Mild

March 17, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

Today I did what I should do more often and headed to the barn before starting to work. It was a bit breezy and hazy, but with temps in the 50's it felt great to be outside. I fetched Steen from the less-mucky pasture and brought him indoors. He's shedding full force, and I swear his white bits produce longer hairs and more of them. He's looking practically roanish because the white hairs work their way into the darker sections and stay there. In spite of the wind, Steen was very relaxed, though he did feel the need to check out a suspicious-looking new object hanging at the edge of the area:

I trimmed his tail and groomed his as best I could given the circumstances, then ho...

Anniversary Ride

Robin

March 14, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Brian and I have now officially been married for two whole years, so we decided to celebrate by spending the early afternoon at the barn. It is warmer today, though still super mucky, but we brought the boys in and cleaned them up. We wanted them to run around a little in the indoor arena but they mostly just wanted to stand around. Finally, Bear did deign to roll. He tries to be dainty but he doesn't always pull it off:

I hopped on Steen bareback while Brian finished grooming Bear and did groundwork. Steen was a bit pushy during grooming, almost to the point that I thought I'd need to do some groundwork with Steen too. But he calmed down so I decided to try riding, and he surprised me. He was...

Spring Steen

Robin

March 8, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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It's muddy around here lately, and there is still melting snow and more precipitation falling from the sky. This means the horses are muddy and the road to the barn is muddy. However, in some respects its better than frigidly cold. Today it was in the mid-thirties when I headed for the barn in the late morning. Steen and Daisy (a paint mare) were grooming/playing with each other when I arrived. I watched them for a couple of minutes until they noticed me, at which point Steen left Daisy to walk towards me. I took him inside, and he proved to be in a very mellow, somewhat goofy mood. He wasn't at all antsy, but he was a little opinionated about certain things. He was also pretty dirty everywhere that wasn't covered by the blanket, and he's shedding now which means his white bits spread hair all over his dark bits. So he was looking a bit comical:

Relaxing Barn Sunday

Robin

March 7, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Today we went to an open house. The property was west of town and included a small barn and several pastures on 5 acres. The house was nice, but really just a whole lot larger than we need. Although the barn itself was very cool, and pretty perfect scale-wise, the land was very sloped and there was nowhere at all good to ride. So I don't think we'll buy it, but it was fun to look. Afterwards we braved the muck and headed to our barn. The boys were dozing in the sun, and they were both quiet and relaxed when we brought them indoors. I did a quick bareback ride on Steen while Brian tacked up and did groundwork. Then I gave Brian a late lesson (since Friday the weather was simply miserable and we didn't ride). The entire trip went quite well. Steen was relaxed and responsive at the walk and trot when I was riding, and afterwards happy to just chill with me while Brian rode. Bear was a...

Winter Continues

Robin

February 26, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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After a brief respite during which Steen got to go for a few days without his blanket and it almost felt like spring, the weather has turned unpleasant again. Last Sunday was wet and chilly and we headed to the barn for Duke Day. Bear and Steen were both soaking and filthy and when we brought them inside and turned them out in the indoor arena. They both rolled and then proceeded to run around like mad, making their previous romps look pretty tame. They also kept it up for quite some time. Bear even fell over trying to dig into the turns too hard, and then proceeded to blame his mishap on Steen, punishing the poor innocent victim by chasing him around and trying to bite his butt. Everyone at the barn was quite entertained. Eventually they ran themselves out and they were both good when it was their turn for the farrier. Duke even confirmed that Bear's feet are significantly harder ...

Lesson Three

Robin

February 19, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Friday found us pulling into the barn and grumbling a bit that there was another car in the parking lot. (I concede we are incredibly spoiled in that we often have the place to ourselves, but we still grumbled.) Then we went indoors and discovered it was worse than we thought. One of the other boarders was there giving her non-horse-person friend a little horse exposure. This involved a lot of the boarder regaling her friend with tales of her adventures on horse-back.

Brian and I took our time getting ready, but when he had Bear tacked up the boarder was riding around the indoor arena, going over jumps and loping in circles. Moments after we joined them, the boarder traded with the friend, who clearly had no horsemanship skills whatsoever.

All in all, this wasn't an auspicious start. Although the other boarder and friend certainly weren't behaving out of line in ...

A Tune-Up, and Tunes

Robin

February 16, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Yesterday we drove back from Chicago in the morning, and 1:00 found me at the barn waiting for Bear's turn while the chiropractor adjusted a couple other horses. To pass the time I brought Steen indoors and hopped on. He was good for our very brief ride, but soon it was time to transfer my attention to Bear. The chiro again commented on his tight hips, but otherwise thought he looked good. Brian arrived shortly after the treatment started, and Bear was pretty good throughout the whole thing, though he made loads of funny faces. I also took the opportunity to expand my horse portraits portfolio. This is Doc, Gay's horse:

Today I went out for a solo ride. It was windy, and since Steen se...

Another Ride, Another Lesson

Robin

February 12, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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On Monday I went to the barn alone and had a simple but lovely bareback indoor ride on Steen. He was on his best behavior and although I only rode for a short time, I enjoyed the trip out quite a bit. I intended to go again mid-week, but we've had crazy-cold weather (like -18°). So I stayed in. But today it was warmer and Brian and I headed out for lesson number two. I stayed inside when Brian went out to get Bear so Steen would not see me and get jealous (I'm soft-hearted). Bear stood really well through grooming, in spite of the crazy bird that was hopping around near us, at one point even going to far as to perch on Bear's back.

We got Bear ready and got Brian on-board, although with a new bit (just like Steen's...

A Romp and a Lesson

Robin

February 7, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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We had a warm day today with temps in the 30's. Brian and I figured the barn would be quiet this afternoon so we headed out with a plan. I'm going to attempt to give Brian a 'real' lesson once a week. Of course I'm always around to offer advice and lend a hand, but that's not quite the same thing as setting aside time to make Brian and Bear my sole focus. The only slight problem with the plan is Steen does not like it when we show up and I don't bring him inside, so I thought I'd do some groundwork with him while Brian got Bear ready. Steen was in a super easy mood, which surprised me a little since he was quite antsy when I went out mid-week to put antibiotic on Bear's leg. After I took Steen's blanket off we turned the horses out, since they do seem to have the urge to kick their heels up inside when they have chance. It was, again, a pretty entertaining show:

The Perfect Patient

Robin

February 3, 2011

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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The storm that was blowing in on Tuesday night stuck around and dropped nearly two feet of snow on us. Cathi advised us that there was no getting to the barn, certainly not for someone without 4-wheel drive. And that worked out because there was also no getting a car out of our garage. Brian spent nearly two hours shoveling and there is still no way we are leaving via vehicle without a lot more work. Luckily, Cathi lives right next to the barn and has a husband with a lot of farm equipment who keeps things plowed. She reported that she removed Bear's leg wrap in the late morning and he was a doll for her. She checked in on him a few times over the course of the day and he was sweet, even inclined to follow her around the pasture after she examined the leg. She says the cut appears to be healing without complications and she's grown to like Bear quite a lot. These are the instanc...