Winnie's Blog
"What were we thinking?!!!!" That’s the question my husband, Bill, and I asked ourselves when we brought home Zelador and Zeloso, two weanling Lusitano colts, at the end of December in 2004. Our combined ages exceed 112 years and our other two horses were eight-years-old and seven when we bought them. We had never worked with youngsters, didn’t know how to work with youngsters and there we were...
To say that we are having the time of our lives would be an understatement. The two Z's led us to liberty training, Working Equitation, tricks (including the bow, the smile, mounting pedestals, pushing large balls) and with any luck, carriage driving. They will begin their jumping education this month and for the past two years have explored classical horsemanship (work in-hand, long reining and work under saddle).
Their adventures and misadventures are chronicled in this blog. I hope you enjoy watching how quickly these two are training us!
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Kye Learns to Bow
February 8, 2010 | No CommentsKye is thoroughly enjoying his liberty/trick time in the arena. In fact, if I’m a bit slow (according to him) at getting him out of his stall and up to the arena, he whinnies to me. Kye is pushing the big ball like he’s been doing it all of his life. I’m really surprised that he enjoys this. It seemed to take forever to Read more »
February 5, 2010 | No Comments
Ann Clifford made a banner for the arena. It’s twelve feet by eight feet. She used the photo of Zelador playing with the big ball (taken at the October 25th Get-together).
Kneel and Lie Down
February 1, 2010 | No CommentsI haven’t taught Zelador anything new in a while and figured it’s probably time to learn how to teach him to kneel. When I was at Allen Pogue’s Red Horse Ranch he showed me how to do this. It’s a prelim to the lie down. He has a huge pile of soft shavings for these tricks. He had knee pads on the horse, ropes here Read more »
Pax and the Ringing Bells
January 27, 2010 | 1 CommentHave to tell you about Pax today… and yesterday. We’ll start with yesterday. I was leading him up the driveway to the arena and he was so very slow! I was sweating by the time I got him up there… and a bit cranky! I had on way too many clothes to work with that horse. Today the trip to the arena was Read more »
The Bells are a Ringing
January 27, 2010 | No CommentsBill attached the new system for ringing the bells on an arena support beam. There are three eye-bolts that the knotted rope passes through. I gave the part of the rope that extends into the arena a pull and nothing happened. I figured the horses wouldn’t get a sound either, but Bill was certain they would. First “victim”, Zeloso. The class clown took the Read more »
Zelador and the Bells
January 21, 2010 | No CommentsYou know your horse is clever when… Today I did some liberty/tricks with Zelador in the arena. I called him over to the piece of wood Bill put up for ringing the bells. The wood is hinged at the bottom and the horse has to touch the top part. If the top part is pushed sharply it will move towards the wall then the Read more »
Finally Some Good Footage
January 20, 2010 | No CommentsFINALLY we got some decent footage of Z and Z!!!! I decided that no matter how animated and exuberant Zeloso might be, I was NOT going to work him before filming. (O.K. so I’m a slow learner… Also, I was hoping that the saying “third time a charm” just might hold true for me.) I placed each horse on a low pedestal, Bill Read more »
More Filming
January 19, 2010 | No CommentsThe warm weather allowed me to attempt a second filming of Z and Z at liberty. Our next opportunity was the day Christi McQuaker came to help with the boys. She rode Zeloso for about twenty minutes while I rode Zelador. We took Zeloso back to the barn and did more work with Zelador. After Christi left we got both boys into the arena for Read more »
Nose to Nose
January 13, 2010 | No CommentsWhen I brought the horses in from the paddocks this afternoon Ron, the farrier, was shoeing Blue. It turned out that my timing was perfect. The aisle was clear for me to lead in each of the horses. Ron was forming the shoes over his anvil in the back of his truck and Blue was in his stall. We chatted while he trimmed the pads Read more »
Filming the Zs
January 12, 2010 | No CommentsThe DVD of the October Get-Together doesn’t have the footage I want of the boys together. So, yesterday I tried to film Zelador and Zeloso at liberty. Knowing that Zeloso is “full of it” I took him up to the arena to play BEFORE Bill was due to arrive. Well, Bill was a bit late and when he came we found out that the Read more »
Gel Pads
January 10, 2010 | No CommentsHere are some photos. Winter can be beautiful! The first one shows it snowing on the farm. The second one has Socs and Picasso in the snow. The third is the sculpture Bill commissioned Ann Clifford (who owns Socs and Picasso) to make for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary early this past December. The temperature got up to minus four today and it was so Read more »
Canter Pirouette part 2
January 8, 2010 | No CommentsToday is a bit on the “cool” side so I didn’t saddle up any of the horses. I worked with four of them this morning. I started with nineteen-year-old Kye at liberty. He walked, trotted and cantered around me, changed directions and was calm and proud. About a year ago Bill told me Kye does liberty. I took him into the arena this past summer, Read more »
