The Golden Light of Fall

Oct 132011
 

This photo is from last year, but it does capture a bit of what last night’s ride was like. Though we came back in near full dark. I have flashers and a reflective safety vest to wear, so were were okay for the short bit we had to ride on the road. It was a fabulous evening! Lily moved out and rated back down with ease. We mostly trotted with a bit of rocking chair canter thrown in. The air was crisp and became chilling on the last stretch. I was grinning throughout the day at work today just thinking about it. Horse therapy is the best!

So that is one think I am thankful for. More importantly, I’ve been thinking a lot about lately the wonderful children I share my life with. I feel so very fortunate to be their parent. And I look forward to when they both return from their adventures out in the wide world.

Gurunam is in South America for her study abroad. Here is a recent blog post with photos from her visit to Iguazu Falls. Look it up. It seems like a fantastic place! Apparently, when Eleanor Roosevelt visited, she said, “Poor Niagara!”

Photo courtesy of Gurumustuk Singh Khalsa

And Hargobind is at Miri Piri Academy in Amritsar, India. He has been taking part in forty days of early morning sewa at the Golden Temple. They recently celebrated Diwali and Bhandi Chhor.

My trip to India this fall was another experience for me to grateful for. There is much to say about that. I am still considering what I would like to write about it. On a pracitcal level, it was very nice to get to know the staff and see the school grounds. I found that India had not changed all that much since my visits back in the ’80′s. Yes, people have cell phones and there are a few more cars, but much still remians the same.

I love this time of year when the light turns to gold and the temperatures start to drop. And even the darkness that falls early. It is a time of reflection.

Gratitude creates it’s own attitude. It can give you a new perspective, a new focus. I am going to use this day as my opportunity to see those things.

Take a few minutes today to create your own Thankful Thursday.

How:

  • Sit back, take a few deep breaths, and consider what you have to be thankful for. Listing three to five things is nice, but one will do.
  • Post about gratitude on your blog. If you don’t have your own blog, go ahead and write about what you are thankful for in the comments here instead.
  • If you blog, please link back here or leave a comment.
  • Feel free to tag other bloggers, if you like to do that, but it’s not necessary. This is not a meme that obligates you to do anything, but look for gratitude. Oh, and link back, and comment, that’s all I ask.

    • Visit these other blogs that often participate in Thankful Thursday:

  • Tired Dog Ranch
  • Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch
  • Earth Dancer Spanish Mustangs
  • The Pony Expression
  • From the Horse’s Back

    • A little more about Beau

    Oct 122011
     

    Bowdrie (Beau) SMR 2322

    I have been researching his pedigree. Bowdrie was bred by Kim Kingsley of the Horse Head Ranch in North Dakota. Beau’s sire was an accomplished endurance horse. His AERC winnings must have been 1989, as online records only go back to 1996 and he’s not listed there. I can guess that he competed in AERC rides in 1989 as a 14 year old and went back out in 1999 as a 24 year old in UMECRA rides. If anyone can correct me on this, I welcome it.

    Chief Half Moon SMR 607

    1989 & 1999 winnings include:
    MNDRA Grand Champion Lwt. Endurance
    UMECRA Reserve Champion Lwt. Endurance
    UMECRA Top Ten High Mile Horse (925 Miles)
    UMECRA 2nd High Point Endurance Stallion
    UMECRA Endurance Rookie of the Year
    AERC Midwest Region Lwt. Grand Champion
    AERC Midwest Region Overall Reserve Champion
    AERC 1000, 2000 Mile Award Recipient
    AERC 3rd Place Jim Jones Award Winner (1300)
    AERC Top Ten National Senior Mileage (1250)
    AERC 9th Place Horse & Rider Team

    Blue Northern SMR 1709
    photo by Mike Turnock

    That is the only photo I have of Chief Half Moon. It is from the old Horse Head Ranch website that is no longer up. I received photos of his dam tonight from the past webmaster of the Horse Head Ranch website. Thank you, Mike. As far as I know, Blue Northern was a broodmare. She has five get registered in my copy of the SMR studbook, two full siblings and two foals by Bandit. There is also a five year old gelding by Black Arrow, out of Blue Northern. He’s trained and for sale, by the way. (follow the link) She would have been 18 when he was foaled. He may have been her last, as I hear that she died 3-4 years ago.

    Blue Northern SMR 1709 in 2005 at the age of 17 photo by Mike Turnock

    You can clearly see that he got his bay base color from his sire and the ‘frosting’ of classic roan from his dam.

    The other notable thing about Beau’s pedigree is that he is linebred Chief Pushmataha, having him for a grandsire on his sire’s side, great grandsire and great great grandsire on his dam’s side. Chief Pushmataha was said to go back to Choctaw Indian family breeding. He was registered in numerous Colonial Spanish/Spanish Mustang registries as well as the ApHC. I’ll end with these photos of him…

    Chief Pushmataha SMR 47 as a young horse

    Chief Pushmataha SMR 47



    A Paddock Paradise for the Girls

    Oct 092011
     

    I’ve wanted to set up a paddock paradise for years. It is a great concept. Many horses these days are kept in small paddocks or pastures and end up standing around. Horses have evolved to move. Feral horses on BLM land travel miles every day from forage to water to shelter. Without this movement and grazing most of the day, horses can develop all sorts of issues, from illness to behavior problems.

    Yesterday afternoon, I went ahead and put up a single strand of electric tape on fiberglass posts to make a track. My horses’ paddock is 75′ x 160′, so not very large. Even so, I think that it was worth doing. I saw Lily and Sasha moving around the track even as I was putting up the fence. I think that they have enough incentive to move with their favorite shade tree in the NE corner, opposite the water.

    Permanent fencing is black with gates in thick blue.
    The electric tape that I put up today is in blue.
    The water is light blue.
    Rubber mats for hay are brown.
    The shade tree is in the upper left.

    The fencing is not hot at this point. I’ll have to look for a solar or battery powered charger before any grass starts to grow in the middle. The temptation would be too great to just push through or under the tape.

    The next step will be to take some old carpeting that I’ve had for a while and spread that along the west track between the gate and the water. I will cover it with gravel and/or hog fuel. With the choice determined by my budget. The footing gets quite slippery in the winter with all the rain we have here. I hope that this change will help on that front; in letting some vegetation grow in the middle, and putting down a more solid surface in the higher traffic area.

    At this point, I am not going to set up any slow feeding hay stations. Lily has gotten good enough at my small mesh hay nets to go through nearly forty pounds of hay in a day! I just don’t have the time to devise new methods to slow here down right now. So they will stay with their twice a day loose hay.

    Sasha finding hay scraps along the north track.

    Lily under the shade tree in the NE corner.

    Lily coming up from the water towards the gate. Beau is in the alley outside their paddock.

    The girls eating their dinner hay on the track.

    Peaceful dinnertime - Sasha in the center, Lily on the track and Beau in the barnyard.

    Buy the book, Paddock Paradise, by Jaime Jackson

    More links:
    Paddock Paradise FaceBook page
    Paddock Paraside Wiki – TONS of great information here and not just on PP.
    Jaime Jackson’s Paddock Paradise site

    Slideshow of the first afternoon.

    Herd introductions

    Oct 082011
     

    After a week of sharing a fence line with Riley and Sonny, we tried Beau in with them today. I have to say that this was one of the calmest introductions that I’ve ever seen. I had my camera with me, as these situations usually yield some pretty darn good shots. This was the best action shot I could get this time around.


    Most of them were more like this.

    Beau deferred to Riley and all seems to be going well. During the day, the geldings get access to the barnyard, the pastures behind Lily and Sasha’s paddock, and the alley in between. Most of the best grazing is in the back pastures. Sonny and Riley moved from there to the their pasture (with the shelter and water) a few times. Beau spent most of his time hanging out in the alley near the girls.

    He and Lily spent a good amount of time grazing along the fence nose to nose. I think that they understand what I told them earlier this week. That they will both be with me for a long time and that they need to get along. Lily doesn’t usually make friends very fast, but she seems to be warming up to Beau.

    I am glad that Beau can have more horses to hang out with. I left him eating dinner with Riley and Sonny.


    All the rest of the photos from today are here…


    Beau is a keeper

    Oct 032011
     

    Time for an update. I hope to keep up with my blog more this winter. I’m planning on posting horse stories here and not spend so much time on FaceBook.

    I got in two short rides in before my trip, a ten minute bareback ride and another in the round pen.

    Then I was off to India a few days later. I was gone for two and a half weeks. Then I was sick for another week and a half after I came back. I feel like I lost the entire month of September.

    In any case, our first ride on my return was at Elijah Bristow State Park. Beau was pretty high headed for most of the ride and got a bit excited by other horses running around. It was still a great first ride together. It was really nice to know that I could take him out and just ride. I found that he loves water. He walked right in and took a nice long drink. I had to keep him moving when he started to paw, as I felt his knees start to buckle! I didn’t want to take a swim myself.

    This is one of my favorite shots from the day, even though it’s not entirely in focus. My good friend, Candee, took it, along with all the other photos of me riding so far.

    Right after I mounted up.

    I had signed up for a Connected Riding clinic with Diane Sept months ago. It was last weekend and I decided to take Beau. Aside from some trailer loading issues, he did really well. He seemed to like being in a stall. I wasn’t sure how he would take to that. The clinic was a good opportunity to try both my saddles on him and experiment with different bits.

    He definitely needs his teeth done, so I’m just riding him in what he seems most comfortable for now, which is two reins, one off the cavesson and another on a Myler, ported curb. He sees the vet for his teeth a week from Saturday. After that, it will be easier to make some decisions on bitting. In the video below, I was trying a Myler comfort snaffle and you can see that he is chewing on it pretty consistently.

    I took him into the arena Sunday morning before the clinic started to get a bit of time riding alone. I am going to use this video as a baseline. It will be interesting to compare this to how he is in six months or a year. This was our first canter together as well. We rode for a few hours later in the day. We were both tired at the end of, but it was definitely worth it. I learned new things and reinforced stuff I used to know.

    Needless to say, I am very happy with Beau. I look forward to working with him and seeing how he muscles up and develops. I also hope that he and Lily get along, as they will have years together. They are sharing a fenceline for now. I moved Beau to my boarding barn just last night. He is temporarily in a paddock behind Lily and Sasha. He was trying to snake the mares through the fence. Sasha was flirting with him and Lily was telling her to stay away in boss mare fashion. Lily is very good at making snarky, mare faces, which she continued for most of the time I watched them.

    This evening, I put hay on both sides of the fence, so that they could spend a bit of time together. Beau reached his head over very carefully, as the top wire is hot electric. He had a bunch of hay sticking out of his mouth. I don’t think that he realized it was there. Lily was reaching towards him, but not to say “Hi”. Instead she grabbed the hay and pulled it from his mouth. Beau was startled and spun away. After than he was very deferential to Lily through the fence. I think that they’ll be okay together.