were blowing in the wind and she looked like she was smiling and I was sweating.

All went well and she got used to going from the barn to the round pen area real well, it was like she anticipated the run and liked it.

Last Sunday I took her out and was working with her pretty slow, I had her trot around for a while getting warmed up and then went into a canter, pulled her back to a trot and she was doing great until she stopped very quick and pulled her front left foot up and was limping very bad. 

She either hit something in the ground impacting/bruising the bottom of her hoof, punctured the bottom of her hoof (couldn't see any injury)  It could have been an abscess or old injury that came to the surface after impacting the hoof but we are still not sure what happened.

So now we wait, I have talked to many people and they in general have a 3 to 10 day waiting period before they are real worried.  An abscess will likely blow out or burn out in a few days, the impaction/bruise will calm in about 4-5 days and I am hoping for one of those!


I called two farriers with injury experience and I have yet to hear from them.

Stay tuned for updates on Mare Megan to see how she is doing.

Wish us luck!

Quick update on Fiona and Megan

This morning I went out to feed and both horses were hanging out by the barn waiting for food. There were no games being played, they just both wanted food.  I chased them both away from the barn separating them, one in the pasture and one in the barnyard.  I was just then able to take a look at Fiona's bumps and bruises and scratches.

All in all everything looks ok, there are no deep abrasions or scratches, there are only places where a layer of skin and hair have been scraped off by Megan's hooves. I checked her out for tenderness around the head and neck then the shoulders, checking her back and hindquarters and still only found nothing to be worried about.  Even yesterday I noticed she was doing good and did not have a limp, so it was pretty superficial and not any significant injuries. 

I did notice that today and yesterday afternoon, Fiona is keeping some distance between herself and Megan.

Kicking out against pressure

Last night after getting settled for the evening I heard what sounded like a car door shutting, then another.  I got up and looked outside only to hear a large bang in the barn, NOT GOOD!

In running to the barn, (Yes Running) I heard another 2 hard hits and loud noises along with loud horse noises. I turned the corner to see both Megan and Fiona look at me like I had interrupted something and asking "What?"   I chased Megan out of the stall and noticed a few hoof prints on Fiona, then started looking closer and noticed a few abrasions and lots of missing hair from hoof scrapes. 

Fiona took a lot of abuse all over her body, including her head/cheek area.  From her head to tail she was covered in hoof prints and two prints directly on each side of her tail along with right on the point of the hip bone and top of the rear.  In looking at Fiona, I noticed she was limping pretty good and favoring her right hind leg/hip that is when I noticed a couple more scrapes.

After inspecting both horses, Megan threw and connected a lot and Fiona had no chance while she was pinned against the wall in the stall with no way out.  No more confined spaces allowed so the stall/barn is off limits for now.  We can not afford large vet bills because of a horse fight and that kind of behavior is not acceptable even though it is partially human fault providing small spaces where horses could have issues.

I looked at the barn wall and door, it was pretty graphic with hair embedded in some of the wood, deep gouges in the plywood and a lot of dirt/mud/horse poop mix strewn about, even on the ceiling.  This was a one sided fight and it could have been much worse so I took action to be sure it does not happen again due to human error.  The horses were separated last night and during feeding this morning, after feeding time Megan had her ears laid back and was chasing/herding Fiona into the larger pasture. 


It was quite an experience and hope to not have a repeat anytime soon.

Wiggle, Wave, Walk, Wack, Wack,Wack, That is the start to the day!

Today started exactly as the title says, Wiggle, Wave, Walk, Wack, Wack, Wack.  That is one of the Clinton Anderson horse backing techniques that I am learning and so is Megan, FINALLY!

I have found that Megan can be very sensitive but is also very disrespectful and can be very lazy.  Today reinforced all of those traits in her and now I get to work through even more of her issues.

I knew she had backing problems but she would not respond to tapping the lead rope "1-2-3-4" tapping the rope harder each set of 4 then actually tapping her lips and nose.  She planted all four feet, leaned back and put her head in the air saying "you can't get me!!!!  I had to change techniques to get her response and respect.

She was not quick to respond to "Wiggle, Wave, Walk, Wack" but she did respond when she ran into the tip of the crop style whip/stick, I had her attention.  Megan actually came back around and gave me 2 eyes and backed away more and more until I could consistently get 4 steps instead of one.

I decided to quit there while I was ahead and went through desensitizing drills by throwing the rope over and around her body and head then laterally flexing for relaxing and thinking. 
It was then time to quit while I was ahead and feed the horses.

Just a couple photos of Fiona from this morning.

 

Rain is here!

It is that time of year where all the kids have gone back to school and it has started raining.  This year the rain is a little early just like the rest of the weather.  Tonight when I went to feed Megan and Fiona I hit it just right between rain storms. The top surface of the ground is soaked, super slick and was just like walking on ice. 

I was able to feed the  horses without mishap but there was no way I would even try to do any training tonight.  This morning I did work with both Megan and Fiona for just over an hour.  Fiona is doing pretty good and now getting accustomed to some of the training techniques I am using now.  She starts and turns perfectly under the halter but does not like to stop when told to do so.  She also does not want to yield her hindquarters and pivot away, she stepped out once and then started running like she was on a lunge line.  We have a lot of work to do with Fiona but I have very high expectations for her in the near future.

Megan,  Well she did not want to be caught today so she ran around in circles while in the paddock/corral area.  When she decided to give me her hooves instead of two eyes, I caught her hind end with the whip and made her trot around even more.  After about 8 trips around the corral I told her to stop and turn into me and she did just that.  I know that she is in the right mind when she stops and gives me both eyes and I can then approach to put her halter on and start working with her right away.  Over the next few days I will be working more on controlling her feet as in yielding hindquarters and forequarters forward and back. 


Wish us luck this week and I will post the outcome of the training sessions soon.