Friday's Fences #105

Our purebred Hereford heifer didn't breed.  The freezer is getting low on hamburger.  

 So now she is in the barn lot to fatten up a little more.

Horse Heaven wildfire update... 500 acres, 0% containment.

We had a friend drive up here last night because his son wanted to see the fire and he thought we might have a good view of it. 

For more Friday's Fences click HERE
Also found a contest to enter for saddle soap, here's the link to that HERE

Horse Heaven's on Fire

There is a wild fire burning on the mountain near our house where we trail ride.  J asked me yesterday morning if it was a prescribed burning.  Apparently not.  

 It's on National Forest land so the local fire department didn't get asked to help.

 They flew a helicopter here from Richmond just to be able to observe it.  If they would have asked I would have let them observe it from my porch.   I've got a pretty good view of it.

They estimate about 50 acres are on fire.  So far they are still observing.

Glad I'm not downwind from it this morning.

Shoeing Update

The farrier came Friday to reset shoes on all of the other horses and tack the bent shoe back on Wrangler. (he is a little off scheduled from everyone else)

 Since J is riding Brother more, Jessica is getting ridden less so we just pulled her shoes along with Pep's.

 When it was Wrangler's turn the farrier pulled out a new device he hasn't had to use here before.  Wrangler kept jerking his leg out of the farrier's hand until he had had enough and hobbled him.

After a few laps hopping around he finally stood still enough for the job to get finished.  I've been able to ride him a couple of times so far but I know I won't be able to for the next few days.  I'm hoping E will be able to take him to a 4-H clinic in 2 weeks.

More Work

As if there isn't enough to do already, a micro whirlwind must have hit our little red barn last week and blew the roof off.  

 J had bought some posts to replace the one on the end that had broken off but now there is much more than that to do.

It's not much of a barn but we do store some stuff in it and the goats like to get up under it in bad weather.  It's always something.

Horsemanship Extravaganza

Otoelene and I attended our first real clinic on Saturday.  A friend had asked J when we were stopped at a gas station last week if we wanted to go.  We thought Brother might not be ready for something like that but I decided to take Otoelene.  Our friend stopped by and picked me and Otoelene up and off we went.  I had no idea what to expect.  The facebook ad just said that the clinic would prepare you for the competition the next day that would consist of taking your horse through obstacles from the ground, maneuvering your horse through obstacles from horse back and maneuvering cattle through a course.   I was really looking forward to that last part but of course that's the part we didn't work on.   

 We started off with basic ground work, yielding the hindquarters, backing, moving the front end over, side passing, lunging and sending your horse onto a trailer and backing off.

 It was cold but a sunny nice day.

 Some horses were a little reactive.

 The grey didn't want to lunge.

 So the clinician took over and with the help from his dog got things going.  At one point, after some frustration, when asked to move the front end around the owner asked, "Where do I hit him for this one?"

 We even had a few spectators.  There were 17 horses there all together.

After the ground work we saddled up for the same thing on horse back.  The people I went with have a very nice 6 year old mare.  I think they made a lot of progress with her.  They let me ride her at the end and she as very soft and willing to try.

 Some people were anxious for their horses to do the maneuvers with a lot of speed,

 while others were content to let things happen at a slower pace.

 Sort of looks like I may have fallen into the second category.   I was pleased to see several others wearing helmets.  One women started out wearing hers for the same reason I started wearing one, to set a good example for our children that were in 4-H.   My Da brim helmet brim got a few comments as usual.  I might need to get some extras to sell.

 Otoelene did perk up on occasion but for the most part was quite and listened to me great.  I even got a compliment from the clinician on how pretty her spins were. (that's something I've been spending a lot of time at home working on)

 Then we moved inside to work on some obstacles.  Otoelene actually walked over that tire pyramid next to a tarp on the first try.

When I got her to stand with her front feet on the tire, I asked someone to take our picture but they couldn't get their horse to stand still long enough to not make it blurry.

I'm not sure I learned anything really new, maybe some different ways to do some things.  But we had fun and Otoelene was sure exposed to a lot more goings on.  I was very proud of her.  When I told J how well it went he said him and Brother were going to the next one.

Just Kit Sunday # 27

Kit picked a snug place to take a nap. 

But which label fits him better, Warning, Fragile, or Food Lion?

Happy Half Century

Happy Birthday J!

Glad I'm along for the ride.

Love K.