Independence day!

Last year we had planned to ride in the Half Moon Bay 4TH of July parade, until at the last minute Steal became lame with what turned out to be laminitis.

Well, this year we didn't plan on it at all, until very late the night before the 4TH we suddenly decided to just saddle up in the morning and go for it.

And so we did. Although in the morning when we were "just saddling up" we realized, that these sort of events do need a little bit of preparation ahead of time. My western saddle pad, which I hardly use was totally unsuitable in looks; an old, shabby and faded, and I had to cut shims out of a piece of felt before being able to use it. We also had absolutely no patriotic decor, but oh well... we pulled things together and went anyway. And Voi'la, we took home a second place as a team in the working cowgirl category.

It was a long day for us and the horses. Just standing on the street waiting for the parade to start for a whole two ours... blaah. Thank goodness for those Cavallo hoof boots! They did not slip on the pavement and provided complete protection for our horses feet with better shock absorbing action and all.
But it was such fun to participate and see so many of our friends from other ranches in the parade as well with their beautifully dressed horses and a sparkling spirit of red white and blue.

Steal was like and old pro. He has been in the parade for so many times, that he was completely desensitised for the parade crowd, flying flags, clapping and yelling people, loud music... The whole drill. Madeira in the other hand was extremely nervous. But even so, she behaved incredibly well. She was trying so very hard to stay calm. I would say, that my constant training for her to think under pressure has really paid off. And since she was not allowed to move her feet, which she was very respectful of, (so proud of her) her nervousness came out in various displaced behaviours, such as nodding her head, shaking her body and constant urinating.

Here are a few photos , that Irene took of the parade horses.



















Nicholas on Trampoline, Virpi on Steal, Stefan on Pensacola, and me on Madeira.

Afterwards the horses had certainly earned some grazing time. And although we rubbed them down well with liniment after unsaddling, Madeira's back was sore the next day. I think that four hours of being nervous and tensing up her muscles did it, because her saddle is a well fit.

As for me, I could not wait to kick off those boots!

"In your shoes" by Katie Drake

Katie Drake performing an acoustic version of her song "In your shoes"
Filmed in the Parelli Natural Horsemanship center in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Heaven on earth! Where we all want to be!

It's not about the creek!

The coast is blooming! Everyone is enjoying the beautiful flowers which have all of a sudden sprouted so tall, that the baby nearly drowned in them. She hopped through them like a bunny rabbit and gave us a good laugh. Perhaps they tickled her tummy.
The excitement of summer is in the air in Half Moon Bay with a fresh ocean breeze, and surfers and sunbathers crowding the beaches. It has been very, very long since the last time we rode across the creek. Mainly because of Steal's laminitis and Madeira's suspensory desmitis they both have not been fit for long rides, and for all the time we spent hand walking them, unable to cross the mudhole by foot, the creek seemed like a good turnaround point.
Well couple of weeks ago, unsuspecting any trouble we thought we'd take a longer ride across the creek. It is not usually, that Madeira turns out to be the braver one of the two, but while she had no trouble stepping into the gooey, muddy water, that she sank down to her knees in, it was Steal, who put on the brakes and refused to go any further. Hmmm... How interesting!
Steal is a very introverted horse, who is mostly left brain, but when he goes right brain he has a tendency to freeze. He is not a big, mean, scary horse who would out up a huge fight at all, in fact he would be rather easy to intimidate, and push through just about anything without much predatory effort. However, our goal is to have horses who trust our leadership and are able to THINK their way through problems, going through them from their own will. Had we pushed Steal he would have gone through that creek, but we would have lost all rapport and he would no longer see us as good trustworthy leaders, but recent us for it.
So we took our time with approach and retreat at the edge of the creek, in between the heavy traffic of rental horses and wranglers passing through. Each one of the wranglers stopped to offer us help to whip the horse through the creek. So to make a short story long... How do you explain people, who see horses as robots and slaves, that the issue is not about the creek! And the objective is not only to get the horse to cross the creek, but to go through it confidently.
So when we finally decided to quit and go home after Steal became left brain LOOKING towards the creek, people thought we had miserably failed. We did not bother to explain, that for Steal it was the first step in crossing the creek confidently, that he was able to THINK about it. Far more important to stop there and reward him, than to go on pushing him through. Sometimes taking a step backwards is actually taking a huge step forwards.
Of course one must be skilled in knowing how to READ horses to be able to determine whether he is thinking or not, left brain vs right brain. (You can study about this at www.Parelli.com ) Because if you quit while the horse is still right brain you will only have made matters worse. This is why most people say: "You can never let the horse win" without understanding, that horses are not arguing against people for winning, they are just plain scared and as long as they are scared they cannot think, and as long as they cannot think, they cannot learn anything. Therefore it is more important to get the horse calm and thinking and then quit rewarding that state of mind, whether he crossed the object or not, than to go on pushing him through while he is still scattered. Now do you see how it is not about the creek!
The next weekend we went back and it took less than half of the time for Steal to think his way through and he actually OFFERED to cross the creek.
(I can't really blame him. The creek doesn't look like something I would want to step in either.)
Love is... sharing a carrot with a friend.

The Trail Less Travelled

This video was made by "savvygirl19"

Good news, bad news.

Travieso is home! He was away at the trainer for what seemed like forever. He raced and won! It's really all the same. I'm happy he is back in one piece. And he looks amazing!

Only right after Travieso's race a filly named "Eight Bells" ran her last race at the Kentucky derby. She came in second, not far behind "Big Brown" and a few strides after passing the finish line collapsed with two broken front ankles. A condylar fracture on the left front broke through the skin. Eight Bells was euthanized immediately.

Why, why, why do we keep letting people torture these beautiful animals at their young age, when their bones aren't nearly developed enough to endure such stress they are forced to undergo. Racing horses is NOT a sport! It is an inhumane act of animal cruelty for the benefit of crude, selfish people and their millions of dollars invested in betting.
In the "New York Times" Mr. Jones, the trainer of Eight Bells quoted: "These things are our family" (Things!?? Does he call his children things too?)

From the New York Times by William C. Rhoden: "Why do we refuse to put the brutal game of racing in the realm of mistreatment of animals? At what point do we at least race the question about the efficacy of thousand pound horses racing at full throttle on spindly legs?
Horsemen like to talk about their thoroughbreds and how they were born to run and live to run. The reality is that they are made to run, forced to run for profits they never see. Thoroughbred racing is a brutal sport. Why do we keep giving it a pass?"

I don't have much to add to that, except, that these ongoing tragedies at the race tracks don't seem to face some people. Most who like the racing are more interested in the money and fame, than what's good for the horse. To them horses are but object, that get hurt sometimes. It's as simple as that. No remorse. And it's because of those kind of people, that the so called "sport" continues to put the horses lives at risk. And it's because of that, that Travieso is not staying home for long. Soon he is to go back to the trainer and race again. :(
In memory of Eight Bells.

Body language

PHASE ONE PHASE TWO PHASE THREE PHASE THREE AND A HALF

One lazy weekend...

Madeira, the queen on her throne. It's taken me awhile to get her to stop and stand on the tire, like Steal. She would rather just sort of walk over it quickly and be done with the madness. I mean what's the point anyway? From her point of view??? Well, let me tell you, the point came to her in a form of a carrot. And a good point it was! From her point of view.

Madeira synchronizing with Virpi and Steal.

After some horseplay in the arena we decided to let Steal and Madeira visit the pasture, which they have not been in for at least a year. We thought that they would exercise themselves to great extends running around all happily with their old buddies at least for an hour. All we would have to do is stand around and watch.
(Humf! Huff!...rolling of the eyes ...%$#^*%*^&...) They ran exactly fife strides and stopped to eat!
Steal with a mouthful of alfalfa?? NOT ALLOWED!!!
At least Tuff was useful and helped us pick up the "toys" from the arena. Tuff boy

Bath time

Finally last weekend the weather was warm enough so we jumped on the opportunity to bathe the horses. Kim has been the first on the list of horses to bathe since December. I started with her on Friday with help from Stefan, a ranch volunteer. Kim enjoyed every moment of scrubbing. She has been so itchy, that she has scratched herself to blood on several parts of her bony body. I don't know why we never thought of it before... but scrubbing her through to the skin surfaced tiny little white particles, which looked like dry skin. Soon her entire body was covered with this white stuff that didn't come off. I had NEVER seen lice before so I had to call Raul to come and heck whether this could be it. Raul said that it indeed was lice eggs. Then he parted the hair just enough to see the lice on her skin. Not lying Kim had more lice on her body than hair. No wonder she has been so permanently dehydrated. I cannot even begin to describe how disgusted I felt. They say that humans can not catch horse lice, but I was itching all over from the mere thought. We bathe her with a microbial shampoo on Friday and afterwards I sprayed her with anti-fungal spray since she does have fungal problems also. On Saturday we bathe her again, with lice shampoo this time and sprayed her afterwards with a heavy fly-tick-lice repellent, that we got from "Feed n' Fuel" for her that morning. On Sunday I groomed her with a metal curry and she stood there untied with a lip quivering, so totally loving me scratching her. I believe we killed most of the lice, but this certainly isn't the end of it. Her face and ears were the difficult part. The lice were stuck all over the inside of her ears. Virpi dampened a towel with the lice spray and rubbed the insides of her ears as much as she could without hurting her.Needless to say, That Steal and Madeira got a nice bath too. Luckily they didn't have any lice. Afterall Kim has lived right next door to Madeira for the past few months.Check out Steal shaking. His ears are bend.Madeira sparkling after her bath.

Rodeo

Couple weeks ago We went to see the Grand National Rodeo at Cow Palace. Ronda and her friends competed in the color guard representing the San Francisco horseman's association, and they took home the blue ribbon. Here are a few exciting photos.
The next day at the ranch we practiced some of our own rodeo tricks.
And the baby gave us a private bronc show.
Virpi and Steal played with the ball.
Kim took a walk on her own. Her ribs and hip bones are SLOWLY disappearing.The baby is so attached to Kim that where ever Kim is grazing, that is where baby hangs out.Can't see, but I sense you.Summer sneaked into Faith's stall and pretended to be a private horse. Notice the open latch on the stall door. She knows how to go in and out as she pleases. Some horses in the act of begging.So angelic...Madeira was teaching me how to roll...And then we just hung out.
I love my horse.