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!