Meet Turbo

I brought Turbo in with Cayenne today. Turbo is my yearling gelding, soon to be officially 2 years old! He was a result of a fundraiser breeding I purchased to raise money for Jack Bowser, an Appaloosa breeder who was injured a few years ago. Sparkee, my pretty Stardee mare, is Turbo's dam. I sold Sparkee to some nice people this summer as a trail/all-around horse. I miss her but she's getting ridden more than she did with me. Turbo's sire is Dreams Reward, a Dreamfinder son out of a Skip's Reward daughter. Turbo is a sweetie and one of the last of my horses who don't really fall into the "working" category that I've discovered I like so well. He's a chestnut with a light dorsal stripe (not really enough to be an honest red dun) with a little bit of frosting on his hips. He has a pretty little head and a great personality.

I've saddled and ponied Turbo many times and also hauled him to practice on an extreme trail course this fall. He's trusting of people and does well on trail obstacles. He walks over tarps and wooden bridges, crosses water, ground drives, I can rub anything on him and swing stuff around him and pretty much do anything else I can think of. Anyhow, I trimmed his feet today and saddled him just for the heck of it. I decided not to pony him with his shortened hooves and our hard ground so I just turned him out in the round pen with his saddle on while I rode Cayenne.

My goals with Turbo are to continue letting him grow up and then start him under saddle and sell him. I think he'll make a great all-around horse. He may be a good non-pro or youth horse with his disposition.

I also rode butterball Smarty today. What a jiggly little guy! He was so happy to get out and do something! I didn't do much more than trot up the road and back but it was a good outing for him. I'm getting more used to Cayenne and she has a longer stride than he does. He's more like a pony!

Christmas Weekend Riding and Reading

I went for an exhilarating ride on Little Cayenne yesterday! It got up into the 20's, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. She was full of herself and determined that the neighbors falling trees and burning slash across the road were monsters. I finally rode her down to see them and she quickly determined that they were not that bad but monsters must be somewhere. Anywhere! Since our place is so icy, I long trotted her up the road, next to the pavement. When we hit the gravel road, I galloped her out. She's never been up there so the neighborhood goats, cows, large dogs, wolf (in a chain link pen) and miniature horses kept her motivated to move! I slowed her up and turned back for home after a mile or so. She moved out briskly but felt better. She had a closer look at all of the critters on the way home. There was still a couple hours of sunlight left so I tied her to the trailer with her cooler on to dry off. First I tied her to my incomplete hitching rail for a picture.

I found a great little article about Ima Little Lena in an old(April 1988) Appaloosa Journal the other night. Ima Little Lena is Smarty's maternal grandsire. A photo of him graced the cover of the magazine but I didn't recognize him. He was sitting like a dog with a rider (Bill Freeman) on board. I thought, "That's a cute little horse but what's he doing sitting on his butt?!" It turned out that it was Ima Little Lena after a round of cutting at the Augusta Cutting Horse Futurity. Apparently, he was the only Appaloosa out of 160 horses and one of 15 brothers and sisters sired by the AQHA stallion, Smart Little Lena. After Ima Little Lena's work in the semi-finals, Bill Freeman had him demonstrate his trick horse abilities by taking a bow. After cutting as the fourth horse in the finals, Ima Little Lena added laying down and sitting on his haunches like a dog to the show, resulting in a standing ovation from the crowd! The Appaloosa stallion ended up placing 5th out of the 160 horses in the Augusta futurity. I think that's mighty impressive! It's too bad he was sold overseas before siring more foals in the US.

Smokey's First Day

I started Smokey under saddle today with the assistance of my little helper, Cayenne. Cayenne is the leopard pictured after we loped around in the dirty snow/rain slop today! Smokey is very easy going and willing so far. She’s a bit pushy on the ground but really does understand how to give to pressure. I brought her in out of the rain and brushed her before turning her into the round corral. She trotted around calling to Cayenne, her new best friend. After she settled down, I went out and put my favorite rope halter on her so she could feel what I was asking better than in her web halter. I did some basic groundwork and she was responsive. I introduced the pad and saddle to her with no problems. I have no idea if she’s ever been saddled before but she did wonderfully. I did some more yielding exercises, flapping the stirrups, etc and she didn’t bobble.

I warmed Cayenne up while letting Smokey trot around in the round pen with the saddle on. Cayenne was feeling fresh so I did lots of trotting and loping before attempting to pony Smokey. After fifteen minutes or so, I rode into the round pen and gathered Smokey up. She was unsure at first and thought she should boss Cayenne around. I let her know that the pony horse is always the boss! She accepted her place immediately, got the concept of ponying and we headed outside. Smokey seems unfamiliar with brush, logs, rocks, banks, etc so I let her have extra rope to satisfy her curiosity. She was not fearful at all, she just wanted to stop and sniff everything new. We took a short jaunt around and about and then I put Smokey back in the round pen.

I did some more groundwork, stepped up and down in the stirrups several times, and finally got on Smokey. She was unsure the first time I stepped up in the stirrup but didn’t spook or get very tense. I did lots of petting on her and she relaxed quickly. I got on and off a few times and let her move around when she wanted. She was quite giving with her nose and I was able to steer her easily with the rope halter. She was not concerned about me being on her back. For all I know, someone has been up there already. She is a High Sign Nugget though so she may not have had any work at all! My Smarty and Cayenne have been the easiest for me to start so it must be a bloodline trait!

Until I teach Cayenne to use the camera, we won't be seeing any photos of me riding Smokey!

New Addition

I met a hauler in Chewelah today to get a few horses my mom bought. I'm keeping the 3yr old to start under saddle. She's a High Sign Nugget daughter so I'm pretty excited. I don't know much about her bottom side other than it's good foundation Appaloosa breeding. I think we're going to call the new girl "Smokey." So far, she's friendly and curious natured. We'll see what the future holds for her. That's her on a dark winter day in the round pen.

Cayenne has been getting ridden fairly regularly for the past couple weeks. She had a long break before that. She's easy to get back on and go with. It's too frozen and snowy to do anything too fast so we'll save the sliding stops and rollbacks for the occasional trip to an indoor arena! I'm working on collection, transitions and spins with her now. I want to be as ready as possible for some extreme trail and maybe versatility ranch horse competitions with her in 2010.

I found a couple well bred horses in Canada that I'm researching the feasibility on purchasing. The last thing I need is another horse but one of them is an excellent resale project. The other is probably a keeper :) I won't jinx myself by saying names until I get more info and decide what I'm going to do about them!

Long overdue update

Well, the shorter days mean I may get back to this blog a bit more often! An update on Smart Little Cayenne's progress in life is in order. I used her in the Trainer's Challenge at the Horsin' Around Horse Expo in Sandpoint, Idaho in June '09. The challenge was to bring a youngster with no more than 40 rides (I think I had about 35 at that time), use them for demos on your training techniques thoughout the weekend, and then compete against the other trainers. There were four trainers and we were judged on rail work, pattern work, and an obstacle course. It was lots of fun, a great weekend, and Cayenne and I won it!

I hauled her to Townsend, MT to ride in a 2 week seminar with Pat Wyse at the end of July. She did wonderful and showed some talent towards reining. I took her to a trail competition in Idaho later in the year and she did great on the obstacles but got buddy sour towards the end and kept calling for the horse ahead of us and not paying much attention to the course. She didn't even care about seeing a llama for the first time.

I hope to ride her regularly all winter, even if it's just slogging through the snow and keeping her in some kind of shape. Other than round.

I also took Cayenne's sire, Smart Little Sign, to Townsend. "Smarty" was his typical laid back self. I think he accels more in extreme trail than in reining. Or I do! He won the Xtreme Trail Challenge at Ride the West in May so I'm pretty proud of him! He had some time off after Townsend as I had other horses to ride but I rode him yesterday and today. He's the same as ever and happy to be worked again.

I started my 2yr old, Willie B Smart, last month and have a handful of rides on him now. I hauled him to the arena several times and rode him in there. He walks over tarps, bridges, and drags a short log under saddle. He has been really quiet but I know he's a fireball under that facade! I don't call him "Blaze" for no reason! Smarty is his sire so he has to have some level headedness to him. Blaze picks up on new things ok. He turns on the forehand and can "get" a couple steps of leg yield along the fence at a time. He's a good project. Hopefully he turns out nice after a year or two of riding.

Sunshine & Snow

A couple friends and I had a great ride in the sunshine today. The snow was knee deep on the horses in places, making the going difficult especially where it was frozen. We rode to "Windy Ridge" on the west side of Burnt Valley and stopped for lunch. It was so peaceful up there, looking down over Chewelah Valley and the backside of 49 Degrees North, the ski hill. We must have taken over an hour for lunch because it was so nice enjoying the warmth. Granted, we were still bundled in layers of clothing and winter coats, but it felt good!

I rode my 3yr old filly, Smart Little Cayenne. I put 10-15 rides on "Cayenne" late last summer then turned her out again. I put her in the barn last weekend and today was her 5th ride for this year. I would normally not ask such a green horse to make the trek we did today but she's very willing and "advanced" for her amount of training. We did lots of climbing, log crossing, brush breaking, and basic slogging through snow. Cayenne led 99% of the way, #1 because I knew the trail (or at least the basic direction we wanted to go) and #2 because she's in a hurry everywhere she goes!

Cayenne is a bay leopard Appaloosa. She currently stands 14.2-14.3hands but her dam was a slow developer so I hope she will make 15 hands or more by the time she's five or six years old. Cayenne's sire is 14.2 and her dam is 15.1 or 15.2. I bred and raised Cayenne and she has been turned out where she can learn how to handle herself on brushy hillsides, etc. Her sire, Smart Little Sign, is quite handy on his feet and a natural in the hills. Her maternal grandsire was a catty little riding horse and her dam's bottom side was my grandfather's line of Appaloosa roping horses. Her sire is pretty laid back but on the bottom side, there are many high energy, "hyper" type horses. Cayenne seems to have taken the good parts of each side. She's sensible but has lots of go!

We talked about heading to an indoor arena next week. I would love to take Cayenne as she's never been in one, besides the small covered area at my dad's where I start colts. I'd like to lope some circles, do some drop to trot lead changes and maybe green colt rollbacks on her. I need to take Smart Little Sign to do some arena work, too. I've only ridden him once this winter and we have the Pat Wyse clinic coming up in Sandpoint in just over a month. I need to get him legged up and do a bunch of same lead rolls. My favorite.

This is my first blog so we'll see how dedicated I end up being on reporting my riding stories. I'd rather be in the saddle than riding this computer chair!