Its About Darn Time

I'm still so busy I have no idea which direction I am going in half the time, but even with that I still have managed to get more riding time in this week than I have in months.  

I think it was Monday, a nice over cast day I saddled up a paint horse and we hit the desert.

He was super thrilled about having to go at first but once we got to the desert he did really well.  I put it in over drive and he just went.  We hit some uncharted desert this time through some gates and almost all the way to the main road the connects my "town" to Apache Junction.  We did some gratuitous fence checking for the owners (leasers) and had I actually had tools with me, I would have even stopped to fix a spot which someone had cut. 

 The weather was gorgeous, he was feeling good and we pretty much loped or trotted the entire ride.  We went 12 miles, which I felt was pretty good since we had not been out there.  It was an uneventful ride but I did get a few cool pics. 

A few days later one of my boarders CW, sent me a text and asked if I wanted to do a trail ride with her. So on Thursday we went out again. This time I took Killian and Sassy.  She was on her horse Cody  I don't have any pics of this ride but I can tell you that her Walking horse lives up to his name.  He really moves out and Killian was doing his best Eyore imitation. Sassy chose this trip to pick random stopping moments, which dang near ripped my arm out of my socket.  I finally had CW get behind her and smack her on the butt. After that she kept up just fine.  

I really enjoy CW's attitude about riding. She is just a little bit older than me, and her theory is that if her horse says, "I can't" she is bound and determined to show him that he can.  Her horse is pretty gosh darn broke.  We didn't ride too far because I didn't want to over do Sassy. She is doing pretty well right now, and I want to keep it that way.  

However, we have decided that next week we are going to trailer up to Payson and ride the Mogollon rim.  I will take Trax for this I think. Trax moves out better so we will be able to keep up.

Today was another big day for us.  The place where I bought Melody was having sorting practice and I decided to go. I didn't get to Friday night, and I have really been wanting to try Trax on it.  I have not had Melly in a trailer since I brought her home and she banged herself up loading.  

Yesterday I loaded Trax, and then asked her to load.  It took some doing but she finally went. I wish I could get her to back out. She is so long in the body and insists on trying to turn around, which gets her kind of stuck, so then she vaults herself out of the trailer.   I finally removed my rear tack, and collapsed it completely and loading became a dream.  Unloading is still like launching a potato out of a canon!

This morning we headed out early and I was pretty nervous.  I shouldn't have been it all went fine, but I tend to get nervous on the way to new events.  

Once we got there I warmed up Trax first and was a little surprised at how mellow he was. It took very little to get that nice easy lope out of him, and I was really happy with how he felt under me.  Then I warmed up Melly who of course just needed to limber up those old bones.  

I watched a few rounds of sorting and then gave it a shot. These cows were really fresh, and wicked fast. Melly did great inspite of me and it was nice to have someone shouting out pointers as we worked.  I learned a lot about proper gate position and heard a lot of "Drop your hands! Let her do her job"  My biggest problem is that I still am a little heavy in the hands, and need to use more leg and less hand.   I did get better as we went.

It was a little disheartening to sort with a 9 year old boy who totally out rode me.  Of course I did learn later that the horse he was riding was his dad's competition horse, but still the kid was good.  I mean really good.  

I did about 4 rounds on Mel, and then decided to get Trax.  I loped him around a little and then asked if I could do a round really slowly on him.  Another gal joined up with me and gave me some guidance while we slowly pulled cows out of the batch.  Trax stayed calm and with each cow I asked for just a little bit more from him.  By the last cow, he was getting right with it, and doing great. 

In the time I have been working with Trax I have been trying to get him to move his feet with a little more "purpose" behind it.  However without having cows to work, all he knew was that I was just pushing and pulling him around.   Today I gave him a reason to move his feet with quickness and he actually responded.  

He cut left and he cut right, keeping his hind end in place and although it was only once, it was progress and I was super happy.  

I gave him a break and then we did another round.  He did pretty good gave me another nice cutting move and then about half way through he fell apart. He got a little too hot and instead of stopping when I needed he ran through the gate after the cows, and I knew I had lost him.  I did get him stopped and asked the gal to wait a minute while I got control of him again, and I did sort of, but it was never as good as it was in the beginning. We finished the run and then I took him back to the arena and loped him back to me mentally and we worked on stopping again.  He finally gave me a gorgeous stop so I got off and loosened his cinch.  I was pretty happy with my boy.  

I did two more rounds on Melly, the first one was good, the last one was horrid, but it was all me.  I was hot and feeling a little dizzy and decided to call it a day.   Here is me and my "team".  I am excited to keep on this path with these two.  I think if I take it slow with Trax he will actually be quite good at this, but I can see where teaching him not to leave me mentally just because he is having to work hard is going to be vital.  However, I think that if I can accomplish that it will be huge in the bigger picture for Trax.   

I got some good advice, and I have things I know I need to work on when ever I have a chance to work the slow cows here close to home. 

I have one other thing I want to show you all.  Its a saddle that I have been working on.   I bought it at a yard sale, I knew when I bought it that it was not a high quality saddle, but I had someone looking for something like it so I went ahead and purchased it.  Then I got home to tell her and found out that she had purchased another saddle from someone else.  

Here is the before pic

I wish I had a close up of the conchos, they are like silver painted plastic and the whole saddle was sprayed with a clear spray paint.  

I spent a good amount of time trying to get that clear coat off so I could oil it, but once I did that I could never get a good even color on it.  So I ended up having to add some color, and I also took off all the cheapo bling and added some good stuff.  

I am not in love with how it turned out, however, I put it on FB for sale when it was done and have someone who says she loves it and is going to buy it next week.   Here are the after pics.

I have one last thing to show you, just because you can never have enough cuteness.  We have kittens here now, from the cat who used to live next door but now lives with us.   The dark one is a calico her name is Ellie, and she will go to live next door.  The solid Orange one is Tank, and I want to keep him. He reminds me of Mason sometimes.  The Orange and white one is named Go Go, and he is going to live with BEC.  His name is Go Go because he is quite the explorer. He was the first leave the closet where they were born, and the first to climb the barricade.  They are so much fun, and I live for early morning kitten play time.  They live in the saddle shop now, and I love having them out there.  So I leave you with Kitten Cuteness. 

A little bit of Saddle time

We finally got a little bit of rain....ok so more like record levels of rain in a single day, which cooled things off nicely for a minute but then when the sun came back out really cranked up the humidity.  But I did take a minute to enjoy some of that coolness and took Killian and Sassy for a little jaunt.

Sassy had just had another Electromagnetic therapy session for her shoulder, and it sure does make a difference for her.   Her feet are pretty much completely healed and as long as I keep her toes short, she stays pretty sound there. However, if she does not get her exercise her scar on her shoulder adheres to the muscle again and gives her issues. Also she seems to have a knee that bothers her on occasion.  Its always something with this mare.

It was sprinkling just a little, which felt pretty awesome, and I went ahead and made her wear a saddle for the trip.  I want her to get used to being saddled again, as I want to start putting actual rides on her pretty soon.  We made it around the block with no issue, other than Killian being a complete bone head and wanting to push through my hands the entire trip.

When we got back to the house I tied Sassy up, put on her Back on Track Knee Boots, and let her stand and "soak".  Then I took Killian back out.  You should have seen the look on his face!

"WHAAAAAT?"

My arena was under water, so we stuck to the dirt road in front of the house and practiced trotting and stopping, loping and stopping, and if we were leaving the house and loped a way he gave me a nice easy lope and a beautiful stop on the hind end.  If we were headed towards the house it was more like "I'M MAKING A RUN FOR IT AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!"   Finally he gave me a good one, in the right direction so we called it quits.

I didn't think I was going to be able to sort on Friday because the arena said if we didn't get more people it wouldn't happen. I managed to round up two other gals so we got to go.  I didn't take Killian this time which required Miss Melody to carry me down the road and too the arena all by herself.  She only spooked about 10 times but they were little spooks and I was ready for every one.

The other two gals were late so the Arena Guy (Teele) and I did a couple of rounds together. When the other gals showed up, he let us have at it, so we did 3 way sorting teams.  Mel did so good, and I was quite proud of her...for a while, then she started acting like she was afraid of the cows when ever they headed towards her.

At first I was going to just push her through it, then a light went on and I took her out of the pen and got off.  She was too hot.  We had been sorting non stop for an hour.  Usually you sort a round and then take a break while someone else goes. We weren't doing that and I had been out there longer than anyone.  I walked her around, gave her a long break, let her relax, and then we went in and did 2 more rounds. She did really well again, and I stopped there.  After that I just watched the other gals go.

Then came the time to ride home in the dark.  Since I am not sure if she has night blindness or not, I had a headlight on my cap so we could see where we were going. There are no street lights in our neighborhood, and there was no moon either.

This is when I learned that a single light moving around on the ground in front of her was much scarier than the dark, so I shut it off and we headed home.  This time I kept her in the middle of the pavement.  I felt that it was safest there since I knew that nothing would touch her feet there.  If a car came we simply moved to the side of the road and waited for them to go by. She handled the headlights coming at her fabulously.  I was quite proud of my girl.

The next day CNJ asked to come and use my arena (Oh CNJ I almost forgot to upload your videos- will do that today) and so while she was here riding her mares, I pulled Trax out and rode him.

Back when I had saddled Sassy it had rained on my saddle pretty good so I had taken it to the shop and and started cleaning and oiling it, and decided to go ahead and make the repairs it has needed for a long time.  Well it is still out there assembled, so I used the old cutting saddle on him.  It is the first time I have ever ridden him in anything but the Circle Y.  Trax is very sensitive in the flank and so I have always been leery of using a rear cinch on him.  I know that being a rope horse he has had one on him before, but not in a long time.  However he handled it just like a broke horse should, so as usual my worries were for naught.  He was a good boy for me and we had a nice ride.  It was short and sweet, but I was happy.

Then CNJ got her surcingle out for me and ground drove Sassy for me.  My goal for that is to get Sassy moving more off her hind, and off of that front end.   I had tried it before but couldn't really get a good movement from her.  CNJ got gorgeous movement out of her.  She looked so nice moving, and once again I fell in love with my little mare.

By then the mosquitoes were eating us alive and it was time to go.  I'm hoping to get some riding in this week as well.

The saddle shop is coming right along, got my first cleaning and repair job in.  It is amazing how many saddles I run across that come out of the factory with the Blevins Buckles on backwards.  This causes the strap to hang down into the stirrups which can be very unsafe.  I have learned how to reset the copper rivets, and turn them around.  The saddle I am working on had that problem but not anymore.

Eventually I will get mine back together.

Now I have to go, TC is hounding me to get off the computer.   First blog post in weeks, and he acts like I have been here for hours! ARGH!

Being Unemployed sure is keeping me busy!

I cannot believe how little time I have now that I am unemployed.  I mean I am constantly on the go, and every day is a full list of things that either needs to be done around the place or errands that need to be run.  

A lot of my time is spent in advertising, or shameless self promotion as I prefer to call it, or responding to emails or private messages on facebook.  TC had our hired hand (yes we actually have one of those) insulate  and panel the future saddles shop and then install a bunch of saddle racks too.  I bought 9 off the internet for a mere 8.00 a piece, which was a smoking deal as far as I'm concerned.  It is all done now and the racks are up.

I actually have 10 saddles in the shop now, every rack and every stand I have is full, and I'm pretty impressed with the line up of "inventory" that I have.  A few of them still need a lot of work before I would even consider selling them, but most are cleaned, conditioned, and repaired and ready to go.   I am, of course, going to be adding some western decor to my shop as I run across it and will probably make an actual sign this week.   I also have 2 people who are very interested in saddles that I have, so hopefully those deals will fall into place soon.

Bonanza Boarding is officially rolling now with our first boarder.  His name is Cody, I call him Big C because he is a tall boy.  He seems to be pretty sweet, and easy to handle. We are having a few discussions on respecting my space, which his owner is thrilled about. She is not enjoying the bad manners he picked up at his last home.   I took the advice of A and added a photo clause when I wrote out my contract so I am allowed to show you these.

We have another potential boarder coming to visit in the morning and since she is close friends with Cody's owner it is very likely that she will be coming to stay.

I have been working on building my own website, mostly for the saddle shop, but also for the boarding.  I still have a long ways to go and until I pay for an upgrade it will only let me post 4 saddles at a time, which is quite frustrating.   Anyways, http://bonanzaboarding.weebly.com/ is the link.  Please go check it out and then let me know what you think of it.  I need all the constructive criticism I can get.

I have not done any riding in a week. The last time I rode Melly felt really off, and Trax was sort of blah too.  Or wait, maybe that was me that was feeling blah.  I don't know, it was just a real let down after the awesome sorting I did just a few days before.   I wanted to sort this week but life REALLY got in the way this time.   Well there is always next week.

Today was my grandaughters 7th birthday which I hosted at our house.  It was a ton of fun, and of course all the girls wanted to ride.  Instead of pulling out Killian, I used Melody.  After all, who better to carry around 4 little princesses (literally in princess dresses) than the Princess Mellypalouza herself.   I rode her a bit to warm her up, and she did great. When we did a few shoulder moves, one of the girls asked if Melly knew how to dance.  Well she kind of does, so I showed them a couple of her "dance" moves.  They thought that was awesome.   Then they all took turns riding her in the round pen.  Melly did just great, and I was quite proud of her.

Well now it is the start of a new week.  I smell and need a shower and after the multitude of high pitched squeals we have had to endure today, am pretty exhausted as well.

Hope everyone is enjoying the last of their summer!

Alter Ego's...and Saddles for Sale.

I have been dying to go to the big arena in my neighborhood for a long time now. They do roping a few days a week, barrels a few days a week, and on Fridays it is sorting night.   However my job kept me from going.

Now that THAT is no longer in the way, I put on my big girl panties, saddled up Killian and Melody, and headed down the road last night.  I didn't take Trax this time for a couple of reasons.  First off, I have seen Trax on a cow, he could really care less. For a former rope and ranch horse, he is one of the least "cowy" horses I have ever seen.  Plus, I still have not gotten around to ponying any horses off of him in the arena to see how he will react.

I know that seems silly, after all it isn't the same as dragging a log, but I was adding in a couple of factors.  First off, I have never taken Melody any further than the end of my street, and I knew I would be ponying her.  While Melody is prone to spook, her spooks are small and manageable, but I still don't know for sure what will make her spook. Trax on the other hand doesn't spook that often but when he does it takes both hands to stop him.  There are too many variables there, and I felt that for our first time out I wanted to go with the horse I know can handle ponying another horse, especially one who could spook at any little thing and any given time.

However, I should not have been concerned.  Melody did fantastic, didn't even spook at passing traffic.  We had to cross a bridge to get to the arena, and Killian gave it a second look, but other than that, they did great.  Good job ponies!

We got there and there was no one there.  But I made a phone call and in minutes T was there, and said he would be right back with a saddled horse.  While I waited I went ahead and warmed up in the smaller arena.

I learned something about Killian right then, and about myself.   When I ride Killian, I don't ask much from him.  I push his shoulders around, mostly we trot down the road or around the arena.  I finally started insisting on correct leads and his lope has changed from off kilter, to a really nice comfy lope. This is especially true since his chiro adjustment.   When I ride the other two, I ask for a lot of short runs, quick stops, roll backs, take off and do it all over again.  I don't know why I never asked these things of Killian, but I darn sure will from now on.  I wanted to get him into what I call "Quick feet mode" and so we did those short runs, and quick stops, and let me just say DAMN, he really does know how to tuck that butt and stop.  I have clearly underestimated my old guys abilities.  Or maybe I just made excuses because of his age, but he is in pretty good shape other than being a little overweight, so that is all going to change.

Anyway, Melody was kind of sore acting the last time I rode her so I went ahead and gave her just a light dose of bute yesterday, so that she would feel ok.  As I warmed her up I could feel a big difference.  When she isn't hurting, her training shines.   She has some Back on Track hock boots coming, and we have a new exercise regime which we will be implementing (one that does not allow spins) so we can strengthen that hind end.   But for this night we trotted and loped and worked on our leg cues and such.  She is a dream, that is all I can say.

By then the guy, T, was back and we made our way to the big arena and he brought out the cows. There was a horse right by the gate in a pen banging around on the feeder and Melody said she could not go past that. So I had to get off and lead her.

I got back on and we loped around the arena once, she was on high alert, but responsive.  Once we entered the sorting pens her entire demeanor changed.  Where as usually she spends a lot of time worrying about what  is going on on around her, the minute we stepped in the pens she couldn't see anything but cows.

Right then, that very moment my flighty, dingbat of a diva turned into a cow eating machine.

T asked if I had done sorting before.

"Um no, but I have seen it done."

"Okay so you understand the concept then?"

"Yes for the most part."

So he explained how he likes to do it, and then sent me in after my first cow.

I picked out a cow, urged Melly forward and she went to work.  She cut left, she cut right, she almost lost me once because I wasn't ready for her quick moves, but I managed to stay on and she got the job done inspite of me.  We traded back and forth, I'd guard the gate, and he'd get a cow, then he'd guard the gate and I'd go get a cow.  When Melly was at the gate occasionally a wrong cow would head our way and she would give it her "I'm a cow eating machine" evil eye and said cow would run to the other side of the pen and hide.  (Okay that might be a slight exaggeration...but only slight)

After our first round T said, "I thought you said you had never done this before?"

"I haven't, but my horse has.  My horse was headed to the Sorting finals in OK, when I bought her."

We did a few more rounds as I got the feel for her and pretty soon we had a really good rhythm going.  Sometimes he would guard the gate and have me sort them all, and sometimes we would trade off.  She was amazing, I can't even begin to tell you how well she did.

Then I switched out horses and gave Big K a try.  Killian also has an alter ego.  My rock steady, doesn't give a darn about anything horse couldn't keep his mind on his job because he spent all of his time worrying about where Melody was.  I had to reach down and smack him on the shoulder with my reins to get his attention.

Eventually he got down to work, and it didn't take long before the sweat was pouring off of him. Not a bad thing, he is seriously over weight.  He does not have the "cow presence" that Melody has.  I think it was because she cared about her job, and he really didn't.  But all in all, for a horse who has not had to work in 4 years, he did pretty good.  I think I did 4 or 5 rounds on him.

Then I switched back to Melody.  She spooked at the gate but once she got in, the switch came on and her focus was soooo intense.  I mean she literally doesn't see anything but cows.  I love it!

We did a few more rounds, and I probably could have done more, but she has gotten a little soft since coming to live with me, and I didn't want to over do it the first time around, so we stopped there. After the last round I got the biggest compliment ever.

"THAT is one broke horse!" (in cowboy lingo it doesn't get any better than that.)

Then it was time to ride home.....in the dark....without a moon.

Killian decided that this would be a great time to become an idiot and do his, "I'm headed home before you get all the way up in the saddle trick."  Not cool big red, not cool at all!

We made it home safe and sound, they got a nice hose down and a tiny little snack.  I floated in the house and wouldn't shut up for an hour...okay 3 hours.

I cannot wait to get back there again.

If I could get Melody to get over her fear of trail obstacles, we could actually do really well in ASHA.  Really well.


Moving on,

I had a request for pics of the saddles I have for sale, for now I have 3 that are really ready.  I just picked up 4 more and still have 3 more that I need to work on. My saddle shop is under construction right now, so I don't really have a place to work.  It should be done this week, then it will be time to get busy.

First up is a very nice roping saddle.  This saddle was made by a company called Weatherford Saddlery out of Laveen, AZ.   It has a 15.5" seat, 7" gullet and is in fabulous condition.  The leather is buttery soft, the seat is in good shape, it comes with front and rear cinch and riggings, and breast collar.  The asking price on this one is $700.00  It is a good solid heavy saddle, made to get the job done.

Next is my Circle Y Equitation  16" seat, 7" gullet, FQHB.  light weight, but not cheap, has silver accents, comes with matching breast collar and headstall which have real silver conchos. They are also made by circle Y.  One of the most comfortable saddles I have ever ridden in.  Asking $900.00 for the full set, $800.00 for just the saddle.

The last one I have that is ready right now is my Colorado Saddlery trail saddle.  This one is older but the perfect choice for someone who is on a budget but still wants a good quality saddle.  It is 15" seat, 6.5" gullet, SQHB, leather is soft and supple, comes with front cinch and rigging's.  I only am asking $400.00 on this one.

Of course most of my prices are negotiable.

What I have coming up will be:

15" Circle Y Equitation- no silver, just a nice simple saddle, $500.00
Unknown maker 16"  Reiner/All around - $500.00
unkown maker 17" cutting saddle  $400.00
Unkown maker 16" rope saddle- $500.00
Blue Ridge 16"Cutting saddle- $400.00
Blue Ridge16" Rope saddle- $400.00
Unknown 15-16' Trail Saddle- $ 300.00

I won't post pics of the others until they are ready for sale.

I will ship to other states if need be.