I am a writer, and one of my favorite things to do is to tell a good story.  I have often said that getting a horse is like getting a brand new notebook.  You open it up, and it’s blank….just waiting to be filled in with adventures, experiences, knowledge, sentiment, good memories, colorful adjectives, and whatever else comes your way.  So it is when you get a horse. 

I went for a ride with Cowboy Dad yesterday.  We had talked about trailering out to some trails or something, since we had a whole afternoon and warm sunny weather.  But with the melting snow and muddy footing, we figured it would be safer to stay on the gravel roads around the farm…we have learned the hard way to not venture out on unfamiliar trails when it’s muddy.  So we left the kids at his mom’s and went out to ride. 

I know I’m getting old, because it’s not so easy to just run out, grab a horse, and go.  Just like jogging, the hardest part is just getting out of your front door.  But to ride, we have to load up all of our gear….saddles, bridles, boots, a drink…oh, and don’t forget the camera!  And haul it all out to the farm.  Then the horses have to be caught and led out through the calves’ pen, which is really muddy and cumbersome when you’re leading two horses and you have three others trying to get out with them because they don’t want to be left behind!  I’m working on getting a gate installed at one corner of the horse’s pen directly to the farm yard, so we don’t have to go through the calves’ pen and the corn crib to get the horses out.  But everything’s a work in progress….

So I catch up Cricket  and the buckskin mare, whom we’ve started calling Girlie.  We aren’t sure if the name is going to stick, and we aren’t sure if we even like it as a name, but it’s what we call her for lack of anything better.  She is just so docile and sweet natured, and stands there close to you when you’re putting hay in her bunk, and I always say, “Hey, girlie,” affectionately, out of habit.  So that might end up being her name…it’s hard to tell.  We had thought we were naming her foal “Rex”, but my brother in law started calling him “Cletus” as a joke, and now the kids are calling him that, so I’m afraid it is set in stone!  His registered name will be Cooke Commander, so I guess Cletus can be short for that.  Ha ha!

But I get the two mares all brushed off, with a little help from Cowboy Dad, who explained that the only reason he wasn’t jumping in to help me was because I never like how he puts the saddle on.  This was a shocking admission but I knew it was the truth…I have criticized his work a few times before on the exact placement of the saddle, or whether it is cinched tightly enough or too tight.  I have perfectionist tendencies, and while my comments are tempered to those I am befriending or don’t know very well, those who are very close to me often bear the brunt of my nit picking.  I don’t know why it is harder to use tact with those we love the most!  So anyway, I had to backpeddle a little bit and resolve to let my husband saddle his horse however he wants.  After all, my corrections were only within eighths of inches anyway…it’s not like he doesn’t know what he’s doing…and he’s the one who’s nice enough to go riding with me, so I’ve got to work on being nicer.

We decided to ride along the highway, over the river bridge, and into our little town.  It’s only about a mile or so, and we haven’t ridden in that direction for a long time.  The horses were eager to go, Girlie stepped right out in a trot away from the farm, and her foal didn’t even whinny after her.  When we got to the bridge we had to watch for traffic.  The horses are very good with cars passing them along the roadside, but the bridge is narrower of course, and there is no room on the sides to be safely away from the cars.  The horses really don’t like that first step onto the bridge.  They can sense it is different footing, and they need to stop and sniff and make sure it’s okay to walk on before stepping onto it.  But we passed that without mishap, and rode on into town.

We live in a really small town where pretty much everyone knows each other.  We got the dogs all barking as we  clip-clopped down the street.  Kids rode past on their bicycles, waving, and the horses didn’t really even blink at them.  When we got to Grandma’s house, Cowboy Dad went up and knocked on the door.  Our kids came out and wanted to ride a little bit.  Cowboy Dad told our daughter she could go to the neighbors and offer to give their little girls a quick ride, since she’s best friends at school with one of them, and they love playing together.  So they all came out and we let them ride Cricket, and put our kids on Girlie and led them around for awhile. 

We were walking along behind the elementary school, and the grass was thick and still green, so the horses were snatching bites of it once in awhile.  I was leading Girlie with just our daughter on board, and once when she stopped to eat, our daughter kicked her sides with both feet!  Girlie jumped, and I yelled and told her to not kick the mare!  The buckskin actually only moved about an inch, which was incredibly fortunate, because she could have bucked or bolted without warning and really hurt our little girl.  We explained to the kids that if someone is leading a horse, you don’t kick or try to control the horse at all.  I think our daughter, who is five, was kind of trying to show off in front of her friends…but we’re lucky it didn’t cause a wreck.


On the way back to the farm, leaving town, I thought about letting Girlie lope.  But Cricket is kind of older and we usually take it slow for her sake.  So after trotting for a good length, I started to slow the buckskin mare up, and she really wasn’t ready to slow down–she kind of tossed her head to go faster, and when I shortened my reins further, asking her to slow down, she kicked out with both hind feet in rebellion.  I laughed and looked back at my husband, who was a safe distance behind on Cricket.  He said it wasn’t just a kick, she had bucked!  But he said she didn’t miss a stride, and I told him it didn’t even feel like a buck.  So evidently our mare has a little spunk to her, but that’s the first sign of any rebellion I’ve seen yet.  She does get “hot” at a fast trot or lope, and you can feel that she’s ready to kick it into high gear and boogie out of there.  But after that, I asked her to slow down and walk, and we walked slowly on a loose rein the rest of the way home.

I keep saying how incredible it is that we have only had her a few months and she is such a good horse.  The more I ride her, the more convinced I am that she had some serious training when she was younger, before being turned out with the broodmares.  Because it’s showing up in her response to the neck rein already, and how she is just “common sense” about everything I ask her to do.  It’s really nice to get to enjoy a horse, rather than fight with it or struggle constantly.
I have often said that getting a horse is like getting a brand new notebook.  You open it up, and it’s blank….just waiting to be filled in with adventures, experiences, knowledge, sentiment, good memories, colorful adjectives, whatever comes your way.  So it is when you get a horse.  That first time you see it, you take it at face value:  it is what it is, and you have no idea how good it’s going to be.  But the more time you spend, the more knowledge you have of that horse’s nature.  Even watching a horse eat its grain can tell you something about that horse.  Every moment you’re around the horse, you’re both learning, both evaluating each other, both acting and reacting to each other’s motions.  And it’s just like writing a novel when you train a horse…you are giving and receiving, and you are learning and sharing what that horse is like, and who it is, and what it will become.  After you’ve been around a horse for a number of years, you may have volumes of information on that horse, and you can work with that horse as easily as you can put on a favorite t-shirt.  Because in the time you have spent with that horse, you have written that horse’s story.  And it’s a beautiful thing when you can read that horse’s story and know that it’s a good one.

A Little More To The Story is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on February 20, 2012. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

I’m baking treats today, in honor of Valentine’s Day, and I’m baking them for my horses! I’ve actually never made homemade treats for horses before, but a reader commented over on my Cowgirl Recipes page and requested some recipes for making your own horse treats. Having read several horse treat recipes online, I went to the kitchen to see what I had on hand, and made up my very own kind of heart-shaped horse cookie. They turned out great, and my horses loved them! Here’s the recipe so you can share some love with your equine friends this Valentine’s day!

Valentine Heart Horse Treats

Ingredients:
2 c. whole wheat graham flour
1 c. oatmeal
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T. sugar
3 T. corn syrup
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 t. salt
1 pear, finely chopped

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together. Add more flour if mixture is too sticky. Spoon onto cookie sheet and press into heart shapes by hand. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 6 large or 12 small horse treats.

Photos:

I used this whole wheat graham flour because it’s something I didn’t really want to save for normal baking (we’re kind of picky eaters and not used to whole wheat–even though it is more healthy).  If you don’t have whole wheat flour, you can use white flour or whatever you have in your kitchen.

For oatmeal, this is what I used…you could substitute any kind of whole grains with good results.

I used a pear in my horse cookie recipe because it was the only fruit I had that my kids weren’t going to eat.  This pear was a little too dinged up for my daughter’s taste, but I don’t think the horses will mind at all.  The pear flavoring in these cookies make them delicious (yes, I ate one!)  You could substitute an apple, carrot, or anything else horses like.

Dice the pear into fine chunks so your cookies don’t turn out too crumbly.  If you’re using a carrot instead, shred it or process it in a food processor before adding to your mix.

With everything mixed together in the bowl, test the dough for stickiness and add more flour or oatmeal if necessary.  You want it to hold together and start to form a ball when stirred, not stick to the edges of the bowl or spatula.

I used a large spoon to scoop the mixture onto my baking stone, then formed heart shapes with my hands.  It held together well and didn’t stick to my fingers too badly.  You could make flattened circles, or any shape you like.

This is what the cookie looked like before baking.  They didn’t spread out or lose their shape at all, while in the oven, so you can place them as close together as you like, they don’t run or smear into each other.

I baked them at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, checking on them once in awhile to see if they were done or not.  These had started to brown around the edges, and felt crunchy and hard to the touch.  The inside was still softer, but baked through.  I put them on a wire rack to cool.

Daisy rolled her eyes at first…she wasn’t sure what I was offering her, but then she took a nibble. Then everyone wanted to try them. Cricket ate three of them! She loved them.  My horses aren’t used to getting treats, though I have gotten some free Whinnie’s Cookies by mail to try, and they liked those.  These horse cookies were so easy to make, and out of ingredients I was going to probably throw away anyway, I think I’ll make them again soon.  Many of the recipes I looked at included grain, barley, bran, carrots, peppermints, and even maple syrup.   Don’t use peanuts or other nuts, but grains should be fine.  I think as long as it’s edible and tasty, you can go ahead and throw it in.   Enjoy sharing this treat with your ponies!

Share The Love! is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on February 15, 2012. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

I’ve been thinking about the horse slaughter topic a lot lately, and would like to share some of my thoughts on the issue, but I find that I can hardly discuss it without stepping on toes, and probably square on the toes of some of my friends.  When you start talking about killing horses, there isn’t any middle ground where you can please everybody—people are either adamantly against it or staunchly for it, and are prepared to fight for the chance to prove that the opposing side is filled with lunatics and monsters.  I would like to point out that it shouldn’t be that way, because I do find myself somewhere in the middle on the question of horse slaughter.

Let’s go back a hundred years or so, and consider where we have come from.  Back then, a horse was a valuable asset in many ways.  They were still being used for transportation and farm work; and their career in entertainment, such as rodeo and racing, was growing rapidly.  People still depended on horses and needed them in their daily lives, and they were treasured as much or more then as they are now.  Horse thieves were more common then, because horses could be easily sold and traded and it was relatively easy money as opposed to homesteading, farming, and working hard for a living.  Being called a horse thief was about the lowest insult you could inflict on someone, because it carried the stigma of having absolutely no morals at all; which, in that time period, was also a rarity.

And this, I believe, is where the problem really stems from—it is a question of morals.  When I think of my grandmother, who was born in 1908, and her viewpoint on life and how she treated everyone, it is pretty clear how stark the contrast is with today’s society.  Grandma worked hard.  She treated people with respect.  She raised her children to work, to love, to appreciate beauty, and to care for animals.  But she was no emotional sissy, either.  If a job needed to be done, she did it, and possessed the common sense necessary to get it done right.  Grandma grew up poor and treasured what she had, and she knew how to stretch a dollar and make good use of something so you could spend wisely elsewhere.

Fast forward to today, where our society is overtaken with greed and the inability to recognize truth.  We have the kill buyer, who is only thinking of the profit he’ll make as he slams the trailer door against the emaciated hindquarters of the last horse, cursing and beating with his cattle prod to get the door shut on the five dollar carcasses he’s just purchased.  We have the horse rescue facility owner who is drumming up donations for the five horses she has out in the back pasture that she hasn’t looked at in two weeks because she is just now getting back from Las Vegas, and they sure had a good time with those contributions.  We have the dreamy-eyed teenagers and the fifty year olds just like them, who every time they hear the word “horse” they envision the Black Stallion cantering along a sunset beach, and have never taken into consideration that a lot of horses aren’t like that, so they’ve jumped on the bandwagon along with the freaks who think horses shouldn’t be trained or ridden at all.  And then there’s the breed registries and indiscriminate breeders who have made fortunes off of horses and the people who love them, but have also contributed to the flooded market and poor conditions for their creations.  All of these people have a problem.

As for the kill buyer problem, and the inhumane handling at processing plants, it is a moral one.  The employees ought to be required to treat the animals in a gentle manner, preserving their sense of well-being as much as possible, and acting responsibly when handling them.  If you don’t cringe or feel bad when you see an animal beaten or slammed by a gate, you have no business working with livestock.  Even with difficult animals, if you use common sense and a little patience, you can accomplish your task with minimal fear or pain inflicted on the animal.  It starts with who you are as a person, and what your conscience dictates to you.  There are a lot of people who handle horses carelessly, and though you can’t always regulate it or just throw them in jail, you should do your best to influence anyone you can on how to treat animals.  If every parent would teach their child that animals are to be cared for and loved, then we wouldn’t need to regulate slaughter or how animals are transported or treated.  They would be governed by their own conscience, and everyone would be better off because of it.

There is also a problem with the people who lie about rescuing horses.  I want to state first that you can find facilities who have done an absolutely amazing job with retraining horses and finding homes for them and making the transitions so perfectly organized that the horses and new owners benefit greatly, and I applaud their efforts.  There are good rescues.  But then there are the liars, and we have seen them recently in the news, where everything is underhanded, they are paid by the people placing the horses, they’re taking donations from the public to fund their rescue, and then they’re selling them out the back door to Canada slaughter plants.  That kind of lying and cheating needs punished to the fullest extent of the law.  Horse owners need to be certain of the character of the people they are dealing with, before they trust their horses to them.

The emotionally-fed “dreamers” are as big of a problem as anyone, because they don’t understand the truth.  When you fail to understand that God created man with a dominion over the animals and the earth, you can easily be confused into joining the wrong side.  There are people who believe that animals are better than humans, and that you should never eat meat or use animal products of any kind.  Because our emotions get involved, we sometimes lose sight of the harsher realities of life such as death, or when an animal is injured or not useful anymore.   Or that it does require raising and processing animals to feed the people of the earth, and it’s not wrong to do so.  One can possess a true love for horses and still have a realistic view of the big picture, understanding that sometimes it’s best for the animal itself to be put down or killed.  It is easy to bandwagon with those organizations who protest horse slaughter, because our feelings for the animals do side with them.  But when you uncover their other true agendas, you might be surprised at how extreme they are.  Many of them believe it is wrong to own or train a horse, expect it to perform, or labor in any way at all.  Their agenda pushes to elevate a horse’s rights above a human’s rights and create strict rules for animal ownership, and it is a slippery slope to be on. 

I would also like to point out that there is an overbreeding problem in the horse industry.  If people would excercise more common sense when it comes to breeding and horse ownership, it would help stabilize the horse economy.  Just because you want your mare to have a baby doesn’t mean she should.   When you consider the origin of some of these animals, it is ridiculous.  When the same thoughtless woman brings her dozen weanlings to the horse sale every fall and they sell for $15 apiece, she needs to be educated about her actions.   She is directly responsible for the abuse that will probably happen to each horse in its lifetime.  If you’ve been to a horse auction, you know what I’m talking about.  These breeders are most likely trying for paints or appaloosas, and bring in their solids that are good for nothing and are lucky to find a home that will feed them.  And their colored foals only bring a small amount more, but they’ll keep breeding because they have a stallion and a bunch of mares and they “enjoy raising the babies”.  But there is no one to take care of those animals after she dumps them at the auction.  I’m sorry, but it is a crime to be that irresponsible.

The big breeders and breed registries are no better, because they further contribute to the problem.  If everyone were to stop breeding for five years (not because of legislation that demands it, but out of goodwill and a plan to save the horse industry), and work to improve all of the horses that already exist by training them, placing them in good homes, working to improve conditions for rescue facilities, and integrating older performance horses into free riding programs for needy children, wouldn’t the difference made be astounding?  It would put a dent in their bank accounts, of course, but if the AQHA membership fees alone were redirected into saving some of these useless horses, wouldn’t they end up the hero in the long run?  I do think that something along these lines could be done if the breeders and registries were in it for the horses, but because of the almighty dollar, it sadly never will.

Because of the aforementioned problems, I do believe there is a need for a legal, cleanly-operated, well-run meat processing facility in the United States that can humanely put down and put to use the bodies of otherwise useless horses.  There are far too many horses in existence for them to be properly cared for, and to have a good way to end a life of pain or neglect would be the best option.  For those screaming that you should never kill a horse, I would point out that there are just too many horses for them each to be rehabilitated and made useful or even able to live a pain-free life.  If you know the physical make-up of a horse, you understand that a thousand pound animal navigating on four intricately functioning hooves can often lead to lameness or perpetual injury.  If you understand the phsychological make-up of a horse, you also understand that some life experiences render a horse as wild as a deer and as dangerous as a mountain lion.  And some horses are malformed from birth, untamed and unused, and generally counterproductive to the care required to keep them alive.  While it’s not a pretty picture, it is true that horses, in some cases, should be killed. 

I do think that there should be restrictions on what type of horse a kill buyer is allowed to purchase, to prevent them taking young healthy horses.  I understand that regulations don’t come without employing someone to enforce them, but with careful planning, I believe it could be done and done right.  There is significant evidence that humane euthanasia by a veterinarian is no easier on a horse than a penetrating captive bolt or electrical charge that renders the horse insensitive.  A gunshot is often more humane than the euthanasia.  So I do think it is possible to kill them without needless trauma, and find a use for what otherwise could spend many more years in pain and neglect.

There is also a need today to not waste things.  We live in an excessive world, where we are encouraged to recycle, but we still see trash in the road ditches.  We think nothing of throwing away things we don’t want because our tastes require a new version of that item.  It’s so sad that the same aspect carries over into the horse world.  If you purchase a horse, you are taking responsibility for it and that should mean something to you.  If you can keep it and care for it properly until it lies down and peacefully breathes its last, that is the best way possible for the horse.  But if the horse you own is no longer healthy, cannot be cared for, or has no potential for a useful life, it should be your decision to sell it to be killed and used for meat or other byproducts.  I don’t see how that is any less honorable than choosing to have it put down by your veterinarian, and it is a cheaper and more useful option.

 I also think it is wasteful to believe that you can save every horse in the world and let it run wild on the prairie for the rest of its days.  A horse running wild on a prairie does not serve a useful life.  That would be like saying the infestation of rats in your house is how they were born to live and we need to preserve that heritage.  I am a big fan of mustangs, and agree that they are beautiful in their natural environment, and if some rich lady wants to buy land and let them roam free, that’s fine by me.  But it’s a waste to put tax dollars into the equation, and so much has already been wasted in the hands of the government. 

This isn’t an easy topic, and it may result in inflammatory comments or lost friendships, and if it does, I apologize.  I don’t have perfect answers to all of the problems with the horse industry, but I can see some clear-cut errors in the thinking of people who breed with no real plan for the resulting foal, and I hope this article might help educate the beginning horseman who doesn’t really know what to think.  If there are any thoughts or comments you would like to add that are well-thought out, good for discussion, and truly based on your desires to act in the best interest of horses, I’d like to hear your suggestions.  In the light of this subject, I am even more devoted to caring for my own horses the best that I possibly can.  I hope and pray that they have the best life I can make for them.

The Word Nobody Likes is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on February 9, 2012. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

I never pay attention to the forecast.  I’m not a fan of watching the evening news, and I don’t listen to the radio on a regular basis, so I’m pretty much out in the cold when it comes to knowing what’s going on with the weather….literally.  It snowed in the night and I didn’t even know there was a chance of snow!  In my opinion, snow just makes chores that much more difficult, so I wasn’t all that excited to see it.  But snow seems to have a different effect on children and animals.

Our kids are usually sleepyheads and hard to wake up in the morning.  But using the tactic, “Come look at the snow!” got them out of bed in a hurry.  It was much the same when I let the cats out to investigate.  Tinkerbell went running and leaping out onto the deck, reaching under the thick layer of snow as if it were a blanket with a mouse underneath it.  She skittered this way and that, tail arched in crazed delight as she carried out her silly pantomime.  It felt good to start the day with a laugh.

When I got to the horses, they behaved pretty much the same way Tinkerbell had.  They ran back and forth through the corrals and down to the creek, stopping to blow through their noses with that horse-language alarm signal.  Then they’d all take off again, tearing around and bucking like crazy.  Even old Cricket put on some fancy moves.  I tried to catch them on camera, but my shutter is slow, and I only caught half of Milo’s wild spin:

Milo is an expert at showing off.  He is not a spooky horse at all, and will step over, around, and among things without hesitation.  But when the horses start to running or feeling their oats, he usually puts on the biggest show.
 

You can tell by Cricket’s expression that she is egging Milo on and trying to drive him away.  They all have to exert their authority and remind the younger ones where they belong in the pecking order when the horses get to running around like this.

The buckskins were having a hay day all their own.  They naturally avoid the other three, but Milo’s antics were catching on quickly, and they went racing away to the creek and back at full speed.

 It was fun to see them enjoying themselves and getting some exercise as opposed to standing around their hay bale like they have been doing lately.  Then they all stop and stand still and listen, and it just feels so beautiful to be a part of their electrified silence on this crisp morning.

What Is It About Snow? is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on January 17, 2012. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

My sister-in-law introduced me to Pinterest a few weeks ago.  If you’re not sure what it is, it’s a website where you can “pin” or bookmark websites or photos that inspire you in a neat collection of “boards” for you to come back to and read or use later.  For instance, I have a board of horse photos, a board for scrapbooking ideas, a board of photos of things in my favorite color of green, and boards that give do-it-yourself tutorials for making some really neat things.  You can get recommendations from your friends by seeing things they have pinned or liked, and it is just fun and relaxing to make your own collections to come back and look at whenever you need inspiration.  Last night I was creating a board for the kind of style I’d like to have.  As I was pinning a beautifully ruffled dress that you could only wear to a wedding party or soiree, the thought hit me, “Who am I kidding?  I deal in cow manure!” 

It’s true.  Yesterday I was knee deep in it, hands covered in it, a trail of it all the way through my house and an inch of it in my bathtub.  The car smelled of it, my shoes are completely ruined with it, and my frame of mind was pretty much the equivalent of it, too.  It was just a cow-manurey kind of day.

It would be easier if Cowboy Dad were around.  But he and his brother went to Denver for the weekend to take in the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo.  So it was up to me to feed the calves and horses and make sure the cows had water.  They didn’t.  The tank was drunk down to the bottom, and nothing remained but an icy rim around the top of the tank.  When I went to start the hose running, it had been used and not drained properly and was frozen shut.  Since it must pass through the feeder calf pen to reach the stock tank, it is continually being dragged through fresh manure whenever it is used….I really didn’t want to put it in my  recently-vacuumed Tahoe, but I didn’t really have another choice.  I got it into the car and back to my house, managing to scrape manure all along the way through the kitchen and living room, and piled it into the bathtub (yep, got some manure on my white fabric shower curtain!) and filled it up with hot water.

As it defrosted, I used a scrub brush to clean most of the manure off.  Wrapping it in a huge bath towel made it easier to carry and caught most of the muddy drips as I carried it back out to the car.  I got it hooked up and decided to fix the problem so that it wouldn’t happen again.  From the hydrant, I ran the hose straight up to the top of the corn crib door, through the corn crib aisle at a slope, and all along the fence panels sloping down until it reached the tank.  I used nails and baling wire to secure it, and after the tank was filled, it looked like all of the water drained out of it on its own.  So hopefully I won’t have to repeat the thawing process with the hose, and the hose won’t get drug through the manure every time we need to use it.

But manure is still a big part of my life, and I have to say I prefer it that way.  My husband and I have talked quite a bit about just selling the cows and being done with it, as the cost of keeping them has outweighed the benefits some of the time, since we don’t have enough of them to really make it a profitable business, and getting started in cattle required a lot of facility and equipment purchases.  But I always consider it a quality of life that we’re paying for.  Not everyone has the privilege of dealing with manure on a daily basis.

There is just something comforting and stable about being in the presence of cows.  So many times after evening feedings, we just stand there listening to the calves gobbling up their grain, crowded in side by side at their feed bunk, their tails wagging in enthusiasm and their happiness spreading to us as well.  The feeder calves are also fun to watch because they get so excited at the smallest things and go bucking and jumping around the corral.  They are very curious and will come up and sniff your hands if you offer them, and seem so childlike in their actions.

We have named a couple of our cows, and they are practically family pets.  Dorothy and Peaches (pictured above) are heifers that we kept from babies when we first purchased their mothers as first-calf heifers.  Peaches is a small black white-faced cow who is pregnant with her second calf.  She is tame, but not when she has a baby to look after.  Dorothy is a deep red Hereford cow that is so tame you can give her vaccinations without putting her in a chute.  She will follow a bucket anywhere you want her to go, and has become the “leader” of our cow herd whenever we need to get them in the corral or even into a trailer to move them.  Dorothy lost her first baby and didn’t take with her second AI session, so she is coming up on 4 years old and still hasn’t raised a calf for us.  Anyone with smarts would have turned her into hamburger by now, but we just can’t do that with Dorothy.  She is an angel, and we all love her.  So we’re going to try again this spring with a low-birthweight bull, and see if she can be a mother after all.

We have worked countless hours putting up fencing, hauling water in a poly tank in the back of our pickup, cutting trees out of the fence lines, and pitching hay—all because we have cattle.  But I would rather have the experiences and lifelong memories of those hours working alongside my husband and my kids, or when I was a child working with my siblings and parents, than give up all of that and the work, trouble, and yes—the manure that is involved in owning cattle.

Cow Manure is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on January 16, 2012. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

Today was amazing.  Well, if you don’t count the fact that it’s the beginning of January and still a little cold for my taste.  And if you don’t mention that today was my husband’s first time to get bucked off a horse.  It was sunny with no wind, a Sunday afternoon, and he said we’re crazy if we don’t go for a horse ride today.  So we did.  Here’s how it went:

I saddled up Daisy for our daughter to ride.  She loves that horse.  I’m happy Daisy has a rider who appreciates her.  She’s a girls-only horse…she really dislikes men for some reason.

I told her to be sure and pet Daisy a little before I put her up in the saddle.  My dad always told me to pet the horse a little so he knows who you are before you just go get on.  If you’ve been the one to groom and tack up, it’s not that big of a deal, but otherwise you need to introduce yourself.  Just bringing a kid out of nowhere and throwing them up in the saddle is a little presumptuous, in my opinion.  So we always say “hi” and pet them a little before getting on their back.

So far our daughter has never been frightened or hurt by a horse.  I’m thankful for that, and want to keep it that way as long as possible.  When you start out fearless and progress with no interruptions to your confidence, it makes a lifetime rider out of you.  I had the very same start, and so when the time came that I did fall off, got stepped on, had the saddle turn under the horse’s belly, and even drug along the ground under the horse, the my confidence and love for horses was never shaken. 

I saddled the new buckskin mare for myself.  Yes, she’s still lacking a name.  And not as gorgeous in winter as she is in the summer, but her demeanor makes up for it.  Never have I met a sweeter horse.

So we started out through the cornfield, the buckskin happily leading the way, with Daisy and her cargo in tow.  Daisy is the boss of the herd, and my buckskin mare is at the bottom of the pecking order, but she didn’t fuss at having Daisy following so closely on the lead line.  She wanted to trot a few times, which resulted in surprised squeals from my daughter. 

And we had to stop a few times.  Here we are checking to see “why” we needed to stop for a minute.  Not the best moment to take a picture, but it did give me time to get the camera out of my pocket.

So that segment of our afternoon went beautifully, and Daisy chalked up another good ride in her book.  My girl went off to play with the farm cats, and my husband asked me to saddle a horse for him.

Cowboy Dad has been riding Milo quite a bit recently, and unless every horse goes along for the ride, it can be kind of tricky keeping Milo going.  He is sweet on the mares we left back at the barn, so his attention was constantly on turning back towards home.  My husband said let’s walk down towards the south fence, and then when we turn east we’ll try trotting.  I figured that was a good plan, since we’d be heading away from home and the horses needed the exercise.

It didn’t turn out too well, because when me and the buckskin started to trot, Milo started to trot really fast and then went to crow-hopping.  Cowboy Dad did alright,but eventually was mostly on one side, so he bailed and half fell, half jumped to the ground.  Milo took off then, snorting and prancing and stepping on his reins.

With a little help from the buckskin mare (I wasn’t helping much, mostly snapping photos, and wishing I had caught the real action shot!) my husband caught his horse.  Milo was spooky and ornery, almost acting like he had a guilty conscience and knew he was in trouble.  But we never punish a horse for such a thing, because by the time you catch him, in his mind all you’re punishing him for is for allowing himself to be caught again.  You just have to take the blame yourself and get back on.

So after a little walking, a little talking, a little tightening of the cinch, we were ready to go again.

And this time Milo behaved much better.  I thought Cowboy Dad was pretty awesome to get back on and keep riding.

He even agreed to take some pictures of the mare and me.

She wasn’t really wanting to stop and pose, we were riding along the river bank, which drops off steeply and it made her a little nervous.

But it was a beautiful day to ride, and I ended up riding for most of the afternoon.  The mare didn’t get fussy or try to get home in a hurry.  She is very calm.  Very laid back.  Really easygoing.  She pretty much made Milo look like a train wreck. 

See, in horses, disposition is everything.  Milo has much more experience under saddle than she does.  Daisy has more than either of them combined.  But Daisy isn’t trustworthy….I’ve seen her buck like a rodeo bronc with a trainer friend of mine.  So I never really relax around her.  And Milo has this ornery barn-sour streak that just makes him difficult to deal with.  Granted, it could be ridden out of him if he were worked steadily for six months.  He would be a fantastic little horse with regular riding.  But this mare that I’ve ridden maybe six times is pure gold because she has a good disposition.

I let our youngest sit on her back for a little while before I put her away.  He is usually reluctant to ride and very cautious around the horses.  But he loves the buckskin mare.  She carried him patiently around the farm for a few turns, never minding that she’d already been ridden quite a bit and had done her share of work for the day.  She put a smile on his face that matched the one on my own.  It was a wonderful day with the horses.

A Day in Pictures is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on January 9, 2012. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

I absolutely love Christmas.  It’s my favorite holiday, and all of the excitement and anticipation that comes with the shopping, giving, and receiving is what makes it fun.  Growing up kind of makes that excitement fade, until you have kids of your own, and then you get it all back watching them exclaim over their gifts.  If you’re like me, you just can’t quit thinking about what might be in that package under the tree with your name on it.  I’m everlastingly curious but too principled to peek.  So this time of year always gets me giddy with excitement!

Some of the stories through the years still make me giggle.  I remember the year my folks had bought me a realistic-looking carved stickhorse.  I was maybe six years old, and was clueless until just a few days before Christmas when my little brother found it and galloped through the house riding it, with my mom chasing him and trying to keep me from seeing what it was.  All I remember was seeing the end of the stick go around the corner with my mom hollering at him to stop.  I didn’t know until Christmas morning what the commotion was all about.  I loved that stickhorse and named her “Jasmine”.

I was never asked, as a child, “What do you want for Christmas?”  We were a big family with seven kids, and we knew we would “get what we get and don’t throw a fit”.  We all shared toys, so even if our brother got a neat gift, we were happy and excited too, knowing we would get to play with it also.  But we didn’t ask for things, and we knew it was in poor taste to beg for something in particular.

So when I was about fourteen, I didn’t tell anyone what I was really wishing for….I had been using my mom’s western saddle ever since I had graduated from the vintage kids saddles we all grew up learning to ride on.  Mom didn’t ride very often, having her time spread too thin between housework and gardening for a family of nine.  So I was free to use her saddle whenever I wanted to…but I really wanted one of my own.

My older sister had gotten her own saddle when she was about twelve, since she was tall and had quickly outgrown the kids’ saddles.  I remember that Dad had sold two or three fillies (we usually kept the geldings to train as ranch horses, and sold off the fillies we raised since we used our own stud and they couldn’t be bred to their own sire) and used some of the money to buy my sister a saddle.  So for a year or so I had been feeling that it was about time that I would be getting a saddle of my own.

I waited patiently for Christmas to come, not telling anyone what I wanted or thought I might be getting.  Mom would usually wrap the small gifts first and put them under the tree with strict orders to not shake them or peek in them until Christmas morning.  The bigger gifts were not put out until late Christmas eve, because they were often harder to wrap or cover, and our parents didn’t want us guessing at what we were getting.  So when my mom placed a large puffy-looking present under the tree on Christmas eve that was big enough to be a saddle pad folded in half, I was certain that my wishes were about to come true.

On Christmas morning, that was the first gift I opened.  And pulled out a bag stuffed with newspapers that were packed around a violin case and new violin!  At fourteen, I hid my dismay and thanked my parents.  To this day, they don’t know that what I really wanted and had built my hopes on was a saddle.  The violin was a short-lived hobby, though I still have it and will keep it forever.  But it wasn’t a new saddle.

So the following summer my dad started talking about getting himself a new saddle.  His was worn and a flat, heavy old roping saddle, and he just thought he’d order a new one.  He showed me a catalogue where you could get a complete saddle package—with saddle pad, breast collar, matching headstall and reins.  He asked what color of saddle pad I thought he should get.  I said, “Well, you ride a gray horse, so I’d get the black and silver one.”  I teased him that maybe he’d need to buy a fancy new horse to go with the saddle he was getting.  I never dreamed my dad could be sly.  But he went around to my two younger brothers and asked them the same thing.

Christmas Eve came and there were no hints or any signs of big secrets.  I had learned to not build my hopes up, and I was pretty used to the hand-me-down saddle of my mom’s, so it wasn’t really on my wish list for that Christmas.  But on Christmas morning, after we opened up our gifts, my dad said, “But there’s more!”  He told my brothers to open up the sliding glass patio doors and go around the corner of the house and bring in those big boxes.  We each got a brand new saddle package, each with the color of saddle pad we had suggested that Dad get!  I had never been more surprised, and had never had a better Christmas than that one.  It was the best gift ever, and even more exciting because I had wanted one for so long.

My dad is still riding his old flat roping saddle.  I don’t think he’d want a new one if you offered him one, because he’s just used to his old saddle and it’s comfortable to him.  And I’m still riding my saddle, even though the silver and black saddle pad has a few strings hanging and is showing its age.  I’m glad I didn’t show my disappointment that day, because the violin was a very nice gift and I know my parents gave it to me with excitement.  Now that I’m a parent myself, I see how much planning and hoping we do when we buy things for our children.  But it was a very vivid Christmas memory for me, and one I will always treasure.

I am excited this Christmas, as even the smallest gift still holds significance and thoughtfulness.  We seven siblings are all grown, most of us married with kids of our own, and we still buy gifts for each other and try to gather as a family for Christmas at our folks’ place when we can.  But I am most strongly tied to my family for the memories I have of those days as a child when we were so close and so tightly knit.  And I look forward to more memories to be made.

For you I wish a very Merry Christmas and hope you have an exciting day with your own family.  The giving and sharing and closeness is what makes Christmas my favorite holiday.  And the excitement of not knowing what surprises still await.

The Fun Is In Not Knowing is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on December 24, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

I had our weanling colt on the lead line the other day, working on halter training a little bit more, and I thought it would be a good time to introduce him to the horse trailer.  I wasn’t there when my husband went to pick him up, when we first purchased him, but I heard that he was hard to load, and wouldn’t follow his mother into the trailer.  They had to use portable corral panels to box him into a small space behind the trailer and then adjust them smaller until he was forced to jump in.  So I knew that trailer loading was an area we needed to work on with him. 

He followed along happily out to where the trailer was parked.  We have a gooseneck stock trailer that is nice and open and roomy, which is quite an upgrade from the rusty mustard yellow bumper-pull we started out with.  So when I opened the door and stepped inside, the little guy bravely sniffed the trailer floor and then followed me in.  We stood there a moment, as I patted him and told him, “Good boy!”  And then turned around and walked back out.  He handled it like a pro, and will most likely load easily the rest of his life, because there was no trouble.  But some horses are not so trusting, and you can find yourself in the middle of a huge battle before you even realize it.

When I was a kid, no one ever worked on trailer loading.  Then we would find ourselves in a huge hurry loading up to go out and work cattle, and one of the horses would just absolutely refuse to load.  My dad wasn’t the sort to patiently coax anyone to do anything, much less waste time on a stubborn horse.  So he usually took out a coiled lariat or whip and made being outside of the trailer more scary for the horse than getting inside of the trailer, so the horse jumped in and away we’d go.  It wasn’t the right way to train a horse to load, and that horse would balk every time from then on.

 When I was training my own little mare, Beauty, the only trailer I had access to was a borrowed two-horse that was barely big enough to squeeze into.  She was fine with standing near the open door of the horse trailer, but didn’t quite know what to do when I asked her to get in it.  So I carefully picked up one of her front feet and set it inside the trailer.  Then I clucked to her, signalling her to move forward.  She eventually got in, but then couldn’t get out, afraid to back up in such a tiny space.  So I did one of the more stupid things in my long list of horse experiences:  I got into the other side of the trailer, climbed over the divider in front of my Beauty’s nose, and fairly lifted her whole front end as I pushed her backwards out of the trailer.  She was a very brave and obedient little horse, and loaded fine in a bigger trailer, but that little one scared her.

When I was in high school, our church youth group had a few horse training seminars (yes, I grew up in the Nebraska Sandhills, where every kid had a horse) with a horse trainer who was also my Sunday School teacher.  He demonstrated with a young horse who was not used to the trailer, and taught us some simple steps that resulted in him being able to sit nonchalantly on the wheel well of the side of the trailer, and motion for the horse, on a loose lead line, to go get in all by himself.  I will share the method I learned from that horse trainer, Kevin Wescott, for training a horse to trailer-load, and making that first experience a good one, so that the horse will load happily the rest of his life.

Horses are flighty creatures, with strong instincts to protect themselves.  A horse who has never seen a trailer before will most likely view it as a horrific trap, to be avoided at all cost.  It takes time and patient handling to train a horse to be comfortable loading into a trailer.  The best scenario is to practice loading when you have enough time to do a thorough job of it. Don’t wait until you have to get somewhere in a hurry and expect your horse to jump right in. It’s something you have to practice, and you need time so that you can do it patiently and correctly, without losing your cool and damaging your horse’s sensitivity.

One important step that can really work in your favor is to prepare the trailer in advance. If it is a small trailer with a removable divider, take the divider out to make it appear as safe and unspooky as possible. If it is a step-up trailer, get it parked so that the step isn’t very high, such as backed up to a slight hill, so the ground is only a few inches from the floor of the trailer.  Have the trailer in a spot that is safe and comfortable for the horse, so that there are no distractions or scary objects to add to the problem. 

Put a halter with a long lead rope on your horse. Lead him up to the open door of the trailer. Your horse will probably stop and balk at the door, which is fine, and is to be expected and allowed.  Leave the halter rope as slack as possible to let him sniff and breathe and lower his head to “check out” the trailer floor.  He needs to test it to see if it is safe.  Pet him and give him a chance to look around the trailer and get used to the idea of standing near it.  Being comfortable near to the trailer, in a good position for loading, is your first goal for your horse.  Work to accomplish that before proceeding.

Then, standing at his side, (don’t stand behind him or in front of him; you are not pulling him or driving him into the trailer), give a vocal command such as “ck-ck-ck” to move forward.  If this cue is ignored, use the last two feet of the lead rope in your hand to swing in an arc and make a light swat on his back, between withers and croup.  If he moves forward, lower the rope and reward him instantly, petting him and letting him stand and relax before asking for more forward movement.  If he does not move, pop him with the lead rope consistently in an even timing until you get a response from him (you may have to pop a little harder for a desensitized horse; a sensitive horse, you will hardly need to even touch with the rope and they will jump forward, so read your horse’s sensitivity beforehand, and adjust accordingly–some horses only need a vocal cue).

If the horse pulls back, tries to back up, or tries to go around the trailer door, ask him to lunge briskly in a circle for a minute or two, and then ask him to stop at the trailer door, rest, and relax and then think about stepping in again. Make sure you get him up to the door of the trailer again, before you let him stand perfectly still and relax.  If he is still wanting to avoid the trailer or pull back from it, lunge him in a half circle again, and halt in front of the trailer door.  Then reward him for going to the trailer by letting him stand and relax a minute before asking him to step into it.

The main idea here is to make the trailer the “safe” place for the horse to be. Start with the “safe” place being the open door.  (Later, the “safe” place will be inside the trailer.)  Your goal is to get the horse to want to stand at the door, then encourage him to take a step forward.  What you must do to accomplish this is reward him for ANY forward movement to the trailer.  This includes just barely inching one foot forward.  The second he lifts a foot to move forward, your consistent “popping” with the halter rope should stop IMMEDIATELY and you should praise the horse, pet him, talk to him, and let him stand a moment.  Then, ask him to take one more step by giving the vocal command and starting the popping again.  This is how you move his “safe” place forward into the trailer. 

Any backward or sideways movement should result in him having to longe again in circles near the back of the trailer, and he will look for a place to stop and rest….that’s how you get him thinking the best place to be is the trailer.  He should learn that it’s more work to avoid getting in the trailer than it would be to just go in and get to relax and rest.  Use his natural instincts to get your desired result: him standing comfortably in the trailer.

If you get him right to the trailer door and he won’t step up, you can pick up a front hoof and place it in the trailer.  He may take it back down, but continue the popping, then.  Eventually he will learn to step in.  At first, only let him put his front feet in, and then stop him and after a moment ask him to step back out.  You can pet him, praise him, and then ask for forward movement again.  Remember to always reward his forward movement.  Once he is completely inside the trailer, try to back him out again.  It is scary for a horse to get out, and you don’t want him to “freeze up” once he gets inside. Repeat the whole process a few times, and only when he is loading smoothly should you give him any treats or grain inside the trailer.  Let him stand for awhile, just petting him and standing near him in the trailer.

The more often you can repeat this, the next day, and the day after that, the better your horse will get.  Remember, you are not pulling or driving the horse into the trailer.  Your desired result is that he sees the open gate of the trailer, and thinks “that’s my comfortable safe place…I’m going in there.”  The horse should walk right in on his own.

If you have a spooky horse, you might have a little more trouble, and need to do more groundwork before you try loading him.  But in time I think this method will work for you, and it really is the best way to train a horse to load in a trailer.  The other methods (coaxing in with treats, or putting a rope on his hind end, or hitting the horse to drive it in to the trailer) aren’t as good for you or your horse.  This way may take longer initially, but it will set a precedent for the future, and help your horse make it a habit to load easily every time.

Trailer-Loading Techniques is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on December 7, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

Snow is coming!  The kids are excited with the prospects of sipping hot cocoa, listening to Christmas music, and watching the heavens swirl their magical crystals into sparkling drifts over our front steps.   I’m not looking forward to doing chores in subzero temperatures, no matter how pretty the snow is.  When the water tanks freeze over and I can’t peel the layers of frost-covered hay off of my big round bales to feed my horses, winter isn’t fun anymore.  If only we could enjoy the snow without it being so cold…..

We spent last weekend working on fixing up a stall for our weanling colt.  There was a space inside the old corn crib at the farm that was used long ago to store ears of corn.  Since then, it had been opened up to allow some cattle to come inside and get shelter.  They had broken some of the supporting boards loose and made quite a mess of it.  But yet, it was a stall with a roof and shelter from the wind, so we worked to clean it out and repair the broken boards.  It’s now clean and ready for our weanling stud to inhabit during cold nights and blizzards. 

Our colt is currently living with some bovine companions.  We have a yearling heifer named Georgette in with him, as well as a bucket calf named Fluffy, and another heifer.  They spend their day around the bale feeder, filling their bellies.  When we come out to feed, the colt gets excited and goes to work sorting cattle….he shows a lot of promise as a cutting horse.  We put grain into several different large feed tubs, spread around the pen.  The colt takes one bite from the first tub, then runs quickly to another tub to chase away the calf that is eating there.  Just as the heifers get settled in to eating at another tub, here comes the colt at full speed, darting in with ears pinned to chase them away and eat their grain.  The colt spends more time chasing than he does eating.  The heifers are bigger than he is, but he is one ornery little beast they don’t want to mess with.  Overall, it’s a pretty good situation because he is getting better feed than he would if we put him in the pen with his mother and the big horses.  We are also afraid the big horses would run him through the fence, so for now he gets to live as King of the Castle in the heifer pen. 

In winter, the most important concern is making sure the horses have plenty of hay and drinkable water.  In a blizzard, or very low temperatures, giving horses free choice hay is the best thing to keep them warm.  A horse with a full belly is warmed from the inside out by the digestion and fermentation process of the feed.  Our horses normally drink from the creek, but when it gets very cold they prefer drinking from a water tank with a tank heater in it.  Insulating the tank with straw bales around it and partially covering it with plywood will help keep it from freezing over.

I also read a very interesting article in the December 2011 issue of Equus about horses’ hooves in cold weather.  It says, “Hooves are designed to not only withstand subzero temperatures for prolonged periods but even thrive in them…when the horse’s brain receives a message that the hooves are too cold, shunts in the vascular areas of his feet open to allow the blood to move from arteries directly to the larger veins, bypassing the capillaries and the chance to cool down.  After the feet have warmed sufficiently, the shunts close again to restore blood flow to the capillaries.  A horse’s tail and ears have similar shunting systems.”  The article went on to say that horses’ feet thrive in snow, making them healthier and harder.  So I was happy to learn that they really aren’t as cold out there as they look!

Our horses do have a run-in shelter they can go in when it is raining or windy or cold, and that’s another good way to protect them in the winter.  We are worried about the new mare, because she is rather an outcast from the herd and does not feel comfortable in close quarters with the others.  Our old mare Cricket (who, aside from the new buckskin mare, is at the bottom of the pecking order) is very aggressive to the new mare, and likes to bully her.  So I am worried that it might be cold and she may not be able to come inside the shelter when she wants to.  We are planning to put her back in with her colt if it blizzards or gets extremely cold, and she can stay with him in his new stall.  They have been separated since the first of October, so he is completely weaned and they can be put back together if necessary.

When I was a little kid, it seemed like the cold weather had no effect on me.  We would ride all day every day, working cattle, getting in sick calves to treat, and going on long cattle drives.  I would never have complained, because I would have met with the offer that I could just stay home if it was too cold—and nothing could deter me from getting a chance to ride!  Now that I’m grown, that youthful eagerness has subsided, and my self-preservation instincts drive me to basically hibernate as much as I can.  I usually don’t ride from Thanksgiving to spring, but there may be more cattle work during calving season this year, so I may get the chance to relive my childhood a little.  I just don’t enjoy the cold so much anymore.

One of my family’s traditions when I was growing up was cutting a live Christmas tree on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  It was always a whole family affair—-all nine of us!  Dad would drive Mom and the little kids out to the tree strip that ran around the north side of the alfalfa field.  The older kids would grab a bridle, hop on a horse bareback, and careen wildly through the snow, showing off for Mom and shouting and laughing amongst ourselves.  We would scout the tree strip for a likely candidate, peruse the length of the pines, and come back to cut the one we liked best.  Dad would often climb the tree with saw in hand (these were full grown pines that we just lopped the tops off of for a tree).  We would watch and exclaim excitedly when the top fell down through the branches to the ground below.  Mom was always snapping photos and getting us all to smile for the camera.  It was one of the best days of the year!

The best days of all are the ones you get to spend with your family—and your horse family—no matter how cold it is.

Cold is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on December 5, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

It’s that time of year when people like to ponder the good things that have come their way.   I see the trend of daily status updates on Facebook, where everyone is counting a blessing along with each day of November, and while it is inspiring to read their grateful comments,  I haven’t joined in the fad yet.  I have looked at the blank where I’m supposed to type my comment, and ten minutes later I’m still sitting there, overwhelmed with my thoughts….the blank just isn’t big enough.  I have so much to be thankful for.

This blog’s focus is the horses in my life, and anyone who knows me well will readily confess that there’s nothing I’d rather talk about than horses.  But in reality, my heart has been overtaken by the man I married and these two kids we have.  They are everything to me, and without them my life wouldn’t mean anything at all.  Every new day with them brings more joy, more excitement, more love.  For me, having little kids in the house means every moment is surprising, every word they say is an adventure, and every minute I spend with them is a new chance to give and receive their love. 

It hasn’t always been this way.  I have always had horses, but the years I spent as a single and very lonely adult have taught me that you can have all the neat things you ever wanted, but without someone to share it, your joy it is so empty.  Horses provided me with a focus, something to keep my hands busy, and I spent a lot of my extra time at the stable.  Now that I have a family, I don’t have any extra time.  But instead I find that there is joy—yes, Margaret (see her comment on this post)—even joy in sorting laundry!  Every little task is a chance to show them how eternally grateful I am to have them in my life.

Our daughter started Kindergarten this fall, and she is loving it.  It’s her first real chance at making friends and socializing, since I have always stayed at home with her, and she didn’t attend preschool.  She fit in easily, loves her teacher, and wakes up every morning with an appetite for more school.  When she was very little, she unexpectedly hugged me one day, and said, “Mom, you’re my best friend.”  Now that she’s in school, sometimes I tease her by asking if she’s taken me off her best friends list….nope, she is thrilled to tell me I’m still one of her top three friends.  I can’t tell you what an honor that is.

And our little guy.  He is just three, and probably to most people he would be a challenge.  He likes to boss us all around, in a very superior fashion, with all the authority of a forty-five year old excecutive.  I find myself almost believing it sometimes,  because it is a shock to me that he is actually only three years old.  He is a worker.  He will help me do any job around the house, and will usually turn it into a farm chore.  For instance, he hauls laundry to the washing machine in his grain cart, pulled behind his four-wheeler.  He is constantly busy, and it is usually more work-related than play—and totally his choice.  Cowboy Dad teases him, asking him if he’s “Dad’s boy?”….”No, Mom’s boy!” is always the response.  I’m a pretty lucky gal.

And as for Cowboy Dad, I just can’t say enough about what an incredible person he is.  For instance, he’s getting supper ready while I am writing this.  He watched the kids earlier this afternoon so I could go out for a long horse ride—which was awesome, by the way!  He’s very generous.  Selfless.  Patient.  Longsuffering, if you want an archaic term which means he puts up with a whole lot.  He was joking today at the dinner table that he has given me a Native American name, Three Mares….which, translated in English means “Nag, Nag, Nag!”  It’s one of his favorite jokes.

Before I met and married my husband, I was a school teacher.  I would go out shopping every day and buy something new—even if it was just a new color of nail polish.  Because it made me feel like I had a reason to look forward to the next day, wearing my new nail polish, or a new shirt or whatever.  But I would cry all the way back home in my car, because I was so lonely.   I bought so many things, trying to be happy, that it could have become a huge problem, drained my bank account, and taken over my life.   Instead, I met Cowboy Dad, and it completely changed me.  I am a happy person because of him.   

I am still shocked at the way God has blessed me.  I have everything I’ve ever wanted.  Now, sure, I’d like to have a new gate on my horse corral, a new rug in the bathroom, a car that doesn’t clunk when you put it in reverse (I know, it’s a U-joint problem!), and a nice pair of winter boots.  And if I really got to thinking, the list would be a lot longer.  But I’m happy without those things.

So I thank God for this happiness, and I never take it for granted.  I try to stay in a mindset of constant thankfulness, not just at Thanksgiving, but all of the time.  God has given me so much to be thankful for.  I am happy because of Him.

Thankful is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on November 25, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

One of the things every horse owner should consider is the fact that horses don’t live forever, nor do they stay rideable forever.  It might seem overly simple to state it in that fashion, but we really don’t like to think about horses getting old, getting hurt, or dying.  Our imaginations enable us to envision the Black Stallion living in endless glory…and even though we understand the old gray mare “ain’t what she used to be”, we like to pretend that she is still quite comfortable and able.  The truth is far uglier at times, and a responsible horse owner will understand and plan ahead of time.  What should you do when your horse is too old to be useful?  What are the best options for owners of aged equines?

I learned to ride on a horse named Chigger.  He had been a useful cowhorse on our ranch before I was born, and when I began riding at the age of five, he was nearing the end of his run as a riding horse.  I remember him always being very tall and thin….the type of horse that’s hard to keep weight on.  I don’t know how old he was, but he had bad teeth and was starting to go downhill, so my dad sold him at a horse auction.  I was very young, so I didn’t really mind so much, but I remember that my teenaged sister was in tears because Dad had sold Chigger to a “kill” buyer for $350. 

I sometimes refer to the period of time when you could still send horses to slaughter as “the good ol’ days”.  That might go against the grain with a lot of people, but when you consider the frugal mindset of that time period, it makes sense.  In those days, there was a use for everything.  Nothing was wasted.  There were so many byproducts for the body of a dead animal, and it didn’t seem quite so bad to have a horse’s usefulness extend past the point of its death.  But that was before there were so many regulations.  Now I don’t even think they make glue or dogfood out of horse meat.  A dead horse will cost $400 – $500 to dispose of, and it is simply buried or burned.  Keep that in mind when you are thinking of purchasing a horse…sometimes it costs more money to get rid of one than it cost to buy one.  We see unkempt horses come through the sale ring at the livestock auction every weekend, and I always wonder where they go from there, when the winning bid is $10.  If I could afford to, I would save every horse….my husband always tells me when we’re on the way to the auction that under no circumstances can I bring a horse home!

I don’t think Dad ever knowingly sold a horse to a kill buyer since that time he sold Chigger.  One of our mares had cancer and had to be put down in her old age.  Every other horse my dad has sold has gone to a good home, and every horse that has passed on has died on the ranch.  When my little sister Karmen, who still lives with Dad and Mom, was about five years old, she requested that Dad never butcher her favorite rooster.  She said, “Let’s just keep him till he dies.”  And that phrase has been the family motto regarding favorite animals ever since.

Our old gelding Kokomo died a few years back.  He was 28 years old and in good health.  Every single one of us seven kids had ridden him, and before that he had been my dad’s #1 ranch gelding.  So we would never have sold him, or even given him away to another owner.  He was precious to us.  In the last few years of his life, he didn’t like being ridden too fast downhill, due to arthritis in his joints.  But he would still take grandkids around the ranch, and he maintained his “boss horse” status among the rest of the herd up until the day he died.  One morning he was found out lying beside his hay bale, peacefully gone.  We miss him still, but he had lived a wonderfully satisfying life, and never lacked for love or attention.  I think this is the best way possible for a horse to go.

The second best way for a horse to die would be with veterinarian assistance.  I have never had a horse euthanized, but I would definitely take that option before sending a horse into a bad situation.  Selling at auction is a bad move, unless you can keep a close eye on the bidding and know whether the horse is going to a home or a kill pen.  Even selling an older horse by private treaty doesn’t guarantee that it will have a good forever home.  When I was a kid, if a horse got injured, my dad would just go out and shoot it.  I have always wondered if I would be able to shoot a horse if necessary.  I think if the situation were bad enough, I would.  I have heard that a well-placed bullet by a knowledgeable person has more immediate and foolproof results than lethal injection by a veterinarian.  But it definitely isn’t for everyone…I have hunted and shot deer many times, but it would take a lot of nerve, and a firm resolution to end its misery, for me to be able to pull the trigger on a horse.

There is a big trend in horse retirement homes.  I was amazed at the results I got when searching “horse boarding retirement”.  Many big ranches offer a type of boarding contract for older horses, and even injured ones.  For a monthly fee you can ensure that your horse lives out the rest of his life in the wide open spaces he deserves, with the companionship of other elderly horses.  Many of these facilities offer vet care and farrier work as needed, and you are also allowed to come visit.  One ranch in Colorado allowed visitors to come look for their horse, but noted that they might be hard to find because the pasture was over 10,000 acres.  I think I would be very reluctant to board my horse where he may or may not be found!  But the whole idea of horse retirement is a great one….if you can afford it.

I think it is important to be able to plan for your horse’s future.  If you have done a good job raising and training the horse, its usefulness for riding should extend well into its twenties, ensuring its value even during old age.  Keep in mind, though, that not every horse will remain sound, and an older horse may require expensive supplements, veterinary care, and special accomodations to keep him healthy.  It would be wise to plan financially so you aren’t taken by surprise when it becomes much more expensive to care for him.

We have a mare that is getting older, and I do worry about her.  Cricket joined our family in 2006, and she wasn’t a young horse then.  Since she is not registered, we have no proof of her birthdate.  Our veterinarian guessed that she could be anywhere from 15 to 20.  She maintains good weight, but her muscle tone has slacked considerably over the last few years, and she shows a slight limp when trotting.  We don’t ask for much from her, usually the kids ride her at a slow walk around the farm, and then she is put back in her pen.  She is very attached to our other horses, and is a good buddy to them.  I don’t know how long her health will last, but I cringe to think of putting her down or having her die.  But she is one of whom I think we will “just keep her till she dies.”  We plan on keeping all of our horses for a very long time.

What To Do With An Old Horse? is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on November 19, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

A horse buddy of mine asked the question on Facebook the other day, “What do you do about barn hands?” She wasn’t referring to people you hire to help out around a stable, but rather the calloused and dried out things on the ends of your arms. All of the horse people chimed in with their remedies for this problem, and it was easy to see that if you have horses in your life, your hands will tell the story. Mine are cracked, calloused, dry, and sometimes even dirty….it just comes with the territory of being around horses.

This time of year is the worst, I think, for hands. It seems like the cold temperatures target your hands first. I hate when I’m folding laundry or putting on socks and my hands are so scratchy the fabric just sticks to them like they’re velcro or something! That’s how bad my hands are. I often use a pumice stone that’s meant for feet, and after a good soaking I scratch off all of the dead skin that I can. But they still are dry.

So I thought I would share some of the ideas to help dry hands here, since we’re all horse enthusiasts. I personally have used a hand lotion called Dermal Therapy, as it was included in a gift pack from Bayer that my husband won in a golf tournament (yes, Cowboy Dad is excellent at golf!). I tend to use whatever lotion I was given for Christmas last year, and not worry about it too much. But the Dermal Therapy stuff was awesome, and I could really tell a difference in how my hands felt. I looked at their website and see that they even have a product called Finger Therapy with active ingredients of urea and alpha hydroxy. Urea causes skin cells deep below the surface to attract, absorb and hold moisture better, and the alpha hydroxy acids help displace old dry skin and reveal new skin which is more elastic.

Some of my friends suggestions sounded good, too. They listed Bert’s Bees Hand Salve, Vaseline Intensive Care, Lubraderm, Aquaphor, and Gold Bond (the green bottle), which I googled to find its exact name: Triple Action Gold Bond Medicated Moisturizing Body Lotion. Some of the more practical suggestions included slathering hands with warm olive oil, wrapping them in plastic wrap, put on gloves, sleep overnight, and rinse in the morning. Another commented that she was using Bag Balm on her hands, and I have used that before with some success, but it kind of smells funny. Avon sells some really neat gloves that you can wear overnight to keep the lotion on your hands, and I think those would really help to heal some really dry skin.

I think your hands say so much about you as a person, and have always admired hands that were strong and showed a lot of use. My dad’s hands are rough, with huge knuckles resulting from his arthritis, and they were formed to a curved shape from holding a steering wheel for so many years. He started taking an herbal supplement called Barley Green and got a lot of the movement back, allowing him to open them further. But they still are very worn, testifying to the amount of work he has done.

My grandma was a songwriter, and I remember so many of her lyrics were written about life on the range. One of her songs, titled “Honest Hands”, was written as a prayer, and I don’t remember anything but the last few lines that went, “Please help me, I pray, and don’t take away the use of these old honest hands.” I have often said that I would rather lose my eyesight than the use of my hands. I remember my great grandmother was blind in the last stages of her life, but she could still play the piano and sing. I hope to have the same quality of use on my hands as my grandmothers did.

I know that a good pair of gloves would go a long way towards preventing further damage to my hands, and I do try to wear gloves when I do barn chores and it’s cold out. But it’s just the daily stress of life that gets to them, and I guess I don’t mind so much that my hands are rough or unsightly. If I had to pick between having beautiful hands or having happy horses, I’d choose the horses every time.

If you’ve got a horse person on your Christmas list this year, how about buying them a gift certificate for a manicure? Or a lotion set from Bath & Body Works? I’m hoping Santa brings me something of the sort this year, or I’ll be sporting these sandpaper-style phalanges for the rest of the winter.

Barn Hands is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on November 15, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

You might be surprised at how often I question my own common sense when it comes to owning horses. We have five now, and that puts both Cowboy Dad and me in a sort of panic to justify the expense and trouble that we go to in order to keep them. I think many of my readers believe that I live on a massive expanse of Western range, complete with howling coyotes and grazing cattle, where I train horses all day, bake my family a luscious dinner in my country kitchen, and ride off into the sunset with the love of my life. Well, I hate to ruin that impression, but to tell it a little more accurately….

We rent a house in a small town in a rural area of Iowa. My husband grew up here and his family all live nearby. His grandparents’ farm is where we keep our horses, about a mile out of town. Our cattle live at the farm through the winter, living on hay and cornstalks, and their calves are born in early spring, then we usually send them out to Nebraska for the summer on leased grazing land. Where we live, every spare inch of ground is plowed up for growing corn or soybeans, and rowcrop farming has edged out most of the cattle business. The only pasture you can find here is in the very hilly or tree-lined parts of the country. So our horses live in a small fenced area that has a creek running through it, because the land there isn’t suitable for farming or any other purpose.

I grew up on a cattle ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska, but the home place was sold when I was just out of college, and my parents moved to a hay ranch in Idaho, where they raise cattle, dairy-quality alfalfa hay, registered Quarter Horses, and mules. Most of my six horse-crazy siblings have grown up, moved away, married and had kids, and let their enthusiasm for horses dwindle. We still get together at holidays and ride horses at Dad and Mom’s, but only two of us kids who have left home still have horses in our life. And some days I wonder if the others are the smart ones.

These thoughts seem to plague me worse in the winter time. It’s cold here, a mere 38 degrees when I went out to feed, and we had a full day of rain yesterday. So this morning meant slogging through the mud with the wind whipping our hard-earned hay from my pitchfork, throwing it back in my face as I tried to toss it into the horses feeders. One of my horses is giving the new mare a hard time, so she was trapped inside the run-in shed with the other standing guard and not letting her out to eat, so I had to intercede for her. We just had a hydrant put in out at the farm, and the freshly-dug trench was sticky with wet clay, so my feet instantly picked up two inches of goo that wouldn’t rub off. And it all just stacks up to show that the reality of this cowgirl life is a far cry from the Wrangler ad photograph in my horse magazines, where a pretty girl and her horse gallop freely along a grassy hill with a blue mountain range behind them.

However, in the light of Thanksgiving being just around the corner, I have to count my blessings in spite of my grumbling. For the last six years we have hauled water in a poly tank in the back of our pickup out to the farm for our livestock, and just this week they put a well pump and hydrant in. It is amazing how you take things like water for granted….just lifting the handle on the hydrant is such a convenience, and it’s so reassuring to know that water is there when you need it. In the winter, we had to keep a hose in our basement to run the water upstairs and out to our pickup to fill the water tank and then haul it out to the farm. Often while filling it, the valve to the tank would freeze shut, so you had to take along warm water to thaw it when you got to the farm so you could fill the livestock tank there. I am so thankful that those days are over!

Another blessing is that we don’t have to pay anything to keep our horses at the farm. Since they’re in a spot that has little or no use anyway, they don’t cost us anything, and during summer they can drink and cool off in the creek water. If we had to board our horses, we wouldn’t be able to own any, it would just cost too much. So it’s great to have a spot to keep them that is out of town and out of the way, with no further drain on our income.

We also have had a great year for hay, and have had several bales given to us. We took a couple afternoons during harvest to go through the cornfields owned by my husband’s family, finding spilled corn in big enough piles to shovel and collect by the bucketful. So the horses have cost next to nothing in feed over the last three months, as it has all been free feed that would otherwise have gone to waste.

We have had some wonderful rides this fall, and it is so neat to watch our kids ride with confidence, their little black helmets bobbing in time to the mares’ footfalls, their lively chatter filling the air with a good feeling that this is what makes it worthwhile. And our new horses are doing so well, the colt is halter trained and gentle, and the mare is sweet under saddle, showing so much promise as an easygoing riding horse. When I think of these things, I’m not sorry at all that we bought them. I just need to be reminded sometimes.

I found a quote in a cookbook that my mom has written that inspired me to write this blog post. It says, “We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting laundry.“ —E.S. White. I have found it to be true that even the muddy work is enjoyable when you’re motivated by a love for horses. And even the cold days aren’t so bad when you consider what your life would be like with no horse at all. Next time I question my own sanity, I will remember that the reason I have horses is because they bring me joy.

Why I Own Horses is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on November 10, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

I am happy to announce a new giveaway here on CowgirlDiary.com!  This is a brand new horse book, just released yesterday, November 1, 2011.  I got the chance to read it beforehand, and was pleasantly surprised by it.  An avid reader of horse-related literature, I expected a rather indulgent account of far-fetched fluff.  What I found instead, is that the author lets you into her world and honestly portrays the true realities of horse ownership.  I found my own horse experiences mirrored in the thoughts and feelings of the writer, and by the time the last page was turned, I felt that I knew her so well I had found a kindred spirit.

The book, Horses Never Lie About Love, is written by Jana Harris, an educator and poet who shares her real life experience of moving to a rural farm in the mountains of Washington to make her dreams of raising horses a reality.  The story isn’t your typical fairytale episode where the funds are limitless and the horses are perfect.  I loved reading of how she and her husband took this piece of rundown property and worked so hard to make it what they wanted.  And when Jana falls in love with a horse named True Colors, she opens herself up to the vulnerability of loving someone who might never love her in return.  When she took that risk and stuck with it, it made me truly identify with her, because I have done that myself, in so many horse situations of my own. 

It is a book about relationships….the blacksmith with wife troubles, the veterinarian with too much perfume, the husband with a heart of gold, the neighbor girls with the ponies they bring into Jana’s kitchen….and each of the horses with their individual characteristics as clear and bright as the ones in your own stalls….this book is real, and you will enjoy the empathy you feel when you read it.

My daughter, who is in kindergarten and soaking in all of the new information she can get, took one look at the book and said, “Mom, this is a nonfiction book.” It is indeed nonfiction, but it reads like a good story—the author is that adept at pulling you in with the imagery and vivid accounts of each event. So thorough were the descriptions and dialogue, I felt that I knew each of the horses so well I would be able to recognize them at first sight, if I met them in real life. And the color, life, and nostalgia of Jana’s mountain home made me want to go see it for myself.

I read the book entirely in one sitting, curled in my favorite chair with a cup of coffee. I don’t normally have time for such indulgences, but a nasty head cold had dwindled all of my ambitions away, and it was the perfect day for reading.  I would recommend this book to anyone—if you’re a horse lover, it will be among the best horse books you’ve ever read.  If you just enjoy a good story but don’t know that much about horses, you will easily navigate the unfamiliar terms because the author defines them as she uses them.  Even if you never read nonfiction, you will love this book because it has the ease of fiction without the fairytale fluff. 

Another truth I discovered in this book reaffirmed a theory of mine concerning horses.  The book is written from the perspective of a very responsible, very careful, very intuitive person.  Jana took her horse ownership seriously and did everything she could possibly do to prevent any injuries…and she still met with vet bills for sick horses, spills from the saddle, many sleepless nights, and even a trip to the hospital for her husband.  I loved this book because it didn’t paint a picture that was all rosy; it painted a portrait so beautifully realistic of the horse lover’s life, you get the true meaning of what makes everything worth it in the end.

If you’re wondering about the title, it comes from an old horseman’s saying, “A horse never lies about its pain.”  The mare in this story has endured a lot of pain in her life, and she comes through it with some scars, but the heart to make up for it, and the author discovers that a horse also never lies about love.

I will be sending a copy of this book to one of my readers, as a way of saying thank you for being a part of CowgirlDiary!  If you would like a chance to  win the Free Horse Book Giveaway, here’s how:

1.  Click the “comments” link at either the top or bottom of this post.

2.  Login to your WordPress account, or click the “register” link below the login box to create an account—it’s free and easy.

3.  Type your name (or username is fine) in the comments, and you will be entered in the drawing.  You can vote for yourself once….BUT you can also get your friends and family to vote for you to win as well.  Send them an email or Facebook link to bring them to this page to vote for you by writing your name in as a comment on this post. 

4.  Voting will be open until November 15, and then the person whose name has the most votes will win a free copy of the book Horses Never Lie About  Love.  I will notify the winner and request their mailing address in order to send them their prize.

So let all of your friends know, and you could be our winner!  This book would also make a wonderful gift, and Christmas is just around the corner, so even if you don’t win, you can order a copy from Amazon.com.  Don’t tell my little sister, but that’s what Santa is bringing her this year!

If you’d like to learn more about the book, here is a pdf flyer with some reviews and a summary of the story for Horses Never Lie About Love. And here is the publisher’s page with more information.

This is a video with the author and True Colors, the horse who changed her life:

Horse Book Giveaway: Horses Never Lie About Love is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on November 2, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

When you have a foal, everything is sweetness and light.  But only for so long.  Then the life lessons begin and they have to learn to wear a halter, to follow a leader, to stand tied, and face their biggest fear of all—being separated from their mommy.  It is a difficult change for both mare and foal, to give up that comfort and connection.  But weaning a foal helps develop the disposition a horse needs to have—a working horse has to be able to go out and do a job without throwing a fuss when it is separated from other horses.  Weaning is a very important step in the life of a foal.

Why wean a foal?  I have heard of people leaving the baby with the mother indefinitely, or letting the mare gradually wean the foal herself.  This might work, if you have no plan at all.  For instance, if you aren’t planning on rebreeding the mare, or riding the mare, or training the foal, or ever separating them their entire lives, then that method would work.  But then you might as well pin a label on your lapel that says “Backyard Breeder” or “Shabby Horse Owner”.  If your mare is rebred, she needs the nutrients to build the baby inside her, and with winter coming on, you need to boost her intake even more by weaning the foal.  And the foal needs to learn to do without the mother and to bond with a human handler enough to lead obediently and stand tied apart from other horses when necessary. 

When should you wean a foal?  There are varying opinions on this, but most sources say that six months old is a good time to wean.  Some prefer to leave the foal on longer, and if the mare is not rebred, then there is no hurry—eight months to a year is fine.  I have heard of owners who wean the foal early if the mare has undesirable traits that they don’t want the foal to pick up.  We had a mare that always pawed at her feed pan and tipped all the grain out on the ground.  Every one of her foals was the same way their entire lives.  But there are worse problems than a messy eater, and if your mare displays a bad attitude or spookiness that you don’t want your foal to possess, you can wean the foal as soon as it is able to eat enough solid food to grow and thrive.  But weaning before the age of six months may create other problems in the foal (extreme insecurity, unecessary stress-related behaviours such as chewing, cribbing, etc.), so try to do whatever is best for the foal.

What is the best way to wean a foal?  As with anything, you have to work with what you have, as far as your corral or pasture set-up.  Our veterinarian told us that taking the mare away completely out of sight and hearing of the foal, and putting the foal with a trusted companion horse or group of other foals is the easiest way.  It is actually more stressful to them both to separate them for only a certain time period each day, or to separate them but allow them to still see each other.  I have heard of foals being weaned, but when the owner put them back together after the mare was dried up, the foal still nursed regularly, even though it was receiving no milk.  This is a sign of a foal that has been weaned too early, and then put back with its mother too soon.  Our farm doesn’t have the space necessary to put the mother completely out of sight, so we are planning to keep the foal with our gelding Milo in a safe, smaller pen next to the mare’s until the edge of the foal’s neediness wears off, and then move the mare in with our other two mares. 

Our stud colt is already wanting to befriend our other horses, which is a good sign that he is ready to form other friendships.  He is also very curious and people-friendly, so the weaning stage is a great time to develop his acceptance of being handled and led without his mother’s presence.  We plan on spending a lot of time with him and getting him to let us work with his feet and stand tied.  His natural curiosity makes it easier to work with him than a foal that is frightened, because he welcomes new things and is so interested in what you are doing.  He will be a quick learner, I think.

What else should you work on while weaning a foal?  A few more tips and ideas include feeding the foal appropriately while he is being weaned—he will need more grain than he has been eating previously, and a constant supply of hay will help keep him occupied and not missing his mother so badly.  This is a great time to deworm a weanling, so if you haven’t done this recently, make sure he is dewormed.  Work on all stages of catching, haltering, leading, tying, and getting used to being handled.  This is a great time to give the colt a solid foundation in groundwork and manners, and the more time you spend bonding with the foal, the less time he will have to miss his mother.  You can also introduce the horse trailer to the foal as soon as he is leading well, and this article will give you some good advice on trailer loading.

Weaning A Foal is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on October 29, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

Our weanling stud colt is just a handful.  I had forgotten what it’s like having a horse this young, but he is certainly a lot of trouble.  The main problem is that he has got too much energy and not enough experience.  Watching him careen around the farm full-tilt is entertaining until you see him run into something.  Owning this colt is like having a teenager who just got his own drivers license and is anxious to demonstrate his skills.  It’s exciting, it’s entertaining, it’s often hilarious…..but it’s also scary.

Take yesterday afternoon, for example.  We had done some work around the farm, and as a reward, decided to take a horse ride.  It’s harvest season, and the cornfields were just finished last week, and we put up electric fence around them and moved our cow herd out there last weekend.  We thought it would be fun to ride out around the cows and see how the new mare acted around cows, and see how some of the new cows acted when they saw horses. 

Saddling up, Cowboy Dad chose Cricket, since our son wanted to ride double with him.  Our daughter likes riding my sorrel mare Daisy on the leadline, so I put her little saddle on Daisy.  We chose to leave Milo home (which might have contributed to the events which followed, because he whinnied and screamed the whole time we were riding).  I put my saddle on the new buckskin mare, and since Cowboy Dad already had his hands full carrying our son on the saddle in front of him and leading Daisy as well, I decided to lead the little stud colt from horseback, to hopefully keep him in line during the ride.  He isn’t weaned yet, so we didn’t want to leave him at home and chance him hurting himself trying to follow after his mother.  It seemed that the safest way to ride the mare was to take her baby along.

Everything started out fine.  We walked along calmly down through the cornfield, enjoying the bright October sunshine and chattering amongst our little group.  The kids looked so cute in their little black riding helmets, both very much at ease horseback, and the mares traveled at a contented walk, ears pricked towards the cow herd.  The cows were suspicious and got up from their afternoon naps, walking quickly to get out of our way, then circling around behind us to follow part way in curiosity.  We didn’t bother them, just rode past on our way down the road towards the river.

The little colt was doing well on the lead line, but it bothered him to see me (probably a big scary moving growth on his mother’s back), and he kept circling her at a trot, me passing the lead rope up and over my head to avoid getting us tangled up.  The mare behaved incredibly well, stopping patiently when her baby refused to budge, starting back up willingly, and responding to a slight cue of my one-handed reining, which gave me great joy—this was only the third time I have ridden her.  A few times the halter rope tightened behind her, and she didn’t spook at all—just raised her head a little bit to see what was going on back there. 

But the ornery little guy just got more hyper the further we went, and soon he was bucking and tossing his head, and wanting to run past us and goof around.  I had to let him go a couple of times, as his antics just ripped the lead out of my hand.  Both times, I got off and he came right up to me and let me catch him again, and I would get back on his patient mother and we’d follow after the other mares. 

But when we reached the far corner and turned back towards home, the colt just kicked it into high gear and I couldn’t hold the rope as it burned through my fingers.  A couple of fancy bucks into it, he spooked at the lead rope under his belly, and just flattened out in a dead run towards home.  It wouldn’t have normally been a problem, since he had been out and about in our farmyard many times, and the ground was level through the field.  But we had just put up two strands of electric fencing between the field and the yard, and at the rate he was going, there was no way he would see it in time to stop.  Fortunately, my husband had turned the fencer off when we started out, and the fence was made up of yellow poly tape with small wires laced through it.  So it wouldn’t shock or injure the colt, but he would pretty much demolish the fence.

He ran through the fence, up around the corrals, whinnying for his mother, and then headed back towards us.  We saw him jump the fence on his way back to us, and I was able to catch him easily and lead him home.  His mother had been concerned when he ran away, but she didn’t spook or try to run off with me, which was fortunate.  She seems to have a lot of intelligence, especially in bad situations.  I led them both home and got them put back in the corral and got to work mending the fence.

It was broken and stretched out quite a bit, but we were able to untangle it and splice it together and had it working as good as new in twenty minutes or so.  It could have turned out a lot worse, and I find that feeling all too often when working with horses.  A good ride can turn sour in just a split second.  A horse can go from a casual walk to a spook and a dead run with no warning.  I don’t like that uncertainty, but it’s just something you deal with when you have a horse.  And you just have to do the best you can with a situation and try to learn from it.

From yesterday’s ride, I deduced that that colt just needs weaned and kept at home with Milo during our next rides.  This is the perfect time to be training that mare, and I learned that it is just as unsafe to take the baby along as it is to leave him at home in the corral whinnying and fussing.  I’m hoping he gets attached to Milo just a little bit and learns to relax without the company of the mares.  Hey—maybe Milo will learn a little of that same lesson!

The Joys of Youth is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on October 25, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

As you know, we have been working on halter breaking the new stud colt we purchased a month ago. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a horse this young to work with, so I’m trying to remember any tricks on how to train a foal to lead, and am looking back through some old horse training articles I’ve written to see what advice I’ve given to others on this topic. Every horse is different, and with this particular colt, we’ve been able to slide right past some trouble spots that might affect others. For instance, he is easy to catch and halter—in fact, he will come up to you wanting handled! He is also naturally obliged to give to pressure, so after just having the halter on twice, he follows us around happily. But every horse is not this willing, and there are some tips and suggestions I’d like to share for training your young horse to lead.

A few thoughts beforehand:  It is easier to train a small horse than a large one….so don’t put it off!  One of the biggest misconceptions about owning a foal is thinking that there’s just not that much you can do with it until it’s full-grown.  The best time for starting a horse in training is when it’s a few minutes old, and if you missed out on that, then you’re running late.  I would like to point out that any time you are around the foal, you are training it, whether you realize it or not.  A foal is naturally curious, and will always be forming it’s own opinions and concepts based on what its senses reveal to it.  So if you’re in the pen cleaning out its watering tank, the foal is learning from you.  If you’re tossing hay into the foal’s feeder, it is learning from you.  So always be aware of your actions around a foal, and try not to put out negative energy or frightening body language, as that will put a mental note in the foal’s memory to avoid you at all costs. 

That being said, there are situations you can provide to help your foal learn more from his surroundings.  Our foal dislikes the hay being tossed over the fence into his feeder, and moves away every time.  But I have continued to toss it, rather than try to slide it into the feeder carefully, with the goal of him learning to get used to it (his mother stands there placidly eating, helping to reinforce that there’s nothing to be afraid of), and he is becoming calmer and more accepting of moving hay piles.  Also, we have a lot of farm equipment and noisy traffic past their corral, and I always think this prepares them for riding along busy roads later on.  You can also tie a piece of plastic bag to the fence so the wind catches it, or place a tarp in an area the foal must pass through, and this will also tune their senses to not be afraid of silly things like that.

To introduce the halter, you may have to work at getting the foal to let you near it.  If your foal is particularly spooky, I would suggest putting him in a stall, horse trailer, or smaller enclosure to reduce his ability to get away from you.  A young horse’s fear can be overcome simply by spending a lot of time around it, so if you have time at your disposal, just sitting in the horse’s pen near his feed source will help him get used to you and not be afraid.  But if you don’t have all day every day to work with him, just put him in a stall, it will save time. 

Work with the foal using a technique similar to the join up horse training method where you attempt to get close to the foal (reach out a friendly hand towards his shoulder) and if he scoots away from you, advance after him (watch his heels!), trying to maintain a position parallel to his shoulder as he moves around the stall.  Reaching for his face will scare him, reaching for his hind end will get you kicked.  So put your hand towards his shoulder, and when he allows you to pet him there, he will start to relax.  If you get him to let you touch his shoulder, then retreat and say “good boy” in a calming, sweet voice.  He will almost always turn to look at you, then, indicating he is thinking of being near you, and indicating his relief and acceptance that you didn’t hurt him any.  So then try to touch him again on the shoulder.  If he lets you, just start petting him softly and talking to him.  If he circles the stall, try to keep alongside his shoulder (if he swings his hind end towards you, step back quickly to stay clear in case he kicks, but speak in a harsher voice to him and wave your arms at him to indicate this was the wrong behavior) and then try get close to him again.  Whenever he lets you touch him, use your body language and softer voice to show him that this was the right behavior, and allow him to rest and relax as you pet him, then step back to take off any pressure or anxiety and reinforce that he is doing the right thing by letting you pet him.

When the foal allows you to touch it, then you simply work on touching it more.  Work from the shoulder up the neck, and at this point you can also introduce the lead rope.  Chances are, the colt will accept you only on one side, so work on his “best side”, and don’t worry about getting him to let you touch him on the other side until you have him haltered and are able to control him a little more.  You want to keep your movements slow and low key as long as he is accepting you (turning his heels or hind end towards you is a threat, and should be taken as such—I never accept this from any horse, and even if you scare him a little, it’s worth it to show him that threatening to kick is not okay—I suggest that if he turns his heels, you maintain a safe distance but raise your voice, wave your arms, toss a lead rope at his hind end, anything to get the result of him turning back to face you).  Then become all sweetness and light again.  This is how you reward the colt for the right thing, you use body language and voice tone to teach him right and wrong.

When you can get a lead rope around the colt’s neck, you are really making progress.  Don’t push the issue though.  For instance, if the feel of the rope spooks him, you can always let it fall off and start back at square one, which is getting close and petting his shoulder and neck again.  The foal should learn to like the petting, and learn to relax with you.  Then you just repeat and work on getting past where you got the last time.  So rub with the lead rope, then get it looped over his neck, and then pet him more so he stays relaxed, then introduce the halter.

To get the halter on, if you’re standing on the left side of the horse, hold it in your left hand and pet the colt with your right hand.  Pet along his neck and even on the other side of his neck until he is relaxed and not frightened by your petting.  Then with your right hand over on his other side, reach under his neck and get the open halter strap in your right hand, so you’re holding the halter in an open position under his neck.  Keep petting and rubbing, and if he gets afraid, let him go and start back at square one.  Don’t try to restrain him with the rope, as this will heighten his anxiety and you might get knocked down or kicked.  Just work on getting him to accept all of this slowly and with lots of petting and rubbing. 

When you can lift the halter over his nose and buckle it into place behind his ears, you have reached a milestone in his training.  You might want to just end that lesson there, depending on how long you have worked with him already that day.  This will reinforce that the halter is not evil, and that he gets to relax when he has done the right thing. 

When the foal accepts the halter, you’re ready to start leading him.  The process should follow the basic rule of horse training:  give a cue, apply pressure, wait for the proper action from the horse, and immediately release pressure as the reward.  The cue is to step away from the colt and make a “ck-ck-ck” noise with your tongue to signal forward movement.  You will use this noise later on while riding, so it’s great to teach them from the very start that “ck-ck-ck” means “Go”.  Put a steady pressure (pull) on the halter rope and wait for the colt’s response.  A little foal will likely resist at first, then lurch forward.  A bigger one might just stand there, in which case you might want to move to the side, parallel with the shoulder, and pull that direction, since a tug of war with a horse aimed towards you or away from you is hard to win.  Be careful with this, since you don’t want to pull the colt off balance or off his feet…your goal is just to set a precedence that he must give to pressure.  So pull gradually, then steady and stronger, until you get a result.  Then immediately release and reward.  You can pet the foal, say nice things to it, and most of all quit pulling on him whenever he does the right thing. 

Work in baby steps.  You might only get the foal to move one step at a time, in either direction, but you are establishing the foundation of him giving to pressure.  If you push for too much too soon, you are going to get him frustrated, and sometimes even rearing over backwards because you’ve applied too much pressure.  The halter training session shouldn’t be too much work, and if you feel like you’re not getting anywhere, ease off and go back to gentling him and petting him.  Chances are, if the colt starts liking the petting, he’s going to start wanting to be close to you, and that’s going to result in him following you around on a loose lead….and that’s exactly what you want.

There are many different methods for getting a horse to lead, and I will mention them for the rare occasion that the horse just won’t untrack.  You can put a lariat loop or a cotton rope around the horse’s hindquarters and when you pull on the lead rope and don’t get any response, follow it up with a tug on the rope that’s around his hind end, and that will encourage him to move forward (and probably jump forward).  You can also use a lunge whip in your left hand, and when you ask for forward movement with your right hand tugging the lead rope (face the direction you’re asking the horse to move, so you are simultaneously moving forward together), you can reach around behind you with the lunge whip and tap the horse’s hindquarters or heels to encourage forward movement.  These methods will get a response, but sometimes spook the horse so much you’ve got him jumping past you.  So try to just establish the tug-step-release method instead, as this will get a more consistent pattern.  And your horse will learn to lead, it’s just a matter of time.

Halter Training A Foal is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on October 18, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

I finally got a chance to test drive the new horse last night. We have been in the process of building new pens for our feeder calves through the summer, and all of the portable panels for my round pen were being used to complete the half-finished pen. So last weekend we finished up that project, which allowed me to set up my round pen and try riding the new buckskin mare for the first time.  I was anxious to see if our craigslist purchase was a good find or a big mistake.

We have owned her for a month now, and she has been very quiet and easygoing to work around. She and her foal are kept separate from our other horses, but allowed out to graze the yard with them when we’re working out around the farm. So I have been observing her and making mental notes of her actions and reactions, trying to get a better feel for her, and get some idea of what the past seven years of her life has been like.

This mare wears a Circle P freeze brand on her left hip, and two owners ago she belonged to Circle P Quarter Horses, where she was bred by their reining stallion, Cooked To Par. I’m not sure how long they owned her, or if they trained her to ride when she was younger, but I believe she was foaled in Texas and moved up to Iowa somewhere along the line. The girl we purchased her from said she had intended to ride her, and climbed on bareback one day, and rode her around with just a halter. She seemed to think she would be easy to train, and might be able to fall back on some training she had had previously. But there were no guarantees, and she hadn’t been ridden since then, as the girl was expecting a baby and didn’t want to take any chances riding horseback while pregnant.

So I didn’t have a whole lot to go on to know how safe this mare was, other than she has been a perfect lady ever since we’ve owned her. I can lead her in from grazing with just an arm under her neck. She is respectful of my space, and moves away from pressure. She leads and ties without a fuss, and let me trim her hooves with minimal complaints. She allows us to work with her foal with no hint of suspicion or protective aggression towards us. So my gut instinct says that someone has done some work with this mare, whether it was five years ago or just recently. She has impeccable ground manners, and I was excited to see her reaction under saddle.

So I set up the round pen and put her and the baby in it. I approached her with the saddle pad, as she grazed freely in the circle, and while she moved away a step at first, after I let her smell it, she didn’t object at all when I lifted it onto her back. Then I got my saddle, which is kind of heavy and cumbersome (I would love to trade for a lighter one!), and she didn’t even look up when I set it on her back. I tightened the cinch and stepped back to let her do whatever she wanted to, which was nothing but continue to graze. Then I asked her to lunge at a trot, and she passed that test with flying colors. My husband, observing, said, “I think she’s done this before.”

I am usually of the opinion that if a horse doesn’t buck within the first couple steps of a good trot with an unfamiliar saddle and the flapping stirrups, there’s a pretty good chance that it won’t buck with a knowledgeable rider. So it gave me confidence to see her willingly carrying the saddle with no sign of nervousness, rushing, spooking, or bucking as she circled the pen.

When I put the bridle on her, she didn’t resist or raise her head, but she did start mouthing the bit immediately. So I knew from that sign that she wasn’t used to carrying a bit, and if she had been trained under saddle as a filly, she probably was not ridden long, and certainly had not been ridden recently. She didn’t appear to have tooth problems, they were all well out of the way of the snaffle bit, so I think it just shows that she needs more time to adjust to wearing something in her mouth, and I plan to get her used to that gradually.

So I climbed aboard, while she stood stock still and waited patiently as I leaned on the saddle, patted her other side, and eventually swung my leg over and sat upright. She walked out calmly in a circle, with again no sign of nervousness or even a look backwards like “this is new!” I let her walk a couple of circles before asking her to turn and reverse direction. She seemed uncertain at the rein pressure, but not unwilling, and was easy to direct. She wanted to resume grazing, but after some hesitation and leg squeezing, she walked on. I didn’t know until afterwards that my husband had caught it on video:

That shows her first couple of steps around the round pen. She whinnies at the end, probably because it is around feeding time and she hears the other horses and thinks they’re getting their grain without her. She did great for a beginner!

You can see how relaxed she is in this photo.

So then my husband haltered the foal and opened up the round pen and we went out and down the road through the cornfield towards the river. At first, the mare was in a big hurry (again, I think she believed it was time for grain and she needed to get back to her corral), but as I pointed her towards the cornfield, she settled down into a nice walk. The little guy led incredibly well, as it was just his fourth time having a halter on, and we were all happy and excited to be enjoying a really great fall afternoon with the horses behaving as well as they were.

My husband was behind the camera, but I wish I had gotten a few photos of the colt leading, because he is coming along so nicely! This was one of those days that you just can’t keep from smiling, because everything you’ve been worrying about turns out perfectly fine. I was so happy!  

I think this mare is a keeper, and I feel like a kid again with my very first horse.  A new horse is a new adventure, and every day provides new challenges and opportunities for success.  I hope you’re enjoying your horses this fall, too.  Happy Trails!

First Ride on the New Mare is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on October 13, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

When we purchased our new horses a few weeks ago, we knew we would have some work to do to get the foal registered and the papers edited to show our ownership of the mare.  Whenever you’re buying a horse, it’s important to understand the registration process and what the requirements are for registering a horse.  Some horses just aren’t registerable, and it’s important to know the difference, because a horse that is registered has added value.  If you’ve never owned an American Quarter Horse and if you’re unfamiliar with the application process, this blog post might be a help to you.  Since we are going through the registration process right now, I’ll share with you the steps you have to take when you plan to register a horse with the American Quarter Horse Association.

When we paid the seller, she handed over the mare’s registration papers and signed a simple Bill of Sale.  She didn’t have a transfer form on hand, so we knew our paperwork wasn’t complete, but since she seemed very open and honest, we told her we’d mail it to her later.  It should be noted that if your seller is not trustworthy, they could be conning you into paying a higher price for a horse they claim is registered, but if they don’t have the papers on hand, or if they don’t sign a transfer report at the time of purchase, you may find yourself with an unregisterable horse.  When you buy a horse, you need to be sure you get the horse’s original registration papers (check the description, color, and markings of the papers and make sure they match the horse) and a Transfer Report that is signed and dated by the seller.  You can go to AQHA.com and find a printable Transfer Report and Application for Registration forms.  Then fill them out completely, and send them to AQHA with your payment.  There is even an online registration application, but I prefer the old standard paperwork, it seems more fool-proof.

I was unsure about proving ownership of the foal, since it had never been registered before.  So I called and spoke to a customer service representative at AQHA, who told me that I also need a signed Transfer Report for the foal.  Since the mare was bred when she was under different ownership, we also have to mail the foals Registration Application to the breeder for them to sign, as owners of both the sire and dam.  All of this needs to be completed before the foal is seven months old, or the price for the registration goes up.

As far as AQHA fees go, the membership fee alone is $40 per year, or you can buy a lifetime membership for $500.  Registering a foal under seven months is $25 for members, and the transfer fee per horse is $15.  So for a total of $55, we can get the job done, since we’re already AQHA members.  But if you put off your paperwork, the prices go up drastically!

For a 7-12 month old horse, the fee is $50.  If you wait until the foal is a year old, it’s $125 to register it.  If the colt is two years old, it costs $300.  A three year old costs $550 to register, and after a horse is four years old, it costs $1000 to register it, and requires parentage verification.  Wow….the $50 fee is enough motivation to keep me from procrastinating!  I had the papers in the mail the first week we had ownership.

But now I’m working on naming the foal, and it’s not quite so easy.  You have up to six name choices to list on the application, they have to be 20 characters or less, including spaces.  And the name can’t be the same as a previously registered horse.  I always prefer using a mixture of both the sire and dam’s registered names, mostly from a sense of tradition, but also to indicate what bloodlines the colt possesses. 

Here is the stallion’s pedigree:

And this is the mare’s pedigree:

So here are some of our ideas to name the new colt:

Cooked To Command
Cooke County Command
Cooke County Cowboy
Cooke County Cowhand
Cookin Commander
Command A Cooke
Commander Cooke
Out West Etc

We would be thrilled to get more suggestions for a registered name for this little guy.  We also need barn names for both the mare and foal.  The mare went by “Katy” at her previous home, but we have a niece with that name and don’t want to confuse our children.  So far they are answering to “Girl” and “Buddy”, but they can’t stay that way forever!  Please comment with your ideas, or visit CowgirlDiary’s facebook page to easily leave your suggestions.

Here are more photos of them for inspiration:

We appreciate your input and comments.

Registering and Naming a Foal is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on October 4, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!

When we went to pick up the new horses last week, we took my mare Daisy along. Not as a travelling buddy, but because there was a horse sale going on in a town along the same route, and we decided to consign Daisy in it and just see what might happen. We have talked about selling her several times, and buying two more seemed a tad bit excessive, and the trailer was going that way anyhow, so we took her to the sale with a reserve price firmly established in our minds.

We have been weighing the pros and cons of owning Daisy ever since she tossed me over her head when I was training her as a four year old. That was a result of an argument between her and myself over leaving the barn and her buddies and riding away. She said, “No!” I said, “Yes!” and we each insisted on our two separate directions until she did a 180 degree turn back towards the barn, kicked it into high gear, and bucked me off over her head. Right in front of my mother in law.

So I began to tread lightly around Daisy. I rode her with a firm hand on my saddle horn, and still insisted that she leave the barn and her buddies, but usually at a slower pace. Once after we had walked awhile, I moved her up into a trot and we were going along at a good clip and all of a sudden she reared straight up into the air, pivoted mid-air, and came down facing the barn. I jerked her reins and kept her at a stop for a few minutes, then turned her around and proceeded on at a walk. That was six years ago, but those conversations between her and me are always vivid in my memory whenever I ride her. And I just don’t let her go on a loose rein, or go full-tilt, ever. Because I just don’t know what kind of stunt she might decide to do next. So she and I have been walking around in this gloomy sort of agreement: “Okay, I won’t ask too much of you if you promise you won’t dump me on my head again.”

A few other problems with her include her being very heavy on her hind feet to trim (she won’t hold them up, and puts a lot of weight on me when I’m trying to trim her, and then just decides to take a step with her other hind foot, and I am left holding half a horse and end up dropping the hoof I was working on). She has also nearly pushed over me twice, leaving me shaking in fear as my life flashed before my eyes, but she didn’t trample me. But it leaves me with the understanding that though she was gentle and easy to handle when I bought her, she was a four year old mare that had become very set in her own ways of handling herself. She missed out on some important groundwork lessons, and as I am not strong in the area of groundwork, she and I just aren’t the best fit.

But I have a problem getting anyone else in the world to fit with Daisy. I took her to a training clinic when my oldest daughter was a baby. I had not been riding Daisy since I was pregnant, and I warned the trainer that she hadn’t been ridden in about six months. He proceeded to climb on, and she bucked with him all over an arena full of horseback clinic participants. That’s another vision I often recall when I am riding her…I had no idea she could unleash that kind of fury. She looked like a saddlebronc professional. The trainer was not shook loose, but he promptly dismounted and handed the reins to me, and we decided she is a “one-woman horse”.

Since then, I have ridden her off and on, in between two pregnancies and raising my kids, which left me with not as much time for my horses as I would have hoped. When I ride her these days, she is usually obligatory, and she hasn’t bucked at all since those two times, but I don’t ask a whole lot of her other than a quiet walk down the dirt road for a half mile and then back home to the farm. She will go without other horses, but tends to be more balky and needs more encouragement if they are not along. With the other horses present, she acts like a lazy old veteran, requiring little direction or control. We started letting our five year old daughter ride her while being led—with a helmet firmly buckled around her sweet little chin—on these quiet group trail rides. Daisy leads quite well from horseback, and when she’s following another horse, she doesn’t miss a step or offer any resistance whatsoever. So she has become our daughter’s favorite riding horse, but I fear the day that we hand the reins up to her….I just don’t know if she will submit to the control of a five year old, and I don’t want to see that little girl dumped over Daisy’s head.

So we took her to the auction. My husband dropped us off, and proceeded with the trailer farther away to pick up the new buckskin mare and her baby. I got Daisy’s paperwork done, a vet inspected her, and she stood tied happily as I worked to shine her up. Other horses around us were whinnying and stomping at being tied up in a strange place, but Daisy stood calmly on a loose lead and let me brush her mane and put her saddle on. I taped a copy of her pedigree to the fence nearby, and left her to go in and watch the sale.

They ran the first forty horses through, and the bidding was starting at around $100 for each horse. Some of the fancier ridden ones would start out at $400. Most of the plain sorrel well-broke horses were selling for about $200. If a paint or palomino came in the ring, the price doubled. The top selling horse that I saw that day was a sweet little 13 hand buckskin mare with glitter in her mane and tail, circling the ring on a loose draped rein, wearing a snaffle bit and a “I really am this sweet” attitude. Her rider did all the stunts he could think of: sliding off backwards, standing on her back and jumping off, crawling under her belly, picking up her hooves, and even pulling on her tail to show her docile nature. Several people really wanted her, and she finally sold for $1100, the crowd literally buzzing as she shuffled out of the ring.

After watching several more horses sell in the $100 ballpark, I went back out to check on Daisy. Walking through the alleys between rows of pens out to where she stood tied among a dozen other horses, I could see her standing there half asleep in a relaxed pose. As I rounded a corner, her head came up in recognition as she spotted me, and my heart just warmed towards her. She knows me and likes me! I put on her bridle and took her for a slow spin around the fairgrounds and among the other horses. She walked with a level head and a loose rein, completely happy to be weaving through parked trailers and tied horses with nary a snort or even a funny look. Sometimes she can just be a gem.

My husband and our two sleepy kids returned, and the auction was not even half way through. Daisy’s consignment number was 96, and we knew it would be another two hours wait before her turn to go into the ring came, so we decided to “no sale” her and just take her and go home. It did cost us a small fee to just skip going through the ring, but we didn’t want to waste our time waiting for a bid that would never amount to much anyway. The new horses were in the trailer, so we just loaded up Daisy in the back and lit out for home.

Our little girl was so happy when we told her we had decided to not sell Daisy. She says Daisy is her favorite horse (why, I don’t know—Cricket is much safer!) and she wasn’t ready to let her go. I was only ready to let her go if we got a decent price for her, and I knew coming in towards the end of sale wasn’t going to bode well as far as money was concerned. So I think it was all for the best that Daisy is still with us. We had a good little ride away from home, which is always a good experience for a buddy-sour horse. And best of all, we had two brand new horses in the trailer!

Anyone looking for a trail mare that accepts women riders only, let me know. And if there are no takers, we will just be happy with things the way they are.  Here are some photos from our most recent ride.  This is my little guy and I riding Daisy:

And one of us all, my husband behind the camera, leading Cricket with our daughter and her cousin on board, my husband’s brother on Milo on the right, and me and the little guy bringing up the rear on Daisy.

And here is our daughter riding Cricket bridleless:

Here is Milo with the two little ones in the saddle.  Please overlook the muddy legs and long pasterns on this gelding.  He is completely sound as a six year old, but we think his build leans towards being a lightly-ridden kids horse for the rest of his life:

Here are our original three, looking over the gate at the new mare and foal when we first introduced them.  I love Daisy and Cricket’s expressions of interest, while Milo is saying, “I don’t care, just bring me some grain!”
And this is our Tahoe filled full of tack for a day of riding.  To me, this is the sign of a good day had by all:

Fall Horse Sale is an original post by CowgirlDiary.com , written on September 22, 2011. If you are reading this on any other website other than CowgirlDiary.com, please understand this is stolen material and the site owners should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you!