Halloween Trail Ride!!

Oh boy, what a day we had!! We manage to have 4 of us come together for the Halloween Ride and Becky, who we rode with last weekend had use of their farm truck and big stock trailer so all 4 horses trailered together. Linus jumped right in it when he saw his girlfriend from last weekend. I was holding him back at the door while they sorted where they wanted him!

We were slightly iffy about whether the ride was going to take place since the weather had been sketchy and Saturday was down right miserable! We had a little bit of drizzle in the morning but by the time we tacked up the sun was shining! We stopped on the way for breakfast and had a nice bbq after the ride! There was supposed to be between 25-30 riders and we were the only 4 brave enough to show up!! The hosts (2 of what were meant to be 4) came out but one was riding with her young son and turned back partway. 

We won the costume prize!! Atta boy Ironhorse!! My son and husband were SO helpful with this! The hosting stable had a Rother horsemanship clinic and he donated a rope halter for the prize!

I almost chickened out from asking my husband to help with my costume but I went ahead and asked. He did a FANTASTIC job painting an old pair of jeans for me!

Progress....

The above pic WAS Owen's Ironman generator...now crazy glued to fleece and attached to a breast collar...yes I owe him a new one!! A friend replaced the batteries in it a party a few weeks so it actually made noise. So first thing this morning I let Linus sniff it and get used to the noise.

Here we all ready to be tacked up. Becky's horse is still a bit tender so she used my neighbour's horse. From left to right the Canadian mare Sady, Bernie's boy Lucas, the famous Linus : )  and Roxy the QH

We were so close to the Ottawa Airport we had planes taking off right over us!! Linus was cool with it!

Off we go

I hope this video loads properly!! I thought it may be kinda boring but it actually came out ok. It's just a short one but you can hear and then see a plane taking off right over us! 

Owen made me practice the Ironman pose!!

I passed the camera around so that I am actually in some of the pics this time!

We decided to try a group photo! We had to lineup carefully because Sady was not fond of Linus. She knows Lucas because Bernie's Aunt owns her and they have ridden together several time. Linus was insulted that he finally met a horse who didn't like him!

Bring her round Megan!

beep, beep, beep, back her up

We did it!!!!! What a super fun bunch of ladies to ride with!

This is Alice, she toughed out the ride with us and even helped guide the way! She took our group pictures! Her horse is 5 and called BananaMan

Bernie wanted to try a shot in the corn! I love it!

We came across a beaver dam!

Linus and BananaMan became fast friends. Linus is so eager when new people or horses come around. One fella today asked me if he had "personal space" issues....I was like "oh gosh no, he loves being in everyone's face" ha ha ha, I don't think he expected that answer. We always make sure its ok first and I take him away if there are signs of "go away" from horse or human!!

Linus was too funny at the other side of this hill. It was kind of a V shape with a steep down and then a not as steep up. Here we are the top after climbing up. This was the biggest hill he ever met and before the descent he had a big "what the heck" look on his face. But, I gave him his head, leaned back to help him balance and told him to pick his path and he did!

Bernie does a lot of hill work with Lucas so they really enjoyed the hill. 

All in all, we had an incredible day! Linus settled almost instantly. He is really taking to this trailering out thing. He was like an old pro for much of the day. No refusals at anything. Best of all, we came to an open field but the trail was still clearly marked. Bernie took the opportunity to let Lucas gallop to the end of it. Alice hasn't reached that point in her lessons yet so didn't want to. Megan isn't up to cantering yet either and Becky didn't want to because she isn't used to Sady and Sady wanted to GO!!! I said, well we are learning and have done it at home. Linus was behaving like a gentleman so I clicked and he moved into a trot, I gave him more rein and clicked again and we cantered the whole length of the field!!! I gave a whoop at the other side and gave him a huge hug too!!! He wanted to move into a canter almost every time we trotted after that. He really had it figured out that we were doing it together and I wasn't fighting against him. I was super proud of him today. The hosts from the Equestrian Centre were very taken with him. He caught attention even being a smooth Curly. They thought he was pretty big though. Their horses were all at least a hand smaller...and we won't say how many pounds lighter!!! Ha ha, but on that note, Linus is now in a smaller cinch! He is really getting in shape (he needed to!)

Sorry for all of the photos, I hope there isn't too many!! I wanted to take you all along!!

Donna & Linus

Lunenburg, ON

Nice Sunny days in Eastern Ontario

Well... it's actually been quite rainy here.. :-(  But that doesn't stop us from enjoying our Curly horse! 
My son has started school now so my daughter and I find ourselves together, just the two of us for the first time ever.  Lucky me, she LOVES horses! 
I have a 'buddy saddle' that attatchs to the back of my saddle.  Previously, my son had used it and my daughter sat in front of me if we went out on horseback.  When it became uncomfortable for Rose to be in front of me, sharing my saddle because she was too big, we shelved the buddy saddle because I couldn't just take One child with me!  And I didn't feel she was old enough or have enough balance to be behind me yet.  But, a few months later and over 1 inch taller!  LOL.. I thought I would try it since she was riding my horse more than I was each day!  I would put my bareback pad on Sunny, and put her on with a lead rope and we would walk the dogs each morning.  With all the rain, I thought it would be MUCH nicer (and far more enjoyable ;-) if I could ride with her!  I tried getting on behind her with the Bareback pad but it wasn't comfortable for any of us!  So I thought I would try the buddy saddle again. 
She LOVES it!!  Her balance is great (we had been practicing turns, cirlces, stops, backups and even trotting with her on the bb pad so she has really developed a decent seat for a 2.5yr old! ) 

While having her ride while I walked was okay.  Riding together is way better!

Us tacked up, ready to go and then below is Rose riding behind me :-)

We stay at a walk mostly with a little slow trot when she gives the word. 

Sunny, like most animals in the fall, has a lot of energy and is enjoying this cool weather, staying at a walk is a bit hard for him lately.  So... last night the kids and I decided it would be fun to go out to the closed road nearby and 'go for a rip'! 
They were on their ATV and I was on Sunny.  We went up the road because the trail to the closed road is too wet and their ATV would get stuck.  So I hand walked Sunny behind them on the ATV.  It went very well.  I mounted when we were off the main road and off we went!

Sunny checking out the 'herd' :-))

The above 3 pictures taken at a trot :-))  I didn't think they would turn out so well!  My hand is steadier than I thought!!  Because we were at a pretty fast trot.  We actually caught up with the kids.
We had some great long fast canters too.  He was a bit powerful so I didn't let him get in a gallop.  But I know he enjoyed the fast canter because he dropped his head and blew out at the canter several times :-)  I think he liked to stretch out like that and have a good run.  It was nice and long too (as you can see from the road), he was able to get past that chargy canter they can have at first and get into a nice floppy, relaxed (even though it was fast) canter.  It wasn't the rocking horse canter that we all love.  It was the yahoooooo!  this is FUUUUUNNNN canter!  LOL.
The kids liked it too.  They got to go fast and got to see "Mom and Sunny galloping" :-))  "going fast, fast, fast". 
We all had a good time.

Since I'm on here now... I'll mention a couple of other things!  hehehheh
We went to an auction last weekend... It was mostly harness horse things but there was a decent looking two horse trailer with sleeping quarters.  Super clean.  I thought I would put in a 'junk bid'... low and behold.... look what came home!

Sunny checking out the new pond (sorry, for some reason this picture got misplaced... see below for story)

My sister in law Sheri, my son Russell and daughter Rose
To the left of the picture, there is a door and behind the door is a nice sized tack area :-)



And one for Donna:-)  Next time you are in Larose, you can come here and play with Linus in our pond.  We dug a pond this summer for 2 reasons.  One, I wanted a place that I could try and have Sunny swim in as well as add a natural watering hole to my 'horse playground' (which is also a supplementary pasture so that we can 'rest' our main pasture sometimes.  The playground will have some natural jumps, ledges/pedestals, trees, it has my round pen there and of course the pond!  It will be developed more next year but the pond is already there.  It ended up much bigger than I anticipated but it'll be a nice skating rink for the kids too!

Donna is right - exactly!  Take time with them, be patient and don't push!!  A scared horse is an unwilling pupil!  Give them time to think about it, get calm and find thier confidence.  Here is a little video of Sunny going into our pond :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oA7aURoyS0

Can't get better than days with kids, dogs & horses!  (although husbands who digs ponds, makes horse playgrounds and are willing to haul horses and kids around are pretty good too!)

My wonderful hubby oiling the squeaky door of the trailer the day I brought it home (because he wasn't at the auction... lol!  He was at home making more trails through our property for me to ride my horse on!!!  hehehehhe  While I was buying a horse trailer!  Oh boy!
What a life! 
  

Linus vs. Water!!

I was done work early today and it worked out great that I worked while it was raining and the sun was out when I was done! It was very cool and windy though! But, I only have about 6 weeks at most to attack water crossings with Linus before the water turns to ice! So, I put on my rain suit and rubber boots and grabbed his rope halter and a long rope. I'm having trust issues with the halters after that one breaking on me on the weekend. To my delight, even after a 4 hour ride on Sunday; Linus was happy to see me and eager to see what my plan was....he was eager then anyway!

We started out small with a little puddle in his pasture. I had a training whip in my hand but it was a nuisance more than anything so that lasted about 2minutes! I was doing a bit of research and a great tip I read was to make sure the water crossing was more than 10m otherwise the horse would just jump over it. 

We left his pasture from the back end through the electric wires but this time I was smart enough to unplug the fence since double wires are trickier with a horse in hand than a single!

So we moved on to the second crossing seen below. Linus was pretty full of himself in the cool, strong wind but anytime he got too forward I made him back off and told him off for it! He did well and tuned back in to me. He walked calmly through this one with me. It's hard to keep my footing in the mud and persuade him!

There is a spot in the cow pasture that is always flooded unless it is a very, very dry summer. It drains off into a creek off our property. We've had a lot of night rains recently so I gradually got him into muddier and stickier footing the closer we got to it. He tried to go around but I was alone today and had time to stick to my guns!! I waited him out and he eventually came into the water. Bit by bit.

He was trembling a bit at one point. The sun and wind helped me to come to the conclusion that I think his reluctance has more to do with ripples, reflections and shimmers than the water itself. I can hose him down head to toe with no issues. But I noticed that when the sun was shimmering bright on the water, he didn't like it! He did however notice that some very sweet grass can grow throughout the water!

The picture below was my goal for today. The middle is deep and almost over my rubber boots and almost up to Linus' knees. I'll admit we had a battle and it took a lot of patience. I have be very careful when pushing Linus. It has to be done calmly and patiently and the right kind of persuasion. If you get too pushy, he will just push right back. He has a strong willed mind and I love that about him and do not want to change it! I have to work WITH that and not AGAINST it! 

Perseverance paid off though and when he did walk across it, he did it calm and right beside me! I was thrilled because I did expect him to rush it! I made a huge deal out of it with lots of rubs and an apple. Partway through I stopped him but didn't dare take a picture for fear of dropping my phone!! When I stopped him though he started splashing and I laughed! It was a total stress relieving moment!!

The cows were starting to come up then and he wanted to go move them so I left the pasture through the gate near the barn and we worked on some smaller areas of water nearer to his corral. I was proud that even though we were out of sight of Allie and she was calling he never once answered and in an hour only looked that way twice! So, our separation training seems to be holding steady too! At the end of our session today I ended up with more mud on me than he did!! But, I kept telling him if I could do so could he! I am NOT going to start bringing rubber boots on a trail ride!! 

I work all day tomorrow but am really going to try to attack the water crossing while mounted as soon as I can. There's a good chance we will have to cross water this weekend on the Halloween ride!

My son has been helping me with our costume...yep a 5 year old is giving me advice to make sure I get it right, but hey I am all for it!! He's being a great helper!