I know I may have to do lessons with Zoe that we have already done but I'm ok with that. I've found an indoor arena that I can haul to this winter that's really close to home (and SUPER nice) so I can continue our work together through the winter. We will be doing a lot of leadership exercises, trust and body work before I throw a leg over her. She's gonna stand in cross ties (she's never been cross tied before) and stand like a rock when I put the saddle pad and saddle on her among other things. We are going to have all this stuff DOWN! I've put up with her dancing around the saddle and her tying issues long enough! It's time for her to behave and act her age!! ;-)
Melody will be coming along as well, along with Gunner, if middle daughter can make it out to ride with us. Melody will learn to be lunged (already knows how to round pen) and get better with her verbal commands. We will keep working on shoulder and hip yields, giving at the poll, and flexing to both sides (she's not very good at her right side). Her back feet still seem to be a problem with letting us hold them for any length of time so we will continue to work on that as well.
Gunner will need some time in the saddle as well. The last time middle daughter rode him, he bucked her off when she asked him to canter. I have no idea what that was all about! I was so proud of her for picking herself up and getting back on! She landed hard and it really shook her up. No serious injuries, just a little stab at her pride I think. Afterwards, I checked to see if his back was sore again but his back was fine. I checked other spots that might be sore but he seemed fine in those places too. The saddle fit is good so maybe middle daughter did something that triggered the bucking fit or else he learned before that if he bucked he got out of doing it. Either way, I'm gonna have to get on and figure it out.
In other farm news, we replanted the front horse pasture. It was getting full of weeds and the ground was so compacted from years of horses walking on it that the grass couldn't get a good root system going again, hence the weeds. We had the soil tested to see what the ground was lacking and was able to pick up a fertilizer to help the ground produce the best horse pasture grass mix it could. We have to keep the horses off it for one full growing season (all of 2015) so the root system can really take hold. We were told to hay it so it will help the grasses to come in nice and thick. We are really excited to see the fruits of our labor! Oh, and while we were at it, we tore down all the old cow fencing that was up around this pasture. We are putting up electric instead - always hated that fencing!
Not only did we replant the horse pasture, but we built a new horse catch pen. While all of this replanting was going on, we had them in a cow pen. It was fine but it was a reminder that without the horse pasture in the front, we were going to be short on turn outs this winter! So we took another weekend and built a safe catch/turnout pen for the horses with a shelter. This is where Star and her buddy (undecided on who) will spend the winter nights while the others are in their stalls. Speaking of stalls, we built insulated water bucket holders for the stalls. I'm excited to put these things to use this winter! Last winter was awful with trying to keep the water fresh and unfrozen. (Hubby doesn't like to use the heated water buckets because he had a bad experience with them once and now refuses to use them....) We also built two extras for outside in the shelter for Star and her buddy. I'll try to take a picture of them so you can see what we built...I will let you know how they work too!
Another farm project completed is my new tack room/office in the barn. It's wonderful - and much bigger than my old tack room! In order to complete the new tack room, we also built new saddle racks. This time I have enough saddle racks for ALL of my saddles. I used to always be 1 rack short so it was kept in the house, which is fine except it's a pain to haul a big western saddle out of the house whenever you want to ride. So my brand new Billy Cook saddle still has very little use... The new feed room is going right next to the new tack room but we haven't finished it yet. Just have to put the floor in and then it will be complete.
In addition to all of that, we also built a new lean-to for the cows (it's HUGE) and are working on another one. We added beef cows to our regime of animals this summer so more and larger shelters were needed. I guess you could say we've been busy!
One more announcement...we added a new member to our family!
So that's a snapshot of what's been going on with me lately. Not to mention the fact that I have 5 children, two of which are on student council this year, one is in high school and just had her first homecoming...My life is full, but that's exactly how I like it!
That's all for now!
Quote for the day:
"Never mistake activity for achievement."
-John Wooden
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