These last two days have been a lot of fun. Thursday we went to Terry's late. It was cooler at 6:30 than it was at two. Rode every one but Toffy and Santana. Two of Terry's grandsons rode a few of the fillies too. It was really funny. The fillies did great. They didn't understand what the boys were asking, but they tried there best. The boys couldn't figure out how to direct rein. We really need to teach those fillies how to neck rein. They were also having a little trouble getting them moving, but a little spank on the butt fixed that. They just walked. With one of the boys it was his first time getting on a horse in about four years. Terry got on too! He hasn't been on a horse in about four or five years either. Then I hopped on Ana bareback and bridle-less, and she hated it. She would grudgingly do what I ask, but she was not happy. She does leg pressure, just sometimes you have to kick a little harder to get her to do it. Ana is limping though. It is not good. We don't know why. We were thinking about giving Toffy a bath too, but it was getting late.
Yesterday HM came over and we took the herd out on a trail ride. Seriously. We took three of the fillies. She rode Coffie, I rode Dash, and Aleythia rode Frosty. And then another two boys, brothers, and grandchildren of Terry rode Santana and Blacky. It was fun. I kinda felt that if anything set Dash off I would be on the ground and she would be running toward home. We let some people pet the horses too. They new something about horses. They were surprised at how well behaved the fillies were for only being two. We got back and then got Santana, Misstack, and Strudder all tacked up and in the paddock. HM got to try some barrel racing and pole racing and also saddle seat with Strudder. She was loving Santana's turns around the barrels. And she loved Misstack's canter. Misstack loves to canter. She was trying to get Misstack to go through poles, but kept knocking poles down because she couldn't get her to move out far enough. We tried figuring that out. She went through fine with me. Aleythia rode Santana a little bit too. Both Aleythia and HM were having a hard time getting Santana to canter. Don't know why. I thought he was just fine. They were also really surprised when they turned that last barrel, and he just took off. It takes a little getting used too.
HM has a new appreciation for how different our horses are from hers. She rode Strudder and he was great for her. He kept wanting to quit though. He looked gorgeous. If only he got ridden a little more consistently.
But that was the last two days. I really want my camera. My sis said I couldn't have it.

Training Horses... Classify it anyway you want

Today we took three of the horses to the chiropractor. Santana, Strudder, and Blacky. We were gunna take them to the chiropractor yesterday, but we got on the highway and barley a mile out the back left tire on the trailer lost some of its rubber. So, we limped back home, dropped the horses off and went to an auto repair shop. Terry bought four new tires for the trailer and rescheduled the appointment with the chiropractor. Santana and Strudder both had ulcers and out of place ribs. Did you know ulcers are caused by stress. A lot of the times it comes from the pecking order of horses. The Dr. said that when there is more than two horses in a heard there starts to be some competition for leader or being the lowest. Both can cause stress. Santana's neck was out of place. The Dr. also poked their hind feet with a needle. I don't remember what that was for except for a release of pain. He also told us to spend 30 seconds backing them up at the beginning of each ride. The reason for this was to strengthen their hindquarters and they will learn that they have a back end and start using it. When they use their front end it will eventually cause pain. The Dr. explained it like their front legs were like the suspensions on car wheels. They are connected to the rest of the skeleton by muscle and they are supposed to go up and down but when they use their front legs to go forward it causes their front legs to go horizontally witch in turn causes some of their ribs to  shift down and pushes on the nerves and causes pain. They also tend to cheat with their back feet by almost dragging them along. This causes their muscle by the socket to shift over which also causes them pain. He told us also that we will not be able to get them to back up for 30 seconds right away, and that we need to make sure it's thirty seconds, so we have to watch the clock because they will be fighting us the whole while. So, this is the medical reason to teach your horse collection.



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Another thing the Dr. talked about was cushing's disease. I don't really know what it is, but you can tell if your horse has it by a bump on the crest of your horse's neck that looks like the mane is pulling it over. He said Santana might have it. He said to watch for a drastic increase in weight. I'll try to remember to get a picture of the bump.



We also took the fillies over to Terry's brother's place. Which we call the Rosen Farm. We took them over there because Coffie had figured out that she can get under the fence, and keeping them in the back pen and barn wasn't very good because they had a limited space to move about in, and without any grazing to fill them up they were eating a bale and a half a day. This works much better. They have more room to run and they can graze all day and night without us worrying that they will escape. It's only a mile from Terry's as the crow flies and a little over a mile from my place. Also, Flicka is at the Rosen Farm too. I'll explain who she is later. Sadly I forgot to take pictures of her.

feeding time!

do you have more grain?

look at this adorable kitten

desensitizing the horses to the kitten

it was very entertaining 

ain't it adorable!

The fillies will be at the Rosen Farm until winter hits which is about two months from now. When that happens we will take them back to Terry's because they can't graze anyway. And it will be more convenient for Aleythia and me because then we'd have to walk a mile to the Rosen Farm to work with the fillies and then another mile to Terry's to work with the other horses. All this in temperatures in the 10 degree range. How fun! (insert sarcasm)