Who Stole Spring?

Cricket grazes happily

I'm not a big fan of Junuary, I don't think. To drive home earlier this month in snow, and now to have it exit in a blaze of heat (we hit the mid 90's here yesterday), is not my idea of fun. And somewhere in there I think it was supposed to be spring, but I must have missed it.

It's been too hot to do much these past few days. Not just the heat, really, but the humidity that comes along with it. Even when the breeze blows, it's a wet, balmy air that hits you. It dawned on me yesterday that while I'd been training in the rain, wishing I'd applied for the Extreme Mustang Makeover rather than the Western States one, I am now happy to have been working in the mud, because in the heat I don't move. Not one little bit. The horses stand sweating in their pens, so I'm sure they're happy not to be working as well.

Despite not working, we had a busy weekend. Someone came to see Cricket and they've submitted an application, plus sent me photos of their facility. I'll be getting all of that in the mail for final approval and hopefully by the end of the week he'll have an owner! I liked the woman very much. Her husband was at work, but she and her two children were quite nice. She told me her husband had spotted Cricket in the Craigslist ad I ran, and he hollered at her "This is the one!" They're both very excited, and I'm quite pleased with the match.

On Friday I drove up the mountainside with the Animal Control Officer from the county south of me. She'd called to say there was a field (valley, really) with wild horses that had been breeding there and she was needing someone with wild horse experience to help gather them. Evidently, the first attempt hadn't gone so well.

Turns out my idea of wild is different than most peoples. These were very curious, social horses who hadn't been handled, but were accustomed to at least the presence of one or two people in their valley. All four adults approached me independently and sniffed my hand; the mares allowed me to rub their faces and necks. Originally there had been ten, but the first attempt had resulted in two of them being caught, leaving two stallions, two mares and their four remaining offspring.

Six year old stallion runs wild

Unfortunately, a couple of the key players bailed and we weren't able to do any gather, but in the long run I think that was best. I was able to go out and meet the horses and get a feel for their personalities and their habits. I know where I want the panels to be placed for the trap when we go up again. I think there was just too much commotion and activity for them this last time and they were spooked. We'll try to make things a bit smoother when we try again. If you'd like to read more about these horses, visit On The Shores of Carpenter Creek.

The sun came out yesterday...

I've complained long and hard about my muddy footing here. We sit on clay, so even with the slightest rain things can get mighty slick. I've been toying with the idea of creating mud skates...you know, rather like ice skates, but for slick mud? The winter mud was bad enough; it got up to three inches deep at one point. But it was far easier to navigate than this slick stuff I've got now.

Which is why the sunshine is so welcome, and I hope it stays dry for more than just a couple of days so I can utilize my paddock. I can't very well send horses trotting around in it if they're likely to slip and fall now, can I?

The slick mud had me hesitant to saddle up Sunny, as I wasn't certain how she'd react. I didn't want her diving off the deep end, so to speak, and getting herself hurt. As previously mentioned, I've not worked a whole lot on tying her due to her head shyness, but yesterday figured I'd see how she reacted. Not a problem. I realized I didn't have my camera with me, so ran into the house and left her there. Came back and she was just fine.

Grabbed the saddle, wondering how she'd react to being tied and not able to circle me as I approached with it. She dove backwards as expected, but once she hit the end of the lead rope, she stood and accepted first the blanket, then the saddle. And with things going so smoothly, I had reach under her for the girth. She stiffened up, but tolerated every move I made. The saddle was cinched up just snug enough for it not to slide around if she jumped. Sunny stood there like a pro; not really enjoying it, but not having a hissy fit, either. I let her stand and relax a few moments, then untied her and led her around, having her turn on both fore and hind quarters, letting her become accustomed to the feel of the girth around her middle.

Not a bit of anxiety, so I took it a little further and lifted my foot to the stirrup. Now that got a reaction! She dove off to the side just as quick as you please. I scratched her neck and talked to her some, reached my foot up again, and once again she jumped. I had her nose turned to face me, but of course that didn't keep her tail from turning! But on the third attempt she stood there and let me put my foot into the stirrup while rocking the saddle a bit.

I'm not really sure if I'll mount Sunny and ride her. There's a part of me that wouldn't mind at all climbing on board by the end of the summer. But another part of me says 'leave it for the person who wants to adopt her'. There's something magical about being the first one on, especially when you can say you were the first to mount a wild mustang. Especially if you're a kid, and that's likely Sunny's destination. But for now she's going to be working on all things from the ground.

Spurred on by my successful workout with Sunny, I grabbed Jet from the pasture and decided it was time to saddle her up completely as well. As you can see, she's horribly troubled by that spooky old saddle on her back. Yes, she is. Look at that wild, frightened eye there!

Okay, so she didn't get too worked up, not even when it got cinched up. She did lift her head and look out of the corner of her eye at me, wondering what the whole thing was about. But she didn't object any more than that. On both Jet and Sunny, I took my time getting that girth cinched up. I let them feel my hand under their bellies first, then drew the girth up underneath, rubbing and letting them feel it before I began tightening it. This is because I don't want to be caught somewhere in between loose and snug enough to keep the saddle from slipping should they suddenly panic.

A horse I had years ago panicked when she felt the girth tighten up. My mom had been holding her, but the horse bolted right out of her hands. Thankfully, the saddle was tight enough not to slip around the horse and end up under her belly. That taught me two lessons; A) take things a little slower, getting the horse accustomed to the feel before pulling it up tight, and B) never have my mother holding the horse when they're being saddled for the first time. Okay...B could just as easily be having the horse tied securely to a post :)

But back to Jet. She was wonderful. The saddle was tightened up just enough. She dropped her head so I could rub it, and we began walking around the paddock. I rocked the saddle back and forth, swung the stirrups and let them bounce back to her sides. She didn't care. I even gave her a pat on the rear end, something that would have sent her to the moon a month ago, but she didn't mind at all last night.

Which, of course, led to putting a foot into the stirrup.

And you know me, I just can't leave well enough alone. I led her to the paddock rail. One of the things I like about being able to pony a young horse is that you get to mount up onto that other horse with your youngster right there. They get accustomed to seeing you go up and down above their head. But with no riding horse available, I decided to make use of the fence.

Jet didn't mind my being up above her head at in the least. And you know how badly I want to ride...so...Two things popped into my mind at this point. City Boy was at work, so if for some reason I should get tossed off there wouldn't be a responsible adult at home to pick up the pieces. Then there was the little issue of a helmet...which I never used to bother with, but Darling is required to wear one, therefore I must set a good example. Ah...so close, and yet so far!

Now...if you've managed to get this far in this lengthy post today, I'll let you in on a little something. Over at Carpenter Creek I'm hosting a caption contest. Offer up the winning caption and you could find yourself the winner of a free T Shirt. But...it's only one, Wednesday, so better hurry!

Can I ask You a Favor?

Would you do me a quick favor? Over there in that column to the right there are all sorts of little links. At the bottom are two links; one is Blog Village, the other is Top 100 Equestrian Sites. Would you mind clicking on those links for me? Blog Village brings up a totally new page; if you click the top button on that page, it registers as a vote for me. The Top 100 takes you directly to their site on this same window. I'd really appreciate your 'vote', as it may actually get my site where people can see it =)

Betty Jo, my program doesn't have the 'Merge' that the tutorial talked about, but I think I figured out how to get the same effect...sort of. Here's another shot of Steve and his rope.

As for the horses...well, as I mentioned previously, our weather has been very uncooperative here. Aside from general care, there's not much going on. Sunny continues to drag along her lead rope, although there were a couple of days where I got close enough to her head to switch the shorter lead with the long rope she used to drag around. The long one is easier to work her with. This also meant that I was able to shift the snap of her lead back to the center ring on her halter instead of it hanging (and pulling) off to one side.

But I do believe I'll wait for a bit of good weather before doing much more. The paddock just gets too worked up (and muddy.) In the meantime around here I'll probably just continue with a few photos now and then.

If you're up for a bit of daily reading about my life (sometimes amusing, sometimes pathetic) you can always visit my other blog at http://carpentercreek.blogspot.com Today you'll get to read all about my Farm Girl Spa... Ohhhh, such a treat, lol!