Pam vs. the sled ... alone

We still have a storm systems swirling about, and for some weird reason, my house didn't get enough rain to make it muddy.  This was wonderful!  It meant that I could work the horses again!!  Hooray!

My son wanted to ride, so I saddled up his horse, and let him at it.  He's doing very well!  I think the highlight of watching him tonight was watching him back Duncan up.  He knew how to do it just from watching me.  It was very cool to watch him give the command and see Duncan follow his orders.  I sure am pleased with that kid!

My son on his horse.  He's doing awesome!

Tonight I decided to give Pam a little one on one time with me and ... (duhn duhn duhn) ... the sled.  She wasn't real keen on the idea of getting harnessed up while Rachel was all relaxed in the pen.  Those two were talking back and forth, and I could just tell that Rachel was giving Pam a hard time.  :)

Pam actually did well right out of the gate today.  I did one loop ground driving her to make sure all her wiggles were out, and they were.  She stood fine for me while I hooked up the single tree and the sled.  Then we were off.

We did a few laps around the area close to my house, then we went out around the pasture.  I found out something very interesting too.  Together, those horses can pull my little sled to hell and back without breaking a sweat.  However ... alone ... this sled is a great workout for them.  When we were nearing a third the way around the pasture, I could see Pam starting to walk slower and slower.  I chose to do a pre-emptive "whoa" before she stopped, that way it was my idea.  She gladly stopped, and I could see that she was really working.  She had a little bit of sweat around her collar, and her sides were moving good from breathing.  She wasn't blowing by any means, but she was definitely working out.

After a short break, I had her step out again and we made it the next third the way around the pasture.  I barely made this though.  She tried to stop many times and I just kept coaxing her along.  Pam was doing wonderful at listening and doing what I wanted.

The last third of the lap took the longest.  I took a break every 100 feet or so, and I also stood on the back of the sled, behind the seat, so that my weight would drag as little as possible.  This seemed to help her out a bit and I'm sure she appreciated it.

 I actually stepped away to snap a shot of the sled and horse together.  Pam was enjoying her breaks!

We only had one little trouble spot, and it was when we tried to get on the gravel driveway to cross through the gate closest to my house.  With Pam, when the sled is on the gravel, I have to constantly tell her it's okay.  I keep repeating "easy" to her, and she seemed able to make it through okay.  She gets really poppy on her feet while that noise is happening though.  Tonight, on the way back to the house, we were on the gravel and things seemed fine.  Then she got more poppy on her feet, and broke into a little trot.  I tried to pull her back, and she decided that rather than stop, she was getting off that loud gravel.  She made a right turn while trotting out and I finally got her to stop when the sled was well off the gravel.  Well ... I don't give up on that kind of stuff.  I gave her a small break and listened to my son laughing.  He was sitting on his horse, 50 feet away, just laughing at me.  He thought it was sooo funny that Pam trotted off the road.  What a kid!  LOL.  Once the break was over, I did a big loop and got on the gravel much sooner than the previous time.  This meant that we'd be on gravel for a longer amount of time.  This time, my words calmed her and she did just fine.

By the time we got back to the house and did a few more laps, that girl was pooped!  I unhooked the sled and drive her back to be tied so I could take her harness off.

OK ... so now I have a question that I need some input on.  Jim, Claire, or anyone else ... please let me know what you would do.  When I tied Pam up, she started getting real impatient about removing the bridle.  She just kept throwing her head down over and over again.  The over-check was still hooked up, so she could only go so far, but she was just being a turd about it.  My first thought was to keep it on her and let her stand for a while with it.  However, I had just completely worn her out and was very pleased with her progress.  What I did, was to walk over, make her stand completely still before I would unhook the over-check line and remove the bridle, and then removed the rest of the harness.  Was that the right thing to do?  I sure don't want to encourage her into thinking that throwing her head around gets it taken off.  On the other hand, I didn't want tonight's wonderful hitch training to be overshadowed by a standing lesson when she was plum worn out.  What would y'all do?

I sure hope this cold front stays around.  I'm really enjoying being able to make use of this summer daylight!

More teamwork

Last night I got home from work and the temperature was in the mid nineties.  It looked like there were clouds to the west and north, and I was thinking how nice a storm system would be.  Well after an hour I had a wonderful thing happen.  I looked outside and noticed that there was a wind blowing.  I stepped outside to feel the heavenly feel of a temp in the 80s.  A cold front was coming through!  With weather like that, I knew just what to do!

I had the girls haltered and led up to the house in no time at all.  They were all brushed out, hooves picked, and fly sprayed in no time.  I kept an eye on the west, and kept guessing whether or not I had time before the rain came to work the girls.  I finally decided to heed the words of Nike, and "Just do it".  I got the girls harnessed up and hooked them up to the sled for some good training/exercise!

Some interesting things I noticed this work session:

1. I am so grateful for Rachel!!  Rachel is trained pretty well.  She really knows her job, and you can pull her out of the pasture after a month of not doing much and she is as ready and steady as she was the last time I worked her.  I believe this comes with a horse who has quite a few miles under their belt.  Pam on the other hand, is not this way.  The minute that bridle was on, she started throwing her head and acting like she'd never had one on.  I double checked the bridle to make sure it was correctly adjusted to see if maybe she was trying to tell me something, but it all checked out fine. 
   
   When I started working the horses with the sled, Rachel was the steady girl who responded exactly like I said.  Pam was quite flighty at first.  She didn't want to stop for anything.  Keep in mind that when I work these girls, I am doing it alone, so in order for me to hook up the double tree and the sled, the girls have to stand still.  It took Pam 5 minutes of woah's to finally stand still.  She would stop with a woah, then 2 seconds later try to walk again.  I was steadfast and immovable in my commands though, and soon she was standing still.  Once hooked up to the sled Pam did great, but she would still take a few minutes to stop moving and trying to walk.  This is where having an awesome horse like Rachel is great.
   
   Having Rachel there is really enabling me to train Pam at a faster rate than I could without her.  When Pam gets flighty, or spooky and starts popping her feet up, Rachel is there, sound and calm by her side, holding her back and in her place.  When I issue a "woah", Rachel stops and stands and is perfect, helping Pam realize that she's okay and that she can stop.  Rachel also helps to be an anchor so that when Pam tries to start walking, she has an anchor to her side that won't move.  Without Rachel, I would not be driving Pam in front of a sled or wagon yet.  Because of Rachel, I have a 15 year old brood-mare for life, that is stepping out perfectly on command, and responding to the input on the bit very nice.  Rachel is the reason Pam is as good as she is.  This is so awesome, because Pam is built like a tank, and I don't think I've ever worn her out yet.  She's going to be an incredible worker when I get to my goal of doing my own hay with horses.  As of right now, Rachel is the brains, and Pam is the brawn!
   
2. The sled I built is a real lightweight one.  Last night I got to see first hand how light it is when being pulled by a team.  Pam, was quite anxious at first, and I knew that once I wore the edge off of her with work, she'd fall right in line and respond better.  How long would you figure it would take to wear the initial edge off a Belgian mare on my sled?  I figured a few laps and I'd be good to go.  WRONG.  Try 30 minutes.  That's right.  For the first 30 minutes of doing laps around my place, anytime I stopped, Pam was antsy to get moving, and she wasn't even breathing hard.  I figured that dragging a sled with my fat butt on it would not be an easy task.  I guess I was wrong when it comes to this sled I built. 
   
   After 30 minutes, and going up every hill my flat property has to offer, I finally reached the point where I could say woah, and Pam would stand still.  I could also see her breathing a tad heavier.  So ... the lesson here is ... draft horses are so much stronger than we give them credit.  A friend of mine named Marty told me to build a sled out of 8 foot long telephone poles as runners and then deck the top of it.  In my mind I thought there was no way they'd be able to pull that.  After watching how they pull my sled, I believe that they could pull that with no problems and it would be a great workout for them.  Look for a new sled to be constructed soon.
   
3. The last observation is simple ... having a sled with a seat is AWESOME and the only way to go!  Last night was the first time I have used my sled with the seat installed.  That was nice!  Up till now I was so busy trying to balance while standing on the sled that it was really hard to focus on my line tension and make sure the girls were working like I wanted.  Last night, I sat there all relaxed and focused on making the girls go where I wanted.  It was great!

That's it for now.  I'm very pleased with Rachel and Pam and the team they are turning into.  I still think it's incredible when I say "Pam, Rachel, step up!" and watch each of them step out with their left feet together.  I love the small details like this.  Truly a wonderful sight!  Also, last night I had them trotting for a bit in the pasture, and watching those big ol' feet move in that majestic slow trot is so awesome!  It's sights like these that help keep me energized and wanting to work these horses.  Good times!

I'll try to make my wife take pictures of me next time.  She had put in a 10 hour day, so I didn't make her come out and snap a few pictures.  Next time I will.  :)

Snakes!

 Water Moccassin aka Cotton Mouth (image from internet)

This post doesn't have much to do with horses, but more about life on the farm.  Let me also preface this, by stating that I appreciate that snakes are a vital part to any ecosystem, but I have taken the stance that if I see a snake, I kill it, unless I can instantly identify that it is a non-dangerous type (like the green/black striped racers I see in the pond).  If I see a snake that is black, I don't take a chance on guessing about how dangerous it is.  I have a son who plays outdoors quite a bit, and I have taken this stance to make sure the snake population stays low around our house.  We also make sure that we have no leaf litter or any other debris piles near the house where they could hide.  We try to discourage them from coming near our home, in hopes of saving their lives.

Since I moved to this place in 2005, I have seen many snakes.  Being a non-Texas resident, the snakes were new varieties that I had never seen.  I had heard enough tales from people to make me beleive that every snake I saw was a water moccassin aka cotton mouth.  This breed is VERY venomous, and very aggressive.  If this breed has the choice of fight or flight, it chooses fight almost every time.

As the years have passed, I have begun to study the different snakes as I kill them and tried to determine if these snakes I'm seeing really are moccasins, or something else.  A recent trip to Utah was awesome for this.  We went to the zoo, and they had one.  I immediately noticed that this snake was a short and super thick snake.  The one in the zoo was around 3 foot long, and was as thick around as my forearm in the middle.  This specimen in the zoo was obviously a very old one.

This year has been horrible with snakes.  This spring, I have had 8 ducks, and 20 chickens that have been laying eggs.  This means I have had an over-abundance of eggs.  The snakes learned of this, and I have been battling them.  This week alone I have killed 4 rat snakes, all longer than 4.5 feet.  To help with this, I have now disposed of all duck nests, and I gather my chicken eggs daily.  I am trying to remove the food source, so that these snakes will take their appetites elsewhere.

This morning I opened the chicken coop, and found a poor frog stuck in the chicken wire of my brooder.  Inside my chicken coop, I have a separate brooder that the chickens cannot get into.  A big ol' frog had tried to go through the chicken wire and gotten stuck.  His head and front legs were through it, and his rear legs and midsection where stuck.  I have seen this frog in the chicken coop all year, and he was just a resident there.  I had compassion on him, and helped squeeze his legs together so he could finish getting through the wire.

So tonight as I was gathering eggs, I looked in the brooder to see this frog.  Instead of a frog, I found a snake, curled up in the corner.  Right away, I noticed that this snake was not a rat snake like I've been seeing all year.  This snake was much shorter, and he was pure black on top.  His nose was also more pointy than the rat snakes.  I also noticed a fat section in his body, which immediately let me know where Mr. Frog was now residing.  :(

My son was with me, and I took this opportunity to show him the snake, and explain what had happened.  We talked about why the snake was there, and what he had just done to poor Mr. Frog.

The next paragraph is of me disposing of the snake and some things I noticed.  It could be considered graphic, so if you wish to not know of this, please skip this paragraph.  I keep a spade shovel in the chicken coop just for snake disposing.  I told my son to stand way back, and then I grabbed the shovel.  First, I pinned the snake to the ground in the middle.  The snake began striking the shovel and I noticed two things.  One, was a milky fluid flying all over the place, and the other was a smell.  A very rank musty smell began to spread.  I had obviously identified this snake correctly, because the milky stuff was venom, and the musty smell was something I had read about.  I slowly worked the snake out of the brooder, always make sure I had him pinned so that he was in as much control as could be.  This lead to me pinning him right behind the head with the shovel and with one pound from my boot, the shovel did the job.  The snake was now head-less, and not as dangerous ( keeping in mind that the head was still dangerous!)

Snake Body:  Notice the texture of the scales.  Reminds me of a tire.  Not smooth.

This pic was to show the length in contrast to my spade shovel.

 Snake Head:  Click on this to see the texture.  Very amazing to me.

Underside of Snake:  This was a creamy yellow color.

I then took this opportunity to teach my son about this snake.  I showed him the texture of the snake, and it's colors.  I also used a stick to show him the inside of the mouth and how big the fangs were.  I swear, the fangs on this thing were as long as it's head was!  I also took some pictures just so I could know for myself what a moccasin looks like.  I taught him that we only kill snakes if they are interfereing with our life and that we try to do our best from discouraging them from interacting with us in the first place.  We then walked over to the pond and tossed the snake in it.  The snapping turtles we have do a wonderful job of disposing of these kind of things.

That's life on the farm.  I am very happy to now know firsthand what moccasins look like at our place, so that in the future, I will be able to readily identify them.  This may save a few rat snakes lives!  :)

Riding with my boy

Is there any better feeling than riding a horse out on the trail with your boy?  I think not.  My son has been really itching to ride lately, and so I told him that tonight would be the night.

Of course, this meant that when I got home, I was immediately assaulted with verbal pleas from the boy.  Since it was 5 o'clock and over 90 degree's, I talked him into playing a video game for an hour or so till it cooled down a tad.

That time flew by, and soon it was time.  The wife had gone to a pampered chef party, and it was guys night out.  If you were to ask my son what that means, he would respond with a loud "IT MEANS WE HAVE FUN!!!".  Duncan was a perfect gentleman and once I tied his rope halter on, Riley escorted him over near the garage.  We then brushed him down good, and began saddling him up.  Once saddled, I walked Riley around a few laps so he could get over some initial fears, however, he'd tell you that it was to "make sure Duncan is calm for the ride".  That kid cracks me up.  I then turned him loose while I went and got Rachel and saddled her up.

Riley did really well.  I was very happy with him.  He showed a lot more control this time in the saddle.  I had to keep on him a little bit about letting the horse have the line back after he points him in the direction he wants to go, but he showed major improvement.  I was very impressed with Duncan.  I could not have a better horse for him.  He was calm, and very patient with Riley.

I hopped on Rachel, and we were off.  This was where Duncan really impressed me.  Duncan basically showed his trail riding wisdom by just following me.  If ever he seemed to be slowing up behind, I could just yell for him and he would start walking towards me.  This is wonderful!  It allowed my son to gain a lot of confidence, and have a lot of fun, while at the same time, allowing me to not worry about them getting into trouble.  A while back we borrowed a pony named Smokie that was this way.  Smokie is an amazing pony, and it's awesome to see Duncan have similar traits.

We went riding in the 100 acres behind my house.  I got permission from the owners to ride on it, and it's pretty good.  No trails, but some nice pasture and tree's.  It was a nice peaceful ride.  I had a wonderful time.

What a night.  I love doing things like this with my son.  His talking is just music to my ears.  He says some of the funniest stuff.  I'm real proud of that kid, and so happy that we share the same hobby.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Pictures are attached.  One is of Rachel all saddled up.  Another 2 are of Riley just posing on his horse.  I snapped a picture of my goslings.  I have to say that my friend Kim is right as can be on ganders raising goslings.  I still have all 5 goslings and that gander makes sure nothing gets near them.  I also snapped a picture of feed time.  3 happy horses eating after a nice ride.

I should note, that Pam was going bonkers in the pen.  I had the sprinkler on to help the grass not burn up, and I got to watch her totally wipe out as she tried sprinting through the pen.  She went down and slid on her side about 10 feet.  Then she got up and acted like nothing happened.  So funny.  I think you had to be there though.

Back from camping!

Well I'm back.  Last week I was camping with Rachel.  For my church, they had an activity where they were re-enacting the pioneer handcart company treks across the US.  Many of the adult leaders were on horseback, and two of us were asked to come along as the wranglers for the group.  It was our job to feed, water, saddle, unsaddle, and basically just care for the horses.  The adults had many things to tend to, so having us care for all horses was a must.  Since I knew we would have some downtime, I took Rachel, her harness, a singletree, and her saddle and other tack.  We camped up at the LBJ Grasslands near Decatur Texas.  It is public land and was an awesome spot for horse riding!

It was very cool to camp with Rachel.  I've never done this before.  It's a whole lot more work than camping without horses, but it was pretty dang cool.  We brought stalls for the horses since we were caring for 12 horses.  The pictures attached show a few of the pens configured and you can see Rachel in one of them.  Water was about 300 feet away and provided by means of a windmill on a well.  We basically had to dip 5 gallon buckets in a giant round water trof that the well/windmill emptied into.

I got to ride Rachel the first night there and the one picture is of me riding her.  She decided to stretch her head forward right as the picture was snapped, so she looks pretty funny.  I took the other picture from her back.

My highlight for the trip, was swimming with Rachel!  There was a pond, and even though I'd only ridden Rachel a handful of times, I was able to coax her into the water.  She had a good time splashing and playing in it.  I got her to go deep enough that she was fully swimming.  I was on her back, the water to my chest, and her nose was just above the water.  I could feel her feet a paddling for all they were worth.  I was taught that the correct way to do this, is that when the horse looses it's footing and begins swimming, you are supposed to let go of the reins and just hold on to the mane.  Then once you feel them getting their feet back under them, to swap back.  I did this a few times and it was so fun.  I was so impressed with this sweet horse of mine and very happy with her willingness to do what I asked.

Taking care of 12 horses was quite a task.  I am very tired, and wore out muscles that I didn't know I still had.  :)  I did find sometime one afternoon to do some ground driving.  I was going to drag some downed tree's around with Rachel, but then we went horse swimming instead.

Good times!  I hope to camp some more with horses!  Lots of fun.

Riding on the road

It's been a while.  Life has gotten pretty busy for me, and it's been a good busy.  I'm getting ready to go camping this week out in Decatur to the grasslands.  It is so pretty out there.  I'm going as part of a large group, and I will be taking care of the 9 horses we are bringing.  Of course, this means I'm bringing my own horse.  I have been working with Rachel under saddle to make sure she's good to go for this.  She's doing very well, and I think this trip will be good for her.  I've never gone camping with a horse before, so this will be a first for me.  Luckily, we are bringing panels with us for stalls, and the campsites have big poles concreted int he ground to make picket lines out of, so I don't think we'll have any problems.

Tonight, I figured I'd work the girls since I'll be gone for a week.  I went over to my friend Pat's house and made use of his wagon.  The girls hitched up with no problems and we were off.  I did a few laps in a pasture first to wear that initial edge off them.  In the pasture, Rachel had her head straight forward, ears back, and was a teamsters dream.  Pam was a little flighty and would go from getting into the pull, to looking around, and hanging out a step behind Rachel.  Nothing too bad.  After we did laps in the pasture, we decided to take them out on the open road and see how they did.

It's really interesting to me how horse dynamics work.  Once on the road, the confident, ever listening Rachel became shy and cautious.  She was stepping slow and I was constantly getting on her to step into the pull.  She also had a problem keeping her ears back towards me.  Pam on the other hand, reversed as well.  Pam had no problem moving forward and listening to commands.  She was pulling the majority of the load.  As this was their first time on the road, I didn't hold too high of standards on their performance.  You can tell that they need road miles on them though.  They both kept looking side to side and all over the place.  This made it VERY hard to keep my line tension right.  It was a little annoying to have to adjust line tension as much as I did, but since this was a first, I was okay with it.

Really the only overly cautious event happened when we crossed a creek.  Rachel got really slow and had to be coaxed over it.  Other than that, they had no problems with litter, passing cars, barking dogs, or weed eaters.  I was very happy about that.

It was a fun night and I am so happy to have a friend like Pat.  He is real knowledgeable and just having him to talk with while driving is great.  I find myself learning from his experience and I really value that.

In other news, the riding group I am a member of has asked me to put on a driving clinic in July.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I enjoy teaching people about this stuff.  I'm by no means a guy who knows it all, but I know what I've learned, and I'm happy to share what has worked (or has not) for me.  I just hope we can do it in a covered arena.  July is HOT HOT HOT!!!

I'll be gone all this week camping, but I should do an update next weekend on how Camping with Rachel went.  If all goes well, she'll come home a wonderful riding horse!  :)

Pictures of wagon and goslings

So here are some pictures of the wagon and the goslings.  Unfortunately the coyotes have struck again.  Yesterday I was feeling all good that I created a little goose family.  A momma, daddy, and 5 little babies.  What could be better, right?  I checked on them before dark and they were all resting and relaxing on the shore of the pond.  Before bed I checked again and saw the gander out in the pond with the 5 babies by his side and no momma.  I did some detective work and found what happened to her.  She was picked off by a coyote.  When I found the carcass it was still warm, so I must've just barely missed the event unfold.  Sadly ... my great pyranees dog had knee surgury, so I've been having to keep her indoors and confined to a kennel to let the leg heal.  Due to this, the coyotes are coming up daily and picking off chickens.  Gotta get that dog back outside and doing her job!  So now ... my happy complete goose family has become a single parent family.  I'm thinking today that I'm going to make a platform to put in the water for him to rest on instead of the shore line.  I did this already once and the ducks claimed it and made it theirs. 

Here is the single father goose with the 5 babies.

Here is the wagon with the sides in the up position.

Here is the wagon with the sides in the down position.

Goslings and horse flies

Today was a nice relaxing day.  I got off work a little early.  I had a few things I wanted to do today, so I got after it.

The first thing I did, was head out and pick up some goslings.  I have 2 geese(a male and a female), and I like to have around 6.  I found a local place that had some white Chinese goslings that are 3 weeks old.  I picked up 5 of them.  I am conducting an experiment.  I have heard that adult male geese will raise goslings.  I decided to test if that is true.  I got home, and opened the box near the pond and let the goslings out.  They looked around, and started eating a little grass.  Soon the gander I have saw them and started making some noise.  The minute he did, these goslings headed straight for him.  He didn't quite know what to think.  These goslings went right up to him and stayed by his side.  He was nice to them, but seemed a little annoyed that they followed him wherever he went.  Soon the female goose joined him and those goslings annoyed her a ton.  She kept trying to swim across the pond and all over to ditch them, but they stayed right by their side.  I'm pretty impressed.  These goslings came from a brooder, and have not spent time with adult geese.  It's kind of amazing to me to see them take right to the adult geese like that.  We'll see how this experiment goes.  If they will stay by the gander, they should be fine.  I'll keep y'all posted.

After that, I stained my wagon.  Since I initially built it and stained it, I have added bench seats, and folding side rails.  These pieces have not been stained, so I decided it was time.  Also, per my wife's direction, I used wood putty to cover all the screw holes in the wood.  I've spent the last 2 days doing this and sanding it all down smooth.  I wiped it down with a wet rag today, and then began staining.  I got 2 coats on it and am very happy with it.  It's looking good.  I wish I would've remembered to take a picture.  I'll try to get one tomorrow.

My wife headed to church tonight, so I decided to go horseback riding with a friend.  I have not ridden Rachel yet, and with how good she is under harness, I figured it would be very easy for her.  I loaded her up and headed to my friend Chuck Whitlocks.  Chuck has a nice sandy arena and so it was a great place to ride Rachel for the first time.  She did awesome.  She didn't have any issues with the saddle pad and saddle.  She took the bridle with no problems.  I think she liked this bridle, because it didn't have blinders.  It would've been a perfect evening, had it not been for the swarms and swarms of horse flies!

It seems in Texas that there is one bug every year that comes in swarms.  I can recall years of garden spiders, june bugs, grasshoppers, and crickets.  This year, must be the year of the horse fly.  They are EVERYWHERE!  They are like organized gangs that just swarm and attack.  They chase my wife down the driveway in the car every morning. 

While riding tonight they were all over us.  It seems that every 30 seconds I was swatting a fly and killing it.  Rachel seemed to have 7 or 8 around her at all times.  I kept the riding short because of this.  Rachel was doing so good, even though she was being attacked by the horse flies.  So annoying!  They don't seem to mind the fly spray I'm using.  I currently am using a spray with .5% permithrin.  Maybe I need something stronger.  Ugggh!  Quite annoying.

Rachel did wonderful though.  She stood perfectly still while I got in and out of the saddle and didn't do anything out of sorts.  She's awesome!  Looks like I might be able to start riding with my saddle group again!