Interludes: Rainy Day Ramblings

Interlude #1: The Weather & The Season

With a week of rain/snow in the forecast our training and workshop program is coming to a halt. We do have a GSHC practice scheduled for the 17^th of December in Ione at a covered arena. This will be the last practice of the year so it should be fun. We leave on a much needed vacation on the 21^st. Back on the 2^nd. Hard to be away from all the critters but we have a good friend keeping an eye on them while we are gone. For Cearra, this is the big test. With this much time off it will be interesting to see how much she retains and what her attitude is like when we get back. We have a pretty full schedule of workshops and practices the first quarter of 2017 so the focus for all the horses will be to knock the rust off and get them back into good mental shape. Should be a interesting time! Stay tuned!

Interlude #2: Trials and Tribulations

We stood out in the rain today because someone wanted to meet Cearra. IN…THE…RAIN. Sigh. This interlude was inspired by that meeting.

For us, working with a great minded, great hearted horse like Cearra is what it is all about. It makes us better in our horsemanship, it helps the horse become a valuable equine citizen and the partnership that is created is just good for the soul. When “life” gets ugly and demanding it is good to have horses and horsemanship to focus on and recharge the batteries.

For us, marketing and selling a horse just plan SUCKS! Let’s talk about “marketing” the horse. You want to be HONEST with everyone so you write an ad –or maybe you put together a blog – that covers the “good” and the “needs improvement” and you do your best to find a fair market price for the horse. You use some social media and horse focused sites and you wait. When the calls, emails or texts come in you see it all. From the clueless to the just plan rude, from the inexperienced to the “know-it-all” who obviously knows very little and every freaking thing in between. It just wears on the spirit.

We have heard it all. We have seen it all. It sucks. Period.

Here are some of the more recent highlights:  We met a person who was looking for a “spiritual connection” to the horse. Oooookkaaaay. We actually had some idiot tell us we gave them “too much information” in our ad! Seriously? WTF! Wow…so you don’t want to know about the horse and just want to waste your time and ours coming out to meet it? Nope. FIRED! We had a family INSIST to come out on a certain day at a certain time and when we accommodated them they acted like they were not interested in the horse much AND then they damaged our fence as they were leaving (still have not seen a penny for the damage either)! Nope, FIRED! We had a person come out on a Sunday –after insisting that was the only time they had (red flag #1) and we had a house FULL of guests- and tell us about all the experience they had with “show horses” (red flag #2) – and after seeing us do a variety of groundwork and under saddle exercises (the horse was a rock star and did great) they really didn’t seem interested in some real “hands on” time with the horse (get the F out –you test drive a car before you buy it)  stating that they were on a scouting mission and needed to bring their trainer (WTF-Over? Why not bring the trainer in the first place). Waste of time. FIRED! Having a “professional trainer” ask us about genetic testing (no, we were not going to breed her so we didn’t bother with said $200 test but if she wanted it done she could pay for it) and then gets PISSED when we asked questions about “who they were” and “what experience they have” because, as our ad stated, we are focused on what is BEST for the HORSE and we WERE GOING TO ASK SCREENING QUESTIONS. Needless to say we FIRED that whack-a-do too. We have received low ball offers, sight unseen. Again, WTF? That is just rude. We have had people make appointments and bring the whole freaking family out and never mentioned that we would be giving pony rides to the entire freaking family or that it was for a 10 year old NOVICE girl. Oh, and after the horse packed all the people (like six different people of all different skill levels) around and was a rock star, they tried to low ball offer us and give us a sob story. Nope, kick rocks! FIRED! We have had folks make an appointment and not show up or if they do it becomes clear they lied about their horsemanship knowledge (if you show up, expecting to actually work with the horse and are in cargo shorts and Birkenstock sandals you are going to get FIRED before you touch the lead rope). The scenarios can go on and on.

If we were “flipping horses” as some folks do then we would take the first decent offer. However we are not. We want THE BEST for the horse. We want the human to be a GOOD FIT because we do not want to see this horse back on the market anytime soon. We want to honest and clear. We want the horse to be treated well and the human to have some horse savvy and VERY CLEAR picture of the investment they are making.

Marketing and selling horses SUCKS! Don’t know how “professionals” do it on a regular basis. If we were independently wealthy we would take in project horses and then give them a forever home. Sadly we can’t. What we can do ALWAYS is train up the horse to the best of our ability and prepare the horse to be a valued and successful partner. Then we will wade through all the bat-shit crazy and find the RIGHT HUMAN for the horse. It is all about the horse. And maybe generating some good karma.

NOTE: Even in the pouring rain Cearra demonstrated some great ground skills and a “can do” attitude. Could not be more proud of this mare and her growth. Really hoping that certain “life” changes happen for us so we can keep her and be done with the crazy for a while.

 Cearra and I teaching a workshop.

Mud Is Icky, Drag-A-Bag & New Friends

"Daddy, Mud Is Icky!"

Well, that is what Cearra thinks anyway, Such a GIRL (grin). After our really nice groundwork session Laurie and Cearra took on the under saddle part of the session. Laurie has not done much riding with Cearra and as such is a good gage of her progress. Cearra had good lateral and vertical flexion happening. Nice, supple turns. Decent stop and backing. Her forequarter yields were a bit off but that is totally our fault as we have not been doing enough of them. All in all she did really well. Her work on the obstacles was really nice. She was calm over and through every obstacle. Very proud of here.

Mud. Ugh!

Our riding area has a LOT of soft mud in the most unfortunate places. One spot as really a big puddle that the more mud and moss than water. Cearra basically tip-toed through the mud like a little kid. It was funny. Areas that were squelchy got the same level of distain and tip-toe steps. Ah well. She is a princess after all. More exposure to muddy environments is in her future.

Drag-A-Bag under saddle happened today! Cearra was a rock star and dragged the noisy milk jug filled feed bag around as she and Laurie cruised about. It was pretty awesome! They did very well together.

It was a good session!

VIDEO (Drag A Bag): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmlGIiUR07U

Mud Is Icky Pt. 2

Had a nice potential family come out to meet Cearra. Not sure what was on the lady’s hands but Cearra HAD to sniff her a lot. Our gal was all personality and curiosity. Too funny. We really appreciated that these folks reviewed the journal and video. They had great questions and seemed to be knowledgeable and kind people. This is the type of family we would be comfortable with Cearra being with to be sure.

Cearra showed off on the ground at first. She did well even though she was in a more “cuddly” mood (meaning it was chilly and she really didn’t want to work but doesn’t really protest too hard because is getting attention and love). We went through some of the exercises she knows. Then we saddled up, rode the terrain, the obstacles and demonstrated some basic maneuvers. The ground…sigh….the ground was crunchy (the top layer was frozen) and squelchy. This made for slippery conditions. Not ideal to demonstrate all her gaits but we were able to help the folks see where she was at. Cearra performed admirably. No complaints. What was cool (in our opinion) was the conversation we had while riding. A few spots on the terrain “looked sketchy” to her. She checked in and looked for leadership. 90% of the time she was right to be concerned so we backed up a little and went around the soggy area. The other 10% we moved through with some firm cues and focus. 

It was a good session.

Joyful Chaos and the Holidays with Horses!

HOLIDAYS and HORSES and Living The Dream....

The days are getting shorter, the rain and snow are here in the Sierra Foothills (as well for many of us) which can really crimp our training schedule as our pasture and riding area gets pretty muddy. The joyful chaos of the Holiday Season is also here filled with house guests, socials and other demands on the schedule. Making time to work on our horsemanship and maintaining our horses is tough this time of year! Still, if we as students and custodians of the horse want to continue our journey with minimal setbacks we need to find time. For us, it is all about making EVERY moment with our horses a training moment. Making every interaction from feeding to turn-out a training moment will help us all to maintain the connection between ourselves and our horses.

We are big fans of groundwork during this time of year. 15-20 minutes in the round pen or working on the lead line can do wonders to help keep communication clear and the partnership strong. A “leadership walk” around the property or facility where you ask the horse to perform maneuvers like passing between you and an object, stepping over something or even walking through a water puddle….get creative! A proactive investment of a small amount of time is all that is needed to maintain your partnership. Even grooming can be a training moment if you get creative!

This has been Cearra’s training regiment of late. When it is not raining, snowing or generally unpleasant outside there as been round pen and lead line work. When the footing is good or we can get to someplace that has good footing we ride. We make time as consistently has possible. It is not always easy for us to do but we are committed to Cearra and her development. She is really fun to work with and gets into the program really quickly. New blankets happened as a n early Christmas gift so every horse is sporting a nice cozy winter jacket over their fuzzy bodies. They seem to like it. Weight is looking good on everyone, even though the horses are eating more. It is the price for living up here during the winter. Ah well.

We have a Horsemanship Workshop scheduled for 12/10/2016 and a G.S.H.C. Practice on 12/17/2016 so we are gearing up for these great learning opportunities. There will be a two week break for everyone (horses and humans) between Christmas and New Year. We will dive right back into training after the first of the year and are really looking forward to seeing how much Cearra will grow and progress in her skill set.We will post more PICTURES when we get them!

We have had some folks come out to meet her (see previous Journal entries) but we have not felt that these folks were the best fit. We know our screening questions put off some potential families and the fact that we want them to actually READ this Journal seems “too much to ask” for others…and we are really okay with that. Our goal is to find the BEST FIT for the horse and if answering a few simple questions or reading a Journal is “too much to ask” then THEY (the humans) are not the right fit. We “fire” them. The right family IS out there…or it may be that she stays with us a while. That is just fine too. We really do like this mare so it is not a hardship (grin).

Happy Holidays!