Mules just want to have fun

I did ground work with Cissie and Ruby this morning. I took Ruby out first after giving her a good brushing and she was pushy and obviously did not want to be there. I made her trot and canter and go over obstacles till she settled down. Then I headed back to the barn to get Cissie, leaving Ruby in the arena. As I got back to it I noticed that the dogs were barking in their yard and saw that Ruby was all dirty and bucking and snorting. She kept pawing and rolling and snorting as if to say, "I don't want to be clean and I don't want to be a good Molly mule, I just want to have fun".

I took Cissie on in to the arena and worked her and she was a very good girl. She picked right up on something I'd try to get her to do a while back and did great. I was getting her to move away from me and turn on her hind quarters by just using hand signals. It is funny how she goes over this one obstacle that has a shiny piece of wall board with a 4X4 on each side. It is about the size of a trailer stall. She used to be spooky every time I took her to it but now, she walks "into" it, stops and backs out without a bobble. I'm very pleased with her.

Hope it is dry enough to ride this weekend. I will probably have company on Sat but maybe Sun I can get back out on the trail.

Cissie’s trip to the vet and trailer-loading issues

I took Cissie to the Vet yesterday for a checkup and to get her Coggins test done. Dr Hand basically said that riding is not going to damage her leg because the ligament is healed from her injury almost a year ago. He did say it was the worst injury of that type he has ever seen. She has some scar tissue that causes her to limp occasionally when trotting but she is fine at a walk and at a lope. He offered a couple of options that I may take him up on after I have been riding her a while longer and know exactly what I want to do with her. Neither option is guaranteed to work. I plan to take her to a local arena where I can ride her on better, softer footing and get used to her again. She also needs to get back into a working mode and start listening to me the way she was doing before her injury. I would like to try sorting again with her. She showed some talent for it before and I'd like to try it again. It's a lot of fun.

She showed some of her old "Bad Cissie" attitude yesterday at the vets. We had worked the night before getting her used to loading in the smaller, two-horse slant trailer that she hadn't ridden in before. We want to use it for short local trips to save gas. Thanks to help from Jason, she would walk in and stand while you shut the divider and we drove around in the pasture a little to let her see what it was like. It is a big change from the bigger trailer. Yesterday morning I was able to load her without too much trouble, none of her "backing to the next county" that she uses to avoid something she doesn't want to do. When we got to the vet's and unloaded her she was very anxious about everything that was going on around her. There were lots of trailers coming in and out and other horses. Of course the wind was blowing a gale. We tied her to the trailer and she stood there for 5-10 minutes with me brushing her off and then she decided to freak out at something on the trailer, probably the shiny diamond plate along the bottom and on the fender. She sat back and pulled as hard as she could but luckily she did not break the halter or lead. She had pulled the lead so tight we couldn't get it undone so I grabbed another lead rope and took her away from the trailer while Don got the rope untied. I just walked her around until it was time to go into the exam room which she did without any trouble. She was fine for her exam and even stood on the blocks to be x-rayed without having to be sedated which has had to be done in the past. She was great until we wanted to load her to leave. She looked in the trailer and said "no thanks" and started her backing routine. I lunged her in circles and kept trying to take her back to the trailer but she just got worse. There were more trailers pulling in and I was having to move her out of their way and getting very frustrated. I finally asked Don if he would see if he could get her in the trailer because she sure wasn't listening to me. Of course, she walked right in like "what's the problem?" That tells me she and I need to work A LOT on the loading and many other things so she respects me more and does what I ask her to. We had trouble with loading in the other trailer a couple of years ago but we got past that and can get through this too. It will just take time and work. I'm looking forward to it!

Cissie’s Sunday Ride

I rode Cissie again yesterday and she was a little spooky and worried because her buddies were out of site. We stayed in the arena and just worked on basics and some obstacles. She is convinced there is something on the South end of the arena that will eat her. I have put up feed sacks in various places around the arena just to give her new things to get used to. The only ones that bother her are on the South end. And there is some equipment and a metal building outside the fence on that end. We'll just keep working on it. I will keep adding things and changing obstacles around so it's not always the same.
I need to make plans to take her to the vet for her Coggins test and to get his opinion on what she is able to do now. That's the big question I need to get an answer to. Meanwhile, we work on basics and the things we learned going to the trainer before her injury.
This morning I took her out on the South side of the barn out of the wind and did some ground work with her. I work on backing her over and around things and between trees. I like to get these little sessions in when I can. I think it reminds her that she needs to listen to me. And I enjoy it.

Trail Work at LBJ Grasslands

Yesterday was great. I headed up to the LBJ Grasslands to meet Liz and Mary and do some work on the trails. They've had quite a lot of damage from the recent snow that caused a lot of downed limbs on the trails. When I arrived, Liz and Mary were already there and I unloaded Ruby and got her saddled, got my folding saw and hand trimmer and was ready to go. Liz did not bring Rudy because he is still recovering from a swollen jaw and is on antibiotics. She brought Shelby instead. Mary was riding the beautiful Cimmy. I took a two mile ride out on the Blue trail while Liz lunged Shelby.

Mary and I then headed out on the Red trail and Liz decided that Shelby wasn't going to "play well with others" so she headed out on her own. Mary and I had a really nice ride and were able to trim a lot of briars off the trail and move some large limbs that had been downed. My saw worked great for cutting some of the errant limbs out of the way.

I was really pleased with how Ruby acted both in camp and on the trail. We had a couple of disagreements about whether or not she was going to leave her buddies but each time I was able to convince her to move off. There were a good many muddy areas, especially down through the creeks and she handled them very well. I dismounted and remounted quite a few times and she always stood still for me to mount, thankfully. And dragging the limbs around her didn't bother her either. The weather was beautiful, so different from most of the days we've had lately. I was surprised we didn't see more riders out on the trail. I will certainly be happy when spring finally gets here and we have many more days like Saturday.