Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Cali's training (and mine!)




I haven't been able to do much with our horses for the last several months because of the pinched nerve in my back. Some days, I wasn't even able to move or walk. Now that I've had my two cortisone shots, my leg is pretty much back to normal. My back never hurt; it was my left leg that cramped up so I couldn't move! Then my left foot got numb and tingling and it felt like it was asleep 24/7. Sometimes I stumbled around. I frequently stepped on my students' feet and I couldn't even feel them! There was NO WAY I could handle a 1,000 horse! If I tripped or stumbled....well...you get the picture!

So, when the ferrier came last week, even HE couldn't get Cali to stand still and he announced I needed to work with her before he comes on Thursday this next week. OKAY! So yesterday I bundled up in layers (t-shirt, vest, coat) and went out in the 40+mph winds and worked with Cali for about 20 minutes. She was kinda getting it at the end, but I need to work with her again today. Are there some horses that just won't stand still? She's very good natured, and she's very laid back (i.e. LAZY), so I was surprised to find that she actually doesn't stand still like all our other horses! I praised, praised, praised her when she DID stand still and she can even ground tie, but the minute I tried to lift her foot, she moved off! Any ideas/suggestions? I worked with Sunni yesterday (who snorted at the ferrier and ran off twice!) and he was a perfect gentleman! Once he figured out what I was doing, he calmly stayed in one place (I didn't even have to tie him!) and lifted all his feet for me! Go figure! Hubby is still too weak to do anything except stand briefly, so I gave him my camera and he took these photos. It was so cold, he had to go sit in the car! He's getting over a 10-day bout of a cold/bronchitis and he still doesn't have his strength back yet.

2 comments:

Cactus Jack Splash said...

Is it possible that the horses are just moving off of pressure? Sometimes horses learn to move to the slightest pressure and forget there are times we want them to be still so we can be near them.
You may need to try mixing up requests to move off pressure with requests to be still...
I had to do that with Jack, had to go so far as to let out a big sigh and drop my head and hands when I wanted him to be still with me near him. He is super sensitive to pressure, so it took a bit, but he has it down now.
Have fun playing with your herd.
I love the pictures of you talking to your horse

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

I loved seeing the photos of you working with Cali. I'm sorry you're still having pain in your leg and foot. My left foot is still numb and tingles ad prickles like it's trying to wake up after going to sleep.It can be very painful and I'm sorry you've got these pains, too.

I hope you're able to get Cali and Sunni's issues worked out soon so they can have an easy farrier visit.

Good luck and feel better,

~Lisa