Lesson Day

This week's lesson day was much more pleasant than last! 

Nu-nu thinks so, too

It was in the 50's again, sunny and almost no wind.  Instead of trying not to blow away and scooting away from plastic monsters, I was pushing up my sleeves and Sunny was actually sweating.

I tacked up - sans spurs - and had the arena to myself for about 15 minutes while Eric put away the horse he'd been working with when I got there and collected his next victim.  (I don't mind at all if he rides while he teaches.  It's really helpful to be able to have a visual demonstration when I'm not getting the hang of something.)  His mount this time was a finished reiner, so he showed me some slides, as well - bonus! :)

This time he had me go straight from warming up into a series of really round figure eights, loose rein, just picking up the inside rein and cuing bend with my legs.  Good practice finding my diagonals, and the beginning of working toward asking for flying lead changes.  But for now, just working on even, round circles and proper bend without either of us dropping our shoulders.

Gradually he had me ask for more collection - I can definitely feel that Sunny's getting lighter on his front end and being able to carry himself in a more balanced way.  Practicing with spurs did help - but I didn't miss them during the lesson at all except for canter right.  Eh... straggly, rough, and stiff - he wanted to canter completely flat, stick his nose to the outside, and turn his body into a board.  But we worked through it and eventually managed a not-completely-sucky departure and decent downward transition when I asked for it as opposed to when he wanted to slow down. 

We finished by working some more on half-passing, and a revisit to that exercise Eric showed me a couple of weeks ago.  The one where I ask him to spiral in until he's sort of snail-shaped, then unwind him by rocking him from the forehand to a reverse spiral on the haunches and out- which makes about as much sense when I try to explain it as it was when I tried to ask Sunny to do it.  With some coaching as to hand was "inside" and therefore needed to be raised and which heel I needed to be pushing which hip over with, Sunny was doing the whole thing beautifully.  Which was fabulous - but when I tried to do it by myself today, dyslexia kicked in again and I'm all muddled.  I can tell he's trying to do what I'm asking for - it's just that I'm not asking him right.  Sigh...

Anyway, it was chilly and getting along to dark by the time I managed to get him dry enough to put in the trailer - of course the cooler I ordered arrived today.  But I'm sure there'll be plenty more opportunities to use it before winter kicks in.

Homework:  Trotting lots of big round figure-eights.  No cutting across on the diagonals, he wants two ROUND circles stuck together.  Spiral in and outs, and more side-passing along the fence.  (I don't think he trusts me to work on half-passing without him there to coach me on right/left bend - can't say I blame him!)

It was a great lesson, but the most exciting moment of the day?  Turning the last corner half a mile from the farm and hearing this completely awful, horrible, no-good, very bad screeching noise start behind me.  I was going really slowly anyway, so I tapped the brakes to see if something was sticking and I could unstick it.  No dice.  Movement = squealing.  I stopped completely, put it in park and made a quick loop around - other than the boys shifting around, no tires hot, low or smoking....


I could see headlights coming, so not being parked in the middle of the road seemed like a good idea. I was actually on the phone (bluetooth earpiece - love that handsfree!) with my mom.  She called to my dad to pick up the extension - he's the go-to guy in the family when anything starts making scary noises.  The consensus was since nothing seemed to be visibly wrong and I had less than a 1/4 mile to go, I might as well get there, get the horses unloaded and then try to figure out the shrieking. 

The boys didn't seem to be unduly alarmed which was good, so I got them unloaded and tucked up for the night.  Re-checked tires, etc.  Still nothing hot or smoking, and nothing loose or wiggly.  It really sounded like brakes - the engine sounded fine until I put it in drive and took my foot off the brake.  SCHREEAAK-sqeeeSSShriek.  But impossible to tell from the cab if it was the truck or trailer making the noise.  The advice from several states away was try reverse - lo and behold, no noise going backwards.  And when I put it in drive again, silence - or at least normal noise, no squealing.  The most likely explanation was a rock wedged somewhere it wasn't supposed to be - that corner is really washboarded, and it would be easy to kick something up.  No shrieking all the way home, and no weird noises today, either, so hopefully that's all it was.  Sure did wake me up, though!

On the road again

BIG rusty nail - not in a good spot, either

The guys at Graham Tire patched it for us, but had us bring the spare in and swapped out the tires/rims.  They said it would be okay for a spare, but not for regular use since the puncture was so close to the sidewall.  Sigh...   

He makes it look so easy

In the time it took me to haul the spare out of the back of the truck, roll it around, hoist it up onto the holder and re-secure it, he had the tire back on.

The boys contribution was standing at the fence whinnying at us.  Apparently they thought the trailer was getting more than its fair share of attention.  Sorry boys, no ride tonight - maybe tomorrow.

How I spent my summer vacation, pt. 2: Trailer refresher course

Vaccinations and worming weren't the only thing I wanted to get done before the mares' departure date - they're both gentle and easy to handle, but handled on a regular basis they're not. And neither of them is exactly what you'd call a seasoned traveler. The total times they've actually been in a trailer? Cumulatively less than a handful of fingers worth.

So, I'd planned to give them a couple of practice loading sessions - more for Solitaire's sake than Star's.

But time wound down until there wasn't much left...

A pretty face hiding a lot of stubborn.

As I'd suspected, Miss Solitaire was not an immediate fan of the whole getting in the noise metal box plan.

We spent quite a long time
in front of the trailer
contemplating things.

And quite a bit more moving the feet in front of it.

It didn't take too long before the trailer started to look a bit more appealing.

Using the dressage whip to reinforce staying straight, tap-tap-tap...
Being a bright girl, she decided inside
was less work and less annoyance than outside.

Star - who spent a fair amount of time semi-patiently tied to the trailer - baled in and out like an old hand first thing. Whenever Solitaire made some progress, she'd get a break to contemplate, and Star'd have a turn at being the monkey-do part of the monkey-see, monkey-do equation.

"Oh, all right..."
And once she was in, hey, it wasn't so bad after all.
Lather, rinse repeat...

Until in and out were completely old hat.

Of course, the bucket of grain inside didn't hurt matters!

Once she was all the way on and standing quietly,
she got to take a bite before I unloaded her again.
It wasn't bribery - just reinforcement that the trailer is a GOOD place.

Total elapsed time, somewhere under 2 hours...

Good girl!

Of course, there's no guarantee when her new owner arrives that she'll be as cooperative, but all things considered, I'd call it a successful, non-traumatic experience all round. And an excellent lesson in why it's a good thing to have horses that load nicely when you ask them to - had there been an emergency, or some essential reason she needed to get in the trailer by a particular time? Yikes!

***Special thanks to my mother, who patiently held the trailer door the whole time in a very stiff breeze, and still managed to take excellent pictures. You're amazing, and I don't say it enough!

Weekend update: Finally, Riding!

I've been scanning everyone's riding posts with jealous eyes these past few months, wondering when I'd actually get a chance to hear some hoofbeats on the trail myself. So, I'm thrilled to report that I've actually managed two rides in the space of a week (well, three if you count the 5 minute jog around the pasture on Sunny Saturday a.m.).

Holiday Monday after the 4th Rufus and I had our ride - doesn't he just look thrilled?

You'd think we loped 10 miles
rather than the four we walked

He was a good boy, and didn't have hysterics over the moving road-carpet of baby frogs we encountered, although he did look askance at the plinking and plashing from the ditches as the bigger hoppers hit the water. Most of the ditches are still brim-full from all of the rain, and the frogs are taking advantage of the water to multiply like crazy - hopefully in such numbers that they're cutting down on the mosquito populations at the same time!

This past weekend we loaded Sunny up - first horse in the new trailer! YEAH!! - and headed over to the vets' place for a ride. The trailer must ride okay, as he loaded nicely for the return voyage, as well. I got a hard time for letting him turn around and walk out when I unloaded him, but really - he'll back out if I want him to, and given that he can stand completely sideways in the trailer with room left over (yeah, I know, I have a short horse end to end, not to mention top to bottom!) I don't really think letting him step out head first is that big a deal.

We rode about 8 miles walking most of the way with a bit of trotting here and there. Sunny was prince charming considering he hasn't been out of the pasture since last September/October some time. I didn't take the camera along, so no pics, unfortunately.

Passing the first of several herds of cows we encountered the two Quarter Horses in the group had "avoidance issues" and kited backwards repeatedly until we'd passed them. Not sure what was up with that, as both are seasoned roping horses - herding anxiety? They did fine with all the other cows we saw, including the three or four loose ones (the owners were in the process of putting the fence back up) that spotted us coming and high-tailed it for safer ground.

In contrast, both of the "flighty" Arabians, Sunny and Rufus, checked the bovines out and moved on - Sunny kept looking around to see what exactly the other two were so worried about. You could almost see the thought process: "Huh... I see cows... something out there must be scary...". He just kept walking along head up, ears swiveling busily as he tried to spot whatever they were so concerned about. Of course, I was giggling to myself and trying not to smirk. *grin*

Thankfully, after the initial cow episode aside, it was an uneventful ride. We had enough breeze to keep the bugs off, which was nice since it was also pretty warm. There were still a ton of tiny frogs hopping every which direction.

In the trailer post-ride

In other news of my world - M had his second riding lesson. (He's getting so TALL!) I took some pictures inside, but managed to capture nothing but blurrrr.

He rode Justice, a 19-year-old Arabian who's seen a lot of kids. A really lovely boy not just personality-wise. He looks about half his age.

Thunder's gash is almost completely healed -
This is actually from last week. This week it's just a fine black line with hair starting to grow.

Water, water, everywhere

What else does 5+ inches of rain do? Well, when your neighbor vents his sump pump next to your foundation, it trickles into your basement.

The rain did stop about 9 a.m. After we turned Rufus's batch of ponies out for the day, picked up a feeder for the duck and some more betadine wash for Thunder's owie, we spent the day vacuuming, dumping buckets, and tromping up and down the stairs. Finally picked up a pump sometime in the afternoon, and then discovered that the floor drain had a clog - much better than the storm drains being backed up.

So, there's still water coming in, but not so much. First time in six years, too. This house has never needed a sump pump. Guess it will get one now! We're not the only ones, either. We bumped into one man this morning that had lived here for 30 years with no water. He was buying a pump, too.

The roads tonight were worse than last night.
I don't even want to think what the gravel looks like - this one was bad enough. (And yes, we did drive through running water - but we watched another car come through it our way first.)

Thunder's gash pre-wash - the swelling was down, and there wasn't any heat to it.

Post-wash, pre-salve...
It's clean, pink, and closing from the back to the front. I didn't give him any penicillin. It looks pretty good with the antibiotic salve for now.

And... yes, the trailer we tried out did come home with us!

It's an aluminum, 7x20', 4-horse, LQ combo-stock. Plenty of room for the horses, mats, front tack... It needs to be cleaned & disinfected, vacuumed, and we have to pick up a spare, but other than that - it made me smile every time I dumped a bucket of water out next to it!

Trailer shopping

Today after sitting in the wet at the football game (home team won! Hoo-rray!) on the way to get the grocery shopping accomplished we sidetracked into one of the trailer dealerships. It looked from the road as if they had a trailer that approximated what I've been looking for.

We pulled in right past the new LQ Featherlites (drool)! They're SO purdy - sigh. It's incredibly tempting, but I know what my budget will stand, and it ain't them, folks!

The trailer I spotted was indeed the right size, and in good shape. Since it was drizzling rain, and the used trailers are parked up on a hill away from the dealership proper, we didn't have an obnoxious sales person to avoid, either. (Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with salesmen doing their job and selling me stuff - I just don't like being told what I need and how much I also need to go into debt to afford lots of bells and whistles! I like being left alone to make up my mind first.)

I took some pictures, pulled the mats up to check the floor - which looks practically new - and snapped a bunch of pictures for later review. It was too wet to crawl around on the ground looking underneath, and I want to find out what they're pricing it at before I get too excited, but it's the closest I've found to what I want thus far.




I wanted to check the dealer's site for more info, but came home to discover the trailer section of the site is down for maintenance, so no joy there, darn it!

So for now I'll have to make due with what I copied off the manufacturer's plate. It's a Chaparral, and if I'm reading it right, it's a 1997. Must have been stored inside and not used much, because for a 10 year old trailer, it's about as close to pristine as they get. I'm off to go price compare this sucker!

Horse trailer features

Here's the deal - I finally have the truck to pull just about any size trailer I could want. Last March we bought a BIG truck (great timing, just when diesel started to spike, which is probably why the price was so good-lol!), a 1 ton Dodge dually.

A very tired Sunny (post-ride, circa 2005)

Now I'm trailer scouting. I have access to/can borrow when necessary a 16' gooseneck stock trailer, so hauling over 3 at once is covered. But most of the time I don't need to haul that many horses.

I've been leaving drool marks on the living quarters slant loads with dividers, padding, and fancy pull down windows, but realistically, a used 3 horse combo stock is probably more my speed (and price range).

Here are some of my favorites, if money was no object:

Sundowner's 3 horse gooseneck (730 series)
Equispirit's SafeLoad 3
Hawk 3 horse slant w/ dressing room
Featherlite 3 horse stock combo

(Also - not in the running, but I like'm! - Brenderups. These little guys are just cute! The Volkswagon Bugs of the horse trailer world, perhaps?)

So other than the mechanics - height of trailer, adjustable hitch, checking tires, floorboards, axles, rust, etc., what do/would you look for in a horse trailer? From a practical standpoint, are there optional and/or standard features that you just love, love to hate, consider necessary, or would look for/look to avoid if you were to buy another trailer?