Goodbye 2011

It's hard to believe that the year is already over.  So much happened over the past year, both good and bad.  I'm actually very thankful that it is over but I'm looking forward to 2012.  2011 was a very good learning experience for me, both with family and horses, and I'm beginning to to be more comfortable with myself and what I can do.  I gained a great horse and lost a great horse.  I lost respect for people that I know and love, and who taught me about horses, and gained respect for newcomers in my life.  Everything that happened taught me a lot and I am thankful for everything that happened, with the exception of losing Cassidy.

January:

I travelled to BC with my brother and Mom for my Great-Aunt's funeral and discovered that driving through the Rocky Mountains without heat in your car really sucks.  I did very little riding, both at my dad's and at home, spent most of my time freezing and wishing that winter would finally end.  First noticed how much weight Sadie was gaining and began to worry.

March:

The weather finally began to warm up.  Jimmy had his accident in the barn and began pulling back.  Socks was less enthusiastic about being ridden and I back off.  I spent a lot of time fussing over her but was not able to detect any real change in her.

April: 

Hades was born and two weeks later, Artemis was born.  I spent the month marvelling over how amazing she was and worrying about how I was probably going to ruin her.  Spent hours in her paddock putting the halter on her and taking it off, and getting her to lead behind Socks.  We spent every free second at the stable.  Jimmy continued pulling back when tied in the barn.  Socks lost a lot of weight and we adjusted her feed program.  Started this blog.

May:

I rained.  A lot.  Spent a miserable May long tending to Pawnee's awful shoulder injury and trying to keep Cas warm.  Spent many hours in the rain working with Artemis.  At this point it would take around an hour to get the halter on her and less then five minutes to lead her into the barn.  We reached the point with Jimmy where we deemed him too dangerous to be in the barn because of his pulling back and restricted any work we did with him to outside.  We stopped riding him and focused on desensitisation training.

June:

Began riding Socks again.  Worked on Artemis being separated from her mother in preparation for weaning.  Continued with Jimmy's desensitisation training.  Continued to spend every spare moment with the horses.

July:

Artemis' training was going really well.  Caught up in Stampede fever, began working with Socks on the barrels again and switched her barrel racing bit to a snaffle.  Panicked over Artemis being moved to my dad's in a few months. 

August:

Went camping with Thor for the first time.  Thor fell off a ten foot cliff but wasn't hurt.  Made the decision that Artemis was staying down with me for good.  Made major progress with Jimmy and began bringing him in the barn again.  Made plans with the stable owners to board Artemis in the pasture once she was weaned.

September:

I got my concussion from Artemis and was unable to ride for over a month.  She and Socks were moved to the larger field in preparation for weaning, and after a couple weeks in there, were moved to the pasture to introduce Artemis to the herd.  I focused on helping my mom's riding with Jimmy while I couldn't ride.

October:

Artemis was weaned on October 2nd.  She and Socks called for each other for a few days but settled into it pretty easily.  The first few weeks she was extremely attached to my mom and I and came running whenever she saw us but soon settled into life with the herd.  I spent a lot of time desensitising her to objects and teaching her not to be pushy.  I spent a lot of October worrying about Cassidy.

November:

I had to make the hardest decision and I lost a great horse.  I didn't want Cas to suffer and so she was laid to rest.  I had time to say goodbye and I just hope that it really was the right thing to do.  November was a hard month and Artemis kept me sane.  I spent as much time as I could with her and she inherited Cas' halter. 

December:

Artemis turned eight months on Christmas day and as a result of grandfather's inability to say her name, became known as Fuzy to everyone in my family.  She stands at 13.2 hands and couldn't be any better behaved.  I realised that the people who taught me about horses can no longer be my mentors but I also learned to be more confident with what I can do with horses without them.  I did not see Artemis much but missed her all the time.

As you can see, I spent most of my time working with Artemis or wishing I was at the stable.  I started the year not sure if I could handle the responsibility of a foal without ruining her and ended it becoming confident that I can do it.  I look forward to everything that awaits us in 2012 and can't wait for the next chapter of my time with Artemis, Socks and Jimmy.

Seven: The Survivor

*Warning* This post includes some very gross pictures*

Seven is a four-year-old Appaloosa gelding.  He is technically my brother's third horse, but that's a long story and to keep things simple, we say he's my brother's second horse.  Alex had gone a few years without a horse so when he was finally ready for a new one, we talked my dad into going to the auction.  We walked all around for over an hour and not once did we stop to look at the little Appaloosa colt.  He was in a pen with a bunch of pony weanlings and we just assumed he was one as well.  And Alex was not in the market for a pony.  He had a few that he wanted to bid on but we didn't get any of them.  My dad has a rule that he won't spend over $500 on a horse (a rule he's only broken once) so that makes it pretty inconvenient when the horse you really like goes for $550.  Finally there were only four horses left to go through the sale.  It's a pretty low end auction so the horses that go through at the end of the auction are the meat horses and all the injured horses.  They run them through in groups because chances are the same buyer will take them, the meat guy.

My brother saw the little Appaloosa and decided to bid anyway.  He won with a bid of $130.  We ended up buying Jimmy at the same auction and they came home with us that night.  It was dark by the time we pulled into the farm so we didn't get a good luck at them until the next morning.  We were horrified when we looked at Sev.  He was such a skinny little guy.  He had very little fat on him and his entire body was covered in tiny little scabs.  He had trouble walking and had a big scrape on his head.  He also has a very deep cut that goes through his hoof and up onto his leg on his front left.  It looks like he had wire wrapped around his hoof.  It doesn't affect him at all though, luckily.  However, he very quickly gained weight and his spirit came back.  He was, to put it nicely, a little brat.  The healthier he got, the less he wanted to have to do with people.  We managed to halter break him early on, so he was pretty good to lead, if you could catch him.  And that was a big if.  He and Jimmy became fast friends and were always together out in the field.  Then, summer came and just as he was completely healthy, Socks kicked him in the chest.  What started out as a blood blister got progressively worse, until one day, when Alex was washing it off according to the vet's instructions, it popped.  Warning, the gross pictures are coming up next.

Basically, Seven had no chest.  It was all open and it wrapped around his left leg.  There was a hole at the top of what should have been his chest and if you looked up it, you could see all the way up his neck.  The vet didn't know what to do.  The fact that he was still walking on it amazed her.  The vet gave us some bute to give him every second day and sent us home after we refused the offer to put him down.  Honestly, our decision probably was selfish.  He never acted like he was in pain, honestly, but I have to imagine that he had to be.  But Alex had lost his first horse very suddenly and tragically, and we didn't want that to happen again.  And we felt that Sev deserved for us to at least try.  My dad ended up having to go up North to work so my friend, Morgan and I came up to stay at his house for a few weeks.  Every day, twice a day, we tied Sev up to the pole and washed off his chest.  We would then cover it in SWAT to keep the bugs away from it. 

We honestly didn't know if he would get better.  But his attitude didn't change at all.  He was very happy to see us, his appetite didn't change and he still insisted on trotting around when he got excited.  In these pictures there is a lot of pus (all the yellow) but we made sure to wash off all the pus so that the entire wound was clean.  This went on for the entire summer.  He was kept by himself to keep himself from being injured by the other horses.  He began waiting at the gate for us.  He couldn't wait for his baths.  He became the nicest guy in the world.  Him and Si, my dog in the picture, became good friends since she was the only animal allowed in with him.  Slowly, Sev began to improve.  We would wash him in the morning and by the time we washed him in the afternoon, the wound would be covered in pus.  By the end of the summer, the pus stopped appearing.  We put Socks in with him for a while (My dad's choice, which we all thought was risky considering she's the one who kicked him in the first place) and they did well together. 

This is what it looked like at the end of the summer.  By this time, he was feeling great again.  He was running around, bucking and rearing.  We still kept him isolated, with just another horse for company just to be safe.  Very quickly after the summer, it began to really heal.  His comeback truly was amazing and I give all the credit to Sev

This was Sev the following January, as you can see there was a small mark but it had almost completely healed over.  The next summer he developed what looked like proud flesh, just a bumpy patch of skin, so we called the vet out and it turns out it was actually a tumour.  Luckily, it wasn't cancerous and the vet was able to easily remove it.  He has since completely regrown all his hair back and you would never have known he had a major injury there.  He is completely sound and our vet cannot believe how well he has recovered.  I have to say, SWAT was the best thing we ever discovered and it was thanks to Sev.  It's a cream that keeps the bugs away and we'd cover him in it.  It's part of what helped enable his chest to heal.

Sev was started when he was two, he had a few rides that summer but we really began riding him when he was three.  On his first ride off the farm, we got lost.  Alex was on Sev, his friend Kevin was on Pawnee and I was on Sadie.  It was pouring rain and we were lost in the dark for five hours.  It was in a huge wooded pasture (a square mile of land) that we weren't too familiar with, and we just got turned around and couldn't find our way back to the gates.  Sev did amazing.  He didn't buck or hesitate once.  He did however, somehow manage to chew through his chinstrap and we ended up using a shoelace to make a new one for him.  He is an extremely stubborn guy.  He takes the stereotypical Appaloosa to heart and is as stubborn as a mule, and has a perfect example of a rat tail.  He doesn't really have a tail at all.  His hair is barely longer than his tail bone.  I feel very bad for him during fly season.

He is far from perfect but we love him anyway.  He took lessons from Pawnee and you really have to prove you want to ride him by somehow managing to catch him first.  It is not an easy task.  He also has recently decided that he doesn't need his back feet picked up, something which he is going to be shut down on very, very soon.  He is not an easy horse, he has an opinion on everything and will let you know it.  However, he's safe even for beginners to ride.  He loves to go, although his trot is far from comfortable.  He's recently discovered that he loves chasing cows but doesn't really know what to do once he catches up with them.  He recently had his first trip into the mountains and he's not sure if he likes going for a ride that long.  He sweats if he thinks about working.  He and Fonda are good friends and are constantly together.  Before it was always him, Fonda and Cas together, with him and Fonda doing stupid boy things and Cas getting angry and keeping them in line.  He's been a bit different with Cas gone, but we're hoping he'll return to his happy, hyper self soon.  He is one stubborn mule but we love him.  He started off skinny but now he's our fattest horse.  He's our little survivor, having been through more than most horses and he's come out of it with a happy-go-lucky attitude and only a few scars.

Deworming

Here's the little princess in her new halter.  I still find myself calling it Cas' halter and not Artemis' but I suppose that will change with time.  I like how it looks on her and it's just generally a much better halter than her old blue one.  L, the barn owner's daughter, informed me that she likes the blue better and doesn't think I should have changed it and I should go back to the blue one.  I hate to disappoint her but blue was never meant to be Artemis' colour.  I still haven't decided one for her (I'm weird and like my horses all to have their own colour) but I like the red and black much better than blue. 

We dewormed them last week.  Socks was good.  She hates it but she always lets me do it.  She's just angry afterwards and unfortunately for her, this one was apple-flavoured.  She HATES apples.  She will not eat them and gets annoyed if you try to give them to her, as C, one of the other boarders discovered.  He couldn't believe that she wouldn't eat them.  My horse is picky, what can I say?  And apple flavoured dewormer is probably her least favourite thing.

Artemis was great.  Really, I was surprised.  She was pretty good the first time she was dewormed but this time around she was really amazing.  I was expecting some head tossing, some half-hearted fight, but she did nothing.  She stood there, let me squirt it in, and then just chewed a bit and swallowed.  There was a bit left and she let me give her the rest of it, no problems.  I was really impressed with her.

Jimmy on the other hand...was a nightmare.  We've been working for months with him to prepare for this.  He had no issue with us putting things in his mouth...then we put the dewormer in and he figured out what was going on before I could get it in....and we were done.  I love this horse...but I really wanted to kill him.  He never used to have a problem with it but the last few times he's been horrible.  We had to get E, the stable owner, to help us out.  So we're back to square one with him and deworming.  It did get done at least. 

We're watching my dog for a while (she's usually up at my dad's) so we brought her to the stable with us today.  While we rode Socks and Jimmy, we let Artemis and Si (dog) wander around the arena.  They were playing together.  I wish I'd gotten video.  They were taking turns chasing each other around the arena.  Artemis also decided she wanted to eat the mounting block.  She thinks it's the greatest toy ever invented.

We've been working a lot on her and being alone in the barn.  She used to throw the biggest temper tantrums but she's actually gotten much better.  She stays calm and relaxed as long as she can see us, but if we have to go into the bathroom or to our back locker where she can't see, then she starts throwing a little fit.  But I think just the fact that she can now stand in there without any other horses without even stamping her foot is a big improvement.

She's also growing again.  Her hind end is huge.  I hope she evens out a bit, it's bad right now.  Here's a picture I took to show what she looks like compared to my mom.  My mom is fairly short about 5'2" or 5'3" but still.

I haven't measured her in a little while but last time I did she was 13.2 and a half.  I did measure her hind end too just for fun and that came to 14.1.  The other boarders like to tease her about it, it does look pretty bad, as you can see in the picture. 

I don't have any recent good pictures and I probably won't until spring.  Pictures taken inside just never turn out nicely and it's too cold to take pictures outside.  I just want to get them in as quickly as I can. 

And just for fun, here's a video from the day she was born.  She couldn't quite figure out those legs yet.

Thor: The Cowardly Mustang

Thor is a six-year-old silver dun Mustang gelding.  He was another horse who I didn't think we needed but he showed us that we did.  More specifically, I did.  When we met him we had no idea that he would become such a special family member to us.  His owner at the time was the daughter of a woman my dad had trained a few horses for.  The woman was pleased with the result and recommended her daughter to us.  That's how we met Thor, named Gus back then.  The first time my dad and brother saw him, Thor went at them.  When that didn't work, he jumped the fence and took off.  To this day no one is really sure how they managed to get him in the trailer but somehow, he ended up at our place.  When I first met him he was alone in the pens and ready to take on the world.  Pawnee had taken one look at him and decided that he was not welcome within the herd.  Whether it was because Thor was another male or because Pawnee could see how unbalanced this horse was, I will never know.  For his safety, Thor had been seperated.

The first step in gaining Thor's trust was achieving join up with him.  He responded immediatly and within several weeks he was a different horse.  He was nervous and very scared, leading us to believe he'd had a troubled past, but he was also dying for attention and a good grooming.  Several people who knew us and knew him didn't think he could be trained.  They didn't think he was worth it and they focused only on his aggression.  My dad actually lost a friend over that.  The man did not believe that Thor could ever be safetly ridden and when my dad insisted on trying anyway, the man stopped having anything to do with us.  Like many horses, Thor soon proved them all wrong.  Being ridden gave him the confidence he needed and soon the aggression disappeared.  He was reintroduced into the herd and while he and Pawnee will never be close, they've developed a sort of truce.  Thor soon became a favourite of my father's to ride and was a permanet fixture on our trail rides.  I was comfortable with Thor on the ground, and although he rarely misbehaved in the saddle, I was too afraid to ride him.  I sat on him once and had my brother lead him but that was as much as I could handle.  Then one day, while my dad was riding him, we got the call that his owners were on the way to pick him up.  They brought him home that day, pleased with his training, and it always upset me that I never got to say goodbye.

Months later, on my dad's birthday, we got a call from his owner's.  They had been happy with Thor's training and how he behaved, but the owner's boyfriend had fallen off of him and they were afraid to continue riding him.  They'd come to the conclusion that he wasn't the horse for them and instead of selling him and taking the chance that he ended up at a bad home or at the slaughter house, they wanted to give him to us.  We accepted and in a few weeks he came home for good.  Along with him we recieved the story of his past.  He had  previously been sent to another horse trainer.  Unfortunantly we know of this man and his practices with horses.  As part of his "training" Thor had been tied down so that he couldn't get up and then beaten.  This was repeated everytime he misbehaved.  Thor returned to us a little shyer than he had been when he'd left us but no worse for wear.  He remembered his manners and seemed to enjoy being ridden again.  He and Pawnee grudgingly accepted each other and he settled back into the herd.  My dad and brother continued riding him while I kept to Socks and Pawnee.

Thor improved drastically and then came the fateful day.  Socks moved down to a stable closer to me, meaning that I had lost out on having a main riding horse at my dad's.  Pawnee was usually ridden by Sommer so he wasn't an option for me.  There weren't many options, Sadie and Seven are owned by my sister and brother respectively, and Jimmy had come down along with Socks.  That left Thor, Fonda or June, Thor being the one that we own.  I chose to ride him over the other two and I remember asking him to take care of me that first day.  He did.  He didn't misbehave once.  My greatest fault as a rider is probably my fear to ride horses besides Socks and Pawnee.  Thor is the one who fixed me of that. 

Thor is as different from Socks as you can get.  He spooks very easily and still isn't quite sure if he's allowed to run or not.  He's a tank, he will walk through and over any obstacle without flinching.  He's more sensitive and alert than the other horses, something I attribute to his mustang blood.  He's shy, he always hangs back behind the other horses and is always the last to eat.  He's always noticed for his colour and admired for his breed, but most people are put off by his shy personality.  He helped teach me that I'm a better rider than I give myself credit for and that to gain more experience I need to push myself past my comfort zone.  He has about twice as much mane as a normal horse and I keep promising myself that I will one day do the impossible and untangle all of it.  And the best part is, often when we ride Thor down the highway, the man who stopped talking to my dad simply because we wanted to give Thor a chance, will drive by and see Thor trotting calmly down the side of the highway, oblivious to the traffic and commotion going on around him.  He will always slow down to look and then, as if he realizes what he's doing, speed up and then speed away.  He still will not talk to us.


Thor is a special horse.  He is not and probably never will be bomb-proof.  Considering the abuse he suffered in the past, he's gotten over it extremely well.  He is still very nervous about ropes and whips, but he trusts us enough to let us do whatever we want with him.  He does spook but when it comes down to it he will be reliable.  He didn't spook once on his first trip in the mountains and acted like he'd been doing it for years.  My dad is convinced he wants to sell him, and although Alex and I go along with it for now, we know we'd never let my dad sell him.   He was given to us so he'd have a good home and we know he'll always have one with us.

Sorry for so many random posts, I have a few I've had typed up for months and would just like to get posted.  Plus I'd like to have a little more on my other horses since I never talk about them.

Pawnee: The Stallion Who Isn't

Pawnee is an eight-year-old bay Quarter Horse gelding who we've owned since he was two.  This picture was the first  I saw of him.  My father bought him at an auction two weeks after my brother's first horse, Target, died.  We weren't ready for another horse yet but Pawnee was ready for us.  He came to us as a wild, ungelded two-year-old who wasn't interested in doing anything he was told.  The first time I met the scrawny boy he chased after me on Socks which resulted in her kicking him and me falling off.  It was not the best of beginnings and I was less than impressed with this horse who I felt like was supposed to replace Target.  He was a troublemaker and felt like he was the strongest man out there.  He was barely 14 hands but he managed to jump out of the six-foot pen when he decided he didn't want to be worked with.  He terrorized all the people and the horses on the farm, trying to jump up whenever somebody rode another horse.  He was a major disappointment compared to the amazing horse we had just lost.  He has a registered name but we called him Pawnee, after the villianous tribe in the movie, Dances With Wolves.  Just as in the film, it was always bad when the Pawnee showed up.

And then two things happened.  He was gelded and I spent some time with him.  As I waited with him for the vet to arrive, it quickly became apparent that he was just like any other teenage boy.  All he wanted was some attention and he only knew of one way how to get it.  He was a horse who just needed somebody to spend a little bit of time with him.  He was eager to be trained to saddle and although he had a few episodes where he reminded us that he didn't like taking orders, he quickly settled into his life as our dependable Pawnee.

Pawnee soon proved that he would be great for riders of all levels.  His gentle nature made him perfect for beginners and he learned to take full advantage of their timidness by staying twenty feet behind the rest of the group if his rider allows him.  The experienced riders fight over who gets to ride him because he is always a good ride.  He could trot all day and although he has speed when he wants, he prefers to plod along most days until he has a little bit of encouragement to speed up.  With a rider who pushes him, he soon cooperates and travels at your speed.   He is not a above giving a little buck and toss of the head to let you know when he does not agree with your decision.  Animals don't scare him but you've got to watch out for that scary rock that might just eat him, but only if you're an experienced rider.  Apparently the presence of a beginner on his back magically makes all scary rocks harmless and boring.  Only Socks has been in the mountains more than him, and with his rock-hard feet he's often a better choice than she is.  He's run from attacking moose and chased wild horses in the Rockies.  On a hot day he likes to take his rider for an unannounced swim in the river.

Although Pawnee boy is now, and thankfully, a gelding, he is still the "stallion" of the herd.  The young boys know not to mess with him and the mares like to fight for his attention.  When we first brought Sadie home he loved his new girlfriend but Socks quickly reminded him of who was there first.   He is the herd's protector and I feel bad for anything that threatens his family.   Pawnee is both Cutting and Reining bred and is a cow's worst nightmare.  If you need to work with cows, he is your guy.  Ears flat against his head he won't give up until the cow is exactly where he wants it.  He doesn't appreciate interference from his rider, he knows his job but every now and then he'll give in and listen, but only if he decides your plan is better than his.

There are three things we've had to accept in our partnership with this pretty boy.  First, he'll go in the trailer but he will without a doubt, make a mess, no matter how short the trip is.  He won't complain about getting in, nor will he put up a fight while he's in.  But make sure you bring a shovel because he'll always leave you a present.  Second, you may ride him but you must understand that he's afraid he cannot breathe with the cinch on and will always walk stiffly until he realizes that he can indeed breathe.  Third and most importantly, you may ride him but you must mean it.  Except on the very rare occasions when he decides, you must prove to him that you really want to ride.  He will run around in circles around you, bucking and rearing and doing his best impression of an insane wild stallion.  If you manage to catch him he will immediatly become a teddy bear and ask for a hug.  While these may be less than desirable, it's the deal we've come to for asking him to carry anyone we put on him safetly.  And he always carries through on his part of the deal.

Pawnee doesn't like to admit this to anyone but it is one of his greatest qualities.  In his mind, every foal that steps onto the farm is his.  The mares may keep their babies only because he is a gracious and kind leader.  They are really his babies and his alone.  No foal is in danger if Pawnee is around; we don't like to tell him but he likes to spoil his children.  Cassidy and Hades in particular are two of his favourites.  He bosses Cas around but realizes in the end Cas will always decide what happens.  He should have been born a mare because he would love nothing better than to have a foal of his own.  He keeps them in line but tends to let it slip if they annoy Thor or Fonda, or whoever else is low on Pawnee's Favourite list. 

So far, at eight years old, Pawnee's tried several different careers.  His favourite is Master of the Cows.  His least favourite, a Show Horse.  He doesn't quite see the point in barrel racing or Gymkhana.  He almost tried Western Pleasure but he's rarely had a bit in his mouth, he's never needed one and we didn't want to put one in him just so he could show.  However, as much as he hates showing, he didn't want to return home empty handed and decided to show people he could do it if he really wanted to.  He granted Alex a fourth in thread the needle and then proceeded to finish just out of the ribbons each and every time after that. 

As Pawnee gets older he's beginning to calm down more and more.  He will always be the boss of the other horses and as the leader, he has become our partner in training other horses.  His sucess stories include Thor and June, whom he reminded was not in charge and had to listen to him or get out of the herd.  He's developed a preference for girls and although he'll allow a boy to ride him, they shouldn't even bother trying to catch him, it just won't happen.  Here he is with the second and last time he ever had a bit in his mouth.  He also does not appreciate being a cart horse.  He prefers to remain as Master of the Cows and Dependable Trail Horse Pawnee. 

Pawnee came into our lives at a bad time when we didn't want another horse yet.  I guess we didn't realize that we needed him.  He's taught us more lessons than any other horse.  We've taken concessions in our partnership with him and allowed behaviour many others might not have, but in return for what he's given us, we felt it best to accept that past experience and a hint of claustraphobia will remain a part of him.  He'll take care of anyone we put on him and in return, we won't ask him to pull the sleigh or be a show horse.  That might make him less sellable but I'm okay with that.  He's one who will be with us until the end.  He never did fill in Target's hoofprints and he never will.  He'll never be as great as Target but he's been greater.  He's different and he reminds us of that every day.  And that is why we love him.

In Defense of the Western Horse

Be prepared for a rant today.  Before I begin, let me start by saying that I have absolutely nothing against the english discipline.  When I began riding, I began riding english.  I realize that it has it's own difficulties.  I do not dislike all english riders, we're people, every one is different.  This is not meant to be taken as an attack on any discipline, this is my own thoughts and feelings and frustrations.  This rant is about an attitude which unfortunately, is all too rampant in my area. 

I live not far from Spruce Meadows, there are dozens and dozens of fancy english barns around where I live, there are lots of horses shows and so on.  There's also the Calgary Stampede but for some reason, even being the richest rodeo in the world doesn't make people any more pro-western around here, unless it's for the ten days Stampede is on.  What I'm trying to say is that I live in a very english-dominated area. 

For the most part, it's not that bad.  I'm of the opinion that we all love horses, who cares what you ride.  I also don't pay much attention to a horse's price tag.  Each horse is special to their owner, how much they cost has nothing to do with how much they're loved.  I'm lucky to be at a very casual stable that has both western and english riders, although mainly english.  The stable owners are western themselves, they are both very into reining.  We manage to co-exist peacefully for the most part.  There are a few annoyances every now and then.  They leave jumps up in the outdoor which is infuriating sometimes.  I'm sure I do things that annoy them to, but like I said, for the most part it's fine.  After all, this rant isn't actually about the people I board with.

This rant is about the attitude that western horses are inferior to english horses.  A horse is a horse is a horse.  It doesn't matter if it's trained to ride with a saddle with a horn or one without, it's still a horse.  Why is it so impossible for some people to see that?  I don't think most people even realize the degrading comments they make about western horses, it's just so common to them to think like that but I am sick of them.

"Her movement isn't the greatest so she won't make an english horse.  She'll make a great western horse though!"  or, "He has really great movement, you should train him to be an english pony, not a western one."  I hate hearing things like that.  A horse needs good movement regardless of the saddle on it's back.  I don't want a horse that has a hammering trot or can't move fluidly and yes, I ride western.  If I'm out working cows I'm going to be in the saddle all day and I want a horse that is comfortable. 

Just recently we had someone say to our barn owner, T, despite the fact that T herself is a western rider that, "Barbed wire is only good for western horses, not english horses."  According to that attitude, western horses aren't as important so it is all right if they get cut up and injured. 

A true western horse is amazing in his own way.  To watch one work is one of the coolest things.  Watch a cutting horse, they can do it pretty much on their own.  They're like cats stalking a mouse.  A true cow horse absolutely loves chasing cows.  Pawnee will chase, herd and cut cows on his own if he's out in a pasture with them.  They can turn on a dime and launch themselves after the cow. 

I don't expect Socks to waltz into an arena and jump a flawless three foot jumping course and win a bunch of ribbons.  In fact, I can guarantee you it wouldn't happen.  I don't even expect her to be able to go in the arena and perform well in an english lesson.  At the same time, I don't expect the Warmbloods at the stable to even know what a cow is.  I wouldn't expect them to be able to be calm and sure-footed in the mountains.  Not to say a Warmblood couldn't be, but definitely not the ones I know.  I don't need a horse that can pirouette or side pass without threatening to eat my leg (thank you Socks, you could be a little nicer about that).  I need a horse that can get herself out of trouble if we find ourselves in a bad situation.  I need a horse that is going to listen to me even if we come across a cougar and her instincts are telling her to run.  I need a horse that if it gets tangled in something, it freezes and lets me fix the problem.  I need a horse that's trustworthy and if I fall, she'll stop and wait for me, no matter how long it takes me to get up.  I need a horse that won't give up and loves it job.  I need a horse that will give me her all each and every day.  I need a horse that will react to new situations and scary objects with curiousity and bravery.

The horse I'm describing could work in either a western saddle or an english one.  And that's what my point is.  The whole point of this very disorganized rant is that the saddle doesn't make a horse valuable and it doesn't make it worthless.  A saddle is just a saddle and a horse is just a horse.  My horse chases cows, can find the best trail to take through the muskeg and isn't afraid of bears and she is exactly what I need.  Yours can jump a clear round, side pass without trying to rip your leg off and load in the trailer on the first go, and he is exactly what you need. 

I am tired of having my discipline and horse put down because I don't ride what the insulter does, because my horse doesn't do what theirs does.  We both love horses, can't that be enough?  Western horses are just as talented and special as English horses and vice versa, so people need to stop being so focused on what saddle they have on.  A saddle doesn't make a horse.

Here are some truly great western horses.  Not all of them are household names but they are all special in their own way.

Here's Willy, a champion Steer-Wrestling horse.  He is sought after by many pro-rodeo contendors and has carried many of them to winning rides.  He is 24 and a few years ago the Cassidy family, his owners and champion steer-wrestlers, were going to retire him.  They had him checked over by the vet and the vet said the best thing they could do for Willy was to let him continue to compete and carry cowboys.  He loves his job and he is amazing at it.  They are thinking about retiring him for real but lets see if Willy can handle retirement or if he'll be back showing again, doing what he loves.

If you know anything about barrel racing then you have heard about Charmayne James and Scamper.  This is a photo of their famous bridless barrel run at the NFR.  Scamper's bridle broke as they came out of the alley-way so Charmayne had no control over the gelding.  They ran the pattern anyway and they still had the fastest time.  Scamper was rank horse working on the feedlot when Charmayne met him but she turned him around and they won their first world championship when charmayne was just fourteen-years-old.

This is Lindsay Sears and Martha.  If you are Albertan you should know them.  They are one of the best pairs in barrel racing at the moment and right now, are first place for the average at the 2011 NFR.  They've won countless rodeos together and this year's NFR is their come back.  Martha was injured at last years NFR and everyone thought her career was over.  Lindsay's first concern is for Martha and that is very, very clear if you ever listen to her talk. 

Those are just the competition horses and only a few of the greats.  I don't have pictures of the great mountain horses out there because they don't get the recognition that Willy or Martha do.  They are the horses who carry countless riders into the mountains and forests and bring them out safely.  They are the ones who take care of their riders and stay calm in many, many dangerous situations.

I did manage to find a picture of Erin Bolster and her horse Tonk.  Together, they faced down an angry bear and saved an eight-year-old boy's life.  Tonk is not a show horse, probably never will be but he's still amazing and wonderful.  He was terrified but he trusted his rider enough to ignore his instincts and face down a hungry predator.

And here's my own great western horse.  It's highly unlikely anyone but my family will remember her once she's gone but she's great in her own way.  She's kept me safe and does whatever I ask of her (even side pass but not without letting me know she could kill me if she wanted to). 

Are any of these horses worth less because the saddle on their back happens to have a horn?  I don't think so.  I know I shouldn't let the attitude of a few get to me, but it's frustrating to know of so many great horses that so many consider to be inferiour simply because of the saddle on their back.  We're horse people, shouldn't we love horses regardless of their discipline? 

Perfect Ponies

Sev at the auction.

The ponies have been great this past week, well I guess for the most part.  We had a bit of trouble with Socks but I'm getting to that.  On Friday we went out early to catch them because my brother was supposed to be coming down to do their feet.  (He's a farrier student at the best farrier school in Canada and he's been there long enough that they can already trim feet.  I'm pretty excited, I'm never going to have to pay for a farrier as long as he's around!)  We brought Artemis up first and she was fine at first because Zanza was in the barn.  Well as soon as M took Zanza into the arena, my darling little pony began throwing a temper tantrum.  So we threw a little bit of hay in a stall and put her in it.  She was not impressed.  However, she's much less likely to injure herself inside a stall than outside of it, where she could possibly scratch herself on the handle.

She'd stare at us and then very dramatically and almost in slow motion (I swear I'm not making this up!)  she'd throw her body against the stall wall and then slide down the wall, still throwing herself against it.  It honestly looked like she was looking for a weak spot in it.  When that wouldn't work she'd walk in circles, squeal her displeasure, pause to grab a bite of hay and take a drink and then repeat the process. 

My mom kept an eye on her while I grabbed Socks, and then we switched so we could go grab Jimmy.  Artemis finally calmed down.  She just stood in the middle of the stall watching.  We brought Socks and Jimmy into the arena once M finished lunging Zanza, and we weren't sure how she was gong to react, but she was silent.  She was perfect.  After a while I grabbed her and brought her into the arena.  We were doing groundwork with Jimmy so Socks was just free, wandering around.  I had to keep a hold of Artemis because even though they've been seperated for a few months, she was still trying to nurse and Socks was not at all happy with it.  She'd bite her and kick at her.  However, if I held her lead rope she didn't try anything. 

We were working on her backing up and respecting personal space.  We were also working on getting her to stand beside the mounting block.  I am obviously a few years away from getting on her, but we figure it can't her to get her used to standing beside it now.  Jimmy is four and he has issues with it.

Sadie's adoption picture off of the rescue site.

By the time my brother and sister finally got to the stable, a few other people had already showed up.  There was Big Charlie and her two owners, Charleston and his owner, and Sue and her owner and a farrier.  Our barn isn't very long, there are only five stalls to tie up to and we had three horses to bring in.  We ended up leaving Socks in the arena because nobody was riding yet and bringing Jimmy and Artemis out.  Charleston's owner, J, loves Artemis and Big Charlie's two owners had never seen her before so my spoiled little pony got a lot of attention which she basked in. 

Well my brother finally got there and it turns out that the farrier working on Sue is one of his instructors up at his school.  So he got kind of an impromptu lesson.  I'm a bad sister and had to interrupt it after twenty minutes because we had been there for close to four hours already, he had three horses to do and poor Artemis was falling asleep.  The only thing that was keeping her standing was the fact that she was tied. 

Alex started with Socks and let's just say...my normally awesome horse was insanely cranky and just not into it that night.  At all.  The other horses had been brought inside to the stalls already and they had heard the feed truck go.  They were all tired and just wanted to go out.  Alex went to pick up her back left and she lifted it and started kicking out.  She wasn't actually kicking him, her hoof would touch her but she still wasn't really kicking.  It was more like she was going, "I could kick you if I wanted to and I want you to know that."  Still, she got in trouble for that.  In the end we decided to try again Sunday because they were all too cranky. 

Fonda at just a few days old.

Sunday Alex and I went out.  The horses were all pefect.  I couldn't have asked for them to be better.  Artemis was so great with her feet, we've been working on it alot lately.  She was even alone in the barn but she didn't act up at all.  When it was Jimmy's turn, he was absolutly perfect.  The last few times he's had his feet done he was anything but, but Alex figured out to hold his leg lower and Jimmy was happy.  Socks was over her crankiness so she stood quietly.  I was proud of all three of them that night.

Off-Topic.  I'm watching the NFR right now, mostly just for the Barrel Racing.  Carlee Pierce just broke the arena record with a time of 13.46, the previous record was 13.49 and in Barrel Racing, that is a pretty big difference.  I'm always going to a bigger fan of the Calgary Stampede (I absolutly love going to it!) but their runs tonight were pretty amazing!