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Oct. 7th, 2004 04:39 pmDid feet (getting nearly useful), leading practice (MUCH improved!!), trailer loading (easy review for her), bridle practice (still needs work) for Thyme today. No huhu. Damn, she's a nice horse. She's kind. She tries pretty hard to do the right thing and she remembers stuff I've taught her rather well. *sigh* She's also boring me to tears, here. If I can get Trys on her this weekend, I'll be done with her -- one ride won't make her a finished horse, but it'll move her into the 'broke, needs rode' pile unless something truly horrible happens, which I do not expect. Then, I can start again with something else out of the field.
See, there is no shortage of riding-size horses that need to be moved from "lives in the field" to "leads properly, has ground skills, trailer loads, picks up feet, stands for bridle and saddle, stands for a rider, and has basic 'go-stop-turn' riding skills". Off the top of my head, there are Thyme... Lexy's Baby... Proof... Whimsy... Wren... Ceres... Cuervo. Call it eight, and I'm not sure I'm counting all of them.
Already in the "broke, needs rode" pile, Kova could use a few more miles, Mariah isn't all *that* broke, Proof's Baby has been ridden a few times, Whisper's been ridden twice or three times, and Nick is... questionable but probably not impossible. She needs mileage more than anything else right now. (Once you start messing with horses, "broke" becomes a continuum instead of an endpoint.) Riding green horses is not a safe, relaxing job because green horses do unexpected things, sometimes quite suddenly.
Anyway. Nick and I worked on bridling again today. Progress was made, but she's still not *good* at it. She's still not good because she's got a sock drawer full of evasive behaviors and I expect we're not even halfway through it yet. (Note to self: If you had wanted a nice, quiet bay horse who tried to go along to get along, you'd be in love with Thyme or Whisper or Ceres. You don't like any of them very much even though they're all cute, agreeable, and genuinely fond of humans. No. YOU like the cranky, easily-frustrated, easily-bored, sensitive, whip-smart bay horse. That was the one you wanted. From a field of reasonably pleasant horses, you picked the bitch, on purpose, knowing what she was when you picked her. So, y'know, there is going to be some dealing with that, here. Deal.)
I've also decided that I'm tired of Nick's mane being half on one side of her neck and half on the other side of her neck. It looks stupid and I'm tired of looking at it. So, since I'm there every day anyway, I've started fixing the mane problem by braiding a small amount of the 'wrong side' hair to a big amount of the 'right side' hair so that the small amount of wrong is forced to the correct side by virtue of being braided into the 'right side' hunk. As that-which-was-wrong gets used to being on the correct side, I'll work my way up the neck until the problem is fixed. For anyone trying this at home, do not braid too tightly and visit the horse daily to unbraid, comb, and rebraid so that if there are any problems, you can fix them.
In other news, the New York Times is apparently doing a story on the Pike-to-Bike trail thing. They were (according to email I got today from the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy) taking pictures and whatnot at Fat Jimmy's in Breezewood today, so with any luck, the article will show up in the NYT here directly. Should that happen, I'll provide a link.
See, there is no shortage of riding-size horses that need to be moved from "lives in the field" to "leads properly, has ground skills, trailer loads, picks up feet, stands for bridle and saddle, stands for a rider, and has basic 'go-stop-turn' riding skills". Off the top of my head, there are Thyme... Lexy's Baby... Proof... Whimsy... Wren... Ceres... Cuervo. Call it eight, and I'm not sure I'm counting all of them.
Already in the "broke, needs rode" pile, Kova could use a few more miles, Mariah isn't all *that* broke, Proof's Baby has been ridden a few times, Whisper's been ridden twice or three times, and Nick is... questionable but probably not impossible. She needs mileage more than anything else right now. (Once you start messing with horses, "broke" becomes a continuum instead of an endpoint.) Riding green horses is not a safe, relaxing job because green horses do unexpected things, sometimes quite suddenly.
Anyway. Nick and I worked on bridling again today. Progress was made, but she's still not *good* at it. She's still not good because she's got a sock drawer full of evasive behaviors and I expect we're not even halfway through it yet. (Note to self: If you had wanted a nice, quiet bay horse who tried to go along to get along, you'd be in love with Thyme or Whisper or Ceres. You don't like any of them very much even though they're all cute, agreeable, and genuinely fond of humans. No. YOU like the cranky, easily-frustrated, easily-bored, sensitive, whip-smart bay horse. That was the one you wanted. From a field of reasonably pleasant horses, you picked the bitch, on purpose, knowing what she was when you picked her. So, y'know, there is going to be some dealing with that, here. Deal.)
I've also decided that I'm tired of Nick's mane being half on one side of her neck and half on the other side of her neck. It looks stupid and I'm tired of looking at it. So, since I'm there every day anyway, I've started fixing the mane problem by braiding a small amount of the 'wrong side' hair to a big amount of the 'right side' hair so that the small amount of wrong is forced to the correct side by virtue of being braided into the 'right side' hunk. As that-which-was-wrong gets used to being on the correct side, I'll work my way up the neck until the problem is fixed. For anyone trying this at home, do not braid too tightly and visit the horse daily to unbraid, comb, and rebraid so that if there are any problems, you can fix them.
In other news, the New York Times is apparently doing a story on the Pike-to-Bike trail thing. They were (according to email I got today from the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy) taking pictures and whatnot at Fat Jimmy's in Breezewood today, so with any luck, the article will show up in the NYT here directly. Should that happen, I'll provide a link.
