Horse Hill

AhD and I traveled over Horse Hill on an old county road on Memorial Day. I have been wanting to take that trail for about 15 years now, and have just never gotten around to it. Turns out my riding companion had always wanted to explore that part of our area before also, but SHE had never gotten around to it. Made for a good ride, and two very happy and contented people about five hours later. I assume the horses were happy and contented as well. Here is AhD, overlooking one of the beautiful views. As you can see, it is hazy, due to the fires in Canada. I actually ran around looking out all my windows early that morning, wondering which one of my neighbor's houses was on fire.

The route over the hill was beautiful, part road, part trail, part field. We met some friends along the way. This nice gentleman asked if our horses were tired and hauled a 5 gal pail of water for them, and then he proceeded to tell us about another beautiful trail we can take some other day.

AhD is wearing hemlock, which helps keep the deer flies at bay.

AhD was a Wonder Trail Horse on this ride. He gave me not one lick of trouble and didn't question my authority. He did snatch leaves from time to time, but if that is the worst thing I can say about my beloved pony, I guess we are doing quite a good job of becoming a finely tuned team. Both of us were so relaxed on this ride; what a delight to be able to get out and about and enjoy my most favoritest horse in the whole wide world.

Out with Baby!!

Well, it's been a while since we've checked in....

Miss D had a beautiful foal - a colt by the name of "Lakota High Socks".

Lakota is a curious, very friendly, happy-go-lucky young lad.

He was born on a full moon - April 28th.

A very easy birth for Deams - her water broke - and Lakota was out within 5 minutes - standing and nursing within 20 minutes. A big healthy boy.

I was there for the birth - and started the desensitizing (within reason) right from birth. He has been extremely approachable - willing to be handled - and just fantastic (so far) :-)

We have been working with the halter - and took our first neighborhood walk - with mom and baby yesterday.

I hope to be back riding soon - any recommendations? My hope is to start short and easy - with baby either ponying - or following along with mom. (I have logging trails right behind my house).

I absolutely love this little guy - he is the "poster child" for the intelligent, good natured Curly breed!

Terri, Reggie & bike

Well my friend Dawn and I went riding and after the ride she brought the bike around and walked it within 10 ft all the way around Reggie while I was still on him and he looked at it but he just stood there like "ho hum yes that is a bike ok" I was very happy with that!

Terri

Last few items Curly J and I did for the RAC Challenge

Hello friends,

Well, it has been an extremely long and fun day but my old bones are ready for bed so I much like the fireworks on July 4th we will list the remaining items we worked on for our May RAC Challenge as our grande finale.

Popping Balloons:

Videos:

Back 30 steps:

Video:

Trot, Square up and Back 3 steps:

Suggestion from a friend:

Call three friends and ride......here are a few of the interesting flora I discovered with Curly J

The Finale

We were able to accomplish some more of the challenges and with my fearless husband as the photographer (why am I doing this? he asks) and my 4 year old daughter as assistant, Traveler and I were able to scratch a couple more things off our "to-do" list.

Traveler standing square - I have played with the idea of showing him in a halter class for fun - so he knew what to do to get a treat.

The Gate Challenge - opening

Ridin'on Thru -

Shutting it back up -

I had never done this before on Traveler - but he was so happy to be done with his lesson, he had no problem standing for me to open and shut the gate.

Pivot on the hind quarters - we have been working on this for years. Yes, I'm not kidding. It's very hard for Traveler to shift his weight back and pivot. We are getting pretty good at this - althought it's hard to keep those pesky hind legs still. We couldn't do the pivot on the forehand good enough without moving all our legs a little, so we will keep that item on our "to do" list. Perhaps in another 2 years, we will have accomplished it! There's always hope.

Here we are backing up 20 steps. He can do this. (Ha ha, he had better.)

Trotting 3 figure 8s. This was a great exercise and one I will keep doing! Good practice in supporting the rib cage around the corners, trotting straight for a couple of strides and then flexing and going the other way. I will definitely do this for a warm-up.

Self-Loading - Poor Traveler didn't have any idea what I wanted him to do at first. We have such a routine down for everything that this threw him off for a minute.

Pulling a sled - Traveler should be used to the sled. I used to put my 2 year old daughter on the sled during the winter and drag her around with me to feed the horses.

Trot along side at end of lead rope - halt square and back - this is something we occasionally practice in case I ever want to show him in a halter class. When I first got Traveler over 4 years ago, he used to rear-up every time I asked him to trot next to me. We've come a long way.....

(Ground) - Pivot on the hindquarters without touching them. We do this activity on the ground to help Traveler start thinking about working and to yield to me. He doesn't really like to do this at all - he wants to push out ahead of me and not stay behind my lead hand and pivot on his hind end. It's hard work!

Backing on the ground for 30 steps without touching - I worked with Traveler so I could "click" to him, tell him to back and then point my finger and he would back up. (He has to back-up, alot, since he is a stallion and always trying to encroach upon my space. He got really good at this.)

Introducing Traveler to a bicycle - I didn't entirely trust my daughter to pedal and steer right next to Traveler on the open path, so we did it around the round pen. She pedaled on the outside and I led Traveler next to her on the inside - and then she took off for the for destinattions unknown.

Finally - we end our May Challenge gallery with leading over a tarp.

That's it! Our work here is done. (At least for the night - it's 11:30pm, my time, and I am signing off on our May Challenge.)

Here's hoping June brings us some sun!

Curly J -says it's a great morning for a quick dip

Hello Again,

Video:  Curly J -says it's a great morning for a quick dip

Before we started out on our  trail ride I walked Curly J through our pond (coming from Carolina that's what we'd call it) but since it has been dug out technically (in Texas) it is a tank. 

First, Curly J was a little timid. Can't say that I blame him 'cause the wisemen (our Llamas) were already enjoying the cool water. After a few clucks and a little encouragement we stepped in gingerly. Then the llamas were ready to give up the cool waters for the nice shady willow tree.

After a few more steps into the water Curly J began to really get a kick out of it. Literally, he started to prance in the water and pawed playfully.

This was a great suggestion 'cause you never known when you will need to cross water on a trail ride in Texas.

Angie and wet but happy Curly J

Texas Memorial Day Trail Ride with Curls and Wildflowers

Hello from North East Texas,
Video:  Texas Trail Ride with Curls and Wildflowers

 My friend Levi and I decided to take a trail ride from our ranch to the small community center in our area known as Warsaw. Our neighbor has 100 acres of beautiful forest so we had an awesome adventure with native wildflowers....and what better way to cool off in the Texas heat than a nice walk in through the woods.

On our five mile trail ride and we saw an old wooden structure that we decided was an old pig pen; because it wasn't big enough for livestock larger than a pig to fit in it.  It was strange to see it in what we thought we was the "middle of nowhere" but at one time it must have been somewhere to someone.

After a few more miles we took a break under a nice shady old oak tree. Chester and Curly J welcomed the chance to relax and munch a bit.

As the sun started to go down we realized it was time to head back. I cannot think of a better way to spend Memorial Day than in the saddle with a good horse and a good friend 

Happy Memorial Day to all my RAC friends,

Angie and Curly J