He's Finally Here!

Well after weeks of rain or conflicting schedules, my mom and I finally made our trade! It all went so smooth and well; way better then I imagined it would!

I was nervous about the trailer part really. I hate hauling horses, so nerve wracking! And Cisco hasn't been on a trailer in years and only a few times period! Also, I was using the two horse of my neighbors again, which was big enough for him but its still a small box he had to climb in.

So we loaded Daisy up with little effort and headed to my parents place. My mom was out in the barn brushing Cisco who was very excited to see a new horse coming to visit! He and Daisy hollered at each other a bit and then I took her to the side gate and put her in the round pen. We figured that would be the easiest way to get them acquainted since it was in the pasture, without just throwing them together.

Mom untied Cisco and let him out and he ran out there and bugged her for 20 minutes, lol. He racked and trotted and cantered around showing off it was so funny. Daisy trotted once a few strides with him and then just walked around or ate grass. She was definitely not too impressed.

Through most of this Dixie, who we were really trying to get together with Daisy, was out in the back pasture! She finally ambled up there after a bit and they sniffed and squealed a bit but that was it. My mom let Daisy out after we left with Cisco and she said they did well. This morning my dad said Dixie was laying down with Daisy standing near her, so all seems well! Yeah, mares!

After he got over Daisy a bit Cisco came over and visited with us. He was so cute letting me love all over him and give him hugs and kisses, all things Daisy does not appreciate! ;) He's just a big love bug.

So my husband got done putting up a garage door opener for my parents and we got Cisco's saddle loaded up and grain to bribe him with. I wasn't real sure how I wanted to go about getting him in there but I knew I wanted to go slow and easy and just let him figure it out.

I grabbed a whip to cue him with if needed, remembering how we used to get my young QH mare I had when I was a teenager, into a trailer. But we didn't need it! I simply walked him out of the pasture, let him sniff the trailer (which he wasn't alarmed about really at all, just curious) and then my dad started shaking the grain can and pouring a bit out, etc, to entice him. And oh! Was he enticed, lol. I sniffed and sniffed, then he would look at the trailer floor and think, like hm, what do I have to do to get that?? After a few minutes he decided to just step on up in there and grab him a bite! GOOOD BOOOYY! Every time he even thought about moving forward I would praise him and pet him, he does really well with verbal praise.

So he chomped on some grain for a moment, but then we realized we had a problem. He is plenty long enough to reach the hay manger without putting his back feet in! Hm! I didn't want to rush him though so we let him relax in there and eat, and I tried pushing on his hiney a bit to get him to step up but he took that as a cue to get off and hopped down. No problem! I let him figure it out again and he hopped right back up and ate some more. This time as he was getting up he almost put a back foot in. Again he ate a bit and this time we tried pulling a bit on his halter after a minute but he backed out again. So I pulled on his lead and clucked to him to get him back in and this time he jumped on up, all four feet! Yeah! We all went SHUT THE DOOR, lol, and in he was! This all might have taken 10-15 mins? Such a smart boy.

He wasn't real happy to be in there after he got in, and of course his mama neighing at him didn't help! Mom opened the front window to check on him and he poked his big old head completely out of it!! I was thinking, oh great, please don't think about climbing out of this window and/or get your head stuck! But he pulled it back in and we shut it to prevent that again! The picture there is right before we closed it back up, lol.

We got Chloe in her seat and jumped in and off we went! I decided to go on down the interstate even though its louder etc, then through town. All the stops and goes are hard on them balancing. He did good! Although my hubby said he moves a lot more then Daisy, you could feel the truck moving a bit as we were going down the road, which made me nervous!! I don't know if it was him being nervous, or just not know how to balance in the trailer.

Anyway we had to make a stop for my brother in law at the dollar store for oil and he was completely still and silent the whole time except for neighing at us when we came to check on him, lol. After that it was straight home! We had a little trouble trying to get into our usual unloading place, the husbands diesel is a 2wd and it was rained nonstop for days here. So we ended up unloading kind of in the gravel drive, oh well.

We thought he would want to race off so I  worked for a few minutes to get the butt bar unhooked before we opened his door, but after all that he had to be told to back off with some encouragement, he was pretty sure the ground was not going to be there, lol. He did finally step off and instead of a horse on the end of my lead I had a 10 foot tall GIRAFFE! He was like where the hades am I?? He listened very well though as I walked him toward the pasture. We did some stopping and backing to make sure he remembered I was attached to his head that was in the clouds, and then went to see his new girlfriend that was very excited to see him!

I parked him in front of the fence and asked for a brush, his shoulders had gotten pretty sweaty, I guess a combination of the closed in trailer and nervousness. (Daisy was a little damp all over when I got her out, crazy, I had most of the windows all the way open, but thats why I would rather haul stock type trailers, better airflow). I brushed him down and bit and let him relax, which he did fairly quickly. Then I let him and Stormy sniff a bit and felt pretty good about tossing him in there with her. They trotted and cantered around a bit but that was about it. Mostly it was Cisco running about checking out his new digs with Stormy following like a puppy dog, lol! She kept having to trot to keep up with his power walk. They settled down and ate hay together and all was well!

Thats about it folks! Oh, while I was at my parents I took a picture of the disaster that happened New Years night.
    

This picture is all that is left of my parents shop. Which housed 3 muscle cars totaling over $100,000, two boats, thousands of dollars of tools and equipment, another muscle car in production, and countless items from when my brothers and I were kids. SO DEVASTATING. I feel so bad for them, but they are doing okay. My dad is still trying to get over it, he lost two of his 'babies', a '66 GTO that he restored ground up basically for 3 years, and a '70 Chevelle that he just bought last year. My mom's car, a '71 Lemans convertible was in there too. :( Won't ever know what the cause was, too big of a disaster, but they think it was something electrical, possibly my dads Chevelle, since that was the spot of the most damage.

We are SO happy though that it was just the shop and didn't get to the house! 'Stuff' can be replaced, but it still hurts. Thankfully it was all insured except for the boats.

Anway! In other news we got a colossal snow storm (for us at least!) Thursday afternoon. Dumped nearly 4 inches on us! The roads were a DISASTER. I barely made it home. But after that we had a awesome time playing in it. Sledding, making snow men, snowball fights. Just wonderful. Chloe loved it! I had put Daisy's blanket on her two days before because it had been raining forever, and the temps were dropping in the 30's at night. So thankfully she was all ready for the snow! I finally got to pull it off her Friday when the sun reappeared!

Sweet baby! I knew she would need that snow suit and boots when I bought it this summer!!

About to go down the hill!

All snuggly!

All nakey again. I wish she would grow more coat!

Well I am finally going to shut up, thanks so much if you made it this far! Another post coming soon about Cisco boy!

Riding Mr. Cisco?

I seem to have strange epiphany's while I am just on this side of sleep. I come up with the greatest ideas, think of all kinds of important things, and come to great conclusions at this time. I'm not the only one, right??

Anyway last night as I was laying in bed waiting to fall off to sleep I started thinking about horses. And my mind came back to a conversation I had with my mom a while ago. Something along the lines of "don't you want Cisco?? And you can give me Daisy!" I strongly protested to this idea, and it came up several times, all with my same reaction.

But last night it strangely started to make sense! And I kind of got excited! I need to flesh this out and think about it some more so I thought I would put down some pros and cons and would LOVE any and all opinions from anyone who reads this blog.

First lets do a 411 on Cisco for those who don't read my blog much.

Name: Dixies Cisco Kidd
Breed: Spotted Saddle Horse (out of a SSH sire and dam but solid, so not registerable)
Age: 12
Height: 16.2-3
Weight: ??
Discipline: Trail Riding

Trading Cisco for Daisy:

PROS:
1. He's younger
2. Gorgeous!! Tall and palomino with a beautiful tail
3. I've basically done all the training on him from when we got him at 4 months and up
4. No soundness issues
5. VERY easy keeper, with great hooves, in great health, grows a very strong winter coat
6. Been taken very good care of his whole life by my mom
7. He's a sweet boy, big baby, LOVES attention (unlike Daisy who would rather be left alone!)
8. No bucking! (I love that about most gaited horses, haha)
9. Smooth riding
10. He would be free!
11. Daisy gets to go to my mom who has a barn and babies her animals
12. My mom gets a smaller horse she can ride


CONS:
1. HE'S NOT A QUARTER HORSE - big main one
2. Pretty much has no formal training aside from 30 days at a trainers; woahs, gos and turns, thats it
3. TALL and CLUMSY, he has dinner plate size feeet and gets them tangled a bit
4. Not socialized much, he has been off farm and away from his mama only 3 times in his life. But the last time he was he did great. My teenage niece who is a very green rider took him to a horse camp for a week and he was such a good boy!
5. 'Hotter' then Daisy
6. All his tack has to be BIGGER. Although I'm sure mom would send his tack with him. It's just not that great of quality. I know, I'm a snob!
7. Never taught to carry a bit
8. If I wanted to sell him my mom would not be pleased
9. I have to trade Daisy :(
10. He is used to having a barn his whole life, all we have is trees!
11. He will be out with at least 2 other horses he doesn't know, not his mommy. At the trainers he went to for 30 days he got picked on pretty bad, so not sure how he would do. He would probably be ok with the geldings, but if I trade Daisy then Stormy will be alone...maybe she won't be mean to him??

So! Give me your thoughts! I have pretty much decided already, but would love to hear anything else. If I decide to get him it will definitely be after Christmas!

And to finish, some OLD pictures of Cisco boy! :)

About 6 months old!

Little guy at 10 months! 

Cisco and his mama! He is little over a year here. Dix looks so good!

Theres my QH mare I grew up with peeking out! He was such a lanky yearling!

First ride at 2 years!

And this is my niece at the horse camp with him, such a handsome boy!

So! I will let yall know how it all develops! Oh, BTW, that pleasure horse my FIL was looking at? Found out why he is so cheap. LAME. He has a shoulder injury. UGH, more deception! Dontcha think that would be nice to disclose in your for sale ad?? -_-

Till later!

Oh, The Deception!

Well now that I am on my computer I can give you a better picture of the gelding we went to see Saturday. Here he is:

Looks nice right?? He sure does in THIS picture. I didn't get a picture of him when we went to see him but this is an example picture of the kind of condition he was in when we drove up:

Of course this is obviously an older horse, but the prominent backbone and croup are all very similar to this gelding above, although I think his ribs were standing out MORE then this horses. Definitely around a 2 on the body conditioning scale. Their excuse? "He's a big horse, he takes a lot of feed!" and "He was like that when we got him" Sigh.

SAD. I knew when we drove up to a ranshackle barn and a rundown dressage arena with BARREL RACING barrels in it that was a bad sign. Not to mention the 2 horses walking around loose with lead ropes dangling. Near a road. Yeah. -_-

So I saw him in the pasture when we drove up and I thought oh no, I really hope that's not him. I looked closer at his markings and I knew it, I knew it was him. He has the same markings as Daisy so it wasn't hard to remember. My mother in law went OH NO, I hope not! I was like, well, maybe not, but I have a strong suspicion!

The lady that ran this 'lesson barn' was sick so she had her teenage students tacking up and talking to us. We walked out to the pasture to catch him and he wasn't happy about that, trotted around a bit before we got him. Then as the little girl was haltering him I asked her some about him, namely about him being out of Impressive blood and if he had been tested. She says, I don't know, but I do know he is a roarer. WHAT?! Your kidding right?? NO MENTION of this in his ad of course. That right there was kind of a deal breaker. But we had drove over an hour to get there and decided to try him out anyway.

So we get to the barn and they can't find any tack to fit him (most of their horses were under 15 hands and he is 16.2). She also can't find a saddle that my father in law can fit in. They finally find reins that are long enough and the girl takes him to the little dressage arena and puts him through his paces both ways. Oh wait, I forgot the part where she said he throws his head a bit so lets try him in a tie down. YEAH. So she puts one of those on him and my father in law are just looking at each other like, man what a waste of time.

Anyway he does fairly decent. Takes his leads well, etc. I notice she is posting his trot, but don't think much about it until later. And then we hear it about the second time around at the lope, HUFF HUFF HUFF with each stride. Yep, definitely a roarer.

She hops off and I tell her I don't want to ride him in the tie down and take it off so I can see how he does, then climb up on the behemoth. I flex him both ways, he does that fairly well. I make him woah a couple times and flex again. He pulls HARD on the bit a few times, can definitely tell he has had beginners yanking on him. Then I trot him. OH MY WORD. Now I know why she was posting his trot. I could. not. keep. my. hiney. in. the. saddle. Awful! And his lope wasn't much better. So I did lope him pretty good both directions and you could hear his roar even worse, poor guy. So! That was the end of that.

We were all pretty disappointed  so I got on my phone again to see if there was anything else down there worth looking at. Found a stable about 25 minutes east of us who had two geldings that sounded promising. But they didn't pan out either. At least they were saddled when we drove up! The father in law jumped on a sorrel and I took the palomino paint. Neither looked like much. They were about 15.1ish, but pretty lanky. Just 'horses', you know? They minded well though and were a nice ride. Definitely smoother then old Red Man. But still not what he was looking for!

As we were driving home I happened to get an email from a guy who had a pleasure gelding that the FIL relaly like, but had said he thought someone was coming to get him. He said in his email he still had him and to give him a call. Whoo hoo! We were pretty excited about that, so maybe he will work out. We'll see!

I used to think horse shopping was fun, but LAWD, I'm having second thoughts.

Got another post in the works! Might get it out today!

Small Update!

Yes, I'm still alive and well! Not much horsey things going on since the beginning of the year. I've pretty much retired Daisy girl. She is nearly 23 now and really would rather not have to do anything but eat!

Chloe and I went out and visited her this afternoon. She is looking good going into winter. I'll have to make sure I blanket her on the cold wet/snowy nights though, she isn't as hearty as she was. I wish she would grow more of a winter coat!

She of course didn't make it easy on me and be available up at the gate. No, I had to walk through 3 pastures to get her fuzzy butt! And of course I carried my 2 year old daughter through nearly all of them to and back because she was "huffing tired" lol! She is so funny.

I had a pocket full of corn so gave her some after I caught her, hopefully she will remember that!
So we finally made it to the house and got her brushed. I also got her nasty mane snarl all smooth and fixed, though it seemed like I pulled out half her mane in the process! Doesn't look like it though. I guess its like me when I take a shower I feel like I lose a half a head of hair down the drain sometimes!

I found Chloe a low bucket to stand on and she was a great helper. Then she found the cowboy magik and had to spray that all over Daisy (and my leg -_-). She even got Daisys nose which I'm sure she appreciated, lol.

I had so much fun sharing with her the parts of Daisy's body, what a hoof pick is for, don't walk behind a horse, etc. She loved feeding Daisy the rest of the little corn I had gotten. Daisy was so careful not to use her teeth too.
After that her papa came up and gave me a leg up and then lifted Chloe up. He gave us a little pony ride in the yard, fun fun! Chloe wasn't real sure about being so high, but with time I think she will be fine! Or maybe she just needs a pony! ;)

After Chloe decided she was done I tooled around on Daisy a bit longer. I was thrilled she still remembers her lateral flexing! She was such a good girl. I haven't rode her since March probaby.

And in other exciting news! The father in law has been on the hunt for a horse for a while. He's only found one worth looking at and didn't like him enough to buy. But! I found him a gelding about an hour from us we will probably check out tomorrow. I'm so excited, love horse shopping! He is a big scutter at 16.2, chestnut reg QH out of a great grandson of Obvious Conclusion. Does english, western, jumping (woot!) and trails. 11 years old. Pretty guy! I'm on my phone or I'd put his ad link up for you.

 I can't really put photos where I want them on my phone so the first two are obviously the horse for sale, Red Man. And Daisy and Chloe and I the next! (And a bonus cute one of Chloe in her 'stang from today , lol.

I will keep yall updated on the test ride!

Good Boy, Cisco!

Back again! With a great report as well! I'll admit when I went out to my parents Tuesday I wasn't really looking forward to the mess I was going to have to deal with. I know how herd bound he is to his mama and I had all kinds of ugly scenarios going through my head.

So on tuesdays the child stays with her grandma so I didn't need to worry about her. Although my mom had to deal with her cousin, my younger brothers son, who stays with her on Tuesdays. He's only 2 months younger then Chloe. So that kind of made it hard for her to apply what I was doing and to even watch sometimes.

Ideally I would have liked to work him in a rope halter but I wasn't too worried because he is pretty responsive and kind of overreactive in his regular halter, especially when being reprimanded. I really didn't have a plan when I went out but after I got there and started working with him it all just came to me and fell into place. Thank goodness! I mean I'm no expert, I basically read and research a bit and figure it out as I go along.

So I haltered him up and just worked him in his pasture for a while. We worked on staying at my shoulder, halting promptly at my cue, same sort of stuff as Saturday. He remembered it all well. Then I thought I might go a little Clinton Anderson on him, lol. I really like the respect that he gets from his horses and how they look to him for all their direction. Both things Cisco needed! He needed to learn his mom doesn't call the shots when a human has him, plus that he is safe with the handler even if he's not with his buddy.

So I started with backing up with a wiggle of the lead rope. That took a little bit for him to figure out but after he got it he was GREAT at it the rest of the two or so hours I worked with him. Then I did some desensitization with him. CA says after you sensitize you need to desensitized and vice versa. So I would stand to one side and slap the ground with the lead rhythmically until he showed me a sign of relaxation. I.e. lowered head, licking and chewing, big breath, floppy ears, cocked hoof. Then on the same side I would lob the lead rope up and across his back and then off in a rhythm again until he relaxed. I thought he might have a problem with this to begin with but he was just fine with it. About halfway through he was relaxing within the first two slaps or lobs. It became like his 'safe' time when he could be still and just chill.

The last thing I taught him was disengaging his hindquarters. I said in my previous post I wished I knew how to teach it. Well things were going so well I decided to give it a try and see what he did. He did well! Although he tangled himself up for a bit to begin with lol.

There was one big problem with it though. For whatever reason the way I was doing it he tried to snap at me as I was bending down and staring at his hip for it to move. NOT COOL. Of course I laid into him with the lead rope and made him back up really fast. But he still did it another two times later on. Shrug. I don't know what I was doing wrong but apparently there was something! It also made him nervous nearly everytime I asked for it so I didn't do it much. Maybe he just needed more work at it? Like I said no idea, I've only read about it and seen it done on tv.

Anyway! We worked as far from his mama as possible in the pasture with no problem and decided it was time to graduate outside. He did great! No escalation, listened well, ect. So my mom was down at my grandparents chatting and I worked my way down there. All the while alternating between my 'tools' I had installed to keep his attention on me. My mom was still skeptical, saying yeah wait until he gets in the barn! She had very little faith in my method even seeing how well he was doing. Well! I was definitely motivated to prove her wrong!

So over the course of another hour or so I worked us towards the barn. Mostly going towards it but sometimes coming back towards his mama. She neighed for him off and on but he never called back! Only once did he neigh when we were way over by he barn.

All through this there were cars coming in and out, people yelling at each other, the baby running around with a wagon, ect. He did great. Oh and an annoying chihuahua barking and running at him too lol. He's used to her though ;). She thinks she is a horse herder.

Well we finally got to the barn and this is where he did get a little higher but nothing bad at all and he calmed down easily. I had mom grab a handful of hay and wait for us in the barn. I walked him in there and after he stood still he got some hay. Stood a few minutes and then we walked out! Good Boy!

I walked him back to a flat spot in the pasture and then had mom take over the lead. I don't think she really grasped exactly what I was doing but she did ok. I'm going to definitely go out again and help her soon. Maybe tomorrow? Probably not though because sweet baby is sick :(. I'll be over there for Easter Sunday but doubt I will have time. We'll see!

After we put him in the pasture I told my mom that he did well and he didn't even have a fit about finally being back with his dear mommy! He just walked in there and got him a drink and totally ignored her! My mom agreed that he had done well and I had made her a believer. :)

So I don't have any pictures from then but here are some from Saturday! 

Tata!