I recently read an article on 9news.com entitled "Horse back rider injured on trail near Nederland", 6/5/11   http://www.9news.com/news/local/article/201827/222/Horseback-rider-injured-on-trail-near-Nederland- .  It is about a woman who was trail riding her horse when an unleashed dog attacked her horse's legs, which caused it to buck and the woman to fall off and become injured.  The dog's owner's were mountain biking and were NOT required to have the dog on a leash, but are required to "have control" over the animal. 
When the owners showed up on the scene, they saw what had happened but didn't stay to help her nor did they give her their names. 

This situation is disturbing for a number of reasons.  One, the dog owners didn't stick around to help the woman.  I don't know what her injuries were, but she did go to the hospital.  The article doesn't mention if she was alone or not.  I think that in itself says a lot about these dog owners - they don't sound very responsible!  The had also lost sight of their dog, therefore how much "control" did they have if they couldn't even see what it was doing?  How many people are responsible enough to train their dogs in the first place? (How many dogs have you seen PULLING on their owners when being walked on a lead?)  The owner should have been a lot more responsible and could have helped the woman instead of biking off. 

Now, I personally know horse people who deal with this kind of situation by saying that it's all the dog owner's fault and that everyone else needs to slow down in their cars, on their bikes, and NEVER let their dogs loose on a public trail.  That would be nice, but it's not going to happen.  Most people don't know what to do around horses because there just aren't as many horses as bikes and dogs and cars.  As horse owners we need to be prepared for all kinds of situations.  That means training our horses not to be afraid of dogs, bikes and cars.  That means you have to expose them to those things and either hire a trainer or work with them yourself so that they don't spook. 

That being said, some dogs are scary and do things that even I wouldn't be able to withstand without fear.  When a dog attacks a horse's legs I wouldn't expect that horse to hold still.  However, when I ride my horse through our neighborhood, it's not uncommon for dogs to come to the edge of the fence barking, or loose dogs to run up to us.  My horses stop and cautiously watch the dog.  Sometimes they back when the dog is aggressive, but they usually hold their ground.  If they move forward, dogs like to chase so I keep them stopped until the dog is called back or goes back on it's own.  We live in the country where folks are a bit more lax about their dogs. 

What I am trying to say is that as riders we can't control all circumstances, so we have to be prepared for as many of those things as possible.  We can't act as if the dog issue is all on the dog owners because we are the minority.  When you train for these kinds of circumstances you will have a happier and safer ride, and hopefully not get your name in the paper for getting bucked off on the trail....

Bella

             Bella is the first horse I ever owned, adopted from the BLM in 1997.  She was 7 years old

             and had just been collected from the wild.  She is now 20.  I still ride her but she contracted heaves a few years back and has trouble breathing in the summer.  She can do many things well, especially lunging.  She has always tried to be cooperative except for two things: trailering and bridling.  Our trailering problems are legendary, so much so that I have written a separate blog ("The Thinking Horse trainer") to describe the issue in all its gory detail. As for the bridling issue, more on that later.  Bella has been trained to level two dressage, which is about as high as I have gotten. She loves to give hugs and is very vocal, especially at dinner time... I love her more than any other horse in the world.  We have been through many things in our time and she has taught me a LOT.  I love her more than anything in the world (except my husband and parents).  

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Tequila

I adopted Tequila from the BLM in 2001 when she was 2 years old.  She is now 12.  I adopted her shortly after my divorce thinking that it would give me a project that would make me feel positive and happy, but I was too depressed to put the time in that she needed.  A friend helped me get her gentled so that she could be haltered and handled safely but I didn't start riding her seriously until a few years ago.  She does very well on ground work but saddling and riding are very difficult for her and therefore for me.  I think she has back problems which only makes it all the worse to ride her.  She really needs a solid stretch of daily riding to get over her issues and to become comfortable with being ridden.  She likes the attention, though.  I think she is very cute and she is the one horse who gives me a hug every day.  She can be a brat, but she can also be very loving.  She is the lead mare in the herd and also the smallest horse I own.  

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Bj

Bj was given to me in 2002 as an already ageing horse at 18 years.  He is an appendix quarter horse and a former polo pony owned by Perry Schrader.  When Perry gave him to me he was sick with the runs and under weight.  After a thorough vetting and some TLC he became my lesson horse.  Bj can be very gentle and loving but he still has that hot-blooded temperament.  When I could still ride him I would saddle him, get on and he would want to take off.  He faithfully put up with little kids steering him around and pulling too hard on his mouth.  He taught at least one teenager that they weren't "all that".  He had a way of humbling people when they needed it. He and Zac, my step-son, have a special relationship - he really likes Zac! Now he spends his time protecting his mares (Bella and Luna) and hanging out in the pasture.  He is close to Bella and she seems to protect him.  She also tries to eat his grain... Bj is just like an old man, set in his ways and kind of demanding at times.   Other times he is soft hearted and gentle.  Sometimes we have a moment that is special, even to this day. 

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Luna

Luna was born to Bella in March, 2004 making her 7 years old.  Her father was a registered quarter horse named Moose belonging to my brother.  Her father was in the next pen when she was born, which I think is kind of cool.  He has since passed away...  In any case, Luna is a love!  She has a cute little spot on her side and a chili-pepper shaped stripe down her face.  I imprinted her at birth and then she was put into a herd of mainly mares and gelding for several years.  She is not afraid of people or people things, but she does not disrespect a person's boundaries, either.  Sometimes that is a problem with imprinted horses.  Luna, like Tequila, came into my life at a time when I thought I would have time to train her but did not - until now.  Luna was taught basic things like leading, lunging (she needs more work) and some groundwork but she is way behind on her training.  One of the reasons I started this blog was to document her training. 

 You may ask why I bred Bella when I didn't have the time for the baby.  Good question - first of all, the opportunity presented itself to breed Bella for free.  She was at my brother's place and he had a stallion.  It gave the stallion something to do.  I wanted a baby.  I figured I had a few years before I'd have to start really working with her.  When Bella got pregnant I was working three to four jobs in order to pay off bills incurred from my divorce.  I thought that in three years I would have plenty of time, but instead I met my current husband, Doug, and we moved to Rifle.  I started working at a ranch, and then we had to travel to Boulder every other week to see his children, and Luna got left behind.  Between the ranch (which was an hour and a half commute) and being gone every other week, Luna did not get enough consistent work to become a trained riding horse.  I am now out of work and able to work with her daily.  

Yes, I know, excuses!  But such is life.  We aren't rich, as I said before, and life can get in the way of things we want to do.  The future is not always clear.  The weather over here on the Western slope is different from the Front Range.  The snow stays on the ground longer, making it difficult to work in winter.  Not only that, but when I worked at the ranch I would leave in the dark and come home in the dark for 4 months out of the year.  Poor Luna has been waiting and waiting to be ridden and she really wants to be ridden!  I can tell by the way she looks at me....  

Ride me!

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Angel

Or not... sometimes her halo slips a little bit.  But she is mostly good.  Angel, and her brother Snickers below, were purchased at the nearby town of Debeque in 2007.  Angel is about 13 years old. We paid something like $700 for the both of them.  They are half mustang and half Appaloosa.  What were we thinking?  Actually, though things started out rough, they have actually been just what we hoped for:  safe riding horses for visiting family and for our own enjoyment.  And because I need a horse to ride because the other two young horses are not trained yet.  And Doug really wanted a horse of his own.  I immediately liked Angel because she has personality and a bit of stubbornness.  She has cellulite, too, and is prone to founder.  she gains weight just looking at good hay or a green pasture.  She had a really awful episode two years ago and we have to be very, very careful with her in spring.   I think that she has potential to be a dressage horse because she looks like a Lipizzaner when the light hits her just so.... and she can do a levade (when she is irritated). 

Angel has learned a lot since we first got her.  She stands quietly to be tacked up, is now used to a pelham bit when she was previously ridden in a hackamore.  She can bend both directions and is getting used to leg pressure.  She needs more work, like all the others that are not "finished", and should be ridden daily in order to really get it.  All things considered, though, she is a good horse.  Sometimes she rears up a little or objects when I ask her to do something difficult, but I can put a beginner on her and she won't act up.  She loves attention but seems very shy when receiving it.  She can open gates unless they are chained with a lock.  She also climbs fences (fence panels) when motivated.  She LOVES Bella!  And tries to eat all her grain.  I love Angel - she is my special girl!



Angel does a levade





Angel sees Bella for the first time and falls in love.  Note the belly...

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Snickers

Snickers is our other gelding and lives with Tequila and Angel.  As noted above, he was purchased in 2007 with Angel and is half mustang, half Appaloosa. He turned 15 this year.  Snickers is kind of remarkable in a way.  His previous owner did nothing but saddle him and ride him around haphazardly every once in awhile.  When we got Snickers and Angel they wouldn't stand still to be saddled and they had never been washed.  The first weekend we had them Doug and I managed to give them a bath, which was not easy.  However, the payoff made it worth the effort.  Once they had been bathed and their tails combed out, they took off running across the pasture as if showing off and so proud of themselves!  They ran back and forth over the pasture, tails streaming.  It was wonderful to watch. 

Snickers is Doug's horse and he LOVES Doug.  If I am in the pen with him and Doug walks out, Snickers will run me over to get to him.  I love to ride him, but he would rather it was Doug.  Snickers has a very bouncy trot and a wonderful, smooth canter.  I actually enjoy riding him and spend time training him every year.  At his age he won't be more than a trail horse or a visitor horse, but he never runs away or bucks or spooks.  His worst habit is going where he wants to and not the rider, but he does it slowly.  He won't lunge to the right, either, but does it really matter?  Snickers is my big lug and I love him! Well, ok, he's not really MY big lug, but I still love him and so does Doug!

Doug and Snickers just before a ride - Snickers is drooling!

         

Welcome to my training diary!  I hope to be able to show the daily process of working with my horses and also the other necessary aspects of owning horses.  If you have a horse crazy kid, I hope that you can point them this way so that they can see what kind of work is involved before you go out and buy a horse.  I will be throwing in "recipes" for various things like hair conditioner, treats, hot bran mash, etc.  and I hope that I can get recipes for horse stuff from others as well. 

Here is what you need to know about me, my family and our little ranch:

We live in a small town in Western Colorado called Rifle.  We live about 20 miles from clinician John Lyons (and yes, we have barbecues with him all the time... ha ha, not!).  When he first moved to the area he lived very near where we now live.  No, I am not implying that his knowledge somehow seeped up through the very dirt and into my head.  If only it were that easy!

We rent a little yellow house on ten acres.  When we first moved here we weren't sure how long we would stay, or if we would like it, so we rented.  Four years later we are still here, but we like the place a lot.  There are four pastures and two paddocks where the horses can be locked in at night with shelter.  There are no stalls, no arena, no round pen (yet).  We are not wealthy folks and don't have any fancy equipment or facilities.  We have to use what we have, but that doesn't mean I don't wish for those things... The horses are not refined, expensive or registered but we love them as if they were.  Two of them are mustangs because I have a very soft spot for mustangs....

Our six horses are named Bella, Bj, Tequila, Luna, Snickers and Angel.  You will get to meet them in more detail in my next post.  We have an adopted barn cat named Nemo.  He walked into our yard two weeks after our previous cat, Cecil, passed away.  It was destiny...

I prefer to ride English with a dressage saddle because it is the most comfortable for me.  I love dressage, as well but have not been able to take lessons for quite awhile.  I ride western on occasion and have nothing against it as a sport but find the saddles generally uncomfortable for me.  My husband Doug rides western and likes trail riding.  He used to be a rodeo judge and had to ride a horse as part of judging.  In other words, I am not a purist and not a hard-core competitor, nor a snob and neither is my husband.  In the past I have competed in a few dressage and 4-H shows but don't consider myself an expert by any means.  If the money and time became available (at the same time) I would go for it. 

Due to various circumstances in my life, there were many times that I was struggling just to hang on to what I already had.  About ten years ago I got a divorce which affected my life for the worse.  The financial struggle after that was epic for me but I couldn't bear giving up my horses.  I worked 3 or 4 jobs just to pay my bills and stay afloat.  The horses were like my children, though, and somehow I managed to find living situations that allowed me to keep them. Unfortunately their training suffered as a result.  Life doesn't always follow the script we want for it and we must adapt to what life brings.  For that reason I have a 12 year-old mare and a 7 year-old mare that need quite a bit of training.  Two others need consistent work to improve as much as they are able.  I feel a measure of embarrassment about this but looking back I didn't shirk my duty, I simply did not have any time to train them.  Now I do, and I am determined that they will get their due training.

I have loved horses since birth, and there are many other people out there just like me, I know.  Horse lovers are born, not really made.  We just know and we do what we can to ride or be near them.  Right now I am watching a recording of the World Equestrian Games from last fall.  It's taken me 5 months to watch the tape because it's hard to watch all those great riders on beautiful horses.... The most successful horse folks of our generation competing on the most beautiful and athletic horses in the world.  But for every top rider there are 30 amateurs like me out there, just happy to own and/or ride a horse.  We don't even care what the horse looks like, do we? 

Without the privileges of others, the rest of us obtain horses where we can, spend what we have and love every minute of it all the same.  We are thankful for what we do have - our horses that we are able to keep at our home and enjoy. Sometimes the idea of riding in front of an audience is daunting enough, so a ride down the road is enough limelight for me.  Besides, Angel is always dirty! Our life and horses are simple, uncomplicated and wonderful.  I just want to share them with everyone and perhaps those of you who don't have a horse can live vicariously through our experiences.

I hope you enjoy this site and if you are able, please feel free to contribute ideas, recipes, experiences or comments. 

Me and Luna