Docscockylilcutter aka 'Stormy'

So I got to work with her two days in a row last week. Thursday and Friday. First session went really well. Getting her out of the pasture was an absolute nightmare, but not her fault really. And once we got in the round pen she did all the exercises great.

What I was going for first was a consistent canter whichever way I pointed without breaking or turning. Then I wanted to get a few inside turns. CA (clinton anderson) says to never let them turn to the outside because you don't ever want them showing you two heels. :shrug: I guess I can see that. And let me be clear I don't think he is the be all end all of horse trainers. But I DO think he has a great method and I like a lot of it. I love how easy and precise it all is. No guess work, simple, clear directions. And the horse gets it.

So, what are we doing in here??

I would really rather be back with my 'boys'

Looking for the cue to come in

 She did great with her turns. She didn't do one wrong (as in turning to the outside) turn at all until my husband came over to watch. And I think I was so anxious to show him how well she was doing that I cued her wrong a few times. If I really made sure I was keeping myself straight in my cues she did great. She has enough energy I don't have to get after her much at all. Now, this is a huge contrast to my mothers new mare. The first session with her I about died from exhaustion chasing her big hiney trying to keep her cantering! It was so bad that in the end I settled for a trot.

So after you get the horse moving out well without quitting on you or turning, and doing consistent inside turns well, I was ready to let her rest and find out that being in the middle, ie with me, was a good place to be! She got it right off and walked right up to me! I was a little shocked since both Cisco and Chloe wouldn't do that even after 5 or so sessions. You are then supposed to rub them down, scratch them, all over. She wasn't terribly focused on me at this point, a lot of her attention was on the horses hollering for her, but she did ok. A few times I asked her to go back around and then come back in to get her refocused.

I did a little of her following after me and then put her up after she had quit blowing. She did great for her first time out!

The next day I worked with her while my youngest napped in the car. (she is almost 9 months now, can you believe it?!) Chloe (not the horse, lol) watched la la loopsy on youtube on my phone in a chair nearby. She also was my willing photographer, lol.

I took this one. And I moved her halter up a bit after this too!

Doing some desensitizing to the rope

Stick/string desensitizing (don't laugh too hard at my skinny chicken legs -_-)

I decided it would be easier to just work her in hand this time having the kids and all. Plus that day was a heat advisory of 107, so the shade sounded pretty good! It was actually quite nice there, good breeze blowing.

So it didn't take me as long to get her this time, but was still a tricky endeavor! I really hope eventually I can get her to come up to me in the pasture. Or at least stand still for me to get her! Right now if you show any inclination to come after her she walks away. And if you try to head her off, she evades faster! I usually bring a grain bucket with a bit in the bottom to entice her but it still takes a while. Mostly because I have to keep fatso Chatterbox out of my way, which usually spooks her off as I'm chasing him away.

I started out reviewing our backing from the previous day. She is quite good at backing up from a wiggle of the lead now. I also introduced another cue to back, its called marching, where you hold the stick in your hand like a ski pole and march your hands and knees up and down at them. She backed up really well with that. Then I moved on to some desensitizing. Throwing the lead rope all over her, no prob at all, she usually stood with a hoof cocked through all of this. Then desensitize to the stick and string all over her body. Again, no prob. I didn't do the string slap because I want to wait to be in the round pen for that. I didn't want to risk her getting free with my little girl out there, etc. 

So then I tried to move on to hind quarter yielding but the first one I did she showed me apparently she has been kicked or something. She was very gimpy on her back leg and hopped her hind end over in stead of moving it. So I only did a few of those each side. She did well! That was about all I had time for. Once I got her put back in the pasture little one was awake and it was time to go in and cool off!!

I haven't had a chance to get out again this week yet. I tried the other night but by the time the husband was done mowing our acre and a half to watch the kids it was too dark. So we just went out and fed them horse cookies, lol.

I hope to get out there again maybe this Thurs and Fri since I will be busy tonight and church is tomorrow night. 

I'll keep yall updated!!

R.I.P Daisy Girl...Plus A New Project

It's taken me a while to write this post. Just not something any of us want to do I don't guess. (sorry, redneck language coming out)

A couple of months ago Daisy passed away. I knew she was getting old at 24, but I don't know, I guess I was expecting at least another couple years. She was in such good health!

We found her laying in the pasture, no struggle around her, no poop like she had been there a while. I think she just laid down and she was gone. :( I guess that is the best way to go. I like to think she was doing her favorite thing (eating) at the time. I just kind of wish I had been there to say good bye, and thank her for all the great times we had together. I wish I had known her longer! At least I have Tuff to see a bit of her in.

Some of my favorite moments...

So, I have kind of been looking for another horse casually here lately. If your a true horse person it runs in your blood. If you don't have one you are automatically looking for one. I went and looked at a gelding that was pretty cheap, looked good in the pictures, sounded good in the texts, and was close. Turned to be a big no go, I didn't even ride him. He was so herd bound to his mama that he was just dangerous. He was 10, but I bet he had never been away from his mama except to maybe wean him when he was young. I liked everything about him but I think he would have been more trouble then I need right now. Time for horses is VERY slim with two little ones! Nap times are precious around here, haha.

So, then I started thinking, well, there are four horses right here near the house for free. And I won't have to buy hay for them! Lol. Five if you count Tuff. Why don't I pick one of them and work with it, get it riding good, satisfy my horse bug, and also take it with me to ride with my mom and dad this fall at their new lake house near the national forest?? No one is riding any of them. So I went through my options:

Chatterbox - Some of you may be wondering what happened to the pretty palomino my FIL bought? Well turns out there was a reason he was so cheap. He had white line. Ugh, took them a year to get rid of it, and I personally don't think he is sound yet, although the FIL does. Anyway, he's big and pushy and kind of a pill, I don't really like his personality per say. Although to be fair, I really haven't done much with him. Plus I would feel bad taking over the FIL's horse when he keeps saying he is going to come and ride him. So no on him.

Rusty - Nah, he has a weird eye cancer thing going on and he is goofy again since no one has messed with him but maybe twice since he got back from the trainer 2 years ago.

Skip - Thought about it, but he is not even green broke, just worn a saddle once and been lunged a few times. That would be a lot of work, even though he has a great, quiet temperament. Too much time needed. He is also too short to keep up with the parents two gaited horses that are both over 16 hands. More about them later.

Tuff - Again, thought about it, but he is still so small, he wouldn't keep up either, plus he also is not even green broke. He has been rode a few times, but still, too much time needed.

Stormy - Ding ding! I decided on her. Another mare, I know. But she has a great mind, tall enough to stand a better chance of keeping up (although I remember how bad Cisco and I left her and the brother in law in the dust, lol) and she has good genes and is a pretty thing. Plus she already rides decent. Green broke I'd say, but not, 'I may buck you off still', green broke, lol. Here is the post about her arrival and bloodlines, etc.

Anyway, I want to put some back story on the reason I want a  horse for fall riding. Mom has always said Cisco was too tall for her, and Dixie is too old now. So I started just kind of looking around for a horse for her. I joined a few facebook pages for horses for sale in my region, told a horsey friend, etc. So that friend sent me a link for a horse one day. I checked it out and was like, ooo yeah, we need to see this one. Convinced the mother to go look at her and she ended up going home with her the next day.

Her name is Chloe, but that is kind of confusing since my oldest daughters name is Chloe, lol. But we still haven't come up with another name for her. Any ideas are appreciated!!

So her she is! She is a 5 year old gaited horse, palomino paint. Around 15.3 to 16 hands. Although we have no papers, and I don't think she is full gaited either. I think she's got some QH in there somewhere. But she does gait! Get ready for some picture spam!!

 Trying her out

Breaking out some Clinton Anderson on her

Isn't she pretty??

Desensitizing her to the stick/string

Dad working his horse, Cisco!

Inside turn

Following...

Our awesome new farrier lady

So we loved her temperament and how she looked, but she had a weird bump on her nose, and she was pretty green. As in, not got a real good handle on her. She would get 'stuck' sometimes if she saw something scary or didn't want to go somewhere and I had to eventually resort to beating her with a small branch, lol! But we liked that her first reaction wasn't to be stupid, it was to just kind of stop and look. And there were ALL kinds of stuff at that crazy place to look at. Pigs, goats, chickens, you name it. (she really didn't like the pigs, lol)

Anyway, we took her to the vet for a vet check, mainly worried the bump on her nose was cancerous. And turns out it was nothing, but ALL FOUR FEET had white line in them! Wha?? So mom really had to ask herself if she wanted a horse that needed quite a bit of attention for a while. She eventually decided she was worth it! So here we are!

We found a great new farrier that has all kinds of schooling, and bought some new stuff they have out to soak her hooves in. The farrier didn't think they were too bad at all, mainly front left, and thought she could get her going good. She is one tough lady, do rag topped hair, muscle shirt, shoulders like a line backer, and tattoos. And so nice and polite, we loved her. She's originally from out west I think. 

So coincidentally I had been watching some Clinton Anderson DVDS and researching him again and when she came along I figured she was the perfect horse to try out my new knowledge with.

I went after work to my mom and dads for about two weeks. Helping them both get their horses going well ground work wise. We kind of stalled the last few weeks with rain, then heat advisories, and now they just bought a lake house so they are focused on getting that all set up for Labor Day weekend this week. But hopefully after that all dies down we can get back to it. I want them both to be exemplary citizens for them to trail ride this fall with.

The lake house they bought, like I said earlier, backs right up to Bankhead National Forest, which has tons of horse trails in it. Woot woot! So glad we have that awesome aluminum four horse to use! Figured we could bring a few round pen panels with us and make them a temporary enclosure and stay over night, go riding in the morning. Or we could just trailer down there early, stay that night after riding, or go home. Its only like 40 mins from their house, little over an hour from mine. Not sure how we would share the trailer, maybe keep it at my house the night before, load my horse up and then drop by and pick them up on the way out there.

So! Cisco and Chloe both know how to:

• Stay consistent at whatever gait we choose by just pointing (in round pen)
• Do inside turns (in round pen)    
• Desensitized to lead rope and stick and string all over body
• Desensitized to string whacking on the ground on either side and in front
• Backing up from wiggle of lead
• Lateral flexing on both sides
• Some hindquarter yielding

That's about all we have done so far. Next I plan on working more on lateral yielding and hindquarter yielding. Then we need to do forequarter yielding I might move off the ground work there. I don't think the parents could handle the other exercises that are supposed to be after these. Such as lunging for respect and sending. I don't know, we'll see! I did a little lunging for respect with one of them and they picked it up pretty easy, I think it was Chloe.

Well I've yammered on enough for one post, more about Stormy on the next!