Daya is fat and sassy. Happy to be worked with or simply lounge around in the pasture with her buddy Ely. I've continued to start her under saddle but still haven't taken a first ride on her. She stands well while being saddled and does great in the round pen but literally falls apart when it comes time to mount up. I'm not talking about acting like the normal untrained horse either, I'm talking lights out, no one is home...instant sweating and twitching all over fear. I don't know what happened to her when she was originally saddle broke as a youngster but something bad had to have happened and I'm assuming she was used as someones entertaining rodeo ride... She ground drives and saddles up like a pro, accepts stirrups being slapped around on her and will let you hang of the saddle and put pressure on the back. But when you go to put your foot in the stirrup, she shuts down. I've got a lot of work cut out for me. I honestly don't care if I ever get a first ride in on her, I'm not looking at it so much as saddle breaking her but showing her that not all humans are here simply to bring her pain and fill her with fear. That horse was one of the only things that pulled me through the depression of my sisters death, so no matter what she will always be my special "project" horse. That and I think she has already showed me what she loves to do, she was such an amazing momma. I would love to see her bred with a nice stud and not a backyard bred pasture pony... Who knows...
On another note, Katie, the off the track Standardbred found a new home. A woman came out to look at some horses for sale and fell in love with her. Those two bonded more with each other in 10 minutes than I had in months of working with her. It was a perfect match and Im so happy Katie now has a new owner that has more time to devote to her.
I have been having so much fun on my new barrel horse Ely that I haven't been able to control myself. I can't believe how I have bonded with this horse. He has really started to impress me both on the barrel racing pattern and in the cow pen! We have really done well at the local barrel races, no paychecks yet but with each run we get better and better. I have also been doing a lot of team sorting and penning. Boy is he fun to work on cattle. A few weekends ago we competed at smoke rise resort and made it to the final round in sorting with my cousin Suzie and her fiance Jim. I got a lot of compliments on him because he is so fast and catty compared to their ranch horses. I also met a lot of new amazing people. Can't wait to go back. If you ever get the chance to try team sorting or penning, do it! Even is you only have a trail horse, the people are awesome and welcome new comers, it really tests you and your horse and gives you a lot of insight on what needs to be worked on and is just plain fun!
Here are a few pics from last months barrel races. Hope everyone is enjoying the weather!
