Mornings

I am a morning person, always have been. I love getting up early to enjoy the quietness of the day before it gets hectic. Morning is the start of a new day and every new day is a good day :)

Since we are doing self care boarding that means I have to go feed every morning and night. My partner helps with the evening feeding, but mornings are exclusively my chore because my partner has to be at work at 6am. However, I absolutely love my morning time with the horses. I am always the first one at the barn, sometimes its way before daylight if I have to work early, and other times its just as the sun is rising. But regardless of the time it is the most peacefully place to be bright and early in the morning. Its quiet except for the wild birds and the horses! When I am out there it reminds me of just how lucky I am! I have been extremely blessed to have these horses in my life. Not only are they a part of my life, but I am lucky to have them so close to home. Even before at my old barn they were still very close to home. I have been blessed to have them within 10 minutes the whole time I have owned them :) I am looking forward to spring and summer mornings. I am so excited to take early morning rides along the river.

Maybe this morning I will actually capture the pictures I have been wanting to get for the last two weeks.

Willow's spooky and Navi's lesson

Its been two weeks since moving barns and its been a great move so far. With only one exception and that is our normally calm and relaxed Willow has been super spooky. Willow can usually go anywhere and be pretty calm about it, but last week we took her and Pixie out riding around the barn and Willow was pretty sure something was going to eat her. She spooked bigger than she has ever before (at least with us) my partner was able to stay on, but it was a pretty scary moment for everyone involved. So she has spent the last week hand walking Willow around trying to get her used to the new surroundings. Willow is getting better and we had a really good ride in the outdoor arena yesterday. We will get the old Willow back soon enough...we have nothing but time :)

Navi is doing really well too. She does think the moving garage door is going to eat her, but is adjusting to it slowing. Her first lesson went well. I was proud of her, she only tried to bite the "teacher" once maybe twice, lol. That for her is good, she can get really cranky with people she doesn't know if they try to be to pushy in her mind. But really she did do great! We are learning to stop with rope pressure around her belly, back out of ropes around her back legs and to lead by her front feet. We have spent the week practicing and she is getting the hang of things pretty fast :) Her next lesson is next week. I have decided to alternate between her and Pixie. So I will have a lesson every week, but it will be two weeks between lessons for them. That will give me plenty of time to work with each one of them on things we are learning.

Today is my lesson with Pixie and my partner is planning on joining us with Willow. We decided to do a riding lesson today. Its funny once you "live" where your trainer is at, you can think of a million things you want to learn and do with your horse. I have decided that besides bitless and bridleless riding that western dressage looks like it would be fun to dabble in :) And I would like to master the trail courses that shows have set up, for no other reason than I want Pixie to be able to do them. And we can't forget that I plan on Pixie being my liberty queen :) Its a good thing Pixie and I have another 15 years + together, lol. Oh the possibilities!

Jess has been enjoying the move also. We have just been hand walking him around the property letting him enjoy the sights and sounds. I did enjoy a five minute bareback ride on him yesterday while my partner worked with Navi inside. I can never say it enough, this horse is worth his weight in gold. He is our rock!

Oh I almost forgot. We introduced Navi to another baby her exact age yesterday. This little guy is a Leachman horse (one of the biggest horse neglect cases in the state of Montana) Needless to say he has a fantastic home now with a wonderful young lady who does a great job with him. He loves to play though so we thought maybe he could get Navi to play. Well...not so much. He tried and she just ignored him until finally she kicked at him to get away. So then he moved on to Jess. Jess just ignored him for the most part, he did finally kick up his heels and run with Dancer for a minute, but then was over it, lol. But at least Jess gave him that much unlike Navi who just wanted to hide from him.  He is a cute little guy. I can't wait to see him and Navi progress in their training. And maybe one day she will learn to play with him.

Finally getting a routine

It has been one week since we moved the horses to the new barn. We are finally settled in...I think :)

We went and picked up approximately one ton of alfalfa yesterday so now we have all of our hay for a few months.  I now know my horse trailer can hold 34 bales of hay. And in reality with two people and a wheelbarrow it doesn't take all that long to unload 34 bales of hay :) Our last two slow feeders are being built so hopefully we will have them in place by next week.  Then my ponies will get their grass hay out of the slow feeders and a flake of alfalfa in their feed tires.

It is an odd sense of relief to be doing self care boarding instead of full care boarding. While its not for everyone I have found I am loving it. It helps the barn is just a ten minute drive from the house :) I have found its nice to have control over how much and what the horses are eating. I have always trusted my past BO so that isn't what I am saying, I am just enjoying having my own freedom to feed more or less without it impacting someone else.

This barn is located in a less populated area and I am loving that! Everyday I get to hear all kinds of birds including eagles. We also see deer, turkeys, and other wild life all the time. I still miss my other barn "family" but everyone at the new barn seems really nice and I look forward to getting to know them. The best part is they are all students of my trainer so everyone is on the same page...that means lots of people to seek advice from if a problem arises. The other day there were four of us riding in the indoor arena and not one of us had a bridle on, just halters,  and three of us were riding bareback too :)

Today is going to be my first lesson with Navi. I am excited for it and will write all about it later, but for now I am off to feed the horses :)

New Chapter

Today I am excited to say we will be starting a new chapter in our horse lives. I have made the decision to move barns. It isn't really a new barn to us because that is where we had Jess and Pixie when I first bought them, it is under new ownership now.  The best part about going back is that my trainer is also the barn manager :) This means Pixie, Navi, and I will have regular lessons with her. I have big dreams with what I want to accomplish with my horse training and now I have the chance to learn from on of the best in the industry . The new barn is also in a wonderful location, we can trail ride without having to haul the horses. It sits right on the Yellowstone River, plus there is a fishing access site right down the road that we ride to also.

There is one downside to leaving my barn now and its the people. I have grown so close to many of the boarders at my current barn. Not to mention I consider the barn owner a great friend. It was very difficult to tell her we were leaving. We are leaving such a wonderful horse family behind :(

However I know that no matter how hard it is to leave it was the right choice for us. I have wanted to grow my training skills for a very long time. I take pride in working my horses at liberty and look forward to better communicating with them.

Now comes the actually moving process, I figure it will take us a whole day to move all of our tack and the four horses. Since we only own a two horse trailer the horses alone will take two trips, lol. Good thing we are only moving 10 minutes down the road :) Here is to new beginnings!

The barn and indoor arena :)

Horse Auctions and Reality

I have been meaning to do a post for a while now on the sad reality of the horse market. I often go to the monthly horse auctions here in town. Why...I am not real sure. Especially since I never have plans on buying a horse. At least I can say I have only ever came home with one :) And since Navi is my last horse purchase for a long long while, its safe to safe I won't be coming home with another one, but I will still go and watch. Maybe its a weird obsession to truly see just how flooded the horse market is. I go look and watch the horses in the pens before the sale. I tend to navigate to the back pens where the loose horses are, the ones usually sold to slaughter. Many are there because they are injured, sick, or old. But some are still healthy usable horses. Yes, I am that crazy person there talking to them and petting them if they come up to me. Many times I wish they could understand that not all humans are uncaring. I wish I could give them what my four have...food, shelter, and love. But the reality of it is that I can't. I can't save them all, I will never be able too. There are many that go to great homes, but there are that many more that end up going to slaughter. For the record I understand slaughter is a very very controversial topic, not one that I am up for debating. I support it, because I understand that there are not enough homes. Horses are expensive! I spend more in board a month than I do rent. In fact its plain and simple I could own my dream car a Nissan 370z plus my truck if I didn't own horses! To be clear I do not expect others to live this way just because I do.  What I do not understand though is how someone could turn their back on their horse when it wasn't usable anymore. I think we owe them a good end to their life if they have given us everything they can. Will I ever understand that way of thinking, no, so I deal with it as a fact of life and look for ways to help the ones I can. I have limit funds and time so all I can do is give my four the best possible life.

So my reality is this...I can't save them all, I don't have the time or money. But I can try to make a difference in some of their lives. I will always rescue horses (and other animals) that may not be worth much to other people. I will continue to be that crazy person who goes to the auction yard to see the sad reality of it all, and I will stand by the pens of the unwanted horses and tell them sorry.

11/24/12  Horse Auction. Two mules they were consigned in the main sale.

I loved this draft, he was ran through loose. Assuming he went to slaughter.

No saled...not even the kill buyers wanted her. This is one I would have taken if I had unlimited funds!

Draft Stud. Final bid was $300. He was impressively big!

Navi takes to the saddle

Navi has worn my western saddle for two days in a row now :) She is taking to it like she has been wearing it forever! She did get a little frustrated with the process of cinching up, but she didn't do anything bad and we made sure to take it super slow. So far no bucking...I am starting to wonder if she is ever going to buck. If she is I hope she gets it out of her system before I step on for her first ride, lol. We walk, trot, canter around the arena and then work on putting weight in the stirrups and leaning on her back. We still have no plans to ride until she grows more, but I am hoping all this will be old news to her by the time riding time comes around.

She is slowing growing and getting into better shape. She isn't nearly as round as she was. She is currently standing 13.2 hh and is about the same weight of around 700lbs. She is becoming more respectful of space and is yielding her hindquarters wonderfully. I can't believe its only been a little more than two months ago when we first brought her home.