Bebe Breakthough and a few other updates

Ugh. It is so windy. Yes, I know that Kansas is indeed the wrong state to live in if you hate the wind. I still gripe about it though.

It has been a fast paced last few weeks around here. We currently have three horses in for training, I am working with three of our rescues (getting them ready to adopt out), and we have had no less than several family obligations and emergencies arise. Thus, my whole resolve of posting a blog a week was shot to hell.

Eh. Rules were made to be broken, right?

Bebe is doing very well. She's three years old. When she came in she was a bit spoiled and a lot head strong. We had only done a little bit of work with her when she rubbed her head on the side of her shelter and tore the tin siding, exposing a jagged edge, and like all horses was accident prone enough to get cut on it. She was off of work for a few days. When we began again it was with a different tactic in mind.

See, up to this point I had treated her like any other green filly that comes in. Problem is, Bebe is not just any other filly. Besides, she has pretty darned good ground manners (aside from being a little pushy) and her ground work was really done well. She had even been ridden by a friend of her owner around a small paddock.

When I started her, I explored what she knew, which was quite a lot actually, and then I began to test the edges of her comfort zone. That is when things began to get a little hairy. She doesn't like for me to push her at all. Or ask her for a different direction. Or ask her to walk the rail instead of the middle of the round pen. She bobs her head and sulks. She drags her feet, stirring up dust, moping around the edge of the round pen at a mosey. Or, if she feels like it, she pouts and flounces. Lol. She sure does have a lot of personality. I love it.

So after having her here for 4 weeks now I have developed a different strategy just for Bebe; a step two. I don't react to her behavior. I sit and quietly ask until she does it. If she pouts or sulks she gets to trot or do circles. It seems to be working. Since I have started disciplining her for bad behavior through work she has really begun to blossom. The first few days were a trial but this morning was really nice. She did everything I asked and we barely had any behavior at all.

I think we've had a breakthrough.

Jethro the Fox Trotter is doing very well and responding nicely to his training. He is learning to "frame up" and carry himself in a more efficient way as well as learning to respect space and distance. Buster the solid black paint gelding is doing well also. It took his owners three days to get him into a trailer to come here, so we have made trailer training a priority. So far it is going very well. He's a smart cookie.

I will try to post more as soon as I can! Have a wonderful Labor Day!

Rescue Update and Bebe Report

A Rescue Update :

The two little Appaloosa yearlings are doing well. The filly, who we named Grania (Gron-ya meaning Grace in Gaelic) has been wormed, gotten a negative preg test, and is turned out with the rest of the herd. All of her minor scratches and cuts healed with no trouble. She is haltering and leading well.

The little colt we decided to call Jack. He is still dealing with his wound which has healed so much that I would never have believed that it looked as bad as it did if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. We went through a troubling first few days where Jack was rather listless and picked at his food, not really eating well and just generally depressed. We put him in the same corral with the crippled calf, Gimp, and the changes were immediate. He began eating and drinking and was more bright eyed than I had seen him since his arrival. You can see in this pic he has a lot less bones showing than he did when he came in and the wound is doing nicely.

He has really gentled down and is able to halter and lead without issue. So, the other night, I decided to give him a hoof trim. He wasn't terrible but he needed some attention. I brought him out and with a lot of time and patience was able to get his left front trimmed. About that time, Dustin came out of the house and we started talking. I absentmindedly tapped Jack on the hip with my fingers, asking him to move over, when WHAM! The ungrateful little snot nailed me.

He kicked me right in the side of my knee, the same knee that I tore all of the tendons and ligaments in 5 years ago. Yaaaay. So Dustin helped me to the ground, where I sat and breathed like I was trying to give birth for about five minutes. I could barely bear weight at all on that leg but with Dustin's help I limped up to the house and elevated the knee. Cody brought me an ice pack.

I will live, but sloooowly. Lol. The swelling has gone down some and I hope to be able to get back in the round pen by this evening. Dustin has worked Bebe (the pally paint) in the round pen twice for me and I am starting to get jealous.

Her first session was no big deal. He simply asked her to move, change direction, stop, etc. while using his body to steer her movements. She is very responsive and got exactly what he was trying to tell her in just a few moves. The second session she was tacked up and then did more round pen work. This evening we are going to elaborate on that and ask for more. I want to find the boundaries of her knowledge, her comfort zone, so that I know where she needs work.

We put up the side walls on the shelter in pens #3 and #4 on Saturday. She got to see the tin being dragged around, hear the saw and the hammering, put up with my singing....she should be immune to just about anything now. :)

Aaaand..... they're off!

It has been a whirlwind week at Storm Creek! We have had several hoof trimmings to do, two new horses came in for training, we have school enrollment for the heathens, picked up a load of lumber to finish the run in shelters, and we got suckered into (by Cody) two more mouths to feed. Meet Sissy (brown) and Max (black & white) :

They are a pair of Pygmy goats. We have been wanting to get some goats for awhile and just happened along these guys.

This next picture is of Bebe. She is here for training and I am going to try to do an online training journal of her progress here. I will be posting pics and links to videos throughout the training process.

Little Stormy is officially 8 weeks old now! She is growing like a weed and is almost as tall as mom. Her mom, not mine. Although mine isn't very tall either. Anyways, she is still a beauty and as spunky as they come. We have been very fortunate with her. This is a pic of Cody taking and impromptu barefoot ride on Brownie. We decided to take a short walk. Stormy was pleased to be able to run and buck and kick up and down the road. I think she thought it was her own personal raceway.

Pretty Prairie Rodeo *Pic Spam*

A few of you may have heard of the Pretty Prairie Rodeo. It is Kansas' Largest Night Rodeo, you know. The rodeo here isn't the same as rodeo's in other places. Because it's ours.

The entire town wakes up. Lawns are mowed, windows washed, banners hung from one end of Main St. to the other. That entire week thrums with excitement as the rodeo stock are shipped in and unloaded, contestant trailers start pulling in, and there are strangers in town. Shucks, folks, it's our week to shine!

For our family it is a little different. We are transplants. We've only been here three years. That said, it is a small enough community that everyone knows us and we know most of them as well. We ride in the grand entry parade every year and this year we brought a calf (Chester) and our donkey (Eeyore) to the petting zoo. We really are beginning to feel native.

Ok, enough blah blah blah. On to the pics!
Tough enough to wear pink night (like Luna and I need an excuse, pshaw!) just before the grand entry. Luna and I are keeping company with K who's reins match ours. What color? Why, pink and black, of course!

Luna and I, and Jake on Cash riding in the grand entry. We do a serpentine pattern around the arena while the drill team holds flags and our theme music blares from the loudspeakers.

Cody and Splash, Me and Luna, and Dustin riding Badger 10 a.m. Saturday morning for the rodeo parade through the middle of town.

Jake on Cash, Me on Luna, Cody on Splash, and Dustin who hadn't gotten mounted up yet before the Grand Entry on Friday night.

The following pics are kind of awful due to a faulty camera. Above is the bull fighters and a black and white bull who really tried to teach them a lesson, lol.

Saturday night rained for the first half of the rodeo. The arena held up well though and the barrel racers and ropers had no trouble. It got cool outside and after the rodeo was the dance, which rocked!

This is the view of the arena about halfway through the rodeo on Saturday night. I felt bad for all the chicks running around in flip flops. Many, many people lost a shoe that night.



Probably the best "half-time" show I have seen here yet ^^. This man and his Brazilian....somethingorother (steer) and the little girl, Codi Jo, on her pony was awesome. The jumped a culvert with a clown inside (yes, the steer did too!), thru a ring of fire, did a teeter-totter, and the little girl jumped the pony over the steer as he lay on the ground. Oh, yes, the pony and the steer both laid down on command.

The highlight of the show was when they pulled their rig into the arena and put up a ramp, walked the steer and pony up there, and waved to the crowd. It was pretty neat to see the animals so relaxed and well cared for, and so well trained.

Last, but not least, we have Cody and an Amazingly Vicious Beast. Here he is feeding the bucking stock some hay. They kept trying to eat his new hairstyle, a Mohawk. He thought it was hysterical and then started feeding them hay instead. Soon we had a waiting line at the fence. Some were pretty shy but most of them came right up and wanted scritches and, well, the hay.

I have to say that I was impressed with the stock this year. Everything was fat and slick, no apparent illness or injuries, and the horses' hooves were in good shape (not a common occurrence for bucking stock). We were there every day and all of the handling that we saw was low-key and gentle. They had fresh food and water at all times. Pens were clean. I was so happy to see it.

Stay tuned...it has been a week of stomach bugs and vetting horses and extreme temps but I have a blog planned for later in the week.

Stormy at five weeks old

Are words really necessary? I realized that I was in deep trouble when I caught myself watching her sleep the other day. I have to say, I really think she is just about the most beautiful thing I have ever seen (aside from Luna, of course). She leads, picks up all of her feet, and loves to be brushed. Now, if I could only find a halter to fit.....

New Rescues, Fussing with Luna, and truly disgusting pictures!

This weekend was sorta nuts. Friday was spent in a moronic daze, running here - there - and everywhere, while it was about 150 degrees outside and Murphy's Law ran amok. I was going to have to be up and loaded and gone by 6 a.m. on Saturday, not being able to return home before the barrel race that night, so I had to pack everything I needed.

The reason for having to be up and gone so early was my sister. Well, her horse anyways. Patches used to belong to me, but J has always loved her, and so I sold Patches to J's husband for a birthday surprise. She hadn't even had her a month when Patches cut her foot something awful. So...off to the vet (at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning) we go. BTW - it looked like this :

Barftastic. The Awesome Doc at Equine Surgery and Medicine fixed her right up (after making J gag several times, lol) and she has to go back in two weeks for a cast to curb the development of proud flesh.

Saturday afternoon was spent swimming with the kids and giving Luna a bath. She sure is pretty all cleaned up. Then we headed off to the barrel race! Where we ran the most awful run that we have ever ran. It started off well. We came in the gate going all out, Luna's little ears laid back flat on her head, my heart pounding and everything just felt right. Then....a part of my attire got caught on the saddle horn. I panicked going into the first turn and accidentally pushed her past the barrel.

The second barrel went just as badly but it was because Miz Luna decided that we were just gonna be done and as she came out of the turn she headed for the gate, lol. I wasn't expecting that. So we got lined out and the third barrel was a beauty but by then it was far, far too late. Arrrg! It's okay. We had a good time running and it was also neat because it was the first time any of my family had come to see us run (probably another reason the run was horrid - I was nervous!). Besides, I vented my frustrations while I was untacking Luna. I calmly and cheerfully, in a nice and soothing voice, told her exactly what I thought of her turn around the second barrel, that I should have named her Alpo, that her grandma was a yak...and so on and so forth.

Sunday morning dawned to a phone call from a gentleman that needed help. He had taken in two yearlings out of pity and they were in real bad shape. He had enough honesty and courage to admit when he was in trouble. He brought them that afternoon, a filly and a stud colt. They are both Appaloosas (unpapered, of course) and barely handleable at all. The filly is the one with the red halter and the skunky look to her tail.

They both have wounds from being run through a barbed wire fence by a large stallion. If you thought the above wound pictures were nasty, you might want to just skip the rest of this.








Looks awful, doesn't it? Fortunately, both of the poor things are sound with no limp or lameness which would indicate major trouble. As bad as it looks, it is a flesh wound, and should heal with time and care. Since the wounds were already a few days old, we cleaned and medicated them after speaking with our vet. He is always willing to check things out via email because we are over an hour away. Plus, I really didn't want to stress these guys out with another few hours in a trailer.





We are going to trim up the dead skin this evening and then apply more medicine. We are supposed to leave it open but medicated and watch for any signs of infection. Both of these kids got a tetanus shot when they got here so if we can hold off infection we ought to be in good shape. We all wish that the wounds would have been in a place that wasn't impossible to wrap but, although they will have a gnarly scar, they should heal up just fine.





This week is the Pretty Prairie Rodeo (KANSAS LARGEST NIGHT RODEO!!!!) and we will be riding in the Grand Entry Parade every night. I will try to take some pictures but it is nearly impossible to get anything decent when Luna is just waiting for me to let my guard down so she can try to kill me. Jk, she knows I love her.

Feelin' hot, hot, hot!

Ugh. My fellow Kansans, the heat is here.

Yesterday was awful. We worked on the outdoor arena all morning (yay! Its coming along!) and then mowed the lawn and bathed horses in the afternoon.

The heat is a trial that we all have to go through. We lug around our sunscreen, fans, cool drinks, beach umbrellas, and all sorts of things to help keep us cooler and protected from the sun. Have you ever thought what life would be like without those things? If you had to work outdoors, in the heat, without any aids? You would still tolerate it better than your horse.

I recently read an article by Teresa Pitman entitled "When the rider is hot, the horse is a lot hotter". The article says that a horse that is being exercised moderately in hot weather can dangerously overheat within 17 minutes. That is 7 to 10 times faster than humans.

Another interesting fact that it stated was that people tend to work their horses in the morning or evening hours when its cooler and then go to an event that is held during the heat of the day. The article recommended building the horse's tolerance to the heat by working in the heat of the day in small doses, getting the horse used to it before riding in a competition.

Finally, the last thing was that you shouldn't use a cooler or sheet on a sweating horse. The best way to cool a horse is to soak it in cool water, scrape the excess away, and then soak again, repeating this until the horse is cool. The most important part is to scrape the extra water away because the heat from the horse will heat any water that is trapped in it's coat to the same temp as the horse.

You can find the entire article here at http://atguelph.uoguelph.ca/

Remember to make sure that your horse always has clean, cool, fresh water and plenty of it. Provide a mineral block to replace lost salts, etc. Ride smart and have fun!