(no subject)
Jun. 14th, 2009 06:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickIt was a lovely day yesterday -- clear and sunny but not so hot as to be unmanangeable. I helped La clean up a bunch of junk (string, old round bale wrappers, bits of wood) around the gate to the lower field. We set the junk on fire -- bonfires of ritual purification are lovely -- and then added to the fire as we gathered up more things.
I also got Proof (black Tai baby, probably eight or ten years old, does not ride) out of the field and started work with her. Proof needs to freaking ride. Liss has been claiming she is going to break the horse to ride for the last four years. It hasn't happened. I'm tired of waiting. Proof is going to ride. Period. She's my project animal for the summer. Interestingly, Proof is half-sister to Meatly, looks like a less-cute version of her. (Nobody, but nobody had a prettier or more expressive face than Meatly.) Thus far, Proof is even-tempered and uncomplicated. I do not expect huge amounts of drama from her.
I was thinking about it and project animal is entirely a concept from 4-H. Kids have to declare their project animals by like June 1. Then that's the horse they have for all 4-H activities during the summer. Apparently I still have this mentality with the project horse thing. Oh, well.
Other irons in the fire include Nick, Peake, Te, and Mercedes. Nick is learning to do cavaletti, ground poles, and eventually hop over not-very-impressive jumps all as part of the "What can we do to piss off Nicknick?" game plan. I enjoy picking on Nicknick. She's hysterical to annoy, hasn't bored me yet in seven years. Nick is an ongoing project because of her amusement value.
Peake (Nick's baby from last year) is learning to lead to my standards. She's getting some rope skills, traffic sanity, farrier readiness, trailer loading, medium and advanced ground work, and anything else I can think to teach her that does not involve riding. I've never raised up a baby horse. I've never worked with one when it was little and then gotten it to big to see what that's like. Peake is my project on that front -- I'm going to see how that works, that "handle and work with the horse nearly every day" thing. Mostly, the babies are broken to lead and tie as weanlings and then handled occasionally (usually moving them from field to field and deworming and stuff) until they're big enough to ride and/or someone takes an interest. This is how my horse people wind up with four year olds that don't let people touch them all over (see below, to wit: Mercedes). They still become good horses, the 'untouched much before four' horses, but I want to see what it's like to have one of the other kind, hence the Peake project. Most recent skill: Peake leads backwards if I pull on her tail -- as many steps as I want her to lead backwards. She's going to do all kinds of dumb shit before we are finished, much of it because I can sorts of things.
Te is the other yearling. She's almost done -- she's for sale and I'm not in love with her and her stupid -- so all I'm putting on her are yearling-level ground skills and handle. She leads and ties and can be touched all over. Her feet pick up, can be held and cleaned. She catches easily and is fairly relaxed about life. That's really all people expect from a yearling, so that's all she needs.
Finally, there's Mercedes (four-year-old Elklin baby) who is a live wire of entertainment. I'm sharing her with Trys. Mercedes is wearing a halter and a catch rope because we can't catch her reliably without it. (Catch rope is only two feet long -- it doesn't drag the ground or anything.) Mercedes needs to be touchable all over her body. She needs to be OK with that amount of handle. She isn't yet. (It's been two weeks.) She catches better now. I can touch her ears and her forehead. Body is getting there, legs to knees and hocks are OK. She's not real good about her feet yet. (Translation: she squeals and strikes if I try to touch them without warning.) We're working on it. She's also getting better about being around people, but she's a live wire and will never, ever be a horse for beginners or stupid people. Also, smart as a whip. Once the basic skills and handle are in place, we will break her to ride. That should be a blast.
There are other horses that need work (no shortage of those, mind) but for now, that's the list of summer projects in my world. Trys wants me to put some handle on Mariah -- we sent her to Kat's for riding skills (which she now has) but Kat isn't much on ground manners. Me, I like ground manners on a horse. They're just nice to have, like air conditioning in a car.
I also got Proof (black Tai baby, probably eight or ten years old, does not ride) out of the field and started work with her. Proof needs to freaking ride. Liss has been claiming she is going to break the horse to ride for the last four years. It hasn't happened. I'm tired of waiting. Proof is going to ride. Period. She's my project animal for the summer. Interestingly, Proof is half-sister to Meatly, looks like a less-cute version of her. (Nobody, but nobody had a prettier or more expressive face than Meatly.) Thus far, Proof is even-tempered and uncomplicated. I do not expect huge amounts of drama from her.
I was thinking about it and project animal is entirely a concept from 4-H. Kids have to declare their project animals by like June 1. Then that's the horse they have for all 4-H activities during the summer. Apparently I still have this mentality with the project horse thing. Oh, well.
Other irons in the fire include Nick, Peake, Te, and Mercedes. Nick is learning to do cavaletti, ground poles, and eventually hop over not-very-impressive jumps all as part of the "What can we do to piss off Nicknick?" game plan. I enjoy picking on Nicknick. She's hysterical to annoy, hasn't bored me yet in seven years. Nick is an ongoing project because of her amusement value.
Peake (Nick's baby from last year) is learning to lead to my standards. She's getting some rope skills, traffic sanity, farrier readiness, trailer loading, medium and advanced ground work, and anything else I can think to teach her that does not involve riding. I've never raised up a baby horse. I've never worked with one when it was little and then gotten it to big to see what that's like. Peake is my project on that front -- I'm going to see how that works, that "handle and work with the horse nearly every day" thing. Mostly, the babies are broken to lead and tie as weanlings and then handled occasionally (usually moving them from field to field and deworming and stuff) until they're big enough to ride and/or someone takes an interest. This is how my horse people wind up with four year olds that don't let people touch them all over (see below, to wit: Mercedes). They still become good horses, the 'untouched much before four' horses, but I want to see what it's like to have one of the other kind, hence the Peake project. Most recent skill: Peake leads backwards if I pull on her tail -- as many steps as I want her to lead backwards. She's going to do all kinds of dumb shit before we are finished, much of it because I can sorts of things.
Te is the other yearling. She's almost done -- she's for sale and I'm not in love with her and her stupid -- so all I'm putting on her are yearling-level ground skills and handle. She leads and ties and can be touched all over. Her feet pick up, can be held and cleaned. She catches easily and is fairly relaxed about life. That's really all people expect from a yearling, so that's all she needs.
Finally, there's Mercedes (four-year-old Elklin baby) who is a live wire of entertainment. I'm sharing her with Trys. Mercedes is wearing a halter and a catch rope because we can't catch her reliably without it. (Catch rope is only two feet long -- it doesn't drag the ground or anything.) Mercedes needs to be touchable all over her body. She needs to be OK with that amount of handle. She isn't yet. (It's been two weeks.) She catches better now. I can touch her ears and her forehead. Body is getting there, legs to knees and hocks are OK. She's not real good about her feet yet. (Translation: she squeals and strikes if I try to touch them without warning.) We're working on it. She's also getting better about being around people, but she's a live wire and will never, ever be a horse for beginners or stupid people. Also, smart as a whip. Once the basic skills and handle are in place, we will break her to ride. That should be a blast.
There are other horses that need work (no shortage of those, mind) but for now, that's the list of summer projects in my world. Trys wants me to put some handle on Mariah -- we sent her to Kat's for riding skills (which she now has) but Kat isn't much on ground manners. Me, I like ground manners on a horse. They're just nice to have, like air conditioning in a car.
