working on nothing

Today I just hung out with Pip. I took him into a paddock, so the other horses wouldn't bother us, and we just hung out. I got some hay and leaves out of his mane, and generally fussed over him while he ate home grown carrots and had me treat the sore on his mouth. That particular sore is taking it's sweet time going away, but it looks a lot better.

But it was nice not having to make him do anything, except enjoy my company. Since Pip doesn't live on my property, often when I interact with him, it's for riding, and not much else. I was thinking about how nice it would be to have him live with me, so I could just see him, and realized that he isn't so far away that I can't be doing this more often.

So after I was done making him look oh so pretty, I pulled out the book, sat on a bucket (it was upside down) and read my book. I did read a few paragraphs to him, but he didn't seem to care either way. I have been trying to get in better shape for riding, as I believe that I'm on the heavy side for him. So instead of bonding through riding, I rode my bike to the barn, and he and I just did our own thing together. He got scratches when he came by me, and I got to pet that softy soft nose. It was a nice time.

I'm not a trainer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think it helps me learn to be realxed around him, and vice versa. He's actually a very nice horse, and when I was only riding him, I thought of him as kind of stubborn and hard-headed. And he can be. But I'm learning that he can also be a sweet companionable horse who really seems to enjoy human company.

I'm happy.

breeding for better results

So I was just looking through Pip's pedigree on the all breed pedigree query site. I clicked on the photos and wow, some of his ancestors are fugly. Like not breeding quality, from the photos there. http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/index.php?h=sandstone+mirage. click on the link in the top left and open photos.
It's amazing he turned out ok. It's amazing some of those horses were bred a few of them look like giraffes or okapis! And there's a lot of yaks too. As far as I can tell, most were not back yard breeders, they were big shots breeding pretty quality winning horses. But man, so, so fugly. If you follow Fugly Horse of the Day, these horse's breeders would get creamed. But it's a very good showing of horses getting better looking and better built. the photos are in order, but it's a little confusing, because they tend to follow a line, and jump to the next, so it starts with his sire, then his sire's tippy-top line, then his granddam and her top line, then the dam lines.
And WTF, why was someone breeding AQHA to Haflingers? What was happening in the 70's that someone thought that was a good idea? How bizarre to think Pip has a Haflinger great grand sire. odd. Not that I can tell, but it might be why an appaloosa has such a nice long mane and tail.

Meeting expectations

I've discovered something about myself. I get exactly the results that I expect from Pip. When I got him, I didn't actually know what to expect, he was a weanling, my first, and I had never met him. I knew he'd lived in a pasture with a little herd of mares and foals; that he wasn't halter or trailer broke. I wanted a horse that was completely untouched. That was Pip. When he got off the trailer he didn't look anything like I'd imagined. The breeder had sent photos of him when he was about 3 weeks old, and he looked good, compact, leggy (what three week old isn't?) and composed.
Off the trailer he was 6 months old and shaggy as a highland cow. Only a very pale, buttermilk buckskin-colored highland cow.
For a weaned on the ride, never been haltered, never been in a trailer, never been really handled much stud weanling, he was surprisingly calm. I unloaded him from the trailer, and we walked down the drive, and right into his pen. He didn't whinny or pull or paw or anything. I checked his papers to make sure they hadn't gelded him without telling me. But no, he was fine.

And he was pretty fine with everything. He didn't like the bit when I introduced that, but that's not unusual. He made all the icky faces and tried to spit it out. But saddles, he took in stride. Me getting on him, no problem. Walking around with me on him, not a big deal.
What was a big deal, for me was going faster than a walk. I got all stiff and scared and worried, and I realize now, he did too! I've only come off him once, when we were cantering in the arena, and he either tripped, or did a correction buck, and I went off over his shoulder. Pretty classic case of dump the monkey. I'd been perched forward and clinging like any good primate would when scared. And I was looking at the ground, and there I went.
Well, this summer, I sent Pip off to a very good trainer here in Albuquerque, and it worked wonders. For me as well as for him. More for me, I think. I got lessons, and those gave me more confidence than I can describe. The up shot is, Pip is back at the barn here, and I'm a happy relaxed rider, so far! I'm planning on taking him down to the trainer and getting some jumping lessons, so I don't do me and Pip the wrong thing by screwing him up.

I've learned a few things from the Fugly Horse of the Day and Mugwump Chronicles about the usefulness of outside help. I'll keep you posted.

trail riding

So I took Pip out for one of our first alone trail rides. We'd gone alone over the winter, and about a mile from the barn he stopped and grew roots. Would not move for love or money. I'd had to get off and lead him down the trail a way, then we had to practice standing for mounting. So I was a little concerned that this would be a similar day. I was worried that he would actually remember the location of the last full stop.
But he was great. A little spooky at the chickens, and really keen to see other horses, but for the most part, he was fine. One lady with tiny annoying dogs off the leash did come close to losing one of those dogs, but Pip contained himself. Normally he is quite aggressive towards dogs, and has been known to attack them. Happily, Henry the pug lives to annoy other trail riders!

I have to say, I have dogs, and I love to go out in the wilds and let them off the leash. However, they do come when I call, and I do not let them approach strange people or horses, if they are not on the leash. It makes me crazy to see people who let their dogs offleash, and have absolutely no ability to get them back on again. This lady started calling her dogs to her when she was about 100 yards from Pip and me. Those dogs *never* once went to her. They ended up walking my me (with Henry barking) while Pip and I stood on the trail. Madness!

Ok, back to Pip and me. So we walked a lot, because I think I was a little more worried than he was. But we did trot a bit, outward it was a lot less energetic than going home. We even cantered a tiny bit, but he was on alert, and seemed to feel more comfortable trotting, or just walking quickly.

Overall it was about an hour and a half, along the ditch, then over two bridges, and into the woods near the river (we call that the Bosque, here in NM). He went right through the water, jumped alittle jump, it was great. It's the first real trail ride I've had alone on him, and it was fantastic! whee!

summer sores

I don't know if any of you know about summer sores, but let me tell you, they are awful! Just nasty disgusting sores that for Pip, are just hard hard hard to get rid of. He's allergic to habroma worms, and when his skin swells in reaction, they dig in further. Nasty! sooo gross, so now I am thinking about moving to where there aren't any flies. Or not too many other horses. Like dead center NM, where only a few cow live, and no habroma.

What sort of weirdo peculiarities does your horse have? I'm curious about the non-medical as well as the medical.

First and foremost....

So I've decided to start this blog as a place I can record some of my trials and tribulations with training my 5 year old Appy/Colorado Ranger horse, Pip. aka Sandstone Mirage
I have had Pipper since he was 6 months old, it's like he was a mail order horse. I bought him off the internet, equine.com, for not too much money at all. The breeder was in vet school at Perdue, and liquidating her herd of QH/Appys. I live in Albuquerque, NM. So suffice to say, I only had photos and phone calls to get a sense of him. His Dam and sire are rather mediocre, but their parents were quite the thing. You can look them up under Sandstone Mirage on Allbreedpedigreequery. but his photos were nice, and he looked cute. Plus, my friend where I woud be boarding this fuzzball, had a weanling TWH, and I realized that it was the perfect time to sieze the buckskin, or, Carpe Pipkin.

Now you may be thinking, He's 5, so WTF? why isn't his training done?
Well, I don't have a good answer for that, except when I got Pip, I had an OTTB that I was reprogramming, and so Pip got ground manners and all that good stuff, but no real riding for a while. I sold the TB, Eli, (to a wonderful forever home where I get to check up on him and he gets more spoiled every day) and finally had time for Pip. I had my on business and worked two other jobs, so time was rather precious.
Also, i decided as a re-rider with no money for training, that I could stand to wait a bit, let Pip grow up. Afterall, I'm not trying to win any futurities, and he is stubborn.
Oh, don't worry, I backed him when he was three. He's been ponied out on the trail since he was 6 months old. He trailered, tied, was great for the farrier and vet, I could tack himup, longe him, ground drive him, all that good stuff. I just hadn't ridden him much.
Last year we went out on the trails a lot, through the river and the woods, over hill and ditch bank. He was ok, not great, not terrible. I'm from a H/J background, and as a rather "phlegmatic" kid, I got all the hot crazy horses. Pip ain't that. But I think I was making him crazy. So we took a break for the winter.

So this year, the job is beginning to pay off, I dropped one of the jobs, and I now have the time to ride. And pay for some proper training!
He's had 2 months of training, with me getting lessons on him. We had to stop the training early, as Pip is prone to summer sores, and the training barn was not the best place for me to deal with those. So I moved him back, and I'm riding in a hackamore til the sore on his mouth clears up.

The bad news is he has summer sores, and will always be prone to them. the good news is, for the first time using a hackamore, he was fine. He didn't respect it as much as a bit, but he listened. We're relearning together, how to undo all those bad habits we fell into before. It's hard work, but here we are!