Rest in Peace, Ranger

It is with a heavy heart I find myself telling you that Ranger Mustang is dead.

It looks like it was colic.

Ranger had been part of my life since just before the turn of the century.  He was bought on December 28, 1999.  That was the day that Clayton Moore died.  Moore played the "Lone Ranger" on the old TV show, and that's how my Ranger got his name. (I thought Clayton would be a terrible name for a horse.)

The BLM guessed his birth year at 1991, but all of the vets we had "toothed" him as 3 to 5 years older.  So we figure he was about 12 years old when we got him.  That's pretty old to be starting an untrained horse. Particularly one that was still just about completely wild.  He didn't trust people AT ALL.

It was a long haul in training.  I probably learned more from him than he learned from me.  I tell people that "I can't be taught, but I can be trained.  There just need to be consequences."  Well, if I did something he didn't understand, or just didn't like, he would consequence the hell out of me.

We did finally reach an understanding.  Ranger is the only horse I have ever had talk to me.  He didn't usually say much, but it was pretty obvious what he had in mind.

Last month Juanita and I took our horses down to winter pasture to run loose for a few months as we do nearly every year.  It's good for the horses' attitudes having time off.  We try to check on them at least once a week or so just to see how they are doing, and get our horse fix.  Yesterday we went down the mountain to check on them.  All of the horses ran up to see what treats we might have brought.  All of the horses but one.

A short search of the pasture turned up Ranger.  He was down.  He appeared to have been down for quite a while, and the grass around him was scarred in a circle around him, probably from him trying to get up.

He was unable to raise his head.

I spent about 5 hours with him, while Juanita made the hour drive up to the lodge and back to get water and a turkey baster to get it into him.  Juanita made the trip again for more water, other supplies, and a short bucket for Ranger to drink out of.

He couldn't raise his head.

His last words to me were  "Tired.  Hurts.  Cold".

It has never been that hard for me to pull a trigger.

Gallop across that bridge, my friend.  You were loved.

Bill

Skeeter's Fine Day

Bill and I set out with this plan of getting my horse Washoe 'legged up' for some upcoming tough rides.  We borrowed GunDiva's horse Skeeter, to be a companion horse on longer rides.  Neither Bill nor I ride alone in the national forest or park; not a good idea for a horse to come back sans rider and not be able to go find the missing party because you have people at the lodge, so our granddaughter, Autobot, serves as an extra rider.

In our last post, we had picked up the horse and transported her to our guest pen - which she now claims as her own.  The following day served as a day off for the horses so we could get the weekly 'town chores' done.

This brings us to Thursday and the plan was to just pony Skeeter around town so she could get used to the sights and sounds of mountain living.  We saddled up Ranger and Washoe and discovered Skeeter does NOT like standing patiently at the hitchrail when different stuff is happening, i.e., noisy trucks going by, bicycles, crazy people making strange noises, etc.  Welcome to our life, Skeeter.  She tried her hand (hooves) at taking down the rail, with no success.  Finally decided to just watch and check-it out.  Good horse.  Then we got hit with large raindrops which quickly turned to hail.

We waited out the storm and when everyone was calm, we took her lead rope and started out.  Hmmm.  Ponying is not a natural thing for this horse.  She had her own ideas of where she wanted to go and it certainly did NOT include being next to another horse.  We learned many things about ponying that day - long, slippery lead ropes are not the way to go.  The first time she yanked it out of Bill's hand before he could get a dally done; but to her favor, she didn't run off, just stopped to look at whatever took her interest.  OK, next time he was prepared and got her dallied but she almost pulled poor Ranger over.  He's just a little boy compared to her, so I took the rope as Washoe could compete with her size.  I got it dallied in time, but Washoe did not approve of her behavior and gave her a major stinkeye, which she did not even notice.

Rethinking this whole plan, we decided to back up to Skeeter's comfort level.  We dismounted and I walked the saddled horses back home - all of two blocks - then Bill led Skeeter around a couple blocks on foot.  She got a few nasty reprimands about who was to do the leading, but came back doing pretty well.

Friday,  I led Skeeter for a much longer walk through and about town, with a handy boundary stick and by the time we got back, she had figured out it was best to stay in the proper position. Then I hopped on Washoe and we walked and trotted the Ski Road loop just to loosen up.  I had planned on two times around, but that didn't pan out either.  By this time it was late evening and I was riding in a halter and short lead rope, so when Washoe was not in favor of another trip, we came home.

Saturday,  Autobot and I led Skeeter on a longer and different route through town; she only needed a couple pops on the lead rope as a reminder.  Much improved!  I sent Autobot out on Washoe for an hour and half ride - I thought.  They were back in minutes. "What's the matter?"  A:  "He won't go."  Me:  "You have long leather reins; insist."  A:  "I did but he only backs up."  Well....I think that Washoe has decided (in his teeny middle-aged brain) that if I didn't go, he didn't have to go.  I start walking down the road and sure enough, he follows along like a puppy on a string.  It's a nice day and he needs to learn to trust Autobot, as she will be riding him a lot this summer, so I just keep walking toward the Allenspark trail head.  Autobot rides part of the way, and leads him part of the way.  When we get to the trail head, I tell her to just keep leading him up the trail until she can find a place to mount him easily.  This time he followed her nicely and I sat at the trail head and waited for some hikers to get there.  Once mounted, Autobot rode back to us very nicely, then right on past.  She and Washoe came the 1.6 miles home on their own. (I can't blame my horse for this.  I am constantly putting some non-rider on him and walking them around town.  He just follows me and listens to voice commands, so it's not his fault.)

Sunday, we had thought we would try ponying Skeeter again, then decided maybe it would be easier for her to be ridden, since that was not 'new' to her.  Bill opted to be the trial monkey, so Washoe and Skeeter got saddled.  I had planned on going, but we had people we needed to wait for at the lodge, so I was to stay behind.

Bill took Skeeter to the small pen across the street to mount the first time.

She's not used to being mounted from the ground, so it took a bit of persuasion.
We had a 'new bit to Skeeter' on her and wanted to see how she would respond; bits are not her favorite thing.  She took to it like a fish to water and walked around the pen on a soft rein.  So time to try going down the road.

Washoe was in the lead but that didn't last long.  Again, he said, "wrong person on me" and came home.  OK, fine.  I threw a back-soon sign on the door, grabbed Ranger out of the pen and hopped on bareback.

We took the lead with Skeeter next and Washoe behind.  We needed to keep Skeeter slowed down.  Again, she took to the ride like an old pro, mostly just looking around.

We had cars passing us on both sides, dogs barking from cars, even a runner with earphones on who would not slow down or even acknowledge us as he ran up from behind.  Skeeter only had one instance of belligerence; when one of the cars came up on us from behind and Bill asked her to move over to the side of the road, she didn't want to give up her spot.  That driver was nice and stopped to wait until Bill turned her around to see the car and she moved over.  Otherwise, she did really well paying attention to rein cues as well as she knew how.  She is young and only has a very few hours of ride time, and has never been out on dirt roads like these before, so we couldn't have asked for more.

We finally let her take the lead and she slowed down on her own and led out very nicely. It was fun watching her want to smell the different trees and watch everything - all so different to her.

As we came around the final corner, there were llamas in the corral across the road.  I had noticed her staring at some earlier in the day, so I told Bill to watch her.  As they came around the front of a parked pickup, she saw the llamas, stared for a good two seconds, let out little snort and turned away to look at our old tractor in our own yard.  This horse is not a spook!  It was a very good day with Skeeter.
Bionic Cowgirl

A Day in the Sun, i.e., Playtime

We have now had Alloy integrated into the herd for a couple of weeks; a necessity made by the weather gods.  We kept getting 6 - 12" dumps of snow, which made his little pen nearly impassible.  He was only being kept in it at night, anyway, so he wouldn't go wandering off over the now very short fences looking for human contact.  He is such a people horse!

Love this picture of Alloy and Bill.

Our outside water faucet froze so instead of stringing 125 ft. of hose to fill the heated water tank, we had to do some bucket patrol.  That's always fun!

After this picture was taken, we had another 8 in. of snow, so it came right up to the top rim of the tank.  We had to keep shoveling the path to it so the horses could get a drink without getting on their knees to reach the water when it would get lower.  To them, it was simpler to just eat snow according to Ranger.

We noticed the herd getting a little on the bored side, so we added some rocks to an empty milk jug and took it out for entertainment.  They loved to play with this at the 'cousins' house'.  Just like little children, the same toy was not interesting at home.

Alloy, who follows you around like a puppy dog.   "What's that?"

Jesse, who will wear anything, anywhere.

... and who will toss it back to you if you put it on her head.

Ranger - not impressed.

Don't be putting that on my butt!

Washoe, always glad to be helpful and point it out to you.

But what do you want me to do with it?

So maybe a little lesson time instead?  Such as how to properly stand still when someone is leaning on your back.

Alloy:  what are you doing?

Ranger:  he does this all the time.

Bill quickly learned it was best to spend time with Ranger whenever he spent time with Alloy, or there would be a price to pay.  I just laugh a lot because I've had that issue with my grays for 14 years now.

Bionic Cowgirl

The Introduction (picture & video heavy)

We arrived home with Alloy, the new member of our mustang herd, at 11:30 p.m. - after fighting 99 mph winds from the southern CO border - and then hitting ice coming up our own canyon.  20 miles going 20 mph in 4-wheel low.  We, for once, were very thankful we were pulling an old all-steel trailer.  Alloy traveled like a perfect gentleman for the whole trip, but you could tell he was just 'done with it' after the last section.

With the 18 in. of snow we had gotten at home after leaving, we knew we wouldn't be able to move him into his own pen, so plan B was to leave him in the trailer until morning and we could get a slot setup in a neighbor's barn temporarily.  So we took all the panels out of the trailer (a 3 horse slant load) turning it into a stock trailer - essentially a big box stall, got him some warm water to drink and left him munching on his hay net.

Less than enthused, but a good sport.

We had called ahead to have the front parking lot plowed so there would be a place to pull in that late.  It was a good thing.

We tried to dig into Al's pen, but gave it up.

We used some rope and poles laying around to make him an enclosure that was mostly wind proof and kept the snow off him.  It was about 22 degrees here and he had just come from California.

There is a really nice pipe corral connected to this stall and we left the gate open so he could claim it all.  He had a good time exploring the space.

Once he got the feel of it, he did a couple of rounds on the go.  Sure was pretty to watch.

We were only expecting the one good day of weather before another storm, so we decided that we would bring the other horses over for a meet-and-greet.  With this much snow on the ground, they couldn't get too rough with each other and it was a big space if they wanted to rough house.

To say it was anti-climatic is an understatement.  A formal hello from Ranger, a sniff from Washoe, and Jesse wouldn't leave my side.  All done.

Alloy was more interested in digging for grass in the snow.  I don't know how he knew there really was grass under that snow, from the warm weather we had before the storm hit, but he thought it would be better than the hay we had put in his stall.

Ranger  thinks Al doesn't know what snow is really for.

This is Ranger, Bill's 30 year old that will be teaching Al the ropes, so to speak.

Jesse and Washoe have a different way of enjoying the snow.

So, introducing Alloy ....

Bionic Cowgirl

Merry Christmas from the Herd at Allenspark Lodge B&B

Thought we would have some fun with the ponies today.

Merry Christmas from ALL of us!

Horse Kids Come Home 3/13/16

B-  Hey Ranger!  How's the old horse today?

R-  Good Beel.  Do you have treats?

B-  Yup.  And while you're eating... here's a halter!

R-  Beel that is not how we do it.  You tricked me.  I'm supposed to run away for some many times.

B-  Nope.  You're caught.  Let's get to the trailer.

R-  Beel.  The rolling shed do not smell like me any more.  It smells like others.

B-  Right again.  Juanita will write a blog about that.  I'll read it to you later.

                 **************************

We were called into action this weekend to transport GunDiva's and Jay’s horses to the Rocky Mt. Horse Expo.  They had entered a couple of the Mustang Days competitions, but their horses saw fit to not want to load into a very small trailer in the dark in the wee hours of the morning.  After 1 ½ hrs. of try, the kids opted to leave the horses home and head for the Expo, where they had volunteered to work the US Wild Horse & Burro booth each day.

 We had planned on being there also, so we said we would go get the horses.  We hitched up our trailer – considerably bigger than theirs – and headed to get the horses.  Of course, the horses had time to think things over, knew our trailer, and gave in.  I walked into the corral with two halters and Skeeter walked right up to me, stuck her head in the halter, then followed me to Copper, who also just stuck his head in.  I left both of them standing there while I checked on the repairs Bill was making to the hitch.  Neither had moved when I got back.  They very smartly stepped into the trailer and we were on our way.

We spent the next three days having a great time at the Expo (a different blog) and decided that when we took the horses back, we would just pick ours up on the way home, being as we were already off the mountain.  We left Denver shortly after noon, dropped Skeeter and Copper off at their home and headed for our winter pasture outside Lyons.

We pulled off Hwy 66 at 3:03 p.m., drove the ½ mile to the pasture and pulled into the field.  We saw Washoe in the middle of the 40-acre field and by the time Bill had turned the rig around and I had closed the fence opening, he had trotted most of the way to us. Bill opened the back of the trailer while I collected halters from the truck.  When I turned around I saw Washoe peeking at me from the open doorway; he was ready to load himself!

Now we had not pre-planned on picking up the horses, so had not taken our halters with us.  There was one extra rope halter in the trailer tack area, and my mecate was at GunDiva's house.  She had also said we could use any halter we found there, so Bill had picked up one.  We figured we could make do since both of my horses load on voice command and neither gets tied in the trailer.

When Washoe met us at the trailer, he got the rope halter so I could lead him back across the field to find the other two horses.  They like to stay around behind the neighbor’s house and socialize with the pig; we also suspect they get treats from people in the house. 

When we had crossed to nearly the last area, Jesse finally noticed us and came wandering over – which is about the best she can do right now (read Weight blog).  I put the mecate bit on her, but she felt insulted so I took it off and just looped the lead rein around her neck.  Ranger finally decided to follow along.  Now, Bill had sort of hidden his halter inside his jacket (cheater) and showed Ranger the treat bag.  When Bill put his arm around his neck for a hug, carrying the lead along too, Ranger was caught.  Fastest time ever!  We walked the three back to the trailer and loaded up.  We were back on Hwy 66 at 3:31 p.m.  Less than ½ hour total.

When we got back to the lodge, I went inside and retrieved Jesse’s halter.  She had loaded and ridden with nothing on.  When we opened the door, she stepped out and stood by me while I put her halter on and she gave me lots of horsey hugs while we waited for the others to unload.  

When they got in their corral, Washoe rolled, Jesse checked out the salt block and Ranger headed for the creek.  Zero excitement.  Now we are getting snowed on so everything is normal.  We ALWAYS get snow when we bring them back – even though it was 64* and sunny when we picked them up!

Bionic Cowgirl

                **************************************

B-  So, Ranger, that's why the trailer smelled like other horses.

R-  Beel on this day it is doing the white falling thing.

B-  Sorry buddy.  We're much higher up here, and we got 4 inches of snow today.

R-  I was more happy with the pigs.

New Halters

Last week we had 17 inches of snow and below zero temps.  This week we have a false spring with sunshine and temps in the low 60's.  Gotta love Colorado.

We needed to meet with a neighbor whose horse is with ours; vet check and brand inspector kind of stuff getting ready for an upcoming trip.  It seemed like a great day to try on new halters we got as Christmas presents.

Yes, she has her eyes closed, enjoying the sun while getting her tail brushed.  The halter is almost too small, which is really odd since every halter we have bought her is too large.  These are American Mustang halters; they must think these horses have smaller heads.  I can barely get it behind her cheekbone.  It is let out as far as possible.  Losing some of the winter hair will help.

I have no idea why Washoe is sticking his tongue out, although grooming is not his favorite idea of a way to spend time.  His halter fits better but is none too big.  I think the halters are really pretty on them.  Thank you GunDiva for the great gifts.

Ummm...

Ranger, however, did not get his picture with his as he declined putting it on.

No

Bionic Cowgirl

Big Thunder - Little Thunder

Last Thursday (1/14) we moved our horses from one winter pasture to another; quite uneventful as things go.  The horses came when called, were easy to catch and two loaded nicely into the trailer.  Since we had four horses to move and a 3-horse trailer, we opted to move in pairs, so while Bill and Compass took her horse, Henry, and Washoe to the new/old location I stayed behind with Ranger and Jesse.  It was a great sunny, warm day, albeit windy, and it gave me time to continue working on getting burrs out of Jesse's mane.  We would have gotten them all out, too, if Bill wasn't such a fast driver (teasing).  He did get back in half the time I had expected.  We loaded the last two on and headed to one of their normal winter hangouts.

Now we had been assured that all the fencing had been checked and was intact, but that possibly one section was not yet 'hot'.  It wasn't much of a worry since our horses knew that pasture, it was big - going from 7 acres to 20 acres - and there was no reason for them to stray.  There was a heavy layer of snow on most of it, but our guys are good at digging, so we left them.

On Saturday, we planned on going to Big Thunder, the draft horse show held at one of the local fairgrounds.  Most of the competitive large horse teams use this event to get their horses acclimated  and ready for the draft horse section of the National Western Stock Show in Denver.  On the way, we stopped to check on our herd and make sure we didn't need to supplement them with hay.

OK, they seemed like they were farther away than they should have been, so we drove to the end of the road, and sure enough, they were at the far end of the NEXT pasture..  We parked and started walking fence lines.  There's the break ... wait, there's a large section that was apparently used as a gate for large equipment, and not re-closed.  Can't fault the horses for deciding the next pasture was more pleasant looking.  After all, it had a huge patch of uncovered grass under some very large trees.

We walked most of the way across, in fairly deep snow, until we could get their attention.  True to form, my grays came the rest of the way to us, and the two other geldings saw the halters and decided "no way".  We slipped halters on Jess and Washoe and walked them back toward the gate, in hopes the other two would eventually follow.  For once, it actually did work (not a given for Ranger!)  Henry didn't want to miss out on whatever, and Ranger finally decided he didn't want to be left out and came straggling in.  We were patting ourselves on our backs about our luck; might actually get to go to Big Thunder.  You all know what happens when you do that.....

Bill fastened the gate - merely a single barb wire strand, as was the rest of that section of fence - and I released my horses.  To my surprise, Jesse took off at a dead run right for that section, ducked her head and peeled under the 'gate'!  Be careful what you teach your horses.  I had taught mine a 'duck' command to duck under things on the trail.  Last summer, unwittingly, Bill and I had both used that a lot to move the horses from one pen to another or to get out of our corral without having to unhook the hot wire every time or remove the top gate rail.  In our minds (besides being lazy), we were just reinforcing a verbal command.  In Jesse's horse mind, it meant she could move to the pasture she thought better on her own.

While Bill kept the other three from following her, I tramped back into that pasture intent on catching a horse who now did NOT want to be caught.  It quickly became clear she just wanted me to understand which pasture was better.  As soon as I called her, she returned to the fence line but instead of crossing in, she raced as fast as she could all the way to the other end.  When I called again, she came racing back, passed me and continued to the other end.  Now she was just having fun getting some much needed exercise.  This was a game we would play when she got bored if we had to keep them on the mountain in the winter.  So I just stood there and called again; again she raced past me to the farther end.  I had to laugh; she looked so like the big drafts when they go flying by in the arena, so I called her Little Thunder.

This time I just followed to the corner where she calmly waited for me.  I started to reach for her halter, but she just walked over to the fence and started to step over the wire.  When her leg touched the wire, she just put her foot down and stood there.  I realized then that the fence in that spot was barely 8 inches above the snow, so I stepped on the wire and told her to step over, which she nicely did.  I raised the wire back up to the height it should have been, gave all the horses a good pat since they had wandered down to watch the escapades, and headed back across the pastures.

Bill had secured the gate better and decided to halter Ranger to make him walk back to the proper end in hopes all would follow.  We decided to feed them a bale of hay so they would have something they didn't have to dig for.  Of course, this time the others would not follow, so Ranger got the whole bale to himself, which he promptly scoffed at and returned to the others.  Go figure.

We climbed in the truck and continued on to the fairgrounds, arriving just in time for the main events.  It's always glorious to see those huge teams in action.

The big yellow wagon won the 6-up - with all mare Percherons.  Second place was also an all mare team of Percherons - only 3 years old!  Go girls!

Nothing like traipsing around in deep snow in your dress boots to get your exercise!
Bionic Cowgirl

The Old Man

My horse is getting old.

The last few times I've been out on Ranger this summer, he has lagged behind even more than usual.  He has never been what you might call a "high energy" animal.  But now he's doing a little limping on his rear, not much, but noticeable.  Even when he was being ridden by a much smaller friend or our granddaughter, it seems to be a lot of work for him to walk up the mountain.  On one trip around the block, I ended up getting off of him and walking, as he was "forging" (front and back hoofs colliding at each step) at a trot, and sometimes at a walk.  We called the vet in to take a look at him.

It took a couple days to get the vet up here, and by then he was walking fine, just slow.  We figured he may have gotten into a scuffle with one of the greys and gotten kicked.

So while the vet was up, we had his teeth "floated". It had been 7 or 8 years since the sharp edges had been ground off. Occasionally he had been choking on long strands of hay and he was dribbling a little grain, so it was time.

Now, the old guy has always been a cheap drunk.  One shot, and he's out of it.  The vet gave him his shot, ground the points down and found a tooth that was aimed sideways into his cheek.  He ground off the edges of it, too and we discussed getting an equine dentist up here for its removal.

The vet left and Ranger stood, sort of, trying to get it together enough to walk the 15 feet back into his pen with the other horses.

B-  Hey Ranger.  You doing okay?

R-  Mrrmff Beel.

B-  You're sort of swaying there.  How in the world can you stay up with your back legs crossed, and stretched out THAT FAR behind you?

R-  Rmmffted Beel.

After an hour or so, he perked up and headed back with the other two horses, who had been standing by the fence and staring at the old guy with great interest and concern.  He spent the next 8 hours licking and feeling his teeth.

This afternoon, I went out to catch the horses and put them in our back yard to "mow".  As I came after Ranger with his halter, he decided he wanted NO PART of it this time.  There just might be a vet involved again.

I have long been able to stop him by grabbing his tail and pulling.  He will stop, but... then what do you do?  He walks off if you let go of his tail, and he is short coupled, but I still can't reach his head to halter him while holding his tail.  This time, however, I noticed as I pulled his tail to the right, he would turn to the left.  And if I pulled his tail to the left, he would go to the right.

So I walked along behind him, tugging one way and then the other until I head "steered" him into the runout shed and into a corner. He looked over his shoulder at me seeming somewhat surprised, and I haltered him.

He was okay with going to mow.  No vet involved.  He spent an hour at it with the others, and then went home, still moving slow.

He is still losing a little weight.  His ribs and his hip bones are showing a little more than usual.  His face has almost as much gray hair as mine.  And walking is more of a chore than it used to be.

I think I may have to retire him soon.

That kinda hurts.

Bill

Just a Ride - Much Needed

The outdoors were calling our names today.  After our guests left to go hiking, we headed to the horses.

This is a HAPPY face!  On one of my horses, my other one in tow, my honey on his horse, a sunny day, blue skies .....  I could go on and on.
Down our favorite trail, we spot several live deer and .... bones.

It is a dead thing Beel.

 

After inspecting the bones, it was determined that a deer had come to its demise, maybe by animal since it was picked absolutely clean except for some hair around a couple feet.  However, Bill did decide that someone had cut the antlers off with a saw.

My guys stood patiently by while Bill did his inspections.  We noticed a good deal of downed trees from the winter winds; most of them had been dead already and just couldn't take the wind, but what a beautiful place to ride.

I love this shot of Twin Sisters, with the blueness of the sky and the clouds building behind it.

We rode around the pond.  Washoe had a moment of goofiness when a couple of ducks took flight just as we were passing and managed to get Jesse's lead rope under his tail.  I do love my horses;  his moment of goofiness was a quick scoot to the side, then freezing in place so I could drop the rope from under his tail, while Jesse stood still until we were ready to go again.  Then off they both walked like nothing had happened.

We checked out many of the trails, deciding we should get back up there soon with shovels to prevent more runoff damage.  All in all it was a very pleasant two hours, and now - it's snowing!

Bionic Cowgirl

Broken Link

The link to the video only worked yesterday.  After some digging, I was able to find a permalink that should work.

To see Ranger on tell a vision, click HERE.

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