Mid January and can you believe Kirstin is wearing short sleeves. The weather here in Texas has been unusually warm & terribly dry. Anyone who has excess rain, please send it our way. We have fed so much hay this winter. The cows & horses have nothing to eat except what we feed them. I'm sure they don't mind getting the grain & hay but my pocketbook sure does. We're used to buying hay for the horses, but we normally bale the hay that we feed our cattle. We couldn't bale this past year because it was too dry. So now we are having to buy hay for both cows & horses.
Taz is in a new field so much of what he is experiencing is new to him. Notice the new saddle blanket, doesn't it look really nice with Taz's new saddle. It took a couple of days to get the new saddle blanket on him, he didn't like the idea of something new & strange going on his back. But now that he has used it a couple of times he is OK with it.
These two are becoming really good friends(the horses, that is). The other two are sisters and have always gotten along pretty well. Jamie, Kirstin's sister finds riding Taz confusing so she only rides Trigger. She just can't seem to get the riding by leg cues down. I think I 've said it before, Trigger isn't trained to ride by leg cues, he is completely neck reined, so for the beginner rider he is a perfect horse. Kirstin now loves to ride by leg cues, so she has been trying to teach Trigger some leg cues. Trigger is a little on the thin side. About 6 months ago he injured his hind legs pretty severely. He apparently tried to mule kick our neighbor's gelding(which is completely out of character for him) through their fence and got both of his hind legs hung up in the woven wire they have surrounding their property. Fortunately, he stayed relatively calm otherwise the damage could have been devastating. Our horses are now fenced away from our neighbor's place so that won't happen again. Whenever he stresses out, he loses weight and we have to work really hard to get it back on him. He is definitely opposite of the Mustangs-he is a very hard keeper. He is finally completely healed and is starting to put the weight back on and Kirstin is working on getting him back into shape for the upcoming drill team/playday season.
1 comment:
Okay, I will start this post with whining.....I WANT IT TO BEEEE WARMMMMM HEREEEEEE TOOOOOOO! Was that whiney enough? Ha ha!
It has warmed up to 17 degrees here, it is cloudy, windy, and there is a light layer of snow on the ground. Yeah...no short sleeves here right now.
I am done whining now. Now is the positive! How awesome that you all can wear short sleeves in January. I just wish you all would get the rain you need tho.
What great pictures! I guess I thought that Kirstin was an only child. Is Kirstin older or younger? Reminds me of when I was younger - my sisters, brother and I would ride together quite a bit, and we had so much fun! A bunch of ragamuffin kids in shorts, tank tops and flip flops or tennis shoes riding bareback to the creek to play! The good 'ol days.
Summer looks like a big girl too! I am glad you all were able to save her from a fate unknown.
I am glad you are using me as an example to warm up our horses before we get on! You are so right! Taz and Tripp are so good, but they are still babies in a sense and all it takes is once for things to really go wrong. I will not make that mistake again, and good for you for making Kirstin work him first to check his mood. I am also glad I had my helmet on - I found a scuff on it. Altho I could have gotten that when I was rolling around trying to get up to 'prove' to Brian I was okay. HA! Still wish I had video - you are right about the entertainment factor too! I would say "Maybe next time" but hopefully there won't be one!
I have decided to jump in and be part of the T.I.P program. We are going to pick up two mustangs this next weekend, and then I will start promoting them and try to find homes within the 90 day period. A part time job would help things a lot, and I decided I can either work a job where someone is telling me what to do and when to be there, or I can work with horses and work on my own schedule and learn more fun stuff as I go! Plus it will help me to do another EMM and pay for my Natural Hoof Care class I signed up for. :-) This is going to be another busy year! Ya hoo!
Hugs to you all, and Kirstin and Taz are looking great!
Until later...Karen and Tripp
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