Happy Six Months!

I don't have any new pictures of the horses at the stable, so enjoy some from my sister's latest trip up to my dad's!  PS.  Cas' mane has grown less than a half of a half of an inch, and I am ridiculously excited about that.  Sad, I know.

I'm pretty sure my mom and I supply an endless amount of entertainment for our stable owners.  Our three horses are all on different parts of the property.  Artemis is in the back pasture with the old mares, Jimmy is in one of the paddocks and Socks in the front field with Shadow.  On Tuesday we got out there kind of late so it was already getting dark.  We got out to the field and realized that Socks was much farther than she should have been.  Our stable owners opened up the gates so they could into the larger, side field as well.  We climbed under the fence, caught Socks and then realized our problem.  We had no idea where the gate was.  We thought we had found it but there was a strand of electric fence over it.  We started walking down the fenceline but we just couldn't find it.  Just when one of us were going to go up to the house and ask where the gate was, E came out of the house and showed us.  In our defense it was in a very strange place and it was hard to see in the light.  Yes, I tell myself that just to make me feel better.  It was pretty funny though. 

On sunday we were out with the horses just after 10 am.  It was a very exciting day because we were dropping my brother off at college!  It's been such a long, hard journey getting him there!  In two years once he's finished, he'll be a fully qualified farrier, able to even do therapetutic shoeing and farrier work.  I can't tell you how excited I am!  I'll never have to pay for farrier work!  Anyway, we couldn't be at the horses for very long.  We got there as our stable owners were picking their potatoes.  E offered to drive Alex and I out to Socks so the four of us, (E' daughter L came too) drove out there.  Socks acted like the truck was going to eat her.  I caught her and the three of them got back into the truck while I sat in the back, holding onto Socks.  We used to do that at my dads on occasion and she's been led off the back of a quad many times, so she's not new to it.  And E was driving nice and slow.  Socks was great at first, she trotted along but once we got into the smaller part of her field, she decided she had enough.  She flung her head up and dug her heels in.  I let the rope slide through my hands because I'm not big on getting pulled off of a moving truck, even one that's going slow.  She took off around the field and E drove Alex and I over to her again.  She let me catch her and let me led her back no problem now.  She just had to let us know that she wasn't happy. 

L took great pleasure in telling me how she now had a new story to tell all the boarders and the kids at school.  At least we entertain people!  We fed Socks and then put her back out then caught Jimmy and Artemis.  We brushed Artemis and fed Jimmy.  Artemis hates sweet feed.  I've never met a horse that doesn't like sweet feed but she will not eat it.  I think it's the corn in it.  Unfortunatly for her we only have two feed buckets and one has Socks' food, which is to help her put more weight on so it has too high of a fat content to give to Artemis or Jimmy, and they don't need to gain weight, and the other one has sweetfeed.  I don't want to buy oats since they make Jimmy cough.  Why do I always have the picky horses? 
On Monday we decided to go catch Artemis although we usually only see her on Sundays.  We got to the gate just as E did as he finished feeding the horses so he offered to give us a ride out to her (did I mention that I love my stable owners?)  Artemis started to run away from the truck but as soon as I got out of the truck she came back over to us.

And my pictures have stopped working.  Blogger is driving me crazy.  We brought Artemis up to the barn to brush her (her forelock was covered in burrs again).  L and T couldn't believe how big she's gotten.  She doesn't look like a foal anymore, although she's still not quite grown up looking either.  Another one of the boarders who haven't seen her in a while couldn't believe that she was so old already (Artemis is six months old today!). 

My mom forgot to bring her saddle so she couldn't ride.  I was lazy and decided not to.  We went out to catch Socks, who was in the smaller part of her field.  L had put Shadow in a small paddock and Socks was not happy about it.  She was at the back of her field and as soon as she saw us she came running over to us, her tail up in the air.  I was confused and wondered where my horse was because my horse doesn't run over to people.

We brought her in, groomed her, filled her up with food and then put her back out.  She wasn't happy we didn't put her in with Shadow.

Off topic, who else is excited for Puss in Boots?  I can't wait to see it!

Hyped Up

Wednesday:  We got out to the stable and went to visit Artemis.  Apparently I wasn't supposed to share how she usually greets us by calling and coming running because she hasn't done it since I took that video.  She wasn't overly interested in us, none of the herd was.  Apparently it was their dinner time.

We saddled up Socks and Jimmy and rode in the indoor.  Socks was insanely hyped up.  It was the third time she's been ridden since September 11th.  The first time my mom rode her and she was good, the second time I did and she was perfect.  Both times we just walked.  This time we did trotting and loping, and she was bouncing up and down in one spot, dying to go.  She was like a racehorse right before a big race, insanely excited and she couldn't stand still for the world.  We worked on trotting and then we worked on quick starts to let her release some of her energy.  Towards the end of our ride, my mom got off Jimmy and went to unsaddle him.  I was going to let Socks run then but someone brought in a horse to lunge and I am not about to let my horse run with another horse in the arena.  Instead we used one end of the arena and I had her loping on consisten circles, something which is tough for her especially when she's all hyped up. 

Sunday:  We got there a bit later in the day and caught Artemis first.  She was much better to lead this time, she still drags back but we managed to get her to walk at our pace for most of it.  In the barn she was great with her feet and enjoyed all the brushing and compliments she recieved.  There were a lot of horses in the barn and she did great.  She was between Zanza, a giant, loveable Thoroughbred and Cali, who I'm pretty sure is an ex-racehorse, off the track for a few months now, but I'm not sure if she's a Standardbred or a Thoroughbred.  They're both giant horses she's not familiar with but she did great.  She was really focused on Zanza.  We measured her again and she's finally 13 hh now.  Three more inches and she'll be the same height as Cas, whose two years older than her.

Once she was back in her field we saddled up Socks and Jimmy.  We had a slow ride, mostly walking with a bit of trotting and loping.  It didn't last very long as the sun was going down and it was getting cold.  Socks was calmer for that ride. 

We put them away but the barn owners weren't home yet, which was pretty strange.  We didn't really want to leave until they got back, just to make sure that nothing bad had happened, so we grabbed a wheelbarrow and mucked out Jimmy's paddock.  He's the only one in it but his is always messier than his neighbours, and there's two horses in there.

The barn owners did get home and we talked to them for a while.  They bought a new horse just last week.  He's a gorgeous Quarter Horse stallion, two-years-old.  He has amazing potential as a reining horse.  He kept nickering to Socks as we led her back to her paddock but she wouldn't have anything to do with him.  Her and Shadow's field are by a bunch of the geldings and they always call out to her but she gives them the cold shoulder. 

Runaway Pony

I think probably one of my biggest faults when it comes to horses is that I'm too trusting of them.  I trust that if they know better, they won't misbehave.  I learned today to never trust a newly weaned foal.

She started off really well today.  My mom and I went out to the field just as V was bringing Charlie and Toy up.  All the horses were at the gate except for Tona and Artemis, although Tona came running up pretty quickly.  Artemis was far off in the middle of the field, eating by herself.  She couldn't have cared less that the herd had left.  Because there's a creek in the middle of the field we had to go the long way to get to her which takes about ten minutes to walk.  We started to walk but got distracted by the neighbour's horses.  We had our backs to Artemis as we admired their foal and then we heard her call. We looked back at her and was watching us.  Then she took off at a gallop towards us.  I took pictures at first and then decided to video it, so I missed some of her running in the video.  I apologize how shaky the video is, my camera was really zoomed in for most of it and it gets really shaky when it's zoomed in that much.

She was more than happy to be caught, she hasn't been really worked with in two weeks because she was weaned just a week ago.  We started leading her up the hill but even though she doesn't really hang out with the herd anymore, she's pretty herd bound.  We spent a lot of time with her today working on leading her away from the pasture.  We brought her in the barn to give her the usual beauty treatment and she was complimented by other boarders.  The barn was really busy today and some of the boarders hadn't actually seen her up close yet.  She was the perfect angel while other people were watching.

After her grooming we worked on leading some more and then put her in Jimmy's pen.  We were planning on working with her again after we rode.  We brought Jimmy and Socks inside and saddled up.  There were so many people out the arenas were too crowded and the only place left was the back hay field. The problem was, we needed to ride by Jimmy's pen.  The first time actually went pretty well.  Artemis saw her mom and called and ran around a bit, but Socks didn't notice her.  Socks thought she was still out in the pasture and kept looking for her.  The problem happened on the way back.  Artemis figured out to come to the top of Jimmy's pen, and she managed to squeeze her way under the bottom wire (there's the top railing and then two wires in each pen, which work well if you don't have a baby pony determined to get to her mother) right into the next pen, which thankfully, was empty.  I jumped off Socks before she'd even stopped, threw my reins at my mom and bolted to the gate.  I managed to shut it before Artemis got out.  My mom led Socks around the barn and out of sight while I stayed with Artemis.  She ran in circles and called but eventually calmed down.  I didn't have anything lead her with so I ended up leaving her.  That was my mistake.  I should not have trusted her.  I got around the barn and within seconds we heard her call again, much closer than it should have been.  Sure enough, Artemis came barreling around the barn, headed straight for her mother.  She put her head down to nurse once she got to Socks (although Socks is dry now) but I grabbed her halter before she could do anything.  I led her in circles while my mom led Socks and Jimmy again and then put Artemis in the round pen (thankfully we were right beside it) so I could help my mom with the other two.  We didn't end up doing much other work with Artemis.  She went back to the pasture with a lecture from me that she didn't pay attention to nor understand.  I kept telling her that Cas would never have done that although I was lying, but she doesn't need to know that.

We then went back to finish our ride while the other boarders chuckled over our runaway pony and shook their heads at her.  Socks and Jimmy were both great considering they haven't been ridden much lately.  We only walked but I'm happy to say I only got one headache and it didn't last very long.  Take that concussion!  It was great to be able to ride again.  After we put Jimmy and Socks away we went out to see Artemis again.  She was in the same place but did not come running over to us, it was sad.  Her and Tona were far from the rest of the herd.  It makes me wonder if Artemis is going to be like her mother.  Socks stays somewhat near the herd but not really with them.  They just tend to follow her. 

And that's how I learned to not trust her.

Edit: I'm currently reading Denali's Mom's blog, Green n' Green= Black n' Blue, and in one of her posts she has a list of things someone wrote that they learned in the first year of owning a horse.  One of them is,

A horse will respect two thin wires of electric fence. If and when he wants to.

That sums up Artemis' little escapade perfectly.

My Horse is a Macho Man...Mare?

My aunt saw this book and bought it for me.  I've read many things on horse personalities before and while I truly do believe that each horse has their own unique personality, written literature on the subject has often made me laughed.  Somewhere along the lines people tend to stop looking at them as horses and see them as people.  I'm just as bad for personifying horses but I don't believe you can apply human psychology to a horse.  Dessa Hockley however, has taken a concept from human psychology and brought it into horse psychology.

She uses the idea of eight personality traits that turn into sixteen different personality types.  This is also a type of personality typing commonly used in human psychology, although Hockley changed the eight personality types to horse traits instead of human traits (and as a psychology student I can't help but mention that psychologist feels that the sixteen personality types are the most accurate personality test/typings out there).  I read and of course, I couldn't help myself, I tried applying them to Socks.

The eight personality traits are:

Dominant or Submissive?
Energetic or Lazy?
Curious or Afraid?
Friendly or Aloof?

Hockley gives detailed description about each which makes it easier to choose.  While I consider Socks to be a friendly horse she is not the, waiting at the fence, attention completely on me, begging for hugs the entire time I'm with her kind of horse.  She likes attention but then she likes to be alone.

For Socks she fit the bill of Dominant, Energetic, Curious and Aloof, or DECA.  After discovering that, I turned to the DECA chapter of the book since DECA is one of the sixteen personality.  I read the chapter and I have to say, I was pleasently surprised.  First off, there was nothing about my horse's favourite colour, which was a relief.  Hockley gives a detailed description and I could have sworn that she was describing Socks.  Almost every detail described Socks, and the ones that didn't definitly described her when she was younger.  Some things I already knew, like Socks needs a job and gets extremely bored extremely quickly.  She hates repititon and likes to have an opinion.  There were also some points that made me stop and think,and a few things that just made sense that I never would have thought of on my own.

At this point I was thinking, Okay, might be a fluke, let's try Thor. Once again, I was surprised.  Even more so this time.  The description was once again him, but provided some reasonings for some behaviours he has that I've never been able to figure out.  The personality types are not scientifically proven and of course, each horse is different but I really do believe that Hockley's book provides a very interesting read and can even help you to understand your horse a little bit better.  She didn't personify horses and try to fit them into human personalities.  Her personality types remain very much horsey.  I never thought I'd be raving about a  horse personality book but this one was truly great.  I picked it up just to skim through it and I was hooked on the first page.  Hockley used training experience from hundreds of horses to help devolp these sixteen personality types.

And just for fun, here's what my horses personality types came out to be, minus Hades and Artemis.  They're just babies still and have a lot of growing up to do first, physically and mentally.  I have not included descriptions of the personality types because I feel like the ones on Hockley's website, http://www.horsepersonality.com/ don't do the actual descriptions within the book any justice.  To read the smaller descriptions provided on the website you don't get a real idea of what the personality includes.  Honestly, to read the smaller descriptions, I don't think they sound like my horses at all.  However, you can take the personality quiz on her website and if you provide your email and your state or province, they will email you the longer, detailed description.

Socks- DECA- Dominant, Energetic, Curious, Aloof- The Macho Man

Jimmy- DECA- Dominant, Energetic, Curious, Aloof- The Macho Man

Pawnee- DLAA - Dominant, Lazy, Afraid, Aloof- The Skeptic

Thor- SEAF- Submissive, Energetic, Afraid, Friendly- The People Pleaser

Sadie- DLCF- Dominant, Lazy, Curious, Friendly- The Reluctant Rock Star

Sev- DLAA- Dominant, Lazy, Afraid, Aloof- The Skeptic

Cas- DECF- Dominant, Energetic, Curious, Friendly- The Rock Star

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, it is very difficult at times having that many dominant horses.  Sev for instance, while being dominant, is low in the herd pecking order but that also means that he is constantly challenging the horses above him.  I often wonder if this is why they break into so many smaller herds within one large herd, because there's so many dominant horses. 

Once again I honestly never thought I'd be going on so much about horse personality typing.  Seriously...I know a lot of people out there will think I'm crazy, especially for calling my horse a Macho Man, but I highly suggest that everyone, if not buy the book, then at least you go to Hockley's website and do the personality test for your horse and make sure to be emailed the longer, detailed description.  If anything, it'll at least be worth a good laugh.

One Lovely Blog Award

I've recieved the One Lovely Blog Award from both Wolfie over at What Was I Thinking... and Megan at Horse Rescue.  It was really nice to come home from work and see that, this is my first award.  Both Wolfie and Megan are two of the first people I ever talked to in the blogging world and the first two blogs I read.  I just want to thank you both again.  I highly suggest that everyone go check out their blogs!  The conditions of the award are that I need to pass it onto fifteen other blogs and tell you seven things about myself.  I'm not even sure if I follow fifteen blogs but let's find out!

Megan and Scarface

Simply Horse-Crazy

Dressage on the Quarter

Minus Pride

Laughing Down the Lines

From Racehorse to Showhorse

The Adventures of Lucy

Change of Pace

Diary of the Overanxious Horse Owner

Writing and Riding

TwoHorses

Ponies at  Home

Just a Girl and Her Horse

On The Ground

Shame in the Horse Show Ring

Now seven things about myself...

1.  I started riding because I wanted to get into jumping and I really wanted to end up as trainer at the racetrack.

2.   I secretly do like Hockey but don't let my family know that because I don't want to watch it on TV all night.  Unfortunantly neither of my chosen teams have done much in the past few years, one hasn't done much in over twenty years.  (Go Leafs Go!)

3.  I spend about as much time writing as I do with horses.  I've finished the rough draft of one novel and am currently in the process of slowly rewriting it.

4.  I'm addicted to photography.  I never go out to the horses or for a drive without dragging my camera with me.

5.  I used to play defense in soccer and won many tournaments and championships during the years I played before I quit.

6.  I absolutly love the Rocky Mountains and I could never live more than two hours away from them.  I see them every day on my way to school.  Although I was born in Nova Scotia I hate/am completely terrified of the ocean and am a true Albertan at heart.

7.  I'm terrified of Moose.  I'd rather run into an angry Grizzly Bear or a Cougar before I ran into an angry Moose.  It scares me much more to see a Moose when I'm on foot than any carnivore in the forest.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  Even if you aren't Canadian!

Beautiful Saddle Pad

Here's a shameless plug for another blog.  Kate over at The Adventures of Lucy is holding a contest for one of her beautiful saddle pads.  I first saw them in Mare's blog and since then I've slowly been catching up on Kate's blog.  They're absolutly gorgeous.  A lot of people have entered so it's a long shot to win but it's worth it for one of her saddle pads.  Winter's on the way and I tend to ride english a lot more in winter than in summer so I'd love to have a nice saddle pad to go with my english saddle. 

I love the fox one, horses are, of course, my favourite animal but wild canines, especially North American canines, are my second favourite.  As soon as I can manage to write a haiku (I'm SO bad at poetry.  In high school we had to write our own poems and write an essay on the meaning of the poem, and I failed because I got the meaning wrong...Figure that one out) I will be entering.  Go here to enter!

Just Visiting

It's been cold and rainy here lately, and unfortunantly the weekend doesn't look like it's going to be any better.  We went out to see the horses on Wednesday.  Like usual, we went to see Artemis first, before it got dark.  We ran into T and E who told us that for the first day or so she and Socks had called back and forth but they had quited down now.  When we got out to the pasture we could see some of the herd around the old manure pile.  It's really old with plants growing all over it, but it's also pretty tall so we couldn't see the horses on the other side of it.  Artemis wasn't in sight and so didn't call to us which was really strange.  She usually comes and takes a look when she hears the gate but she didn't come out.  I'm a crazy horse owner and I was already freaking out that something had happened to her.  We saw Ebony but Ebony wasn't coming over to us like she usually did so by this point I was ready to run back to T and E and tell them something had happened.  Luckily I did and we walked past Ebony to find my little pony looking all surprised to see us.  She'd been taking a nap and was curled up on the ground next to Charlie.  As much as I don't like him, it was adorable.  It was also the one time I didn't have my camera because it was raining.  Artemis quickly got up and came over to us, happily showing me her forelock, which was completely covered in burrs. 

My mom hung out with Ebony while I tried to get the burrs out of Artemis' mane.  I didn't want to leave them in because the next time we bring her inside will be Sunday or Monday, and by then there'd be even more and I might have to cut them out.  So Artemis tossed her head a bit but then gave in.  Her ears went flat against her neck but she lowered her head and stood perfectly still while I pryed them out of her mane.  She was not happy but she put up with me. 

When I went to visit Tona, Charlie, Ebony and Artemis all followed me, much to Tona's displeasure.  Ebony and Artemis don't bother me, but Tona was in among hills and Charlie was running around in circles bucking.  I did not stay there for long.  As we left the field Artemis called but didn't follow us, which I didn't mind.

We didn't ride, or I guess, my mom didn't.  I won't be riding until Sunday or Monday, the next time we come out.  Instead we brought Socks and Jimmy into the arena and free-lounged them for exercise.  Socks worked herself up into a sweat; that horse loves to run but the second someone on the ground makes her she gets very anxious.  I don't usually do it but she really needs the excercise. 

It's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, so Happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow Canadians out there!  Here's to all the turkey leftovers we'll enjoy in the weeks to come!

Weaning

I've been really lazy lately which is why there hasn't been a post about Artemis lately.  She was weaned on October 2nd, Sunday.  We were trying to wait until Charlie was weaned as well, but his owner decided to leave him out for another month. On Wednesday we went out and hung with them for a while.  Her and Ebony still hang out a lot and Charlie seems to follow them around.  They both don't seem to like him but he follows them anyway. 

 I don't know if any of you watch Heartland (honestly I'm not sure if it's on any TV station outside of Canada) but we watch it every now and then in my household, mostly because it's filmed in Alberta in a town we go to pretty often.  One of the last episodes was inspired by Cavalia so it introduced the concept of "dancing" with your horse which is basically getting your horse to follow you around.  Personally I feel like Heartland kind of disregarded the years it takes to train a horse to do those kinds of things so well so it's become a joke in our family, all in good fun of course.  Artemis follows you when you go out in the field and so when my mom was walking over to see the dog, Artemis followed her.  My mom began walking in circles and Artemis kept following her, so we were joking how she was dancing just like Amy and Spartan on Heartland. 

 

On Monday we ran into T and E and talked to them about weaning.  They told us about Charlie staying out and we decided to go ahead and wean Artemis anyway.  Socks is beginning to look too skinny and I'm sure we'll get our first snow soon so I want her to have a chance to put some weight back on before that happens.  So we went out to the field and hung out with them, letting them have a few last minutes together.  Artemis nursed one last time and Socks scratched on her daughter one last time.  Then we took Socks out.  My mom saddled up Jimmy while I groomed Socks and gave her some extra feed.  Then while my mom rode I took Socks out in the arena with them (I still can't ride because of my concussion).  Socks and I just walked around the arena until she got tired of that and kept trying to eat the grass along the edges.  After a while I worked on her lunging, something we both suck at and then finally my mom was done riding.  She unsaddled Jimmy out in the arena and we let them roll and eat for a while.  Finally it was time to put Socks out, but not with Artemis.  It was decided that she was going to go in with Shadow, T's horse.  Shadow is in a larger grass paddock in front of the barn owners' house on the opposite end of the property than Artemis.  Socks and Shadow get along and we were hoping being in a grass pen would help distract Socks better than being in a normal paddock, since they are smaller and don't have grass in them.  Also, the distance would make it harder for them to hear each other.

Socks was not happy when we put her in with Shadow.  She started calling for Artemis as soon as we turned down the lane to Shadow's field.  Once we put her in and I took the halter off she took off down the field with Shadow right behind her.  She kept running up and down the fenceline calling.  She'd run, stop in front of us, call and then take off running.  Shadow kept running after her.  I felt bad right away, both for my horses and for T and E.  They were going to have a long, noisy night.  We finally left Socks and went to check on Artemis.  She was near the gate with EB.  She called for her mother a few times but was more concerned with us.  Socks didn't call while we were there, but the second we came in view of her field she began calling agian.  As we were driving away, the driveway goes right by her field, she came running down the fenceline and stood in the corner, calling as we drove away.  

We went out on  Monday to check on them.  We went to Artemis first and as soon as she saw us she called and then came right over with Ebony right behind her.  She was acting fine and completely normal.  I was very glad to see she wasn't still at the gate.  EB came over as well, she's been hanging pretty close to Artemis for a few weeks now.  We gave them attention and then went to catch Socks and Jimmy.  Jimmy came right over and Socks was waiting at the gate, although with Socks I know it wasn't because she was that happy to see me.  She was still waiting to be taken back to her baby.  My mom didn't ride Jimmy, we just groomed him and then put him out on the grass.  Instead my mom rode Socks.  Rarely anyone rides Socks besides me.  She listens very well but is still a spirited horse that likes to test her riders, so not too many of my family memebers like to ride her.  However, she hadn't been ridden since I got the concussion so my mom took pity on us and rode her.  They mostly just walked but at least Socks got some exercise.  She was really good.  Once again she was not happy when we put her out with Shadow.  She started pacing again but at least she was just walking not running.  Shadow followed her again.  Artemis is taking the weaning much better than Socks is which is very strange.  When Cas was weaned, Socks took it much better than Cas did.  I kind of expected it to be like that again.  We're going out on Wednesday and hopefully Socks will have calmed down some more by then.

Btw has Blogger been difficult for anyone else lately?  I'm having trouble commenting on blogs and everytime I post something with pictures the pictures get messed up.  Only half of them ever end up formatted how I want them.