Sunday morning

It is getting hot out there again today, so I am glad I have worked the ponies already.

I took Sophie for a quite walk across my neighbours place, and did some truck training with Ata.

Then with Tika I worked on dragging ropes. She has had in the past, panic reactions to ropes, and once when a short rope got hooked over her ear, when I was first starting getting her used to ropes, she galloped round and round in a panic till it fell of.

So all through the training I have done with her, I have made sure that if she panics or runs off on me, the rope stays with me. I only have it looped through her halter, there is not clip on it and the other end is tucked into my belt or waist band. (not tied to me in any way either) but it means that I know where that end of the rope is.

As yet I have not attached a rope to her halter. But as some stage I am going to have to so I can teach her to tie up.

So this morning, I looped a piece of bailing twine through her halter and lead her round with that on. She stepped on it and hardly turned an ear.

Then I let the long rope I use for training her drag behind her, holding the other end. She stepped on it with her back hoof and tossed her head up, and got a bit of a fright. There was of course some movement as the rope was only running through her halter and I was holding the other end. But she stopped still and did not panic. Did a little more of this, and then swung the end of the rope and touched her front legs with it, and flicked it round so that it flicked right round her front legs. She was fine with this. So moved the gentle rope flicking down her belly just touching her gently with it, and on to her back legs. She did not like this and pulled her back legs up a number of times. But as I kept talking to her and gently starting at her rump and moved the touches of the rope down, she got better and more relaxed and I managed to get the rope touching her all the way to her hoofs.

I left it there and will do quite a bit more work like this before I attach a rope to her halter.

But that panic reaction is so much less than it used to be.

So I had another good morning with my ponies.

Oh and I won a auction for a saddle that I hope will fit Sophie better. It is a brand that I have been interested in getting since I sat in one at a second hand saddle shop, but that one was to small for me. This one is the size seat I like to ride in, so I hope it fits Sophie!

Jan is almost over!

And the weather has continued with being hot and cold, wet and dry!

Still I have managed to get some work done with the ponies.

This morning I trimmed Ata, and did some truck loading with her. She is getting very good, once I have her backing into the space and the partition across I will try her in my "real" as in going truck.

Tika I am putting a real big horse halter on her now, with buckles and all. I did try and get in on video this morning, but we ended up out of the picture.

Sophie, has been reacting to being girthed up and being mounted. And this morning her sweat marks were not as even as they should be so I am on the saddle hunt again. But she worked quite well. I have been trying to get a little canter in most days as she is getting quite excited when we do canter. So we do a canter or two out on the track, and then work quitely so she calms down again. She is very good though, nothing major to deal with.

I also did a bit with Vague.

so here is a little video of what I did this morning.

tired and discouraged

The weather has been crap, we did not finish making hay till mid January which for us is very unusual. And I have been very busy at work.

But I have made progress.

Ata I have been thinking about sending her away for the ridden part of her training. I just seem to have reached a spot were I do not seem to be able to take the next step.

So I have been teaching her how to get on the truck. Tonight she went in my old truck body, turned round and walked calmly out. She has been worried about banging her bum as she turns. But tonight she was very good.

Tika, I can now get a ordinary halter on her and do up the buckle. I can also slide it over her nose rather than doing it up round her nose. She is a lot calmer now that she used to be.

Sophie is going well, though we still have to work on the nappyness. She is such a sweetie.

Vague I have not managed to do much with, but what i have been doing with her is going well. I am going to try and get her to the Donk and Mule Soc show in Feb.

So hopefully over the next couple of weeks we will be doing a lot more.

a special night last night

I was tired after a busy day at work, so after riding Sophie, I did not feel like working the Kai's, so took a brush or two out to give them a brush in the paddock. Brushed Vague first, she like having her mane, in a mule a sticky up brush type mane, and her butt brushed.

Then I brushed Tika, she loved it, they are all mouting out a bit at moment, so she was a bit itchy, but she let me brush her tummy, first time ever :) And I brushed her loverly long mane and she liked that. Then I was just standing beside her and talking to her and started stroking her face, then near her mouth, and then right over her chin! And then the side of her nose, over her muzzel, right round her mouth, all those lovely soft parts of a horses nose. And she just blissed out. She has never let me touch her muzle before so this is a biggie. Little things are big steps for this little horse, so I am stoked. I forget sometime how far we have come from when I could not touch her, and then when I could not put 2 hands at once on her, now I can brush her all over and touch her very soft nose.

Then I gave Ata a good brush as per normal she loved it.

Tonight it was blowing a gale, another very busy day at work, was looking forward to having a sleep in tomorrow (Saturday) but now I have to work tomorrow as well, so I only feed out, and now having a glass of wine.

Well back to work tomorrow

The new year has already had its ups and downs.

The weather cleared on Tuesday, so managed to work and ride the ponies.

Ata is being long reined again, Tika is almost letting me hold her front hoofs, will let me put the halter on over her nose instead of doing it up round her nose, and is sniffing my hands now. This is new for her, she hates her muzzle being touched.

I have been hand walking Vague and she has been going well.

On Friday I took Sophie up to the western arena to ride her there, and Karen turned up to say she has sprayed the edges, that was fine I would ride in the middle, then she said she was going for a ride on the new river track at Awatoto, said I was planning on taking Sophie there as some stage, and she said well come now. So after a bit of dithering I put Sophie back on the truck and drove up to Clive.

The three of us, had a very nice ride along the river bank. Sophie was good with the cyclists, was OK about going under the bridge, but did not like the motor cross bikes. And Musket another horse with us does not like them either, so that did not help. We turned round there and rode back to the trucks.

But it was something I realy wanted to do on Sophie, and I realy enjoyed it.

I have also learned how to milk a goat. My neighbours goat needed a relief milker and after a couple of little issues it is going well. I like goat milk, the Bree is a sweet goat. Not so much fun in the wet though.

On the down side, when I was moving my truck out to clean it, I backed over my little old cat Nutmeg. When I looked up and saw her little body lying where I had backed up, it was the most awful feeling. She was such a little cat, and the truck very heavy. She would have died pretty much instantly, and she was sick and I was going to have to make the decision to have her put to sleep in the next couple of weeks, but to run her over was devastating.

She is now burred in my garden underneath a old rose bush.

And now the weather has packed in again. we have had 72 mls of rain in 24 hours, this time of year we are normally in drought.

Oh well each year is different.

The year is almost over!

And I have not posted since November!

Well what have I done since then. Hmmmm

Ata was going very well and I was almost riding her, when she got a very nasty allergic reaction to something and the whole underside of her neck was very itchy, and she rubbed it raw, and gave herself a huge hemotoma between her front legs, that made it very difficult for her to walk. Some drugs from the vet and a week or two later she was right again, but I was very busy at work and riding Sophie and Christmas and hay making, that I have only just started working with her again.

And now it is raining. Though I did trim her this morning and she was very well behaved.

Tika, I have been leading her round as much as I can, and she is doing this well, and I have been working at picking up her front hoofs, my goal with her is to be able to trim her before winter. Luckily her hoofs are not rock hard stone chrushers like Ata's and are chipping off naturaly so even though they are ragged and rough, they are not to long and are not causing her any issues at this stage.

Vague, I have been very slack, but she also got trimmed this morning and was pretty well behaved. I have been getting time to lead her round now and then and I think my little comedian ballerina mule is growing up!

Sophie has been going great guns. I have taken her to a western club day, a western fun ribbon day, and the PARC Christmas ribbon day, and at all of these she was very very well behaved. Though she does have yet to learn that jumps are to be jumped over and not just stepped over. She is such a cruisy little mare, but I do have to start hacking her out more and in different places, and get her out on some small treks. I have been a bit slack on her hoofs though, they were not to long but I realy need to keep up the balance work with them. I trimmed her this morning as well

Ben and E are their normal donkey gentlemen selves, they have almost moutled out now (they moult later than horses) They are standing in their shelter in this wet weather.

Zeb needs his hoofs trimmed and I plan on doing him tomorrow.

Lucy is still pretty sound in the paddock, she also is due for a trim tomorrow.

Angel is looking great for her age, carrying good weight, and I will also trim her tomorrow.

Now Amanda! I may have to get off my lazy ass and start working her again. or do some thing with her. I wonder if she would pull a cart? She pisses me off big time riding her, though she is not bad, she just does not want to do anything. And I have to ride her for every step or else she just slopps along. But she has packed the pounds on and is FAT. She gets extra food than the others as she has a long neck and reaches over the fences. I may just start harness training with her and see what she thinks.

Amanda was trimmed this morning as well.

The dog Jesse is doing very well, as is Mr Kincaide, and the ducks and chooks are laying and the ducks do love this weather.

Nutmeg how ever has not long left in this life. She has lost a lot of weight and has some sort of tumor issue in her mouth. It is not worth all the tests and she would not survive another anesthetic, so as at the moment she is eating, cleaning herself pretty well, going toilet outside and seems happy I am just letting her be. As soon as one of these things changes for the worse, she will go quietly to sleep in my arms, if she does not do as a lot of cats do, and find a nice sunny place and slip quietly away.

So that is all I can think of at this stage, I am gearing up for a busy year, with the horses, and with work, and we still have 3 paddocks of hay to cut!

Happy new year everyone

Kirsty

Time to update again

Well I have not been doing much different with the ponies.

With Ata, I have been long reining her with a bit in her mouth and she has been going very well, as well as starting to teach her to load onto a truck. She has alway gone over the ramp in my paddock, and now I am teaching her to go into and turn round in the old truck body that I have. She is getting the idea.

Tika I have been spending time leading her round from both sides, and she is also going very well.

Sophie, I have been riding her on and off. And she has also been going very well.

I have not cantered her since the western clinic I went to, as I did not make the club day last weekend as my truck would not start.

This morning I popped her over a wee jump, the highest yet (still very low) and not a log like the others I have popped her over and she did almost jump over it.

And I cantered her in a complete circle in the paddock. She did get a bit excited though and got a bit fast, and slipped near the end of the second canter, so I need to take her back up to the arena where the footing is better so she can get her balance with me on her a bit better.

Anyway I made this little video of our ride this morning.