Thursday, January 27, 2011

We Live In A Very Scary Neighborhood!

Didn't take us long to try out the new saddle. By the next day! It's just taken me a long time to get it posted-LOL.

Megan loves it!...
Although, I think her stirrups were still a little too long and she was getting cold (hence the crabby look on her face. Oh, wait, maybe it was just because she was cold and I kept making her stop to take pics-LOL). Old Turkey (pun intended) looks pretty comfortable in this picture, but I think bugging out had taken it's toll and he was tired.

OMG!

Turk is not a good ranch horse to begin with. He never did get the whole relax and cover country part. What can I say, the horse was bred to go to the track and it was a sad trick of fate that he ended up with us instead. Not that a lot of race-bred horses don't can't make good ranch horses, it just wasn't in Turk.

Getting him past our neighbor's was indeed eventful.

Apparently, s.p.o.t.t.e.d. cows are horrifying!

(At this point, you have to imagine pictures, because I wasn't about to pull out my camera and risk dropping it)

To make matter's worse, on the other side of the road, that neighbor has a monstrous pair of longhorns. I suspect the 'little' one has a horn spread of at least 6-7'. The other one is even bigger. It didn't help matters that they ran to the fence to check us out. Turk skittered from one side of the road to the other, not sure of who to be more terrified of, spotted cows or huge, horned beasties. I guess it depended on which way his head was turned.

I had better luck as I was on Spooks, the black horse. But even he was giving these unknown, possibly predatory animals the once over. And I was bareback! (I'm trying to get my legs in shape...Oww, oww, oww!)

Heaven helped the poor paint horse and he made it through that particularly scary patch. Megan was of no use to him because she was laughing her fool head off. Oiy Vey!

That giggling abruptly came to an end though when just a wee bit down the road we ran into something that absolutely terrified BOTH horses.

Killer GOATS!!!!

Neither of these horses have ever seen goats before and I swear to heaven, I thought they were both going to jump in the irrigation canal on the other side of the road to get away from them. No fear folks, Meg and I are part chicken. We have absolutely no qualms about bailing. Although, I would have hated to see Turk land upside down on top of the new saddle. That is not my idea of breaking one in!

The goats on the other hand, obviously love horses and happily ran to the fence to Blaahhh at us.

Not helping!

It was a little embarrassing because the owner of the goats was watching the whole fiasco. Thankfully, he was an intelligent man and he stopped and dropped the tree branch he had been dragging behind him. I'm pretty sure that would have been our death knell.

That was quite the experience for those two ponies. But I am happy to say, that by the time we came back and ran that little gauntlet of fear again, it was a lot less exciting. Turk was still pretty sure those spotted cows were aliens and he kept a careful eye on them to make sure they didn't get any closer than they already were. No really, it was just because they were s.p.o.t.t.e.d. that had him freaked out. We walked past 2 separate herds of normal Angus and Baldy cows and he didn't even blink. He's used to seeing those kind of cattle.

Monday, I got the chance to slap that new saddle on Moon and we went for a little trek out back. I am so tickled with how good Moon feels. I started him on Moorman's Healthy Glo (it's a balanced rice bran and flax supplement) around the first of the year and I just cannot believe how much stronger and better this horse feels. When I turn him out, he bucks and plays. Moon has NEVER bucked and played! And he is actually walking out with energy. Moon NEVER walked with energy! Whoo-Hooo for rice bran!!!

After about an hour and a half ride, this is how the saddle ended up...
Moon only moved it about an inch back, even after going up and down a few little hills in the desert behind us. That is remarkable!!! The only other saddle I have ever used on him that doesn't slide back is the roping saddle. We are golden!!

The weather has been beautiful here and I have been riding every day. I do believe the ponies are happy to be back to doing something...and back on their grain. I have a feeling this is going to be a good year with the ponies.

18 comments:

Leah Fry said...

ooh, I like Turk! You know I like a horse with substance.

And it's amazing what horrific things are lying in wait under our very noses, waiting only for our horses to point them out to us.

Shirley said...

Here's to a very good year with the horses.
Your story reminds me of the time I rode my mare Sundee past some miniature horses- she was positive they were horse-eating aliens! I've had other horses that freaked at mini horses too. Go figure!

C-ingspots said...

Loved this - thanks for the belly laugh!!! Don't you just love horses? My Kadie mare NEVER trusted spotted cows either (any others were ok) - or monks in brown, hooded robes, but that's another story...you can always count on horses for laughs and good storytelling adventures!

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

I love that Megan can stop and pose for a picture in the middle of the road. I couldn't even do that on my dead end dirt road here because the traffic is so bad. I haven't tried my hand at riding this year yet. I've just been doing groundwork. Of course an 18-wheeler with the name McKillican on the side had to pull up to deliver something to a neighbor's house right when I was taking a horse for a walk. Someone may as well have put a brick wall in front of us, because he wasn't budging at the sight of that truck.

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Ahh ! Horse eating ruminants!! I have heard stories about them! We had the horse eating minis like Shhirley. Glad you got through it all safely , and Meg laughing through it , gotta love fearless youth!

Rising Rainbow said...

Goats! Give me a break here! Even my baby Arabs didn't spook at goats. (llamas, however, did get Percy) LOL It's going to take you some time to live this down and I clearly recall you said BOTH horses not just Turk. ROFLMO

I sure wish I could find a darn saddle that did NOT slip back. Also one with a short enough skirt for my herd. Glad to hear this one fits Moon.

Rice bran really shouldn't give him more zip, just more glow. If that makes sense. Although the flax is supposed to have omega 3's I think. That shouldn't add more zip either but definitely should make him healthier. Maybe he just feels better. That would definitely be good.

GunDiva said...

Who are you kidding? You and Meg have arses made of velcro and were both probably laughing your butts off at the goat spook. :)

Miss my baby, but I do get to have another lesson on Saturday (as long as the weather holds) and I'm going to work on toes forward AND breathing. 'Cause I forgot to do that last time.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Oh, I know alllll about the terror little horses can cause big horses. My daughter and her pony caused an entire arena full of roping horses to go ballistic one time. I have never seen so many fat, old men grabbing for leather as when she trotted in that arena on that little black and white pony. It looked like a full-on wild horse race in no time flat.

Megan?

Totally oblivious to the utter chaos and panic her and Mighty Mouse were causing.

I had to chase her down and get her the heck out of there.

Nm-I feel bad for ya living where you can't even ride down your road. There is a little traffic on this road, but everyone is very polite. They slow down, We move over, they move over. Everyone waves. I cannot wait for the big ditches to dry out. We will be able to ride miles along the road then and not have to worry about traffic. Also, we can ride the other direction, ride over the overpass and have miles and miles of riding area in The Monument. I can't wait for that!

Kristen said...

you can keep that bareback riding! I jumped on my gelding a month or two ago and just rode him around the driveway.... wow had I forgotten how much balance it took! I tried walking up a slight hill, I thought I'd slide right off the back! lol I think I'll stick to the saddle for a while longer! :-) Tomorrow is supposed to get up to 54, I can't wait! Definitely heading to the barn!

Funder said...

LOL at Turk. Think he's been listening to Dixie's wild stories about how cows breathe fire and chase down bad ponies and eat them?

So glad the new saddle fits!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

GD-Hopefully you remember to breath before you black out...LMAO...Just kidding. ;-)

MiKael-It's the fat. Moon has never been an 'easy keeper'. He is one of those horses that can go to hell while standing in knee deep hay 24/7. Very high metabolism. Now that he is getting enough fat in his diet so that he has some energy. We've been working on getting Moon's system up to par for several years now. First we got his teeth straightened out, then treated him for ulcers and then added a supplement to treat him for hypothyroidism. Everything has helped and he has definitely looked better over the last couple of years, but he still lacked sustainable energy. I really noticed that last summer. Several barrel runs, I could feel he had nothing left by the time he was headed for home. Can't win, if your horse can't run.

Trying to up his energy level through cereal grains and/or alfalfa wasn't really working either. I noticed a lot of highs and lows in his behavior. Sugar rushes if you will. He'd be goofy as all get out and then just crash and go back to dragging his feet.

With the Rice Bran, he is getting all the fat his system needs and seems to have a more sustainable energy level. He's also on a lot of beet pulp. The fiber in that seems to fill him up whereas he never seems to get full on hay. And this way, I don't have to feed him a lot of oats. That I can build up when we can really get to riding. I dunno, but he sure seems a lot more content than he was before...however, he is still a mean-ass to everything else. He just cannot help that-LOL.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Yea-And maybe I better have Turk look in the mirror huh?

Wonder if he would freak finding out he was s.p.o.t.t.e.d. too?

LMAO!

Anonymous said...

Exactly what I was about to say, BECG! I was going to ask if he's ever looked in a mirror? My ponies have seen goats. Well, at least Casey has. He's lived with a calf as well. Molly? Not so sure. A rabbit spooked her one day as her former home was coyote heavy and rabbit low. Oh, and headlamps. Headlamps turn people into horse eating Cyclops according to Molly.

cdncowgirl said...

Our horses have always been scared of spotted cows, and there were quite a few small dairy farms around where I used to board. Only thing I can figure is, being milked or not, they smell different or their spots cause an optical illusion.

No goats nearby, however there is a guard llama the next road over... right where I hope to ride this summer.
That should be fun *sarcasm totally intended*

Honestly, part of the reason we got Rootbeer was to help desensitize our horses to minis. Every year there are some at finals and every year 'big horses' f.r.e.a.k.o.u.t. over them.

City girl turned Country Girl said...

What is it with horses and goats?! The first time DD's horse seen a goat she like ta jump out of her own skin LOL!! Good thing she literally just flinches when something scares her!!

You are going to have them ponies in some kick ass shape this summer!! WHOO-HOO!!

Mrs. Mom said...

Hey you forgot to add in there that some *idiot* just *happened* to pick that very time to call you on the cell phone... LOL...

I can totally picture Turk eye balling those spotted cows.. lmao... What a big baby!

SO glad to hear Moon is balancing out these days. Both the boys are looking great. Maybe this year will be "calm" enough for you guys to really cover some ground!!

sue said...

I know the story was a bout Turk .. but could you sometime show a photo of those long horns.. I have never seen one in real life and I would love to see a pic of these guys.... I'm sure there must be long horns somewhere in New England, but you don't just drive by and find them...

Cut-N-Jump said...

Leave it to the horses to leave us laughing.

I hopped on our old mare bareback the one day to take her for a spin around the pasture. Man did I feel it for a few days after that! Didn't know how spoiled I had let myself become.