The clock is ticking...

I'm starting to get a little stressed out. I've got 3 weeks until my first barrel race and Ely has been out of commission for 2 weeks and not even close to being in running shape. I noticed he was a little stiff and thought maybe from all trail the riding he has been doing that he was a little sore (actually that's a lie, the typical horse owner inside of me was having a meltdown with scary thoughts of arthritis, navicular, or some crazy over the top career ending problem. lol) But I calmed myself down and decided check some acupressure points before I called the vet... Bingo! Poor guy is out in his withers, hip and possibly his neck. Then I started to think back about the little quirks he has been having that I blamed on the spring weather and the horse's feeling their oats, these are the times when I question my equine IQ level. Poor Ely as been throwing me bright neon signs and I have been letting them go right over my head.

The even more stressful part has been getting the chiropractor out here. I have been chewing at the bit as I called him 2 weeks ago to schedule an appointment and he has had to reschedule twice. I'm loosing some much needed trail rides and flat work that Ely needs to be in shape and ready to run.

On a happier note everyone else is doing great. Everyone is shedding out and full of themselves. The filly and colt keep everyone entertained. As soon as they get the winter coats off I will add updated photo's of everyone :)

Just in case you were wondering...

I'm still alive! lol Boy did life ever get busy around here. 4 horses, a husband and work keep me pretty tied up these days. Everything has been going great. Gearing up for another barrel racing season, training babies and enjoying this amazing weather. Ely and I did great for our first season running barrels and placed in our NBHA division for 2011 and I am hoping to do even better this summer. I gave him almost the whole winter off so we have some major conditioning to do. Daya is happy as ever being the diva of the barn and still loves to torment and boss Ely around, he is a glutton for punishment. Poor Lootah has been playing babysitter for my new colt Gunner. He drives her crazy but I think the enjoys having someone to boss around. He is turning out to be a great minded little thing and I can't wait to see how he turns out.

I'm hoping I can keep up with this blog! I really miss it! Where does the time go??

Gunner




Daya




Ely



Lootah

Old Challenges and New Victories

Spring is in the air, new horses are in the barn for training and a new show season has started. I love this season! The horses are happy and full of themselves, the trails start looking like a picture from a magazine and months of braving the cold to keep our horses pampered and happy have finally payed off.

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!

I taught her well...

Thats right. Daya got saddled up today for the first time in almost a year. A little cinchy but she handled it well and stood there like a pro. Still really skittish around her sides so some major desensitizing is going to have to happen before I even attempt a first ride. I wish I had gotten my hands on her when she was younger. Her conformation and attitude screams barrel horse.

I am really bumbed about her filly having club foot. Its a sever case and surgery isn't an option for me. She is really turning into a nice looking little thing. Thick chest and butt, has her momma's long legs and watching her out in pasture makes it worse. She really gets up under herself and is really light and snappy on her front end. Oh and boy is she COWY! Go figure. Anytime cattle get close to the fence line she is driving them off. A calf got in her pasture the other day and she was naturally cutting it and driving it around the pasture! Odd for running/pleasure bred horse but then again I'm not real sure what was on the sire's side. Even though she is a grade filly, I have a feeling she would really make a nice all around horse for rodeo's and ranch work someday.

Im getting pretty pumped for this weekend. Heading to Grizzle Ridge Arena in Jerusalem, Ohio for a barrel race this weekend. Ely has really come into his own with slow work. He now can do a really nice working trot on loose reins, lope a nice soft circle, works of my leg calmly (before you would think someone had rang the starting bell by his head) and his gate issues have improved tremendously!! He can still get a little hot in certain situations but is really starting to listen to my body and voice. Now I just have to concentrate on me when we work patterns this week! He knows his job out there but Im still getting "my" barrel pattern down. Last week I noticed he was throwing me off balance (aka smacking my butt off the back of the cantle) coming out of the 1 barrel and not making a big enough pocket for the 2nd... after I thought about it and tried it again I realized it was as simple as me not keeping my freaking heels down around the barrels, here I just needed to anchor my leg and stop throwing him off balance. And to think I give so many barrel racers crap for riding like stuffed monkeys tied to a circus dog. Poor Ely, we put up with a lot of stupidity from each other! lol Hopefully we can put it all together on the barrel pattern this weekend and bring home a paycheck. Cross your fingers for me!

Uncle!

Ok, I now have my PHD in handling farm emergencies 101. Between rain, mud, flooding, hurt husband and baby calves I haven't had a lot of time to do any picture taking or horse pampering.

First off my husband hurt his back. O yeah, if you have ever been married or lived with a man you know what I'm going through. While I love my husband and feel bad that he hurt his back, well... men have a real flare for dramatics. So for the past few days I have been keeping the farm going by myself. I also had to deal with loosing a calf this week. Yep, cutest little thing that was looking really healthy until Tuesday night. I took Ely out for a ride and decided to go check the cattle. Found momma guarding a lifeless baby. Sad but it happens.

The rain and mud will be the death of me. We have had nothing but rain this week so the pastures and stalls flooded. Thank goodness the horses and cattle were smart enough to get into the high pastures up by the barn. The stalls didn't flood so much as they became water logged when there was so much water outside of the barn that it decided to start coming up through the floor mats. Oh what a mess. I stepped into the stall yesterday morning to pour grain into Daya's feeder and I literally felt like I was walking on a water bed. I didn't have to look down to figure out what the squishy sound was either. What sickens me more was the fact that the night before I had stripped every stall even limed under the mats.... I give! UNCLE!

So needless to say I'm exhausted and will try to get some pictures up sooner than later. I have yet to get any of the trails or other rodeo ponies here. I'm heading to bed and hoping for some sunshine.

The hardest part of selling a horse...

I decided earlier this winter to put Katie up for sale. She is a great mare. I've used her for beginner and first time riders, ridden her myself when I need a relaxing trail ride and even hauled her to a few local trail rides. She is bomb proof and has never let me down. She has no vices, always does whatever she is asked and is so easy to train. So why do I want to sell her? We just don't click, I have had her since last summer and I still don't have a strong bond with her. She just doesn't love to be with you like my other horses do. She loves being groomed and fed but that is the only time she shows ever shows "pleasure" being around humans.

Since bring my horses to my cousins place I've started to notice that my horses have been sticking to their own little herd out in the pasture, never mixing with Suzies other 13 horses... ever. Those 3 horses stick together like glue and will only be quite in the stalls when they are close to each other, especially if Katie is the one who is out of sight. I wouldn't call them herd bound, there is no crazy stalling weaving or frantic calls to each other but when stalled together with Katie in the middle they all look so calm and relaxed. Its like she is the glue for Daya and Ely. Whats weird to me is Katie is not the dominant mare, Daya is the head mare. I will never understand mares I guess.

Anyway, the point of this whole blog post was this. To me this has to be the worst/hardest part of selling horses. Spiting up the made for each other, happy herd. Its even made me second guess selling Katie. Sure I could use her this summer for anyone that wanted to come ride, or offer her to my Uncles kids for riding lessons and fun shows. They love to ride and soak up anything to do with horses like a sponge but know no one in the area with a kid safe horse. But on the other hand, do I really need this horse? Will she be anything else to me but a Thoroughbred wannabe that goes through feed and hay like a draft horse? lol Decisions, decisions. The horse crazy kid I used to be is screaming at me to keep her just for the horse crazy kids in my family who will probably never have their own horse but the adult side of me is telling me to do the smart thing and lower my feed bill! (Did I mention that 15.2 hh Katie eats more than 16.2hh Daya? lol) What would you do? Seems like the more I think about it, the more I leaning towards the horse crazy kids!

Busy is an understatement!

I can't believe its been 2 weeks already. Things have been so fast paced around here I feel like I'm chasing my butt in circles. Its been pretty chilly around here so I haven't been spending as much time in the barn as I would like to. Feeding,watering, cleaning stalls and daily blanket/ grooming checks usually take about 2 hours both am and pm. Plus there are plenty of cattle to feed and keep an eye on. Thank goodness the temperature will be rising a little this week. Highs in the 50's starting Wednesday. I plan on doing some major riding and conditioning on Ely. Barrel season is getting close and this bad weather has put a major kink in my riding plans. I plan on posting with more pictures later this week and introducing more horses. For today though I only have a few....

Daya getting used to the barn aisle. I wish I had video of her going into the barn for the first time. Needless to say at one point I had to back her down the aisle and into her stall. Poor girl. I never thought tying things from the rafters would have such a training impact but nothing rattles Suzie's youngsters.

Daya agreeing with me on the winter weather.

Lootah enjoying being in her stall.

Meet:
Grey Bob- odd name I know but this is the best horse by far in the barn. He is a 1D barrel horse but he also pole bends, ropes, team pens,and just about anything you can think of. He is built like a tank. I've never seen such a built horse. Of course my camera angles are horrible so he looks long and funny but this guy is one of the best cow bred horses I've seen around here in awhile.
Bart- My absolute favorite in the barn!!! This guy greats me every morning and evening, loves to be loved on and is one of the highest trained horses in the barn. Bart is 34+ and suffers from moon blindness but guess what, he is still ridable in the arena with an experienced rider. Bart used to be on the Ohio University Equestrian Team and boy does it show. He is one of the softest horses I have ever been on, his canter is unbelievable and he can do anything you ask. He is such a power house. He is literally the kind of dressage horse that everyone dreams of having. Needless to say Suzie and I pamper this guy a lot and he is very spoiled.

More pictures to come. Im hoping with the better weather coming this week I will be able to spend a lot more time in the barn. As for now Im off to clean stalls and feed!