Definitely Spring Again! Great Ride!

Wow, what a fun ride I had on Flyboy today! Four of us met and trailered over to the Long Ridge tank. After saddling up we headed toward Spring Canyon. We rode for three hours (walk and trot) and had rocks, hills, mud, puddles, deer, etc. to deal with. We climbed all the way up the mountain until we had a fabulous view of the next county. Flyboy was totally awesome the entire time. No spooks. No shenanigans. He was just an all-around good boy! I rode in the Bandos treeless trail saddle and both he and I were quite comfortable. He wore Easyboot Gloves on his front feet and handled the extremely rocky and muddy ground with no problems at all. This was the kind of thick black mud that really sticks and adds five pounds of weight to each hoof! Fly also drank from nearly every puddle and had a good drink when we returned to the water tank. He even volunteered to lead out a couple of times and trotted right on past Mikey. He is gaining confidence! Not much else to say---he just did great!

Good friends, good horses, good weather. Gotta love it!

Now that is a view!

Spring. No, Winter. No, Spring again!

OK, last week we had spring, but over the weekend we had a snowy cold blizzard come through. Five inches of snow and it was only 18 degrees when I went out to do chores this morning. Oh, well--it's sunny again now so I won't complain. I'm heading out to ride Fly tomorrow afternoon. Afterwards I will trim his hooves. Sharon says he is enjoying the social life out at her place and getting to know the herd-mates.

Keno came up lame on his right hind pastern. Three days on bute so far, and he is slowly improving. Poor guy. He has done this before, so I think it will get better on its own. He was in no shape to give a lesson today though!

The new girl, newly named Jetta, is adapting to her new routine. She seems very sweet, somewhat shy, but willing. She is easy to handle on the ground so far. I worked on her feet again this afternoon; they now look pretty good. Good sized and nice and round. She has a bad case of girth itch--the first I've ever seen. Apparently the owner's other horses have it as well. I'm treating it aggressively and have disinfected all tack, brushes, etc. that she has been in contact with. She has a snotty nose (likely due to stress) which is improving, but probably contagious as well. So basically she is quarantined for now, and I am watching Keno closely since he has obviously been exposed. NOT an ideal situation! I'm so glad Fly is out at Sharon's and won't be around till we get all this cleared up.

I do like this girl an awful lot, though. She has real potential even though she may turn out to be a bigger project than I expected. That is to say, I don't think her training has been any sort of real education. I think they just saddled up and headed out at speed on trail and at the track. She needs even the basic ground work, which is what I've been doing this week. Yielding the haunches, basic lunging, backing, softening, etc. She is smart and willing, once I get through the attitude, and she is a really nice mover. The next few weeks will give me a better idea, but right now I think she might be a keeper.

I don't know what this means for Fly. I really like him; he's so fun to ride. (Especially that canter!) I'm not making any decisions right now, but I will have to think about things in the coming weeks. For now, he's happy where he is and I can get out to work with him easily, and tomorrow is supposed to be sixty sunny degrees! I'm looking forward to a trail ride!

Spring + Sunshine = Sunburn

Fabulous spring day--truly warm at 65 glorious degrees! A couple of friends and I headed out to the roller-coaster hills to work our ponies. Flyboy was very good--forward, relaxed, and happy. It was a fairly short ride, but a really good one for him. I rode in a t-shirt and caught the sun to prove it!

I had an interesting weekend to say the least. On Saturday, an endurance friend called me to come take a look at a four-year-old off-the-track arabian filly that needed an endurance home. I am not in the market for a third horse so I tried to resist but got sucked in and decided to go take a look. The problem was I really liked what I saw. Now this filly is in my corral hanging out and eating hay with Keno while Flyboy is camping out at a friend's place nearby. I have this very green young filly on a thirty day trial. Then I have to make a decision.

Fly has come a long way in a few short months. He still has a ways to go, but I am very proud of him. Today was proof of his ability to be a good mountain horse and a fun trail companion.

Gorgeous Spring Day

I know it can't really be spring yet, but man-oh-man was it nice today! I loaded Flyboy up and met my friend Gail near the hills east of town this afternoon. The ground is mostly dry out there, and the parking is easy (we parked on the road), and there is a spectacular view of....the freeway. OK, so it's not the most interesting location, but the hills are good exercise, the terrain is varied and vast, and the large herds of deer create some excitement. Although Fly seemed more interested in watching the cars passing on the freeway in the distance!

Fly was much better on this ride--his head wasn't quite as high, and he walked with purpose and even led the way voluntarily several times. The hills were a good workout. The "No Horses Allowed" sign was no longer a worry, which is a good sign! There are trails, but since the whole area is open for miles around it's nice to just go cross-country, too. We found a water tank and with a little encouragement both horses got close enough to sniff the water, then Fly suddenly plunged his head in halfway to his eyeballs! He munched on the dried out weeds as well.

Gail's horse, Annie, was a good girl. We rode north into the wind (chilly!) but heading back to the trailers it was nice and warm and we were just happy to be out in the sunshine! I want to go again tomorrow!

I will definitely ride tomorrow because I have to try the new (as in used, but new to me) saddle that the Big Brown Van delivered tonight. It's a Bandos Trail saddle--treeless and similar to the Black Forest Shasta. (More similar to the Torsion, or so I've read.) It does have some interesting features--adjustable stirrup placement, Y-girthing, and it seems to be a lot more flexible. The Shasta is quite stiff and seems to be bridging on both of my guys. I am hoping this Bandos will not cause the loin rubbing the Shasta has. I will trying it out and keep my fingers crossed. (I like the Shasta, but it's not working for Fly.)

Keno in the Canyon

I wasn't feeling very well today and decided to just take Keno up the canyon for an easy ride. It was sunny and beautiful with lots of snow and blue, blue skies! Keno was a good sport and we rode for a couple of hours. We spooked up a bunch of turkeys and he got a rise out of that!

I came home and worked Flyboy on the ground. He was full of it---probably mad at me for taking Keno today! We did some lunge work, side passing, backing, etc. He was a good boy in the end!

A Late Post

Well, I have not kept up with posting as I normally do! Monday was clear, sunny and a warm 60 degrees! Incredible for early March and I definitely planned on riding outside. My friend Tammy and I planned to meet and go for a trail ride out west of town. Unfortunately Flyboy picked the warmest day of the year to decide that he wasn't going to get in the trailer since Keno was not going.

Twenty minutes later, I called Tammy and advised her to head out without me since this was a test/battle I was not going to lose. I worked with Fly on the ground for another twenty minutes or so, until he was in a "thinking" frame of mind again. I asked him to step into the trailer and he did. I asked him to back out again. Get in again. We did this for a few minutes and then I closed the slant panel and took him to the fairgrounds parking lot where we repeated the exercise several more times. Then I took him out to Tammy's place to hang out till she got back. I was hoping she'd go out again with another horse!

Luckily she agreed and we headed out for an easy trail ride down a long straight dirt road. It was still sunny and warm, too! Fly was pretty good and loaded easily for the ride home.

Yesterday was lesson day again, so off to the arena we headed. The new saddle pad had arrived so I was anxious to try it. I have read good reviews about the Suberpad and was happy to get a good deal on Ebay! I rode Keno for a few minutes first and liked the pad very much. It helped the treeless saddle have a bit more "twist" on his wide body. He seemed quite comfortable as well and moved out nicely. Then I saddled Fly and rode with the same saddle and pad combo. Hmmm. Very different feel. It actually made my comfy, narrow guy feel much wider. Not necessarily a good thing---I like his narrowness! However, it was a short ride, so we will try again tomorrow. It will take a couple of rides to sort it out, I'm sure!

Today was windy and COLD, so no riding. March weather is weird.

Warm Before the Storm? Not!

Since tomorrow's forecast is dire indeed, I decided Flyboy had to have a trail ride! We may be buried in snow again within twenty-four hours and lose the opportunity for who knows how long. Our last trail ride was December 30--two whole months ago! I called three friends, but no one could ride today. I decided we would trail ride, though, so after a small discussion about getting in the trailer, Fly and I headed out. (He loads perfectly fine if Keno is nearby, but balks when he is alone--we are working on this issue.)

Today the wind was whipping around pretty good and it was overcast, but it wasn't too cold. Ha ha---or so I thought. I took Fly out to the hills east of the freeway and saddled up. We also booted up for the first time in months. Easyboot Gloves, size 1, fit fairly well. I also wore my crash vest, SPOT satellite tracker, cell phone, and helmet of course.. Just call me cautious. Fly's head was six feet in the air and he was looking around at the great wide world like he'd never seen anything like it before! But he headed gamely up the road and onto the jeep trail. This is rocky country. Boulders everywhere! None of those more natural looking things seem scary to Fly, luckily. We headed up a very steep long hill at a walk. He wanted to go, but I held him mostly to a walk since he was a little jumpy. At the very top of the hill is a fence and a gate with a wilderness area sign. I believe Fly thought the sign said "Absolutely No Horses Beyond This Point," because he flatly refused to go any farther! It took about 5 minutes of doing small circles and lots of encouragement before he would pass that sign. But he did pass it and on the way back, he didn't hesitate. Good boy.

The wind at the top of the hill was fierce! And COLD. Freezing, actually. And all my long thermals were in the washing machine at home, wet! So I was feeling that wind! One thing is funny, though--of all the things that bother Fly, the wind is not one of them. Lots of horses get extra frisky and skittish on days like today, but not Fly. Maybe he has enough other things to worry about.

When we turned to head back to the trailer, he was a very good boy. No hurrying. He just walked out nicely and blew quite a few times. Hopefully he was letting out some of the tension he had been holding. He loaded like a champ and we headed for home, slightly frozen and wind chapped, but safe and sound!

Things about the ride I liked:
1. Fly has a good, forward walk.
2. Even though he was anxious, he still listened to me.
3. When he was scared of the sign, he didn't spin and run, or rear. Whew!
4. He walked nicely on the return.
5. Even though he was "spooky" acting, he didn't really spook at anything.

Things I didn't like:
1. I don't like horses to start backing up when they are frightened. He started backing up several times when I           asked him to approach the sign.
2. Gale force winds!