Surprise Horse Cookies

This is GunDiva. The daughter.

Two weekends ago was our annual Baking Weekend at the lodge. It's always a big to-do, and we always crank out a lot of cookies, but we've never made cookies for the horses before. The Friday of Baking Weekend, I had to drop Jay off at the airport on my way up to the lodge, and as I was driving, I drove right past the barn where my friend boards her horse. I looked at the facility and immediately thought, "we should make some horse cookies." Now, why I thought about it when driving by my friend's horse's barn and never while looking out the window at our own horses, I'll never know, but the idea took root.

I was running ahead of schedule, and hungry, so when I stopped to grab a bite to eat, I looked up horse cookie recipes that wouldn't require me to go to the store to buy more ingredients. There were a lot of yummy sounding ones, but the one I landed on was this one:

This seemed easy enough, and we had all of the ingredients, so up to the lodge I went with my additional project in mind.

Luckily, I got up there before everyone else, so Mom and I had undisturbed mother/daughter time to whip out these treats for the horses. They came together very easily and quickly. 

I quickly wrote down the recipe on a white board so we didn't have to keep going back and forth to the video. In the video, she said to bake them at 315*F, which Mom and I decided had to be a mistake, so we baked ours at 350*F. Very quickly, we smelled burning molasses, and turned the oven down. If you chose to make them, follow the video's directions.

We dug through our cookie cutters and found a cowboy boot, cowboy hat, and a horse to use. Not that the horses care about the shapes of their cookies, but they made us smile. We chose to leave them unfrosted, as none of our horses need the extra sugar, and we didn't want to bother with the mess.

I did taste one, just because, and it's not horrible to my human pallet, but not great. The horses, however, greatly disagree and think they're about the best cookies on the planet. Washoe and Alloy got the first taste of the cookies after they loaded into their horse uber, but the rest had to wait until they'd finished with their Christmas pictures yesterday.

This is a simple and easy recipe to make, and the horses give them four hooves up.

Bad Cop, Good Cop

 

Saturday, March 19^th, 5:00 p.m.

Phone rings.  “Hi Scott.  How are you?”  “Juanita, I just wanted to call and let you know I moved the horses from the north section to the south.”  “OK, thanks.”  “I really called to tell you … that brown horse of yours ….” 

Oh, oh.  What has Alloy done now?  Apparently, after getting caught, loaded, and moved, Al had decided he couldn’t get out of the trailer fast enough, so he went charging out backwards, breaking the hay string that had been used on his halter to lead him and load him.  (We tend to use whatever is handy to move our horses around, be it a dog leash, hay string, belt, whatever – as they are generally very good about it.)  There was no way anyone was going to get near him again.  So we got the call that we now had a horse loose in a very large pasture with a halter on; an absolute no-no in all our books.

 We headed the 18 miles down off the mountain to see if we could be of help.  Fortunately, the time was just right for us to use our own canyon to make the trip.  Our canyon is under construction to fix flood damages from 8 years ago and you can only drive it certain times of the day.  We got to the pasture, found the horses and discovered we also were not going to get near them; even my boy who comes at a trot when I call said, “not now, there’s grass!”

                                        Washoe is the white horse, Alloy is hidden behind him.

We decided to just come back the next day and ‘walk them down’.  Sunday dawned bright and sunny.    This time Washoe walked right up to me and let me brush all the mud off, a good deal of winter hair, and detangle the dreadlocks from his mane; all without a halter.  We spent the morning walking the pasture behind a stubborn bay horse with a more stubborn black mare, who seems to have become the lead mare and wanted nothing to do with Alloy getting caught.  Washoe went back to the other horses and started grazing and the two errant horses decided to circle them.  You would have thought they were inside a 30 ft. round pen, instead of on 30 acres of pasture.  

 Fortunately, the mare is not the endurance horse Alloy is, and finally tired and joined the others grazing.  That made the circling game not so fun any longer and Alloy finally joined them after a few more circles. Bill did almost all the ‘lunging’ while I stayed on the outside incase one of them decided to leave the circle.  Finally, Bill walked back to the car for some water and more snacks.  In the interim Al decided to just hang with the others so I walked into the group and started rubbing faces.  Guess who wanted his face rubbed, too?  After a couple of attempts, he stood still when I offered him an oat granola bar in exchange for his halter.  He was very still while I unbuckled it, then almost forgot his oat bar.  He sooo wants to still be a wild horse! 

The whole process really only took three and a half hours.  Bill said Alloy considered him the ‘bad cop’ and me the ‘good cop’.  What a great way to spend a gorgeous day – with the horses.

Bionic Cowgirl

Harnessing 101 (long video)

Farm Days in La Junta, CO.  Friends of ours have been asking us to join them there for several years now.  If you want to see big teams – as in draft horses – work, it’s the place to be in the Spring.  I had an ulterior motive this year; I want to teach Jesse to drive and there would be a well-known harness maker and trainer there.  In fact, it’s at his farm site.  The idea of the weekend is to get his fields plowed and ready for planting – using horses instead of tractors.  He owns four well-trained gray drafts and there were going to be several other teams; everyone there to pull a plow or disc or whatever was needed.  I was promised huge information on all things to do with harnesses, driving, horses, and a great time.  I must say, the information part turned out to be overwhelming.

When we arrived on Friday, the teams were just coming in from the day’s work in the field.   We stood around in awe of the giant animals moving around us; some of every different breed; even a couple teams of mules; some matched; some mismatched; very large ones and a Halflinger team; one that appeared to be Mustangs.

Dinner was served cowboy style; outdoors on planks set up on props; a cook fire going outside as well as inside the bunkhouse.  We all pitched in somehow, whether helping to setup, cook, clean up afterwards.  The kids got put to work; nobody was left out.  And of course, afterwards, the music started with first one guitar/singer, then another adding in, and another.  You could just sit and listen to the wonderful old cowboy ballads or join in the singing.  Talk about days gone by!

My big objective was to learn all I could about fitting and harnessing horses, before I actually bought tack for Jesse.  On Saturday the plan was to spend as much time as possible ‘shadowing’ the ones with the info.  Del is a local legend in the industry and was willing to take me under his wing.  It was like drinking from a firehose, following him around.  He had brought his horses in and tied them off on a trailer.  I was pointed to curry and told to get busy.  Lots of white hair flying and are these guys BIG?!  We took a break for breakfast and then the real work started.

Del was great about explaining how and why for all parts of the harness.  I watched him harness three of the horses, then was told, “Your turn.”  What?  OK, I got this.  Want to take a guess what all those straps weigh?  When you get the collar and the rest of the harness, you can have anywhere from 75 to 100 lbs., depending on how fancy you want to get.

The fun starts when you get to sit on the collar and bounce up and down to ‘round it back out’, since when you hang it up, it is wet and tends to elongate downward as it dries.  You have to get it back to a rounder shape to put over the horse’s head.  Some of this stuff is done differently than for the show horses.  Remember, these are work horses headed out into the fields, and they and their gear come back mighty sweaty and dusty.  Now you get to lift this (maybe 20 lb.) collar onto the horse by pushing it over their face – nose, eyes, ears – and settling it down just above the withers.  Not bad when you have a great horse who helps by sticking her nose in and pushing to get the ears through.

Next, get the rest of the harness settled on your arm and lift off the hook.  Much easier said than done, and then you get to settle this mass on your hip and kind of hitch yourself over to the horse.  Feels like it weighs about what my 50lb. saddle does, and most of the time I can get it slung over my horse.  But this is a totally different configuration, lots of straps hanging down to the ground, and by the way, the horse is 16 or 17+ hands (at least 8 inches taller than my mare in the real world).

I give it a good toss – and it goes nowhere near where it should.  Del says to squat down to the ground and give a big heave.  Right!  I try again and sort of get most of the straps up and part way over; Del comes to the rescue and helps me shove it the rest of the way.   Obviously, there is a practiced technique to this.   He shows me how to set the hames in the groove on the collar and bind them into place.  He isn’t any bigger than me so I have to laugh when he literally swings all his weight on the buckle to get it tight enough.  Then the buckling up starts, walking around the horse connecting straps as you go, pulling the breeching over the rump and getting the tail settled over the strap, and making sure everything is absolutely straight, so you don’t cause any sores. 

Time for the bridle.  That head is a long way up there and these guys don’t figure it necessary to teach your horse to lower its head and be accommodating.  However, this mare was great about lowering her head when I asked, taking the bit like a lady and being patient because I had never handled blinders before, which are permanently attached to the bridle.

Now for the reins, all 25 ft. of them.  Sling them over the back and out onto the ground behind, then thread them through the proper spots and attach to the bit on the left side of the horse to be on the left.  Repeat on the right side of the horse to be on the right.  Now, to hook them together in the middle and learn how the reins work, so you as a driver only have two reins in your hands to signal two horses to do the same thing.

Then I got to watch Del move the team to the plow and get it hitched up, again getting instructions on the proper order of attaching the harness to the tongue of the plow.  By this time, I was beginning to feel like I had info overload, so I just watched the plowing for the rest of the morning!

Local Entertainment

Granddaughter Autobot and I decided to go for a quick, short ride this afternoon.  A few weeks ago I had purchased a "slick and easy" grooming stone for the horses to help get dried grit off them.  Autobot used it on the grays while I finished some stuff in the office, then we hooked their reins to the sides of their halters, threw on the sheepskins that we use to ride bareback and headed out for the 1 1/2 mile loop through what we call town, trying to beat an incoming rain cloud.  Just a few yards down the road, Washoe spotted the big cement pipes that had been delivered this morning to the field across the road.  Head went up, butt scooted under as he shot forward and - I came off.  That stone really did slick up his back and the sheepskin underside is shiny from lots of use.  I felt it start to slide and grabbed for mane, which I had very nicely used detangler on and could not hang on to.  It slid right through my hand like it was greased.  Autobot was behind me on Jesse, both hanging out while grandma picked herself up off the ground.  At least I had a sheepskin to land on.

I walked Washoe over to the pipes, had him touch them to see they were not monsters, took him back to the mounting block and we started over.  Very pleasant ride until we got to the last half mile.  We came down the hill, around the corner and up went the giraffe head again.  Llamas!  Now, these grays are used to llamas, but he quickly noticed there was no fence between us and the seven llamas grazing the big corner pasture.  Feet frozen to the ground, undecided what to do.  Then Jesse walks by, nudging him with her nose (wimp) like it was an every day event, so on we went.

As if that was not enough, a little further along the road we heard this weird rattling and rumbling coming up behind us.  Looked back and saw two trollie cars
loaded with people for a special event at the local 5-star restaurant.  Wow!  Rode into a driveway and watched them go by as the horses grazed on the knee high grass there.  What next?  We rode past the trollies as the people unloaded and headed up the final hill for home.  At least neither horse was bothered by the odd looking contraptions.

Of course, this being Friday, the local 'Friday afternoon club' was in top form as we topped the hill; a lot of people outside the local wood working shop enjoying a cool one or two.  By this time the horses were in parade mode with cars lined up on both sides of the road and people hollering and waving at them; nothing was going to bother them.

We got home, put them away and went into the lodge.  When I asked Bill if our hikers had gotten to the pizzaria for dinner, he said, "Yep, and they got to see someone fall off a horse."  I'm not sure if they recognized that person as one of their hosts, but glad I could offer some entertainment.
Bionic Cowgirl

Riding My Daughter's Horse

Sunday was a fun horse day for us.  As soon as our guests checked out, we flew out the door to meet our daughter at the trainer's so we could video her rides on her husband's horse.  The trainer felt Copper would benefit from having a different experienced rider on him before going home.  Jay is a very new rider, and Copper, being a very green horse, could use someone with riding confidence on his back.

He is a very sensitive horse and needs to feel a lot of assurance that he is doing right.  He tries really, really hard and it was fun to watch him figure out the feel of someone different.  He did great.

It's been a very anxious week for GunDiva and Jay, getting ready for Colorado Mustang Days at the Rocky Mt. Horse Expo this coming weekend.  They are using CMD as a training time for their horses, to get them used to strange surroundings, noises, camera flashes, and other horses, plus just the traveling to and from somewhere together in a trailer and staying in strange stalls.  Both horses are quiet and laid back, but we all know how difficult it is the first time you travel with your horse companions!  I am really proud of the two of them - and a little jealous - for doing this.  It's something I always thought would be fun, but was never brave enough to actually sign up for.

After the riding session at the trainer's, we headed to our daughter's place to put some time on Skeeter, her horse.  Between the weather and our daughter's work hours, Skeeter has not gotten the optimal amount of training time.  The weather was great so we all took turns riding Skeeter.  First, GunDiva did a bit of groundwork with her, then saddled up and hopped on.  There was a little obstacle practice to keep her thinking.

Skeeter was behaving like the champ she can be, unlike a couple days earlier when she was showing how bratty a young mare can get when something is not just right.

Since she was handling everything so well, I finally hopped on.  I've been around for a lot of the rides, but never felt 'just right' about getting on Skeeter.  This was the day and it was such fun.  I handle the reins quite differently from GunDiva; it took Skeeter a few minutes to decide if she was doing what I wanted, but she quietly figured things out and did great.

This was also the first time the new Wintec saddle had been used.  I didn't get the stirrups adjusted right - shorter than I like - and the fenders are so stiff, it's hard to get your feet forward enough, although Bill seemed to be able to when he rode.
We only had one minor upset.  I like to dismount from the off-side; it's easier on my hips for some reason.  After checking with GunDiva to see if it would bother Skeeter, she said she didn't think so as she had done it a time or two.  Obviously, Skeeter did not agree.  When my foot hit the ground, she swung her head around at me and stomped that right front foot on the ground as if to say,  "that's not right!"  We all laughed because it was so obvious she thought I did not know what I was doing.

Bill then hopped on Skeeter and took a few rounds of the corral, but it was obvious Skeeter was becoming tired and wanting to end things on a good note, we decided to quit.

I will lay odds Skeeter has spent a good deal of time this week thinking over all these things.  We hope it will help at CMD having her know things can be different and still be fine.
Bionic Cowgirl

Dinnertime Excitement

Yesterday we took the horses out for a picnic ride.  Ranger did quite well the whole way (whew).

As we were coming back and crossed the road by the horses' corral, we noticed that the choke cherries were fully ripe, and discussed coming back and picking some to make jam.  We marveled that nothing had eaten them yet...

Feeding last night was going along normally.  The horses had their feed; the hay bag was out.  It was quiet and I was enjoying listening to contented chomping sounds.  Then I noticed another sound; the llamas were clacking.  They quack kind of like ducks when something excites them.  I started walking over toward their pen at the opposite side of our corral, thinking they had spotted coyotes on the trail across the road.  That was holding their attention.  Standing there staring at the trail a motion caught my eye - much closer than the trail.  A bear was stripping the choke cherries off our bushes maybe 20 yards from the llama pen!

Washoe had quit eating and followed me over to the fence.  I pointed at the bear to show him and he was so excited he was running up and down the fence trying to get closer.  I think he thought it was a big dog that did not belong and had plans to run it off.  (He's my dog chaser.)

I finally went back up the hill to get Bill, hoping the bear would still be there when we got back.  We watched it until it was almost too dark to see it.  After Bill came over, Ranger stood near the feeder and snorted; Jesse wouldn't even raise her head out of the food.  Gotta love living in the mountains.

The llamas spent almost all of their time running back and forth at the fence line closest to the bear.   Quacking.


Bionic Cowgirl

Hay Net Update

It's been 12 days now since I installed the hay net and wow, what a difference.  They now consume about 1/3 less hay than 'before net'.  Our bales weigh between 40 and 50 lbs mostly, so for three thousand-pound animals (average of the three) they should consume 45 - 60 lbs of forage a day (one bale), depending on their work schedule, which right now is very slight, although they are out 24/7 on a dry lot of about 1/2 acre, so they move around quite a bit.  I used to have to feed 1 1/2 bales a day to keep them even slightly happy.  Now one bale in the net usually still has a little less than a flake in it after 24 hours, and they seem more than satisfied.  It also looks like they are beginning to drop a little weight, which is a good thing as they came home too tubby.  Besides, the more weight Jesse puts on, the crabbier she gets.  She is way happier slimmer (aren't we all?).

The biggest drawback for me so far has been handling the net when it is wet and below zero.  The cinch and rope are still easy to handle but you freeze your fingers.  Bill found me some very slim waterproof mechanix gloves to try, but it hasn't snowed again yet.

Give haychix.com a look see.  They come in all sizes.  I am already considering a couple travel ones for the trailer because I don't like all the wasted hay on the floor at the end of a long day of travel, plus when we get to our campsite, we can just toss the pre-loaded one in their corral and know it will get them through the night.

This will probably be the last update, unless something truly devastating happens this summer, but I can't imagine what right now.

Bionic Cowgirl

Baby's First Ride

We have some friends who are moving away - job reasons - so we had a quick get-together planned for today.  Her parents had flown into town for a few days because ... well, there is a new baby in the family.  Since the parents are also friends of ours, they came up the mountain for a visit and brought little Reese, the 2 1/2 week old little girl.  After having lunch together I was informed that Reese needed her first ride!

Now E. knows my horses really well.  In fact, she had spent several years starting young horses and she had helped train Washoe, my gelding, so when she said Reese needed a ride, I can't say I was too surprised.  The day was beautiful; sunny and bright, just a bit breezy, and in the low 50's.  Still a little snow on the ground from our new foot just two days ago, but mostly melted.

I took a halter to the corral and called Jesse; told her she was getting brushed because she had to give a baby a ride.  She knows 'brush' and she knows 'baby'.  Boy, did the ears come up and she stood at rock solid attention to get groomed - and we were ready for a photo op.

'That's baby?  I was thinking bigger."

Better take a sniff here and check this out.

Reese just snuggled right in and fell fast asleep.  Bet she doesn't remember her first horse ride.  Wish you could see the other side.  Her little fist had latched onto a piece of mane and right after this picture she sort of stretched out and really crashed.  Must have been the warm sun and all that warm furry back.

"What do you mean, put my ears up?  There's something on my back so I can't move and Grandma's hair is tickling my nose!"

What a good day.
Bionic Cowgirl

The Wonder Net

Just a quick update on the slow feed net I purchased for the horses:  I LOVE IT - and so do the horses!

Unbelievable how fast they took to it.  I still put small amounts of loose hay in the feeder, but as soon as I throw the loaded net in, they all start picking from it - and leave the loose stuff alone.  Yep; even Ranger.  There has always been small amounts left in the net after 24 hours.  I dump the handful out and they wait patiently for me to refill the net.  The operative word in that last sentence was 'patiently'.  They were never patient before, barely holding it together, trying not to paw or stomp at feeding times.  That was actually the first thing I noticed the day after I started using the net; I couldn't believe how much better behaved the horses were.  I think it is so much more like true grazing - picking out a few stems at a time - that they are more satisfied.  No more scarfing food  and then getting bored and picking at the fences and stuff.  They are still consuming the same quantity of hay throughout the day, but none is getting wasted.  Therein lies the savings.  Many times I've gone out to check and found them just 'hanging out', and hay still in the haynet.  Later when I take their 'bowl food' to them, the net will be emptier, but still have some.

So far, so good.  Now to see how long it lasts.  Even if it only does one season, it is worth it to watch the change in their demeanor.
Bionic Cowgirl

Post Scribble-

This was an unsolicited review of this product.  They gave us nothing.  If we hadn't liked the product, we wouldn't have told you about it at all, because it's embarrassing to get taken...
Bill
Purchased from-
Hay Chix
www.haychix.com
(715)483-1770

Backup

   Well, our horses are back up on our mountain now.  We picked them up a couple days ago and trailered them home.

   Our horses get shuffled around to several different areas for their winter boarding, down at a lower (and warmer) part of the state where they can graze freely. The last property they stayed on this winter is a hay field, and the unseasonably warm weather started the grass growing.  So the field's owner wanted the herd off so they wouldn't damage this year's crop.  I suppose a herd of horses stomping, eating and pooping all over the hay field would limit the productivity of the acreage somewhat.  So home they went.

This is what we picked them up from.  No snow.

You can't see Ranger in this picture.  He took to hanging around the back fence of the farm house.  I suspect treats were involved.  He wouldn't say.


In this picture you can see in the background where they were going.

About halfway up the white peak on the left. Yeah.  Snow.

When we unloaded them from the trailer, the first thing they did was roll.  A lot.

After a good scrubbing in the snow they went off to check out the feeder.

Then suddenly, they heard it. And they went crazy.

For better than 20 minutes, they talked to a chicken.  It's really kind of embarrassing. 

(But I'm still glad they are home...)

Bill

Horse Vaulting

Last weekend, GunDiva honored Autobot and myself with tickets to a horse vaulting event.  Autobot's mom and I both thought that was a fancy name for trick riding - and was quite concerned about the future welfare of her oldest daughter's horse desires.  Not so.  Horse vaulting - as it was explained to us - is a combination of dance and gymnastics on top of a horse.  For this, large broad-backed horses are chosen.  For this event the four horses were a 18.3h Belgian, a 17h Belgian/Quarter horse cross, a 18.1h Percheron and for the smaller vaulters, a 13.2h. Halflinger ... and this is what they do with them ...

The horses are so patient, and some of the vaulters are so small ...

They get started pretty young.  Yes, those two little 'angels' performed some pretty cute stunts.  There were ballerinas, a bumblebee, angels, lots of flowers .... and each performed to a favorite song ... some with some amazing ballet moves.

We also had dinner included, plus a silent auction and a live auction.  GunDiva came home with two buckets of horse treats and I ended up with another, so our horses ought to really enjoy this summer.

On the home front, Reba the new lodge dog is starting to show her true colors; the personality is really coming through.

She can take the multitude of squeaky toys she inherited and turn them into a half hour concert!  She has also learned how to play 'pull' with the rope - and .... it takes a considerable amount of time to play her out fetching things!  On the good side, when she does get tired, she takes really good naps.  She also does a great job entertaining herself with the toys.  Her guest manners are coming along nicely.  She had a lot of practice this weekend with the Valentine's Day guests.  I guess we will keep her.

Bionic Cowgirl - who misses her horses terribly!

Booted!

Started this post a couple of days ago - couldn't seem to get along with blogger.....

I finally did it.  For several years now I have played with idea of trying boots on my barefoot horses for  some of the 'ugly' trails we hit sometimes.  Our guys have beautiful feet which basically take no care.  I have a good barefoot farrier check them twice a year and he just sighs over them, tells me they have perfect feet and occasionally takes a file to get the niches out if I want to go to a clinic.  We live on hard rock and that keeps their feet toughened up - however they HATE gravel roads.  Those silly pieces of gravel are pokey, they say.  As soon as we leave the road and hit the trail, it is hard to keep up with them.  So why do I want boots?

I guess because I think it is a great training exercise.  I tried EasyBoot a few years ago and never did get one to fit right - and they were hard to put on.  This time I bought a pair of Cavallo Simple Boots.  They came yesterday, so today was the fun try-it-on day.  I was amazed at how easy it was to measure for them and even more amazed at how easily they went on!  Now, I am not doing endurance, so I can't speak to how they would do in that world, but I am anxious to try them on one of our trails.  Luckily, both my horses took the same size, so I bought a bright purple pair so I could find one if it did come off somewhere; that and nobody else around here would want my purple boot!

This is what they look like.  Bill took videos of each of the horses' first steps - almost like having a baby again - but blogger went haywire every time I  tried to upload them, so suffice it to say it was fun but uneventful.  Jesse, who knows how to track, was more interested in the 'tracks' they left behind.  Washoe walked with his head down by his feet, ears flattened out to the side, listening to the sound they made (the hard rubber is kind of noisy on pavement or hard packed ground).

Fast forward to today....
I wanted to get the horses used to the feel of the boots, so today we took each one around our 1.4 mile loop we use for warmups and practice.  It has some pavement, some nice smooth, hard packed dirt, and some gravel.  Good trial run.  Washoe was the first to come when called, so he got booted up and hopped on bareback.  He started a little hesitant, getting the feel of them when being turned around for mounting.

Once we got going, he decided the feel on the gravel driveway was OK.  Looking good.

Soon, we were on pavement, then on to the hard packed dirt.  He started moving out a little quicker and seemed to be 'looking' for rough spots to step on.  He is happy horse.  Here he is still listening, but also enjoying the comfort.  These boots are a great find for him.

Along the way, we practiced a little 'targeting' of our own, just for a refresher.  Washoe and Ranger passed with high marks, touching everything we asked of them.  I forgot to mention in my clicker comment for GunDiva, that after your horse learns his 'trick' well (whatever it may be), you no longer have to treat them.  A quick pat on the neck or a "good boy" works well.  That's the really neat part of clicker training; the 'treats' are only necessary during the actual training time and maybe a refresher once in a while.

When we got back, Ranger reached over and touched the ribbon on the sign all by himself, just before he decided it was safe to trim the grass at the bottom of the post.

While Ranger worked, I got Jesse booted up.  She didn't hesitate anywhere getting to the mounting block, then walked off like she had worn these things forever.  I thought we certainly had a winner.

She paid much more attention to the sound today.  For about a half mile, things were great; then she was done with the sound of them.  She would take a few steps, then stop and listen.  We were also in an area where I suspected a wild animal had been recently.  She was very much on alert at all the heavy grass and wooded areas - and obviously irritated at having to stop to listen.  She finally refused to move until Ranger got in front as a guard.  I tried her 'walk on' command and got a choppy trot; not acceptable.  We finally got a very SHORT running walk, but she obviously wasn't comfortable doing her gait in the boots.  About 3/4 of the way around the loop, she just flat quit walking and insisted I get off.  She kept turning her head around and touching my boot.  I got down and walked her a bit but finally mounted back up and she walked sedately home.  When I took the boots off, I found a rub spot on the heel bulb of her left front.  When I checked the boot, I found a 'stay' that must have been hitting her foot.  The boots just fit her a little differently than Washoe.  I guess she was trying to tell me that her foot hurt.

Well, at least Washoe can get some good use out of them.  I can try them on Jesse again if she acts gimpy, and work with the stay.  I will check their website for more info - and I need more practice getting them on in a good position.  Her hooves are a little flatter and wider than Washoe's, so the boots sit differently, even though they both measured out the same size.

Next step is getting Washoe on a real trail in them; that's for tomorrow ....  Stay tuned.
Bionic Cowgirl

Clicker Training - Again

Today Bill and I got to have a sort of 'play date' - very unusual for this time of year.  All that means is 'we got to go to town' together; something we love to do.  We tackled the lodge chores quickly and the guests wished us well as we saw them off to their various hiking adventures, letting them know they would probably beat us back to the lodge.

We figured that if we got our town chores done in a timely fashion, we could play with GunDiva's horse, Skeeter, a bit.  She had mentioned wanting to teach Skeeter her name, having been appalled to discover her horse didn't have the slightest clue as to her name.  Now in the horse's defense, she was the only horse on the property for three months and was always happy to meet any person willing to come by her corral and chat with her.  She didn't need a name.  Since I had used a considerable amount of 'clicker fun' with Jesse (many years ago), GunDiva suggested Bill and I could start teaching Skeeter to come when called.

We stopped by GunDiva's and picked up the clickers.  We were so excited to work with Skeeter when we got to her corral that we got the box of carrot chunks that were waiting for us, snatched our cameras and a couple clickers and headed out to see the horses.  I told Bill we needed to teach her targeting before we could start on the name game.  Skeeter was all excited to learn something new, perfectly willing to watch Bill and try to figure out what he wanted when he said 'touch'.  We decided to use the lid to the carrot container as the 'target'.

Bill held it out; Skeeter focused on the yellow band on the clicker; Bill clicked and ...

"Oh, I get a carrot!"  Skeeter thought she could do this!

When I tried it with her, she focused on the lid ... and got her treat.

She was very gracious in taking her carrot tidbits, which surprised me because GunDiva said she could be a bit 'muggy' about food.  She snuffled my carrot hand once, got a good bop and left it alone from then on.  We did notice, however, that she didn't seem to focus on the 'click'; she just expected a treat for touching the target.  We let it go and started playing a name game.

We decided to stand a few feet apart and take turns calling her to us, giving her a treat whenever she changed direction and focused on the one calling her name.  It took quite awhile before she would focus on our voices; she was just interested in the closest one to her.  She would stare at you for awhile, until she realized you were not going to give her anything, then turn back to the other.  Soon she was going back and forth - but we realized she was coming to the sound of the click, not her name.  When I explained this to GunDiva, she asked if we had 'charged the clicker'.  Duh.


In hindsight, I should have taken a glance at the clicker book also.  I seem to have forgotten a lot about the beginnings of clicker training.  I had totally forgotten that step.  No wonder poor Skeeter didn't quite 'see the light' for us.  She tried her best - and was getting it - just much slower than if we had done it correctly.

Sorry, GunDiva, hope we haven't set you back too far.  She's a smart girl; I already had her following the target to the ground and touching it when I would give it a short toss.  We might have another frisbee partner one day.

Bill, of course, had to play some other 'games' with her, trying to teach her to 'mane lead' like he does Ranger - by putting his arm under her neck, grabbing a piece of mane on the opposite side, and walking.  She was doing well with it until she figured out he was going to pick on her by leading her to the tub.  She's pretty sure he's a goof.

We took time to give Copper some good scratches through the fence panels so he wouldn't feel left out.  He definitely wanted in on some action, too.  Soon, Copper.

It made for a fun day.
Bionic Cowgirl