The Pet Fair

Saturday was a pet fair day. A day where I take all of my foster dogs to the local mall to be hopefully adopted. So bright and early I was up bathing all six dogs. They for the most part were not to happy about this part. By the time I am finished, I am soaked (on the bright side, I should not have any fleas or ticks for some time), the shower curtain has a few new holes, the bathroom is very wet and hairy and the dogs had to be tied out so that they would not roll in the dirt. That took about four hours. Next we load the sweeties into the dog box. Another part that some of them would rather not do and dog wrestling is not my event. Fifteen minutes later everyone is loaded safely in the dog box and we are on our way. We get to the mall and start taking the dogs in. For some reason, the glass doors scare some of the dogs and the rest are afaid of the tile floors. Twenty minutes later and two Turk "accidents" all of the dogs have been coaxed in and placed in their kennels. The Ohhhs and Ahhhs start. "Isn't Otis so cute and cuddley?" "Whow, Layla is so pretty!" "Why is Missy's tail like that?" "Turk's eyes are so cool!" etc. We take each dog out in turns to be petted and walked. The dogs eat up the attention. Layla was in heaven there where no less than 5 people seriously looking at her to adopt. Unfortunately, none of the dogs were adopted. It makes me so sad. Each of these dogs are great! I would be happy to keep them myself, but it really isn't fair to them. With fifteen dogs the foster dogs don't get much individual attention. Turk has been taking up the majority of my dog time, not to mention the two stock dogs training is ongoing. I try to spend at least 5 minutes a day with each dog, but lately that has been very difficult. I just want to find homes for them that will love and care for the dogs. The longer they stay with me, the harder it is to let them go, but I know it is for the best. The attached photo is Otis smiling and Missy posing.

Riding Lesson Time

Yesterday was one of my riding lesson days. This is a traveling lesson. I go to the student's home and coach her on horsemanship skills. Since she had just competed in the Playday the Saturday before, we started the lesson going over her and her mare's performance. Of course, she could not think of anything that hadn't been done perfectly and the judge had no suggestions for improvement ( After all she had won every class.). I did remember a few things that needed tweaking - transitions, body alignment, rein handling, precision. Then it was time to start riding. We began with a walk/trot drill over poles. Layout: 3 walk poles (2 ft apart), right turn to a single pole where the trot transition is, continue on to 3 trot poles (3.6 ft apart), right turn to a single pole where the walk transition is, and then back to the walk poles. Benefits: helps establish horse's cadence, develops precision in cues, transitions become smoother. We worked on this for 20 minutes both directions. Then moved the pattern out to establish a trot/lope drill. Same basic pattern. Now last week, the girl had a terrible time with her lope transition. Her horse would just ignore her or finally pick up the lope after much urging. Today with this drill pattern, the horse picked up the lope beautifully. The girl and her mom were amazed. I explained that cueing the transition over a pole makes it easier for the horse to make the transition because since the horse is already lifting her shoulders to go over the pole, the lope transition just naturally rolls. Now that pattern was anything but pretty, but the girl was able to practice her cueing, the mare lightened up on her forehand and the pair really worked as a team. We ran the drill several times ( I had to make her quit, the mare was really starting to blow). While she walked the horse I then set up the poles in a circle. I explained that the goal of this drill was to trot through the poles maintaing the arc of the circle. The girl laughed saying "That will be easy." She soon found out that it was harder than she thought. She and the mare ran over the guide cones repeatedly, nicked the poles and wound up going in a diagonal straight line through the pattern. It was a real eye opener. I explained that the reason it was so hard for her is that when she approaches a pole pattern, she just lets the mare pull her through. The mare prefers straight (like most horses) . She needed to maintain control through the entire drill - keep the mare moving forward, between her legs and reins and stay with the motion. Once she understood, she tried the drill several more times. She finished a little better, but these are concepts that might take a bit to sink in. We wrapped up with a recap and question time. Her attention span had been vastly depleated so I sent her off to cool out her horse and untack. At the show last Saturday, since she had won every class she entered she was feeling a little cocky. I gave her some things to think about. Now maybe she will buckle down and get ready for the District horse show in a month.

Training Time

Finally everything is clicking. The weather, my schedule and the horses. I have officially retired from training because I don't have the time or the facilities to be a consistent trainer anymore. I also have a 7 year old horse of my own that isn't much better than green broke because I am always riding someone elses horse. But I digress - yesterday everything was clicking. The weather was fantastic and I had a cancellation of a riding lesson. I was actually able to work three horses yesterday! Now I remember why I love to train. I was able to take my time with each horse and really work on what they needed. It had been about a month since I had worked Val and she picked up right where we had left off. The layoff really helped her attitude. Shiek was a little scattered at first, but soon tuned in to the business at hand. His left stifle still troubles me though. I have worked him lightly the last three days ( suppling/cuing/tuning in 30 minutes on Monday, walk/trot ponying on Tuesday, suppling/long lineing/patience on Wednesday) with lots of hydrotherapy and linament afterwards. He still continues to be sore and refuses to take the left hind lead. I will give him the day off today and pick-up with the conditioning on Friday. The owners are impatient to proceed, but I refuse to ride a sore horse and risk permanent damage and a bad attitude.

The Thief

Sadie is a carrot lover. It could be her one true weakness. Yesterday afternoon, while I was grooming horses, I noticed Sadie very slowly easing her way to the grooming box. I watched out of the corner of my eye to see what she was up to. Finally after several minutes of stealthy creeping, Sadie grabbed her prize - the bag of carrots in the box. Just like a purse snatcher, she scooped the bag up into her mouth and gleefully took off. Unfortunately, she had picked the bag up by the bottom and had spilled all the carrots in her escape. Once she realized this and saw all of the horses eating her booty, she sheepishly returned to the scene of the crime. I retrieved the bag from her mouth, salvaged a couple of carrots and rubbed her belly. Crime really doesn't pay.

The Playday Results

Whew, the first playday is in the bag. I had micromanaged everything and driven myself into a worried mess - Did I forget something? (of course) Did I make enough copies? (of course) Will anyone showup? (of course). Well luckily, it wasn't a steller turnout. We had 7 kids show up to compete in the classes. Most of them were from the horse club, but one boy was plucky enough to enter even though he had never ridden a horse before. With the small turn-out, the kids were able to relax and have fun. The judge took the time to critique the kids in private and give them suggestions. There were no wrecks or scares, just fun and learning. Exactly what we (the parents) were hoping for. Four more weeks to go!

Those Rascally Dogs

As I have stated before, I have several dogs, some of them our and some are fosters. I love them all dearly, but lately two of them have been driving me crazy. Somthin' and Turk have figured out how to escape from their yard and go on merry chases anround the place. First they head to the bull pasture to bark at the bulls, then they make a big circle and go bark at the horses and finally they find chickens to chase. This has become a daily occurance. Last night, I watched how they were getting out. They actually climb (paw over paw) the fence. It looks like they are climbing a ladder. So I had no choice but to put them in doggy jail - the kennel. This is only a stop gap measure. I think I will try running hot wire across the top of the fence. That usually works, but for now they are in doggy jail.
Brat update - She is doing much better, one of the bite marks had become infected and had caused her leg to swell. The poor baby could not bend her knee and getting up and down was difficult. A trip to the vet for a shot of Naxcel and a tube of Banamine later, the swelling has subsided, the heat has disapated and the mobility is returning. She is still in a very cuddly mood and just likes to hang out in her barn. Last night, she didn't want me to leave after her evening bottle. She just kept nudging me, so I spent the next hour scratching all of her itchy spots, teaching her to eat grain, and getting lots of scratchy kisses. The poor girl is lonely. Hopefully soon, she will be well enough to turn out with an older weaned calf. Then she can learn how to be a cow.

Time for a haircut

Yesterday, it was time to clip the horses. Now usually this is no big deal. Sadie's clipping manners are ideal - never moves a muscle, drops head, can clip without halter, etc. Cash isn't as good, but has made huge strides in his manners. Still have to stand on a bucket to clip his bridle path. Then we have Brandy. Everytime the clippers touch her she acts like she has been shocked. I have been working with her (running the clippers around her but not touching, laying the running clippers along her side without clipping anything, starting on her jaw and working my way up toward her muzzle, etc.) but have been making little headway. So yesterday was the day for her to be clipped for the show Saturday. I started with the easy horses first - Sadie then Cash. Soon it was Brandy's turn. I almost reached for the Ace, but I really only use that as a very last resort. We began and Brandy began her running backwards, popping up, and head jerking. Soon she was acting like an unbroke mustang (exaggeration). My patience was running out because I know that she used to behave well before. I was pretty sure that the behaviour was a learned thing and she had gotten away with the bad behaviour before and the people clipping her would give up (she was leased for about a year). I don't believe in ear twitching and use lip twitching on a very rare occasion, but her behaviour had to be reprimanded. I went and grabbed the show chain and lead (thats how often I use a chain, the only one I own goes on Cash's show halter). I attached the chain to the halter and tried again. Brandy set back against the chain and I let her sit. She moved forward and the pressure released. She chewed for a minute and walked forward. Patted her and started the clippers again. Brandy set back again, I let her set, she jumped forward, pressure released, chewing, pat, clippers. This happened about four more times. Finally on the sixth time she shook her head when she came forward and reached her nose to the clippers. I let her sniff and began clipping. Clipped her entire head without much trouble (I just clipped the edges of her ears) and never had to use the chain again. Moved on to her legs which she didn't like but stood for. Much patting and "Good Girls" later we had a clipped horse! Not the best job, but a presentable one. Brandy's reward for her improved behaviour was hand grazing on a covented grassy spot in the front yard. It is amazing how much better a horse behaves when you firmly tell them what is the expected behaviour. I know that the next time she will test me again, but I will give her the benefit of the doubt. Give her a chance to behave the first time before resorting to a chain. I am a big fan of "less is more" and "time and patience can achieve all". Her behaviour however, bordered on the dangerous to herself and me and that will not be tolerated.