But, by Monday, I was eager and ready for some horse time! :-) Up the mountain road I went. It was a tad cloudy over the weekend, but we still have no rain in our 10 day forecast...sigh...
It was breezy and windy by the time I got up to the horse ranch. My trainer wasn't there yet, so I took Gigondas, who is my big, red thoroughbred mare, over to the tie rack for some grooming. I also cleaned out her feet. She really has nice, strong, healthy feet (which is GOOD!). She's always stood nicely at the tie rack and has let people clean her hooves. For several years, however, nobody could get near her ears. My trainer now thinks people grabbed her by the ears and dragged her around. Ugh! How cruel & heartless! But, now, at least, we can pretty much brush her all over. I took her down to the arena, lunged her, and let her go. Boy, does she LOVE to run! I think she's about 14 years old now (I've estimated her birth year as 2000), so she is in her prime. But, she still loves to run. I went in the arena with her and she just followed me around, like a dog! I always talk to her and I'm teaching her "Stay" and "come". She's very responsive...(and a clever girl!). She always heads to the gate and waits when she's ready to go back to her corral and she did that yesterday, so back I took her. She knows she gets some "treats" when she returns to her corral...nothing dumb about her!
By then my trainer arrived. She took Scout out next and I led her over to the tie rack. She's my mustang mare. We are saddle breaking her, but NOBODY and I mean NOBODY wants to get on her back...she's too darn quick! So, I really don't know what to do with her...She leads well now, although on the way back to her corral she got antsy twice when behind another horse who was in the cross ties, so we had her go back and practice again and again. By the third time, she was okay...Scout has always been a challenge for me. Frankly, I secretly think she's smarter than I am!
Quad was next for grooming and R&R in the arena. All the horses have their winter coats, which make them hot in this weather. Gigondas was really sweating and even Quad was, too. It was probably in the mid 70's up at the ranch yesterday. That is NOT typical January weather. Usually by now, they have freezing nights and days in the 50's or 60's and RAIN. Alas, no rain is in their forecast, either...
Finally, she took out Lucille, who is now my riding horse. Unfortunately, when she was lunging Lucille, who seemed to be "off", Lucille came up a little sore, so we put her back in her corral and she'll get several days of rest. Sunni went up to the round pen and ran around, then came down to the tie rack. Since he's broken away twice, we just STAND there with him, relax him, and talk. He's getting better. One time she took him out, tied him, and he panicked and broke away and went right through the neighbors' barbed wire fence. Yes, he had some tears on his chest, which the ranch owner doctored up. I was horrified to see this, however. Apparently he FINALLY stopped in their neighbor's yard! ACK! We don't want him to do that again, so we are SLOWLY getting him used to just being at the tie rack (we don't tie him)...we just stand there with him on his lead rope. He's always been "flighty" and I'm sure I'll never ride him...While he DOES trust me completely, I don't trust him not to panic and take off with me.
Photos of Gigondas, Scout, with my trainer, and Quad.
Interesting post. THanks.
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