Sunday Stills - Horses

A few photos of the horses. Maisie in perspective:

Dawn takes a bite:

Sugar's hind legs - she's very shiny:

Dawn abstraction - I should try to draw this one:

Scout's nose showing its flexibility:

Noble's expressive ears:

For more photos of horses, visit Sunday Stills at sundaystills.wordpress.com.

Enjoy your Sunday, and may it include horses!

The Mares Get a Round Bale

It's been a beautiful day, starting with a light frost but quickly warming up, blue sky and only a little breeze. No riding for me today, though, because I had my music lessons this afternoon. The mares had eaten all their round bale, so they got a new one this morning. This is always cause for much excitement. Here comes the truck, with the round bale and some squares as well:

Maise and Dawn weren't interested in waiting for the bale to be unloaded:


Sugar was annoyed when she was driven off so the truck could back up - I like how everything but Sugar's body is a blur - she's moving out:


I call this one "Rumps in Motion" - that's Dawn in front with Sugar in back:

Dawn supervises:

Dawn approves of the new hay:


Maisie circles around, stops for a moment and gets a hug from my husband:



A contented face:

On my way home, I stopped and took pictures of some dead trees - we mostly leave them up for the birds and animals. If you're interested, visit this post.

Dawn in Pictures and Maisie Works Too

Today, I was inspired by Jean of Horses of Follywoods, who often manages to work with - and even ride - all three of her horses in a single day. I made sure to go to the barn early enough that I would have light to work with both horses. I recruited my husband to take some pictures of my work session with Dawn. Due to the light conditions, some of these came out better than others, but I think you'll be able to see what we're doing.

Here we are, grooming ground-tied in the parking lot - the other horses are still out in the dry lots:

Once I had her saddled and ready to go, the first exercise we did was some crazy-walking. Here we're trotting together:

Then I attached the lines and we did some ground-driving:

Here we're starting an outside turn to the right:

I liked this picture of Dawn - you can tell she's paying attention to me:

She's just completed a nice back and has gotten a release:

Then I ground tied her to bridle up:

We did a brief session of backing in hand to confirm that she remembered our work on backing slowly, one step at a time, without curling up. I'm just starting to ask in this picture:

Now she's paying attention and beginning to soften:

And here's what I'm looking for - she's soft for her - I'd like to see more softness through her whole neck and we'll get that eventually - but she's relaxed (see her eye) and not curling up or rushing:

Then I mounted up - she came to the mounting block and stood on a loose rein:

She was worried and braced when I first asked her to back:

And then she did what she usually does, which I'm working with her to change - she curled up behind the bit:

Here I'm lifting one hand to ask her not to curl up - she's a little bit confused and worried:


But she got it:

In every backing set, we just kept at it until she got three soft steps back without rushing or curling up - it took a while at the beginning, but after she'd done it several times, she understood. Each time she was successful, we took a break and walked around for a bit - at first she was nervous, with head high, but by the end of our session she was relaxed enough to stretch her head down almost to the ground - I was pleased with this relaxation of her neck and mind since it will translate to our softening work.

Here's a set of backing pictures from the other side. She's distracted by something and is bracing at first:

I asked her not to curl up - in this picture I caught it before it happened:

Here she's looking pretty nice - not perfect yet but getting there:

I was very pleased with our work session, especially how her concentration, relaxation and softness improved through the session.

Then I took Maisie to the arena for a session. We haven't worked in the arena for a while. She was pretty alert and high. We walked for a while - her softness at the walk is great. Then we trotted, using the cones to do figures around. It was quickly clear that she was pretty excited, so we worked on speed regulation and controlling her excitement by circling in fairly small circles every time she started to rush, and then going on once she stopped rushing. We only had one Maisie Moment - a couple steps of spook/scoot/fishtail leap-buck - and she was very excited by that. We walked for a moment, and then went right back to our trot work, using circles to help her calm down. We finished well, and I was pleased with her too.

I'd call that a good day with horses!

A Nice Day For a Roll, and Maybe a Ride (or Two?)

The rains have finally moved through and it's a beautiful morning - some breeze, but clearing skies and the temperatures are supposed to reach the low 50s. The horses are enjoying a day without rain sheets, so of course it's time to roll, and roll and roll. We didn't get too much rain, so apparently the mud is now horse-approved. The geldings have created a "rolling spot" some yards inside the gate, where the mud is just that perfect consistency - not too wet but just moist enough so it'll pack down and pack on to their coats. Fred started the spot yesterday and as he got up and started to circle to roll on the other side, Fritz drove him off the spot to use it himself. Noble used it next and actually rolled all the way over, which I haven't seen him do in a long time. This morning there was more rolling in the perfect spot, including Fritz taking a long time to scrub his neck and face back and forth in the mud - when he got up his forelock was caked with mud and you couldn't see that he had a star on his forehead.

It's so lovely I expect there may even be some riding today - it's been more than a week. I hope to do some brief ground-driving with Dawn in her fuzzy halter, to remind her of what we're up to and to check her energy level and attention, then we'll review our backing in hand with the bridle, and if all goes well, I'll ride a bit, working on our softening work in the back and walk. I'm hoping my husband can take a few pictures of our work session. Then I hope to get on Maisie - I may ground drive in the halter for a little to get her to focus, and then work in the arena a bit - the footing looks OK.

Hope you're having a nice November day, and may it include horses!

For All the Horses Lost to Us

Thank you very much to all those who left kind and thoughtful comments on my post yesterday. Your comments meant a lot to me, and you are right, the important thing is to honor the memory of our good horses.

This is a poem of the sorrow mixed with joy for all the horses we have lost to circumstance, illness, injury or old age.

The Glass Unbroken

Other seen,

untouchable.

Aching, without

solace.

Who can read

sorrow in the wind?

Indifferent, restless,

regardless.

Lost in darkness

that cannot save us.

Maybe, passed beyond freedom

they can run

by the river across meadows

sweet with the scent of grass.

O that it may be so

O that it may be so

in the end.