Rode Pam again (wife got pictures!)

So this afternoon, I rode Pam again.  My son rode his horse too.  Good times on a great day!

 

 

I have some wonderful friends!

Today I got a call from my friend Kim.  She told me that she needed me to come over because she had something for me.  Riley and I went to pay a visit and got a wonderful surprise.

Kim, Deb, and Pam, from my yahoo horse group, had a tribute to Lily put together.  It is amazing.  This wonderful tribute captures everything Lily was to me.

How lucky I am, to have such wonderful friends.  This is something that will be cherished.  It will always remind me of my wonderful horse, and my wonderful friends who loved her with me.

What a day!!!

Today was a wonderful day!

I started off by working with Pam.  The Weather was in the 40s, and it was sunny.  After our daily brushing, and working her feet, I decided that I would put the saddle on Pam and see how she did.  At first she was apprehensive at the blanket (thinking that it was obviously a horse-eating monster of some kind) but a slow hand and patience with her had her not afraid in no time.  The same thing happened with the saddle, but before she knew it, she had a girth tight around her belly, and the bridle on.  I walked her around a bit so she could feel this tight girth and get used to it.  She had no problems with it.

Pam was much more aware of her surroundings today than when I drive her in harness, and I attributed this to the fact that this was a normal bridle, without blinders.  To help calm her, I ground drove her with this saddle and bridle.  She did pretty well and was following command in no time.

I then tied her, and spent a few minutes climbing in and out of the saddle on both sides.  Pam had no problem with this, and stayed perfectly still while I was swinging up and down.

So next I had Riley (my son) hop in the saddle, and I lead him around.  He had a blast and next thing I knew, a half hour had passed of me just walking Pam around.  Riley is a real talker, and time always seems to pass fast when he is out with me.

Pam was doing so well, that I talked Riley out of the saddle, so that I could try Pam for the first time myself.  Riley was on standby just in case he needed to run and get mom in case something bad happened.

And then it happened.  I unsnapped the lead rope, gave a steady "woah" and hopped up in the saddle.  Pam stayed still just fine, and let me get both feet in the stirrups properly.  Next, with the reins in my hands, I gave her the command.  It took some coaxing, to get her to respond, but she slowly did, and seemed to love the praise she received after doing what I wanted.

It was awesome riding her!  She is MUCH wider than Lily, and a few inches higher.  She was very calm, and at no point was I ever scared that she was going to do anything I didn't want.  It was incredible.

To top that off, after I got off her, I lifted her feet and cleaned them out.  She let me do this to all 4 feet, something that she has not allowed up to this point. 

Woo Hoo!  It was awesome!  Pam is coming along nicely!

Not much new, working as I can

With all the moisture and cold, not a lot has been going on.  Today I did work with Pam a bit.  She is getting much better with her feet, and I think she is slowly starting to enjoy the love and attention shown to her.  Today I actually sat on her back for the first time, and she didn't complain about it at all.  I LOVE the cold blood in these awesome horses.

My big news is that this next week I may get to go to the Gordyville sale.  Gordyville (or the Mid-American horse sale) is held once a year and is where the best of the best in registered Belgians and Percherons can be found.  My friend Pat invited me to go with him, and I'm hoping my work will let me go.  I would love to go and see for myself what the high dollar horses look like (what traits and conformation are desirable).

Another great thing about going to this sale would be the chance to get to meet a friend who actually has a horse from one of her mares selling.  Pam Johnson is a wonderful person and a great spokesperson for the Belgian breed.  You can check out her website at www.sandrockbelgians.com.  I hope to get to meet her face to face.  Pam has been a member of the yahoogroup I have been in since I got Lily, and her advice has helped me through many things.

Hopefully my next post will be all about how wonderful the sale was.  :)

Snow?!?

I woke up this morning to snow.  That’s right, snow, the real deal (not some kind of sleety rain that Texas see’s from time to time).  I haven’t seen snow like this since I lived in Utah.  It was very elegant to see everything with a blanket of white.  It was also refreshing to see the horses in a white pen (instead of a mud pen).  I took some pictures too.  Enjoy!

The picture of the horses also shows my feeding configuration I described a few blogs back.

TOO MUCH RAIN!

I am soooo sick and tired of rain.  This black clay ground of mine is just a sponge right now.  The driveway is looking like something set up for a mud bogging contest for big trucks.  This time of year is usually my most productive with the outside work.  Usually it's nice and dry now, and with the cold temps, and slow growth of all the grasses, trees and weeds, its normally a great time to trim fencelines, gather broken limbs, and just do some overall maintenance on the place.

Aside from the horrible mud, I have learned something new that I hate wet ground for.

Pam is confined in my small pen right now with my son's quarterhorse.  This pen used to be my goat pen.  It is made up of 5 strands of electrical wire (which is not hot because the unit died) and before putting Pam inside, I added one strand of barbed wire to the top and stretched it nice and tight.

Pam has no fear of hotwire.  I don't think she's ever been around it.  Needless to say, she figured out that she can stick her head through the fence to get at the grass on the other side of the fence.  I noticed some of my posts beginning to lean, and I knew I needed to get another hotwire unit, but I figured I had some time.

Did you know that in this spongey ground, a draft horse can put it's head under a tight barbed wire strand, lift her head up, and pull 6 t-posts out of the ground?  I sure didn't.  Saturday my son went to feed his horse, and informed me that Pam was out of the pen.  Sure enough, she had lifted 6 posts up and then as the wire slide down her mane, she just walked forward, breaking the 4 strands of hot wire (which was not hot).  GRRRRRRRRRR!  Of course, this happened an hour after I had come in for the day, showered, and gotten in my comfy flannel pj bottoms.

So ol' Tim got to spend saturday night, out in the cold, pounding fence posts back in and fixing fence.  To add insult to injury, I had to cut my awesomely tight strand of barbed wire to get Pam back on my property.  She then got put in her small stall, and had to wait while I fixed the fences.  I went to Tractor Supply, and got a new hot wire unit.

I rigged the whole pen up with 2 strands of hot wire.  One at about 4 foot high, the other at about 2 1/2.  One leg of the hotwire also runs down the stall she is in.

I got it all rigged up, and went inside and plugged it in, and I had a short somewhere.  So out into the cold I went to find it.  I found the problem spot, and as soon as I fixed it, I heard a startled Pam jump about a foot off the ground and run to the other side of the stall.  I guess she was standing with her neck right on the hot wire just leaning on it.  A sadistic grin came across my face.  Hot wire is a great lesson for a horse to learn and a wonderful thing for a horse to respect.  Because of Lily's great respect for hotwire, I could put up a single strand of wire and she was contained.  I'm hoping that I can get Pam there as well.

So Pam got moved back into her pen and got given some food.  I smiled a bigger smile the next day when I noticed that she spent all day eating on the round bale in the pen,  instead of reaching through the fence for the other grass.  HOORAY FOR HOTWIRE!

Now ... if I can just do something about drying up all this land, I'll be able to actually work my land.  I hope someday it dries up!!

The GreenTeamster meets the WagonTeamster

When I first began working Lily, I was introduced to a blog by Bob Skelding (www.wagonteamster.com).  It is an awesome read for anyone who likes the thought of paying less attention to the physical things in life, and paying more attention to the people and beauty this country of ours has to offer.  To summarize, Bob left everything behind, and is traveling around the country with his 3 draft horses (2 belgians, Bill and Bob, and percheron, Doc), and a great friend Denise.

When I first started reading about Bob and his travels, it really motivated me to work Lily.  Bob is a wonderful writer, and through his words, I was inspired to get my horse hitch ready, and start pulling wagons.

Well it just so happens that Bob is in North East Texas.  I couldn't let a hero of mine swing within an hour of me and not say hello, so I called my friend Pat, and together we went out in search of the WagonTeamster.  Due to the horrendous internet signals in north east Texas, we had to put on our Sherlock Holmes hats to find him.  I think I called every feed store, gas station, and other store in Gilmer to see if they'd seen him.  The negative responses told me that was where he would be today.  Off we headed to Gilmer, TX.  Luckily, Bob does not have any diapers on his horses, so once we found the horse apples (and made a call to my wife to get details from his newly updated blog) we were able to track him down.

We crested a hill, and caught a glimpse of a flashing yellow light, and a very handsome belgian gelding trailing a wagon (Yes B.O.B., I'm talking about you).  SUCCESS!!  When traffic slowed down a bit, we pulled up along side the wagon and informed Bob and Denise that we came bearing gifts.  Pat (who cuts hay) had a few bales of some choice Texas hay.  We aggreed to stop at the top of the incline we were on.  Pat and I got in front of the wagon, and rode up till we found a spot where the wagon could ease off the shoulder a bit.

It was awesome to meet Bob.  I've seen plenty of pictures from reading his blog for so long.  Meeting him face to face was great.  We exhanged pleasantries, and then decided to get the hay we brought onto the wagon.  Because of the limited storage Bob had, we had to practically unload his trailer, and then stack the hay in.  We also let the boys sample the hay.  Doc and Bill informed me that it was DELICIOUS!!

We got the hay loaded, and then posed for a few pictures with Doc and Bill (the percheron and belgian that Bob was using for today).  After that Denise offered to drive Pats truck, and let Pat and I ride in the wagon with Bob for a while.  I felt like a little kid at christmas.  How could I say no to such an offer.

We loaded in the wagon, and off we went.

It was so awesome to watch Bob work the team.  If you've ever seen a true craftsman working in his element, that is what this was like.  Doc and Bill were synced up nice, and down the road we went.

I found Bob to be one of the most pleasant people I've met in a while, and Denise as well.  I found that life at 3 MPH is wonderful!!

With Pat and I sitting with Bob, almost all the conversation was related to hitches and horses.  I have one year under my belt, and Pat has 7, so we had LOTS of questions.  It was a wonderful ride and I learned a whole lot.  I think Bob has more horse knowledge in his pinky finger than I do in my entire brain.

It was great to head slowly down the road, chatting away, and learning at the same time.  Bob was so laid back and at ease, you wouldn't have thought he was driving the horses at all.  Truly a master of his art!

I have no idea how long we actually rode with him.  I joked with Pat that it was a good thing I didn't bring a sleeping bag or I might have tried to go along for good.  That would get me in the doghouse with the wifey though, so I guess it was all for the best!  :)

Thanks so much for having us Bob.  You and Denise were wonderful.  It was great to spend a short amount of time with you.  I hope to stay in touch.  Maybe when I get my team I can join you in another of your adventures.

Anyone who has not read Bob's blog, I encourage you to do so. www.wagonteamster.com

Feelin' that good drivin' feelin'!!

For me, when driving a horse, there is an amazing feeling.  I'm not sure if it's because you are successfully doing something that not many people can do, if it's the satisfaction that you are successfully conveying directions to a horse and it is listening and responding appropriately, or if it's just because it's fun.  I recon it's a bit of all of them, mostly the fun one.

Today I got home, and since I had a few hours of daylight, I thought I'd put the honey do's aside, and work Pam.  I love having Pam up close to the house.  She meets me at the gate, and lowers her head to get that halter on.  It's kind of nice.

So I got Pam out, and began with the basics.  After she did very well at the groundwork basics I wanted to do, I decided that I was going to give her a real test.  I was going to ground drive her and see how much of what she learned with Lily was retained.  I decided to put the entire harness on her, so that it might help her to remember the last time she was in it.

Next thing you know, she's all harnessed up, and I'm standing behind her with the reins in my hands.  Now is the time.  The next move would tell how much she recalled.  Last time I got to this point, my commands to start walking were worthless.  "Alright Pam, easy up" slipped out of my mouth, followed by a few clicks.

And then it happened ... she stepped off!!  I must've had an ear to ear grin, just like a kid who just got his dog to do a trick he taught it.  It was great.  We spent the next 30 minutes walking, stopping, and turning.  She's still got a ways to go till she's fully used to the bit.  Right now she really leans on one side, making it hard to keep the tension on it how I want.  But she was stepping off!!  That was great!!  I didn't work on backing, I decided just to keep this day simple, and give her lots of praise.

After a great ground driving session, We stopped, and she stood great for me while I got the harness off.  After that, she got brushed out, and then I used a rope to lift her feet.  She did great with this!  She fought hard for a few seconds, but with a lot of "easy" words, and some rubbing on her side, she let up, and relaxed.  As soon as she did this, I let her put her foot  down.  I repeated this 3 times on each foot.  This worked WONDERFUL!

Lastly, she got put back away, and got a full scoop of food.  She was very happy, as was I.  Today I got that feeling again.  That great feeling that comes from driving a horse.  For me it just gets inside, and it feels great.  Pam has potential!!  I may not be set back as far as I thought.  I wonder if I could have her ready by the 4th of July.  Hmmmm ... that may be a goal I could reach.  Only time will tell.  For now I'm satisfied with where we are!!

Moving on?

I’m trying as best I can to move forward and continue with my love of working draft horses.

I’ve been trying to spend time with Pam every night. She is soooo rough on her training. I’ve been doing lots of little things like disengaging the rear end, flexing her neck, desensitizing to rope, and things like that. I don’t think she see’s me as the alpha, and so she still doesn’t listen well.

One of the first things she taught me was that she is not motivated by food like Lily was. With Pam in the pasture alone, I can call and call and she will not come up. She gets to where she can see me and then just watches me. I suppose the sight of me calling, whistling, and shaking a feed bucket as loud as humanly possible is quite an entertaining sight. As for me, it got VERY frustrating. So … some changes were made.

I put Pam in my smaller fenced of pen (probably just under 1 acre big). This is the pen where my sons horse resides. My sons horse, Duncan, is 30 years old, and is on a special diet since he has no molars(teeth). Also, because he has no molars, it takes him over an hour to eat his food (which he gets twice daily). Because of this, I had a problem to solve … how do I arrange things so that Duncan can eat in peace, without having a much larger Belgian run him off and steal his food.

The question in itself had the answer. I needed to design something that allowed a small horse to enter and eat, and keep a big horse out. My mind went to work and here is what I came up with.

I made the entrance to the normal horse stall just wide enough for Duncan (who is a quarterhorse) to walk in. I thought this would work alone, but I soon realized that Pam has a “tank mode” where she will just push herself in any opening not wide enough for her. How do I solve this? Add a line across the top of the stall at the end. This line is about 5 feet off the ground. Duncan has no problem lowering his head and walking under it. The first time I left the horses, Pam wrecked the whole thing by trying to go under, then lifting her head. She unhooked the panels, and the line took a nice fistful of hair off her mane. I had to reconstruct the whole thing, but it taught Pam that this entrance was BAD.

The next problem I had was that Pam would run up and bite Duncan on the back, causing him to abandon his stall. I guess Pam thinks “If I can’t have it, nobody can!” The solution to this was to create the empty stall in the middle. Now Pam cannot get to Duncan. It is quite humorous to watch her run a U around him unhappy that he has food in his bin that she can’t have.

This is working very well and lets the horses eat in peace. So far, I’m extremely satisfied.

Having Pam in this pen, allows me to easily work with her every evening when I get home from work. This Pen is right next to the house, and it keeps me from having to walk a half a mile to get Pam. In these winter months, every minute of daylight is precious. 10 minutes saved chasing her, is 10 minutes of getting her feet moving.

This is what I’ve been up to lately. I may try to ground drive Pam again with my carrot stick in hand to motivate her to walk. She did so well that last session with her and Lily, that I’m hoping she’ll now catch on to what I’m asking. Raises Glass … Here’s to hoping!