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.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Much better day today than yesterday!!!

So, I left the house about 8:15 this morning and drove up to the ranch where I board my horses.  I took Sunni out, tied him (he hardly moved!), forgot my tool box up in the tack room, left him tied (he didn't even move), brushed him, cleaned all 4 feet, took him up to the round pen, and did my homework exercises with him.  He wasn't sure about a couple of them, but he TRIED!  Good boy!  He got a reward of going down to the arena and rolling and eating grass for an hour.  Next, Gigondas.  She has always led very well and she was a perfect lady today!  I groomed her, took her up to the arena, did some flexing with her, did her gaits, and practiced "come".  She stayed right with me.  GOOD GIRL!  I left her up there to eat weeds as if she goes down to the arena, she runs and gets all sweaty.  I cleaned out the mustangs' water trough, but didn't work with them or Quad today.  Santa Ana winds are forecast for tomorrow, so I probably won't be able to work any other horses until next weekend, which is a 3 day weekend (we have next Monday off!)...in the meantime, I've scheduled another lesson on Saturday for me and maybe another one on Monday!  I noticed today that my own confidence level has increased a LOT.  I was always hesitant and unsure of what to do, but now that I KNOW what to do with the horses, I think they feel that confidence, too  Don't you agree?  I'm so glad that I'm taking my horsemanship lessons and I plan to continue them!  :-)  Photos to follow...we're off to Home Depot right now!  Photo of Sunni taken today.  I couldn't balance a horse and my camera, so you'll just have to imagine all the things I did with them today!  But, I'll say, both were very well mannered and they both tried the new things I'm doing with them!   :-)

2 comments:

Russ Krecklow said...

Nice to hear that things are progressing well, Cheryl Ann. Certainly true that your confidence will be felt by the horses. They know when you're confident that you're calling the shots, and I think they pay more attention.

shadowlake2005 said...

Way to go! I certainly believe your feeling about yourself influxences your horses. I recently realized my greenie is more "looky" on the occasions I've forgotten my stick, and its not like I ever REALLY use it on him, just that I'm more confident with it (since he's still capable of ignoring my leg when he's spooked). I was absolutely unaware of any difference in my riding.