Kira gets a new Boyfriend.

In the last nail biting installment I relayed the bad news that Ebony developed arthritis and we retired her.  Well, there was a little time that passed between the time she was diagnosed and the time we actually retired her.  Before Ebony came to live with us we had two horses, Beamer and Mariah.  Only one of those horses was well enough trained to do Westernaires.  When Ebony came to live with us we now had two horses that were well enough trained to do Westernaiers.  And the girls took advantage of that.  Kira joined trick and Kumi joined Horse Romans.  (Sorry for the blurry picture)

That is Beamer and Ebony and Kumi doing Romans.

News Flash - Cityboy wins 3rd place!

It is okay to laugh at this picture. I did not know my shirt had come untucked and looked so dorky but hay! Its is my first ribbon on my horse! And as everybody in the horse world knows, its all about the ribbons! Or the occasional saddle. And sometimes a really big belt buckle.

We had a very busy and very fun weekend. Saturday was, as always, a Westernaires Saturday. Kira rode in her tenderfoot class and all went well for her. Ebony was well behaved. (Ominous for shadowing for later).

Two of our friends from Westernaires did not have their horses. One is dealing with some colic issues (but he is doing better this morning) and the other hurt a tendon in his rear leg (but laser treatments are improving his condition greatly!). We offered to let them ride Ebony and Mariah. They accepted so off to Dressage they went. Here are the three horses in the same class. I took this picture because this may well be the only time it happens. I only had my cell phone with me so the pics are not the best. I have really got to start bringing my good camera with me every time. You never know when something cool is going to happen.

The Great Escape

Thursday morning started like any other school morning. We had had breakfast and Kira was waiting at the door for the bus to come, Kumi was getting her lunch together and I was just getting ready to step into the shower. I stuck my head out of the bathroom door and Kumi said my horse had run off. I went back into the bathroom to look out the window expecting to see the horses running around the backyard. No horses. I stuck my head back out of the bathroom and Kumi was putter her coat on. I asked her where she was going and she said, some what more emphatically, YOUR HORSE ESCAPED. What...

Feeding Time

I feed the horses in the morning. By rights, I should make the girls get up and care for their horses but I like the early morning feeding. It gets me up and gets me out for some exercise. I also get to enjoy some pretty spectacular sunrises. It is also pretty entertaining.

The horses know what time breakfast is served. All three of them are lined up at the fence staring at the back door just waiting for it to open. When I get to the gate all the noses come over the fence and start checking my hands. I am known to bring carrots out with me in the morning. Not every morning, but they always check. Once satisfied by either munching on a carrot or having confirmed I have no carrots (or the occasional peppermint), they walk around the barn and into the stalls to supervise preparation of their breakfast.

They watch intently as I set about setting up breakfast. First step, get down a hay bale and count out the flakes. Currently it is seven flakes. I think they are learning to count. I can feel their eyes on my back as I stack the flakes up for easy distribution. Next I open up the grain bin and start measuring out the grain. They are totally focused on me now. They are making sure I get it just right. If Mariah thinks I am not moving fast enough she starts running her teeth up and down the bars are the stall. When I glance back at her she tosses her head at me and says, "Hurry Up! I am HUNGRY! By the way, you are a 1/2 ounce short on my grain, , make sure you correct that before you serve me."

The next step in the ritual is to take the grain out. Beamer is the first one there. Beamer and I are working on where his nose should be. In my opinion, his nose should be about three feet away from me until I set down his bowl and step away. In his mind his nose should be in which ever bowl is closest. Negotiations continue. And they are going in favor of my opinion.

Next bowl down is for Mariah. She prances around tossing her head until I set her bowl down. Finally Ebony gets her bowl. From the first moment I walk out the door until I set her bowl down she maintains a low nicker. She walks around calmly and is not pushy but you can tell she can't wait. While the three of them are eating I spread the hay around the pasture and start mucking while I wait for the next ritual of the morning feeding to begin.

Beamer is getting extra rations. We are trying to get some wight on to him before winter and its proving to be tough. He is low horse on the food chain so he gets pushed of the hay easily. I spread the hay around such that no one horse can control all the food and that helps. We are also giving him twice the grain we give the other horses. And he eats slow.

The mares just hork their grain down as fast (and messy)as they can. Then they start looking for more. Then they start looking at Beamer. Ebony has learned, very quickly I might add, that she is not allowed to eat B's grain. She finishes her grain and heads for the hay. Mariah thinks that if she can't see me, I can't see her. So she starts to walk towards B. B pins his ears and swings her butt towards her but Mariah just ignores him. If I stay out of sight she will stick her nose in his bowl and the two of them will stand there and eat B's grain. B doesn't like this very much but is a gelding to do? The mean old mare just can't be beat.

But I don't stay out of sight. As she starts walking towards B, so do I. She sees me and walks past B to a hay pile. She throws a look my way that says, "See. I wasn't going to eat his food. Honest. I just wanted this hay over here." This morning she actually trotted down to the feeder when I came out. As soon as I turned around I heard trotting feet and turned around to find Mariah trotting towards B. I went towards B and she trotted on past to a different hay pile trying once again t make it look like that was her intention the whole time. Every morning its the same thing. Whenever she thinks I'm not looking she heads for B's bowl.

I enjoy mornings. I really do.

Ebony Comes Home

As you may have noticed from the title, we went from having two horses in the backyard to having three. It took one week. Actually, it took less than a week. You might recall that the conversation that started us thinking about another horse or two occurred on February 13. Ebony came home on February 19^th. Scary how fast things can move sometimes.

After we decided (rather abruptly) that we were in the market for a third horse we talked to Carly. She and her brother each had a horse for sale. Mojito is a paint and he was the first horse we were considering. We had watched Carly’s brother training the horse several times while were there for lessons and we were impressed. So we went and rode the horse and it just wasn’t right. Tira-Toes just did not click with the horse. You could see in her eyes that she was a little frustrated since the horse did not respond well to her. I rode the horse and it turns out he is still learning to neck rein and hasn’t worked out all the cues yet. He tends to turn his head to far to one side or the other. He would be a great horse for a more experienced rider who is comfortable with training a horse, but not such a good horse for a novice rider.

The horse that Carly had for sale is a 13 year old registered paint though it does not have the typical paint markings. Ebony is nearly jet black but has brown highlights all through her coat. A very pretty little horse. Tira-Toes had a much better connection to this mare. Ebony responded much better to Tira-Toes’s cues and you could see the joy in Tira-Toes’s eyes as she rode the horse around the arena. Carly and I talked a bit and we both felt the Ebony was a much better horse for Tira-Toes. Ebony has been trained with flags (VERY important for a Westernaires horse) has done a fair amount of trail riding and has been known to go through a drive through or two to get some refreshments. She neck reins well and still moves off of leg cues. She is forgiving so when Tira-Toes stands up in the saddle while trotting, Ebony holds her pace. We are doing a little work to get Ebony to improve her stops as she tends to take a few more steps than she should. Just the kind of horse I was looking for a novice rider.

Next step, vet check. It’s not that I don’t trust Carly, it’s just that Carly is not a vet. It is never bad idea to have a vet check over the horse you are thinking of buying. A friend from Westernaires was looking at a horse they found on Craig’s List and they liked what they saw. They did a vet check and the horse did not pass. It had a lot of issues and they would not have been able to ride it. A couple of days later the add on Craig’s List had changed to discourage potential buyers from doing a vet check. Anyway, we went off to the vet and Ebony did really well right up until we started to lunge her. She was limping a bit on her left front. Carly (who came to the vet check with us) and I just looked at each other. I had ridden Ebony in a lesson once and Carly had ridden her quite a bit over the last year and she had never shown any sign of lameness. But the vet gave her a lameness score of 1. The vet also said that it looked like the front shoes were not on properly, that the shoes were causing Ebony’s feet to twist ever so slightly to the outside. The vet, as part of her fee, told us to bring the horse back in two weeks and she would recheck Ebony for lameness again. That sounded fair to me and, frankly, I wasn’t too worried about it because I trust Carly and I was familiar with the horse. Carly and I decided that I should take the horse home and have my farrier come take off the shoes and re-trim her feet. So we load her into the trailer and set off for home. The voyage home deserves a post of its own.

In the mean time, Tira-Toes has a few words to say about her horse. Without further ado, I give you Tira-Toes.

Hi, it’s Tira Toes again and I have just got my own horse. Her name is Ebony and she is jet black all over except for a white star on her forehead and two white socks on her back legs. She is thirteen and we bought her from our trainer, Carly. She is very sweet. In her first few days she did not bite or kick the other two horses until she became fed up with Beamer bullying her around and kicked him. She rides easy and has a smooth lope and a trot better then Beamers. By better I mean it doesn’t feel like you’re sitting through an earthquake. I have decided to join Westernaires with my friend Tessa Toes in August. I think my dad was about to shoot me when I looked at him and said I want her. A new horse means new tack, a new trailer, and all that commotion of two daughters at Westernaires at different times. But I wrapped him around my little finger and I got my horse. My goal for Westernaires is to be the most obnoxious Tenderfoot there. I have neon rainbow colored reigns, a purple saddle blanket, a multi colored saddle pad, a lime green breast collar, and a purple helmet. I love my horse.

What I love about Carly is the way she helps you learn. She builds you up step by step until you reach your goal. Carly is a fun and nice teacher. She has worked with many different horses and students and she knows the perfect way to help you learn. My goal when I first went to Carly was to be able to ride Mariah. She started me on a easy going horse like Beamer then she put me on a more, shall we say, exciting horse and I barley felt the difference.

When did I know I loved my horse

This post is a little out of sequence but Jane at The Literary Horse asked for our story about when we knew we loved our horses. I have not yet introduced our second horse, Mariah, and I will introduce her and tell you the story of how she came to live with us a bit later. But for now, here is a brief bit of the story.

Mariah is a Morgan. She likes to go but she is a nervous kind of horse. She spooks easily, tends to be head shy and takes a few steps to catch when I go to get her for a ride. The first time I got on her after we brought her home I got on bare back. I was nervous and she was very nervous. The end result was that I ended up on the ground and she ended up on the other side of the arena. She did not run away when went to get her so I took her back to the steps. She stood quietly while I got back on and then she decided to go. In any direction she chose. Discretion being the better part of valor, I jumped off and that ended our first riding experience. I would not be on her back for several more months (five if I recall correctly).

During that period, I got a trainer and learned to do ground work. I did that for a few months and then it was time to get on her again. This time I had a saddle. Even so, as soon as I got on her she started to test me and I had very little control over her. She never tried to buck me off, but she did try to see if she could get me to slide off. I was frustrated to no end and even talked about trading her for one of my trainers already trained horses.

But I continued to ride her. And each time we rode I gained a little more control and became a bit more comfortable with my seat and her speed. Each time I got her to collect a bit more and control her speed for a few more steps. And then I stopped being scared and started having fun. She started to come to me more, something she had never done before, and let me scratch her ears. We were starting to connect. And that is when I knew that she was my horse and that I was not going to get rid of her. We were going to learn to become a team together. Besides, how could you not love a face like this?