Personal vs. professional

As of today, I have two blog spots, not that I've been perfectly punctual with one. However, this blog spot will primarily revolve around my personal life. As opposed to my other blog, Stargazer Ranch, which will primarily revolve around my business, which is budding and new and still trying to breath. We will see though, life is nothing if not an adventure.
I hope you enjoy.

Time with it's enormous wings...

flies by without my seeming to notice, the more that passes, the quicker it seems to accomplish it's disappearing act.
So much has happened of late, where to ever begin... going to try to make this semi-quick.

In August I moved to a new home, it is a huge house on 27 acres, three sides have a state park abutting them. The atmosphere is tranquil in it's seclusion.
With me, I brought Epona, Lyra, and Xandra. Next Tiska came to join my little herd, she is a breathtaking Hungarian warmblood, who sustain an injury years ago, however has been very successful as a broodmare. Next came Rhys, he is on a long term lease, he is an absolutely gorgeous Bay Curly stallion. Lastly came Star (who is Xandra's mom) and Zypher (who is Xandra's full brother), they belong to my brother, Ryan, and his girlfriend, Caryn. We are expecting four Curly foals next summer and I can hardly contain myself in anticipation of their arrival.
Almost immediately after finding this house I landed an incredible job training German Shepherds and some of their owners even, was a lot of fun. Sadly it was not all that it seemed, not all activity was ethical and some not even legal, so I had to leave, no amount of money is worth my soul.
I am now working very part time in a book store (dangerous place for me to be, I love books almost as much as I love horses!) and am working on training my rideable horses for a potential future career for them in equine facilitated programs. I am really enjoying my time to finally actually spend with my horses.
On a sad note Callie past on October 24, 2008. It was devastating for me, more than I think anyone really knows. To help deal with the grief I went out and got a German Shepherd puppy, Iris. In mythology Iris was the Goddess messenger between heaven and earth, she rides the rainbows for transport between. I thought with Callie having traveled the rainbow bridge, Iris was a fitting name for this little girl. She is such a joyous, happy puppy, very quick to learn and is doing her job in helping me come to terms with Callie's passing.
Once again, I will try to stay a bit more current with this blog. I apologize if things get a bit backed up. :-)

Rest in Peace Callie, My Love.

I lay there, our last night together, in the bed we'd shared countless nights cuddled together on, hearing a heart beat entirely too fast, mine or hers? Definitely hers, her heart beat too fast, her breathing too shallow. Stroking my hand through her hair, along her body, I could feel every bone, each vertebrae, she hadn't eaten in days, too sick to keep anything down. Burying my face in the mane of her neck I cried, thinking of the life we'd shared to now.

Recalling running down the trail to the beach; hopping over fallen trees, avoiding banana slugs. Callie would run into the sound, tail swishing, snaking from side to side. She'd look back with a glint in her eyes, trot out and find the biggest stick possible. It always amazed me to see the logs she would come prancing over with.

Out in the woods, up a trail to some peak, and around the bend and rolling next to a mountain bike. There was no adventure Callie would pass up. As a puppy she used to adamantly request to join in on car rides, despite the fact that they made her violently ill. Out on trail rides with horses, or just crossing a small field, she would happily trot alongside or just behind them.

She was born on the fourth of July, 2000, the only dog I've ever met who truly didn't mind fireworks. I met her in October of 2000, despite the fact that she was the one puppy who ran over joyously as I pulled up, I did not take her home until almost December, two weeks prior to flying across the country, from NY to WA. She was laid to rest October 24, 2008. During the Winter of Callie's fifth year she was diagnosed with kidney failure, we were given six months, despite the odds her will to live and carry on pulled her through the next three years, showing only marked decline in the last couple of months.

Callie has been the best friend, confidant, and guardian a young woman could ever hope to have. She traveled across the country with me on my first adventure away from home, 3,000 miles away on an airplane, riding first class do to her status as a Search and Rescue dog. She accompanied me on countless adventures to the beach, to the creeks, on trails, on hikes, bikes, and trails. Callie stood guard as I went through many a social adventure and intervened on three separate counts when my personal safety was jeopardized.

Callie escorted me from the realm of teenager, hopeless romantic, and naïve high school graduate through my real testing grounds of growing up into a mature, more realistic, grown adult woman. Callie was the guardian I pray my own child(ren) will have to escort them through the fires of their own training ground as they learn who and what they are and who accompanies them through the passing of their final years of adolescence.

Callie was obedient, intelligent, sympathetic, regal, aware of her self physically and others mentally, and above all, she was always there. She was the perfect companion at all times. Callie was frequently an ambassador, not just for other dogs, but for other humans as well. To those who had lost trust in the human race or those who had terrible past experiences, she always seemed to know what was needed to bring them back to a whole place. Callie's impeccable manners gained her entrance to many places most dogs are not allowed and gave her the ability to interact with a great number of people whose lives are richer for having also been able to know her.

The loss of Callie is unbearable at times. I was blessed to have been loved by her, to have had her in my life for the brief time she was. It was an honor to have been her person. I know she is here still in spirit, I trust she is running through fields after tennis balls, finding enormous tree branches and "rarfing" in the snow she so loved to play in on the other side of the rainbow bridge.

Until we meet again my beloved friend, I miss you dearly, wish you could accompany me in physical form on the next chapters of my life, and look forward to your brief visits and continued guidance in time of need. I love you now and always.

Lyra

Lyra was feeling better, much better, moving out, getting ridden by Erica, my 5'4" twin sister, I'm 5'10" by the way and look a bit over sized for her. Erica though looks fabulous on Lyra, I think they make a lovely pair, I couldn't be happier watching the two of them, not to mention Erica has natural balance and is a very gentle, graceful, considerate rider, which is always nice to see on one of my horses in particular. Then I went ahead and trimmed Lyra's left hind too short and she's all gimpy and I feel absolutely terrible. That said, I have to say, about Lyra, she is stoic. I could not have asked for a more level headed, even tempered, good natured mare. This point is particularly poignant in that Epona, now being in much better shape, only ever wants to be bred and is having a terrible time being reasonable about anything else. I almost feel badly for Epona, however I have a pulled sternum from getting rodeoed off her a few days ago which makes me a little less sympathetic.

been a while

Hmm, it's been a while, a lot and not so much, all at the same time has been happening here.
I graduated from The Evergreen State College on June 13th, it was such an incredible event, many of Brandon and my family members were able to attend, which was really wonderful!! Pictured here is my brother Ryan, my twin sister Erica, Me, and my brother Trevor. We're always being a bit on the goofy side when the four of us reunite, lots of fun!!
Onto Horse happenings...
There's not a lot to report, has mostly been so chaotic here trying to find a post graduation job, having family visit, leave, other things needing doing, I just haven't been able to do much with the horses.
Scary thing happened yesterday, Xandra got stuck in the fence. The land lord where my horses are seems to enjoy tinkering in the field, especially putting up these ridiculous wire fences everywhere, then he conveniently forgets they need to actually be attached to the t-posts, not just looped over the tops, I can't keep up with the man in terms of running behind him attaching all these new fences, it's irritating really, not to mention terribly dangerous. Anyway, thankfully I was there when it happened and Xandra actually stopped when I yelled for her to Whoa. She stood there and just watched me, so I was able to get the fence squashed down closer to the ground and her leg pulled up and out. Was seriously one of the more scary things I've seen in a long while, I was terrified she'd lacerate herself terribly or worse actually break her leg trying to free herself. Thankfully again, she escaped completely unharmed.
The good news though...Brandon and I found a house to rent...with 27 acres and a huge house and several out buildings including a barn (although the landlord's keeping that as it's ridiculously full of all sorts of junk, for now), two green houses and several other outbuildings. I am so happy about the place I can barely contain it!! It's pretty much perfect for us. There's already a fence up, he's putting up at least two more fences so I can rotate. The one fenced area is about 5 acres, I will be sectioning it off to rotate as well. There is a large, maybe 15 acres? section that is getting hayed this summer and come winter I'll be able to rotate the horses out on that as well. The fencing is a lot more horse friendly, at the least it is attached top, bottom, middle... what a concept. I can have as many horses there as I want, he said he'll even build me a stallion pen if I want!, of course, I'd hope any stallion of mine could run in a field with other horses, at least one other horse, only seems right. Anyway, we don't get to move in 'till August 1st, horses might move sooner at this rate though. :-0
So now, really, all that needs finding is a job. Well, and maybe, in the not tooooooo distant future a couple more beautiful Curly horses to fill out all those acres more thoroughly!! :-)
I am loving my life!!!

walk

I took Epona & Lyra for a walk today, went a whooping 3 miles. We did do a half mile of hills though, so there's that. Today was more the psychological challenge of having both horses on lead, together, with just me. We went passed the little ponies (Lyra got wild with them, Epona could care less so Lyra stopped being so upset) then we went passed the cows, who in true form came stampeding over to say hi (Epona started to freak, but Lyra could care less, so Epona calmed right down). We also encountered a couple of large trucks, including a UPS truck, the driver said we three looked like three teenagers walking down the road from afar, how flattering. :-) Started raining midway through the walk also, which was actually kind of nice, I was a bit over dressed for the sun. Epona's hooves weren't ouchy on the gravel road at all, which was awesome!!, Lyra's hooves only got ouchy when she caught a stone in her still having a hole left front hoof. All in all went well. On the return trip Epona looked at the cows, then ate some grass with them literally two feet from her, way to go Epona!!!
Tomorrow I am taking them for a much longer walk, might even ride, what a concept, and put Epona's Easyboots on Lyra, lucky me, they wear the same size, so we don't have to deal with the stones getting caught on her. Discovered a much longer, private (yes I got permission) gravely dirt road a little further up the road with loads of hills and valleys and straight aways and it is very quiet. If we can survive the traffic to get to it, it will be really nice to ride on, better daily exercise than the other road. I am hoping, at this rate we will see, but to go on a trail ride with both of them July 19th. It's the Ride for Research held here in Olympia, in Capitol Forest, all entry fees go to support the Washington State Universities equine research department. Good cause, nice event far enough in the future to use as a motivating get out and ride factor. Will see. Perhaps Erica, my twin, will ride with, could be really nice. I did not expect Lyra to be so far along in her training at this point, she's just so willing and easy!!

lessons

Transcribed lessons from the Band.

Band of horses that is: Epona, Lyra, and Xandra.

June 4, 2008

Lesson One: it’s not personal. When Lyra or Xandra step out of line, Epona schools them back into place, but it isn’t personal. She doesn’t add emotion into the equation, she swishes her tail or pins her ears, maybe even has to go so far as to kick out at one of them, but then it’s done. While the lead mare may discipline, it is done swiftly and then over.

Lesson Two: Escalate. Don’t start off with the harshest measure. When the lead mare disciplines, she starts with a swish of her tail, then pins her ears, then bares her teeth or kicks out in that horse’s direction, then actually kicks them or even runs them off. She goes in stages of gradually escalating her discipline, makes it a lot quicker and easier the next time. Should get to the point where just a look is enough.

Lesson Three: Pressure. Use pressure to get a horse’s attention. If you’ve asked them for a response and they haven’t given it gradually escalate the pressure, go from a look to a movement in air, to slight pressure, to increased pressure, to a lot of pressure so they will start to learn to listen sooner. Should only take a look, not a muscle war.

Lesson Four: Work. Horses, generally, don’t like to work harder than they have to. If the horse isn’t doing what is being asked, make them work for it, the right answer is the easy answer. The wrong answer requires a lot more work.

Lesson Five: Stay Calm. No matter what, stay calm. No matter the situation, if your horse isn’t doing what you ask or your horse is getting nervous, your horse feeds off of your energy, so stay calm. If you breathe in and out and relax, get back to being calm, your horse will follow your lead. You must stay calm though, no one, including your horse, wants to follow a crazy, wound up, irrational, angry, ill tempered leader, they want calm, cool, rational, consistent for their leader. Do as you would have done unto yourself, stay calm.

feeling better

Todd (my Uncle) and I rode out in the far back field together yesterday. He rode Epona while I rode Lyra, I have to say that the sensation of getting to ride out, with company, on my own horses is truly wonderful!!
That said, Lyra is definitely feeling a lot better, she threw a couple half hearted bucks and rears in before we got going, I just sat very calmly in the saddle, took a deep breath and reassured her that the grass would still be there when we finished and it would be a lot easier for her to just walk along nicely. She quickly settled down and off we walked. Xandra followed behind, lose, what a firecracker she can be at times!! She kept getting distracted by new grass, would look up, realize we'd all moved on, then kick up her heels and charge after us, she'd pass a little ways up and then dive for more grass, pretty funny!
I plan to trim Lyra's hooves again tomorrow, will see if that continues to help her, she still has some hoof wall separation happening, after the improvement from the last trim though, I'm more than happy to keep her as well trimmed as I am able. Might even go for another little ride, this time with Brandon, Yippie!!
Also for all of you barefoot hoof people out there, I wanted to say about the Easyboot Bares, they are a snap to put on! Might not be orthodox, but if you put your horse's toe in the boot, pull the gaitor away from their heel, then place the boot's bottom on your lower thigh, just above your bent knee, support your horse's pastern with your one hand, while you push their heel into the boot with the other, then place their hoof on the ground and let them push their hoof snug, it takes all of about 30 seconds to put one on. Not sure why the fuss about how difficult they are, I actually find them easier to use than the epics. Actually, I thought I must have fit them wrong since it was so easy, looked through all the info again and no, they fit Epona perfectly (don't have a set for Lyra yet, working on it). Anyway, I highly recommend them!!

firsts

After spending the last couple of days round penning Lyra and getting her to hook up, as well as having had a saddle and surcingle on her , Shaylise (Lyra's co-owner and my 9 yr old niece) rode Lyra for the first time today!! Very exciting, Lyra was very quite and calm about the whole situation. Was a lot of fun!! Plan to have Shaylise ride Lyra again tomorrow, will see how she feels.
Shaylise and I rode double on Epona afterwards. She was a little curious as to what we were doing while trying to get Shaylise up behind me, but all in all was rather chill about the whole thing. We just did a small ride, a little trotting too. However the neighbor was going about saddle training her mare, in a rather aggressive fashion, so decided to curtail the ride early before Epona decided to go to this horse's rescue.
Also trimmed Xandr'a hooves today. They are looking better in some regards, not as great in others, will keep at it. Is great being able to start to know what it is I'm seeing.
Fantastic day!! Looking forward to tomorrow's adventures!!

ground work

First off, Xandra is FINALLY shedding!!! Wahoo!!!
I worked with all three in the round pen. Went pretty well. Lyra did not want to hook up, understandable, she's newer and very hard headed (much like me in that regard) :-) gotta love her, she did finally hook up in the end, after about 2 minutes. I actually progressed with Xandra to starting to sack her out with different things, she is so completely comfortable with me that nothing phased her. She was actually walking around with a plastic shavings bag on her head, just because, wish I'd gotten a picture! Massaged her ears also. She's a little worried about the fly spray, I think it's a learned thing from Epona who is phobic about the spray (wonder if she ever got some in her eye or some such thing?) anyway, will work more on that tomorrow, didn't want to over load anyone.
After round penning I worked on Lyra's hooves again. Took me about 3 hours, this after two hours yesterday, she is pretty sure she doesn't want her feet worked on. Hopefully after all of this and figureing some more out on her particular hooves we should have an easier time of it in the future. Hopefuly with more ground work she will trust me as her leader more and be more willing to do as I ask too. Will see.
I've been doing my own horses' hoof trimmings since December 2007. Long story, but I've always wanted to, lost the only barefoot trimmer in the area and decided now is as good a time (or better) than ever. So I dove in head first and have been trying to catch up on everything I should already know ever since. I highly recommend this website if you decide to take on barefoot hoof trimming or just for better information and understanding on how this works: http://www.barefoothorse.com/. Also the folks over on the yahoo barefoothorse group have been very, very helpful, so Thank You!!

Graduating!!!

I will be graduating June 13th, at 1PM, from The Evergreen State College!!! It's taken me eight years, as I've taken a few "breaks" along the way. I'm thrilled to be finishing this chapter of my life! Now as to what next?, not entirely sure. Will figure that one out I'm sure!! :-)

missing piece

Looking through past blogs, I realize there is a substantial missing piece.
Mattie, the Mustang, did not work out, tried to flip herself over backwards, twice, and well, not really what I have in mind for an eight year old. Truth be told I always had a little prejudice against her, not her fault, but she isn't a Curly. So...she now lives with my neighbor, still shares a fence line and everything, but she is no longer directly part of my herd.
As her replacement for Shaylise, we went out and visited some more Curly horses. We went to meet Warrior's Phantom aka Lyra in April and it was love at first site! She is an absolutely darling, grulla, four year old Curly mare, followed Shaylise around like a puppy dog trying to get a nip of Shaylise's cowgirl hat!
She is an integral part of the herd now. While we have been fighting with boughts of lameness (locking stifle and an abscess) we are hopefully going to get her sound here pretty soon and will be starting her saddle training in earnest. Keep your fingers crossed for her!!
She is almost as friendly as Xandra, which is saying a lot!!

today's ride

Well, I took Epona out for a little ride again today, went riding with her yesterday also and plan to do so again everyday from here on out. We went 3.2 miles, on the road, at the furious record speed of just over an hour!!
Yes, I'm kidding, I mean it really did take us that long, but I really do know that's really slow.
You would not believe the traffic out at 2 in the afternoon, I think we met about 60 cars, on a back road, that I've seen maybe 30 cars on total before today. Not sure what the deal was, maybe they somehow knew we'd be out and couldn't resist seeing the stunning Epona? No idea.
We encountered three fire breathing minis. To Epona's credit while she was extremely nervous she did not take off down the road, which was nice. We also encountered fire breathing cows, which again to Epona's credit she did much better with, snorted at them, but did not take off running; she's taken off galloping down the road on previous tiny walks (maybe a mile in the past). We trotted up a semi-dirt, semi-gravel hill, maybe .2 miles, then walked home. Actually I ended up mostly walking next to Epona as any time I thought things might get interesting, I got off, really want her to trust that when she's out with me, everything is fine and she won't get hurt ever, so I guess we;re in the trust building away from the herd stage of things. We also had a "discussion" at one point, in someone's driveway about walking on, halting, and backing up. We mostly stood stock still, at awkward angles for about five minutes for said "discussion" and I mostly actually laughed at Epona and told her how much of a Chicken Curly she was. We finally walked on, halted, and reversed, then stood for a moment letting it all sink in. She did the lick and chew business, then we set off again. What led to this was her charging into the road while a large truck came at us, then her standing still looking at the oncoming truck like a deer caught in head lights. Thankfully the truck stopped and waited for Epona to get her head back on and we were able to get into this person's driveway.
All in all, a better trip than some we've had in the past, rather a bit of an adventure though.
Oh!, we also encountered several harmless mailboxes, lawn mowers, a chainsaw, ferociously barking dogs, and a few unrelated horses. Epona did well with all of those. I was proud of her. Not sure how to get her over the mini horse/cow fear though, maybe borrow someones minis & cows for a month?, not sure she wouldn't go through the fence though. Thoughts?
At this rate we should be doing a CTR (Competitive Trail Ride) in, oh...10 years or so?, maybe? :-)

Spring

Wow, it's been a while! Well spring is here, everyone is shedding. By everyone I mean Epona, Xandra, and a new band mate Mattie. Mattie joined the band December 16th as a Christmas present for my boyfriend's eight year old niece, Shaylise. Mattie is a mustang off a range in Oregon, she is not a curly :-(, she is exactly what Shaylise wanted though. She's about 3 1/2 years of age and thankfully is quick to learn new things, proving to be an adventure and a half!!
I've been riding Epona pretty regularly, by that at least once a week. We'd mostly stopped for the winter as we have nowhere indoors to go and it's been pouring rain, yuck!! I recently acquired a hackamore and we are gradually getting used to it. I am hoping that both of us will communicate more effectively with it's use. Will see how it goes.
I've also begun Mattie's training, been lunging her and flapping all sorts of odd items all over her body. Oddly enough while she seems un-flappable about all of this, she still hates having her feet lifted, I haven't dared try trimming them yet, luckily she doesn't need them done yet, she's got really hard hooves.
Xandra's been curious about the work I'm doing with Mattie, so after each of Mattie's sessions I do everything I did with Mattie, with Xandra. We don't do too much and never on a tight circle. I think Xandra learns from watching Mattie make her mistakes, because I just ask Xandra for whatever it is and she does it the first time perfectly. What a smart horse she is!!
I've also been sitting on Epona while she grazes or eats her dinner. She gets a little nervous around being mounted, i am hoping that my daily mounting her and just sitting or laying there quietly on her she will get progressively calmer about the whole thing. So far it seems to be the case.