Wendy's Training and Bonding Blog

Wow, I have some progress to report! Go me!

I went straight outside. I tried to put Teeka's halter on to cross-tie and brush her but she was having absolutely none of it! So I grabbed Dale who never cares. Pulled him out into the aisle and cross-tied him. He was pretty antsy because Teeka was outside and he couldn't see her. This is what makes me less tempted to do things with them -- they're so hard to separate! But I plunked some hay in front of him and he was happy. Eventually Teeka came back in the stalls so she could watch Dale being brushed.
I gave him a good brushing and thought I should pick his hooves. I never do. And he doesn't get his feet trimmed (they trim themselves, wild horse style haha) so he's essentially a 10 year old who doesn't know how to pick up his feet. I couldn't find a hoof pick! I have hundreds and I couldn't even find one! Sometimes my Holly dog raids my brush box, but usually she takes a curry comb to chew on. Maybe she hid all my hoof picks? I dunno. Whatever the case I took a metal comb! I got him to pick up his right fore hoof and he was very uncomfortable so I left it at that. Two hooves tomorrow!

Here's Dale enjoying his hay:


I came in for lunch and might just head back outside to try Teeka again. (Although if I know Teeka, which I'm the only person who does, I know that she's just not in the mood to be caught today and trying won't do any good. I know it doesn't sound like a good philosophy, but it's so true.)

One small step for Womankind,,, and you know what they say about a long journey.....begins with a first step......

Well I went back out to get Teeka and the sun was peeking out and this is what I saw:




So I didn't want to disturb them. Maybe I'll get her done this evening. Instead I played fetch with the dogs for a while!

I am always a sucker too for the Tranquility of them munching on some grass.........hahahah.

Good for you! Glad you are taking the opportunity to do something fun and positive with your horses :-) It will be good for you, bonding time, etc...The more you separate them, the easier it gets....I can ride Arrow out of the pasture and arena now, and Worthy only gets excited if we are out of sigt for several minutes...OT, yes, Worthy still gets excited...sigh... LOL

Sucks about work, Wendy, but at least the positive side is you can continue on other things now that you have time! Good for you that you hopped back on the wagon with your training and bonding.

Mayhaps chasing Teeka around until she wants to be caught would be good as a weight loss activity? If she is anything like my two (which from your descriptions she sounds *leagues* beyond them in smarts and set-in-her-ways-ness), I am pretty worked out by the time I drag them out of their 2.5 acre field and down to the barn.

Is Teeka road safe? Taking her for long walks up the road will not only inhance your horsey time, but help with the separation and give you some extra exercise. You could also do it with Dale and get him used to cars and things as well if he is not. Even get Johnny involved! I used to take T for jogs around the track all the time, trying to maintain his trot with my short little legs always made for a good workout, and he was a good support when I got tired LOL.

Ellie*Mae wrote:

Good for you! Glad you are taking the opportunity to do something fun and positive with your horses :-) It will be good for you, bonding time, etc...The more you separate them, the easier it gets....I can ride Arrow out of the pasture and arena now, and Worthy only gets excited if we are out of sigt for several minutes...OT, yes, Worthy still gets excited...sigh... LOL

I'm always afraid that Dale's going to come through the fence. He gets soooo worked up. And Teeka's quite possibly worse when I take Dale out. Oi vey. I guess I'm just going to have to grit my teeth and do it though!

Fiere wrote:

Sucks about work, Wendy, but at least the positive side is you can continue on other things now that you have time! Good for you that you hopped back on the wagon with your training and bonding.

Mayhaps chasing Teeka around until she wants to be caught would be good as a weight loss activity? If she is anything like my two (which from your descriptions she sounds *leagues* beyond them in smarts and set-in-her-ways-ness), I am pretty worked out by the time I drag them out of their 2.5 acre field and down to the barn.

Is Teeka road safe? Taking her for long walks up the road will not only inhance your horsey time, but help with the separation and give you some extra exercise. You could also do it with Dale and get him used to cars and things as well if he is not. Even get Johnny involved! I used to take T for jogs around the track all the time, trying to maintain his trot with my short little legs always made for a good workout, and he was a good support when I got tired LOL.

Thanks M, actually the work situation sucks less than I thought it would. I was getting tired of the place and I always knew it was coming to this. I'll still pick up some hours while the guys go on vacation so it's not a bad situation to hold me over till school.
Chasing Teeka would result in her laying a hoof into me if pursued to the max I kid, but she is a fierce little pony when she's set in her ways. If she doesn't want to come, she's NOT coming. I've learned over time that she's actually an incredibly smart and GOOD pony, and that forcing her to do something she doesn't want to do often results in a far worse experience than it's worth. (Although yes, it would definitely make for some awesome weight loss!) I'll bet anything that today I'll go out, halter in hand and she'll come over and put her nose right in. She's every inch a pony!
She's ok on the road. I took her for walks along it before. I would like to do it again. I usually make excuses about having two dogs, but the dogs are so good that Johnny could easily handle the two of them. I have no idea how Dale would behave around cars, but it would be worth checking out, although first I'd want some more ground work training done on him! lol

Picture this conversation from 6am this morning, if you will.

Me: Do you have a hacksaw?
Johnny: Yeah...
W: Do you use it for work?
J: Yes...
W: Do you have a spare?
J: Yes...
W: Where is it?
J: In my tool room... why?
W: I need to start cutting down some of the dead trees around here to build my round pen. I've been waiting for months [years actually] so I'm just going to build it myself.
J: Well... we don't have the money to buy the boards right now.
W: Yes but I'm just going to use small trees as rails and larger trees as fence posts for now, I'm dying to work with Dale and he's just too strong on the lunge line.
J: A hacksaw won't work very well on trees.
W: Well I'm too scared to use your chainsaw and something has to get done if it takes me three years to do it, at least it will be progress.

I did not go out with a hacksaw to the trees today. It was too nice out, I swam instead. But when Johnny came home from work he ran out with the chainsaw and immediately started chopping down a few dead birches that are around. So here's to round pen progress and the promise of training Dale.

YEAH!!! Keep updating! Post pics!

woooooooo hoooooooooo........thats usually what I do......I get the damn thing started.......even if it is only a really good conversation......hahahaha.......Well Done Wendy.......keep at him.

haha, the good old "well i'll do it myself, but im just a girl ..."trick, i love that one, very clever ;)

thats how i managed to get my pen built too, too bad i couldnt take it with me, lol.
pictures are a must!

Ok, going now to take pictures! :D

Here we go. He must have felt awfully guilty because he did an awful lot of work tonight.

Just a few of the trees he chopped:


Some smaller ones for rails:


This is my poor neglected arena. You can see the grass has grown up all around and it has become a place where old/discarded/unusable pieces of wood go to die. It needs a serious overhaul.


This is the corner of the arena where the round pen will go. It's going to go inside the arena for now. A little bit inconvenient for riding, but let's face it, I haven't really ridden in 3 years anyway. Most recently this was used as a bonfire pit.


"Grain time, Mum?"

now that's service!

looks like you guys just need to have a serious bonfire....

great layout for a ring tho! so exciting :)

good going Wendy.....hahahah.....LAUGHING MY buttercup OFF LIKE MAD :cowboyhound.gi :cowboyhound.gi

A little more progress was made.

My dad has these three tall spruce trees right by the corner of his house. They're super tall and getting old and rotten looking so he wanted to chop them down in case they ever came down on the house in a storm. Well he and Johnny did that yesterday and each tree made 4 fence posts. My dad needed three, leaving 9 for us! So we're 9 steps closer to a round pen.

Johnny is saying now that there's no way we can cut enough trees (without destroying our property) to make a round pen and is considering buying the lumber to do the railings with. I don't really want to spend any money on it but he's getting stubborn. I guess we'll see!

hey Wendy......I have tons of small trees that need moving if you need rails...........

just joan wrote:

hey Wendy......I have tons of small trees that need moving if you need rails...........

I have tonnes here too, particularly in the far back behind the pasture. I think Johnny's just getting sick of cutting down trees!

Ahhh had a great day today. I bathed both horses just now. Gave them both a really good scrub. They both rolled immediately after, but they're still fairly shiny and I'll brush the dirt off them as soon as they're clean. It feels so good to get out there and do things with them, why can't I motivate myself more often!?

There is a man just past the blackettes lake turn off on the opposite side of the water from you that sells cut, sharpened fence posts for 2$.

Also, I may be able to work something out for you with boards, if you decide to buy. Will PM details.

PS: Tell Johnny to teach my Dan a thing or two!!

I think we have nearly enough posts now, but I will keep that in mind. I think my dad knows the place. Thanks for the PM, sent one back!
And don't go giving Johnny too much credit, I've been begging him to do this for like 3 years now. hahaa