So far I've had Jessie for three + years and thankfully no health issues. We were scheduled to leave town for a family wedding 250 miles away last Friday. Thursday night I came home and was busy getting ready for the trip. About dusk I went out to see Jessie and noticed she seemed a bit lethargic. I went in and rubbed her and she felt warm so I took her temperature...103.4. She was eating her dinner, her stools were normal, her rear pasterns were a bit swollen but held no more heat than the… Continue

After 55 million years of evolution, you gotta believe they have us figured out. So much so, that I believe there's a book of tricks hidden somewhere. They all have it. They all know the tricks. You know what I mean. Leave the reins in the wrong place - they get chewed on. Trying to take a picture - your "stone still" horse appears to be standing on an ant hill. Late for a trail ride - your horse decides the trailer is "just not for me right now". There… Continue

I'm not a morning person, but I will get up if there is an opportunity to ride Jessie. We rode Thursday and Friday mornings before work and got two two-hour rides in on the weekend, then another hour ride Monday morning. I don't know about her, but I'm a little sore.



The Sunday ride was out to the city farm area. There are a lot of natural obstacles like this ditch to cross.…





Continue

I was up at six and had the horses moved and Jessie saddled by six-thirty. Armed with with my index card of exercises, fresh from re-watching the DVD's for the ??th time, we were ready to go.



The first exercise, Yield-to-Stop at walk, trot, and cantor, went pretty well. Jessie stops easily and isn't crazy about yielding or flexing, but I could feel her trying and getting softer in the process. The next exercise is the same except I add a bending circle around my inside leg and her head… Continue

We try to take the trailer out at least once a month. Family obligations are taking up many of the May weekends so we decided to take another river ride on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and we planned to ride out to a little bar about 4 miles away, have a beer and a snack, then head back.

I always feel like I should be doing…

Continue

The sun is rising earlier. The sun is setting latter. The opportunities to ride are more plentiful. Anyone who has followed this blog or it's shadow on blogger (Training Jessie) knows that I'm trying to work through all the exercises in the two Downunder Horsemanship's Gaining Respect on the Ground and Riding with Confidence… Continue

I love gadgets. I'm also pragmatic and I have to rationalize their purchase or I am left to just admire them from afar. Like the ipad, for example. A very cool machine, but I don't have enough of a reason to justify the expense...yet.



One gadget I picked up a couple of years ago, my Garmin Forerunner 201, is a very cool tool I use while riding. The Forerunner 201 is an outdated model now. If the folks over at Garmin would like me to review the newer models, and they have an old… Continue

Friday night we had tickets to the rodeo... It was fun except for the second bareback rider got hung up and then under his horse. They said he was okay, but they took him out by stretcher anyway. Those guys are crazy tough.



Saturday morning I had to get more hay. The rain and cool weather has limited the supply. Most farms are just now cutting their second, so I opted for getting more of last year's hay. It looks good.



We rode for about 2 1/2 hours Saturday afternoon. Mostly… Continue

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. …

Continue

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

Took the camera with us on the Sunday ride. We rode past a feed lot. The cows were an exciting addition to our ride.

These pigeons were on the bank. When they took off it was pretty cool looking. The camera didn't catch quite the spectacular view I had hoped.…



Continue