amywink September 4th, 2010
Our last Sunday drive in August started early but very cool! Finally, a break in the summer heat and our temperature was at 69 for the start. It was a good day for photography too and I manage to get several shots I’d had in my head for a long time.
Like this one:
Throughout our early morning drives, I have been watching our shadows, thinking of this photograph, so I was extremely pleased to get this shot. Since we’ve had some time off, Will’s approached our drives more positively, looking more like he’s having a good time. We’ve enjoyed some new trails as well and he’s enjoying those too. Though the hills are making him work harder, we’re rewarded by the views ahead. This shot has also been in my head for a while:
We’re conditioning for the Plum Creek Swap Drive in October, a goal I’ve had for the year. He’s looking very good, though prefers a very pokey walk by the end of our drives.
Blessing is beginning to get some lessons too! My goal for her this coming year is the HOTMHC Fun Show in April. Hopefully, we will be able to show her in hand before she heads off to driving training. She got her first lesson in standing last weekend–from Lisa–and we finally got one good stand out of her–though she was really not sure it was worth the trouble.
This weekend will mark the third month with us and she’s settled in quite nicely, adding a cheerful presence to our herd. She’s quite the happy horse and compliments her brother’s more complex personality very well. I think she rolls her eyes at him quite often.
amywink June 13th, 2010
Saturday was a trying day. We gathered up the gear and horses early and headed over to Agarita Ranch for the Heart of Texas Morgan Club meeting/Plum Creek CDE Volunteer Appreciation Day. We were harnessed and hitched before 8:45 to beat the heat as best we could. We did have a clouds on our side and a breeze that dented the humidity. Will did very well for harnessing and hitching, much better than in previous attempts. He even stood steady and asleep while Mary got in the carriage so we have had significant improvement there.
Generally, he was very good but as we got started, and left Windy behind with Lisa, he became increasingly agitated and nervous to be out “alone”–though there were other horses within sight of him. Still, we managed and worked through some spookiness as we headed down the trails into the woods. The recent rains made for deep going in spots and we faced several ponds along the way. Will did not care to get his precious feet wet so driving became somewhat of a challenge as he tried to pretzel his way around the puddles. We also had a good lesson in bravery as we had to go by the Plum Creek Shooting Society’s shooting targets on one trail. Will passed the buffalo cutout with just a wary look, but as we got closer and closer to the mountain goat figure, he was less and less sure it was wise to go any further, edging to the side of the trail, ready for retreat, until I tapped him on with the whip and we were able to safely scoot past unscathed. In all of this he was fairly strong-headed and it took a fair amount of strength to keep his mind on his work. He worked up a heavy sweat as I tried to keep him in a reasonable trot. He was much more spooky and jumpy than usual and it was certainly a different experience driving him this way.
We were out a long time, over an hour and a half, in what turned out to be a little over 8K–according to the GPS–so I decided to call it quits and get him (and me) cooled off. Sure enough, he stood for a nice rinse off without his usual dancing around. I got him cooled off and scraped off and let him watch Windy head around the dressage arena as he dried off.
We also enjoyed standing for the group photo:
Then the trouble started.
I put Will in a stall and he proceeded to go absolutely nuts. He had a bucking, rearing, kicking, screaming temper tantrum!! All because he couldn’t see any other horses. He kept this up for much longer than he should have, banging and kicking even after I put hay and water in his stall. Once he spotted one of the other horses, he settled a little but, but he never did calm down fully until Windy returned to her stall next to him. He had been having a few issues trailering recently and this confirmed the problem: herd bound. Since he became the bottom horse in the herd, he’s been suffering a little hysteria, when we trailered him to the vet. He drives well alone and will leave the pasture happily with me so there are no other issues, except being stalled at Agarita alone. But this was a full-on nuts-o-rama incident that we’d need to figure out what to do about.
to be continued……