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Apr. 12th, 2013 03:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickTook the ungratefuls out for spins today. This is part of the "get them sold" initiative. It's going reasonably well -- they more-or-less ride and their skills are firming up.
To that end, I've been taking them out for spins. They go out alone, for about an hour each, and do what I tell them to do alone in the big, scary world. There's no ring or fence so if I do wreck badly enough to come off, it can get very ugly. Thus far it hasn't come to that. They're not evil critters... just inexperienced.
Te: Needs more musculature. She's a bit ribby as well, because she's at the bottom of the pecking order in the lower field and everything else beats the crap out of her. I've got her on a remedial programme of hill walking to see if I can get her built up a little. (She also gets grain every time I get her out for a spin, which I hope will help on the groceries front.)
Peake: Carrying good weight, needs patience. We're working on it. I've also introduced the idea of moving laterally away from leg pressure because she's got 'forward' solid enough that I have room to work on other stuff besides "keep going forward in a mostly-straight line".
Both of the ungratefuls have the following skills fairly reliably installed: catch, handle all over body without issue, stand for grooming, pick up all four feet nicely, stand for saddling, are easy and pleasant to bridle, stand for mounting, walk, trot, canter, turn left and right, halt, back up, and have a moderate amount of go-where-aimed in the face of undesireable routes (like down steep hill into creek or over scary wooden bridge or over crossrail in the way).
Peake's been started on beginning lateral skills and rating within a gait (eg. walk faster with more effort from me, slow walk down as my hips close and move smaller, trot in various rates of speed to match up to my posting). Te still needs more... stability and forwardness. I should probably start working on other crap with her, too, but it's such a pain in the ass when you're not starting from a solid, forward walk. Plus also, is it really necessary to put the time and effort into a skillset that the eventual buyer will never notice, use, or appreciate? (Yes. Yes, it is. Because awareness of and responsiveness to the rider's seat and leg cues, even if unconscious, makes a nicer riding horse. Dipshit riders may not *notice* the skillset, but they will benefit from it just the same as long as they occasionally glance in the direction they'd like to go.)
I need to set out a trotting grid and get started on teensy eensy crossrails for the pair of 'em, too. Jumps add an additional level of interesting (for the rider) and give me another thing to work on with them. Plus, since I do not have a helper, it is useful for the ungratefuls to stand at the end of the rein like a good horse while I shift jump stuff around and drag poles and generally fuck about on foot before remounting them and asking them to do stuff. Builds character.
Once I get the ungrateful babies riding (and they mostly are), then I will need to pick out an additional project horse (or two) from the field and proceed to break that or those to ride. (Trys has a brand new baby. Laur is always at work, like forever. Liss is over sixty and does not break horses anymore. Cass is not real enthused about breaking horses but that does not mean I have stopped trying to encourage her to do so. We'd like to get some shit sold, and that only happens if it rides. Stuff that does not ride does not sell because nobody wants to break horses. Including me.)
Things that are for sale but do not ride... oh, hell, it's a damn huge list. Everything listed is four or older.
Saguaro, bay and white pony mare that allegedly was "broke to ride" by horrible child Heather (from competitive ride in 2011, rode Callie) but which Heather declined to ride at the production show futurity. Not sure of skillset on horse, needs to be evaluated. Horse is colorful and moderately cute, if put together weirdly. Someone stupid will buy her eventually but Liss thinks she wants to keep her.
High Tide, bay and white pony that Cass was going to break to ride for production show but didn't manage to finish (or even make a good start at) before losing interest. Needs to be evaluated for skillset and then completed. Also colorful and moderately cute, but put together weirdly. Again, a horse Liss thinks she is going to keep.
Crow, black pony. Has had a saddle on. Needs more ground work, is one-sided, hairy-eyeball, and pissy as hell. Will sell fairly easily if gotten to where she rides.
MoonRhea, dark bay mare, with dapples. She's pretty enough that someone will buy her if she rides at all. A Galen horse, so has those issues, but Laur says she's not terrible. Has not had a whole lot done with her.
Fiddler, grey gelding 4 years old. Registered arabian, not going to hit 14 hands. Seems pleasant enough. Would make a great kid's endurance pony or trail horse for smallish adult. Leads, ties, picks up feet.
Punch, chestnut mare. Olivia was going to do work with her to make her a riding horse. That petered out after a couple of efforts. Horse needs almost everything from the beginning, but seems sensible enough. Needs to be sold, nobody is interested in her.
Saffron, chestnut and white pony mare. Laur did a bunch of ground work with her, may have gotten on her once (not sure), but she's totally not green broke yet and needs more skills. Laur says she's sane. Saffron will sell easily to someone, she's cute, put together reasonably well, and colorful.
Beretta, bay pony mare. Has no skills beyond lead/tie.
Jagger, chestnut and white pony mare. Probably not urgently for sale, also squirrely as hell and not-for-kids. Trysta likes her.
Tamora, grey arab mare. Not urgently for sale, and kind of a live wire anyway. Laur will probably eventually ride this for her personal use.
Oasis? Did we ever get her broke? The guy who has Sphinx wants her. Not sure where she is or what the deal is there. Probably should check on that.
I'm probably missing some, for fuck's sake. On the plus side, there have not been a huge number of babies since the ungratefuls hit the ground five years ago. Fiddler (4), Tin (3), Doon (2), Grizzly (2) and Brizon's filly (1). Brizon's was accidental. The first three were Galen's from Tamora, who was keeping Kazam company. Kazam has since been moved home to the stud pen where he keeps himself company (the fence is better) because Trevor has been loaned out to the guy who thinks he wants Fiddler broke to ride. We are in no hurry to break Fiddler because if we do that, we will get Trev back and Trev is a stud, where Fiddler is a gelding. Also, the guy LIKES Trevor as a riding horse. Far as we're concerned, he can keep Trev until Trev dies of old age.
We're doing a lot better on the not-breeding-new-stuff front. We used to have five babies or so a year, so this is a huge improvement. It's not "zero new babies" but it's better than we had been doing. I'd like zero, of course, but you can't always get what you want. (Actually, I'd like a Nick-Kazam baby. A lot. But there needs to be like a gazillion fewer critters before that can happen. If I can get ten more gone from the total number on hand, then we'll see. It counts if they die, too. Stuff dropping dead counts as "fewer horses".)
To that end, I've been taking them out for spins. They go out alone, for about an hour each, and do what I tell them to do alone in the big, scary world. There's no ring or fence so if I do wreck badly enough to come off, it can get very ugly. Thus far it hasn't come to that. They're not evil critters... just inexperienced.
Te: Needs more musculature. She's a bit ribby as well, because she's at the bottom of the pecking order in the lower field and everything else beats the crap out of her. I've got her on a remedial programme of hill walking to see if I can get her built up a little. (She also gets grain every time I get her out for a spin, which I hope will help on the groceries front.)
Peake: Carrying good weight, needs patience. We're working on it. I've also introduced the idea of moving laterally away from leg pressure because she's got 'forward' solid enough that I have room to work on other stuff besides "keep going forward in a mostly-straight line".
Both of the ungratefuls have the following skills fairly reliably installed: catch, handle all over body without issue, stand for grooming, pick up all four feet nicely, stand for saddling, are easy and pleasant to bridle, stand for mounting, walk, trot, canter, turn left and right, halt, back up, and have a moderate amount of go-where-aimed in the face of undesireable routes (like down steep hill into creek or over scary wooden bridge or over crossrail in the way).
Peake's been started on beginning lateral skills and rating within a gait (eg. walk faster with more effort from me, slow walk down as my hips close and move smaller, trot in various rates of speed to match up to my posting). Te still needs more... stability and forwardness. I should probably start working on other crap with her, too, but it's such a pain in the ass when you're not starting from a solid, forward walk. Plus also, is it really necessary to put the time and effort into a skillset that the eventual buyer will never notice, use, or appreciate? (Yes. Yes, it is. Because awareness of and responsiveness to the rider's seat and leg cues, even if unconscious, makes a nicer riding horse. Dipshit riders may not *notice* the skillset, but they will benefit from it just the same as long as they occasionally glance in the direction they'd like to go.)
I need to set out a trotting grid and get started on teensy eensy crossrails for the pair of 'em, too. Jumps add an additional level of interesting (for the rider) and give me another thing to work on with them. Plus, since I do not have a helper, it is useful for the ungratefuls to stand at the end of the rein like a good horse while I shift jump stuff around and drag poles and generally fuck about on foot before remounting them and asking them to do stuff. Builds character.
Once I get the ungrateful babies riding (and they mostly are), then I will need to pick out an additional project horse (or two) from the field and proceed to break that or those to ride. (Trys has a brand new baby. Laur is always at work, like forever. Liss is over sixty and does not break horses anymore. Cass is not real enthused about breaking horses but that does not mean I have stopped trying to encourage her to do so. We'd like to get some shit sold, and that only happens if it rides. Stuff that does not ride does not sell because nobody wants to break horses. Including me.)
Things that are for sale but do not ride... oh, hell, it's a damn huge list. Everything listed is four or older.
Saguaro, bay and white pony mare that allegedly was "broke to ride" by horrible child Heather (from competitive ride in 2011, rode Callie) but which Heather declined to ride at the production show futurity. Not sure of skillset on horse, needs to be evaluated. Horse is colorful and moderately cute, if put together weirdly. Someone stupid will buy her eventually but Liss thinks she wants to keep her.
High Tide, bay and white pony that Cass was going to break to ride for production show but didn't manage to finish (or even make a good start at) before losing interest. Needs to be evaluated for skillset and then completed. Also colorful and moderately cute, but put together weirdly. Again, a horse Liss thinks she is going to keep.
Crow, black pony. Has had a saddle on. Needs more ground work, is one-sided, hairy-eyeball, and pissy as hell. Will sell fairly easily if gotten to where she rides.
MoonRhea, dark bay mare, with dapples. She's pretty enough that someone will buy her if she rides at all. A Galen horse, so has those issues, but Laur says she's not terrible. Has not had a whole lot done with her.
Fiddler, grey gelding 4 years old. Registered arabian, not going to hit 14 hands. Seems pleasant enough. Would make a great kid's endurance pony or trail horse for smallish adult. Leads, ties, picks up feet.
Punch, chestnut mare. Olivia was going to do work with her to make her a riding horse. That petered out after a couple of efforts. Horse needs almost everything from the beginning, but seems sensible enough. Needs to be sold, nobody is interested in her.
Saffron, chestnut and white pony mare. Laur did a bunch of ground work with her, may have gotten on her once (not sure), but she's totally not green broke yet and needs more skills. Laur says she's sane. Saffron will sell easily to someone, she's cute, put together reasonably well, and colorful.
Beretta, bay pony mare. Has no skills beyond lead/tie.
Jagger, chestnut and white pony mare. Probably not urgently for sale, also squirrely as hell and not-for-kids. Trysta likes her.
Tamora, grey arab mare. Not urgently for sale, and kind of a live wire anyway. Laur will probably eventually ride this for her personal use.
Oasis? Did we ever get her broke? The guy who has Sphinx wants her. Not sure where she is or what the deal is there. Probably should check on that.
I'm probably missing some, for fuck's sake. On the plus side, there have not been a huge number of babies since the ungratefuls hit the ground five years ago. Fiddler (4), Tin (3), Doon (2), Grizzly (2) and Brizon's filly (1). Brizon's was accidental. The first three were Galen's from Tamora, who was keeping Kazam company. Kazam has since been moved home to the stud pen where he keeps himself company (the fence is better) because Trevor has been loaned out to the guy who thinks he wants Fiddler broke to ride. We are in no hurry to break Fiddler because if we do that, we will get Trev back and Trev is a stud, where Fiddler is a gelding. Also, the guy LIKES Trevor as a riding horse. Far as we're concerned, he can keep Trev until Trev dies of old age.
We're doing a lot better on the not-breeding-new-stuff front. We used to have five babies or so a year, so this is a huge improvement. It's not "zero new babies" but it's better than we had been doing. I'd like zero, of course, but you can't always get what you want. (Actually, I'd like a Nick-Kazam baby. A lot. But there needs to be like a gazillion fewer critters before that can happen. If I can get ten more gone from the total number on hand, then we'll see. It counts if they die, too. Stuff dropping dead counts as "fewer horses".)
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Date: 2013-04-12 11:20 am (UTC)