From Yesterday's Tumble

Although Bill wasn't able to get a shot of Lilly actually laying in the water yesterday, he did capture a few moments of its aftermath! Here is my brumby having just heaved herself [reluctantly] back onto her feet. Dripping wet. She's probably upset the saddle is still on her back.

And here I am snapping the reins back into place after they got all tangled around her naughty head. I know the water doesn't look that wide or deep, but a stand of muddy water like this, now I know, can mean trouble! I should have been scolding her at this moment. She would have known by the tone of my voice that she had done something inappropriate.

Here is me checking in on my waterlogged camera. It slays me how my brumby is looking on as if to say, "What happened to your camera?"

Bill and Christine said if I put the camera in a big bag of uncooked rice, the rice might absorb all the water and get the camera to dry out. I am trying it, but the lens still looks wet. Oh rats.

Here's my parting thought:

Riding: The art of keeping a horse between you and the ground.

And Down She Goes!

Today Lilly decided it would be a good idea to dump me in a little pond while she tried to roll around in it! There I was, out on the trail with Bill and Christine having a lovely time. We passed through the exact same giant puddle that yesterday we had mosied through with not one ounce of trouble. But today, !!, today was the day Lilly figured she'd lay down in the water. Down she went, and down I went with her! Before tumbling off of her back I screamed out "Bad Horse!" five-year-old-style, but this (of course) was no remedy. By then it was too late; Lilly was plunking into the water like a whale, and all I could do was try to scramble off of her. When she got up, she was drenched! And filthy! The bottom half of me was also drenched, and my camera was floating in a little pool of water in the pommel bag! VERY NAUGHTY BRUMBY.

The [not so] funny thing is, about 20 minutes later we were standing in a pasture, and Lilly tried to fold again! Again, I tell you!! But this time, I got some in-the-moment- coaching from Bill and Christine, and I was able to pull her back up from further knee-buckling.


Today's adventure rating: 10 of 10!!

Oh dear...

I am such a wimp, that this YouTube video made me cry with fright and compassion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03YcT74h5Mg

Thank you, Mother Nature!

Here's what was going on at Bear River Horse Farm today in the warmth and beauty of the sunshine. I almost never get to see ALL of the horses laying down like this! If you look carefully, you can see that Ruby is totally sacked out with her feet straight out in front of her! I had already taken Lilly up to the barn when I noticed the rest of the brumbies in this major snoozefest. As soon I saw them, I left Lilly in the barn, just ground tied, while I ran to grab the photo opp. My brumby is either very well trained or very lazy because when I came back she was pretty much right where I had left her.

Today was a truly great day because I got to do my favorite equine activity of all--the Trail Ride. Lilly was excellent, only hesitiating a few times before diligently, even curiously, ambling through the remaining snow patches. A few of them were still icy so she had to sniff and snort at them for a few seconds before trudging through. She did plow though all the little steams and giant standing puddles with ease. Mellow Yello brumby. Bill had a cow bell on Ruby just in case any bears were waking up. Alarming a bear still getting his springtime mojo going could spell disasater!

One thing I did realize while out on the trail today is that it is much harder to take a decent picture while trotting or cantering through field and stream .

For instance, what was happening here?

Or, yegadz, here?! Hee hee. In my own defense I must say that the camera must play second fiddle to the reins!

I tried to practice neck reining a little while out on the road. If we are off the trail and back on the road, it is an easy place to have Lilly zigzag back and forth to the tune of a beautiful neck rein. She was just OK with the neck reining today. Sometimes when I press against her flank, she misinterprets it as me wanting her to trot. Another thing that today confirmed: Lilly does not like to walk fast. She wants to either walk her ambly little walk, or go up into a trot. Sometimes she is motivated to move faster only because doing so will get her close enough to Ruby so she can bite her. Argh, we'll have to work on that.

In the barn Lilly once again kept shoving her giant face into my chest until we were eye to eye--my little human eye and her enormous horse eye. It's like she's trying to hug me. She LOVES to have her face brushed and her thin little forelock combed. Each time I brush it, I really want to put a little pink barrette in it.

Warmth and Sun , Where Are You?

OK, it's not quite THIS cold! But I keep waiting and waiting for Spring to roll permanently in. Last weekend I left my puffy winter riding apparel at home thinking that it would be warm enough to do without. Was I wrong. I guess I got spoiled with the few warmer days earlier this month. March can't make up its mind! Since it came in like a lion, let's hope it leaves like a lamb. When it is as cold and raw as it is in this photograph, I am always surprised how the horses stand in the weather rather than retreating to the lean-to. In the summer I see them seeking shelter, but not so much in the winter. As long as I have owned Lilly, I have never blanketed her. With the wooly mammoth fur she grows, she doesn't need it. Having a bulky coat on would only throw her internal temperature gauge off. I know some people do it, and I really love the darling pink plaid blankets that are available (how dashing she would look in them!), but it would be the wrong step to take with her. I've felt her on the coldest and nastiest of wintery days and she is warm as toast. Another amazing equine feature. I just hope this weekend will be warm as toast. But it's doubtful.

I'll let you know in two days!

More Terrific Tobianos!

This is a photo of [Bill's friend] Stacy Partyka's Paint. This horse, whose name is Kachina Kowgirl, is a stunning example of how great Paints can truly be. I love this picture. It is mesmerising to me. As soon as Lilly loses her winter coat, and the weather is friendlier, I'll give her a spa day with the hose and show she too can look this fantastic. Giddeyap, Kowgirl!

Renegades

I just went onto the Renegade hoof boot website (http://www.renegadehoofboots.com/). These shoes looks great. The Cavallos are good, but these look like they cling to the hoof a little closer, and in general look streamlined and tough. Of course I want the pink ones for my brumby. Bill tells me that ancient Romans made horseshoes and they were called Hippo Sandals. I tried to find a picture of a hippo sandal online and all I got was an eyefull of hippopotamuses and their feet!! And boy do hippos have funny looking feet.

Welcome, Cute Bovine!

There is a new cow at Bear River Horse Farm! She doesn't have a name yet, but she just arrived today. She's a Highlander and is she ever cute. She's just so tiny and her nose is all pink, and her horns are little tiny stubs. One word: adorable.

Rudy the resident alpaca was doing everything he could to get a better look at the bovine beebee. You can't really tell from this photo but his neck can get very snaky when he wants it to. Here he is trying to peek under the stall door. I've never seen anything like Rudy. Rudy's eyes are like big brown flying saucers. He may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he's another irresistible creature. After the excitement of the cow's arrival, Lilly and I went for a ride.

I thought maybe Christine would show up, but when she didn't, Lilly and I headed down the road alone. She walked her slow snail's walk again and we had a wonderful time. It reminded me of last summer when we did several trail rides by ourselves. Here she is checking in on one of her pastures. Looks pretty good out there. She still wears her Cavallo boots on the road and they serve her very well--even when she slipped into some deep mud while drinking on the side of the road, they stayed on her feet just fine. I thought maybe little pebbles would get stuck in them and hurt her feet but none did. Speaking of little pebbles, I've never met a horse so insistent on sniffing every stone or strand of hemlock on the road. Our stroll took us so long that Bill drove out to make sure we were OK. When he found us he said "Glad to see you're upright," which was very funny.

Alert! Husband at the Farm!

Today an unfamiliar creature was lurking around at the Farm! It was my husband! I convinced him to come with me today so I could get a picture of him with Lilly. One could even argue that he is her rightful owner since he is the one who paid for her. Let's just say that my husband loves horses--and this includes our brumby-- from a safe distance. Here are Lilly and Brandon together. They are both very dear. I've tried to lure him into the saddle and he did ride a few times, but me getting Brandon on a horse is kind of like Brandon getting me onto skis. Not actually a reality. I love how dapper he looks in this photo.

Birthday Brumby

Here's some photographic evidence of the Birthday workout. One picture shows what I like to do in the ring... and the other one shows what Sleeping Beauty likes to do in the ring. If she can help it!

Happy Birthday, Lilly!

Today Lilly is SEVEN years old!! So I took her an armload of carrots and promised that I wouldn't work her very hard. (Hah! That's what I say everyday!) I also let her eat carrots whenever she swung her head around looking for them, something I've learned to not accommodate all the time in case it makes her grabby and sour. But since it was her birthday, I let her have carrots on demand. Naturally, she gobbled them up in seconds.
This is what Lilly looked like when I went to get her out of the pasture. Can you believe how dirty this brumby can get!? And it's not so easy to brush all that muddy mess out of her. All that mashed and sullied white fur! Plus, it is heading toward spring and so she is shedding her winter coat. In the barn as I was brushing her there was a cyclone of horsehair in the air. It was everywhere. My sweater quickly became covered with white brumby hair! It got in my throat and eyes! BLECCHH!!


When I retrieve Lilly from the pasture she is usually eating hay and will almost always let me come right up to her with the halter and slide it on. Today as I was doing this , since it was her birthday, I slipped her a carrot. (Carrots are brumby magnets, I am not kidding.) Only a few times have I gone to get her from the pasture only to have her skitter away like the gingerbread man. These are the times other horses are so close by that I can't always tell if she is trying to avoid me or them. I can tell you this though: the last place I want to be is between two horses having a misundertsanding about who gets to stand where.

Lilly must have known it was her birthday because she was super cuddley. She kept shoving her face into my chest and leaving it there like she wanted me to hug and coo at her. That is so dear. Then she would lick my hand with her giant tongue. Brumby!! Down in the ring it was just us--no other horses, no dogs zooming hither and yon at the speed of light--and so I was able to measure Lilly's true ring-grouchiness level. Alone her ears were forward and she made satisfying little sighs very often.

There were a few instances near the gate when she would slow down, or even come to a complete stop. Aaahh the gate. The World's Most Distracting Item in the ring. This is when the crop comes in handy. I figure she can stop if she wants to, but that will only invite a little spank from the crop. Usually, just getting the crop out and slapping my own leg with it is enough to get her to realize that trot means trot and not meander aimlessly and listlessly around at her discretion. After five or ten minutes, and perhaps a little hop of protestation, she'll settle into something more even and reliable. I set up some cones and we trotted around them. She really has the most beautiful sitting trot. It might be too slow for some people but I love it. We also practiced neck reining. Not surprisingly, neck reining toward the gate gets much better results than neck reining away from it.

Brainiac

This is what I must remember when I am thinking of Lilly. Her equine brain! Although Lilly is so snuggly and smart and human-like a lot of the time, she still has this horse brain with its two sides and its own way of seeing everything.

Yesterday for example, she saw some smoke curling out of a fire and thought it was a monster. Her nostrils were flaring and she wouldn't go near it. Wary brumby! Even the flag flapping on the barn has occasionally been some cause for concern, neverminding that she sees the thing all the time.

When I see Lilly's big brown eyes and how soft and dear they are, my heart melts. She's such a great animal. I love her.

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today was one of those beautiful days in New England when you start to think that spring and summer might actually be coming after all. And this is when you gobble down your breakfast and kiss your husband fast as you grab your horse boots, get in your car, and zoom over to your horse who is nibbling hay and looking blotchy with mud.

Lilly and I started in the ring where quite a few times she pinned her ears back, clearly feeling that evil villains were lurking everywhere. Maybe they were. I can't see half the things she can.

Out on the road, sporting her boots, Lilly was perfect. Good brumby! We rode with Christine (on Qtee) and Bill (this time on Freddie). It was a gorgeous ride on a gorgeous day.

Here are Lilly and Qtee stopping for a little drink.

Here are Christine and Bill

Barefoot and Loving It(?)

Yesterday after taking Lilly into the ring, Bill (and Ruby) and I headed down the (soft, muddy) road which I thought would be OK for her newly naked feet. But she was walking so gingerly and tripping so much that my gut feeling was her feet are too delicate for any riding without shoes. It pained me to even be riding her, thinking she might be suffering. She kept walking off to the side of the road to be able to place her feet in the snow. Bill and Ruby got so far ahead of us, I couldn't even see them! I admit, I'm very wimpy when it comes to an animal in pain. Lilly might know this. On the way home she didn't seem to mind the ground under her feet as much! Still, I don''t think she was faking.

I've decided not to re-shoe Lilly. I really want to have her try the barefoot trim. Again. I'm thinking I didn't give it a chance before. The trim Bill gave her on Friday was the "barefoot trim." He is going to check her feet every two or three weeks, watching them carefully and trimming as needed. Then in a few months we'll re-evaluate. I know toughening her feet will take some time.
So today, just in case her feet are still ouchie, before heading down the road, I put boots on her.

Here she is all ready to go.

The difference between yesterday without the boots and today with the boots was remarkable. As long as Lilly is barefoot, she'll probably be wearing these boots on the trail. In the meantime, I'm trying to read more about hooves and soles to see if I can glean any info about what exactly makes her feet so dainty. Like I said a few posts ago, this brumby's feet are complicated. However, she was stepping out so nicely with these boots on that she was even able to make an enthusiatic lunge toward Henry who annoys her very much.

Barefootin'

This past Friday Lilly's shoes came off. She's had her studded slippers on for several weeks and it looked like it was time to take them off. Besides, the ground is softer now with the warmer temps of late and the melting snow--the muddy ground provides ample cushioning for sensitive feet. But first, the old shoes must come off. Here is a shot of Bill taking them off. See that tool belt around his leg? Pretty nifty.

After the shoes are off, Bill looked at her frog and trimmed off a few pieces that were shaggy and shedding. The frog is fascinating. Amid all these hard surfaces, there's this triangular spongy thing! He also assessed her sole and the weightbearing edge. Next comes the rasp. In all stages of trimming Bill can eyeball the hoof and know what to do. If I were left in charge of trimming Lilly's feet, I'd have protractors and calipers out to make sure I was getting everything right. This is why having a good farrier is so valuable.
Here's Bill creating the beveled edge. I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what he's doing.

And finally, Bill cleans up any rough edges.

Lilly stands very nicely for a pedicure. I am always so pleased with her when she makes it easy for Bill to work on her. If she's terrible for her trimming, Bill might curl his lip at having to do it. And I wouldn't blame him. Maybe one day I will be able to trim and shoe Lilly so Bill can have a rest.

After Lilly's trim I took her down in the ring where she was very crabby about having to be ridden. Little sour mare. She even gave a little buck! (Picture posted yesterday.) When Lilly gets this way, I am crushed. I just want her to be a good little horse and follow my lead. What this means for me is that I've got to go back to my Clinton Anderson DVDs and see what he suggests. Or listen to Bill. I don't know what makes her so crabby in the ring. Chances are, she's lazy and is perturbed I'm actually asking her to do something other than eat hay. Or it is entirely possible that I myself am doing something wrong. As long as I do not end up on the ground staring at the sky with a broken back, a little protestation is fine. I just have to make her see that when she is cantankerous, it just means more work for her. Just like Clinton says: make the wrong thing difficult, and the right thing easy.

Uh-oh!

Uh oh! Here I am today having a precarious moment in the ring.


But luckily, all's well that ends well.

TidBits

I use a full cheek snaffle bit on Lilly. Initially I wanted to use the full cheek snaffle because I believed it was the kindest, gentlest one to use. While that may not necessarily be true, I still like using it because when I am getting Lilly to flex laterally, it keeps the bit in the right place. It also feels right to me for when she is getting a lesson in neck reining. In the picture below I have all the bits shown that I have ever used on Lilly. The leverage bit on the right was good when I was new with her because if she bolted (which only happened once) I had more power and control in pulling her head around. It was a bit of a security blanket. Of course with this bit you must remember to be very light in the horse's mouth. Because it has the chain curb strap, you could really wreak havoc with your brumby if you aren't careful. I don't use it anymore because I don't think Lilly needs it. However, it is always good to have it as an option just in case.....
I didn't learn anything about bits and bridles when I took horsebackriding lessons. Once again it has been with the help of Bill and through my personal experience that I have gained knowledge. And of course, I have read about them. How many horse books have I read now? Many! Reading about it is great, but it is the actual doing it that is the real teacher.

Here's Lilly's pretty mouth with her pink rope halter and the full cheek snaffle. I also used to think full cheek bits like this are really for english riders which I am not. But that's not really true. When I was new with Lilly, I was terrible at getting her to take the bit. She was extremely patient with me.

One day when I am very good at riding, maybe I won't need a bridle and bit at all! Just like Stacey Westfall!

Oh, Terrific Tobiano!

I found this picture of a Paint on Wikipedia. It represents what a classic Paint horse looks like. The big patch of dark coloring across her chest is often called a shield. Just like Lilly!

I'll have another Brumby update in two days!

Mud is Beautiful

Today was another beautiful spring day, just perfect for getting the horses out and heading off down the road. The trails in the woods are still quite slippery, but the road is just fine. Even warmer than yesterday, today was what every horseperson dreams of: big blue sky, warm temps, and a weekend day--so no office to hustle off to. I have posted a few pictures. You can see that it is quite muddy.

Before heading down the road, Lilly and I started our day in the ring. I set up a few cones to practice weaving in between them. I also made a makeshift round pen by placing some tiny orange poles on the ground. These are not so much to work inside of (because there is no real "inside") but rather to provide a circle to trot around and practice neck reining. Let's just say it was VERY makeshift. In any event, these kinds of tools are important because down in the ring, Lilly can get a little stubborn. She only wants to walk, and at a snail's pace. Yes, a horse moving as slowly as a snail is a slow horse indeed. She will pin her ears a bit when I ask her to trot, and then can act irritated when I ask her to canter. I am torn between showing her I am IN CHARGE and not wanting to make her angry. Letting the horse know that I am calling the shots when I am on her back is essential. The more I can get Lilly to move around to the beat of my drum and not hers, the more she will perceive me as the leader. The more she sees me as the leader, the more respectful and safe she will be. Besides, nobody likes a brat. Even a very cute brat.
This picture is of Bill (on Ruby) and Christine (on Qtee) in front of me on the road.




This is view from up top! It's the best view in the world!



This is me with one of Bill's horses, Ruby. She seemed particularly interested in the camera. Perhaps she thought it was a cookie.

Here's Lilly peering over Elvis's back.

Springing to Spring

Today was warm enough for a trail ride without my giant puffy winter riding pants that are riding apparel's equivalent of a fat suit. In fact today's weather could be described as downright springy. Snow is melting so fast it is a messy peek into mudseason. Lilly's feet were sinking so deep into the earth in some spots I thought one of her shoes might get sucked right off of her foot. Luckily this did not happen. It is nice to get on a horse without 15 pounds of winter clothing for a change. The picture below was taken from Lilly's back. I think her ears are very cute. That's Henry the dog in the background. The other picture is Qtee. Qtee is just plain wonderful.

Before we headed out on the road Lilly and I started with a mini lesson in the ring. Mini lesson indeed; we were probably in the ring for five minutes. Still, sometimes I like to start with her there. It allows me to make sure she's respecting me and provides an opportunity to reinforce a few good habits. Today we did yielding the hindquarters and flexing at the poll. Good Brumby.

Cinderella's Slippers

Here's a photo of Lilly's foot. That's the front left. I have been discovering that Lilly's feet are fascinating and complicated. When I first got her, I had every intention of not putting shoes at all on her feet. I figured that if wild horses didn't need shoes, why would my brumby? Lilly and her feet however, had something else to say about that.
On soft ground, such as a field or an unpaved road in the spring when everything is wet and spongy, Lilly has no problem going barefoot. But mudseason is short and before you know it, Lilly is walking slower and slower on the road to the trail to avoid any agony felt by her delicate feet.

Well, it might not be agony. Maybe it's just discomfort.

But prolonged discomfort over time doesn't seem fair to me. So I had Bill, who also happens to be an excellent farrier (no surprise), put shoes on her. Then Lilly and her dainty feet feel better and she has no excuses for poking along on the trail. But still I have gone back and forth with her. We've tried the barefoot trim, and even Cavallo boots. Nothing works as well as good old fashioned horseshoes on her feet. Because we've been getting so much snow here in the bay state these last two winters, Lilly's gets to wear turbo shoes with little special treads on them to keep her from slipping on the ice. You can see that in the picture. This year she also has the rim guards on. They prevent the snowballs from packing up within the shoe itself. These work like a charm and I recommend them. Before Lilly had them, she'd be teetering around on such huge balls of snow that she looked like a prostitute in stilettoes. That's fine for a Vegas hooker, but I'd rather have my brumby keep her feet on the ground!

Tomorrow I'll see Lilly and have another update.

Today's Lesson

Before I bought Lilly I took lessons at a local stable called Biscuit Hill. There I learned how to walk, trot and canter. The place was beautiful, and the animals obviously got very good care. The place was clean and the horses were kind. However, what I didn't learn or perhaps simply never acknowledged at Biscuit Hill, was the psychology of the horse. So important. After all, the horse is a prey animal. And though we all have stories of riding old hack horses who were supremely unperterbable, down underneath a whole lot of training (or a whole lot of inertia), are all those fight or flight instincts. This means a big old rock, a tiny fluttering leaf, the sound of a car horn (to cite a few everyday examples) can all spur a horse into thinking danger is near and that running for her life is probably the best thing to do. Well. This is the very thing that happened to me today while I was on Lilly. I got to Bill's, tacked Lilly up, and took her down to the riding arena. I walked her around the arena as I usually do, just to let her see the place again for the millionth time, let her get a feel for it, and settle into the idea that it's time to do a little work. Before I got on her I realized I had left the reins in the barn so I found some rope and improvised some rope reins. They looked a little funny--I'm no expert on knot tying--but they seemed good enough. In fact, I actually liked my homemade reins better because they were quite long and I was able to sit straight up in the saddle, just like Sally Swift tells everyone to do. I got on my brumby, flexed her head to the right and to the left, collected her up, and went around the arena. First at a walk, then at a trot. Christine showed up and started riding Qtee. Walk. Trot. Walk. Trot. Stop. Turn. Change directions. To this corner. Then to that. Back up. Trot. A little sidepassing at the walk. Very nice. Good brumby. And then out of nowhere, out of nowhere I tell you, Lilly flipped out, made an abrupt change of direction and circled around to the gate at a gallop. Or at least a very fast canter. Oooh dear. We bashed into poor Christine and Qtee, but at the gate--a thin little piece of electrical wire, mind you--Lilly stopped. To be fair to her, she could have busted on through. She did not. She stopped. I'm the first to tell you that an experienced rider would have had that horse under control much faster than me. And that is the idea, of course, to prevent the freak out, to get a handle on it sooner rather than later. To not freak out while your animal is freaking out because if the two of you are losing it at the same time, it's curtains. I actually hate this story. I almost cried a little after this small incident. After all, I want to be competent. A competent rider worries her husband much less that an inept one. What I can say is that this is how one learns to get better: by realizing what went wrong and what to do the next time the same thing happens. And to be fair to myself I was trying to one-rein-stop her, but my improv reins (the ones I was loving a mere two minutes ago) were too long and I couldn't get any leverage. My one success: I stayed on. And horse psychology is now that much more relevant to me.

That's all for today! Happy Trails, my friends.