Posts from — January 2010

It was sort of anticlimactic.  I’ve been dying to get on her and decided to go out and try it.  She stood perfectly still while I saddled her.  I walked her around a bit, then lunged her some (she doesn’t have much of a gas pedal while lunging her and I hate to try push her on by using a whip or the end of the lunge line).  She didn’t give any indication of bucking so I put my foot in the stirrup and stood in it.  Still no movement so I swung my leg over her back.  She just stood there.

I left the rope halter on her and wrapped the lead rope around her neck.  Once in the saddle, I clucked and squeezed my legs and she took a few steps.  I stayed in the saddle for about five minutes then dismounted.  Meanwhile, Merlin was dancing just out of reach as if to say, if you think you are going to catch me, you are mistaken.  Don’t worry Merlin, I know enough to be sneaky when trying to catch you.

Now, do I just leave her in retirement or try to build her back up?

Decisions, decisions …

Finally I am able to take some time to write about the clinic.  I’m probably going to wish that I had written sooner for fear of forgetting something, but hopefully not.

I didn’t sleep very well the night before.  I was running through in my mind everything that I needed to bring with me and worrying that Merlin wouldn’t load in the morning.  Not much is worst than trying to get a reluctant horse on a trailer.  Luckily, my worries were unfounded.  We caught Merlin in the dark, put his blanket on him and he walked right in the trailer.  Good boy.  Dream wasn’t too happy being left alone in the dark, but there wasn’t anything we could do about that.

We got on the road right on time, stopped for a quick breakfast and arrived at the stable where the clinic was being held at around 8:00.  It was damp and cold.  I wished that I had brought a winter hat, gloves and my heavier barn coat, but the forecast was for temperatures in the low 50’s.  The forecast was wrong.  The sun didn’t come out all day and at times, it drizzled.  I didn’t realize how cold I was until on the way home with the heat cranked up high in the truck.  It seemed to take forever for me to warm up.

Once we pulled in and got the trailer parked, I went to the barn to complete the necessary paperwork.  Wally unloaded Merlin and when I got back to the truck, I saw Wally walking Merlin around on a tight lead.  Merlin was acting like a fool.  I quickly stepped in and took hold of him on a looser line to allow him to move more.  Horses seem to be calmer if they are allowed to move.  Restraining them in any way adds to their agitation.  I have noticed that many of the so-called natural horsemanship instructors brush and tack up their horses using a rope halter and long, loose lead rope.  If the horse feels the need to move his feet during the process, he is allowed to.  Tying them restricts their movement and if they get particularly panicky, they can pull back and injure themselves.

As I was walking Merlin around (and he was still acting like a fool, just on a looser lead), Robbie Potter pulled in.  He jumped out of the truck and introduced himself to Wally and then to me.  Wally said that Merlin was going to be in his clinic.  Robbie asked if he could take hold of him and I released lead.

Katie bar the door!  Merlin didn’t know what hit him.  A few quick snaps on the lead rope were enough to change Merlin’s mind about acting like a fool.  Then Robbie made him move both his hindquarters and forequarters and lunge around him.  I told Robbie that Merlin was difficult (to say the least) tacking up and in general, handling on the ground.  That he was spooky which made him hard to handle.  Then the desensitization began.  It was not as kind as what I’ve watched Clinton Anderson (and others) do; but keep in mind, what we see Clinton Anderson do on television may very well be quite different than what may go one without the camera.  It didn’t take long for Merlin to settle down.

We hooked Merlin to the trailer and started to clean him up.  If there was a contest for the dirtiest horse, we likely would have one.  Since Merlin lives outside, without a blanket, he was quite muddy.  It was too cold to bathe him so we had to make do.  He was much easier to tack up after the Robbie-treatment.  We were to meet in the arena with our horses in rope halters and saddled up.

In the arena, we did some groundwork.  Robbie said that he didn’t believe in a lot of groundwork and that some people over-do it.  He said that his “pre-flight” check includes the ability to move the horse’s hindquarters, forequarters, backing him up and moving him around him (lunging).  If he’s able to do all of these things, then he feels that it is safe to get into the saddle.  Merlin easily moves his hindquarters, the forequarters are more difficult, especially on the right side.  Merlin’s right side, all in all, is worst, probably because no one has ever done anything to him on the right side.

Once the groundwork was done, I got Merlin’s bridle on and mounted up.  He was still quite high and moved on out quickly, as he always does.

Much of the rest of the clinic was spent going around the arena at a walk and sometimes a trot.  We did very little cantering.  There was a lot of people in the class, more than I think was comfortable.  The arena was large enough for the number of horses, but it was difficult for Robbie to focus on the entire group.  Unfortunately, this was a one day clinic.  Up until almost lunchtime, Robbie thought it was a two day clinic, so he was teaching it in that manner.

After the clinic was over, Wally mentioned that he thought it was a bit too basic and slow, and I imagine someone watching would think that, but you needed to be on the horse to feel how the very basic maneuvers that we were doing were helping both the horses and riders.  I was the only one using an Australian saddle (which I expected).  All of the other riders were riding English.  Robbie was using a Western saddle.  It doesn’t matter what kind of saddle you ride in, but I don’t think the English-orientated people were getting as much out of Robbie as I was.  I’d be willing to bet that most, if not all, of the other people in the class competed in dressage or hunter/jumper events.  There were several young horses in the class who were acting about as foolish as Merlin.

Robbie had us going around the arena in a straight line (on the rail) and zig-zag lines.  He’d tell us to get our horses walking as fast as they could without breaking into a trot going in a straight line, and then in a zig-zag line (fast walking is Merlin’s specialty).  Then he’d tell us to get our horses walking as slow as they could without stopping (hard for Merlin).  We did a lot of reversing direction at a walk (and sometimes at a trot) away from the rail, keeping our circles as round as possible.

While I’m sure this was extremely boring for some of the riders and most likely for the spectators, what he was doing was making us control our horses’ feet under saddle (just as we did on the ground during our ground work).  This work, while probably even boring for the horses, softened them (at least it softened Merlin, many of the horses in the clinic were quite dull) tremendously.  It isn’t very often that I am able to walk Merlin on a loose rein with his head down, but we did at times during the clinic.

After lunch we started back with the walking around the arena, but he broke the group in half and had half of us going around the outside of the arena in one direction and the other half going the other way.  This blew Merlin’s mind.  Then he had us weave with the rider going in the opposite direction and Merlin all but blew up.  He’s likely never had to do anything like this before.  What the exercise was teaching us to do was to take responsibility for where we were going.  I think a lot of people who ride just let their horses go in whatever general direction they point them in, often at whatever pace the horse chooses.  In the clinic we were taking responsibility for the speed and direction we wanted to go.

Then we had to back our horses up.  I’ve taught horses how to back up, but I did it by pulling on their mouths until they eventually backed up.  I tried to do this with Merlin, but I don’t think he’s ever been taught to back up.  I pulled and pulled, but got no where.  Robbie told me to ride my horse back.  How the hell do you do that?  He told me to imagine there was a giant ball behind me and I had to move it back using my body.  I squeezed my legs, put pressure on the reins (bit) and pushed my body back as if I was pushing a giant ball back.  It took a few seconds, but I got one step back.  Robbie cheered and told me to pet the hide off that horse.  By the end of the clinic, I was able to get many steps backwards.

The goal with all of the exercises we were doing was to make doing the right thing easy for the horse; and the bad thing hard.  As soon as Merlin took a step backwards, I released the pressure.

Later in the day we worked on turns into the rail.  Robbie wanted us to be able to move the horse’s rear quarters using our reins and leg pressure a quarter turn and then move the forequarters another quarter turn.  That was hard and something I need to work on.  I find it hard to feel the difference between movement of the rear- and forequarters.  I discovered that I do a lot of looking down to the ground when I’m riding.  Robbie corrected that quite a few times.  Not sure what I’m looking at down there … probably praying that I don’t meet the ground again.

Besides learning to ride Merlin backwards and the softening I felt in him from the exercises, perhaps the most exciting thing happened towards the end of the clinic when I rode Merlin to a stop.  I shifted my weight and applied just a little pressure to the bit and he came to the smoothest, most complete stop than he’s ever done under saddle.

Granted, all that we did throughout the day was extremely basic, it all felt really good.  I was glad that I was able to stay in the saddle all day with very little discomfort.  My left knee and ankle were problematic, but getting out of the saddle and walking around a few minutes helped relieve the pain.  By the time 5:00 rolled around though, I was ready to go home, as was, I’m sure, Merlin.  I was a bit worried about how Dream was taking being left alone all day.  Merlin didn’t bat an eye while I took his tack off and put his blanket on.  He loaded right into the trailer and we headed home.  Robbie and most of the other riders were still going strong.  I felt that we got what we needed to out of the clinic and that it was time to call it a day.

Thankfully, everything was okay back at the house.  We got all of our chores done before it got too dark and we were both very happy to get into the warm house.  I’m looking forward to when I’m able to ride again and put into practice what I learned at the clinic.  While I don’t have an arena, I can do all the exercises in the back fields (once the river recedes).  There is another clinic in March.  It’s a two clinic.  I’m first on the waiting list so hopefully I’ll get in.

Until later …

I’m getting a little tired of these heavy rain, high wind storms.  We got over four inches of rain in less than 24 hours coupled with 30 miles per hour winds.  And guess what happened … the damned goat shelter blew down … again.  This is it, we are both through trying to fix that stupid thing.  We made a pact that if it came down one more time, then we’d sell some sheep and build or buy a better shelter.  Luckily the tarp stayed on the shelter while it was raining.  During the day, I watched it blow, knowing it was likely going to blow off and sure enough, it did.  The wind was so strong, it lifted the concrete blocks we had the lower part of the tarp attached to and blew the blocks up over the fence.  Want to know how much fun it is wrestling a 48 x 30-foot tarp in 30 mile per hour winds?

This weekend we’ll begin building a wooden, covered shelter.  Part of our building project will also include making a wooden, covered run-in for the horses.  I know they will go into the 10 x 10 ShelterLogic building that they have down there, but I don’t think they care much for it.  The 10 x 10 ShelterLogic building will come up here and that’s where I’ll start to feed the cats because I’m getting just as tired of cleaning up the messes they make in the kitchen when they eat.  The goat shelter will come first, but the horse shelter will follow shortly thereafter.  We still have a huge pile of tin for the roofs which will help with the expense and we’ll use unfinished lumber which is about half the price of finished lumber.

I’m tired of staying awake at night during storms worrying about shelters blowing or coming down.  We considered using a 10 x 20 ShelterLogic building for the goats, but what we’d have to do to keep them from climbing on or chewing the tarp isn’t worth it.  The attraction of using a ShelterLogic building is that we can take it down and take it with us if we move, but I honestly don’t think we’ll be moving any time soon.  At least I hope we won’t be moving any time soon.  As far as I’m concerned, we can stay here for the rest of our lives.

Speaking of feeding the carnivores, as I wrote several days (weeks?) ago, I’ve adjusted how I feed the dogs and cats.  They do not have access to as much food as they did before and when I put food in front of them, they eat.  Gel in particular is eating better.  He’s looking for food and that is better than turning his nose up at it as he was previously.  I’m not feeding the cats anywhere near as much as I was and I haven’t seen many mice around so they must be hunting more than they were before.

Everything is flooded.  The back fields are, once again, lakes.  I’m glad we got the rain because it will make the grass grow in the spring, but I wish we didn’t get it all at once.  Yesterday, I went out to check the sheep, calf and Liath as soon as it got light and road down back to look at the river.  At that time, I was able to pass through the fields, but I couldn’t do it in the afternoon, unless I had a row boat.  That means I won’t be able to ride again for a day or two.

Rain is good.  Rain is good.  Rain is good …

The Clinic rocked.  I learned a lot, as did Merlin.  I’m utterly exhausted right now, both from the clinic (I was in the saddle all day) and we had heavy rain and high wind last night and I was up most of the night checking on things.  I’ll write more later.  I’m waiting for it to get light enough so I can go out and check on everyone to make sure no one got blown or washed away.

Until later …

Wally has been living here for a year today.  What a wonderful year it has been.  I am blessed to have such a wonderful, kind, thoughtful soul mate in my life.

As I write this, I’m waiting for Wally to finish his shower so we can go out and feed the animals and then get Merlin loaded.  The plan is to be on the road by 6:30.  The trailer is all loaded up with my equipment and except for the horse we are ready to go.  I’m very excited.

When Wally got home yesterday, I asked him to hold on to Merlin while I went into the house and got his bridle.  Once his bridle was on, I asked for a leg-up and off I went, bareback.  Dream went along with us.  That horse has an awful lot of get up and go left in her.  One day soon I’m going to put a saddle and bridle on her and she how she takes it.

I did work Split yesterday (I used her to do morning chores) and took both dogs for a good run off the ATV.  I had to haul hay up to the sheep so I ran the dogs at the same time.  It didn’t take much of the edge off her, but it was enough so that she could be tolerated loose in the house that evening.

Praying that Merlin will load this morning.

Until later …

I don’t like Facebook.  I’m sorry to those of you who are reading this and added me as a friend, but I really dislike just about everything about it.

What don’t I like about it?  Well, for starts, the “virtual-ism” of it.  It’s sort of like chatting without a real voice.  But that isn’t the real thing I don’t like about it.

The first thing that turned me off was Farm Town where you can “design, grow and maintain your farm.”  People spend hours both playing this game and talking about it; but what really got me this morning though was “Happy Habitat” a virtual place where people are tearing down the habitats of cute animals everywhere to make space for enormous farms. People who play this game can give these animals a new home and save them from extinction!

Maybe I’m just too much of a realist but what about farming for real and supporting those farmers who do farm for real so that the damned enormous farms, a/k/a factory farms won’t tear down the habitats of “cute” or even not-so-cute animals????????

Okay, I’m through ranting for now and I’m adding Facebook to one more thing that I’m not going to look at any more.

Until later …

Since Dream has been here, I have had little trouble catching him.  What a relief!  It seems his nervousness may have been due to being a single horse.

Last night we clipped both horses.  Dream stood there with just a rope draped around her neck.  Merlin didn’t think he wanted a trim and gave us some trouble catching him, but no where near as bad as it has been.  Once we started with the clippers, he settled pretty well and all and all, he was very good.  I asked Wally if he thought he was going to be as good as he was and he said no.  In fact, he thought we’d have to use a twitch to trim him.  What Wally didn’t know was that if we needed to use a twitch to trim him, he wasn’t going to get trimmed.

I didn’t ride Tuesday or Wednesday.  I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather.  Instead, I worked on the never ending job search.  A job that I am more than qualified for came up in Charlotte and I applied for it, but as my friend Helene said, I need to shut the door on driving to Charlotte for a job and wait for another one to open.

As I said I would, I unsubscribed from Sheepdog-L and am trying to avoid going to the Border Collie-related Blogs that I was reading.  It’s funny how we humans can be so self-destructive.  These mailing lists and Blogs do nothing more than suck energy out of me; I get nothing out of them besides irritation.  Why then would I bother to read them?

Why indeed.

Speaking of Border Collies, Gel proved to be very, very useful yesterday.  We had three young roosters that needed to be removed from the flock.  Young roosters are nothing more than raping terrorists.  They run the hens, rape them and are nothing more than nuisances.  Older, seasoned roosters ask permission before they breed the hens.  They do what I call the Rooster Dance.  If the hen is not receptive, they don’t press it.  Young roosters don’t care.

When I went out yesterday morning to let the chickens out, I forgot to catch the one rooster that was in the smaller pen.  I tried to catch him once he got out, but it wasn’t possible.  I went into the larger pen and tried to catch the two roosters that were in there, but it was proving to be close to impossible.  I called Gel in and he worked the chickens (and ducks) to me so that I was able to catch the two roosters.  In this pen, there are numerous perches built about knee high.  The pen is only four-feet tall so maneuvering in that pen well enough to catch chickens is all but impossible.  I put the two roosters I caught into a dog run and planned to catch the remaining rooster either in the evening or the next morning.

Later in the afternoon, however, I saw that one rooster not only running hens, but when they turned to defend themselves, he was fighting with them.  I called Gel and got him focused on that one rooster.  He helped me essentially run him down.  The amazing thing was that Gel was able to remain focused on that one chicken, ignoring the other chickens, ducks and geese.  This is a dog who usually refuses to work poultry.  The last time I had to catch roosters, I had to use Fern because Gel wouldn’t do the job.

Now we have three roosters put up where they can’t harm the hens.  In the next couple of days, we’ll butcher them and feed them to the dogs.

Meanwhile, Split is driving me a bit crazy.  She just about can’t be loose during times when she can gain access to the animals; any animals will do.  The only times I can let her out are in the evenings when the goats are bedded down and the poultry and the horses are up behind a closed gate.  Otherwise, she’s working them.  I suppose it’s a good thing that she has so much “herding drive” (Said term used in jest: I hate it when I see that term used in sale advertisements.); but working stock is not a solo activity.  Wally got after me last night for cranking on her.  I told him this morning that I’d commit to getting her out to work because that’s what she needs.  If I can work her tail off a few times a week, that will take a little bit of the edge off her.  I hope that as she matures, she’ll settle, but she may not.  It’s not easy keeping Border Collies in an area where they have access to stock.  Luckily, Gel doesn’t work the outside animals unless I ask him.  The only thing he does unsolicited is to break up cat fights.

Shortly, I need to go out and feed the animals and then head out to the local dairy and get milk.  I’ll be so glad when I don’t have to do this; although, the Jersey milk makes such wonderful yogurt.  I can’t buy whole-milk, cream-on-the-top yogurt around here.  I’d have to drive 80 miles one way to Whole Foods to buy it.  What you buy in the store is a poor excuse for yogurt once you’ve had it homemade from whole milk.  While I’m out, I have a few errands to run.  I planned to do them today because it’s supposed to rain.

Until later …

I’ve been on numerous wild rides with Merlin since I wrote last.  Gosh, he’s a fun horse to ride.  He just goes, and goes, and goes and goes.  It’s wonderful.  He’s brave (or stupid) as can be when it comes to difficult crossings.  When the other horse we are riding with (I have several different people that I ride with) won’t cross, I send Merlin on and off we go.  On Saturday I rode with a man who boards his horse up at the stable.  There was a brook crossing with a piece of black drainage pipe in the middle.  He said his mare won’t cross that unless he leads her across.  I headed down with Merlin.  He put his head down, snorted and then leaped across and barreled up the hill on the other side.  This was not a planned ride and I didn’t take the time to put on my boots; which was a stupid thing because I lost a stirrup, then a shoe.  The man (his name is Scott) nice enough to get off his horse, retrieve my shoe and put it back on.

Later in the ride we had another exciting scary episode.  We were riding along the edge of a pasture.  I turned Merlin to circle back because we were getting too far ahead of Scott and all four legs went out from underneath him.  I stayed as still as I could in the saddle and within seconds, Merlin got his feet back under him.  As soon as we got home, I gave him a dose of Arnica and he seems fine.

It rained most of the day on Sunday so Wally and I pretty much stayed inside and made like lazy bums.

The big news is that we have a new addition here at Spellcast.  Early last week, my landlady forwarded me an e-mail about a woman who had died and the family was trying to place the animals.  The surviving husband was too ill to care for them.  The contact person on the e-mail was her son named Randy.  The animals consisted of several dogs and cats, a bunch of chickens and seven or eight horses.  The horses were all Arabians, which was tempting, but they were all in the mid to late 20’s and one was over 30.  I contacted Randy about the chickens, but they were already spoken for.  Then I discovered that the Arabians were from Blue Star desert-bred Al Khamsa Arabian lines, a particular line of Arabian that never really gets old, they keep going and then they die.

I tracked down Randy’s telephone number and talked to him about the horses.  He said that yes, they were old on paper, but that if you didn’t know how old they were, you would think they were still very young horses.  He said his mother took very good care of them and that they were all very good tempered.  I made arrangements to go out and look at them Saturday morning.

As it turned out, the horses were stabled less than five miles from where we live.  We see them from the road when we drive towards Maiden (I drive to Maiden quite frequently to get to both the venison and beef processor).  I didn’t know they were Arabians because whenever I drove by, their heads were down.

While they all looked many years younger than what they were, some of them were in rough shape.  All of the gray horses had cancerous skin lesions.  I did a bit of research on skin in horses and learned that the lesions are often worst around the anus area.  One of the horses, an Arabian/Morgan X had huge tumors on her anus which were interfering with her defecating.  Not good.  There was a gorgeous gray mare in a round pen, who had some tumors, but nothing too terrible.  She had hoof cracks which was what concerned me more.  As it turned out, it was a good thing that I didn’t think more about this mare as the reason why she was in a round pen rather than out with the other horses was because she was a vicious kicker.  When we came back a second time, she was kicking the crap out of the round pen.

There was a gray gelding separated from the rest of the horses as well.  Apparently he was once a dressage horse.  He had numerous lesions and was still acting a lot like a stallion.  He was the oldest horse in the bunch.

We then went down to the pasture.  As soon as we went through the gate, all of the horses in the pasture came running towards us.  In the lead was a striking, coal black gelding.  The only white on him was a white snip on his nose.  He looked like the horse in the Black Stallion movie.  I said to Wally, that’s the one I want.  I’m sure at that point, Wally was cringing as this horse was big and full of himself.  As it turned out, he was already spoken for, which is probably a good thing because even though he was 17, he acted like a two-year old.

We looked closer at the other horses.  There was a tailless speckled gelding with a lovely temperament.  Apparently when he was a young horse, he had diarrhea so bad, it rotted his tail off.  That is unfathomable to me, but apparently it is not uncommon.  He still had some diarrhea so I didn’t look further at him.  The Arabian/Morgan X with the large rectum tumors was in this pasture.  In addition, there were two black mares.  One named Maggie and the other Dream.  All of the horses were very easily handled and, except for the younger gelding, calm.  Maggie had bad hoof cracks and it looked like she had recently foundered.  We went over Dream with a fine-tooth comb and couldn’t find anything wrong with her.  I asked Randy to get me a halter and lead rope and we took her out of the pasture.  That’s when the 17 year old gelding really showed his spirit.  He did not want us taking that mare out of the pasture.

Dream lead out fine and when I put her on a lunge line, she lunged like she had been doing it on a daily basis, which I know she had not.  For an older mare, her teeth are in great shape, as is her body.  She’s been surviving on just pasture for years.  Wally and I decided to take her home.  We went back home and got the trailer and came back.  At that time, people from Arabian horse rescue were there taking pictures of the horses and making arrangements for them.  I’m glad we got there first and took Dream.  She loaded into the trailer, again, like she had been doing in regularly.

She was shown as a young horse and as it turns out, my former farrier (I decided to try a different person when it’s time for the horses to be trimmed) trained and showed her.

Merlin was very grateful for his “girlfriend.”  He acted like stallion when he first met her.  Almost immediately, they were like two peas in a pod.  There hasn’t been any fighting, except for one mare-squeal when Merlin nipped her on the hip.

Two peas in a pod indeed, when Scott came out to ride on Saturday, it was quite a trick getting Merlin tacked up and off the property.  He didn’t want to leave Dream, nor did Dream want him leaving.  We put her down in their pasture and she ran the fence until she was covered in lather.  Merlin was very difficult to tack up and the ground was way too slippery to do much ground work.  Once we got the saddle and bridle on, Wally tossed me up in the saddle and off we went.

The rescue people took a few pictures of Dream while she was still at the farm, just in case she didn’t get along with Merlin or something else happened and I needed to let her go to rescue.  They do not do her justice.  Her mane was a matted mess.  Wally and I got that cleaned up on Saturday.  Did I say she was easy to handle?  She’s a dream, she really is.  I’m glad we have these pictures because they’ll be good before and after photos.

She is going to be drop-dead gorgeous when her coat sheds out and her health improves.  Right now she doesn’t look black, but that will change with good food.  I am told that she was broke to ride and in the next week or so, I’ll put a saddle on her and see how she takes it.  One of the women I ride with, Dawn, has been riding consistently for a long, long time.  She said she’d try to ride her first if I wanted to.

I rode with Dawn yesterday and it was a wonderful ride.  We went out on the trails where I rode with Scott.  Unfortunately, we got lost several times, but it was still fun.  Once again, Merlin leaped over the stream and barreled up the hill with me hanging on for dear life.  Dawn was all but rolling on the ground laughing.  Dawn pushes me to ride hard because she rides hard.  We had another scary experience when a thick vine got tangled around my saddle flap and leg.  Merlin kept going and part of my body got left behind.  When Merlin felt this, he spooked a bit and that loosed the vine.  I almost went off, but held on.  I love that saddle.  Our two horses get along well, which is very pleasant.  Scott’s mare was a kicker and would go out of her way to try to kick at us.  We rode for several hours.  It was sunny and 60 degrees.  The going was a bit sloppy because we got two inches of rain Saturday night into Sunday.  Today is supposed to be just as nice.  I’m hoping Dawn will be able to get out to ride with me again today.  It’s much nicer riding with someone.

When I got back to the house, I let Dream out of the goat pasture (I left her in there because if she was going to run the fence, the footing was much better in that pasture than it is down below).  Getting Merlin tacked up and off the property yesterday was much less traumatic for both horses.  I put Dream in the goat pasture while I brushed and tacked up Merlin.  She stayed close which kept him calm.  When I left, she called to him a bit, but nothing like she did on Saturday.  I road Merlin down into the back fields and Dream came along with us and she stayed with us the whole time.  This will be a good way to get her back into condition.

On Saturday, Wally and I picked up a round bale of hay and put it in the horse pasture.  It’s a good thing that they get along as well as they do because they can both go into the shelter we installed in the pasture to get out of the rain.  It’s relatively unusual for two horses to get along as well as they do so quickly.  It is as if this was something that was meant to be.  I really didn’t want another horse for the obvious reason: the expensive of feeding and caring for them; but both horses are extremely easy keepers.  They do not require much grain and right now, good hay is cheap.  The tack I have for Merlin should fit Dream.  The other reason I didn’t want another horse was the difficulty in taking one out and leaving the other.  Both reason are quite selfish on my part.  Horses are herd animals and they do better living with another horse.  That said, we’ll have to look into fencing the back pasture for the horses.  While I am home, I let them both out on the 15 acres the house sits on, but I won’t be able to do that when I go back to work.

Who knows what’s going to happen in the future.  I know that riding is doing a lot for me, both physically and mentally.  I’m sleeping like I haven’t slept in a long time and I’m meeting new people.  In fact, I think it’s time for me to unsubscribe to the Sheepdog-L list and completely close that door for good.  I’ve been closing a lot of doors lately, which in and of itself wouldn’t be healthy, but I’m opening lots of new doors as well, so I think it’s all very well balanced.

I’ve been taking Gel with us on our rides and he is in his glory.  He comes back muddy and tired.  I haven’t felt comfortable enough to take Split so she stays up in a run when we go. I wish she could go, but she simply can’t be trusted.  I don’t want to risk another fall, be it me or someone I’m riding with, nor do I want to risk her getting kicked.  I’m trying to get as many miles in the saddle as I can prior to the clinic on Saturday.  It looks like the weather is going to be quite tolerable, which is a good thing.  I’m worried about getting Merlin on the trailer; even though he loaded fine when we bought him, who knows what he’ll do on a day that we really need him to load.  If worst comes to worst, we can load Dream and I feel sure he’ll follow her right in.  It’s much easier loading dogs into crates.

Off to feed the animals.

Until later …

While it didn’t start out so well with Merlin escaping into the back pasture, it ended great.  Around noon a woman that I had met a few weeks while she was out riding her horse on the road in front of our house called and asked if I wanted to go for a ride with her.  Well of course I did.  She was up at the barn where I took the lesson getting her horse ready.

Oh my … being able to ride with her depended upon whether I could catch Merlin or not.  He gave me a little bit of trouble, but I caught him in five or ten minutes.  Yea!  Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Now to get him ready and tacked up as quickly as possible.  He cooperated perfectly.

Along with my saddle and bridle, I brought out a small pair of cordless clippers that I had bought some time ago to trim the dogs’ feet (for agility).  They are not very powerful and relatively quiet.  I thought I’d see how Merlin reacted to them.  Quite frankly, I expected that he’d blow up, but he didn’t!  Whoo Hoo!  Looks like I’ll be able to clean up that shaggy head a bit.  I’ll try our large clippers today.  They are not cordless and much noisier so he may not tolerate them as well.  We’ll see.  If I can’t get it done with these clippers I’ll try to borrow some cordless clippers over the weekend.

Our ride was fun.  As it turned out, I had Merlin ready to go and was able to ride out to meet her.  Gel and, unfortunately, Rose, went with us.  Rose started to follow and I thought she’d turn around after a few minutes and go back, but she didn’t.  It wasn’t a problem until we got down closer to the road.  The plan is for us to ride again today and I’ll make sure Rose is confined before we head out.

There was a coyote (coyotes?) in the yard last night.  Rose was barking quite aggressively and Gel was looking out the window so I got up and looked out and saw the coyote.  I opened the window and yelled and it took off.  It must not have come back because Rose settled down.  Between the long ride yesterday and being up working most of the night, she’s going to be a tired dog today.

I am so blessed to have so many places to ride right where I live.  The woman I road with showed me even more trails.  Unfortunately, some of them were not clear because of the fall floods.  We tried to go through them, in fact, she pushed my envelope on some of the trails.  At one point, Merlin had vines wrapped around his rear legs.  I was praying that he wouldn’t blow up as it would have been a mess.  He was perfect.  I didn’t know how he’d be riding with another horse, but again, he was perfect.

I love this horse.  He has opened up so many doors.  I’m really looking forward to the clinic next Saturday.  There is another one scheduled at another facility in March.  Right now, it is full, but I’m on the waiting list in case of a cancellation.  The more and more I hear about this clinician, the more excited I get about it.  Sometime over the weekend, we plan to hook up the trailer, load Merlin and take him for a short ride.  Hopefully that won’t be a problem.

This morning I got up early in an attempt to get the water barrels on the truck and filled so Wally could help me haul water up to the sheep and Buster.  The hose was frozen!  I dragged it down the hill to drain it, but for some reason, it must not have drained completely.  That was irritating.  I tried to run a different hose from the mud room off the washing machine faucet, but that wouldn’t work either.  Now I’ll need to wait until the ice in the hose melts and I’ll have to haul water with the ATV.  Not fun.  That means everyone up at the house will have to wait on fresh water as well.  This is going to be the last really cold night for the next week or so.  This weekend we are going to get a shorter hose and install a quick release on the pump so that we can completely take the hose off the pump and drain it completely on cold nights.  We’ll plan to move the sheep this afternoon so we’ll have to haul water twice.  The animals are drinking a lot of water lately.  The air is very dry.

Off to feed the animals.  Until later …