Friday, February 11, 2011

A multi horse day


Since my mother is just starting her first time ever winter sale we have been spending a bit of time with some of the younger horses to get some updated pictures and refresh them on their ground skills.

First up for me is OYY HeronBee.

He is the sweetest coming 2yo with a face to fall in love with. Having spent a lot of time with his sire OYY Finnegan and also with many of his siblings out of Honeybee Gal I know this guy would give 200% to who ever was spending some time with him.

I need to mention that featured here is my RAC jacket for the 2010 year. Love it, super comfy, nice and warm, and easy to move in which is really important to me with all the different work I do.

Back to Heron-today for a quick session we practiced our leading skills and also how to go in and out of a gate. He led beautifuly but needed a small reminder on gate work.
This is a skill that I often forget about until I am working with a young horse. I have to remind myself they are not born knowing how to follow our movements, realize the space needed to open and then shut the gate and of course not to rush through and squish. Heron needed a little reminder on how to come up to the gate, move his haunches out of the way to open the gate, then come through turn around and face to shut the gate. As I said a lot of small very important movements to making a horse safe and respectful that we begin working on once they are born, then refresh periodically until they have it perfectly.



After we had gone through the gate a few times Heron picked up on it perfectly and was ale to do each small movement with the ease of a pro. I love a horse that learns quickly, retains what he knows and is willing to try something new. And with this guys genetics he is certainly that and of course we cannot forget that face and his eyes, just perfectly sweet.





After I had finished up with Heronbee it was time for me to take a few minutes with OYY Olympia. As she is a keeper horse she does not get worked with or talked about very much but I just love her. She is out of Zoe's Daydream, also known as Reverie who some may remember from the Curly Campout and Lynn Downer's Benjamin. She is just the perfect mix of both her parents- smart, sweet, forward yet relaxed, and a very quick learner plus black.


Olympia and I just spent some time walking around on the driveway and road just to remind her who I was and who was in charge. I am itching to ride this mare but as usual keeper horses are a little further down the line in training just because it is important that the sale horses maintain their ability as you never know when someone will come. But when the time comes for me to get on this pretty little mare with some beautiful movement like her mom- I know she will train up quick and be super safe, with her parents and the attitude she has it is destined to happen that way. The little bit I have done with her she picked up in a second and has not forgotten with even with a year in between of us not doing anything but moving from pasture to pasture and having some extra scratches because she is so pretty.

7 comments:

  1. Awwwww....you know that I have a very soft spot in my heart for sweet, quiet Heron because he is a brother to two Curlies that I bought from your mom. You are right; who could resist that face?

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  2. HeronBee does have a really cute face!! I agree with you on loving horses that learn quickly.
    I hope you get the chance to ride Olympia soon, she looks lovely!

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  3. Wonderful:) Though we have spring here, dear :)) Your horses are really really pretty!

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  4. Hoping to have a jacket like that this time next year ;-) He is a cutie! How many horses do you have to work with?

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  5. Zoe!! WOW on Olypia and Heron!!!! Olympia is the first jet black curly I have seen!! The pic of you and Heron face to face is AWSOME!!! What a sweet curly boy!!!!!!

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  6. Is Olympia a smooth coated Curly? It is SO hard to see definition on a black horse!

    Krissy - I have lots of black Curlies - Sandman seems to be homozygous for black :)
    Shelly in Summerland

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  7. Shelly-Olympia is not a smooth coated curly. It is hard to tell with her black coloring. She actual is an extreme-no mane or tail so part of the reason she is a keeper-she will be great to out-cross to build some spectacular sport-horses.

    Krissy-Olympia gets her coloring from her sire Benjamin. He is also black. And heron is a sweetie, just looking for his own family to call his own.

    Theo and Abby-Check out my mother's website www.vermontel.net/~top She breeds curlies and has since 1985 so I have my choice of horses to work with if I am so inclined, which I am. I love working with different horses all the time bt I do have my favorite riding horses.

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