WordPlay

By Patty Wilber

Horse care after hard riding in cold weather. That was the blog plan anyway.

But then I went to the ranch last weekend, and it rained while we rode the horses in.

My slicker worked!

It rained over night.  It rained while we gathered  heifer 48, the sick orphan, and the four mama cows with the littlest calves whom we needed to truck,  rather than walk down the mountain.

Mama Blue 14, in the trailer with a snack of alfalfa

It rained enough that we put chains on all four tires of the 4-Wheel Drive truck we used for hauling the load of bovines off the western side.

Putting chains on in the mud.

It rained enough that we were worried the cattle pot (a semi truck) could not get into the pens down at the bottom of the hill on the eastern side.

It rained on the way out, two riders, and NO COWS.  Left the majority at the ranch and we are heading out this week to try again. I am gone as you read this.

A view on the way down. Still raining

So, maybe the title should’ve been be “Rode Wet”? 

Or maybe it should’ve  been “48″.   48 had brisket (high altitude respiratory edema) and probably pneumonia. She is not out of the woods yet and could still kick off, which would be rather distressing…because…

48 in the trailer. You can see her ear tag and the back of her head.

Well, I’ll tell you. (I guess this is her somewhat less than 15 minutes of fame…)

48 is a twin and and her womb-mate, Little 24 (distinguishable from Big 24 by the relative sizes of the ear tags), was the one mom wanted.  48 was abandoned.  We brought her in from the farm where she was born with in a few days, along with two likely substitute moms.

Both let her nurse some, but neither truly accepted her.  She took to nursing from behind when the “real” calves nursed from the side. She took the opportunities to eat when they were there.

About a week later, she got snake bit.

Her whole head swelled up and her eyes puffed into slits.  She had no Mom to care about her.

I took Penny and went to check the cows one day.  48 was all alone in a field 1/2 a mile or more from the herd, and I kid you not, the coyotes were circling.

Pushed her back to the herd.  She couldn’t really see where she was going but she could hear us and apparently didn’t wish to be caught, so we zigzagged her back to the bunch.  The cows didn’t seem to care, either way.

She was small but she survived.

We moved her to the high country in June with the rest, and she walked the whole way in.  She continued her vagabond sneak nursing.  I do not know how many moms she’s borrowed from, definitely more than three. She grew to be one of the bigger calves!

Then this, just one week before moving off the mountain!

She has received two doses of penicillin and seems to be improving.  Good thing, because if she’d died at the ranch (and I do have the “just died” picture but it was a little gruesome), in less than 10 days, this is all that would be left.

Scavengers waste no time. This is less than 10 days after death.. Cue music for Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. A time lapse camera would have been cool. Bears? Lions? Foxes? Bobcat?

Hold on 48!

By Patty Wilber

It may be true that a horse can smell fear.

Just take a whiff of your pits after you’ve exercised, given a big presentation, or had a great roll in the hay (except that whole roll in the hay thing is just as bad an idea as a fling in the surf.  Hay is poky.  Sand between your…teeth…is just… yeah…)  Anyway back to the pits.  They smell different depending on what metabolic processes are running in your body.

So, a horse may well have the olfactory capability to detect that.  But even if a horse could smell fear, would he react?

Maybe.  But maybe not.

Working with horses at the highest level requires confidence, balance, timing, technique, the ability to read the horse and react appropriately, etc. etc.

But anyone can do a whole lot with a big attitude!

Horses are really quite large, and I just realized that I don’t usually think about the fact that my smallest horse is probably 1000 pounds (and that is a smallish horse) vs. my 145.

One good head butt, shoulder shove, or butt bump could be the end of life as we know it! Attitude can save the day!

People sometimes come to me with unruly horses that do not respect them.  The horses lack focus, trample over their handlers, and scare everyone (including me–”You RIDE that horse?”  I think to myself.  “Out on the trail?  Alone?  Yikes!”).

My favorite example is a draft horse (big) cross that was attacking his owner by charging and biting. The vet had suggested he be put down. I said I would come evaluate him, but I would like to use a chain under his chin to be able to get his attention if I needed it.  “Oh no!” she said.  “That would be cruel.”

I declined the job.

She changed her mind.

We did some ground work with this  horse and he minded his manners, until suddenly, he charged.  He was very quick and he was very close so I only had time to throw up my arm and yank on the lead rope (which by the way was attached to a thin rope halter, but did not have a chain. The thin rope has a lot of bite, so “thin” gave me a lot of handle compared to a standard web halter.)

I stayed right in his face (mainly because there was really no other choice, not because I am particularly brave or knew I’d could “win”).  He immediately backed three steps, dropped his head and gave it up. That was all it took.

And I was very lucky that he truly was a nice horse underneath his bad attitude. I was hired to work with him for a few months.

T modelling a web halter. Ok, so his ears didn’t cooperate, but the halter is clearly shown. The flat, wide nature of this material distributes pressure on  the nose and behind the ears (the poll) over a greater area, decreasing bite.

The owner was never able to get the alpha spot with the draft cross, and when she realized it was not a good fit for her, she offered him to the Albuquerque Police Academy. He passed muster and last I saw him he was doing crowd control at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta! Much prettier than dog food.

One key to getting control of a horse’s attitude, is to control his feet.

If you watch horses in a pasture you can see the pecking order. The big cheeses make the others MOVE, on command. They push and bite and kick. Those that back off fall down the rungs of the social ladder.  Those that prevail are royalty.

If the handler is the Mover of the Feet, the handler becomes Queen (or King). You don’t actually need a whole lot of pretty technique to get this done (although it can make things easier.)  You do need Attitude!

Students that come to me for help with a non-cooperative horse almost always let the horse move them, and they didn’t even notice that was happening.  Fixing that usually creates a big change in the horse right away.

Once the animal isn’t in charge, they look to the handler for guidance.  They become respectful of personal space, quieter, braver and more focused.

Attitude can apply when riding too.  If you pretend you know what you are doing, and insist the horse go right when you say right rather than letting them circle left until you get back to right, and if you insist they stop when you ask, you gradually reinforce the idea that you are the Supreme Being, and the horse will listen. (Most horses anyway, most of the time. But like those drug ads on TV, there can be unpleasant side effects of dealing with large beings with their own brain.)

Can horses smell fear?  Probably, but I bet they react more to body language and Attitude!

Thanks Penny T. (a person not my horse) for the blog idea!

By Patty Wilber

I bought  new riding rain coat from a company called Muddy Creek.  As we are in a record drought, I have been toting it all over, unused, for months.

Saturday, I was up at 4:15am and on the road by 5, under dark (’cause the sun wasn’t up) and overcast skies.  We made the ranch, at 10,000 feet, near the border of Colorado, around 9 am.  Clouds were building to the south in big puffs of white and gray, shot with spears of sky.

I flopped my green saddle bags behind the cantle and threaded the leather lacings on the saddle skirt through the grommets to secure them.

I dutifully rolled and tied my new rain coat with the left over leather AND clothesline attached to the saddle bags themselves.

The wind gusted and the clouds kept  layering up.  Three drops of rain dotted my horse as I swung on.

We headed out, two riders and a ponied horse.  The ponied horse was superfluous, but she came along so she would not bust out of the barb-wire pen in a fit of lonely despair and come searching for her mates.

The cattle were half a mile east of the bunkhouse  in a sloped meadow near the salt blocks.  The grass was knee deep on the horses and in the seeps and rivulet streams, the sedges were emerald green.

I kept eying the sky, but the clouds were not falling.  Neither was the rain.

Spent some time (futilely) trying to rope the three newest calves, one of which is mine –my fourth. They need to be ear tagged.

Roping calves off a horse that does not neck rein while ponying another horse is impossible.  You’d need four arms–two for reins, one for the lead rope, and one for the lariat.  I was born with the normal number of appendages, so  tied up and tried to sneak up on the calves.

…

I could get pretty close...but not close enough to git ‘em with my rope.  Roping takes a lot of practice, plus MY rope was in my trailer, which was at home.  Truthfully, that is a feeble excuse because even with my own rope, chance of catching was slim.

Gave up.  Maybe next week.

Instead, decided to move the three interloping bovines from Espinosa’s and push them back out the SE fence.

Mounted up.  The intruders were on the edge of our herd, so we cut them off and hurried them down hill.  I mainly provided blocking manuevers because I had the non-neck reiner and the pony horse, which, for fast speeds and quick turns really requires three hands.  Still only have the two.

The sky was was opening up...in that the clouds were parting to let in the sun.  Chances of rain diminishing.  So glad I packed The Coat.

We moved those cows down a drainage, across a creek, took a sharp left around a wall of granite boulders and paused there.  We only had one lost-in-the-trees moment, but other than that, put those animals exactly where we wanted them. (Getting better at that!)

Gave up on the rain.  It was supposed to really let loose.  Ha. Not here.  Guess that means we will actually have to finish our day-work and go home.  No stuck in the mud excuses to stay. Drat.

Checked Barlow Creek for additional strays.  Gotta hate that. Had to long trot, toting the pony horse, down around two bends of green trimmed canyon next to a clear running stream with small trout flitting from rock to rock.  No one there.

Got the three we did have pushed up the hill, through the trees and across the dry lake bed, which was  a boggy marsh in June but is a soft meadow right now.  Opened the fence (the handy dandy fence tool came in handy dandy!), and sent those girls home.

My the commotion they caused!  The stayed-at-homes were mooing a “Where you been?!” greeting and crowding around to see the returnees.  We left them to their inspections and headed east along the bad fence to the S, to see if it had completely fallen.

Still up, and those cows were on the correct side–theirs.

Rode between Elk Ridge and Grass Mountain, where there is not much water.  The elk use the area but the cows do not.  Gorgeous steps of grass sliding steeply into the Brazos river canyon.  Five elk were clinging to the volcanic tuff slope on the opposite side and then bounded up the cliff when they saw us. Wound back around to Barlow Creek and the horse pens.

Saw a porcupine, all golden quilled at dusk, waddling through a meadow on the drive down the mountain.

We hit a little rain, and stopped to tarp the saddles.  So the rain quit.  Rolled into my driveway at midnight. I think I am getting too old for these 20 hour days.

Monday, I went to work cows with my friend Mark, and I did not bring my rain coat.

Got a six incher. The raindrops were 6 inches apart.

The arena got damp on top but the dust was still  hot and loose underneath.  I rode my name across the arena for grins.

Got a little wet, but by horse three, it stopped and we dried right up, and so did the ground.

If we do not get more rain soon, all the cows in Torrance county (where I hope to winter my bovines) are either going on the auction block or are going to cost their owners a bundle of feed for the winter.

I really want to hold on to my five girls!  Having too much fun to give up now.  (Not making any money, but hey, still working through the “start up costs”.)  Just keep telling myself that!

By Patty Wilber

Lily is two and a half and has 21 rides.

i am SO cute. i am really really cute. everyone thinks so. or at least i think everyone thinks so!

Here is how she progressed:

I started with eight days of groundwork. More than usual because she was  kind of scary to be around on the ground.

Horses are not small, even the little ones like Lily.  Eight hundred pounds of disrespect can put you six feet under, without really trying.

So, my first job was to get her to treat me like Some One Very Important. The big key to this is getting her to move her feet when I say so and doing my best to never let her move MY feet by pushing into my space or into me.

She did NOT like this and she spent a fair amount of time trying to escape. Her favorite trick was a hard right turn away with an attempt to jerk the lead rope out of my hands.  I had a Percheron cross that did that, too.  He didn’t get the rope away from me  but I  skied  in the dirt after him three of four times until I put a chain attached to the lead rope under his chin. When Lily was thwarted, she’d stamp her feet and toss her head.

By Day 5 of ground work I was putting my foot in the stirrup and by Day 9 I was on her.

Truthfully, the first mount up and settle-in-the-saddle moment scares me.

Except I have never been bucked off a horse on the first mounting, well, or, actually even had a horse buck on the first mounting because by the time I get there, they are ready… of course there is always first time fooled and because I can usually feel them bunched up under me.  Even if they don’t elect to uncoil, it still makes my sympathetic nervous system dump adrenaline to my circulatory system.

Riding a drunk is what the first few days are like.  The horse is clueless (cueless, too!) and they meander!

By Day 5 under saddle in the round pen she was walking, turning and backing two steps.  If I use the right rein to cue for a right turn when her right leg is on the ground, she has time to pick her right leg off the ground and move it sideways. I can get some very soft turns.  If my timing is off, she pulls against the bit.

On Day 6, we trotted.  On Day 7, we turned while trotting!

On Day 8, I took her on a field trip to 4 Winds Equestrian Center and she was so worried that it felt like Ride 1 on a potential bronc.  I rode and rode and rode at a walk until she finally was able to focus for a tiny bit of time.  Quit.

By Day 11 she opened the rope gate and went through.  She had a whoa on voice command, could trot and turn, and move sideways off the pressure of my leg by Day 13.

Out of the round pen, things are less precise because her brain periodically disengages from me and re-engages on..that raven!  The car up there on the road!  The leaf blowing by!  The stink beetle with its butt way up in the air, just waiting to spray!

But she had a decent handle, so I rode her out. Although she was tense (evidence: runny poop, and several deposits),  she was also brave and went where I told her with just a little urging!

She did NOT cry for her stablemates.  She did NOT clamor to go home.  She is NOT barn sour.

Many horses will bond to their handler.  If the bond is strong enough, they are (nearly) as happy to go with their human as with another horse.  However, unfamiliar surroundings can really test the strength of that  bond vs. the allure of the herd.

Bond Fail just tells you:  Need more of that precious commodity: TIME.

Day 14–back to the round pen and her comfort zone and Day 15 out with Jim on Cometa. The lead horse is the “bait”, but Lily had no trouble leading.  Confident!  She followed, but she didn’t need to be all up in Cometa’s tail.  Self assured!!

She opened AND closed my rope gate!

On Ride 19,  her two buddies from home, May and Doc, picked us up and we drove off to do a short trail ride with a water crossing.  Very little issue.  This was followed by  lightening forking around our ears.  THUNDER. Kapow! Soaking rain!

Miss Lily was fine.

The next day I trailered her, alone, to meet an unfamiliar horse.  She was biting her nails when I pulled in…until she saw Blondie, and then, she was “ho de do, where are we going?”  Lily thinks other horses like her, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, so having Blondie, (a pinned ear and the evil eye unnoticed by Our Girl), soothed her New Location jitters.

Two hour ride and one minor spook (those darn trail signs!).  Outstanding!

Ride 21 was in the arena and we got a few nice loping steps, on the correct lead, both directions!

Have lots of little attitude issues to resolve, but for a horse that was rude to the point of potential injury to where she is now..well, how cool is THAT?

Transformative.  One little step at a time!

By Patty Wilber

There was a New Mexico Buckskin (NMBHA) show last Saturday afternoon (3pm start time, 96 degrees F, but it’s a dry heat…as in desiccating.) I took Penny and Buckshot to compete in Reining and Working Cow.

Reining involves running circles, sliding stops, roll backs and spins as in this video of a world class reiner, ok, let me amend that, the world’s most successful, and my personal favorite, reiner, Shawn Flarida.

“Working Cow” consists of “dry work” which is a reining type pattern, followed by  “cow work” in which you “box” the cow at the end of the arena. This means the horse moves the cow back and forth.  Next you run the cow down the long fence line and turn it back, then you circle up.  You have two minutes to do this. Here is a video of cow work.

Penny is not bred for either of those events (she is “pleasure” bred–walk, trot, lope around the rail, reasonable temperment), but she is a good athlete, is pretty cowy, and they are fun, so why not!  Of course, I blew her up on cows by doing that darn ranch sorting in February (see Run Fever).

For reining, Penny is still building her flying lead changes (in the reining video,  at the change of direction in the circles, the leading leg of the horse changes in the air–that’s a flying lead change) and she does not have much of a sliding stop (four feet tops so far), but she is running her circles and changing speeds well and her spins are improving. She won a buckskin class Saturday.

Last time I tried Working Cow on her, she kept flashing to ranch sorting…bucking, rearing, way too much adrenaline.  She is fine with cows at the ranch and did well at the branding two weeks ago, so my plan was to get her in a competition environment, keep it really quiet, and ignore the whole idea of going for a score.

Worked! She was hooked on the cow when boxing.  No drama.  Trotted the cow down the fence a time or two, and sort of circled it at a trot and a slow lope. I quit on that cow when I thought we’d done enough and walked her out on a loose rein!

Trotting, head quiet, relaxed! Yeah! Her body shape should mirror the cow more, but her right front foot is in the air, like the cow, so that is good! Photo courtesy of Chuck Eggers who went with me, was a great help with the horses AND took pictures!

Buckshot is bred to rein.  He improves daily, and Saturday he put together his best pattern yet.  He motored on his big circles while staying relaxed!  His spins were correct (still too slow), he hit his lead changes and boy can he stop!  He is performing at the top of his current training.  Often you can get a lot more out of a horse at home where things are familiar.  He seems comfortable everywhere!

Buckshot running circles!

Stopping nice and low. Really putting in the effort! A couple problems: 1) I am looking to the side to make sure I don't over run my marker. This can throw the horse off. I should be looking forward. 2) My legs are braced, putting too much weight in the stirrups. This drives the front end of the horse down which does not enhance the slide!

He got a 4th under one judge, which just fried me. I had to phone a friend to vent!  Fortunately, she was in COMPLETE agreement with me!

He won under the other judge, that has reiners, so there!

That however, is horse showing. Sometimes you get a gift and sometimes you get the short stick. Buckshot himself did all he could do and I am SO proud of him!

I watched the Appaloosa Nationals Junior Working Cow Horse class online the other day and a horse sired by DK Smartmate of Whispering Spirit Ranch and owned and trained by Jim Jirkovski of J Bar S Training, won.

She looked good! I thought, “Buckshot can do dry work close to what she did!”  So, I got a little bee up my b…  bonnet and decided he needs to go the Nationals next year to compete in Junior Working Cow (junior = a horse five or under and he will be five next year).

No time to start like the present.  I entered him in Working Cow at NMBHA. He caught on real quick (The class only lasts two minutes so I am not kidding.  Quick.) (He has moved cows for me at the farm, so not like he’s never been with a cow.)

Oh boy! I asked him push it when circling the cow and he tracked (followed) it like a charm, changed leads, ran really hard, and as soon as I asked him to shut it down, he did.   Walked out like he was taking a stroll in the park.

Pushing the cow up the arena. What a nice expression he has, as well as intent, and he is still paying attention to me.

There is a lot to work on, but one judge thought he was good enough for a 2nd, which actually, I think, falls into the “gift” category.

Buckshot comported himself in such a low key manner while really stepping up when asked, that several people expressed interest in breeding to him!

Whispering Spirit Ranch (his owner) is going to breed him to All Round Sundown this week.  I rode that mare as a four-year-old to a National Championship in Western Riding (lots of lead changes), 3rd in Junior Reining, and 10th in the World in Junior Trail.  That is a foal I want to get my hands on!

Ali taking 3rd at Appaloosa Nationals in Jr. Snaffle Bit Reining. Hey I wore that same shirt at the show Sunday! No chaps though. Too hot!

By Patty Wilber

The farrier (also known as “The Shoer”) came to work on the horses last week.  He did  four  horses.  One trim, one full shoe (all four feet) and two half shoes (front feet only).

The Other Farrier came the week before (I use two different farriers because The Shoer is very good with Penny’s club foot and Risa’s quirks.  The Other Shoer does one of my client’s horses and he has done Cometa most of his life.)  The Other Shoer did one trim and one full shoe, with sliders.

In the wild, the hooves wear off naturally, but this does not occur in a pen.  Without regular care, every 6-12 weeks, the feet may grow unevenly or break off, which can lead to lameness, joint issues or in severe cases, deformity.

For my horses, cost is 40-50 bucks for a trim and 85-125 for a full shoe.  It varies by farrier and shoe type.  And my equines are all pretty straight forward.

Cha–ching.

The youngster (Lacey) got a trim– a quick trim at that (and a discounted price!)  The idea was to get her used to having someone up under her moving her legs this way and that (she was pretty good) and to keep her legs and feet growing straight and balanced.  In young horses, good hoof care can prevent, and even correct, problems.

This will be great so long as she ends up sound! The last X-ray  indicated no improvement in the bone lesion caused by the infection (which means another month of antibiotics and more waiting), but she has far less discomfort (a very positive sign), so the inflammation is less.  She is off pain meds and barely a limp!

She is mainly a Pasture Ornament (or is that Money Pit #2?–Winston being Money Pit #1) so she doesn’t need extra hoof protection or cosmetic enhancement. (You can shoe yearlings that are being shown so their feet meet the “pretty” requirement.)

The oldster (Cometa–14 on the 9th!) got a trim.  His Mom, his Dad and all his relatives back about 100 years had to fend for themselves on a rocky barren ranch in Arizona.  Those with crummy feet, poor teeth, or bad digestive systems, died. As a result, Cometa has great feet that are well shaped, and hard.  He has only had two shoes his whole life, on the back feet, because for a while I was  doing quite a few stops and I wore his feet down.

Lily and Risa got shoes on the front, trimmed in the back.  Risa is working as a pack horse this summer and not a lot, at that.  The forests are nearly all closed because we haven’t had significant rain in most of NM for months.  We are drier than a kiln dried 2×4.  Really.   An ATV and a chain saw spark have led to thousands of blackened acres.  Check out inciweb.com for all sorts of interesting info on fires across the country! There’s a huge fire in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.

Lily never had shoes before.  She’d had regular trims, but because she’s here going to school, her feet were wearing down and were tender on gravel.

A horse carries around 60% of its weight on the front end, so an animal in light work, can be comfortable in front shoes alone.  Also, when getting a first set of shoes, it can be nice to just deal with two feet.  The hammering and the feel the the nail in the horn of the hoof (painless) is bothersome to some.

Penny had all four done.  I ride her a lot and her feet are pretty soft.  I had her shod “for the mountains” which visually seems to mean that length of the nail where it comes up and out of the hoof is longer than a on a “show” shoe.  The longer clinch and more grip vs. a shorter clinch and prettier.

All the horses lost shoes in the  mountains last month.  Extremely inconvenient when you a) paid 85 bucks and b) are far away from the farrier and have no phone service!

Farriers normally guarantee their work and will replace shoes that come off, for free. Given the cost of gas, this is a nice feature!

You can see where the nails are bent over and are flush with the hoof. They are clinched.

Penny also has a mild (grade 1) club foot, which needs regular care.  If left unchecked, changes could occur in the alignment of the bones resulting in lameness.  With proper shoeing it is hard to see!  It did not develop until she was two.

Grade 3 club foot.

I tried a barefoot “shoer”. The assured me that with a correct trim I could keep my horses unshod.  “But I ride a lot.” (I have worn the shoes off some of my horses in five weeks).

“No problem.”

After a few trims, they said, “You need shoes!  We have no foot to work with.”

I said, “Duh…” Only to myself, (until now).

Buckshot had all four feet done and got sliders on the back.  The sliders are wider, smoother and longer than regular shoes and, yes,  they help a horse slide!  Slides are important for sliding stops in reining.  Buckshot IS a reiner, by breeding and by ability.

Sliders are the 3rd picture. There are different types of sliders, too...

There is a whole lot more to this shoeing business than these few examples, but hopefully this provided some insight!

No hoof, no horse.

By Patty Wilber

Lily came for training a few weeks ago. I asked her parents if I could put her in the 1/3 acre pen with Risa and Penny because Lacey/Esmerelda was pre-surgery lame and needed her own space; Buckshot is a stud and Lily is a girl, so sharing a pen would not be advisable unless we wanted… well you know… Plus breeding a palomino to a buckskin gives a 25% chance of getting a double dilute,  (basically white); and displacing Cometa to put Lily in the pen next to Buckshot would give Buckshot incentive to become a fence wrecker.

So, out with the girls she went.

Lily is in a herd at home. She was born there and everyone (the horses, I mean) has known and spoiled her her entire life.

Penny (to Risa): “who’s that?”

Risa (to Penny): “i dunno.”

Lily: “HI!  i’m Lily!  every one likes me!”

Risa (to Penny): “i don’t like her.  do u like her?’

Penny (to Risa): “i don’t like her.”

we dislike her immensely!

Penny (to Risa): “hey! open ur mouth.  see if u can scare her with ur weird tooth.”

Lily: “HI!  i’m Lily!”

Risa (to Penny, ignoring Lily): “i will bite her! u can run her into the corner!”

It was not too long before Lily was NOT happy (even if it was a huge pen) to be  with them.

In an adjacent area Lacey/Esmerelda was alternately running (WHOO whee a new horse!)  and limping (OW whee–my foot really hurts!)

Lily: “hey!  will u be my friend?”

Lacey/Esmerelda: “well i don’t have Facebook, but ok”

Lily: “good! i’ll be right over.”

This is where Lily began to ram the fence and the gate, coming rather close to decimation and success.

Which was why I, with the help of my gracious neighbors, spent  from 8:30 to 10 pm rebuilding and running electric wire.

That kept her off the perimeter.

It took Lily’s drill sergeant pen-mates over a week to inculcate the concept  “lowest on the totem pole.”  They took turns.

Penny to Lily: “U!  stand over there!  NOW!”

Risa to Lily: “NOT LIKE THAT! bend ur head a little left!”

etc.

Lily figured out (largely) how to read their body language, stay out of the corners and give herself two escape routes at all times.

She stood near Lacey’s pen a lot.

Penny and Risa went on a pack trip and Lacey went away for specialized leg care. Lily got the back pen to herself.

Oh Misery.  Oh Loneliness.

Lacey went to the vet for 4 days and Penny and Risa came back, so I gave Lily Lacey’s pen.

Oh Misery!  Oh Loneliness! She wanted back out with the bossy chicks.

Can’t win for trying.

Lacey came home, Lily went out and everyone seems to have figured out their place in the pecking order.

So, how’s the actual training going?

The pen lessons have actually helped Lily develop more respect, not only for other horses, but also for people.

At first, any demands on her brain resulted in a) i will run u over! or b) i will run away.

The round pen took a bit of a beating when she employed option (b).  Jumping or pushing her way out seemed, to her, viable.

Ugh.

I was afraid it would be many weeks before I could get on her because, yeah, not interested in becoming one with the round pen.

We practiced packing a saddle, wearing a bridle, being tied up and did lots of natural horsemanship type ground work in the round pen and in the arena (which is not fenced):

This was Thursday and Lily actually stood really well until I started to take pictures. At this point she figured I should be paying QUITE A BIT more attention to her, hence leaning into the hitching rail, pawing and head tossing

Backing off a rope wiggle (PAW! lift front feet off ground slightly, shake head wildly, look away–”i am not participating!  not!”  NOT!) She accidentally stepped back.  Heaps of praise, petting, rubbing.

Little wheels turned in her head.  Hmmmm.

Monday, she backed off a finger wiggle.

Move the hip, more the shoulder, go sideways along the fence, go around me at a walk and trot and when loose DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EXIT THE ROUND PEN without permission!

No unauthorized exit attempts Sunday, Monday (even though we’d taken a field trip to Whispering Spirit Ranch where Penny and I helped with branding) or Tuesday!

Little reaction to stirrup bumping or my weight in the stirrups… or me standing in the stirrups!  She just stood there on a completely loose rein!  Surprised me!

Tuesday, her mom came over, watched all the ground work and got to see Lily’s first “ride”.

Get on.  Get off.  Repeat.

Get on.  Sit there.  Get off. Repeat.

Get on, bend her head to my foot. See if she will move her hip (yes) Shoulder?  no.

Ask her to back (yes).

Forward on a clucking noise? No.  Leg bump?  Not.  (No kicking. That just causes hysteria followed by bucking far too often for my liking.)

Over and under with the reins with increasing frequency and vigor until, lo and behold, we got a few jerky steps.  Praise! Repeat!  PRAISE!  PET! Repeat!

A big theme in horse training = PRAISE! REPEAT! And know when to quit.

Slow works best for me. When I get in a hurry and skip the little steps, I always end up going back to fix things up.

If she continues to improve her attitude at this fast pace, it won’t be too long (I hope) until she’s opening the practice gate from the saddle!

But then again, tomorrow she  might be on a completely different page!

By Patty Wilber

Lacey (AKA Esmerelda, her not-so-secret good luck name.)

She had surgery on Monday. And this is what they found:  Her joint fluid looked much more normal! Better color and consistency and far fewer neutrophils (which indicates less infection!)

Smaller cyst. The bad spot is smaller!  Healing is occurring.

The furazone wrap worked to reduce the swelling. so Dr. Dralle was able to flush the joint really well AND find a vein to inject antibiotics right to the site.  It looked so good that he did not leave the joint open for drainage!

The closed wound is great news for me! Less chance of another infection, less pain, two weeks of legs wraps that I change every other day instead of 3 months changed daily, and a most likely, a less damaging scar!

The new antibiotics are working!

The Pecos.

Myself, my Spousal Unit and Progeny #2 all went on a Back Country Horsemen pack trip Saturday and Sunday.

Left at 6 am. Got about 20 miles down the road when heard “Pop. Shhh,  kethunk.”  Pulled over cuz, yes it was a flat on the trailer.  Not an issue, as I have the handy dandy Jiffy Jack!

Jiffy Jack!

Of course if your spare is flat, it is actually an issue.

What will be open in the Lovely Town of Moriarty NM at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning?  Not much according to the phone book, but we drove on down the main drag (which you can do with a flat on a trailer with two axles like the one in the picture above), and we we saw a shop that was either abandoned (2 votes) or open (1 vote).

Open.

He referred us back up the road to another shop of similar appearance.  We got our flat fixed ($22), bought a new tire (from the first guy; $100 but “Big discount! Really good tire!  Ten ply!”)  We were on our way around 8 am.

We were late to meet the BCHer’s (got to Panchuela around 10 am instead of 8 am) but they were not impatient.  There was a lot of gear to pack and we finally were on the trail with equipment for a trail crew by noon.

Risa loaded and carrying her hobbles around her neck. My hitch of choice is still the box hitch.

Penny also carried a load and got ridden! And ponied Risa in.

I haven’t done much with Risa this summer (ever since she was so terrible at the March show…) but she packed like a charm, even over the little mud and water we encountered, except for that one spot where the aspen sapling caught on the edge of the pannier, bent and then slipped under the bottom of the pack.

Risa, propelled, not so much by the spring in the sapling but the surprise in her brain, catapulted forward.  The tree knocked her pack askew so we did a quick re-center and re-hitch.

The Pecos Wilderness is the driest I have ever seen it, and in fact, the Pacheco Fire started to west while we were riding in. It ended up going from five acres on Saturday to 3000 acres on Sunday. As of Thursday pm it was 5500 acres and only 10% contained.

In camp, the horses were hobbled to graze and then were high-lined for the night. The air is hazy due to smoke from the Pacheco Fire

Cometa, Penny and Risa, hobbled and grazing.

I ended up lending Penny to our BCH VP for the ride out, as his horse was feeling puny.  I rode Risa.  Oh joy.  First, I tried her in line behind John who was being ponied by Penny. Cometa followed behind Risa. She trusts Cometa. I thought.

Jig, spook, jig, twtich. Head toss for good measure.  This is going to be a very long eight miles…So, I put her at the very back.  That worked…

Until after lunch. P#2 was hiking and he hiked behind me for a while, which was fine with Risa. Then he stopped longer than we did at a stream, so he had to catch up.  Risa completely forgot about him apparently, because when he started to close the gap, her imagination lit up:.  “there is something behind me.  with big teeth.  or a big ass knife.  that will be used to stab me. in the jugular.  death is imminent.”

This went on until P#2 was in speaking range, at which point she snapped.  “oh.  him!  never mind.”

She also did fine in the back until we stopped and moved off the trail.  Whenever this happened, her Zen was disturbed.  “they are out of place.  put them back in place!  aahhhh!”

Geez. That’s exactly why I ride Penny and pack Risa.  Much more relaxing.

But we made it home, just in time to find out that on Tuesday I needed to help move cows from Llaves to The Ranch. The water at Llaves was drying fast.

Left the house at five Tues am, returned Weds at 2 am, 22 hrs later.

Banded (elastic at the base of the testicles), branded, ear tagged and vaccinated.

Banding tool for calf castration. Slip 'em in and release the rubber band. Do it again.

Run away!

We got ‘er done, loaded up and drove to The Ranch.  I am two for two in vehicles heading up that road.  They overheat. I was not driving either time.

Finally made the ranch by 5 pm (only took 12 hours to get there).

Yippee! (Ki yay)

Off to join the other bunch that hiked in a few weeks ago.

We could leave now. Except Cowboss and the Amon Amarth* Aficionado were staying another 10 days or so to work the fence and neither of us home-bound folks wanted to go.  We invited ourselves to dinner and then dragged our butts reluctantly down the mountain as the day melted away. (Saw a ton of deer and elk on the drive which was a bonus.)

Time to go. Daylight is fading.

The main problem with going to The Ranch is coming home. Despondent, like waking from the perfect dream or coming to the end of a perfect book. I probably would have hidden under a bunk and refused to come out except there’s no phone service up there and had  hungry horses at home.

*”Melodic” Viking Metal Band.  Check out the video Twilight of the Thunder God.     Viking Metal.  Who knew?!  And even more incongruous:  Viking Metal includes Danish Folk Metal which seems to combine Renaissance fair-like music with growled lyrics…

Amon Amarth will be in Albuquerque on August 29, just in case you want to go…(!)

By Patty Wilber

Tabooli has been a bit unruly, so when it came time to put the cows up in the high country, he was not going unless I rode him. So, I left Penny home and took T.

Part 1.  Putting the cows in in the truck.

Got to the farm around 8:30 am with Alameda, Cinco and Tabooli.  Alameda was T’s first love (back when he was a stallion), and apparently he has not completely forgotten.  He must have been good because Alameda seems to like him, too…

This made him a pain when I had to go round up the cows on my own while Alameda and Cinco hung out at the trailer.

It took me a while because it was like herding amoeba.  They had already had water.  They were spread out and grazing.  The calves felt like nursing and there were three young bulls from the neighbor’s trying their luck in our herd…

T had to go over here and get this group moving then those over there would stop. Then the bulls would start jostling each other.  Then some calves would look for food.  Then T would lose his cool being out there on his own, so I’d have to decide whether to push him through it or get off and let him settle while I moved the cows on foot with him in tow…

A long time later we got them to the pens.

The shipper with his big two-story cattle truck arrived and we began moving cows into the truck–except the ones that refused to herd into the chute…and the calves that snuck under the fence…and finally Yellow 9 that just jumped out and ran off.

T (with me) and Alameda (with T’s Dad) chased her all over the farm for an eternity, while she jumped or went through about 7 or 8 fences.  Eventually, she wore out and started looking for some cow company.  T and I, by keeping a good distance and planning our angles managed to push her back into the pens.  At that point she and the other two loaded right up.

Part 2. Drove 159 miles to the turn off, then 16 miles in on dirt road.

The hauler was told about the dirt road…but he wasn’t really prepared for it.  Went about 5 mph, thus taking nearly three hours to go the last 16 miles.

He had “fire coming out of his eye” by the time he got there and left without really speaking or even collecting his check!  We figured we’d tell him we’d be paying him in the fall after he picked up the cows and delivered them back to the farm…

Part 3. Cattle drive! Eighteen miles to the ranch.

Smoke from the Wallow Fire in AZ made the sun blood red in the morning. My camera didn’t capture it well.

There were four of us moving the cows. This is Jeff. The aspen were much more leafed out than last week. The white trunks never cease to strike me with their beauty!

Me on T with Cinco in tow, pushing the cows past the snow. T was pretty happy if he had Cinco or was near Alameda but got Unruly if he had to do too much all alone...

This vista was really breathtaking. David and Mister are pushing the cows.

Note T's pinning his ears. He got tired of having to follow and starting trying to get the dogies to git along using the force of his personality.

Convincing the cows to cross--I only got a few over, but they acted as magnets and the others came more readily.

Made the Ranch and penned the cows in the horse pasture for the night. The horses stayed in the little pens. T got to be with Alameda AND Cinco. Happiness.

Part 4. Fixed Fence.

We fixed and set up fence after riding in on Sunday and we fixed fence for a couple hours on Monday before we rode out.

This is what fence work does to your gloves. I repaired mine with Duct Tape. Cuz baling wire doesn't do the job in this case!

Steep!

Wet!

After we’d done as much as we could given the time, we saddled up to move the cows out of the horse pen and down to Barlow Creek–in the middle of the ranch, far from the fence that is still laid down.

Part 5. Eighteen miles back out!

T ponied Cinco the whole way!

Back across the river!

T was responsive and complaint all day. Probably because he was tired, he had Cinco, there were no cows, and he is starting to catch on to the idea that the horses all get to stay together.  Except he hates Mister because he is sure Mister is trying to steal Cinco and Alameda.

Made it home at midnight and had to be up at 6 to get to my “real” job.

Haven’t quite recovered yet, but T, Penny and I will be back at it this weekend.

I also got my yearling filly from Kansas this week…she has a leg injury, so vet visit tomorrow to get a diagnosis…She’s super cute, so might be the blog topic for next week…

PS please excuse any typos.

By Patty Wilber

The wind is blowing all the time and there has been no rain.

The farm has 36 cows and 20 something calves, all doing well on last year’s 1200 acres of forage, but there’s no spring green up.  The grass is tanned and the earth is cracked.  Dust boils up where ever I step.

Time to move the cows to the summer range…if the summer range is ready.

I arrived at the farm around 7:30 am, with Penny and T.  Met The Harris Brothers.

Some of the cows were heading to water, but a few were in the western corner, so that’s where Penny (the only horse saddled) and I went.  We picked up Blue 12 and her calf, the bull, another cow and a passel of calves, some of whom had been napping on the sand around a coyote or badger den.

The wind was blowing dust in my eyes and I hung my purple baseball hat on my saddle horn because no way was it staying on my head.

I pushed my recruits to the water, too; easy since they tend to go there in the morning anyway. However, Blue 12 was NOT interested in joining the herd with her two day old baby (Blue 2).  She kept veering off, stopping and turning back.  Blue 2 was still new-born dopey and he kind of staggered along after his momma, panting.

They drank and then we headed to the pens.  Over the winter, we fed them there occasionally, so that is another place they go if you can point them in the general direction…Except Blue 12, who kept trying to sneak her boy off into the four-wing salt bushes to let him lay down.

Penny had to work back and forth to keep them grouped and moving.  She kept flashing back to ranch sorting, thinking she would have to  do something really dramatic any minute, so she felt a little bunchy and tight under me.

At the pens, we separated the cows into two groups;  Group One was cow-calf pairs + the bull, and Group Two included those that have not yet calved + Blue 12 and her newbie.

The livestock inspector gave us the go ahead and we loaded Group Two plus our four horses, and headed for the Cow Way Station in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, a few hours away.

We arrived and unloaded.

Blue 12

Blue 2 needs a helping hand

They didn't have to go far to find a novelty: GREEN GRASS

Hauling cows is a __________ job! Messy? Dirty?

After we let the cows out on to the 160 acres, we checked and fixed the fences in the few spots where there were problems. I am the novice; have to keep up and learn quick because The Harris Brothers can fix anything, as if they were born knowing how.

The bluffs to the south are horizontally striped in maroon and cream. The mesa to the north has eroded into curtains and caves.

Amazing!

The smell of sage edged up into my nose. AHH…Chooo!

I think the cows might like it here. They will go to the high country ranch in a month or so.

We got up the next morning at 4am (no whining from the novice–besides I had picked a lumpy sleeping spot and and my thermarest leaked, so wasn’t sleeping all that well anyhow), ate, packed up  and drove (and drove, and drove some more) to north of Tres Piedras, near the Colorado border, saddled up and rode around 16 miles in to check conditions at The Ranch.

In the aspens--note they are not leafed out much-too cold. I took this picture by pointing the camera backwards while riding, so I figured it's pretty good(!)

As we climbed up to 10,000 feet, we were blasted by wind whenever we hit open areas (although it was not terribly cold).  The wind and the warmth were melting the remaining snow banks (some were over 6 feet deep) and water was running everywhere.

Mister (the horse) says,"Really? More snow? More mud? More bogs?"

In one spot the snow buried the road in irregular humps that the horses could not plow through,  so we detoured down a creek, over the creek (Mister was not happy), up a very steep slope and across a bog.

I was ponying Alameda.  Penny had dissed Tabooli the night before, so Tabooli switched allegiances to Alameda (“I love her so!”).  Alameda and Penny were bitching at each other.  Penny is used to being the lead horse so she knows that when she is working she needs to put her opinions in check.  Alameda knows this too, but kept trying to take a bite out of Penny whenever my attention was diverted.

Diverted big time in the bog. We got in hock deep and the horses were lunging forward to higher ground.  Alameda got up beside Penny and instead of focusing on the Big Bog Issue, decided this would be the perfect opportunity to take off Penny’s head.

REALLY?! Do we NOT have more important things to do, Alameda? Like not getting mired in MUCK?

We ended up dismounting and leading our sinking mounts, looking for  water on the surface (if it runs on top, it isn’t bogging up underneath) or rocky spots.

It took about three and half hours total to reached the ranch gate, which was stuck closed by snow on either side.  I put my shoulder into the gate and shoved it open.  Penny and I snuck through.  Then I began pulling the gate…right off it’s hinges!

Yep, I ate my spinach!

Heading into ranch headquarters (down in the valley). The wind is trying to take off our head covers!

We made it.

Done riding for the day.

We didn’t have enough corral space. No biggie if you’re Hanging with The Harris Brothers. We built one. (I helped.  Really.) Later, they fixed the hot water heater in the cabin. No problem unsolvable.

It was nice to be out of the wind for the first time in 36 hours!

Next day, up at 6 am, set up and repaired the lay-down fence for the horse pen (in 40 F, 40 mph wind, with spatterings of driving snow for added interest), and some of the ranch perimeter. Lay-down fences (see picture below) are laid down in the winter to prevent damage by snow and wildlife.

Cowboss, fixing the horse fence. Cold, windy, feet are wet and it is spitting snow.

Some fence was still buried.

The snow is still really deep under the trees. You can see the fence on the ground in the forefront of the picture. That will be picked up and attached to the T post I am standing near.

Grabbed a warm lunch, packed up Penny instead of saddling her, as she’d thrown her right front shoe and her foot was chipped (but then it turned out T and Mister had also thrown their right front shoes, but no  chips–probably a bunch of shoes back in one of the bogs…) Everyone made it out fine since the ground was soft.

You can see Penny's mane blowing. I am wearing chaps and my winter coat. I wore that all day and never was too hot!

The cloud cover had blown away and it was sunny.  The wind was still relentless (but at our backs for the ride down).

The wind is whipping my scarf eastward!

Rode out in 4 hours, and the ground was noticeably drier–the moisture wicked away by the wind.

We will bring the cow-calf pairs in on June 5!