Happy Birthday Jerri!

My good friend Jerri over at Learning Horses had a birthday on Friday. We celebrated with a barn dance down at her place in Junction City. She is the lovely lady in the middle. I give Jerri all the credit (and blame:-) for getting me back into the horse world. I stepped away after college, throwing myself into work and moving around the country. About 6 years ago, I realized there was something missing...horses! Knowing I couldn't afford one, I looked for opportunities on Craigslist to ride and I found Jerri. She introduced me to her Paso Finos and re-ignited my passion for riding. She has been a great resource and friend for me. She is considering a move to London. Of course I will be sad to have her leave, but excited for her next adventure. Cheers Jerri...you will always have a special place in my heart for taking me in and offering me the opportunity to ride your beautiful horses.

Branding at the Rockin Maddy Ranch

Maddy has a freeze brand on her left front shoulder. It is a small, white heart. I think it is cute and gives her character. It reminds me of where she came from and when I see the "Hart" brand, I know the horses are members of Maddy's family. Today, Laura, the woman I bought her from, sent me some photos of the freeze brand process. They usually use liquid nitrogen, but this time they used dry ice and had lots of success. A freeze brand kills the pigment in the cells and the hair grows back white. I guess all you do is shave the area, spray with alcohol, and hold the brand on there for 40 seconds. They did 27 horses on this day. I don't know what kind of sensation this has on the horse's skin. I would imagine it burns a little bit.

A compliment

The coolest thing has been happening when I go to get Maddy out of the pasture. I go down to where ever she is and I stop a few feet from her. She walks up to me, I give her a scratch and turn and start walking up to the gate and she follows. Today she walked next to me and then trotted up to the gate and waited for me to catch up. It was really cool...like one of the best compliments your horse could give you. "It is about time you showed up, I want to go ride."

Parelli Clinic

I audited a Level 2 Advanced Parelli clinic this weekend up at Kozy Manor in Ridgefield, Washington. I would like to get back on track with my Parelli work. As some of you know, the day I received my Level One certificate, I first noticed Maddy "hop" on the lunge line. X-rays revealed that she had fractured her coffin bone and things and life got put on hold for awhile. The Parellis are changing their teaching format from levels to patterns in on-line, finesse, liberty and freestyle. By going to the clinic this weekend, I was hoping to get re-inspired and I am. While I was there I met this woman, Wendy, who owns Curly Horses. She was doing all sorts of cool stuff with her horse, Dan. I have read about Curlys, but have never seen one. They are compact, with spiral twists going thru the mane and tail. Their bodies have whirl patterns of fur and the fur on their fetlocks is so thick, it looks like they are wearing hand knitted socks. Wendy chose this breed because her husband has allergies. The Curlys don't have the dander that other horses have. Another cool thing from the clinic....three men. I have never done a Parelli clinic with a man much less three. Nice to see guys out there. Although Ann Kiser pointed out, they are much less chatty than the women:-) The photos posted are of Wendy and Dan doing their thing at the clinic. It was a perfect weekend. It was hard to sit there knowing I could be out on the trails, but I got a lot out of it and ready to work towards passing Level 2.

New Boarders

The rain has begun, the mud is here, the blankets are on and still we are squeezing the last bit of summer out of every day. If there is even a chance of decent weather, Maddy and I are hitting the trails. I know I need to be working on some drills in the arena, but the allure of the changing leaves and the crisp air is too much to resist. We have some new boarders, Karen and Sonja. I hooked up with them this weekend, to show them a few trail options. Sonja is 15 and should be very proud of herself. Not knowing a lot about horses, she bought a yearling and turned to Steve Rother to help her get through the training. Her horse is now five and you should see this paint side pass over and open and close the gates. Sonja has done a fantastic job. She is a natural. Karen is living her dream...always wanting to have horses and now in her 50s she is enjoying them at last. They really are a nice family and I look forward to having a teenager out at the barn.

Pasture Burns

Maddy was raised in Southern California at the Hart Ranch. I got a message today along with some photos of the 2000 acres that burned down there and the rescue efforts to round up the the Hart horses. Here is the email Laura sent me....

Good Morning..... I just got back from Southern California where I helped my folks gather some horses..... we had a 2000 acre pasture leased at Camp Pendelton and it burned to a crisp..... it takes time to ride and find all the horses, as they split into their own little groups when out in a large place...I am happy to report that NONE of our horses were injured, just frightened as I am sure you can imagine....there were very few patches that were not black, and the horses were mostly hanging in these areas thoughout the hills.....there was still some areas that were smoldering, and it was "erie" tobe riding thru it all..... we have brought in 70 of the 107 that are out there, and they are returning today to pick up the rest.... I was riding one of THEIR horses to gather, and when a herd of about 60 came at me at a dead run, it was just like the scene in "City Slickers"with the stampede!!! My horse thought he should go with the herd!!!! I am only laughing now because I survived without falling off (barely)and after they passed my mom says "oh, I guess we haven't used him to gather before!!!" Very funny!!! I just thought these were some fun pics to look at..... hope you all have a great day.... laura

It is an amazing herd...I can see why Maddy was so bitter about being put to work when she arrived up here. She ran wild with these horses until she was four years old. So happy to hear there were no injuries or casualties from the fire.

Tag

Kacy over at All Horse Stuff tagged me with a good game.

*First you grab the book closest to you
*Turn to page 56 and go to the fifth sentence on that page.
*Share the next couple lines with us.
I just finished "A long way gone" by Ishmael Beah. It is memoirs of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone. It is a pretty good read.

Here are the lines from page 56.

"Everyone ran when they heard of the "seven boys" on there way here. I couldn't run at all. So they left me behind. No one was willing to carry me and I didn't want to be a burden," he said.

So now I get to tag three people and they happen to be three bloggers new to the blogroll.

Equine Bodyworks Adventures
Discovering Epona
Jacksons Grrl