Wednesday - 24 August 2011

This afternoon was hot and humid so I worked lightly with Sweetie and Julie. I brought them and my saddle mare, Star into the round pen. I first went to Sweetie and brushed her out. I then slipped the hackamore on her. She is backing with very light pressure on the reins and she is ground driving a lot better now. She will still get stuck when turning to the right sometimes but she is doing well. She also is keeping her forward movement better than she had been. She still needs more practice but she is coming along very nicely. If It hadn't been so hot this afternoon, I would have brought a saddle out and introduced her to it. As it was we had a nice little driving session and then I brushed her out and sprayed her with fly spray.

I then went to Julie. She was a little hard to catch but not bad. She let me slid the hackamore on her and then I brushed and combed her out. I then asked her to back up and we started ground driving. She didn't do quite as well as she did yesterday but we didn't have any of those little fits of frustration either. Julie did not keep her forward movement as well today either. She is doing decent for a youngster and will only get better with more practice. I decided to try sacking her out again with the saddle blanket. One the near side she stood like a rock and on the off side she only flinched a couple of times. I will admit I worked her over pretty good and she stood there solid. She even stood fairly well for the fly spray in stead of finding the dancing feet as she usually does.  She did very well. I think she is about ready for her first saddling.

Star was next on the list. As I said yesterday she has been running with the youngsters and thinks she is top dawg. She wants to get pissy if her nose gets handled wrong and she wants to let on that she is being spooked by things.She see horse eating monsters everywhere. I put the halter and a 16 foot lead rope on her and brushed her out. We then did some leading by exercises and then we went to the flag. Star wanted to get excited but she only danced for a short time before settling down. I worked her over pretty good but she did well. I even brought in the "horse eating" measuring stick and she sticks in at 15 hands even.

I then brought in my other saddle mare, Angel. Angel is a ten year old sorrel mare I traded for last fall. She is a sweet little mare only measuring in at 14-1 hands but she has a very nice pedigree and a pleasing attitude. Since I am taking her and Star camping this weekend I decided to trim her feet. She has always had shoes on and I am trying to get by without the shoes. I told my friends that I was going old school on them. Rather than having my horses shod I was just going to rotate horses. Considering Angel like Star has had a long lay off this summer her trim did not go bad. Then we did a little lunging and leading by exercises just to get her mind right. Even went through the flagging process. She did well and should be ready to go Friday afternoon.