Transamerica 2008!

We have kicked off the first leg of the tour---we have been in the truck for the first 3 hours or so of a 30 hour drive, so we are 10% done!


We are on our way to A Cut Above Performance Horses near Edmonton , Alberta, Canada, with some precious cargo in tow. Miss Rondee and the very special Ding a Ling (soon to be name Sugar) are racking up the miles for such young ladies.
Ding has never been off the farm in her life--yet learned to load her hiney in the trailer last nite and is happy as a clam to be there. She will not even be two for another month, but she is handling all the disruption beautifully-- I have to admit I am a little surprised at that.

Rondee is not new to hauling, but she has moods where she is agreeable and moods where she is not. She is doing really well today, loaded up in seconds flat, settled in nice and quiet and promptly pooped up the trailer. That is to be expected though, although I wish they would not mess up my pretty shavings, I guess it is necessary.

Think this is going to be cushy enough for them? In some places it is over their fetlocks. It is a long ride, and they are on mats as well---and we brought the muck bucket to clean as we can--which is not the easiest thing in the world. I do not want to push my luck on such young girls with not much hauling experience by wagging the shit fork at them---I am actually kind of amused by this business. Normally, I open the door, tell whoever to get in there and don't hurt yourself, and then I drive off. I have hauled thousands of miles, but never more than 800 straight before. 2000 miles one way this time! And of course on those trips, I do nice--for going to the vet, an hour to trail ride or something--they do not get this kind of preparation--they just get in and we leave. I have to admit though that Barry got the trailer ready and he did a really good job.



One of the best things--these great buckets with sealed lids in which we can haul our own water. Our friend Shawn hooked us up with these several years ago, and they have been lifesavers. I do not however advise stepping on them as a means to get to the top of the hay stack so you can take pictures looking down on the horses (which did not come out right anyway)---when you do that, water shoots out the spout and up your shorts. Take my word for it.
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Funny so far: We just passed a billboard for a casino and it said "Over 900 hot Slots". Barry thought it said "over 900 hot SLUTS" and is looking for the exit.

Rondee broke her face

WHY do horses do things like this? I cannot begin to imagine what she did to herself, but she has a dandy little slice under her eye. At first it was just a small cut, but it has gotten a little inflamed. This is after a day of iccthammol which really opened it up and is pulling out the goo....she will live I suppose.

I guess this is the injury of the week. I probably got it because Squeak's eyes are looking good and she was let out of captivity to live like a horse instead of a felon.

Other than that, Rondee is doing great. Had this happened just a couple of months ago shortly after she got home from the trainer, we would have had a fiasco on our hands trying to doctor her. Instead, I can just fetch her right up out of the pasture and doctor her there, without a lead or any help. It obviously hurts, but mentally she is all there

Rondee takes a step forward

Just what is going on here, I am sure Rondee is wondering. I was just fine in that other pasture eating all the time.

Ever since she came home from the trainer in early July, she has been slowly decompressing. She has been turned out in the front pasture with some other young'uns, having only been handled when Marvin did her feet, and when Madison plays with her over the fence. That in itself is a step forward as she came home extremely headshy, and would practically jump out of her skin when you reached out for her directly--she will now stand and wait for Madison to come and love on her over the top rail. Otherwise, she has been living like she was raised---in a pasture, with friends for company and no stress of any human making. She definitely seems more content, and has simmered down a lot, getting back to her comfort zone.

Evidently BS was feeling very cowboy today as he decided we should haul her out and saddle her up, as that was one skill we hear she had down. That went so easily, he decided to lunge her in the old people's pasture.

That went so well, he thought he maybe should mess with her some more. Not quite brave enough to get on this supposedly crazy spooky horse out in the wild blue yonder, we came into the indoor to try her. I personally thought that if she would spook, she would do it there, since there are shadows all over, the mister system for the mares was making noise and Playmate was talking the whole time from the peanut gallery, but NOTHING had any effect on her at all. She does not know much, that is for sure, but that is something easily remedied---we will just teach her. The one thing I did not think we could fix was if she was crazy. I do not see a sign of that at all.

I am so excited about how well this went, and how easy she was to deal with. I think we may have finally found the culprit for her fractiousness--being stalled does not agree with her. Such an easy fix! Hopefully we can continue to build upon what we learned today and find the right place for Rondee to contuned her training.

Developments with Miss Rondee

I have been looking forward to this meeting tonight since we brought Rondee home from the trainer. I wanted the opinion of another person, but it needed to be someone with a completely different perspective, no vested interest at all, and most importantly, someone with a wealth of experience. I wanted that person to deal with Rondee with little to no knowledge about what had gone on, so they would not have specific expectations.

Marvin the Magnificent was perfect for this. He has known her since she was born, has trimmed her until she went to training, and knows her mother and siblings. He also has an almost cosmic connection with horses the likes of which I have never seen.

Look at the tension in her body in the photo above on the right--and this was after a few minutes of moving her feet around until she seemed to become a believer in him. Things started changing immediately.

His first conclusion was that she is right smack in the middle of either turning squirrelly or making amazing strides. She is a reactor not a thinker, and is so to the extreme. His first comment is that she needs to be taught to think...never occurred to me that you could even teach such a thing, they either are or are not a horse that thinks. What a great thing to learn!

I settled down with the camera and watched them play for a while. It is like a clinic every time he is here, so I count my lucky stars that it happens a couple of times a month. Tonight was a whole other deal though, the changes in her in a short period of time, and with different manners of approaching or asking her for something. It so illustrates how horses feed off of us.

She initially did not want to be touched, and I have always known that she is herky jerky about her head and face being messed with. Marvin calls her claustrophobic, but even that receded over the next half hour or so. He tried several differrent things with her to guage her reactions, and one of the most interesting was designed to make her think, I assume--he used virtually every part of her body to lead her. I have seen people do that with a rope around a leg, and seen him do that a lot with babies when teaching them to trim, but the rope around her ears was a new one on me. It was bizarre how the lightest touch could get her to follow her ears around. She would plant her hind foot and move around it with just a tiny pull on the rope.

She learned or maybe the word is evolved so quickly with him tonight. This horse standing free to be trimmed is NOT the same animal that spooked at her shadow when leaving the trainers, and is most definitely not the one that was still wearing a drag rope in her stall after four months there.

I feel so much better about things with her now, seeing how different she can be when placed in a different situation, with different handling, and different attitude. Now for me to learn enough to capitalize on it.

Amazing reappearing roaniness!

Finally, captured on film, actual evidence of Rondee's roaniness! This is probably photo #267 since she got home a couple of weeks ago, and FINALLY it shows on film. Or memory stick. Or whatever. She is also growing into a pretty little girl, I think, and I love her short cannon bones. She ought to be a stopping foola, d she is the quickest-legged horse I have ever seen. And it cracks me up that the halter still hangs off her head. It is particularly fancy where some baling twine is attached to it, don't ask me why it is there, if not to remind her of her humble beginnings here in hillbilly country.

She is being pretty good, although every once in a while, I see flashes of her old self---she snuck through the pasture gate yesterday and ran like hell all over the front yard, round and round and round the barn for a while. As mad as I was at her, I could not help but be impressed with her athleticism, and amazing body control. That makes it kind of fun to watch, even when you are cussing her.

Good thing I am a good cusser.

A very unlikely pair

One thing you can be sure of when you have this many horses, is that reality changes every day. That does keep things interesting for sure.

Today it is the dynamic between Snap and Rondee. Ever since Rondee came home from training two weeks ago, she has been in the front lot with Snap and baby Cricket. I am confident I had a reason for putting Snap through this, but it slips my mind at the moment. It has been particularly gratifying to see Snap put Rondee in her place, as she is very timid and the other mares run her around a lot. She is evidently not putting up with it from Rondee though, which cracks me up. Snap must not read the internet like everyone else, or she would surely have heard of Rondee's reputation as a bully and a little squirrelly. Snap sure does not look scared, the way her lip is hanging down, and the only thing that looks nuts on Rondee is the way she is studying me

Anyway, Snap's baby has taken up with Rondee, who is being very sweet to her. It is a little wierd that Snap allows it, I think, since she does not normally share her baby with anyone. Today I got a photo of the whole lovefest to prove it.

On that note, Barry has taken to calling Rondee "the crazy one" based on her training reports. Today, it is apparent that he is being sarcastic, as she is being so good. Two weeks of turnout has decompressed her faster than I ever could have imagined, and that is a huge relief. She actually is seeking us out for attention, and tolerating affection like she never did before. Let's hope the trend continues

The Return of Rondee

Miss Rondee was part of our pig getting trip today as well. I met Lorna and Bree for lunch and pig drop off, and then we had lunch and went to the trainer's to fetch her and look at some other horses there. The trainer is in Poland with some other clients right now, so I did not get to talk with him --but I did on Saturday last week. We are giving her some time off to relax...the atmosphere there just does not agree with her. I am going to give her a few months, then try a less stressful alternative for her. She needs the break, and we need to see where she really needs to go--I knew I was trying to stuff a square peg in a round hole by sending her to a reining trainer instead of a cutter where she belongs, but it was worth a shot to try it.

Anyway, I thought I was taking swell pics, but as usual, I screwed it up---they are all crooked or taken at a bad angle....but here are a few of her all grown up (well grown OUT, not so much grown UP yet). The top one I thought was swell, but she looks like she is going to tip over because the photo is angled all downhill, then the second one, I was taking it from behind, and it makes it looks like she has a hideous shoulder, and she really does not. And none of them show how roany she has gotten...it is really pretty. So frustrating to get those results though.

If there is one new skill I would like to learn this year, it is to take good horse pics.

Are you looking at my butt?

I think that is what Rondee is saying here...she looks a little suspicious. Then again, from what I hear, she always looks that way at her trainer! These are the first pics I have seen of her since she went there March 1 or so. She is going to take a time out from training at the end of this month, to grow some more, and mature mentally..but if she thinks she is going to be on vacation, she has another think coming!