# Spotty Bottoms and Hairy Feets



## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

These pictures are from the Great Christmas Cold Snap.

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Aaaand baby pics just because, with nice shots of them CLEAN from last summer to compare. : )

-- Kai


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

Great pics! I hear you about the cold weather. My horses and I are so, so tired of it! 

Will enjoy reading this thread!


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## kewpalace (Jul 17, 2013)

Thunder's baby pix are ADORABLE! Love him!  Dreams is very cute; love me a good Appy!


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## JoBlueQuarter (Jan 20, 2017)

Thunder is adorable as a baby, and gorgeous grown up!!


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## ChasingDreams (Nov 14, 2017)

Beautiful boys you have there! Excited to follow along 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## BlindHorseEnthusiast4582 (Apr 11, 2016)

So cute, subbing~

How tall are they? Dreams doesn't look hugely smaller than Thunder.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

I'm 5'5" and I can no longer see over Thunder's withers, so I imagine he's in the neighborhood of 15.2-15.3 maybe? Ish? Dreams is right around 15 even I think. I believe the last time I measured him he was a hair under 15.1 with shoes on. I hope he doesn't get too much bigger, I think he's perfect at this size. lol Bear in mind that at this point in time Dreams is coming 4 years and Thunder is 20 months ... heh heh can't wait to see that fluffy monster in another year or so!

I went out tonight but I forgot to take pictures or video ... I didn't do much with my boys anyway. I just rode Huckleberry (a friend's TWH) a bit, fed grain and left. I haven't been blanketing Thunder, since the lows are staying above 0 and he's SO FREAKIN HAIRY, and he took the opportunity to roll in his own urine - lovely. : / I absolutely cannot wait until it is warm enough to drown him in shampoo and wash what will be 6 months' worth of urine and poop out of his coat. He is such a disgusting pig ... when he's blanketed he doesn't like to lift his tail to poop so now he has poopcicles hanging from his lovely thick tail. Eeeeww. 

Dreams was delighted to see me [open the grain bucket] as always, and spent a few moments showing off his new trick, nodding his head vigorously up and down to say "yes". He picked that up all on his own, I never taught him that. But now he knows that it gets him extra attention so anytime he wants ... well, anything ... he will stand at his gate and vigorously nod "yes" until you laugh or scratch him or give him a treat. Just for kicks, once or twice I've just stood there and stared at him, and his nods will get increasingly impressive until his head is swinging in an arc that touches the floor and raises up far above his withers. If you continue to not reward him, he will start waving one front hoof in the air. "Look at me mom! Look! Hey look what I can do! Look! LOOK! MOM! LOOK AT ME!!" lol 

Here's a video of Dreams, Thunder, and Dreams' half brother Copper fooling around in the arena a few days ago. This was Thunder's first attempt at playing with the "big boys" - he usually prefers to stand by me and watch. I couldn't help laughing at his big galumphing self trying to keep up with the far more athletic stock horse boys. I think the constantly shifting herd dynamic displayed here is interesting. : ) 






-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Well I felt bad always neglecting Dreams to ride Huckleberry ... today was a comparatively warm 17 degrees and sunny, for once, so I had enough time and daylight to take both Dreams and Huckles for a spin. I am not sure about the fit on my English saddle for Dreams ... I will have to take pictures tomorrow sometime and have you guys critique. If it were a western saddle I could get it pretty close but I'm not at all confident about my English saddle fitting abilities. I currently have all 29 of my bridles in my living room, rearranging bits and putting Lok-Tite on all my Chicago screws, so I just grabbed a random bridle off the pile, which ended up being a teardrop shanked snaffle ... oh well! So we worked on my balance and form from the waist down and his neck reining lol ... and I rode in sweatpants. Because it is freakin cold outside, and I haven't spent the money yet on winter breeches, and heck with it, I ride how I want. ; )

I have decided, since I really enjoy having a horse with such a light mouth, that for now when I ride Dreams on contact I want to go bitless. I have been waiting for an excuse to buy yet another bridle (yay!) so I recently ordered one of these: https://www.twohorsetack.com/p-108-...le-made-from-beta-biothane-solid-colored.aspx Dreams is having a hard time distinguishing when I want him to ride on contact (English) and when I want him to come off that contact (western) so I figured, since English riding is something we do for fun and I don't feel like going into a massive effort to help him distinguish between the two, when riding on contact I'll just stay out of his mouth altogether. This bridle will also be a nice change for him when we're doing something chill like trail riding and I want to give his mouth a break. 

I also ordered Thunder a halter bridle, because I've always wanted one and the wooly mammoth only has 1 other bridle (sacrilege!!). I can't wait to see them on the guys, it will be super awesomesauce. And of course, because every other piece of tack I own is leather and therefore relatively the same shade of brown, I had to get bridles in their colors - purple for Dreams, and blue for Thunder. They will be so handsome. : )

-- Kai


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

I’m glad I found your journal! It was funny to watch Thunder out with the stock horses. He is very different than them.  

We have a cold blooded one now, and although he’s just a coming yearling he’s out with the stock horses, but he plays around quite a bit. Then when he is done he goes and hides beside the lead horse who runs everyone else off. Lol. I wonder if as he gets older he will slow down...


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

lol Yeah Rodney and I always joke that Thunder runs out of gas pretty quickly compared to the stock horses. He will romp and buck and play and run really hard for about 15 minutes and then he's done. After that he usually stands off by himself, or if I'm in the arena, he will come stand by me and beg for rubbies. I try to always turn my guys out with Copper if they're going to be out for a while ... otherwise Dreams will just run Thunder ragged for the entire time they're out there. Dreams really, really, REALLY likes to run and play and run and run and run and play and run .... lol

-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

It's been so mild and nice here in So Cal I've been wary of bragging - but hopefully this cold snap will pass and you can ride.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Where's that "'Tis but a scratch" meme? "'Tis but a light frost!" Heh heh if I let cold keep me out of riding I wouldn't ride from November to April every year. We all grow accustomed to frozen toes and fingers. And ears. And noses. And ... well everything else really. I stick a hand warmer in each boot and that usually keeps off the worst of it. Wrap a scarf around your head to shield your face, or wear a mask, and when it's snowing I like to wear goggles to keep my contacts from freezing my eyes (well not freezing exactly but they get super cold and hurt my eyeballs). But generally during the winter I ride indoors. It's windy nearly every day around here in the winter and those winds will cut you to the bone no matter how many layers you're wearing. I don't get a lot of loping done ... don't want the horses to get very sweaty in that sort of weather ... but eh, a ride is a ride, right?

It's actually supposed to warm up considerably tomorrow - highs in the high 30s - low 40s all week, which means I'll finally be able to ride outside. I'm sure Dreams will be bat-**** cray cray tomorrow. Oh, joy lol

-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Yea, I have to deal with the heat in the summer, just have to adjust to what your have!


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

So here are some (crappy) pictures of my English saddle on Dreams sans pad. It seems to me like there's about an acre of spinal clearance ... is that too much? I've never ridden him in it hard enough for him to sweat under the pad so I have no marks to go by. Dreams has never complained though, not that I think he would unless it was very bad, and when I sit in the saddle the wither clearance compresses to about two fingers' worth. I'm worried that the tree is too narrow although I really have nothing to go by since I know SO much about English saddle fitting lol. What do you guys think?

I rode Dreams in the English saddle again today, after riding bareback yesterday, and he was feeling pretty good after his forced cold weather vacation. There was a lot of head tossing and prancing and general messing around during the 5 minutes of lunging before I climbed aboard (I probably didn't need to but eh, I like to play it safe in the English saddle lol) but in true Dreams fashion he was all business as soon as I put my foot in the stirrup. I rode him in a western bridle so no contact, but he neck reined like a champ and moved right off my legs. There were a few girls barrel racing in the arena too and he wasn't bothered at all, just moved right along.

Every time I ride a different horse, then come back to Dreams, I am continually amazed at how well he retains his training. It doesn't matter how long he's been sitting or what I ride him in, as soon as I climb aboard he's his usual Old Reliable, Steady Eddie self. My sidepull is coming sometime this week I think and I CANNOT FREAKIN WAIT for it to get here so I can take it for a test ride. I really really want to ride Dreams on contact but after all the work I put in last year getting him to stop lugging on the bit I'm very apprehensive about encouraging him to ride with contact with a bit. He was HORRIBLY luggy, completely dead in the mouth, pull-your-arms-out-of-their-sockets kind of luggy and it took me 8 months to get him to soften and give to the bit without leaning on it first. But I don't really care what happens to his nose, I can lead him anywhere just with my body language, so I'm excited to see how he goes in a sidepull on contact. 

-- Kai


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## SketchyHorse (May 14, 2012)

I've been silently stalking! I always love your posts about Dreams - he's a handsome dude  And Thunder, omg so fluffy! Love it <3

You should post the pictures in the saddle fit section so you'll get some replies  I'm not a pro at fit - I can generally spot a decent enough fit. I would say it's too far forward. Which will change how the fit looks. I would also say it's a little too narrow as well. Something about how it sits on him... I just don't like the side pictures. It _looks_ balanced from pommel to cantle, but it also looks perched. I can't put my finger on it... (I wanna say the shape just doesn't fit his body type) but I really don't like the fit... also like I said - NOT a pro. Someone else would probably be able to shed more insight


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

That was my first thought as well - that the tree is too narrow. It does look a little forward too - I used the "put it on too far forward then karate chop it back into position" method like I do with my western saddle, but I noticed that there wasn't a whole lot of movement going on when the saddle got to this point, so I'm not sure if it was the saddle fit or the way I slid it back, or if that slide back thing only works with western saddles. I've noticed that if I lope Dreams with the English saddle, my pad will slip, because it doesn't have tapes, but the saddle doesn't move very much if at all - no sliding, no slipping. Like, my western saddle, if it's put on too far forward, will slide back into the best position for it after a few minutes of riding, but this saddle doesn't move ever - it stays where I put it. In a western saddle this would be a sign of decent saddle fit but on this saddle I'm not sure. 

I'll post these to the saddle fitting section and see what people think. : )

-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

I would recommend putting some keepers on your pad if it has no straps. If you don't have an awl, I do recommend you get one and do your own tack repairs. It always blows my mind that someone will buy new tack when the old is fixable.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Yeah I read the reviews for the pad (This one: https://www.statelinetack.com/item/roma-reversible-soft-saddle-pad/SLT900885/ ) so I knew going into it that the pad could possibly slip, but the vast majority of people who had bought it said it didn't slip - and in fact, when I ride Huckleberry the pad doesn't slip so it is just a Dreams issue I think. Or a saddle fit issue. I don't think I will sew my own keepers on, although I don't use the lighter underside so by all rights it would be fine. Instead I think I will buy a second pad (I like Roma pads, I'm thinking this one: https://www.statelinetack.com/item/roma-circle-quilt-pads/E015420/ ) so that when I'm washing this one I will have a backup. I've always had multiple pads in case something gets horribly dirty, breaks etc ... having just one pad for the English saddle makes me uncomfortable for reasons I cannot explain. I didn't buy a second one before because I didn't know that I would enjoy riding English as much as I do. : /

I do have an awl that I use, I'm in agreement with you on repairing broken tack - I like to buy quality items from the beginning and they tend to last longer, and look nicer longer, than cheaper products, so to me it's always worth it to fix them if they break. Most of the time it's simple stuff that doesn't require much effort to fix but it's nice to be able to fix more in depth things as well. : )

This whole English thing is turning out to be more fun than I had originally planned lol .... I am planning on biting the bullet soon and investing in a few pairs of breeches and some tall boots so that I won't scratch the seat in my jeans. Right now it's not a big deal, the weather is so cold that I'm riding in sweatpants and my insulated Bear Paw boots (that are definitely not designed to ride in but that's why I have peacock stirrups and keep the stirrup bars down) but when it gets nicer I'll need something better to ride in. Depending on how well (or not) this saddle fits Dreams I may wish to sell this one and buy another good used one that fits better ... which kinda sucks because I love this saddle. It's so comfortable!!

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Wow. It's been a while. : )

This winter has been brutal and I hate it and I want it to stop. Riding when it's 0 degrees just isn't very much fun ... all you can do is walk really, and that's not enough to keep you very warm. I've also been rather sidelined for the last 6 weeks or so with menorrhagia, which led to anemia and me passing out in my driveway a few weeks back, and then a slew of doctor visits (one of them should have been an emergency room visit, or so I was told). I have since been diagnosed with an endometrial polyp and am having surgery in May to have it removed, and also an ablation to take care of the endometrial hyperplasia. During those procedures I will also FINALLY get a tubal ligation to sterilize me, something I have been looking forward to since I was 15. I tried to convince them that a hysterectomy was the way to go - an ablation will sometimes need to be repeated several times to be effective, and I want a one-and-done sort of thing - but insurance will not cover one since I'm young, have no spawn, and apparently have no clue what I really want in my life (insert eyeroll here). On the bright side however, if this ablation does not fully take care of the problem I will be cleared to enjoy all the benefits of a 100% insurance covered hysterectomy. Yay!

During my time away from the barn I read a lot of books on driving horses, to learn more about training Thunder the Shire, and I also spent a lot of time thinking about what I want to do with Dreams. Thunder is coming along famously (we've progressed to dragging logs, tires and stone boats and I'll have to update his thread with videos because I'm so proud of him!) but I still seem to be stuck with Dreams. He's an excellent trail mount - he'll move out at any speed you choose on a loose rein, crosses water, jumps ditches, handles steep hills and scary objects with aplomb - but I want him to be, well, more. I really love his attitude though, and I think I might finally be ready to train a bridle horse, something I've wanted to do since I first saw an old Mexican vaquero performing in Las Vegas years ago with a garrocha. I've never felt like a had the ability before, and once I felt like I could do it, it took me a while to find a horse that I thought I could do it with. 

Dreams is now, after spending the last year getting him soft to the snaffle, very light in the face. I love being able to use more subtle rein cues, to be able to flex his nose laterally using only my pinkie, to be able to pick up my reins with two fingers and have him back up energetically a step or three and remain light on my hands. He's come a long way from his old pig rooting, lugging, hard-mouthed self! We've progressed with our neck reining as well, and now I can lay a rein on his neck and he will look in to the direction of the turn, bending his body around my inside leg. Teaching him shoulder control has brought him more under himself, and he doesn't drag himself around all strung out like he used to (or at least, not nearly as bad ... the lope is still a work in progress but it gets a little more collected every time). 

I've also spent some time on myself - working on not slouching or leaning forward (my worst offences, they sneak up on me and I have to correct myself constantly), bringing my legs more underneath me, keeping my hands closer together, working without stirrups to enhance my balance, etc. I bought 'Centered Riding' by Sally Swift and even though it's more English-y, I've found it has a lot of great information that is applicable to all types of riding. When I want a bigger challenge, I will ride my friend's horse in an English saddle - the combination of different tack and different horse is quite refreshing. 

So I'm confident that Dreams and I can both do this, and I figure even if we fail we both will have greatly improved as a team - I will have learned so much, and I will have taught Dreams so much, that I'm absolutely certain we will be so much more awesome together once this is all over. I've had a bosal in my tack room for a year now, so I went and bought a headstall for it and slapped on my tree line mecate reins that I love so much (I know they're not traditional but dang it my hands love them!) and threw the whole kit 'n caboodle on Dreams for our ride today. It was his first time in a bosal and he was stellar, after the initial few minutes of slight confusion when I applied lateral pressure. 

Today's ride turned into a mini lesson, an old cowboy was hanging around who loves to offer advice to anyone who will listen (and I usually do, because he's a true horseman and quite talented) and when he saw me fiddling with Dreams' bosal and learned I'd never rode him in one before, he offered to give me some pointers. We worked on rollbacks, handling the mecate rein more effectively (I've got to get used to coiling the slack in one hand, I've always let it flop down the horse's neck before), encouraging Dreams to plant his inside hind through a turn, finding a more secure position for my seat and legs through a rollback (ergh I ALWAYS want to hunch forward!) and finished off with some quiet backing and figure 8s at the walk. Through it all Dreams was a gem, giving his face when asked and trying to the best of his abilities even when the unfamiliar pressure on his nose confused him a bit. When I climbed off him I couldn't have been happier, and I've had a stupid goofy grin on my face all day. 

Before he left, Ray told me that Dreams "done you proud today" and is turning into "a mighty nice broke usin' horse", which left me just tickled. Ray was there the day I bought Dreams as an untouched weanling and has watched every step of the way, and has helped me out a few times (he was there for my first few rides on Dreams and has helped me troubleshoot when I need it). I was immensely proud of our progress today, and at the very least, I think Dreams will make a fine hackamore horse. : )

*Edit - In the first picture, the heel knot isn't resting on Dreams' chin because the mecate lead is draped over a hook in the wall and is pulling it away from his face. During riding, the heel knot rests on his chin. 

-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Well it sounds like Dreams is coming along like you want just fine. He looks great.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Thank you. I can't wait to see how he looks shedded out - he's my first roan and he seems to be the "horse of the different color" every summer lol.

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Ergh the weather just can't decide what it wants to do ... In the last 18 hours we've had snow, rain, heat, and extreme winds. Blegh. 

I have been able to ride Dreams nearly every day for the past while (except for yesterday since the rodeo kids were monopolizing the arena for 6 hours) and today we had another great ride. He is coming along so well, I can hardly believe this is the same belligerent yearling I bought 3 years ago! Right at the start of today's ride, the rodeo team ran a herd of bucking horses into the arena, but Dreams kept his cool and once the stock were sorted we continued on. I'm getting better at realizing when I've slouched forward, and today I felt like I had a much better body position throughout the ride than I have been. I certainly was able to stay with Dreams during rollbacks and hard stops - and today was his first truly great stop, I think. It was only from a trot, but when I said "whoa" he sat right down, really used his hind end and kept the front end light, and was soft in the face the whole time. He even offered a few steps back. I'd only been riding him for about 20 minutes at that point but I was so pleased with that stop that I quit him right then and there, and took him back to the tack room and gave him a cookie. : )

We also worked on keeping his inside shoulder up loping circles, something he's terrible at, and on keeping my rein cues small and not giving him huge out-to-the-side colt starting cues (something I'm terrible at). We did some sidepassing, worked on the beginnings of a spin (he'll turn right around now but I'm still looking for consistent quality, not speed) and I started to ask for a bit more vertical flexion. Dreams has a habit of THROWING himself into a lope, and shoving that nose way up and out, so I spent some time working on pushing him up into the bosal and keeping him under himself. When he discovered that I was asking him to transition collected, he had a small tantrum and kicked out when I put my leg on twice, so I pulled him around and yielded his hindquarters FAST and trotted a few very small circles FAST bent around my inside leg. Two minutes of that and he put up the white flag, and after that he started to think about collecting a bit more in the trot-lope transitions lol. I asked for two more on each lead, and he was much improved, so I left it at that. 

He isn't perfect but Dreams continues to improve with each ride. He certainly is a lot of fun to train, even when he's being resistant or having a tantrum, because he only needs a little bit of correction before he changes his attitude. I'd like to get him out of the arena but the ground around here is terrible - between the snow and the rain, it's six inches of slop everywhere and I'm afraid to do more than walk anywhere. I would have taken him out on the gravel road for a bit after this ride, but it got terribly windy right as we were finishing and I didn't want to ride in a hurricane. I feel bad for him though, he gets bored and cranky in an arena and I don't blame him a bit - going in circles day after day is starting to get on my nerves too. 

I didn't have time to work Thunder today, and he was quite put out when I didn't pull him out of his stall for some fun - but I did spend a few minutes petting him and loving on him, which seemed to mollify him a bit lol. I certainly can't wait until he's done shedding, blegh - his coat is 3 inches long on his chest and back, and it comes out in great big clumps. Poor guy is going to be miserable if it ever warms up ....

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

A few days ago Dreams and Thunder were visited by my awesome farrier and had their feet done. I contemplated putting shoes on Dreams' fronts since it's almost trail riding season but ultimately I just didn't think we were going to be doing much in the way of trail riding for the next few weeks and I finally just had him trimmed. Dreams is so mellow and well trained that I didn't even halter him while Taylor was trimming ... Dreams stands completely still every time so I just parked him in the aisle and let Taylor have at him. I thought it was pretty funny. : ) Thunder was a gigantic wiggle worm of course, looking at everything and constantly shifting around. But it was cold that morning, soooo ....

Yesterday I trailered them both to the vet to get vaccinations and a Coggins so that when we move this summer I'll be covered. My vet had a new assistant and the look on her face when she saw Thunder was priceless - she told me later that she'd never seen a horse that big, and when I told her Thunder is only 2 I thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head. Yet again, Thunder was wiggly and looky, and it took the vet several attempts to find a decent vein for a blood draw so he was stabbed more than strictly necessary. Dreams came after with a supremely disdainful expression that said quite plainly, "Psht! Amateur! Watch the master, and learn," and stood extra especially still for the vet to stab him in the neck repeatedly and stick a long thin tube up his nostril. I was quite impressed with his nonchalance about the whole ordeal - the needles I could handle but I wouldn't care to have a 6 inch tube stuffed up my nose. 

Unfortunately today I think he's having a minor reaction to the vaccine. He seemed more lethargic than usual and didn't want to run around the arena like a crazy person when I turned him loose. When I rode him bareback back to his stall he seemed a little warmer than usual too, but it might have been because I was out in the slightly chilly wind all afternoon. He was eating and drinking fine, slurped up his Horse Manna with the usual gusto, and still spent his turnout time happily abusing Thunder. No lumps at the injection site, or any other indication of a problem. It may have been the weather, it was warmer than usual today. I'll go out tomorrow morning to check on him again, just to make sure. I seem to remember he was lethargic for a day or three after last year's vaccinations too. 

Thunder was his usual dopey goofy self today, and I realized while I was waiting for him to finish his Horse Manna that he must be in the middle of another growth spurt. His legs looked super long for his body today, and he's a bit thinner than he was last week. Or maybe it's all the pelt that he's been shedding .... But he just looked gangly today. I may have to up his ration, he's been on 2 scoops of Horse Manna since Thanksgiving and he's now considerably larger than he was then. It might be time for 2.5, or maybe I'll have to start tossing him a bit of alfalfa every day like I did last year. I like that Horse Manna though, it gives him a lovely soft coat and keeps decent weight on him without turning him into a basket case. I'm in the process of switching Dreams over as well, instead of having him on Omolene 200 like I have for the past few years - He does really well on it but it does tend to make him a bit hotter in the summer months as he's not using that energy to keep himself warm.

-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

How nice to see him standing like that! I don't know if it works but I always get to the vet early and walk 15 minutes before shots.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

It is well worth the journey to make a Bridle Horse. I look forward to following your progress, and wish you well in the health front, too. I am also a victim of the 'we can't do a hysterectomy because you haven't had kids' medical (dis)logic. I don't want kids, never have. My husband is fine with that. If I suddenly wake up one morning and decide that I do, there are plenty of kids out there who need homes. I am tired of being miserable at least 2 weeks out of every month, and now my doctor is saying since I'm pushing 40 the Pill is no longer an option to control my painful symptoms, so I'm going to have to go off of it and be miserable again. I can't wait until menopause. Bring it on.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

ERGH @SilverMaple I feel your pain! That's exactly the way I feel as well, who cares if I might someday change my mind years from now? Why is the idea of reproducing more important than my quality of life? ERGH makes me so mad .... 

Well I HAD planned on riding today, and possibly dragging more fun things with Thunder, but unfortunately my traitorous body has other ideas. I was on duty at 0100, worked for a few hours just fine, and then BAM outta nowhere at like 4 am I was hit with staggering cramps, RLS, and all the gore of a Saw movie. I had to contact my supervisor and they pulled me off my train, it was so bad, and I ended up tying up early and dragging myself home. I tried to nap in the morning but I was in such pain that I couldn't, really, and it was so severe that I called my doctor and after a few minutes' consult she advised me to head to the ER. 

Sooooo that's what I did all afternoon - sat in the gloriously antiseptic ER room with various pokey things attached to my arm, getting blood tests and ultrasounds and all manner of other things done to me in the space of 5 hours. They were sufficiently awed by the state of my nether regions, and the ultrasound tech told me that I had the worst menorrhagia she'd ever seen, although unfortunately my initial assumption that they wouldn't find anything noteworthy was proven sound. They found the uterine polyp that my previous ultrasound had discovered, ran about 89 different blood tests and confirmed that I wasn't pregnant (FFFFFF DUH), nor was I yet anemic, and had a look around inside and confirmed that, yes, I DO in fact have menorrhagia, which anyone possessed of a Google browser could have told them in minutes (and which I did, before they subjected me to all those worthless tests). 

It was an ER visit so I shudder to think what my bill is going to be .... But on the plus side, I now have the magic pills I was given last month that ensured me several weeks of freedom from these horrors, and almost allowed me to think I was a normal human again, AND I now have in my possession a note that will allow me to not have to work in this condition over the weekend, which I must say I was not looking forward to. So like, IDK, the ER bill might actually be worth those two things if I think about it ... lol. 

Mostly I am exhausted, and irritated that I missed a rare beautiful spring day in which it wasn't super windy, the weather was agreeable, AND I was home. That like never happens so I'm super peeved that I'm going to spend the next few days lolling on the couch INSIDE the house, AWAY FROM MY BOYS. What a waste ... why can't I have an episode when it's blowing 90 miles a minute outside, or when it's just poured rain and is slick as spit out? Sigh. But I spent a happy afternoon reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I read the series every year and I always cry when we learn the truth about Snape, even though I KNOW what's coming the whole time lol) and feeding Akasha bird various forbidden foods while she laid protectively on my chest. Today she was allowed to sample snickerdoodle cookies, soda, cheese, and even a bite of pizza while I read my favorite passages aloud to her. She loves it when mommy is sick, she gets to eat whatever she wants and she can pretend to build a nest in my shirt and I won't stop her lol. 

Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow, though I sincerely doubt I will feel up to schlepping myself out to the barn to scoop poop and all that. And tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful AGAIN. Grrrr. Anyway, here are a few random pictures from the last few days. Thunder is getting so big now, I keep forgetting how big he is until I'm on top of Dreams lol.

-- Kai


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

Just read page 1 and loooove the antlers! 

Draft horses make me drool!  So I'm subbing. I can totally understand how one could _accidentally_ buy a draft horse...

Gorgeous colour on your Appaloosa.

Will be interested to see what you three get up to! :cowboy:

Best wishes from Australia


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

Kaifyre said:


> ERGH @SilverMaple I feel your pain! That's exactly the way I feel as well, who cares if I might someday change my mind years from now? Why is the idea of reproducing more important than my quality of life? ERGH makes me so mad ....


Got another one for you--- I fell on some stairs last fall and fractured 3 vertebrae in my lower back. Confirmed on X-ray and CT scan, yet they made me wait in agony in the ER for THREE HOURS until they could get a tech in to read the blood test they gave me to 'make sure I wasn't pregnant' before they would allow me to have anything for pain over and above an ice pack. 

Apparently being on the pill and telling them you just finished your period the day before doesn't count. They wouldn't even allow me to take a urine test instead because 'those aren't accurate'. Good lord, people....

So yeah, women in this country are still seen as incubators first, people second.

I'm glad you got some relief with your medication and hope things start looking up for you.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

lol Yeah they had to run a blood test on me when I was in the ER to determine my status as a working incubator before they'd do anything .... I was like, "No. I'm ABSOLUTELY 100 PERCENT SURE I'm not pregnant you morons, now do something about my other issues!" And then the guy came in and was all like, "Oh the blood test confirmed you aren't pregnant so we can get to work now," and I gave him my flattest, most deadpan stare for a few seconds and said, "I'm shocked." Why they needed to confirm my status as an incubator in the first place is beyond me, since they never gave me anything except a saline drip, but whatever. I take solace in the fact that I was the epitome of snarky sass every time someone brought the subject up, and after the first hour they learned not to try to convince me that I needed to be an incubator, nor that a hysterectomy was not in my best interests. As I told the ultrasound tech who valiantly tried to convince me that I might someday want a spawn, there is no argument for which I do not have a valid, rational counterarguement. I have thought about this nearly constantly since I was a small child, do you REALLY think I won't be able to shut you down in a heartbeat? Judging from their awkward responses to my opinions they'd never met someone quite like me before, which makes me smile. I pride myself on being unique. 

But anyway, after two days on the magic hormone-suppressing pills I am feeling almost myself again, and I even was able to drum up the energy to go have a short visit with my boys yesterday. Thunder has learned by watching Dreams how to nod his head 'yes' so now whenever they see me approach with anything that even remotely looks like food in my hand there's a flurry of excited head-nodding. They seem to try to outcompete each other for most exuberant head nods, which is hysterical, the longer it goes on the bigger and faster the head nods get. Dreams is especially adept at identifying a situation where nodding 'yes' will almost certainly lead to a treat, and he will spring the trick on you at every available opportunity. People walking down the aisle are greeted with a nodding horse head, as is anyone who approaches his stall, and I even came up on him while he was sleeping yesterday and, from his position on the ground, he nodded hopefully at me as I sat next to him. lol Spotted glutton that he is. : )

Hopefully I can get him going in the hackamore again soon ... he's now had about 3 weeks off, with only the occasional bareback ride to the arena in a halter. Between work, weather and menorrhagia I haven't been able to ride. le sigh. Maybe I'll have the energy and the time this week to ride him ....

-- Kai


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

Kaifyre said:


> Dreams was delighted to see me [open the grain bucket] as always, and spent a few moments showing off his new trick, nodding his head vigorously up and down to say "yes". He picked that up all on his own, I never taught him that. But now he knows that it gets him extra attention so anytime he wants ... well, anything ... he will stand at his gate and vigorously nod "yes" until you laugh or scratch him or give him a treat. Just for kicks, once or twice I've just stood there and stared at him, and his nods will get increasingly impressive until his head is swinging in an arc that touches the floor and raises up far above his withers. If you continue to not reward him, he will start waving one front hoof in the air. "Look at me mom! Look! Hey look what I can do! Look! LOOK! MOM! LOOK AT ME!!" lol


:rofl: 

My horse flaps his bottom lip. Blup, blup, blup, blup, blup - pause and intent look - blup, blup, blup, bluuuup!

Horses.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Well the weather here has finally been nice enough for me to go trail riding. Dreams was absolutely ecstatic to go for a ride somewhere not surrounded by a fence, and he was delighted to lope more than 200 feet in a straight line for once. Our first ride wasn't bad ... he was quite looky but didn't spook at anything and, while he did lope quite a bit faster than he usually does in an arena, that's normal and I just let him go since at no point during the ride did I feel out of control, even on a big loose rein. After 20 minutes of motoring up one hill and down another he decided to drop back to his regular slow lope, and we headed back to the trailer at a nice sedate walk. It was awesome. 

The next ride was awful lol. Dreams is either very good or pretty good 99% of the time. That remaining 1% he's an absolute a**hole. Trail ride number two was a debacle for the first 90 minutes - he didn't want to slow down, he didn't want to speed up, he didn't want to bend, he didn't want to move his shoulders or hips over, he kept barging through my leg, he got very rude in the bridle and in general was just acting like a pig. After a few minutes of attempted tinkering I'd had enough, and we moved out into the sagebrush for the Tree to Tree exercise - lope toward a tree/bush/rock, slow the horse to a trot and trot 3-6 circles around the object (crappier circles and more rushing result in more circles, better circles and waiting for you to ask to speed up result in fewer circles). At the end of the last circle, look up and find another tree/bush/rock, lope toward that object without taking your eyes off of it, and repeat. It's a great exercise to work on impulsion, correcting a horse that rushes too much, it helps make your circles a bit more round, it helps with straight lines, it's a great all-around exercise. 

It also knocks the air out of your horse fairly quickly. Dreams is in fairly good shape I think and after 20 minutes of Tree to Tree he was puffing and blowing. I had to really RIDE him that first 20 minutes, he kept trying to root on the bit around the turns, he wasn't listening to my seat to slow down, he tried to run through my legs a couple times and I finally had to harpoon him with my spurs to get him to wise up. I stopped him and we stood in the sagebrush and listened to the meadowlarks while he got his air back, and when he was breathing normally I asked him to bend around my leg and asked for a few turns, to check his attitude, and once again he thought he'd be a pig so back to the brush we went, and did another 20 minutes of Tree to Tree. About halfway through that second session he put up the white flag and started listening to me, bending around my leg, giving to the bit, listening to my seat, etc. At the end of that session I felt we'd improved immensely, so I let him catch his air again and walked him back to the trailer on a big loose rein.

Yesterday *almost* ended up being a hard ride for Dreams ... for the first few minutes of the ride he halfway thought about being a pig again ... I found a nice vertical cliff and we practiced rollbacks at the base of it. After the very first rollback Dreams changed his mind about being an a**hole. "WAIT!! I changed my mind, I want to be good!" I kept him at it for about 5 minutes, just to be sure he'd wised up, and then we spent the rest of the ride loping and walking trails. We found some water to walk into, and a few ditches to jump, and we even found the world's biggest jackrabbit (Dreams wasn't sure WHAT that thing was but he was okay following it at a walk, until it disappeared down a hole). Dreams was a perfect gentleman for the remainder of the ride, and by the time we'd turned back to the trailer I couldn't be happier with him.

Today I had to work until after 5, and then we had a big thunderstorm roll in, so I wasn't able to ride today. Le sigh. I'm already missing Spotty Bottom, but I suppose after 3 hard rides in a row he deserves a day off. : )











-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

I like that tree to tree exercise, good description too.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Clinton Anderson may be too brusque for some people but he has some good ideas. The Tree to Tree exercise is really all about turning a negative into a positive - if your horse is rushing/has no impulsion/isn't listening to your seat, this exercise is a good way to work on all of that without letting the horse get out of control and without making you feel like the ride is a train wreck. When Dreams was trying to rush really bad, we only loped 20 or 30 feet before I shut him down and asked him to trot a bush. Once he started to slow down a bit, we started loping further and further between bushes. Eventually I could lope him from one end of this ATV area to the other (I think it's about 50 acres? Something like that) and he would maintain that slow, controlled lope with good cadence and would slow right down as soon as I melted into my seat and/or said "Eeeeasy." This exercise really gets the horse waiting for you, and encourages him to listen to your seat and legs. 

For young horses that are a bit too exuberant out on a trail, I really like this exercise, plus rollbacks, as an excellent way to accomplish several things all in a relatively short period of time, in such a way that you are turning a negative into a positive in a controlled manner. On our second trail ride I wanted to work on stopping and collection, but Dreams had other ideas so we worked on circles, straight lines, rushing, and listening to my seat instead. Then when we came back on ride 3 and I asked him to stop, he listened. When I picked up on the reins, he was soft in the face. We spent 5 or 10 minutes each on stopping and collection before moving on to other things, and I was very satisfied with him. If I'd have tried to do those things on ride 2, it would have taken 30 or 45 minutes and it would have been mediocre at best. You have to give your horse the ride he needs each time, not necessarily the ride you want to have - it took me years to learn this!! : )

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

EEEEEEE I let myself get talked into showing both of my boys next weekend at a local show. There's an old cowboy at my arena who is constantly asking me to sign up and next week's show is at my arena, and I'll still be off from my surgery so I figured ehhh why not? It's only 7 bucks a class to enter so here I am, preparing for my first show. It's an all breed show so I'm going to enter Thunder in the halter class (lol) and Dreams in a few riding classes. I figured ranch riding, trail, and western pleasure. I don't expect we'll do particularly well in western pleasure, Dreams simply doesn't have the gaits for it, but Ray was absolutely convinced that the judges are looking for obedience, ease of riding and willingness to comply at this level vs. a "true" western pleasure horse so I figured I'd do it, why the heck not? Even if we're last in the class I think it will be a good experience for both of us and it will be a small show anyway. 

Per the show's rules all horses must be shown "in a manner consistent with the breed standard" for that class, so I went out today for ribbon and a few other things to make a mane roll and a set of flights for Thunder (https://www.bing.com/images/search?...608019027543264655&selectedIndex=3&ajaxhist=0). Lol I bet we turn a few heads when we trot into the arena! I also bought a nice saddle pad for Dreams, and a shirt and hat for myself, since I realized I own neither. I am excited to have an excuse to get Thunder all decked out, and to have fun doing something a bit different with both of my guys. I think Dreams and I will do very well in the trail class, and I think Thunder will be a looker in halter. Mostly I just want to have fun, I have no idea what I'm doing but eh, I'll figure it out as I go. 

So yeah …. any advice on how to prepare for a show? And what I should be emphasizing or really working on beforehand that might not be obvious? I'm looking at patterns and stuff now, and making sure Dreams can do all the necessary things. Thunder I don't think I need to worry about … I mean it's an in hand class and he walks and trots just fine beside me, what more do the judges want? I might practice squaring up with Thunder, if I recall correctly it can sometimes take a few attempts to get him square. I'm looking forward to this, I think it will be fun. : )


-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

No advice from me, I don't show, but it sounds like a lot of fun.


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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

I just skimmed through your thread. Your ponies make me so happy! I too am all about the sporty butts and fluffy feet! I have a Shire cross mare, and until a few weeks ago, I also had an appaloosa gelding. He didn't have a spotty butt, but he was registered. Sadly, I had to put him down, but I won't get into that now.

What a really mean to say, is you have excellent taste in horses. Both of yours are lovely.

Good luck in your first show!

My first recommendation to you is purple shampoo. I like the quicksilver brand for horses but any brand will do. You can even use the blueing shampoo they sell at beauty supply stores for old ladies with white hair. Using that on white appy markings and white feathers really helps with your presentation. If you, your horses and your tack are spotlessly clean, you stand out in a good way.

My second advice is to relax and have fun. Showing shouldn't be about winning. It's about getting out there, doing your best, and having fun. A blue ribbon is just an added bonus. I like to show because it gives me goals, things to work on at home so I can do better next time. It's not about beating the other riders for me, it's about beating my own personal best and showing off all our hard work. If you think this way, it's easier for you to stay calm and relaxed in the show arena. Your horse will thank you for it and your placing will reflect it.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

*I'm back! Updates from the show*

Whew things have been so busy lately! So much has happened … 

Well we participated in our first show in June. Both of my guys were fabulous! I showed Thunder the Shire in halter and showmanship classes, and in my humble opinion he was the handsomest guy there. I duded him all up in a traditional English mane roll and flights, and even though my fingers felt like they were going to fall off afterward he looked amazing. He placed consistently last on the first day, even though he stood perfectly square (I was SHOCKED) and we did everything right. I asked the judge afterward why she judged him that way so that I could improve for next time, and her response was that Thunder wasn't muscled enough. Is that a valid reason? I had assumed that any judge we had wouldn't be familiar with draft horses and I hadn't expected Thunder to be amazing but I felt that "he isn't muscley enough" is kind of a BS excuse, especially when there were horses with obvious conformational faults placing higher than us. But then again, these kinds of classes are entirely dependent on what the judge thinks sooo … yeah. 

Thunder absolutely bombed the showmanship on day one because I forgot the **** pattern … lol That one was all on me, sorry dude! Day 2 had a different judge and Thunder placed well - second in halter and third in showmanship. It helps that I remembered that pattern lol. I was very proud of him, and gave him lots of lovies and rubbies.

Dreams did very well the first day, and meh the second day. On day one he also was dead last in halter, again because he didn't have as much muscle as the others, and AGAIN horses with conformational faults placed higher. Blegh. But he took third in showmanship, which was higher than I'd thought he would because I couldn't quite figure out where to stand and kept switching sides. After lunch we rode in ranch horse pleasure, which Dreams took second in, and I was so proud. The entire class was very tight, I was sure we'd end up on the bottom. Ranch horse trail was AWESOME and Dreams smoked the competition to win the class. 

Day 2 with Dreams was up and down. In halter he was reserve champion, and since the champion has been to the Appaloosa world show twice I was quite happy with that placing. In showmanship he took second despite the fact that once again I had no idea what I was doing. I skipped ranch horse pleasure that day, instead opting for western riding, which SUCKED. I should have ridden Dreams in a bosal for that one so I could ask for tighter turns, as his neck rein turns tend to be big sweeping affairs. As such we really bombed the pattern, so I wasn't surprised by our last place. I was also disappointed by our ranch horse trail showing. Right as we started the class a big storm front swept in and it got super cold and windy, and Dreams was obstinate for almost the entire ride, kicking up and balking and generally being an idiot. Surprisingly we WEREN'T last, although I didn't stick around to watch the others so I don't know whether the last place pair actually rode worse or forgot a portion of the pattern (because Dreams rode so poorly I can't imagine a worse ride). 

Overall I was proud of my boys, except for Dreams' abysmal ranch horse trail on day 2, and I enjoyed myself immensely. I also learned a lot, and I think maybe I might do some showing next year if I have the time. It was certainly nice to get some experience under all of our belts.

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Here is the video of Dreams' ranch horse pleasure ride. 






-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

They both look great.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

I am having horse withdrawals. Blegh. Rodney and I moved about 3 hours away to an apartment in June and because board/acreage in our new location is ridiculous I opted to leave the boys behind for now. Where they are now, I'm spending about $500 per month on total feed and board. In our new location I'd be spending about $1500 per month total for feed and board. Call me cheap (I know a lot of people spend more than that for their horses) but that's a mortgage payment. I flatly refuse to pay that much money to rent a stall, especially when around here there are so many events going on. Every place I looked at told me flat out that they had stuff going on every week Friday through Sunday for 8 months out of the year, and the vast majority of Mondays as well, and that if I'm not going to that roping or barrel race or jumping competition I'd have to wait until the arena is free to ride. I'm NOT going to throw away 1500 bucks a month when I can only use the arena three days a week, especially since with my on-call schedule it would be highly unlikely that I'd actually be there every week to use those days. 

I thought about trying to find a pasture to board in but that's expensive as crap too … around $300 per month per horse on average … and I didn't find any that I liked. Either the property was junk, or the horses in it were covered in bites and scrapes, or the pasture had no shelter (not even a windbreak or some trees to get out of the shade), or the barbed wire was down and loose, etc etc etc. I found exactly one that looked nice, that was at a price I'd feel comfortable paying, and that one had no facilities. No wash rack (a must with Thunder the Shire, unless I want mud all over those feathers), no arena, nowhere to park my trailer, etc etc. Also I would have had no say in hoof care, vaccinations or worming as the property owner had all the horses on the same schedule whether you want them to be or not, and I'm not comfortable with that either. What if one of my guys needs a little extra time between trimmings or I need to get specialized shoeing done on either of them? The property owner held up a shoe and said that's what goes on their feet. Period. So nah.

So right now I'm leaving them where they are … I see them when I go to work at least, since I take the train from here to there, get rested, and take the train back to here. It's ended up being about twice a week, which I don't like, but unfortunately that's the best option at the moment. I'm hoping that in the spring I can go out and buy some property and get my own place set up, but unless I get very lucky I wouldn't be able to keep my guys on the place until fall at the earliest - I'd have to fence it, put up some sort of shelter, and get water and power going which may take some time. Horse property is ridiculously expensive here for some reason and the vast majority of the areas around here don't have access to water (they use technology from the Dark Ages and have water delivered and stored in a cistern which I don't like) unless you want to spend 10 grand on a well, which I am willing to do but first I have to have 10 grand laying around. I'd rather spend $300 a month and accrue equity on land of my own than spend that on board and just throw the money away. 

Le sigh. I'm not sure whether I'm looking for advice or just a place to vent … probably just a place to vent. I have never had "long distance horses" before and I really hate it …. not least because there are some SUPER awesome tack stores around here and I have to buy stuff and then take it on the train with me to get it to my guys, which is stupid … I'll feel super awesome carrying my English saddle back with me next time to clean and sell it. Sigh. I keep telling myself that this is temporary and that it will get better soon, and that plenty of other folks have put up with more than this to keep their ponies so if they can do it, I can too. 

Thanks for listening. 

-- Kai


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## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

Awww, save your money so you can buy your own place. Maybe something wonderful will turn up. Hope so!


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Definitely, save your money. It took me a long time, but there is nothing like having your horses in the back yard.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

And I am showing again at the end of the month so I'll need to take some days off so that I can get my guys ready … Thunder is a greasy mess and needs a really good shampooing right before the show and his feathers will need whitening again. I won't be able to ride Dreams as often as I did last time so hopefully his training and temperament will make up for his lack of exercise. I'm also going to be showing Dreams' half brother Copper for his owner, so I'll be getting him ready too as the month goes on. I invited his owner to show Copper himself … it's another Podunk local show like the last one and it would be fun and super low key … but alas, R says he's not much of a showman so he'll be sitting on the sidelines cheering us on instead. I'll have to tell him that since I'm the one schooling his horse he can make the food runs and fill up the cooler with ice, heh!! ; )

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Well because I have zero willpower and a bad habit of lurking in tack stores randomly, I picked up these two beauties yesterday. All components handmade by a local rawhide braider and his brother, who twists mecates. I love the turquoise in the mane hair mecate … you never see colors like that! The lighter one is a mohair mecate and I really think that one will look better with Dreams' coat but I still stubbornly like the turquoise one better lol. I'm going to work tonight sometime so I'll be bringing my spoils with me to try them on tomorrow … along with the two wool saddle blankets (did I mention lack of willpower?). Dreams will be so purteh!!

I actually did have half a reason to buy (one of) these … Dreams is coming along famously in his 5/8" starter bosal and is ready to graduate to the 1/2". These both 1/2" but I suppose I didn't really need two lol … ah well. Now I can start saving for a 1/4" or so bosalito and a nice spoon bit (I want to ease Dreams - and myself - into the spade). We're still working on refinement but Dreams is coming along so well. I would never have guessed when we started this journey that he would ever make a nice hackamore horse, but he's super at it. I'm not sure if he'll eventually get to the level of straight up in the spade but even if he makes no more progress than he has thus far, I will be proud of him. He's starting to collect very nicely now, and his lope is now smooth as butter as he's learned how to use himself instead of lumbering around on his front end. Progress is slower these days … I HATE not being able to ride every day … but he's still progressing. 

I've started Dreams on easy cattle work and he loves it! I find that while we're working cows I can kind of sneak the training in and we generally make heaps more progress on the days when we sort, track and turn the steers than the days when it's just arena work. Dreams had his first hard stop a few days ago, and it was perfect. I'd asked him for a bit of a gallop to stay on a steer and that blasted thing decided to stop and dive back the way he'd come … without me even asking Dreams sat down on his butt, rolled over his hocks and followed. I looked back and there was a nice 4 or 5 foot long number 11 in the dirt. I was so happy with him that I quit him then and there (he was starting to lose steam anyway), dropped my cinches and gave him a peppermint that had been floating around in my pocket all day. We're doing more and more one-handed, though for some things like sidepassing Dreams still needs two hands on the reins. I just chip away at it, a little bit every day. : )

-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Those are beautiful, feel proud that you have made so much progress on a hackamore horse. I never had the talent for that, much less a spade.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

This will be my first attempt at training a bridle horse. I find that I'm well suited to this sort of training - many small steps over a course of time fits my style very well. I can turn out a fabulous nicely-broke green colt in 30 to 60 days, but the truly great stuff happens later. To be honest I have missed small refinement training lately. For the past few years I've been focusing almost exclusively on colt starting, which is a heck of a lot of fun, but putting the finishing touches on a bridleless horse or flying lead change is awesome too, and a nice change of pace. The only problem with so much colt starting is that I have to keep reminding myself that Dreams isn't a baby anymore, and he's moved past the basics so it's okay to ask more of him now. We've progressed beyond Beginner Mode and it feels so strange after riding horse after horse after horse in Beginner Mode for ages! : )

If Dreams is doing so well, I attribute that mostly to his desire to please - this guy tries his heart out for me every day. We work so well together as a team now, which to me is hilarious since we butted heads so often in the beginning. During our first year together I couldn't WAIT to sell the little turd … then after we worked out our collective kinks and started working WITH each other instead of AGAINST each other, things got pretty awesome. I'm not even sure when it happened really, or if it was something I did or something he did or a combination of the two, but one day I was working with him and thought "You know, this guy is all right," and he's been getting progressively more all right ever since. He's been off the market for two years now. : )

So Dreams consented to look mildly amused for a quickie photshoot in his new swag …. what do you guys think? I think the cream and red matches his coat pretty well, though I'm concerned that that blanket just sort of disappears into his roaning and spots. The turquoise definitely pops, perhaps a little too much so? I think they both look pretty good, but which color scheme looks best? (Please excuse the wonky fit on these bosals, I just threw them on … I need to wrap them differently too. They'll fit better later)

-- Kai


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## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

I like the turquoise, but then, I'm partial to turquoise.


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

I think I like the turquoise better too, which I really didn’t expect.

I completely understand what you are talking about! You know though, I think being so close to the basics all of the time in your own mental state makes a better horse. Sometimes if I haven’t been riding a colt for too long I kind of forget to go back to the basics when I need to.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

I fell in love with the turquoise immediately upon walking into the shop … he had a stack of coiled mane hair mecates and I saw the pop of color and fell in love. He had an AWESOME 1/2" bosal in black, with white rawhide accents that was absolutely gorgeous but at $650 it was a bit out of my price range lol. I drooled over it for a good five minutes though. And I like that the blanket has a bit of purple in it too … Dreams' color is purple so I'm still sticking to the original theme. ; )

I put those pictures out on the Book of Faces too and the general consensus is that the turquoise looks the best, so I think that's the one I'll be showing in at the end of the month. Plus my show shirt (Not really a showy shirt but the only shirt I have that is a western button-up, long-sleeved shirt so show shirt it is lol) is blue and it just might be of a complimentary hue. It's more of a royal blue but I think it might match that blanket. 

Now I need to work on my showmanship. I was practicing the other day and I really have no clue where to stand when, so today my homework is to scour the InterWebs for showmanship advice. Also, I'm putting Thunder the Shire in in-hand trail and I've discovered there isn't a whole heck of a lot of information out there on that class, it must not be very popular. So I'm trying to find information about that too (if it is acceptable to touch the horse for sidepassing, how the maneuvers are supposed to be done, what is good etiquette and form, etc.) so that I don't look like a total idiot. I thought about putting Thunder in that class at the last show but I'd thought there wouldn't be too many people in the class. Turns out that class is very popular with minis, horses too young to be ridden, and older folks so we're going to give it a whirl this time. I'm enjoying this show business more than I'd originally thought I would - hopefully I'll be able to do some showing next year as well, maybe some reined cowhorse events with Dreams and some driving classes with Thunder. 

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Hey all! It’s been a while! : )

Dreams, Thunder and I had a show at the beginning of last month. I had planned on showing the circuit this year but with our upcoming horse vacation to Yellowstone I figured it would be better to focus my attention on that rather than trying to do everything at once, so last month’s show was our last for this year. 

I didn’t do much with Thunder – just showmanship and barrels. I’d wanted to show him in walk-trot classes plus barrels, but the show committee (wisely, in my opinion) changed the rules so that a walk-trot horse could not be also used in a speed class. Since I was only showing him for fun to begin with, I chose just the barrel race – I figured seeing Thunder galumph around the pattern would be more fun than hearing my molars clacking together riding his atrocious trot. We were underwhelming in our showmanship classes … I'm not very good at it and we didn't practice very much, with the result that Thunder did a magnificent 270 degree turn and backed up super crooked lol. He also sort of ambles at the walk and trots like he's on a mission, and with my short stubby legs I was having a bear of a time keeping up with him in that deep arena dirt. But we took 3rd, which isn't terrible I suppose, and he was a good boy so I was happy with him.

To my complete and utter shock, Thunder decided to kick it into high gear around the barrel pattern. I have never practiced running with him, since he’s a draft horse and therefore not bred to turn and burn (and we’re only doing this for fun anyway) so no spurs, no quirts, nothing like that. Most of the time I can't even get him to lope more than a few strides in the small indoor arena. I figured I’d hop on and give him leg and see what happened. Lol Usually he’s a lazy lum but either he was excited with all the people and horses or hopped up on rocket fuel … either way, when I put my leg on he tore through the gate to the first barrel, trotted around to the second, loped to the third, and then beat hoof back to the gate. 27.13 seconds, not terribly fast I know, but much faster than I was expecting anyway, and good enough to put us in second place in our class of 4. I gave him a cookie for his efforts. : )

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

I entered Dreams in all the ranch horse classes to try for high point. Ranch horse trail, RH pleasure, RH horsemanship, reining, and ranch conformation (basically a ranch horse halter class). On day one, Dreams took first in ranch pleasure and horsemanship, then lost his brain during the reining class. Wouldn’t stop, bulled through my leg, kicked out when I put my spur on, wouldn’t slow down, wouldn’t speed up … basically just didn’t feel like showing up to work anymore. I pulled him out halfway through the reining class and we went to the outdoor arena and had a bit of a discussion about what I expect out of him when I ask him to do things. 

Dreams has a fantastic stop, neck reins beautifully, and moves off of my legs nicely – 80% of the time. 15% of the time he’s so perfect riding him brings tears to my eyes … the remaining 5% are composed of terrible rides that make me want to send him to the cannery lol. Every once in a great while, he’ll have an off day where he’s just an a**hole, and day 1 of the show was one of those days. It took me so long to get him listening to me again that we missed trail and ranch conformation on day 1 and had to scratch both classes. Ah well, on to day 2.

Dreams was significantly better behaved on day 2. When I laid the rein on his neck, he turned and looked into the turns. When I sat down in the saddle, he sat down in the dirt. When I put my leg on, he moved. Day 2 was one of those rare perfect days. He tried so hard for me, in every class, all day long, and we swept the ranch horse classes with a 1st in every class except conformation, where we took 2nd. There were a few instances in every class that I thought we could have improved upon but overall I was so **** proud of Spotty Bottom and everything we’ve accomplished together. Dreams was Reserve Grand Champion ranch horse for the weekend, even with our two scratches and last in reining on day 1. I think he earned it. : )

I only got 1 decent picture of Dreams during the show so I'll have to post links to videos of my classes once they're up on the Utubes. This was ranch horsemanship, day 2.

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Links to videos!

Thunder's showmanship pattern: 




Dreams' trail pattern: 




Dreams' reining: 




Dreams' horsemanship: 




Dreams' ranch pleasure: 




-- Kai


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Wow, that's great.


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## Elsie (Nov 14, 2018)

WOW!!!! Yourself and Thunder look amazing!!! Lovit!

Dreams looked pretty handsome too. Well done on your show placings, very good for your first time, and made me smile, because you were saying you wanted to do a little "more" with Dreams


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Thanks @Elsie!

I am so proud of what Dreams and I have done together. We definitely have a ways to go, but we're both continually improving. Dreams is a good boy and he tries so hard for me - I love him from his velvet nose all the way to his spotted bottom. I even love his ratty Appy tail lol

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

I took Dreams out for an easy bareback walk the day after the show so we could just relax for a while. Spring came late to Montana this year … it was the beginning of June but the grass was just starting to come in nice, the meadowlarks were singing, the crickets were chirping … all in all a gorgeous quickie trail ride. Dreams was quite content to just amble along and stop to smell the roses after a weekend of sidepassing, stopping and loping. I'd been riding him in a bosal for months so I threw on a Billy Allen shanked bit just to get off his nose for a ride. We both enjoyed our ride. : )






-- Kai


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

cutest pic ever!!


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

I love how he takes up the entire stall. I thought it hilarious that he would just lay there and eat … That was the morning of the show and when I started getting them both ready he continued to lay there like "Yep. I know I'm laying down and I don't care … you can brush me down here right?" He's such a lazy lum lol!

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

I'd ridden Dreams a number of times in the "two-rein" (in quotes because I didn't actually have reins on the spade, I was just letting Dreams pack it) before last month's show. As we got closer to the show, I brought him back to the 1/2" bosal since that was what I was going to be showing him in. Ever since the show, though, I've been riding Dreams in the 2-rein … and about 3 rides after the show, I put reins on the spade and now he ACTUALLY gets ridden in the 2-rein. : )

I think we're right at about 20 rides total with the spade, with about 5 rides in the actual 2-rein. Dreams is coming right along as a bridle horse - every ride brings more collection, more rate, better communication, better neck reining, and better body control. We're working on flying lead changes now, and greater collection at faster speeds, something Dreams has had some difficulty learning since I hardly ever ask it of him. I have to keep reminding myself that it's okay to ask Dreams to ride like a big boy … he's 5 years old now so it's time to refine and perfect.

On our last ride (which was admittedly 2 weeks ago since I haven't been getting out there as much as I'd like) I think Dreams finally got the hang of this collected lope business. I could feel his back rounding up under me, he kept great cadence and energy through the turns, he kept his nose tucked in, it was gorgeous! It was getting dark when I rode him so I couldn't get a decent video … I wish I would have been able to see what we looked like. It felt amazing enough. : )

I can't wait to get back on him again … I can't wait to continue our journey to straight up in the bridle. : )

-- Kai


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## 4horses (Nov 26, 2012)

This may be nothing but do you have video of Dreams walking and trotting on a circle? Looking at the way he was moving on that reining pattern, he looks off behind. or it could be my imagination.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

@4horses Mmmmm nothing since the show … I've only had enough time and light to do quick pictures. He *was* getting long in the feet - I think that was week number 9 between farrier visits? I had wanted to get them done before the show but conflicting schedules meant I had to wait till the day after. That was also the last class of the day and I could tell Dreams was just wiped … lol poor guy was hot and just wanted to be done! (Much like myself, come to think of it.) His stops had been getting progressively crappier all afternoon, and he was collecting less and less. The next ride where we practiced stops was three or four days after the show, and he'd had his feet done by then, and he was back to normal. So maybe it was a combination of long hooves and being tired?

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

*Just Spotty Bottoms Now*

Well. So much has happened since the last time I wrote here. I'll give you guys the Cliff Notes' version and come back later when I have more time to upload pictures and videos and go more in depth. 

R and I successfully camped just outside Yellowstone National Park for a week last August. I'll go into more detail next time I'm on but suffice to say that it was the single most amazing thing I've ever done with any of my horses. R concurs. I'm planning another big ride this year, haven't got the details lined up yet but I hope it'll be even more awesome. 

I enjoyed horse camping so much that I went on another, shorter trip - to one of the big pastures at the arena, lol. I camped out in the back 40 and Dreams and Thunder both camped in their stalls. Four days of day rides - I trailered the boys out to Lion's Back, one of the recreational areas near the arena, and we had an awesome time. Except for the day that I hitched Thunder to a pallet sled and he dragged me around. : )

Then the end of October hit and work started getting horrendous. I only rode off and on the rest of October and all of November, which sucks because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. In December I got bumped out of my home terminal, which also sucked, but shockingly was able to find a spot in Glendive so was able to ride about four days a week. 

All of those things were lovely. I had such a blast on Dreams, and on Thunder. But the more I rode them both, the more I started thinking maybe I was having more fun on Dreams than on Thunder. Thunder is awesome because you can do anything with him and he never gives you any problems … but that's also his downside. To me, anyway. I love Dreams for his fire, and his ability to challenge me. Thunder just … didn't do that. He always did exactly what I told him. Even when he didn't get it, he tried his great big hairy heart out until we found a way for him to get it. It was awesome and easy and boring. 

And, more importantly, he isn't the horse to take me down the path I wish to ride. He's a great confidence builder, a great 'easy rider', an excellent husband horse or first driving horse or Steady Eddie trail mount, if you're not overly ambitious. But I WANT to ride more ambitiously now. I want long trail rides, I want a lot of loping, I want to climb mountains and camp for days. I want an athletic horse, one who challenges me and therefore teaches me how to be better than I am.

And Thunder is none of those things.

So, toward the middle of November, I put him up for sale. It was hard. I cried when I saw his ad the next morning. I posted him on Equine Now, and he sat there for just over a month. I had started to think he wasn't going to garner any interest, because I asked quite a bit for him and horse sales always nosedive through the winter, and shockingly I was completely fine with the idea of him staying with me until spring. Or later. Then about two weeks before Christmas I had four people contact me within 48 hours all clamoring for more pictures and videos. So I set about sifting through all my footage and asking questions. 

My favorite candidate lives in Florida, in some sort of horse riding paradise, and has a serious thing for drafts. Currently has a drum, just lost a Percheron stallion that she'd had for years, and trains horses for the mounted patrol folks down there. Her drum horse Axel (who has a delightful full beard and resplendent black and white splotches) is PSSM1 positive and ties up after about an hour of exercise. She wanted a horse she could ride and drive, perhaps compete in western dressage, and trail ride. She'd be exercising Thunder more than I, and when he isn't being used he would live on 3 acres of grass. 

I loaded Thunder onto the shipper's trailer on Friday the 24th, after spending one last week brushing him and giving him treats, riding him and driving him and sobbing inconsolably into his mane until 2 in the morning the night before. I sent with him all of his halters and bridles and his harness, so his new mom could drive him once she's found someone knowledgeable to help and take lessons from. From the drop down trailer window I kissed his velvety white nose one last time and gave him lovies, and told him to take care of himself and his rider, and to be a good boy for her. 

Watching that trailer leave was one of the hardest things I've ever done, I think. I jumped on Dreams bareback and we walked through the snow to the back pasture and stayed there until the cold drove me back. When we got back to the tack room he put his head on my shoulder. I told him now that he's an only child, he won't have to share me so much anymore. He nodded his head yes, I gave him a hug and put him away, and drove the 225 miles back home listening to Thunder's song on repeat.

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

*Yellowstone Trail Ride Arrival and First Ride*

R and I drove to Gardiner, just outside Yellowstone, and pitched our tents at Timber Camp in the Gallatin National Forest. We were greeted by hordes of gigantic horseflies but the site was otherwise fantastic - nice little stream flowing through camp, ringed all around by trees, even a pair of wooden corrals so we didn't end up needing to hi line or picket. The horseflies were the only downside, plus they were only bad in the afternoon and fly spray brought some modicum of relief so we ended up staying.

The first full day, we trailered both of the horses into the park and rode the Garnet Hill Loop, and a portion of the Coyote Creek trail. Right off the trailer the trail plunged down the side of a mountain all the way down to the Yellowstone River, switchbacking down through scrub and trees to the accompaniment of several species of songbird and the clicking of grasshopper wings, over which the roar of the river through the canyon could be heard. Dreams was rarin' to go after spending so much time in the trailer but despite the feeling of a coiled spring between my legs he was a perfect gentleman, keeping his feet clear of the rocks and using his haunches to squat down the hill.

R and I discovered, after several near misses, that Thunder did NOT understand the concept of a switchback, lol. He was using his butt to slow down, but when the trail hooked around he just … continued on straight into open air. The trail was super well defined and worn down so that you actually had to step up out of it, so it's not like it was barely there either. First time I've ever had a horse do that lol. 






We looked for garnets around the loop, since the hill was named for the deposit of raw garnets on it, but neither of us had any luck (and we both read up on finding them before we went, too). We wouldn't have taken any, since it's illegal to remove anything from the park and taking the objects means other people won't get to enjoy them, but it would have been fun to find some. A small creek wound around part of the hill so we had plenty of opportunity to stop and give Thunder some water - though he wasn't nearly as hot and tired as I'd anticipated he'd be. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and Thunder was quite excited to explore this new place to ride. We stopped for a while near a stream to have lunch and hobbled the horses to let them graze.






The Coyote Creek trail was so much fun. I was glad it wasn't too hot - there were some scattered stands of trees at the beginning but the trail soon started off into the dry scrub - and it was a wee bit rocky but once again we were serenaded by birdsong and grasshopper wings. I'm super bad at recognizing most birds by sound, but my very favorite one was present for almost the entire ride. Every few minutes we'd hear a burst of "Chicka-chicka-dee-dee-dee!" We crossed the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone on a suspension bridge that spanned the breadth of the roaring Yellowstone River. The bridge was designed for stock use so was plenty strong, although the feel of it swaying slightly with each step was a bit unnerving. R and I elected to lead the horses across heading out, since it was their first time, but after a few sniffs, snorts and squints they both followed us out readily. We rode across on the way back.






This was also our first big wildlife sighting - when we turned around to head back to the trailhead, Dreams and Thunder were both looking off to the left at something. R and I both looked too, but we could never see what it was they were looking at. We continued on toward the trailhead, keeping an eye out every time one of the horses looked, making noise in case it was a bear, etc etc. 

Nearly back to the canyon, we came out the back of a strand of trees and there it was, the animal they'd been looking for. It was, indeed, a bear. He didn't seem too concerned about the horses or us, and the horses were no more than politely interested, but we stopped anyway since the bear was paralleling us and we didn't want to make him nervous. We caught sight of him several times on the way back, including on the suspension bridge that we had to cross to get back, and every time we saw him we stopped for a few minutes to let him get ahead of us again. We both had bear spray and R had a .45 just in case, but the bear never gave any indication he was threatened other than the first, brief glance the very first time we saw him.






The ride was absolutely awesome, a great way to start the trip : )

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

*Arrival and Day One More Pictures*

More pictures : )

-- Kai


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## carshon (Apr 7, 2015)

that bridge video - WOW! So glad you found Thunder a good home


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## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

A-W-E-S-O-M-E video and trip pictures. What an amazing time. I loved sharing it vicariously. It must have been terrible to sell Thunder, but I am glad he has a good home.












s


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

*Yellowstone Trip Day Two*

On the second day of the trip, R and I trailered to the Shoshone/Dogshead trailhead, at darn near the opposite end of the park from where we were camped lol. As such we lost a lot of time driving, and this ride ended up being shorter since we had to head back to camp before it got dark. My fault - R had told me he was okay riding anywhere as long as we didn't die. I'd never been to that end of the park before so I said heck, let's check that out. The drive was SO FREAKIN LONG and I will never again camp and ride at opposite ends of the park. 






This ended up being my favorite ride in the park though. This trail is super well maintained and heavily traveled so the going was super easy, and it was in a relatively flat section of the park so Thunder spent a considerable amount of time in the lead due to his longer stride despite Dreams' attempts to pass and frequent tailgating lol. It was heavily forested the entire time, so we didn't get the stunning vistas of the previous ride, but there were plenty of lovely meadows, marshes, dry creek beds, little streams, and plenty of small wildlife. It was also an interesting example of the effects of fire on a pine forest, and it was cool to see how the ecology had recovered. 






Plenty of smaller wildlife on this trail. A pine marten ran across the trail nearly under Dreams' nose, and shockingly he didn't react at all. We saw a couple of deer through the trees, several raptors, squirrels, songbirds, and an itty bitty snek. And spiderwebs everywhere. I could tell it had been a while since someone rode a horse down this trail, since every so often the person in the lead would get a faceful of silk. R thought it was awesome to be in the lead until he got some in his eye. Then he was happy to let me lead again lol. 






So … not the most exciting ride in the world, but a nice one to unwind and just enjoy the scenery without worrying about your horse walking off the side of a cliff or a suspension bridge or into a bear. Though we were on the lookout for bears the whole time, just in case!

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

*Day Three - Wandering*

R had never been to the park before so he wanted to spend a day off the ponies just driving around and hiking and seeing all the fun things, so on day three we left the boys at camp and took a drive. We hit Old Faithful and the cluster of smaller geysers that surrounds it, Biscuit Basin, hiked to Fairy Falls, Firehole Falls, Artists Paintpots, Midway Geyser Basin, Beryl Spring, and hiked around the terraces at Mammoth. 

We both had an awesome time. There were a ton of people around Grand Prismatic Spring and Imperial Geyser, so that was kind of crappy, but the rest of the stuff we saw we hit at down times or, like with Old Faithful, went around the lesser-known back sides to avoid the crowds. I haven't done a ton of hiking 'off the beaten path' at Yellowstone so I especially enjoyed the hike to Fairy Falls, and the back side of Old Faithful. R liked all of the thermal spots and refuses to pick a favorite, lol. He enjoyed the hike to Fairy Falls but not the massive nosebleed that followed. We both got a good laugh out of the ridiculous sounds from the Artists Paintpots - hisses, burps, splats, blops, plops, ploops, and blips.

Toward the end of the afternoon a storm rolled in and we got to see some awesome clouds racing across the tops of the mountains. The elk were just starting the early rut and we heard some awesome bugling through the afternoon half-light. We watched an osprey take a fish from the Firehole River, and the water trickling over the Mammoth Terraces made a gentle accompaniment to the rolling thunder. It was beautiful, and since the tourists all took shelter once the clouds rolled in despite the lack of rain, we had nearly the whole afternoon to ourselves. It made for slightly more lackluster pictures, but the lack of a jostling sea of humanity was delightful. 

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

*The Last Ride - Knox Lake*

The last ride of the trip was probably my favorite. We didn't trailer out since we were leaving that afternoon, so we rode out from our campsite on the Knox Lake trail headed north. An early morning ride, through the trees and slanting sunbeams from light filtering down through scented needles. A few lingering wisps of mist burned away as we mounted up, and birdsong drifted down through beards of lichen hanging from gnarled branches, swaying gently in the light breeze. We must have crossed a dozen small streams and one larger stream/river/creek thing, lined with smooth round stones and fallen trees. The air was thick with the scent of pine and loam and mountain, and crisp with the scent of the new day. 


























It was glorious and beautiful and it made my heart nearly burst with happiness. It was the culmination of a dream - a long ride in the wilderness on a horse I'd trained, in the company of friends who shared my passions. I think it would have been fun with a bigger group, but R and I had a smashing time even without the wild parties lol. And now that Thunder is gone … it was a magnificent last Big Thing to do with him.

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Okay so someone else at the arena is having a vet come out Wednesday to float teeth and I put Dreams down to get that done too since I think it's been nearly two years since he last had them done? I'm reasonably certain anyway. I won't be able to be there then, but the weather is supposed to be nice this weekend so I was planning a trip to Glendive then. For those of you who don't know, I've decided to see how far Dreams can go in the driving world. I really loved driving Thunder, and he taught me a lot. I'm not sure if I can train Dreams to drive … he's certainly a much hotter horse than Thunder! … but I think odds are at least even that we'll be able to do this together. I'll start ground driving him this weekend, since he hasn't had much of that, and we'll do some desensitizing. I want to start training him and see how he goes before I go out and buy a harness, so my gear will all be cobbled together lol but I think that will be even better - Dreams will get to feel excess rope slapping against his side with every stride, and I'll leave the fit kinda loose so everything moves on him and desensitizes him even more. 

I'm going to start him driving in Thunder's old rubber bit. It's a bit worn so I'll order a new one next time I'm getting some online stuff, but this one will work for now. Can't wait to see how he goes. : )

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Ergh kids these days … Lol teeth floating was rescheduled since the vet was having technical difficulties. And the weather turned absolutely gross today - went from low 40s and sunny (gorgeous for us this time of year) to high 30s and clouds, which was still okay. Then this morning, when I woke up early specifically to make the drive to Glendive, I checked one more time and all of a sudden in was low 30s, snow showers, RAIN, and 40 mph winds.

Uhh, negative, ghost rider. Ain't gonna happen. 

Sigh. So now I'm waiting for decent weather … it looks like Thursday or Friday now? Hopefully it's the middle of the week so I can get a cheaper hotel room. Blegh. I WANT TO START TRAINING SO BAD. I've been sitting here at home watching literally ALL of Barry Hook's videos and reading all of the driving articles I can get my hands on and ergh I'm just so done with waiting. I haven't been to Glendive since Thunder was sold and I need to ride, and train, and just … BE with Dreams. Le sigh. 

I love winter, it's my favorite season. But I hate waiting for breaks in the weather to go riding. I'm getting cabin fever hardcore. 

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Well I am officially back home from my training vacation … 4 days in Glendive with the ponies, although Thursday really didn't count because I didn't arrive till nearly sunset so all I did was turn Dreams, Copper and Miss Huckles loose in the [absolutely swampy and gross] outdoor arena to blow off some steam. The mud was confined to the fence lines so they all ran laps in the inner portion of the arena for about an hour lol. Dreams and Copper were very happy - they are half brothers and have been playing together for a very long time, so there was lots of bucking and rearing and biting and kicking and squealing and mutual grooming going on. Every so often they'd get too boisterous and Miss Huckles would embrace her role as the Fun Police and step in to keep it to a dull roar. 

I'm happy to say that I think Dreams has a very good chance of making it as a driving horse. Probably. Lol. I didn't get around to any desensitizing with Scary Things because I really wanted to focus on traffic training, and that ended up taking a large chunk out of the weekend. On day 1 I simply threw my trashy rope contraption on Dreams and lunged him in the indoor, then did some basic ground driving to make sure he was controllable outside. I thought that surely he'd object to the crupper under his tail, but he never had a thing to say about it at all 3 gaits, even when snugged up tighter than any crupper has a right to be (I like to make SURE a horse is desensitized). I rode him in it after, and even took his reins off and had a few minutes of bridleless riding time in at the walk and trot since he was being so good.

I also discovered that I use my seat waaay more than I thought I did. I had figured Dreams would at least understand the word 'whoa' since I've been riding him so long and he DOES have a great stop … but nah. It must have been my seat all along lol since on the ground he had no reactions to any word I said. By the end of the drive he was successfully picking up walk on, whoa, and easy (which I also use under saddle so came very quickly). We introduced 'trottrot' as a trotting command, 'come around' to turn left, 'come over' to turn right, and 'can-TERR!' to canter/lope. He had no clue what any of those meant since I made them all up that day lol but he was trying, the poor confused beastie. 






It wasn't much but he went along with everything so much better than I'd imagined … so I was happy with that progress.

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Day 2 of the training weekend went swimmingly. I did a quick bit of ground driving review and then loaded Dreams up in the trailer and hauled him downtown to get right to traffic training. I specifically did not ride him or tire him out at all before I left, intending to take him to see all the Scary Things when he was fresh so I could more accurately gauge his reactions during spooks. I also didn't lunge him once he got off the trailer - we just unloaded and went for it. 

I decided that since ground driving was so new I'd just hand walk him, then if things went pear shaped he wouldn't have long lines dragging and potentially tripping me up. Also, since he does lunge so well and I have so much control over him that way, I figured it would be better. 

He was spectacular. I use a parking lot right next to the railroad tracks since it is seldom used, and mostly out of the way, but still on the main street so I'm relatively close to a lot of different things. Right off the trailer, a train came rolling down the main line. Dreams had never seen a train before and was a bit nervous but handled it really well I thought. A few times he thought about sucking back but never moved until I asked him to. I gave him a treat once the train was stopped. 






Once we were out on the main street it was apparent that I wasn't going to get a whole heck of a lot of traffic training done - for one thing, the drivers were being very polite and WITHOUT EXCEPTION moved into the further lane as they passed us, which was very nice but wasn't really conducive to a training environment lol. If there were two vehicles approaching in either lane, the one closest to us would slow down and merge over behind the other. Like I said, it was very polite of them, but it was also rather frustrating lol. There also were hardly any people out driving - for a Saturday, the whole dang town was pretty dead. But there were a few loud motorcycles, which was great, and lots of big puddles to walk through, and flags fluttering in the breeze, and a pack of very excited children who mobbed Dreams right at the start of the walk. He handled all of it with aplomb. 






I made sure to walk him up both sides of the road, so that cars were passing him both on the left and right sides. He's actually VERY relaxed about cars coming up on him from behind … it's the cars coming at him from the front that he's worried about. So we'll have to work harder on that account. 

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Day 3 of driving training was quite eventful. Same as the day before, I pulled Dreams out of his stall (after waiting a few minutes for him to wake up, as he was sleeping when I got there), loaded him in the trailer and hauled him downtown again. No trains this time - instead, right after arrival a garage caught fire a few blocks away and a propane cylinder exploded. It was quite loud. Dreams stood still like a good boy. We happened to be right across the street from the fire department and a fire truck came out with lights and sirens blazing and again, Dreams stood still with one leg at rest despite the noise which was enough to make my ears hurt, so I can't imagine how it felt for him. 






Then a few minutes later a second truck headed out, which I again missed, but caught the tail end of their sirens. I learned later that day that no one was injured in the fire and while the garage burned quite extensively, the house was fine and so was the family who lived there. 






THEN right as I was finishing tacking him up, the switch crew shoved some cars into the yard and made a lot of noise with squealing brakes. Dreams once more handled it like a gentleman, watching with one foot at rest. I do wish we would have been able to watch a train come roaring down the main line lol but for his first few times out I thought he handled all the loud smelly trains very well. 






No videos of ground driving on that day, since I had my hands full. I parked Dreams alongside the road behind a van so that the approaching traffic couldn't see him and move over. THAT got me the traffic training I'd been hoping for. Dreams could see the approaching vehicles just far enough away that they didn't pop out and scare him more, but they couldn't see him, so it was a great spot. He jumped every time a vehicle passed at speed, and once or twice shied a step or two away toward the curb when a very big truck passed, but I always brought him back and told him to 'stand still'. He definitely needs more of that. We stood there for 30 minutes or so and there wasn't a ton of traffic since it was Sunday, and it tended to come in spurts - there would be a pack of vehicles pass, then nothing for a few minutes, then a pack again, etc. I wasn't completely satisfied by the end of the time spent standing there but I felt like he had made an improvement, and had stayed still for several vehicles in a row so I asked him to 'walk on' and we ended that part of the session on a good note. 

The rest of the session was rather uneventful. We went back to the trailer by a different route and I walked him on sidewalks more, instead of in the parking lane like I had been. This was both to give him a mental break after standing so close to traffic for a while, and to accustom him to walking over things without me going first to guide him - in particular he took a bit of coaxing over manholes (but then so did Thunder so I was ready for that), yellow painted curbs, and the hash marks etched into concrete for traction where the curb dips down to the street. He HATED walking over those lol so we spent plenty of time doing that. We also parked in a parking spot for a good 10 or 15 minutes to really enforce the 'stand still' command. A few people walked past with their kids or dogs, but other than that it was pretty much us and the sunshine. I had wanted to cross a foot bridge over the Yellowstone River but it was closed for construction so we simply headed back to the trailer.

That day we added two new commands to Dreams' repertoire - 'step around' to move his front end to the left one step at a time, and 'step over' to do the same thing to the right. It took a bit of convincing at first, but once he understood that I only wanted his front end to move a step at a time he really ate that one up and by the end of the session was doing it off voice only. I added these because I noticed that when asking him to 'come over' or 'come around' he'd move that caboose to the opposite side of the turn and really just sort of turn sloppy. This allows me to move him a step at a time when finer positioning is required - for instance, when we're standing on the side of the road and he's just moved away from a car, and I want him to move back to where he was.

Overall I think he picked things up pretty darn quick and while I definitely want more time desensitizing to traffic and ground driving, I think he looks promising as a driving horse. Even during his worst spook, it was a single step to the side on a loose rein, so I feel confident that I can handle him moving forward. I was certainly quite pleased with him and spent a whole hour before I drove back home just loving on him and feeding him about a million treats. He felt like he was giving me 100% every time I asked, and we had a great weekend together. So proud of my Spotty Bottom!!

-- Kai


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

What a good boy!


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

He was such a good boy! : )

I can't wait to get back at it. I realized belatedly that while I have developed a verbal command to increase and decrease speed through the gaits, and to increase speed within the gaits, I do not actually have a command to decrease speed within the gaits. lol In hindsight, this might be slightly problematic. So I'll need to figure something out … any idears? Anybody out there who uses a verbal command to decrease speed within the gait? What do you do or say?

-- Kai


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

I do, but not for driving, just riding. It likely could be a change of seat as much as anything, but I’ve seen it transfer when the girls are riding my horses. It’s quiet though; it’s just a growl type thing. My horses have picked it up super fast though.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Feh. 

It's been such a long time since I rode last. We've had a slew of nice weather here in Montana, and it's been making me stir crazy. With this whole virus thing going on I was recently furloughed so I figure might as well spend a few days out riding, if the weather will hold. Maybe do some training on the trail since I haven't been able to trailer out for a while. Since I really miss camping season and can't wait to start heading up into the mountains again, I'll be bringing my tent and camping out in the back pasture like I did last October. The barn owner is always amused when I ask her if I can pitch my tent out there but I really do like camping lol. Plus it's awesome getting to lay out and watch the stars, and listen to the coyotes sing. No campfires allowed, unfortunately - that would make the whole thing just perfect! But I got a Jetboil for Christmas so at least I can have hot meals. I kinda want to take Dreams out for an overnight trail ride but I'm not sure if either one of us is ready for that at this point … plus it's going to rain. Sigh. Thoedore Roosevelt National Park opens on the 8th, maybe that will make a nice horse camping debut for us both. 

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

I haven't ridden very much this year. It's hard living so far away from Dreams now ... I definitely need to get him moved to Billings. And then I haven't been putting my pictures and videos on my external hard drive very often, so I didn't have any pictures to post. Aaaand I've been working a lot so I haven't had much time ... lol. This year has been crazy. 

But I was able to ride the other day. It was quite hot for us, nearly 90 degrees, and the indoor arena was SUUUUPER humid so it was a relatively short ride. A few laps around inside, to warm Dreams up and lope him a bit and see how he was going to do since I hadn't ridden him in a month, and then a little ride outside. He was a bit eager after not being ridden in a month, but he waited for me and when I asked him to lope it was that nice slow easy lope that I'm always looking for, instead of the OMGYESLET'SLOPE that he usually gives me after a long time off. After our ride I bathed him since he was sweaty and gross, and hobbled him to graze for a bit while I cleaned out my trailer (I need to clean that thing ALL THE TIME ergh I'm such a hot mess lol).

And now I'm panicking slightly lol ... I originally had my next week of vacation scheduled for October but in Montana October is a terrible time to go for a ride in the mountains. It could be decent, or it could dump a foot of snow on you, you never know. But I was checking a few days ago and a week opened up this month, so I swapped to that week, and now I've got 8 days to get us both ready for a psuedo-packing trip. I could borrow a friend's horse to pack with but this is my first time going solo so I wanted to make it a bit easier. So - I've got some soft over-saddle panniers and I'll load Dreams up with the things we need, and hike out using him as my packhorse. We'll camp for three nights and do two day rides from camp, then I'll load him up again and hike back out. As an added bonus, the grass right now is awesome so I won't need to bring a ton of cubes for him - just enough for a little something extra at the end of the day.

This will also be a good time to test out the hammock I bought a few weeks ago and haven't tried yet. But since I don't need to bring 40 pounds of feed with us this time, that frees up some space so I might bring my tent too, just in case the hammock thing doesn't work out. Since I wasn't planning on a mountain ride this month Dreams isn't really fit, so we'll take it easy and do shorter rides at lower elevation. I'll probably head to the Snowy Mountains instead of the Beartooths since the Snowies don't have a grizzly population and I don't know, for my first solo trip it might be better to avoid areas where I might get eaten? And also the Beartooths get crazy elevation wise so with Dreams being less than fit it'll be easier on everybody to just go somewhere less rugged. 

I'm super excited though. I've done a few with other people but not solo, and I'm looking forward to having some Zen time finally. I love to sit in camp at the end of the day and listen to the wind through the trees, and the birds, and all the sounds of the mountains. : )

-- Kai


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## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

Sounds like fun. Stay safe and enjoy yourself. And....Don't forget the pics to share your adventure.


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Thanks! I'm sure I'll take ALLLL the pictures ... hopefully I'll get some uploaded! XD

-- Kai


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## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

This sounds so cool and wonderful and amazing! I am so happy that you are getting to do this and can't wait to read your adventures!


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