Burros and Shoes

4/14/2010-Got home from work, hooked up the trailer, saddled Penny (with the new saddle that is now broken in because she chewed on the saddle strings and we managed to rip a saddle bag off the bag by snagging on a tree last weekend.....) Loaded Penny first, Risa second and May third.  Headed off the chase burro, except I left the directions at work.  Mark's (the man with the burro) cell phone was dead, and I knew I could get close to his place, but I hate to have to turn around in unfamiliar areas with the trailer, so I called Peter and he saved my bacon with directions with details--the car in Mark's driveway, the red white and blue gas line poles--important details.  At Mark's, I met Leon, the burro, who was going to stand in for a cow, in case anyone is wondering why I might be chasing a burro. May was unhappy with the whole situation, so she got to hangout in the round pen instead of pawing at my trailer and removing the wiring or a light..  Risa stayed tied to the trailer, and just to add excitement a gale force wind started up.  Out past my house, the mountains slide eastward, and flatten out all the way to west Texas.  Lots of space for wind.  Penny thought tracking Leon was pretty cool--she tracked pretty decent and after she got bored (pinning her ears was the big clue), I switched over to Risa.  She is cutting bred and tracks everything from tarps to chickens, but is a little edgy and hadn't ever been asked to track on purpose.  She was un fazed by the swirling dust, but thought the cow chute was a menace.  In the pen, she latched right on to Leon with her eyes, and pretty much wanted to go eat him up immediately, and with major purpose.  Unfortunately, she was too aggressive about it so Mark and I rode around and around ignoring Leon and letting Risa to settle.  Eventaully, we tracked Leon from 1/2 the pen away, for a few steps.  She will need more work but was pleased that she did settle!    
     Loaded up and went home. May travelled well--some pawing and the trailer was a little weavier behind the truck than usual.
4/15/2010-May got her first pair of front shoes! She has a club foot and now that we are riding some, she needed to get squared up and ready to go.  She is moving much better now.  She held it together very well for the farrier, except a little resistance on the last hind foot.
     I turned Penny and Risa out to graze.  We have grass! It might end up being a bunch of fox tails, but right now it is amazingly abundant.  Usually at this point we have mustard and Kochia growing everywhere, but last year I had a bunch of Crap Grass hay that no one would really eat.  It was baled too wet and was marginally moldy. But it had a lot of seed heads.  The un eaten Carp Grass hay seed got spread all over as compost and by the wind.  Then it rained like crazy in September for about 2 or 3 weeks and many of the those seeds sprouted and held on.  This late August/ September rains are the best for getting grass to establish.  So, out they went to graze.  This upset May and when we went to the round pen to work: her usual retinue of observers were absent.  Dart was in with the dogs and Cometa was far more interesed in cleaning up scraps of hay left over from breakfast than keeping May company.  So, May was tense and looking for Penny and Rias.  Her ground work was good, but she did lose focus more often and her body was tense.  I played with the grocery bag while ignoring her.  Stood by her and put the bag in my pocket, got it out, shook it, changed pockets etc.  She was not too concerned or else she simply didn't notice, as her mind was mainly on the missing Penny and Risa.  Got up and down and then stayed on.  I am riding in the rope hackamore still and she testing to see if she needed to listen to it.  Yep. Lots of walking and NO you cannot just stop and refuse to go--kept her aiming where I wanted and used my legs and the rope to bump her forward-- and yes, continuing forward is the plan.Whoa does mean stop and if two reins is too much, I am happy to do a bend to a stop and move to a one rein stop. Worked on sideways and although that was easy two days ago, it was confusing for her today, but kept adjusting her body position with my leg and rein until she figured it out and was able to go both ways.  She did manage to squish me against the fence once., which was not that nice.  Eventually, she gained focus and we trotted (leg and rope flagging) and worked up to 2x around the pen.  Got lateral flexion, hip movement, shoulder, sideways, and stopping along with the trotting, so it was a good day! 
   Risa also had a good day working with draw reins on her loping, which is still pretty uneven, but that little girl can change leads--change direction, adjust her hip and magic! she changes leads with ease!  Aiming at some low key reining in August!