WE FINALLY DID IT!

I can't believe it, the rescue horses were FINALLY relinquished to the Yamhill County Court and they are no longer in any danger of ever being retuned to the sick woman who beat and starved them nearly to death. This has been a long, time consuming and frustrating journey and it is finally beginning to come to an end.

After finding out this wonderful news I went out and gave both of those mares a big fat hug and told them they are safe now.

I have two new horses in for training; Socrates and Dusty. Socrates bucked me OFF last night. I don't know about you but I think that unscheduled dismounts SUCK! He wasn't trying to be naughty but rather got spooked when we walked past the mounting block and some sand got kicked up on it, the sound of that sent him sideways and knocked me off balance. Then he darted the other direction and took a couple hops which sent me into the air and off to the side and I accidentally harpooned him with my spur. He wasn't very fond of THAT so went off into the other direction and just when I thought I'd stick he took a big jump and sent me flying into the air. Unfortunately, this is when long legs do not work in my favor, I didn't clear the saddle and my spur hung up under the horn so I went down head first and became a human sled for a second. I didn't get hurt other then some sore spots on my body but my hair, mouth, nose, ears and underwear were full of sand. Take it from me, this is not a pleasant experience!

After I had a moment to gather my wits about me and shake the sand out of my hair, I noticed that poor Socky was standing there with a Steve Erkle “Did I Do That?” look on his face. He didn’t seem too rattled so I just lead him over to the mounting block and kicked sand on it a few times so he could see that the Booger Man wasn’t going to jump out and attack him, hopped back on and went back to work. The rest of our ride was uneventful THANK GOD! He did finally start responding to my voice whoa so I didn’t have to reinforce with the reins and I was able to work him into the corners that were pretty darned scary the night before. I’m hoping that soon I’ll be able to keep him moving smoothly forward and begin trotting.

Dusty got more ground work. His owner wants him to walk, trot, canter and whoa on voice command so I worked with that for quite a bit free lunging. It takes him quite a bit to whoa and transition from the trot to the walk so I might put a long line on him next time so I can reinforce with that a little. I’ve also been asked to work on his fear of plastic so the old tarp came out. I was able to drape it across his back and I got him to walk across it. He is still afraid of it when it’s just lying in a heap on the ground so tonight I’m going to heap up several tarps in the arena and work him around them for awhile. He’s a really smart horse and working with him is fun.

Both horses have a bad habit of trying to come out of the stall before I have them haltered so I make them both back up when I open the door and stand there quietly while I’m facing them. If they come into my space I twirl the lead rope right in front of me so they have the choice of backing off or being smacked with the twirling rope. I don’t hit them, they get themselves hit and it seems to be working well. I made them both spend the night in the stalls last night in the hopes that they will be more calm about staying in them to wait their turn to be worked each night.

Todays Photo is a warm and fuzzy. It's the neighbor kid petting Kiwi and Babs, this is one of those photos that just "has it all!"