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glenatronSo here we are, half way through the month, pretty much- and the first Saturday at the ranch.
We worked for the morning, spending some more time in the A-Pen. I was riding Indy the light palomino pleasure-horse:
"Martin, this is the most uncomfortable horse I have ever ridden"
"Do you know why they call them pleasure horses?"
"Because they're sarcastic bastards?"
"Because it's a pleasure when you get off."
Indy really is the fidgetmaster, shifting his feet, trying to wander off to his buddies, no interest in being still or calming down, just constantly wanting to shift around and go places. It was actually a little trying after a time- the constant shifting around and complete lack of focus. I've ridden him before and it was fine then because we were doing things most of the time, but waiting our turn in the pen was pesky. Also he wasn't sure about cows at all, doing the classic thing of wanting to investigate them and run away all at once. That's fine on the ground but I'm not so hot on it in the saddle- the running away can be a little hectic and I didn't want to go through that in the narrow entrance pen beside the A-Pen there. Once we got into the pen he sort of started to get the idea pretty well, although he still couldn't stop moving so he kept pushing on the cow the whole time. I think I probably needed to get more control of his feet by actually going there rather than just redirecting his movement when he started wandering off, but that only occurred to me after working in the pen a little and having Martin getting me to really kick him on "He doesn't even know you are there- kick him!" That was exactly what he needed.
Because of the short attention span he's a horse with a really small window of opportunity when it comes to getting things done. This whole window-of-opportunity principle is something I've really had to take on board while here -I tend to take things too slow and that doesn't work with horses like this one.
After that we did some work on roping - there was a cow that needed doctoring,so Martin broughtit into the pen and roped it and then Fred roped her's heel and Jake roped her front feet so she could be laid out and given the medication she needed. I chose not to do any roping there because although my throw isn't bad I don't have the slightest idea how to dally the rope so I think if I actually did have a live animal on the rope I would potentially be a total liability.
Martin ropes the steer- very lucky timing with my trigger finger here...
Saturdays we only work the morning, so the afternoon was free for shopping. I bought a hat. It makes me look ridiculous, of course, but it's a proper hat and may assuage certain people's concerns,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spoondog.
We worked for the morning, spending some more time in the A-Pen. I was riding Indy the light palomino pleasure-horse:
"Martin, this is the most uncomfortable horse I have ever ridden"
"Do you know why they call them pleasure horses?"
"Because they're sarcastic bastards?"
"Because it's a pleasure when you get off."
Indy really is the fidgetmaster, shifting his feet, trying to wander off to his buddies, no interest in being still or calming down, just constantly wanting to shift around and go places. It was actually a little trying after a time- the constant shifting around and complete lack of focus. I've ridden him before and it was fine then because we were doing things most of the time, but waiting our turn in the pen was pesky. Also he wasn't sure about cows at all, doing the classic thing of wanting to investigate them and run away all at once. That's fine on the ground but I'm not so hot on it in the saddle- the running away can be a little hectic and I didn't want to go through that in the narrow entrance pen beside the A-Pen there. Once we got into the pen he sort of started to get the idea pretty well, although he still couldn't stop moving so he kept pushing on the cow the whole time. I think I probably needed to get more control of his feet by actually going there rather than just redirecting his movement when he started wandering off, but that only occurred to me after working in the pen a little and having Martin getting me to really kick him on "He doesn't even know you are there- kick him!" That was exactly what he needed.
Because of the short attention span he's a horse with a really small window of opportunity when it comes to getting things done. This whole window-of-opportunity principle is something I've really had to take on board while here -I tend to take things too slow and that doesn't work with horses like this one.
After that we did some work on roping - there was a cow that needed doctoring,so Martin broughtit into the pen and roped it and then Fred roped her's heel and Jake roped her front feet so she could be laid out and given the medication she needed. I chose not to do any roping there because although my throw isn't bad I don't have the slightest idea how to dally the rope so I think if I actually did have a live animal on the rope I would potentially be a total liability.
Martin ropes the steer- very lucky timing with my trigger finger here...
Saturdays we only work the morning, so the afternoon was free for shopping. I bought a hat. It makes me look ridiculous, of course, but it's a proper hat and may assuage certain people's concerns,
spoondog.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 15 Feb 2009 14:05 (UTC)- Crump
no subject
Date: 15 Feb 2009 14:08 (UTC)Do we get to see pics of your new, *ridiculous* hat? Fnarfnarfnar....
no subject
Date: 15 Feb 2009 14:10 (UTC)no subject
Date: 15 Feb 2009 15:33 (UTC)no subject
Date: 15 Feb 2009 21:35 (UTC)Hi Ben
Date: 15 Feb 2009 19:35 (UTC)Sounds like you are getting to ride some interesting horses too. Glad to see you have not neglected your hatmanship too!
Re: Hi Ben
Date: 15 Feb 2009 21:33 (UTC)no subject
Date: 16 Feb 2009 09:28 (UTC)I need to judge it.
no subject
Date: 16 Feb 2009 23:14 (UTC)