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 29, 2012

Working with horses Sunday




I awoke at 5:30 this morning (Sunday), feeling refreshed and ready to drive up the hill.  I didn't feel good Saturday...dizzy, tired, just all around blah.  I decided to stay home, rest, and take a couple of naps.  So, Sunday morning, I was ready to work the horses.  I got up at the ranch about 9:00 and took Sunni out first.  I brushed him, cleaned his feet, and took him down to the arena and did his exercises.  He did really well with his exercises, but at the tie rack, he spooked when I took out another brush to groom him with...go figure  He pulled back on the rope (fortunately it held), but was very nervous.  I yelled, "STOP" at him and he settled down...he wouldn't have done that a year ago.  He would have just broken the rope and bolted.  So, I'm glad that he is learning to THINK instead of just REACT.  But, he did all his exercises with no problem, so I let him loose in the arena.  He self-exercised and ran up and down next to the railing.  Then, a he did a couple of good rolls and settled down to eat grass. Quad was waiting patiently by his gate, so I took him out next and groomed him.  He didn't move a muscle.  I took him up to the round pen and let him loose to eat grass up there.  (There's a lot of grass from all the rain they've had up in the mountains.)...Next, I worked Scout.  She did very well and listened and paid attention.  I was able to clean all 4 of her feet.  She was very cooperative today and I practiced leading her around the corral, pointing to where I wanted to go and she followed nicely (THANK GOODNESS!)...Cali was next.  There was a Santa Ana wind today and she was a little restless and didn't concentrate.  Getting her to flex was a hard task, but she did a little.  She kicked me, however, when I was lifting up her back leg to clean her hoof, so I did it over and over until she relaxed (no bruising, thankfully!)  I spent 5 hours (plus driving time) up there today and it was so beautiful I didn't want to go home, but hubby and I had errands to do, so I put everybody back in their corrals and off I went.  To my concern, I discovered that I had a large screw in my rear tire, so it was off to Goodyear to have it repaired as soon as I got home.  Photos of Sunni in the arena.

1 comment:

Margaret said...

Have you ever heard of the blocker tie ring? I swear by them and bought five stainless steel ones and gave them to the barn manager. They can be adjusted as to the degree of "hold" you want.

http://www.blockerranch.com/index.php?cPath=24

My horses are trained to resist and move into the pressure of a rope, but we all have heard of those disastrous moments...