Filly's First ...
Cinnamon Strudel had her first ride in the horse trailer yesterday. It consisted of three whole miles and Marty came with me and we chatted as we crept along the road, taking turns excrutiatingly slowly and changing speeds in a gradual manner so as not to jostle our living cargo. She was only tied to one corner (we have a rather open stock trailer) and we think she spent most of her time riding backwards. After we arrived back I turned her back around, backed her out, stroked her profusely, and then lead her in and out a couple times before closing the mid-gate to see if she'd load that way, and she did. Success!
Today was her first "trail ride." I climbed aboard Kash as I did earlier with ponying Cinnamon the first time, and Marty was aboard Ruby. We struck out easily enough and Kash moved forward willing and easy with Cinnamon behind his shoulder marching alongside. I send Kash through the wash that runs in front of our property and he steps through, but before we make it past the center there's tension on the line and Cinnamon is standing stubbornly on the bank, refusing to follow. Kash and I made it to the opposite bank and I tugged on the rope, she refused to come. More tugging, a step or two, but then she'd back and resist with all her might. I finally got one good step out of her, sent Kash back across the wash, and started again. We did manage to get her across, but then there was the issue of getting her to go back over it again, as I was not about to allow her to think that she could simply not do it if she so chose.
We went across twice, I think, before Marty suggested perhaps we might take them between our property and the Ramos' (they're just to the West of us) and take her through that wash there. So we headed off, Kash, Cinnamon, and I in the lead and Marty and Ruby taking up the rear. We took the little access road between the Ramos' and the "goat people" (I forget their name) and when we went to cross over onto the dirt that is the back protion of the Ramos' property, lo! There was another wash! Of course, this was was less than a foot deep and possibly 18" wide, but Strudel still stubbornly planted her feet and refused. Kash and I then proceeded to work her back and forth over it until she realized that moving forward was really the easiest thing. We made it to or initial goal and we marched back and forth along the wash between the properties that is about 3' deep in some places and possibly near the same across from the banks. Once Cin was moving easily across the obstacle we moved on with our trail ride.
Of course, the kicker is that the turnout that Cinnamon has spent her entire life in has a wash in it. It's huge at that! It probably makes 4' in some cases and is possibly 6' wide. Granted, as Chris reminded me once he got home from work: "A horse can do ANYTHING on its own that we could ever wish to ask it, but getting the horse to do one of those things when WE want it to ... well, that's something else."
It was pretty uneventful for the rest of the way. Kash eyeballed some dogs behind a fence, which made it a bit of a difficult spot as Cinn was trying to watch stuff going on the other side of the dirt road, which resulted in my leg getting squished between them. I did manage to start teaching the little Strudel horse some leg cues though! Mainly "get off my leg!" with a tap then a kick if she started rubbing into Kash and I too much. At one point I was a little worried there'd be a bit of a wreck. I was paying attention to Cinnamon while we were standing and Kash turned around and nibbled on my stirrup, I went to tap him with it and he managed to get it on his lower jaw, just like Nicki did. Well, thankfully, he didn't freak out like Nick and I was able to reach down and slip it off.
There were two loose dogs. One was an Australian Shepherd cross that wanted to play (bowing and everything), the other was a little red Chihuahua that tried to eat Ruby and nearly got smashed for its touble.
It was pretty smooth going until we were to make the final turn into the empty desert lot before Brandon's. There was a little step up from the road and Cinnamon didn't want to take it at a nice walk so we tried it a couple of times and she wanted to jump it and run and Kash finally had enough and went to punch her with his teeth and Cinnamon did a little rear and I got them to stop before trying again and same thing, stinky Strudel horse wanted to jump and run, Kash had enough of the nonesense, but I was ready this time and he ran smack into my hand, quieted, and Cinnamon halted. At that point I decided I'd do better on the ground and asked Marty to hold Kash while I worked Cinnamon back and forth.
It took several minutes, but I finally had her walking nicely over it in both directions and retrieved Kash from Marty, climbed back on, and finished off the ride. Kash was a bit less tolerant of his charge for the remaining few minutes, but she was a bit better behaved. We got back and I allowed Kash to graze as we put Cinnamon in the roundpen and then I worked Kash a little in the yard. He was tentative at first, but when he realized he was no longer hauling a stinky little baby horse he moved out quite nicely and seemed a bit relieved to be able to do his job. He got a bit of bran and carrots this evening as an extra treat for being such a good boy overall, especially since he's not a seasoned pony horse.
After the ride Marty and I were talking and apparently Ruby was as good as gold unless she saw Cinnamon acting up, then Ruby got a little rialed and was wanting to catch up. We postulated that something like this was going on in her mind: "That's not right! That baby's not supposed to do that! Let me at her and I'll fix it!" When we told Chris he was quite amused as we do sometimes refer to Ruby as "The Regulator."
After all that I was a bit exhausted, still am, but it was a good experience. I'm going to try and make an effort to take the Strudel horse OUT on trail next week.
We're going to try ponying Cinn from Ruby tomorrow possibly. I was initially going to do it from the get-go, but I knew Kash was a bit more tolerant of other horses being around him. It would be nice if we could do Ruby+Cinnamon as Ruby has the body weight to just drag Cinnamon along vs. Kash who only has 200lbs on her, if that (and, of course, the difference shrinks daily).
Today was her first "trail ride." I climbed aboard Kash as I did earlier with ponying Cinnamon the first time, and Marty was aboard Ruby. We struck out easily enough and Kash moved forward willing and easy with Cinnamon behind his shoulder marching alongside. I send Kash through the wash that runs in front of our property and he steps through, but before we make it past the center there's tension on the line and Cinnamon is standing stubbornly on the bank, refusing to follow. Kash and I made it to the opposite bank and I tugged on the rope, she refused to come. More tugging, a step or two, but then she'd back and resist with all her might. I finally got one good step out of her, sent Kash back across the wash, and started again. We did manage to get her across, but then there was the issue of getting her to go back over it again, as I was not about to allow her to think that she could simply not do it if she so chose.
We went across twice, I think, before Marty suggested perhaps we might take them between our property and the Ramos' (they're just to the West of us) and take her through that wash there. So we headed off, Kash, Cinnamon, and I in the lead and Marty and Ruby taking up the rear. We took the little access road between the Ramos' and the "goat people" (I forget their name) and when we went to cross over onto the dirt that is the back protion of the Ramos' property, lo! There was another wash! Of course, this was was less than a foot deep and possibly 18" wide, but Strudel still stubbornly planted her feet and refused. Kash and I then proceeded to work her back and forth over it until she realized that moving forward was really the easiest thing. We made it to or initial goal and we marched back and forth along the wash between the properties that is about 3' deep in some places and possibly near the same across from the banks. Once Cin was moving easily across the obstacle we moved on with our trail ride.
Of course, the kicker is that the turnout that Cinnamon has spent her entire life in has a wash in it. It's huge at that! It probably makes 4' in some cases and is possibly 6' wide. Granted, as Chris reminded me once he got home from work: "A horse can do ANYTHING on its own that we could ever wish to ask it, but getting the horse to do one of those things when WE want it to ... well, that's something else."
It was pretty uneventful for the rest of the way. Kash eyeballed some dogs behind a fence, which made it a bit of a difficult spot as Cinn was trying to watch stuff going on the other side of the dirt road, which resulted in my leg getting squished between them. I did manage to start teaching the little Strudel horse some leg cues though! Mainly "get off my leg!" with a tap then a kick if she started rubbing into Kash and I too much. At one point I was a little worried there'd be a bit of a wreck. I was paying attention to Cinnamon while we were standing and Kash turned around and nibbled on my stirrup, I went to tap him with it and he managed to get it on his lower jaw, just like Nicki did. Well, thankfully, he didn't freak out like Nick and I was able to reach down and slip it off.
There were two loose dogs. One was an Australian Shepherd cross that wanted to play (bowing and everything), the other was a little red Chihuahua that tried to eat Ruby and nearly got smashed for its touble.
It was pretty smooth going until we were to make the final turn into the empty desert lot before Brandon's. There was a little step up from the road and Cinnamon didn't want to take it at a nice walk so we tried it a couple of times and she wanted to jump it and run and Kash finally had enough and went to punch her with his teeth and Cinnamon did a little rear and I got them to stop before trying again and same thing, stinky Strudel horse wanted to jump and run, Kash had enough of the nonesense, but I was ready this time and he ran smack into my hand, quieted, and Cinnamon halted. At that point I decided I'd do better on the ground and asked Marty to hold Kash while I worked Cinnamon back and forth.
It took several minutes, but I finally had her walking nicely over it in both directions and retrieved Kash from Marty, climbed back on, and finished off the ride. Kash was a bit less tolerant of his charge for the remaining few minutes, but she was a bit better behaved. We got back and I allowed Kash to graze as we put Cinnamon in the roundpen and then I worked Kash a little in the yard. He was tentative at first, but when he realized he was no longer hauling a stinky little baby horse he moved out quite nicely and seemed a bit relieved to be able to do his job. He got a bit of bran and carrots this evening as an extra treat for being such a good boy overall, especially since he's not a seasoned pony horse.
After the ride Marty and I were talking and apparently Ruby was as good as gold unless she saw Cinnamon acting up, then Ruby got a little rialed and was wanting to catch up. We postulated that something like this was going on in her mind: "That's not right! That baby's not supposed to do that! Let me at her and I'll fix it!" When we told Chris he was quite amused as we do sometimes refer to Ruby as "The Regulator."
After all that I was a bit exhausted, still am, but it was a good experience. I'm going to try and make an effort to take the Strudel horse OUT on trail next week.
We're going to try ponying Cinn from Ruby tomorrow possibly. I was initially going to do it from the get-go, but I knew Kash was a bit more tolerant of other horses being around him. It would be nice if we could do Ruby+Cinnamon as Ruby has the body weight to just drag Cinnamon along vs. Kash who only has 200lbs on her, if that (and, of course, the difference shrinks daily).