Sunday morning: Lexie and her mare had spent the night and we got up at 7 to go on our very own trail ride. Dude saddled as usual except with TROTTING in a circle due to the cold snap. Jeez. He did bridle really, really well.
We had left Matt behind and we didn't get 300 yards before Dude balked the first time. I got AWAY from the pavement and circled him and got him going forward again. He tried to start trotting and cut fast to the left, which is a favorite trick of his, but usually at the canter. I circled him, but then he started backing up. So, I circled him backing up and he started to jitter like he was going to blow. So, we backed up straight till we caught up with Lexie and the mare.
I put his nose in the mare's butt (he liked her this morning) and we made it a few more feet before he started heading home again. Got off the pavement and circled some more. Tried going forward in grass instead of pavement in case that was it. No, and Matt was screaming like a big baby girl from the house. So, with MUCH disappointment, we headed back home.
We worked on trailer loading for awhile. This was the first attempt at loading since the awful incident. Dude actually got all the way in once and stood for awhile munching his jackpot. I know, I know - you shouldn't use feed to get them in the trailer, but oh well, that's the method I'm using. Not much else we can do with him. He got praise and little apple pieces for each move forward. He got pretty relaxed by the end.
Then, Katharine was coming for a lesson, so I went to get my daughter and hurried back. The second time saddling, Dude was MUCH better and more calm. He still circled, but much more slowly. Walk and trot were fine. So Katharine talked me into trying to canter.
The first takeoff was great - no problems. So the second time I was SO not ready for the quick cut to the left. I almost came off, but didn't. Katharine made me do it again. I wanted to cry like a big baby. My foot hurt and my knee hurt. About that time we decided Matt was too lame to trot so we put my daughter on the mare and I put Lexie on Dude. Lexie cantered Dude and he pulled his crap with her, too. She almost came off and she can sit on anything. But, she cantered him both directions. Then, we all watched the fat pregnant mare trot around and canter - so CUTE.
Chloe was going to stay at my place for awhile, but this morning when I went out to feed she had gotten OUT into the neighbor's back pasture. There is a fairly low place in the fence in the back and that is where she tried to run back to when I went to catch her. My boys are too lazy to try to get out there because you would have to cross a big ditch first. But now Chloe is having to head back to bumf**k today to live there. I feel kind of bad, but having 2 on my little pasture is pushing it and I don't want my neighbors to get mad and make me get rid of mine. I was sued by a neighbor over my dog so that is the kind of neighbors I have and I'm not going to risk my daughter having to give up her horse. Lexie was very understanding and going to get the mare and take her back today. Where we live is in little mini farms type subdivision, but only one other person has a horse. We are zoned okay to have horses, but all it would take would be one incident to have someone sue me and that makes me too nervous.
Tuesday Pictures
3 weeks ago
2 comments:
Grassland Farm said:
It's OK to entice a horse (or dog or child)with a bite of an apple to load in a trailer...who says not to? A horse who loads calmly is the goal.
We live in a formerly rural area. On one side of us now is a 450k home and on the other is a couple who have manicured landscaping. The 450k people put up a long and high privacy fence between our properties. Across the street is The Development with homes exceeding 1.5 million on professionally maintained grounds, and then we are here, and have been for over 20 years, in our home with its little barn out back, on five acres.
We got rid of the rooster in the interest of not irritating the neighbors. We keep the manure piles well away from the manicured landscaping neighbors. But our flock of sheep and our chickens and our colt clearly do not fit the newly upscale consciousness of our neighborhood.
We love the 450k people's privacy fence and wish the other neighbor would get tired of seeing our working farm operation and put up one too. We are always outside, busy with a fence or the hay or moving the sheep or chickens or colt to another pasture.
We keep our farm neat--all junk is tossed or put away. No old tires or junk wood or metal scraps lying about, no barbed fences falling down, but we are a farm. The land is zoned for agriculture. Most "agriculture" at home places here mean that there are a few horses, but many board their horses at one of the numerous stables in the area.
Thanks for the support. In a perfect world you tell the horse to load up and he gets in. LOL. But that all has to start somewhere, right? I finally reached my neighbor on his cell phone to tell him I had been running in and out of his back yard early this morning and that I would be back this p.m. to muck where the mare pooped (3 piles that I saw while running back and forth!!). He was cool. He said don't worry about it. Phew! I bought my place from his mother when she went into the nursing home and, besides checking the zoning we also asked him up front if horses were okay and he said, "For sure!" But still, you don't want to push your luck and hospitality. It was a different neighbor that sued me over my PUPPY. Don't get me started on that hussy!!!
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