Monday, September 23, 2013

Sunny in Eastern Ontario


It was a great summer for Sunny and I in our little corner of the world.  We rode almost everyday and we have become great partners.   We developed a good partnership for trails when I first got him but I wanted to do a levels program so I had to start 'schooling' him in a ring.  I don't have a ring, so I used his paddock.  He was an only horse at the time so it was easy :-)

At first neither of us liked the ring but we got used to it and did the best we could.  I look back at some of the videos now and we are so much better now, even just a few months later :-) 
His lay down on command is very good now and our liberty play (I haven't had the opportunity to video it yet!) is getting better and better!

We are looking forward to the Pink Ribbon Ride as well!  I hope to meet Donna and Linus there!  We live 12km away from the ride location so we are going to ride there, do the ride and come home. 
You may remember a post I wrote about our super long ride (24km) a month or so ago.. that was the place we rode to!  This time though... we'll do an extra 8km!  Wowow... sore butts on Monday for sure! 

Donna mentioned Roaning.  Sunny roans too.  A friend of mine saw Sunny and told me he has Robicano and Sabino characteristics.  I had no idea what that meant but here are the links from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabicano
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabino_horse


The other picture ended up at the top of this post... You can kind of see his roaning.  I will have to get a close up!

The other big news is that Sunny now has a pasture mate!  Through a twist of fate, my previous horse Gulliver, an Arab, who was my first horse that I sold after 5 years because I had my children and Gulliver is HOT and I couldn't ride him as much and didn't have the nerve to go as fast as he wanted anymore. 
I was got in touch with the lady I had sold him to, to see if I could visit since I was passing through her area.  When the timing didn't workout for me to visit :-( she menitoned that he would be looking for a retirement home... hmmmm, I told her that I would be thrilled to give Sunny a pasture mate IF it was Gulliver!  So, last week, we went about 1.5hrs to pick him up.  He looks great, he loaded on the trailer like a complete pro and arrived in Bourget to a very happy Curly horse! 
While it isn't love at first sight... they are getting acquainted and respect each other. 



Gulliver is here! 
Welcome back! 



Well, that's the little update from our last month.  Oh, I forgot to mention, Sunny had to be 'off' for a week from a shoulder strain.  I think it was from crawling UNDER our fence to get too the grass!  Crazy boy!  I had to electrify our bottom fence wire to discourage him from doing that again!  Much to the dismay of our 5 Portuguese Water Dogs whose tails all got zapped!  ouch! 
I didn't want him teaching Gulliver that trick.  Now it's back to the top wire so the dogs are safe but I think Sunny felt the fence a time or two to keep him from crawling! 

Cyndi, Sunny and Gulliver in Bourget, ON. Canada
Donna - see you at the Pink Ribbon!! Go Curlies!!!

5 comments:

  1. Boy, I hope you both post about the Pink Ribbon Ride so we can get two points of views and lots of pictures. Are you showing Sunny since you did all that ring work? You are going to be tired after the Pink Ribbon ENDURANCE Ride, haha!

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  2. Can't wait to meet you Cyndi! I've never been to the Larose Forest. It sure is going to be quite a hike for you but what better way to spend a Sunday?! My husband told me no complaining about being sore Monday since I'm also doing a diabetes run/walk on Saturday! : )

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  3. Donna, perhaps the run / walk will be a great way to loosen up!! Get into a nice hot bath Saturday night and you'll be good to go! Another bath and some wine... Monday you'll be gold! LOL.... if it were that easy...!
    No, I can't imagine a better way to spend a day! I'm SO looking forward to it. I registered tonight for the ride.
    After 30km... my hot tub and wine will be CALLING me! I hope we get a nice weekend.

    Larose is beautiful, you are going to love it! We bought a crappy old house here just so we could have the property and forest! Renovated the house and voila - paradise!

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  4. Sounds wonderful Cyndi!! Your property and the hot bath and glass of wine!! I like your way of thinking!! : )

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  5. Susan,
    No plans for showing although the trail classes do appeal to me. I don't like all the dressing up and spit shining myself and horse... lol... no time! When I got Sunny, I just wanted a nice safe trail horse. I do a lot of trail rides and frankly, Sunny is out with me EVERYDAY! But, with kids, it's mostly them on him and I walk beside... But once I had him and was training him I realized that I could get so much more from him. Just taking my time and developing a great relationship, he started OFFERING more! It's lovely. I follow the Parelli Program and it has levels. I've auditioned for level 2...so we'll see if I pass. Right now, we are working on Level 3 things so it keeps us moving forward! Even if it's just in my backyard and trails! The liberty stuff is great for when I only have <30 minutes and can't ride because of other obligations. Online is great because we have a great relationship and communication so I feel pretty comfortable when I'm leading him with my oh so precious children on him! And the riding, well, he's the one that I take out with other horses and he's wearing a rope halter with reins attached, the reins are loose and we can turn, stop, walk, trot, canter, bridges, water, etc and I almost never have to pick up my reins. If I do, it's just to redirect him and make myself clear :-) He goes in lead, in the middle, in the rear. We can go out alone and we can split off from a group of other horses without any real fuss. It's great! Love my horse and love what we have together thanks to Parelli.
    Now, I have never taken him to a big ride with this many horses before, so it's going to be great to see how we work through any issues that come up. I'm looking forward to it!

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