Yuck.

Ok, so I pulled out an issue of... a big stock horse breed association's journal. (is that vague enough so as to not point fingers at any certain breed?) I was flipping through it yesterday while waiting for the truck to get some work done. I remembered the sense of horror that I usually have when flipping through this publication. There were several full page ads bragging about such-and-such multiple World Champion stallion. These poor horses look like those freakish men you see on the covers of bodybuilding magazines. (sorry, I'm not a fan of THAT MUCH MUSCLE) I really felt sick looking at the pictures of these horses.

I just do not understand WHO can look at pictures like those and think that the horses look GOOD?? And who can do that to a horse and think that it's ok?? I see plenty of other ads in this magazine that feature "stocky" stock horses with muscle, but they look nothing like these poor... "freaks" (??) I see in other ads. I just don't understand it and I don't think I ever will. I've been told that Bo would do well in Halter and I plan to enter a few classes with him, just for the heck of it. But I will never, NEVER subject a horse to looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Does that mean that I'll never, never have a World Champion Halter horse? I guess it does, but I don't care. I'm not surprised at all when I think back of how I've heard that many top halter horses succumb to things like laminitis at an early age.

Perhaps no one cares what I think, but since this is my blog I'll say that I like my horses to have muscle, but I like them to be FIT and ATHLETIC. The purpose behind a "stock horse" is to work "stock". So for those breeds, I want a horse that looks like he could run cattle all day. I can't see how these overly muscle-bound Halter champs could even get out of their own way. Maybe they can, but could one of those extreme human body builders compete with a marathon runner in a race? I don't think so.

It's things like this that make me even more thankful that I'm now getting involved with a more "natural" breed. I hope the day will never come that a Spanish Mustang is expected to look like a body builder to be competitive. I can't see that ever happening... but maybe the people involved in the early days of Quarter Horses and Paints thought the same thing...

Get Him!

Last night Jeff went with me to the stables. I turned my horses out in the indoor arena so that I could clean their stalls. Jeff wanted to ride and thus the fun began.

But first, some back story...
-----------------------------
I have two horses - Bo, a 9-year-old Paint stallion and Cazador, a coming 2-year-old Spanish Mustang stud colt. When Cazador came into my life it was my hope that Bo could act as a role model for the up and coming young stud. You know, keep him in line, teach him about things. To my dismay, for the first several months, all Bo did was act as a chew toy and jungle gym for Cazador. Picture my mature stallion standing around with a tired look that says "kids these days..." and a yearling colt climbing on him, chewing on his neck.

A little while back, Jeff was riding Bo in the indoor. I wanted to turn Cazador out so I was on my way across the indoor, to the round pen in the corner. Jeff said "you can turn him loose out here with us." I warned Jeff that Cazador is a little punk around Bo and he'd have to watch his back or else Cazador would be climbing up there with him. He insisted it'd be fine. So I turned Cazador loose, advised Jeff that the word "quit!" works to keep him off Bo when Bo has a rider, and I left the arena to go do chores.

It turns out Jeff invented a new "game" that night. He was annoyed with cazador trying to "punk" Bo all the time, and he was bored. So he started making Bo follow Cazador and push Cazador around the arena for once.

The next time I turned them out together I noticed Bo was a little less tolerant of Cazador's attitude. He still isn't mean, but he'll push Cazador out of his space and follow him around at his "plowhorse" walk. I told Jeff that he "empowered" Bo. Haha.
-------------------------------

Ok, back to last night. I was cleaning stalls while Jeff was riding Bo, with Cazador on the loose. I kept hearing Cazador gallop around in the indoor. At one point I considered going to get him so that Jeff could ride in peace. I thought Cazador was harassing them again to no end. Imagine my surprise when I went to peek in the round pen and see Cazador running around, with Bo trailing him and Jeff with a big smile on his face.

It turned out Jeff was doing the "follow Cazador routine" all that time. He was all smiles when he told me "I taught him a new command, I've fallen off twice." LOL (Jeff rides only bareback, I've offered to let him use a saddle, but he has never taken me up on it - he wants to ride bareback - a good way to learn to ride I think) The new command? Well, when Bo would get close to Cazador, Jeff would say "Get him!" and Bo would lunge at Cazador. I didn't get to see it in action, but Jeff tried it a few times and I did see Bo put his ears back at Cazador and pick up his pace. Jeff said he'd had Bo do it 4 times - twice he stayed on, twice he fell off.

I told Jeff that believe it or not, what he's been doing is good for both of the horses. Cazador is learning he's NOT the boss and has to move his feet away from Bo. Bo is learning tracking. I told Jeff that I've always heard the first step in teaching a horse to work cattle is to track a cow - just follow them around for a while. Jeff said "I wish we had a cow here!" LOL

As far as the "Get him!" command? I think it's funny. Jeff expressed concern that it might be teaching Bo aggression, but I don't think so. I think it's good for Bo to learn anything that gets him to MOVE OUT. He also still needs to assert himself more over Cazador. I think a command that teaches him to move out quickly towards a target will help when and if I ever do get to work cattle with him.

Thankful Thursday (a day late)

I had a lot to be thankful for yesterday. I wasn't able to post this last night, but I figured "better late than never!"

Here are a couple of things I was thankful for on the last day of 2009:

A full moon... The skies were cloudy last night, but there was still enough light reflecting off the snow to go for a late night ride on my stallion, Bo. Riding at night by only the light of the moon is something I had not done before. It was a lot of fun.

Bo... He is SUCH a good boy and even though he wasn't terribly happy about going for a quick ride when it would normally be dinner time, he was a trooper and took me on yet another beautiful, memorable ride.

Having a good time... We went out to a bar with a few acquaintances and even though my idea of a good time is NOT hanging out at a bar with people I don't know, or barely know... I had a really good time. We played pool, talked and laughed, and I even got up and sang a karaoke song - something I haven't done in a long time.

I'm really looking forward to this fresh new year. I have a feeling I'm going to have a LOT to be thankful for as 2010 rolls on. :)

News from the Frigid North

A blizzard rages on outside tonight. This storm moved in during the wee hours of Christmas morning and the wind and snow haven't let up since. It is supposed to be moving on tomorrow. I've always thought it's kinda fun to be snowed in, especially if the power and internet stay up. This time we were lucky and have had power the whole time and while the internet has been spotty, it's stayed up for the most part. I am eager to get back to the barn and do more than feed, water, and flee back to the house.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I had a very horsey holiday. I received several horse books, including nearly all of the famous books by Marguerite Henry. I had owned all of her books as a kid, but my collection of books was ruined in a flood 10+ years ago. It's nice to have some of my favorite horse stories again. I also received a very useful gift of a hoof knife and hoof rasp. The boys' feet are due for some attention again and I'm so happy to have my OWN tools now - rather than having to borrow them again. I'll have to buy a nipper eventually, just to have on hand, but for now the knife and rasp should keep the boys in good shape.

I have big news! Tonight I finally registered a domain name for what will be the future online home of my studio. It will be a place devoted to all of my creative pursuits and hopefully a place where I can sell some things now and then! This has been a project in the making for several months now. First I had to decide on a name, that took a while. Then I hemmed and hawed about making it "official" and buying the domain name. After learning some html in building my personal site, I think I'm ready to build the studio site.

That's all for now... I'm off to bed!

Thankful Thursday

I have heard of Thankful Thursday on other blogs and I've always thought it was a good idea. It is, after all, very important to have an "attitude of gratitude". So with that in mind, I thought I'd make my first ever Thankful Thursday post.

It might seem strange, but... I'm thankful for power outages. Yesterday we had a blizzard blow in and the power kept blinking. I was annoyed because I had a bunch of things I wanted to do on the computer. Finally the power went out and it seemed like it would stay out. I ended up spending a few hours on the couch, under a warm blanket, reading a great book. The icing on the cake was that my (usually antisocial) cat decided to join me. She spent the entire time curled up on my belly/chest area while I read my book. When it became too dark to read, I set the book aside and dozed off myself. So after reading a couple hundred pages of a great book that I hadn't had "time" to read lately, I took a nap with my kitty in the late afternoon as the wind and snow blew outside.

Yesterday I ended up being thankful for an "inconvienient" power outage. Last night when the power came back on I decided to finish the book. It left me inspired, which in turn inspired me to return to here my blog and make this first Thankful Thursday post. I'm hoping to post here more often again. Goodness knows there's plenty I could write about!

We have another blizzard brewing outside at the moment and the warnings sound like this one could be pretty severe. Maybe I'll get more reading done tomorrow if the power goes out again.

Professional trainer?

So for this blog I take you back to the Mustang Makeover in mid-April... During one of the open practice sessions in the wee hours of the morning (pre dawn), I took Onyx to the big arena. There were a whole bunch of other riders in there, but I remember one in particular. He was riding around on his mustang, and her tail was full of shavings. Now this guy was one of the "big names" and I'd heard him bragging about all the money he'd won in whatever horse sport he was into. I remember being struck by him riding his horse around early that morning, with bedding in her tail and thinking, "That's not very professional...". Sure, it was a practice session, sure it was 5am, but there were plenty of other people there, riders and spectators. Maybe it's just me, but I thoroughly groom any of my horses before I do anything with them. Most especially if they are going to be in the public eye, casual ride or not. I would expect a "pro" to do the same...

All that came to mind again out of the blue just a few days ago when I took Bo, my stallion, out of his stall for a quick ride. I was going to hop on him bareback in the indoor and cruise around for a few minutes before heading to work. There were other people riding in the arena already that afternoon. As I brushed shavings from his tail, for some reason I thought back to that "pro" trainer and his horse's tail that morning.

Now just a few minutes ago I checked my email and found a message from YouTube, where I had hosted several videos of Onyx during our time together. A lady has written me, wondering if I have any ideas on how to contact that particular trainer. It seems she bought his mustang and needs some paperwork from him, but he appears to have dropped off the map. His website is down and his phone doesn't work. She says she is thankful she paid for the horse by check and that she noted it as such in the memo of the check. I have no idea how to get ahold of him, but I certainly won't forget the "shavings tail" on his mustang that early morning. Barring that anything bad has happened to him (hopefully not), I have to think... Professional? Doesn't sound like it after all...

Independence Day and other ramblings

Last night Jeff and I went to Mount Rushmore to watch the fireworks. We went with a guy he works with and his family. We all got there several hours before the show and found a good place to sit and wait until dark. All was going well until the clouds moved in and then mist and fog. Soon we couldn't see Mt. Rushmore, then we couldn't see any of the closer rock formations... Then we could barely see the trees just across the street. Unfortunately it stayed that way the rest of the night. They ended up doing the fireworks show anyway and all we could see were the clouds/fog glowing different colors. We heard the booms and could even smell the powder/sulfur from the fireworks, but couldn't see them at all. At one point the fog shifted a bit and we started seeing about half of each firework when they went off. We saw half of about ten of them and then the sky closed off again. The grand finale really sounded great. I think it would have been the biggst finale I've ever seen - based on the rapid fire booms going off for quite some time. Jeff and I were talked afterwards, he said "you realize this means we'll have to do this again, to try and see what we missed". LOL Then everyone went back to their vehicles in the parking garage - only to be told by the police not to start our cars or move them because the highways were closed and would be for another hour or two. So... we all hung out in a parking garage for an hour or so. LOL It was a crazy night. I just wish we could have seen the show. We got home at about midnight and went straight to bed.

We're planning to go to Custer, SD tonight and try to see their fireworks. We went last year and they put on a really good show - the best fireworks I think I've ever seen. I think the Rushmore show would have topped it, if we had SEEN it. Unfortunately there are clouds rolling in right now so who knows if we'll get to see anything down there either.

On a totally unrelated note, I have joined Twitter. I've heard a lot about it over the past several months and I finally decided to give it a go. It's a pretty simple concept, you just post short updates about what you're doing at the moment. I like it, because it's another way I can keep in touch with friends and (so far) it doesn't take that much time to do. LOL I just pop on every now and then and type a little blurb about what I'm up to. Anyway, you can find me there at: http://twitter.com/HorseTender

I've also been hard at work expanding my html knowledge and I've built my first little webpage from scratch. I'm going to use this particular page to share some pictures and information on my number one passion: horse training. It's coming along well so far. I have a lot more I want to do now that I'm learning how to do all of this html stuff. My computer stopped working over the last couple of days, right when I was going full speed ahead on all the html studying. So I've gotta get back to work on that. I'm testing out my computer right now. Jeff just finished fixing it and putting it back together. So far so good... Yesterday it wouldn't stay on more than 5 minutes. But here I sit rambling away and it's still humming along. I better post this now and not press my luck! LOL