Horse Thoughts

Horses are Dangerous

They are big and strong, and the spooky, flighty characteristics that have kept them alive on the plains for centuries can make them unpredictable. And Sham has a little too much unpredictableness. Last week he kicked at a barn worker who was taking food into the pasture. She tried to quietly shoo him away from… Read more »

Sham’s Portrait

I’m adding this photo a year after we got Sham and almost ten months after we sent him back to the people we bought him from. I wasn’t thinking about horse portraits when we had Sham, but I did get one shot that I think qualifies:

A Shame

Lately there has been all this stuff in the news about the American woman who sent her adopted Russian child back to his native country by loading him up on a plane and driving away. Every time I encounter this story I feel an uncomfortable twitch of guilt. The reason for my guilt is we… Read more »

I Was in Charge

Well, I was in charge most of the time. It was a cold, wet, windy Wednesday. Lately Wednesdays have been solo barn days for me. But Robin has been in the process of transitioning from her day job to being a full time small business owner. So she worked all morning and then came with… Read more »

Monday on the Trail

My current plan for the summer is to ride each Monday with Jean and Schoolie. Schoolie is a 20 year-old ex-racehorse that first retired to the life of an eventer and has now retired to the life of a pleasure horse, but still has a whole lot of ‘go’ in him. Unfortunately, today Jean got… Read more »

Long Barn Day, Short Barn Post

At least that is the plan. The posts often get long. And I thank whoever is reading them, but they are really here to help me keep track of my progress and regress with Sham. So that is my excuse for the length. Today was another quiet day at the barn. And again Sham was… Read more »

Easter at the Barn

Today Brian and I logged some more good hours with Sham. Our main focus was emphasizing the concept that Sham needs to stay in his own space at all times, particularly when led. We started with groundwork outdoors, and at first were able to get some very calm leading and good yielding from him. Then… Read more »

More Learning

Thursday was more or less and nice repeat of Wednesday. Except Robin came, so I wasn’t pretending to be anything other than myself. It was sunny and very, very windy. Sham was lethargic on the lead line and that gave me a little bit of trouble. We are changing some of our groundwork tactics with… Read more »

Bits and Swirling Ropes

We’ve had lots of sun lately and some good long sessions at the barn. On Thursday Brian(!) caught Sham with little difficulty and we took him indoors. But Sham is still antsy inside and I took over with the handling again. We managed to groom him and tack him and then we went outside, where… Read more »