Merry Christmas!

I looked at Willy last night, as I was frantically wrapping the last of our daughter's gifts.
"I've figured out why I've been at such a loss this year," I told him. "Why, when you or my mom ask me what I want for Christmas, all I can offer is a blank stare."
"Why?" he replied.
"Because for 30-some years I've wished for the same thing for Christmas. Dear Santa, I want a pony. I stopped asking out loud after I hit 13 or 14, and figured out it wasn't going to happen, but I never stopped wishing. And so now I have no idea what to wish for. Quite frankly? If I get up tomorrow morning and there isn't a single thing under the tree for me - I might feel a little forgotten, sure, but really, I don't think I'll mind much. I'll just head to the barn and give my big Christmas wish come true a big hug and a handful of carrots."

Yeah. My teeth hurt from the sweetness of it all. But really, it's so true. I spent my whole life nearly sick with wanting, and now, what do I want? Just some quiet; and enough time to just go moodle around at the barn every day for the next ten days.

I wish devoutly that all of your Christmas wishes may come true - and remember, sometimes you have to wish long and hard and also, you have to do the work to get there - and that you are surrounded by love and fellowship and peace and joy and, if it's your thing, eggnog. *grin*

Bored Colt

Now that our rainy season has begun, I'm looking for ways to keep Boo entertained while he's cooped up. Our arena stays closed for days at a time once the rains begin, and I'm really grateful that our barn has lots of good space for handwalking, as well as a quiet private road just out the gate that we can adventure on.
But during those in-between hours, a three-year-old Thoroughbred needs something to do with himself!

I've been experimenting with toys - both store-bought and homemade - for the past week or so, trying to find ways to keep the Boo-ster occupied. He's got an Uncle Jimmy's Hangin' Ball (for those unfamiliar, it's a 10" ball of grain stuck together and hung on a rope) which he licks and bumps around, but he's not crazy for it. If it were a bunch of carrots, well, different story!

I've noticed that he's really mouthy- like he needs to chew or gum on things, and I wonder whether it's a stage of tooth development he's in. He's got a corner incisor about to come out and probably lots of other assorted dental changes going on. So I got a thick cotton lead rope that the snap had come off of, and tied it in a big complicated knot around part of his pipe corral, leaving an end for him to chew on.

This was a HUGE hit. Bonus points too - Pie, who is next door, also likes to play with it. They mess with the dangly end (there's about 8" hanging), and work on the knot, and Boo sometimes just squeezes the whole knot mass in his jaws. Definitely some teething happening - he looks just like my daughter did when she was cutting teeth!

The last thing I tried was milk jugs. These, it turns out, are SCARY! And EAT HORSES! So instead of having them around for toys, we'll use them for training and desensitizing, for the time being.

Anyone else have ideas for entertainment for the kids while they're idle this winter???

Lasting Lessons

I love that Boo is not only a quick learner, he has good retention. You might say to yourself, "well, all horses retain things well." Not so, my friends - I know a mare who reminds me of that Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, you practically have to start over each day. Three steps forward, two and a half back. But with Boo, it's forward progress, all the way.

Today we only had a teensy window of time (my lunch break from work) so I just stuck his halter on and we went out into the arena to lunge. We started to the left, his good direction. I'm working a lot more seriously on transitions and especially on focusing on what I'm telling him with my body language. I have a tendency to over-cue and to be sloppy with my upper body, so this practice was more for me than for him in ways. Walk, trot, walk, halt. Walk, trot, canter, trot, canter, trot, walk. Halt and switch directions.

About this time the feed truck showed up with the hay delivery. Boo never batted an eye.

We got started to the right without so much as a hitch - none of the backing up, jostling for position, or other confusion we had a bare week ago. Just a nice smooth step-out into a walk circle. (This is where I say thank you to Maraka for breaking our little mental block!) We did some more transitions to the right - our trouble spot now is the downward transition from trot to walk, where he sees an opportunity to instead halt and turn in. So rather than cue him with the line, I'm using my shoulder position and my voice to bring him down to a walk. One I got a smooth set of walk-trot-canter-trot-walk-halt, we quit.

We'll start working on less predictable transition patterns, but for now I'm proud that he's learning voice commands, staying focused on me even when there are interesting things going on (alfalfa delivery, horses cantering downhill in the turnouts, etc), and, best of all, enjoying his reward-scritchies at the end.

I mention the scritchies part because Boo, unlike a lot of horses, has been a hard case with this - he doesn't do the pooky lip or glazed eyes when you scratch him. I've tried just about every spot on his body without luck. But - BUT - it seems that he's suddenly decided to let his guard down, because today I got pooky lip, eyeroll, and head hug all within a minute of each other. We're into breakthrough mode as of last week and I love it!

One last thing - and this is huge, so huge. He had his feet trimmed yesterday. Last trim, he was off for almost two weeks from the loss of hoof wall height and the increased contact of his soles against the ground. Today? Sound as can be. Sound and solid and happy. My farrier is thrilled at what he's seeing - he even called me over to look at one of his soles and show me the changes, the new growth and turnover and parts that are exfoliating. What's happening is that Boo's going from having very VERY flat, thin, weak soles to having thick, normally cupped soles. We're three months in and already his feet look, I'd say, 85-90% normal when you pick them up.

Sooooo happy!

Boo Wears a Bridle!

Today Boo wore a bridle for the first time. I suspect he wore a bit of some sort as a weanling; many of them do at the Keeneland sales, especially the little hot stud colts. But he'd been hanging out on the rescue farm since he was a yearling and was, I assume, minimally handled (though gently and with love!). He's got sweet manners, just no great refinement.

So far, what I've worked with him on has been basic basic stuff, grooming and leading and w-t-c transitions on the longe line on the halter. He's willing, though he tests, out of laziness and a suspicion that he can get out of having to do unpleasant things. But he truly doesn't have - that we have found - a mean bone in his body. Well, unless you're a neighboring horse at feeding time, but that's different.


He took to the bridle really well, no drama and no fuss. Went out and worked like a pro. M. worked him for me, so that I could watch and so that she could work him through a couple things we were stuck on. What I saw was a horse that's starting to blossom like WHOA, from a scraggly unbalanced youngster into a potential athlete.


He showed us a trot today that had serious balance, and a canter that made me want to weep. It's good that my nerve for jumping is pretty much nonexistent, because this horse should (and will) never jump (pasterns and feet) - it's Russian Roulette - but oh, God, to see the potential starting to show through now that he's got good sole on his feet and some muscle and some balance - well, yeah. *drool* The breeding is beginning to be evident.

I love my boy, and I continue to be excited about him.
His Flickr set has been updated with new pics from today as well as from a few weeks ago; but furthermore, I'd like to present for comparison:

July or August:


This was Boo, the second time I met him. You can see that he's footsore and not too sure of where his limbs belong (look at the space between the front foot and the ground - he perpetually stood on 2 feet; I thought he was crippled).

Today:



We've come a looooooong way! (I credit EasyGait with much of this improvement; but a lot of it, too, is miscellaneous tiny changes and practices, everything from consistent in-hand work to teach him where all four limbs are and how to use his right side as well as his left, to walks on varied surfaces like pea gravel and asphalt and hills, to little dietary tweaks that are starting to show in the new growth in his feet....)

...comments and constructive criticism are welcome both here and on the flickr album.

Uncle Boo

Boo tried out as a babysitter for not-so-little Pie today. M. brought Pie home from the breeding farm yesterday, and wants to find a horse to stall with her (it's a double-size paddock) so that Pie isn't lonely and doesn't develop too many of the goofy behaviors that a horse gets when reared solo. We had Red in with her but Red takes the job a little TOO seriously, herding Pie away not only from dangers but also from us!

So she turned Boo and Pie out together in the arena.












They did really well together... Boo followed Pie around, didn't push her around, was gentle and not too bossy. We started getting excited, having visions of him becoming our "babysitter" gelding in the days and years ahead when we have young horses that go out to pasture and need an older, steady presence....

And then Boo decided, hey, I have a new buddy! Time to play! And cued Pie to run, and started chasing her... and even that might have been OK, except that being a colt, his idea of playing also involves play-kicking at the other horse while galloping. So we ran in there and grabbed our horses and that was that. *sigh*

I still think they would be fine together in a small area, but Pie is just a baby, and I'd feel terrible if Boo accidentally injured her. Maybe once she's a yearling. So our quest for the answer continues.... and in the meantime she and Boo are next-door neighbors, and can fool around over the fence and be silly youngsters all they want. It reminds me that though he's 17hh, he's just a wee baby in the mind. One more reason I'm not hopping on anytime soon. Right now my target is April 2010.

Help! It's chasing me!

Yesterday was one of those brisk windy days that makes horses unbearably hyper. I won't, as a rule, ride - or do much of anything serious - on a day like yesterday. So I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to get Boo out into the arena and do some work with him, except maybe that he'd been in longer than I like and had that "I need to move" twinkle in his eye.

We've got a long way to go on lunging, and have mostly been free-lunging (despite not having a round pen - he's pretty solid about staying in a circle around me, for whatever reason) rather than working on a line. But he has his voice commands pretty well down and tends to be more of a horse that has to be coaxed into upward transitions than one that has to be controlled downward, so I didn't really think anything of putting a lunge line on him and heading into the arena even though it was cool and blustery.

Our session started out as usual - Boo doing his half-dead draggy walk and giving me pouty looks - "mom, do I have to do this? Can't you just pet me?" and after a bit I asked for trot. He trotted a circle and then without much warning (a fellow TB owner said, on hearing this story, "must have heard a bird fart"), he jumped 15 feet sideways and bolted for the far end of the arena.

Needless to say I lost my grip on the lunge line (lunging without gloves? ANOTHER bad idea)... and watched, heart in my mouth, as he made a high speed lap of the arena with it dragging behind him. He kept one eye on it and I could see him thinking "OMG! It's chasing me!" but - as with the one time he attempted to pull back during our tying training - I called out, calmly, "Ho. Ho. " and after the one lap he halted. He stepped on the line once then and jerked his head up, and looked at it, and realized that it was a rope and not something trying to chase him... and then, with a truly embarrassed expression, he walked back to me and asked me for help.

And so, I gathered the line back up in my hands, and we returned to our circle and had another five minutes of good, useful, controlled work. Then I set him loose - off the line - and whistled at him, and he had a good free gallop, which he NEVER does. Apparently wind affects him just like it does other horses - good to know, since he is such a solid, almost dull horse so much of the time!!

Tonight, the arena was otherwise occupied, so we went for a walk out on the road (it's a tiny private road that the barn is on). He's not used to the road yet, but does well - the speedbumps are a source of fascination to him, but the cars are no big deal. The grass across the road has grown from the rains and we spent five or ten minutes with him just grazing, enjoying the sunset and the last week of having daylight after work.

Weekend Warrior

I can't get away with doing as much as I used to. Today I got out to the barn around 7 and rode Serena for about 45 minutes. Then I cleaned the nine paddocks; made up two weeks' worth of supplement packets for Boo; and tidied up the barn aisle.
After that I got Boo out and groomed him and spent some quality time in the arena with him doing groundwork. Boy, does he ever hate being led from the right! Doesn't even like to stand there with me leaning on him on that side. So of course, that's what we did, with lots of praise and breaks and so on. I find with Boo that forward motion is a great reward/stress relief for him, so after he succeeds in something hard like leading from the right or standing still for a count of ten with me leaning (gently - more like resting my hand there) on his right hip, I switch back to his left and we take a brisk walk to let him relax and release his tension. Seems to work well so far.

But - and here's what I was getting at in the first line - by the time I left the barn six hours later (WHERE does the time go???) I was hobbling like an old, old woman! *sigh* Guess I need to get in better shape, or something. That, or start taking MSM like my horse and my dog do.

Oh, and not to totally bury the lead, but... I got my act together and notified the Jockey Club of Boo's transfer of ownership today. So whether they knew it before or not, now they know "unnamed 2006 foal out of Golden Gazelle" is mine!!! :-)
Next step... officially naming him. I hope they don't deny my name choice (a prude might find a reason to consider it inappropriate....)

He's probably already broke to ride, too!

So today's training goal was simple: approach Boo with a blanket and see where things went from there.

He's been cooped up for days, between the rains last week and my kidney infection this week, but was sane and sweet as always. Good boy. I brought him out and tied him to the Wonder Bungee (a stretchy lead rope, best tool ever for teaching the kids to tie) and spent a good 15 minutes grooming him. He's all dusty up top, which makes me happy because when he first arrived, he wasn't rolling much (getting back up was hard for him; he actually fell once, terrifying to watch). There's no way he's accumulating that much dust along his topline, though, without getting down on the ground and grinding it in. So, yes, happy.

After he was as shiny as I could make him - we skipped brushing his mane, because neither of us wanted to spend the extra 10 minutes getting THAT mop sorted out, we'll do it tomorrow - I went into the tack room and got the light cotton mesh sweat sheet that Mardi Gras' owners gave me when I got Boo.
(Backstory: two weeks before I adopted Boo, the huge 27-year-old Trakehner at our barn died suddenly of a major colic. His owners, having catered to his slightly neurotic whims for 24 years, were not planning on getting a new horse. Quite serendipitously, Boo is almost exactly the same size - will be, by the time he's 5 or 6 and fully muscled. They gave me EVERYTHING except their saddle, basically, for fractions of pennies on the dollar.)

So I walk up to Boo with this floppy white blanket in my hands and show it to him and he's like, "big deal, mom...." I lay it, folded in a square, over his back just behind the withers. He flicks an ear back and says, again, "uh... what? whatever!" I laugh at him and pull it off again and rearrange it like I'm actually going to blanket him this time, and put it back on, warning him verbally that there's a strap hanging down.

Boo is trying really hard not to question my sanity at this point, because clearly his mom is off her rocker, blanketing him on a hot sunny day AND making such a production of it. But he stands for me as I buckle the chest strap, and smooth the back part over his quarters, and fasten the surcingle. And then I step back and say to M... "Gosh, you think he's broke to ride, too? Seems to already know just about everything!"

We'll do this again either tomorrow or next week with a crinkly, hissy raincoat blanket, to be sure. But I think we're set for the rainy season. One less thing to worry about.

I can't WAIT to ride this horse!! (well, except, duh, I really can....)

Chestnuts everywhere!!!

First off....
The new mare, Red (photo is of her the day after she arrived at our barn), is a little hot from being out of work for months and months. I suspect a little of it, too, is that she's super bright and confused about what she's being asked to do, having been used as a trail horse mostly and a lesson horse secondarily. Now that she's got a good rider on her asking her to DO stuff she's kinda like... huh? And even though she's being ridden quietly and well, now, there are gaps in her training that still make it hard for her to "get it"... and that, combined with her slightly hot temperament, lead to her getting jittery, head-tossing, and so forth.

I will get my chance to test this out this weekend... because I'm getting up on her. Poor little mare hauling our fat asses around. *sigh* I need to go on a serious diet if I'm going to be riding the little one!! Anyhow, I'll ride her at the barn on Sat, and provided it goes fine - which I am pretty sure it will - we plan to trailer her and Serena up to Santa Ynez on Sunday for a trail ride at a friend's house.
This friend is hosting a fun large-group trail ride in two weeks, and wants us both to participate. I sincerely doubt that Red is fit for a long ride, but this will give us an opportunity to look at the trail, and see how she handles herself out there. It's a fun ride rather than a competitive thing, so pace won't matter, but I still don't want her to injure herself or anything!

Uh, not to mention my poor butt.

On to my own horse. My wonderful horse, who between the insane rain last week and my kidney infection this week has just not gotten out nearly enough, but is being sane and sweet anyways. He had his second hoof trim (since he's been mine) on Monday, and I got great news about the right front hoof, the one I fret about. Jimmy says that even though the angle is awful (underslung heel that doesn't want to get ANY height on it no matter what we do), it's not causing a problem for him, the hoof and sole is healthy, and he sees no reason why Boo will need shoes going forward. GREAT NEWS!!! The other highlights are that his frogs have expanded and become elastic and springy (they were sad, shrunken things before) and his soles, formerly super flat and thin, are growing new horn like mad and becoming properly concave and just in general looking like healthy, strong, normal hooves.

It's so rewarding to see that, even though I haven't had a ton of time to put into Boo, nor a ton of money, the little things I've done are making a HUGE difference. He now leads on a loose lead, stops, backs, ties and stands calmly, etc. And I'm not spending a TON on supplements or special food, but what I do feed him has effected a big change in his hooves, his joints, even his pathetic wispy TB tail (it's growing!!!).

Lately I've been thinking a lot about riding him. Really looking forward to it. This is a new phase for me. And while we're still absolutely waiting till April (when he's fully 4 years old) for anyone to get aboard, it means that mentally I'm ready to move on to the things that lead to riding. Hard to explain. But I wasn't there, a few weeks ago; and now I am.

To-Do and To-Done

On Saturday we marked Week 6 since Boo came to live with us. I think now is a good time to look at what he's learned and maybe make a brief list of next steps. It's nice to keep track since it seems like he learns so quickly, and I want to be able to look back a year from now and see all this!

So, since he arrived:
- knows how to lunge (only to the left, on the line)
- free lunges both directions, in a proper circle, walk trot canter, voice cues
- picks up 3 of 4 feet easily and 4th with some coaxing
- walks, halts, backs on loose lead
- learning to tie at the tierail (he stood tied for 20 minutes today - superstar!!!) (yes, there were rewards)
- has learned about kids, rude dogs, arenas being dragged, sanitation trucks cleaning the portapotty, gardeners, and how NOT to play in the automatic waterer
- let me brush his ENTIRE mane today - no small feat, it's thick and wavy and was WAY tangled

Next on the to-learn list:

- advanced tying: stand unattended for up to 5 minutes (don't worry, I'll be there, just hidden)
- leading from the right (we're working on this but MAN is it hard for him - the hardest thing EVER)
- towels, blankets, and other things that go on your body
- cross tying
- bathing in the wash rack (comes after cross tying)
- letting me clip that nasty sticky tangled piece of mane where his bridle path should be

I love my boy. He's got such a good mind - open, willing, and the things he gets stuck on or stubborn about are so little, so far. We can do this.

He can TROT! (and canter too)

One of my biggest concerns, when we first brought Boo home, was that he didn't want to trot, canter, or gallop when turned out. It was just plain weird - here you have a well-bred young Thoroughbred, outwardly healthy, but all he wants to do is amble and stand around. Even with encouragement, the most I could get him to do in the first month he was here was a little trot. I got maybe 3 whole canter strides from him that first month.

Everything changed late last week. I'm not sure if it's that he's relaxed now, or that the joint supplements are working, or his feet are feeling good (they aren't "bad" feet per se, but he has very flat, thin soles and one front foot with a freaky angle), or what. But I had him on the lunge line, and he actually offered a trot rather than needing to be pushed into it, and kept it up for a bit.

The next time, he not only offered a trot, but also a canter, and looked for more of that as well. And he's been steadily building on this, every day. Today, rather than use the line, we free lunged in the arena - which, it turns out, is the solution to his doesn't-lunge-to-the-right-yet issue, for now, because he'll go in lovely free circles to the right all day long. And he trotted and cantered and walked and even started to stretch his back a tiny bit. (hooray!)

Then after, we worked more on leading - in the arena, with no lead rope, just him following me, learning to watch my cues. Foofy Natural Horsemanship stuff, I call it; but the stuff that works and that's really worth its salt.

Here are some photos from today. My battery died before I could get any good canter pics; we can title the one here "NOT your Derby winner!"
But that trot - well, if he can do that under saddle, I might yet have to ride an Intro A or B test on him. *grin*

This was yesterday... why Boo had to be my horse - because we could tell he would be this awesome!

What a good boy.
Today I got an illustration of WHY we all had that nagging feeling of "have to bring this horse home even though it doesn't make sense right now" back when we saw him in July.

My mom had brought my aunt and uncle to meet him, and the four of us were standing in the graveled barn walkway with Boo there, on halter and lead, while we fussed over him. Emma was lurking in the shadows as she does - but out of the way. And then the new barn owner's small son (the new B.O., male iteration, had let his little guy tag along while he chipped branches and did chores... the new owner is still learning about horses and how to run a ranch... a scary combo) came scooting along practically beneath Boo's tail.

Boo flicked an ear back and was like, "uh, there's a toddler under my back foot. Someone want to get that?"
So I'm begging Emma to grab the tiny kid, but she's Emma and a little moongazer on the best of days, so it's happening slowly at best....
And right around that moment, Serena, the big mare, comes galloping down the hill next to us in full medieval-charger mode and does a sliding stop fifteen feet from Boo's rear end.
I snap at everyone to please step back a little - expecting my BABY THOROUGHBRED to at least, you know, react? - but Boo flicks another ear and is like, gosh lady (Serena), is that drama really necessary? There are kids and non-horse-people here, you know?
And meanwhile, male Barn Owner is chipping branches in the parking lot, and dragging pieces of tree around, causing all kinds of noise - and it's still no biggie.

My horse? Owns me heart and soul after today. Because, wow, you guys. I know soooooooooo many horses who would not have put up with all that - or even part of that - and he took it all like a champ. He's totally going to be my trail horse, my husband horse, my daughter's big galoot. Why? because he clearly can; and because, I think, Boo has an old, old soul.

Tomorrow: carrots. Lots of carrots.

New blog just for Boo

Because I want to be able to share my Boo posts, training writeups etc with my Facebook friends, my family, the world, you name it -- here's the new blog! And when I get the nerve to post the list of names I'm considering for Boo (for his final Jockey Club papers), I'll put it here too and ask for commentary.
Meanwhile this is where I'll put training posts, updated photos, questions, answers, and meditations.

A little bit about Boo:
He's a 3 year old Thoroughbred gelding, by Pure Prize (Storm Cat) out of Golden Gazelle (Meadowlake). I got him from Tranquility Farms through a set of utterly serendipitous circumstances - I wasn't really looking for a horse; and if I was, it was for an older horse who was trained and had some mileage and was maaaaybe 15.2hh. Or, in a pinch, maybe a younger horse who was small and ready to start and super easy looking and could be a resale project or something.

I won't lie. When I pictured "my first horse" I pictured myself with an 18-year old Arab.

Instead, I met a 17-hand chestnut gelding standing in a paddock with two other youngsters; he had a sad look in his eye as we were told his story. "He'll still be good for pleasure riding," Priscilla said, as we moved on - we were shopping, at the time, for an event prospect for a friend. But the tall sad gelding stayed in my mind and in my heart, and we went back twice more to Tranquility Farms. That third time, he came home with me.

It's been nothing but adventure and happiness since! Also - she was right. He'll be absolutely FINE for pleasure riding. He'll be a pleasure!