Saturday morning the girls went to the river to ride again. I had some other obligations and got back to the house just after they left. Ah, this would be a good day for a solo ride. The ipod is loaded up (I even have a "Riding Jessie" playlist) and fully charged.



Once I had Jessie cleaned and tacked we headed out the same we go on about 80% of our rides. It amazes me how the dynamic changes with the number of horses in the ride. As we were alone, everything was especially scary. I… Continue

I've only owned two horses (and my wife has owned two), I've played with a couple more and I'm relatively new to natural horsemanship (about 6 years). My point is, I'm not always sure if the behavior I see in my horse is due to my fab skills or just that I have a good horse (I'm fairly certain it's the horse). I don't really think it makes much of a difference as long as I am getting the behavior I want.



Here's what got me thinking about this: Catching my horse. I understand some folks… Continue

Friday evening I got home in time for a short ride - which was perfect. We worked on riding out by ourselves. Everything is always scarier when we are alone. One of the houses along the canal we ride had goats tethered to keep the weeds and grass down. They were a very scary looking bunch. Jessie did well and as soon as she relaxed we turned around and headed back.

Saturday the weather was perfect and we decided to trailer out to the… Continue

It's been a busy week, but I was saving Thursday evening for a ride. One of the disadvantages of my job is that I do not get off until 5:30 pm. It's been impossible to get home and ride before darkness falls. Last night I rushed home, changed clothes, got Jessie ready, and was saddled by 6:15.



Our neighbor was out and about and I asked if we could use his arena. He said yes. This was a real treat for us because the rains had the ground packed and it wouldn't be too dusty. We went over… Continue

Well, after writing about vaccination and worming schedules last week I went to the vet's to pick up the vacs and talk to them about Jessie's sensitivity to the flu vaccine. There were two vets in the lobby and as the senior vet was talking to me about trying to give the vaccine intra-nasally to reduce the risk of reaction the younger vet was nodding her head. Two "yes" votes - motion passed. Four vaccinations $127.



Clinton Anderson had talked about giving vaccinations in the chest… Continue

Thought you might be interested in how we keep our horses. Here's a little run down:



We live in Southern California. We have two quarter horses on our 1/2 acre property. Each horse has it's own 40' x 40' pen. Unfortunately, we do not have cover for them yet. Our climate is temperate and our rainfall averages less than 6" a year. Both my wife an I work so we clean pickup the the manure twice a week Thursdays and Sundays. It's taken to the green waste facility. We use… Continue

My wife and I have an understanding when we are riding. We have given each other the right to say anything about riding or horsemanship without fear of recriminations. Now in any other life endeavor this could be potentially a very dangerous situation, but with the horses it's working our for us..so far. Twenty nine years of marriage helps too.



A couple of weeks ago we went on a "wild flower" ride through some cattle graze lands. …

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Decompression Time - the time spent unwinding after getting home from work. Didn't Dick Van Dyke have a martini waiting for him at the door? While that sometimes sounds good, my decompression time involves cleaning pens. It sounds like work, but it really is not. I put on the ipod and drag the green waste can behind me. Just being in the pens casually picking up manure is soothing. No, really. There's something about doing a mindless job that cleans out the mental debris of the day.… Continue

Last weekend the weeds in the garden were up to mid-calf. The alternating rain and sunshine, along with my benign neglect, helped them to thrive. They demanded attention and I knew if I didn't intervene quickly they would soon become a much bigger problem. Add to this that we had the nursery delivering a fifteen foot raywood tree for the front yard and I had to dig a 30" x 30" hole to accommodate it, and the prospect of riding was not looking good.



I decided to use riding as my… Continue