Catch-up; catching the wild horse; catching a bad attitude before it gets worse.
Well!
We survived summer. The start was rocky, for lots of reasons that don't particularly belong here, but thanks to good help we made it through keeping kids safe and reasonably happy. The temperatures were unbelievable— read, crazy-mother-trucking-hot and devoid of any kind of moisture. Having a huge herd of thirty was more work than before but worth it; I don't think anyone got particularly fatigued despite a heavier workload of kids and the NightRyder program adding a little bit of work in the evening. We have pulled some of the old horses up to a great weight, but there are some others in their early or mid twenties who lost condition that we are still trying to recover. The joys of old, worn and wonderful hand-me-down horses.
Leading a ride in July.
Indigo, the first mustang colt, was a great success. He had two rough spots, to include randomly falling off of a three-inch cliff with Tiffany for no apparent reason. (Stood back up before she could even step off, so it was chalked up to being a dummy three-year-old who doesn't know where to place his feet.) And I got ballsy and put an "advanced" camper with a relatively weak seat on his back.. bareback. He had been great for everybody else, but she slumped forward onto his shoulder and he took a step to the left and dropped her less than five seconds after she'd mounted. She was fine and he luckily didn't pick up the hint that it's possible to dump people on purpose. I used him to lead trail rides all day, several days a week, and for a few Blue Bead ceremonies which went reasonably well considering I was jumpy being bareback, helmetless, and in front of a big crowd. He carried about five different campers, all competent riders, during NightRyders and Saddle Club, as well as a couple of novice counselors. Not bad for three.
Here's a post on the camp blog from one of our great Saddle Club girls; she writes a little about her experience using Indy for our pony games day.
Bandit is large and lazy. He didn't get as much work this summer thanks to Inders, but behaved when he did. I am for some reason not panicked about getting him ready for the Pole Canyon CTR; I had intended to ride Open division for the first time to get experience doing the mileage, but for a couple of reasons, have stuck to Novice. I know that, continuing with our conditioning rides for the coming weeks and barring injury, he will be able to do the distance, especially in an area that is challenging because it's rocky— like home! Like Alpine!— instead of deep and sandy. We'll blow some more obstacles, but I'm totally ready to be back. Plus, there's a horsemanship clinic the day before, so we are hauling early and maybe that will take the edge off. I'm excited!
Awkward photo, but see?! Her head is starting to fit!
Pax, who gets little press here considering she is the title feature, is growing into her head. Yikes, that's the best update I can give ya? She is doing exactly what two-year-olds should do, in my opinion— getting a few lessons on ground manners, carrying a saddle around occasionally, and eating and growing and being adorable. Her back has lengthened, which I'm not thrilled about, but she is coming into proportion and I think she moves a little better than before. I'm looking into buying a friend's Collegiate dressage saddle; a good buy on a nice, basic piece of tack that I hope will last me through the next year or so until I can afford something nicer without risking making the car payment, etc. At that point, she'll be closer to full grown and easier to eyeball a good fit for. She is the "lovey-est" horse I've been around in forever— when we left for twelve days for Northern Ireland, she was the first horse to meet me at the fence (not in the feeding location, either) at a dead sprint, looking for pats. She honestly seemed happy to see us.
ApHC Suprise Hayley Annie
I have an offer to take a horse on free lease that's tempting. Granted, we have more than enough projects to go around here, but she's somewhat of a special case in my very skewed handbook— she is Bandit's five-year-old half sister. And she's cute. Compact, like her broseph. Great color, if you like Apps. She's green broke, which is nice in that she's at least rideable. And I am sure she needs some work. I not-so-secretly would love her to be a follow up NATRC horse to replace Bandit in a few years. The guy who owns her claims to love her but is in the process of moving. I don't want to buy her —she isn't worth $1500 in my book, despite better than average bloodlines. $1500 green broke "cute" horse is a joke right now in this part of the world. I mean, I do want to meet her. I would also like to work with her. I just don't know how far I want to go; I'm a little worried about falling in love with her and having her snatched off to California just as I get her going well. And I'm also worried she might be a nightmare. Worth going to look at her next Tuesday? Worth taking a trailer with me? Worth drawing up paperwork? Thoughts?
And finally.. Flint. Flint is our second mustang, a three year old gelding out of the Adoble Wells HMA in southern Wyoming. Tiffany, her boss and America's Favorite Trail Horse* finalist TJ, and I drove up to beautiful Colorado in the middle of a very hot August.
* See the trailer below, if you haven't already. Exciting to have an equestrian reality TV show that isn't about the racing industry, whatever your thoughts on ACTHA and competitive trail riding are!
CFA Flint Rock's "beachy" hairdo.
Flint is more of a challenge than Indigo was. He was older when he came out of the wild, older when he was gelded, older when he came to camp. He and Inders are just now the same age. I am okay with this. I wanted this. We got to haltering and leading in about the same amount of time. I was more confident and I had my own schedule of milestones to hit. We spent the days before my trip to the U.K. leading around camp, learning about grooming and tying and all the basics. He was flighty, but smart and willing and a big "mama's boy." He spazzed, but recovered by standing behind my shoulder and waiting. Then I got cocky yesterday and put the two mustang boys together in the arena. They were perfect— could catch them both, no big quarrels. I worked the two of them at liberty together. Indy joined up right away and stayed at my shoulder until I brought Flint around. I moved the two of them as a unit. Indigo was definitely the leader and he was nearly flawless. I could kick myself for using one green colt to work another green colt, but I assure you that the dynamic worked and our first BLM pony is a treasure. A weird treasure, but a treasure.
Brosephs.
Anyway. I was feeling sorry for Flint being cooped up in his pen for so long after a lifetime of herd dynamics, so I let the two boys stay in the arena overnight with some hay and water. This morning, Richard and I were up early to feed and saddle twelve horses for a retreat. When I went to catch Flint.. He walked straight through our (incredibly shoddy, withering-cedar-post) arena fence, smashing it into splinters, and into the corral filled with all of the spare horses. I was immediately terrified for him getting the snot beat out of him.. Until he single-handedly took on all of the huge bully horses and commandeered the hay ring for himself. Here was this scrappy, girly looking grey pony colt laying the smack down on our duo of ornery, 16.2+ hh Thoroughbreds and everyone else.
Catching him took over twelve hours of on-and-off efforts. Now that he's learned he can push over fences, we couldn't push him hard enough to tire him for fear he'd just peace out and leave the premises— not good considering there's thirty weekenders here for the retreat. I was livid. And the first rule of horsemanship is to never do anything with haste and anger.. Two sentiments thundering through my veins. I managed to clip the lead on him, but was drug a little ways multiple times, which only exacerbated the problem and fueled the pony's desire to run. Long story short, my hero of a husband ended up coaxing him close enough to catch, then stuck out his protesting rears and fits until he had the colt under control. We've switched him to a halter with some more bite (nose knots) and returned him to his little metal panel pen. Back to basics tomorrow, and I have learned my lessons.
If you're that pissed off, stop.
Don't overestimate the flexibility and durability of the trust you've established with a wild animal. It's brittle. Like, really really brittle. Like, baked-cedar-pole-in-the-summertime brittle.
There are a few things your larger, stronger, testosterone-fueled spouse can do better. Like hold on to a lead rope with a bucket of angry crazy at the end.
Seriously, we need a new freaking fence. This year it ceased to be a funny talking point.
Angelic Indigo was a fluke.
The drag rope idea to halter break worked brilliantly on more than one horse I've started or help start in the past. It can, as in this case, backfire. Flint is now adept at walking through a jerk on the lead rope. In fact, he's gotten quite good at it.
I'm so ready to do this better.
I ended this rather crappy day with the first ride on Indigo I've taken in awhile. Bandit got a little work this morning; now it was the colt's turn— I'm taking him to an ACTHA ride in the middle of October. Should be fun. I'm slightly worried about traumatizing him and, consequentially, getting my arse dumped, but optimistic that at least it will be a good experience for him and excited to ride with some friends and maybe make new ones.
Upcoming events:
Retreat next weekend; Tiff's coming to work.
New Hampshire the next weekend for a slighty crunchy sounding camp directors' retreat. I'm excited.
Pole Canyon NATRC ride second weekend of October, plus horsemanship clinic. (Get to use new, tiny LQ trailer! Excited!)
ACTHA ride in Utopia the next weekend.
Possibly taking a horse to the San Antonio Mustang Expo that next Friday.
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Any and all commentary is appreciated! —MA