No You're Not Houdini

Sigh. Mares. I'm learning they really are more brilliant than the dead head geldings and I'm trying to decide if this is a good thing or not. 

Last night, grooming Echo, in the cross ties with the non velcro safety release. Same cross ties Mareface has broken out of twice before. I figure I'm a step ahead of her and keep a leadrope on her in case she start's to pull her escape routine.

Well Mareface has learned to slightly turn her head one direction and lower her head. This equals freedom. 

I caught her by her field being an idiot there, brought her back to the barn where we had a discussion about not threatening to rear while being lead. I decided she had way too much energy and threw her rear in round pen and did some join-up work with her and can say she honestly stopped for the first time when I turned my back to her. Big progress!

Focus

So as you know from my last post, the time I spend at the barn is 1) Going to be more limited 2) Needs to be productive. 

For the last two months, I've been more focused on Dakota except for the last few weeks when he was in dire need of a trim and his shoes reset. Now he's all trimmed up and has shiny hooves again and I had to face a major self dilemma. Dakota frustrates me. If I have high expectations for a ride he's a nightmare. If I get on and expect to do nothing but sit on him we have a great ride. Faced with the fact I can easily work with him again without worrying about his hooves, I began questioning why I'm stressing and working myself up over working with him. Yes he's my first horse, I want him to be successful, I want others to see what I see in him but at the same time I know Echo has more potential and is the one I should be focused on.

So next month, Mareface is getting rode by a trainer 1-2x a week. Not a lot, but it well help me be more comfortable 1) riding her 2) start taking lessons on her.

Balancing Act

2 cats. 2 horses. 2 jobs. 12 credit hours this semester. Apartment still needing unpacked from moving.

Well life just got a bit more interesting. Yesterday I started a second part time job. Part time at a grocery store. It's as exciting as it sounds. However my options were a second job or sell a horse and that wasn't an option I wanted to face. Then Today marks the start of a new college semester for me. 

So how am I going to manage my life? Well I figure this is a great chance to improve my time management 'skills' which have barely exist.

My job at Equibase is on a set schedule so that helps. I have Sunday and Mondays off from there. Ill most likely be working these days at the new job. Ill still manage to get to the farm daily, I just may have to become a morning regular instead of evenings. There will be a few days a week that when i get off from Equibase I'll have to work the second job that night. Days I work only one job are days I'll be dedicating studying to and also using these days to do more serious things with the horses.

It's going to be a major challenge for me. If I'm still semi upright and not locked up in a padded cell by mid December, there will be a night of serious margarita or cosmopolitan consumption to be had.

The Great Separation

After dealing with hormonal gelding and mare, two escapes and a few curse words later I finally said enough and split Echo and Dakota to where they can't even see each other in turnout. They're not content just seeing each other like they were in Michigan and both were becoming impossible to handle. Dakota is now out with 4 other geldings in a big field. Echo remains by herself until an opening comes up with another mare. 

Video of Dakota with his new field mates. Puck, the morgan I posted about before is the bay with a muzzle on. Supremo is the other bay, a TB. Finn is the chestnut with no white leg markings and Ned is the chestnut with the white legs - both Ned and Finn are TBs. Basically lots of high strung geldings that will wear each other out. Dakota and Finn love each other.