Summer is Here

The heat has arrived in Texas with a vengeance! It is this time of year that I begin moaning to Casi about hell, and how close we must be living to it in order for it to be this hot. Fortunately Miss Halo is more heat tolerant than I am, because yesterday night it was her turn for a workout.

As usual, I cobbled together an odd assortment of tack for her to wear. I decided it was time for her to have something on her back, but I didn't want to use my english saddle since I'm still worried about it being a poor fit. All the synthetic western saddles were in use, so this was the solution. It actually worked out well. There's not much weight, but it does give her the feeling of the cinch. Also, it's a good thing for her to wear if I decide to get on. Strange as it seems to some people, I do like to get on babies bareback at first.




We did a brief longe workout - just enough to have her walk, trot, and canter on command both directions. She was very well behaved with only one or two bouncy canter strides. Of course neither of us counted on me being a moron and not checking the cinch one last time! As Halo made some lovely counter-clockwise canter circles, the bareback pad began to slide around her big round barrel. I said, "whoa!" and she stopped on a dime, the pad completing its slide over onto her right side. Poor confused filly! However, you can see from her reaction that it was not of any concern to her. I got her readjusted and snugged up between fits of laughter. I am SO glad to have such a mild-mannered baby horse!





After our brief longeing session, I got on for a few minutes. Casi led us a couple of times around the arena, and then we walked independently for a few more minutes near the gate. She's pretty good about steering and following her nose, but the go button doesn't work very well yet. I imagine I may get up on her 1 or 2x per month and do a little bit of walking. In those sessions, when I have an assistant, I'll have someone lead while I teach her the leg and voice cues for forward motion. When I don't have an assistant I probably won't ride, but from the ground I can do long reining to work on voice commands. In fact, I think that is what I will plan to do for our next session.



Halo got a warm water rinse and a mane and tail bath after her light workout, and then we took her height and weight. The baby is now a tiny bit shy of 14.2h at the withers and 14.3h at the hip. She weighs approximately 850lbs. At the end of July last year she was 13h at the withers, 13.3h at the hip, and weighed about 575lbs. I can't believe how much she's grown!

I've been using a height/weight tape to chart her progress, but at some point I plan to do a more accurate check with the following formula:

• Measure girth in inches
• Measure length in inches (point of hip to point of chest)
• Multiply Girth X Girth X Length, Divide by 300, Add 50
• Example 70" x 70" x 65" = 318,500 / 300 = 1061.67 + 50 = 1111.67 lbs.

This formula is accurate to +/- 3%.

Back in the Saddle

Yesterday evening was the perfect night for a ride. I went out to the barn with the intention of riding Cash, but he got an eye injury this week. The barn owner let me ride a cute little Appaloosa instead. She warned me beforehand that he would want to go where he wanted to go, but he wouldn't hurt me or do anything spazzy. Well, that's just Appytude for you.

I got on bareback and rode for about half an hour in the outdoor arena. He did pull some when he wanted to go back toward the gate, but it was nothing I haven't dealt with before. I did what I usually do, and made the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. As long as he went where I wanted, he got nice relaxed rein contact and me quiet on his back. If he started to barge off in his own direction, he got a gentle leg aid to block him from barging. If he didn't listen, he got a stronger leg aid and a rein check. As soon as he quit, back to me being gentle and quiet.

Overall it was a fun ride. He's a mellow horse who has a been-there-done-that kind of attitude. I just walked and trotted, but spent a good amount of time working on my sitting trot. I was very pleased to notice that I didn't get nearly as sore or tired as I expected. In fact, I still feel great today! I guess the gym is helping more than I thought.

Anyway, here's a picture of the view from Caddo's back:



After my ride, it was time to work with Halo. She whinnied and came when I called, which made me a happy horse mom. I was thrilled to see that the barn owners have finally opened up the bigger pastures for the horses during the day. Halo had spent all day enjoying fresh grass and more room to run and play with her buddies. She also made a new friend, a cute chestnut arab with a flaxen mane and tail. The benefits of having spent the day out in a bigger field were evident in her workout. She was very relaxed, and had less spastic energy than she usually does during her mid-week workout.

Though she was fantastic on the longe line, there was one setback last night that is going to require some work. While tied at the hitching rail she usually stands relaxed with her head down, or tries to eat grass on the other side of the rail if she can. Tonight she was doing that, but managed to get her head caught under the lead rope. What ensued was a panicked spazzing, backing up, and sliding on the mats until her head came free, and then she continued to set back for a few more seconds. Thank god that hitching rail is rooted in cement, or it could have been a huge wreck.

She quieted quickly after the episode was over, but she now has a big welt on the side of her neck where the rope was caught. Poor filly. Ideally, it would be nice to have somewhere to tie her above her head where something like this couldn't occur. However, there isn't a safe place like that at my barn. What I am going to do instead is spend some time teaching her a cue that Tara, one of her former owners, worked with her on before I got her. Tara taught Halo that pressure on the poll means "put your head down." Halo still responds to the cue, but it is time to take it to the next level. I plan to start working with her with the rope until she will give to pressure anywhere on her neck, head or face. She also needs practice with ropes being tossed over her face as would be done with reins. Right now she's still a little head shy about that. With how good Halo has become about longeing, I guess I should be glad she's given me a new project to work on. I just wish she hadn't had to injure herself to let me know that I needed to work on it.

At the end of the night it was time for worming, so I weighed and measured her to make sure I was giving the right dosage. Halo weighs in right now at about 800lbs according to the weight tape, and she is 14h or so. What she lacks in height, she is definitely starting to make up in width. As soon as she finishes shedding out, I'm going to post some new conformation pictures.

Halo Has Visitors!

This post is overdue because I didn't have pictures until a couple of days ago, and then work turned into the ninth level of hell. Excuses, excuses. Anyway, a friend of mine from work came out to the barn last Sunday and took some pictures of Halo. First we got her out and cleaned up. Here's miss Halo licking my hand after a good grooming from me and Sioux:

Next I took her up to the arena, showed them her paces in the round pen, and then got her out into the big arena to run around a little bit. I'd worked her the night before, so she was much more interested in scavenging blades of grass than giving us a show. Sioux did get a few good pictures though.

It was nice to have a couple of pictures of me with Halo, since I'm usually the one behind the camera.

Sioux and Ben also asked me how much Halo weighed. Being non-horsey people, they guessed around 350 lbs. We were all surprised though when I checked her with the weight tape and got 821 lbs!

Stormy Weather

Last week Casi and I had the pleasure of being in Louisiana over Labor Day weekend, aka when Hurricane Gustav was hitting. Fortunately we were far enough to the northeast that all we got was a ton of rain. Nevertheless, traveling did stall out blog posting for a time.

Miss Halo apparently did quite well without her moms around to keep an eye on her. Upon our return we were regaled with stories of her extensive mud rolling and general punk behavior. For the most part though, she looked good! And in other good news, the ticks in her ears mostly seem to have dropped off, and or be dead. She even lets me touch her ears again if I am gentle, and she loves a good scratch along her mane.



It is probably just delusional horse-mom vision, but every time I look at her she seems to be bigger. I don't feel like she's taller, but looking at her over this past weekend she seems to be getting more substance and width. We measured her yesterday and she is weighing in close to 700lbs. She's approximately 14h at the butt, and 13.3 at the withers. She squirms a lot though, so I'm sure the accuracy of those measurements is questionable.

Halo pulled her first extremely naughty move on Saturday, much to my surprise. She's always been quite good in hand, and not even too terrible when dealing with unfamiliar situations. On Saturday one of the barn owners let her horse go running down into the pasture while I was haltering Halo down in the field. The horses all went on alert, but Halo still stood quietly for me to get the halter on. But we got halfway up the hill and she decided to make a break for it. Fortunately I managed to hang on, so that she didn't learn she could get away by being a turkey. We made it to the top of the hill with continued fussing and whinnying, but no more escape attempts. I didn't give her any food while she was tied, but by the time she was up there, she was back to her usual placid self. She didn't give me any more trouble that day, and was excellent yesterday. But damn my shoulder hurts!

Here's the princess with her shiny polished feet (hoof conditioner).

Fly Spray & Other Instruments of Torture and Death

So far I've been impressed with Halo's ability to learn and adjust to all the new things I ask her to do. Of course it probably doesn't hurt that she spends most of her days running with her other yearling buddies, AND we tend to feed her while we are working with her tied up.

The one thing she can't seem to tolerate is fly spray. While she's gotten over the sound of the sprayer for the most part, she spazzes out when the mist actually hits her skin. Silly sensitive filly. We've done a lot of work with a spray bottle filled with water, and slowly but surely she is making progress. However, her first reaction is always to back up at Mach 10 with her eyes bugged out like a frog.

Fortunately not all instruments of torture have been received with the alarm and disdain she reserves for fly spray. She had her first hoof trim last Saturday for which she stood remarkably still. She doesn't yet understand having her legs pulled forward to go on the hoof stand, but she's already learning fast. The rasp doesn't bother her at all, and she was minimally fidgety. This is the same horse who didn't even know how to have her feet picked up three weeks ago. Her toes are still a bit long in front, and she's tilted back onto her heels a little bit from lack of previous hoofcare. However, Steph is very confident that it will only take a few trims to get her sorted out, especially since she seems to have nice shapely feet to begin with. Lucky her, since her pasterns are crazy!

Out of curiosity I weighed her on Tuesday to see how she is doing on that front. She's already up to 615 if the weight tape is reading correctly. Although her ribs are still slightly visible, she is getting quite a belly! I hope it means her height is going to shoot up soon, especially in the front. She's got some catching up to do with that butt. Steph has started turning the yearlings out in the big 40 acre pasture at night, shutting them away from the round bale. I'm glad she's doing so - it is a good chance for the yearlings to do more real foraging, and get some good running in while it is nice and cool outside.

Henry and Lizzie are coming to visit Halo this weekend, so I will try to get some pictures of her and her admirers.

Baby's Got...Booty?

Quarter horses are supposed to have big butts, right? Plus there's that whole awkward yearling stage most horses go through where they're gawky and butt-high...right? These are the things I tell myself as I look at my cute one-year-three-months old filly. Yesterday we gave the little punk her first real bath, followed by her first weighing and measuring.

Look at that butt! Dear God. Although the scariest things are those spindly little pasterns of hers. I hope she grows into herself some, even if she doesn't have the best of bone on those legs. The pasterns are just so looooooong.

So now for the weights and measures; our girl is 13 hands at the withers, and 13.3 hands at the butt. According to the weight tape, she's just shy of 600 lbs. No wonder her butt looks so much bigger! I'm sure she'll even out some with time. My last baby was enormously butt-high as a yearling as well, and he grew up to be 16.2 hands. I know she won't get anywhere near that, but hopefully she'll at least catch up with her butt! That, or in the meantime I will get used to having a quarter horse.

Another way (besides chasing goats) that she's showing her cow blood is with her quick agility. One thing she came to me with was some good in-hand training. She's quite responsive on the lead rope, and pretty darn good without it as well. Here she is showing how daintily she can cross her legs over in a turn:

Try to ignore the terrible clothes. Halo probably has her head craned around to give the fisheye to the heinous outfit I'm wearing. It wouldn't be a stretch to say the little mare has better fashion sense than I do...but I digress.