Video of MONK's race boots.

Walk about 2 & 3

I love these green horses, as long as they are FUR side up.  G'day bay is doing great.  He has worked through lots of things on the trail.  Glad I ride alone as people would wonder why I open and close the Velcro on my water bottles a thousand times on the right and again on the left, why I grab tree branches and shake them.  He still skitters when he steps on a twig that makes noise or gets small branches caught for a second or two.  He is a smart horse and no longer even turns an ear for the branches or the Velcro or when the branches hit my helmet.  The branches that touch him is also a no issue.  He is a little apprehensive about some of the short embankments I ask him to go up or down.  We made it down to the lake today and almost into the water, just need a day when there are not so many boats and they make the splashing waves on the beach, which are really scary..  On day 3, which was today and part of day 2, we did some trotting..  Wow, have never been on a horse with such a smooth trot, it was not big by any sense of the imagination, but just a real nice maybe 10 mph trot.  So yesterday, ride 2, we did 5 miles, today we did 8, not sure our average speed has hit about 4 yet, but soon.  I did get his HR up to 190 for a minute or so.  It will take 30 days or so before he is really fit enough to safely pick up the speed a little.  Walking all of these hills will do the job pretty quickly....

G'day Bay - First Walk About

G'day Bay is 4 years old and a big Arab.  Today was the day for his Walk About under saddle.  He has been ponied maybe 4 times and is a lover boy.  I am always apprehensive about getting on a new horse for the first time.  I did have a video of him under saddle, but I was still scared as hell.  I cannot afford to get hurt and I don't heal quick anymore.  Anyway, I showed him the saddle and he did not even flinch so on it went. I am 6'1" and ride with a long stirrup, those stirrups did not come to the bottom of his belly.  I decided I would walk him away from the ranch so his Tucson buddy was not screaming at him.  So a walk about we went...   Before I even got on him he ended up jumping a couple of feet backwards, at what I do not know, just grazing my foot, luckily I had my boots on instead of my Jesus sandals.  Not a good OMEN...  I started to mount and put weight in the stirrups, everything was OK, so over the cantle came the leg.  G'day Bay was mouthing the bit something fierce.  I got off and checked the bit and he had his tongue over the bit..  So, we fixed that and I re mounted.  It was like he had no idea what to do..  This whole time I am thinking about getting off and which trainer I am going to take him to and how much money I will have to spend etc. etc.....  I am seriously going to bail if it looks like he is going to give me any grief at all.  I got him to move some, we did a few 50 foot circles, he would just stop and we would stand there for a couple of minutes.  I was not about to get after him other then a slight urging to go forward.  We finally worked it out by doing the circles and finally made it out to the road. He went through a scary gate, which he hardly looked at on the way back. We did about a whole 1 hour, and made it 3 miles, but we accomplished tons.  He did want to trot some and managed to maybe get in 12 or 13 feet, but I was determined to keep it at the walk for the first day..... He tried to sneak in a few trots here and there which actually I like....  Only had one other thing happen which I was ready for was a branch caught a little on my boot and scared him.  All in all a good day with G'day Bay

Ricky Tick trail ride

My neighbor is putting on a Ride and Tie up in the Malakoff area in the high country and asked I would like to come and help look at some trails with her.  I loaded up Psuntana and Ricky Tick and headed out.  Beautiful day with nice trails.  We rode for a couple of hours looking at where different trails went.  Horses did great.  Ricky Tick did good, he looked at things pretty intent but no big surprises.  He loads well, stands still when you mount, goes any speed you want, is very handsome and friendly.  Basically just a real nice horse.  He is not very fit yet, but his recoveries for what he is doing are more then great.  Looking forward to more rides on this nice boy.

Name Change.....

Fabian's Fancy, the big bay 4 year old out of a Australian bred Toft stud is now named G'dayBay.....
Nobel Dragoon, 6 year old gray, is now named Ricky Ticky... or maybe just Ricky...

Top of a real tough hill..... never had to do that before!!!!  I am going to be good...

Ricky had is 4 th ride today.  He was fully booted and we went on a 8 mile trek down to the lake and back up the other side and then home...  Total of 2000 feet of elevation gain.  He did great, lots of NEW things to look at, he was very brave for being so inexperienced.  No water crossings yet, but soon.  He got to run, trot, and had his Heart Rate hit the 190's 3 times...

Ricky and Psuntana are going on a longish trail ride tomorrow...  should be interesting..

Dragoon walks!

No boots today, barefoot only, checked feet and did a little rasping..  Most horses that are shod are not used to your handling their feet all the time.  Dragoon was good, just takes awhile to get the foot, once I got it, no problem.

We saddled up and headed out, we mounted up directly this time, even with his buddy screaming in the pasture. No problem, Dragoon did not even answer back.  One of the first things I noticed about this horse is that he has a great walk.  His downhill walk is a almost a 5 hour 50 walk, really fast.:).  Much faster then yesterday, at least it seemed like it, no GPS today so not for sure, but I was impressed.

We rode for at least an hour, mostly hills, had a nice long uphill cantor and trot and he did great.  You can tell that he probably has not done much hills before, if any, so will take some time to get him legged up.  He is still looking at stuff pretty carefully, but all in all I am very impressed.  The fitness will come, he appears to be forward and eager to please.  I have found that the more fit they become the more forward they are.  But, you have to keep things interesting and not get them bored.  Small but important point.

Dragoon, first ride.

I am always very apprehensive about getting on a horse for the FIRST time, guess that is pretty normal..   Anyway I went out on put the halter on Dragoon and led him into the barn.  The first thing they do is the Tucson boys start screaming back and forth, I hate that.....grrrrrrrr...  Trimmed his front feet a little on put on a pair of gloves..  Let him out to the trailer where my tack was from the day before and saddled him up.  With the screaming still going on I led him about 1/3 mile away and out of site before I mounted.  Needless to say it went perfect, other then being very GREEN he did a great job.  I usually start off with a nice long walk to make sure they are comfortable.  First thing I noticed which I was very pleased with was that he had a very nice FAST walk, gps said it was almost 5mph, but that was on the downhill.  I did see a consistent 4+ MPH, which is great for a potential endurance horse.  I did get into a nice 1/4 mile uphill trot from which he did not recover from very fast, so that was the end of the harder uphill work.  We rode for four miles and were in the saddle for one hour.  All in all I was very pleased, he was forward, curious but not stupid, nice smooth trot, fast walk, no head tossing, no sideways motion, well maybe a little when he heard his buddy screaming for him...

Tucson team members arrive...

My two internet ponies have arrived on July 6th from Tucson.  I usually don't like taking a chance when purchasing horses but with the reputation of Al-Marah arabians I did bid on two horses.  The horse I wanted was a rather large 4 year old bay, you can check out his video somewhere in the blog..

  If I was able to purchase this horse for under 2K then I was going to big on a gray horse that a friend of mine really liked.. She knows much more about conformation and breeding then I do, so if I could get this other horse for a minimal bid I thought I would go for it.  The transportation from Tucson to here would not be that much more for two then one...   Long story short I did get both horses.

Tucson team photo link..

The bay is a big horse, when he is standing tall I could hardly reach the top of his head, and I am not a small person at 6-1, at least I used to be that tall..  I have just changed his name from Fabian's Fancy to Aussie, due to his Australian breeding, he is out of one of the Toft's studs imported by AM.  Aussie is only 4 and more then likely only used to the inside of a riding ring.  He is a little jumpy but is just the sweetest horse.  He loves you to rub his face and ears and has some spots he just loves to be scratched and moves into you like a puppy dog would.

The gray, barn name has not come to be yet, is real name is Nobel Dragoon, is also a very nice horse.  Very friendly, nice body, nice big feet, nice size cannon bones, floaty trot.

I met the horse haulers at a local farm about 20 miles away.  I was there when they pulled in the driveway.  Dragoon was first out of the back of the trailer.  Aussie was second and seems as though he had busted his halter, even though he was not tied.  I had brought one of MONK's halters so we got him haltered and out of the trailer.  We loaded the Tucson boys in my 3 horse trailer without incident and I was headed for home.

I had not yet decided about where I was going to put them.  I had a large area across the driveway from the main pasture that was laid out with electric wide tape fencing.  That is where they went for the first couple of days.  I did have an escape but they were captured quickly and introduced to the main pasture.  I had to kick my bully horse Psuntana out of the pasture.  We live pretty much out where they is no one else so when horses get out, they usually do not go any where so Psuntana just hangs around the outside perimeter.

I have introduced the new team members to the art of being ponied by the Quad..   Both of them pretty much responded in the same manner..   I pretty much had to drag them for about 1 mile, then all of a sudden they figured out they could trot, and that was pretty much it, except for the all of sudden once in awhile of coming to a complete stop.... and then have to drag them for a 100 feet or so and then back to the trot.

Both have very nice large feet.  I have been putting Gloves on the front feet. Both have done the 3 mile loop twice as of today.

More later