Monday, June 20, 2011

Support Your Local Trainer

The big bay...


And the short, fat sorrel...


...Went to the trainer. It's a sad state of affairs when I have to send already started horses to the trainer to get rode. :(

However, it's 'camping' season on a particular buckskin...
I get to ride the ever-loving snot out of him for the next 30 days and then HE is going to the trainer.

Poor Levi...I warned him...but he said he would take him on. Frosty will be going specifically for 30 days of being roped on.

Let's see...

He has a fear of ropes being swung around him...

He has a fear of ropes being swung on him...

And...

He is petrified of cattle...


Yeaaa...like I said...I feel sorry for Levi already. I'll do my best to get some brains rode into the horse before then and now. But I don't think that is going to help Levi when he gets his hands on him.

.......

I'm hoping the time off helped the bay horse and he adapts a little better to training. He seems much calmer this time around and I am sure having his little buddy there will help.

Bugs...he's gonna be a cream-puff.

I may have discounted both Bugs' and Jet's future potential as barrel horses a bit prematurely. I don't mind being wrong. I still see Bugs as more of a calf roping/heeling/breakaway kind of horse...and actually that may work out well. Our neighbor's son is finishing up his roping arena and we (Megan and I) have been invited to go rope with them. I am most anxious to work on my breakaway skills as they have ladies breakaway roping at the local rodeo and ummm...pretty much all ya gotta do is catch and you are going to win some money. I like those odds. ;-) But since Bugs is Moon's 1/2 brother (same sire), I kinda get the feeling that if I get him all fit and show him how to do it...He might just catch onto that barrel racing thing.

After seeing how big some of the horses are that the girls are running barrels on now...I decided that maybe Jet isn't too tall after all. He seems to be finding his feet and after watching him make some awesome moves while I was trying in vain to catch the fool out in the pasture...I thought, Hmmmm...That's about all a horse needs to turn a barrel...Could be he'll be able to turn a can after all.

It still makes me laugh that of all of the horses around me and how closely I watch them move to see if they have any natural ability to move or run like a barrel horse needs to, this is the least likely candidate...
Seriously! Of all of the horses I have here...and probably out of all the horses we have...Moon is the most atrocious mover of them all. He hates to lope, can't stop and there is nothing smooth or fluid about the way he moves.

So what the heck right?

Sometimes you just gotta go with what you've got and they will surprise the hell out of ya.

15 comments:

Leah Fry said...

Sorry, but I'm still laughing at working a horse for cows that's afraid of ropes and cows. That is blog fodder waiting to happen!

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

"...they will surprise the hell out of ya." That was my new trainer's attitude. I had told her that my goal with my horses is trail training, but said that Gabbrielle was bred for endurance. However, I didn't think she had a chance to do endurance competitions due to her off and on lameness issues. The trainer said, "You never know. You just have to give them the chance, and they'll surprise you. Horses have big hearts and they can do anything."

Sherry Sikstrom said...

By the sounds of Frosty , you are gonna have your hands full! Funny how some of the "best " at some sports don't really seem built for it .I will never forget seeing a tiny little QH mare basically blow the doors off at Spruce Meadows , won the show jumping ,like she was a 16 hh warmblood. That little horse was simply on springs , or wings

Shirley said...

A lot of the horses at the barrel o rama here last month were big, I think they did as well as the more average sized ones. It's all in the desire- they have to love their job to be really good at it.

GoLightly said...

Thank you for big bay butt pics. Now I want full body shots, from the side;)

demand, demand, demand.
That's my life:)

Oh, and packing, packing, packing.
gotta go pack!
Good luck with all of the herd!

Mikey said...

Ok, I want to know how it goes for Frosty at the trainers. If he can get that horse going with a rope, I'll send Quinn his way. Same problem, cept the cattle part. But ropes send him into a tizzy. He turns into a shaking big baby. I've worked on it, but still don't dare swing a rope off him. Be interesting to see how this goes.
Girl, you got a lot going on!!!

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Unknown said...

Ha Ha! Great picture!! Love watching them yawn!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

I'm just hoping that by having Levi work on Frosty's biggest fears, that he will actually build the horse's confidence and reliability. I have no doubt there is going to be some hellashis blow-ups. But Frosty's 'fears' are mostly self-induced. Coming from a long-line of rope horses...it's embarrassing he is this much of a wreck. His sire was a super nice rope/ranch horse with a great disposition. His maternal grandsire was my brother's rope horse for years. Even Frosty's wacky mother could be roped on.

I just let things get too out of control on the horse and am certainly paying the price. Somewhere buried in there is the super, nice horse I bred for. We just have to do some digging to find him again.

Kristen said...

love that pic of Moon, too funny! GOod luck with Frosty! Sorry I'm not commenting much, but I'm still here! That post about Frosty at the weekend barrels, oh man I would have been mad!

Cut-N-Jump said...

Just commented on the last post. Holy cow!

There was an article in the back of a Horseman magazine I had years ago. About a couple with a mare the guy had brought home from the auction. They had named her Ugly because she was. But she turned out to be fast!

The wife had clients coming to look at barrel horses she had for sale. After several runs, the busband appeared and asked why she didn't go get Ugly? The wife shot him a few dirty looks and finally relented. She brought out Ugly and threw down some smokin times on the barrel pattern. The clients wanted to buy Ugly but the wife wasn't about to budge.

Every horse has their calling. Finding them can be the fun part. My OTTB mare may just make a beautiful carriage horse. We are exploring her options...

in2paints said...

Lilly is terrified of cows too, although now she has a few close to where she's boarded. I hope it helps a little bit with her strange phobia. Hopefully Frosty gets over his fear too!

Such a cute picture of Moon!!

ACountryCowgirl said...

Love that picture of moon:)

kestrel said...

I had one that was terrified of cows, then he learned he could chase them and took a fierce glee in it! It is funny that sometimes a horse who isn't built for a job becomes very good at it...the racehorse John Henry was like that. My vet actually say him, and laughed that there wasn't one correct part on that horse's body...but he sure got the job done!

cdncowgirl said...

Is it mean that I LOVE that pic of Frosty all wet? And the idea of him getting W.O.R.K.E.D

You know, Cessa used to be so scared of cows. Then I took her to a penning clinic and made her wade her skinny TB ass into a milling herd of steers mwahahahha

Big horses, yeah they`re `the thing`here too. Some of the girls I talk to insist they`re faster because of the longer stride. But no matter how long the stride if they don`t have the heart and don`t RUN the smaller horses with try still win ;)

As for Moon, well Applejack is kinda the same way. Lazy as all get out in the pasture. Put him somewhere and ask him to run and he mooooooves!