I'm hoping Kid 1 can find time tonight to skeletonize Piper. Then we can picket her out by the main road tomorrow as a Halloween spook horse!
Kid 1 got a little crazy with the white paint the other day. Raven didn't seem to care, but it drove Lexi crazy! We finally had to wash it off to keep her from licking it all off and ingesting it all.
I'm hoping Kid 1 can find time tonight to skeletonize Piper. Then we can picket her out by the main road tomorrow as a Halloween spook horse!
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Meet Koda. Koda is a 4 (according to the original owners) or 5 (according to the vet) year old quarter horse gelding. He belongs to a repeat client of mine from the Victor area. She got him this summer and has been riding him, but wanted him tuned up. She wants to use him for both barrels and jumping, but something about his random crow-hopping makes her uncomfortable about climbing on with an English saddle. Yeah, I totally get that!
Koda's been here about a week. I spent the first several days teaching him groundwork and establishing respect and control from the ground. It was clear right off the bat that even though Koda was willing to do most things I asked, he's a bit more of a lazier horse. Koda suffers from sticky feet syndrome. His natural tendency towards laziness makes him not want to hustle his feet very much. He is convinced that he can either not have to move at all, or that he can choose how fast or slow he goes. His first couple days at my house were rude awakening! His owner wanted me to focus on three areas. 1. getting him to stand still when being mounted bareback 2. helping him to relax and be accepting of clippers by his ears & bridle path 3. eliminating the crow hopping. I was under the impression that he didn't crow hop very often or for very long, but he was pretty energetic with his crow hopping when I first put the saddle on him and asked him to lunge. We worked through that and then it was time to mount. Koda struggled with going forward at a walk and a trot; he kept wanting to stop-- sticky feet syndrome in action! Once I got him moving forward comfortably at a trot, I asked for a lope. In spite of all the work we have done thus far, he still went into a crow hopping fit. I've seen this in other horses with sticky feet syndrome. Often what happens is a horse is asked to lope and for whatever reason, bucks or crow hops. Most riders respond by shutting the horse down with a one rein stop, (assuming they stay in the saddle!) Either way, the horse learns that if he gives a couple good hops, he'll get to stop and rest. The only way I know of to fix this is to ignore the crow hopping and keep asking for the lope. Eventually the horse will figure out that it is more work to hop than to lope and that even if he hops, he's not going to get to stop. Koda gave me lots of time to practice my bronc riding skills on our first ride, but he finally decided to settle into a nice lope. Today was our second ride. He hopped a bit when we first began loping, but quickly settled in. I think that as he continues to develop respect and confidence in both himself and his rider, that the crow hopping will disappear. A couple weeks ago we had a photographer come out to our place for some long overdue family pics. I think when we had the last ones done, I was pregnant with Kid 2! We talked the lady into sticking around and getting some additional photos with the horses. Even though we were losing the good lighting, I think they turned out great!
Renae from Hartline Photography (208-356-8887) spent hours with us and took hundreds of images. We had family shots, senior pics for Kid 1, couple shots, kid pics, sisters shots, individuals of all of us, and finally pics with both the horses and the dogs. It was really hard to choose my favorites! Renae gave us 2 CDs with the copyrights for all of the images as part of her very reasonably priced package. The pics below are just the raw photos; the price includes 3 edits of your choice. My neighbor came over to see the pictures this week and promptly booked a session for her family for this weekend. Give Renae a call if you are in the Rexburg area and looking for a photographer. We have an awesome neighbor who owns an apple cider press. Each fall he invites us to bring over our apples and helps us make fresh apple cider. It's become a tradition. The bees like our apples too. It's better to pick when the temperature is a bit cooler so they aren't as active. I was especially wary this year after my bee sting a few weeks ago. I'm still trying to get rid off my hives. The doctor prescribed a second round of prednisone, this time with a higher dose and for 3 weeks instead of 5 days. Side effects include weight gain due to increased appetite and water retention. Unfortunately, my scale is telling me this is not imaginary.
Our school district had off of school this last week to accommodate the large number of teachers and students that hire on to help with the potato harvest. It's a huge endeavor to coordinate the harvest equipment and workers to the various farms. Weather is another factor that played a big part in this year's harvest. The temperature has to be just right. Too hot and the potatoes will rot. Too cold and they will be damaged by frost. Not only did we have both temperature extremes the last couple weeks, we also had a ton of rain that prevented the farmers from entering their fields for a good share of the week. None of us were signed on to work the harvest, so I took the kids down to Utah for a few days to visit various colleges. Kid 1 is in her senior year--she needs to submit applications and make a decision before long. We hit University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley University and Utah State University. Kid 1 and Kid 2 both liked Utah Valley the best, followed by USU. I think the draw for Utah Valley was primarily that all of the buildings are interconnected, so once you arrive at school, you never have to brave the cold again until it's time to go home. Also, they thought the tour guide was really hot. |
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February 2016
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