Our first look

Ruben's mare......


.....and Indio

E and I drove out to Benton City this morning to take a look at the horses that Ruben Villasenor is currently offering for sale. His place is out in the high desert, surrounded by hills and little vegetation. He's currently in the process of upgrading the facility, hence our ability to actually afford one of his animals - he's selling them at rock-bottom prices just so he'll have some cash to finish up some of the construction that's already begun. (Even at rock-bottom prices, some of the horses were way out of our reach, so I could only "window shop" as we strolled past the $8k to $10k horses.)

When we arrived, he already had 2 horses out: a paint mare (whose name I can't remember for the life of me!) and a pretty Morgan gelding. Both were a bit skittish on the ground, but not terrible. Once under saddle, however, they settled nicely and did what was asked. Fantastic considering neither has been ridden in quite a while - almost 2 years for the mare, in fact.

The mare's story is that Ruben did some training with her a few years ago for a family with a young girl. Once the family took the horse home, though, she sat in the pasture and was only ridden a couple of times. The family had to move and gave the horse to Ruben a few months ago. He's only put a ride or two on her since she returned to his place.

Ruben on the mare...

The Morgan has also been with him for a few years, and has learned quite a bit, including the Spanish Walk that Ruben likes to teach his horses. He is a beautiful horse, but very skittish. He also has a club foot on the front right. After doing a little homework, I've decided that even though Ruben assured me the foot has not got in the way of the horse's movement, I don't want to take on the possibility of it becoming an issue in the future.

A third horse was brought out after we talked a bit - one that is calmer on the ground. He is a quarter horse gelding named Indio. This horse doesn't actually belong to Ruben, though. A (former) client brought a few horses in for training and ended up not paying his bill or picking up the final horse, Indio. This is the horse that E and I felt most comfortable with. Ruben said that he could lease this horse out, with the option to possibly buy at a later date.

Ruben riding Indio...

Indio is not as responsive as the mare, but still did as asked and appeared to have some solid training under him. Both the mare and Indio have been sitting for quite a while and are not in top shape - but that's to be expected since it's early spring.

It was decided that E and I would return at the beginning of her spring break so that she could ride the horses. If she likes the ride, we'll come back several times during that week before making a final decision.

All in all, I felt very comfortable with the whole experience. And secretly, I'm hoping that the little mare works out.....

Dancing Horses

E's 4-H club hosted a clinic today. The morning was full of informational sessions covering everything from acupuncture to taking your horse's vital signs. Very interesting and useful stuff. In between sessions, we held hobby-horse races...all very cute to watch. But the highlight of the day came after lunch.

Ruben Villasenor held a hands-on clinic for our girls and then showed them some of his fancy steps with his horse Shadow. The two of them have been showcased at some big horse expos (see this youtube video). It was amazing - and he made it seem so simple, even though we all know it's not really. Then he let the girls each have a short ride on Shadow! While E was on, he showed her how he cues for a rear. She said later that it felt like flying while Shadow was rearing up.

His part of the clinic was a wonderful opportunity for our kids. He spent individual time with each of them, showing them some basic training tools he uses with all of his animals. He then asked each rider to name one thing they needed help with and then proceeded to give some tips and instruction while they rode their horse. He spent at least 15 or 20 minutes with E and Curly, helping her learn to get past her fear of cantering on him and also helping him learn to listen to her cues. She shed a few tears (it was all pretty intense) but she stuck with it and tried to improve her riding skills and push past her emotional blocks. Both horse and rider earned their rest this afternoon!

After the clinic, we all crowded around Ruben to say our thank yous and chat a little. He told E that Curly does not seem to be a mean horse, just maybe a bit passive aggressive. Curly has learned how to take advantage of E and she needs to work consistently with him and retrain him in the basics so that her rides can be enjoyable once again.

We then mentioned that we were in the market for a new animal. And he immediately replied that he has a few for sale right now that might be suitable for us! In our price range, even! I was just blown away and excited about the possibility of owning an animal he's trained....so we will be taking a ride out to his place ASAP to check out these prospects.

Yahoo! What a day!

Ginger snapped

We made the decision to return Ginger to her owner this evening after having a not-so-fun excursion out to the arena. The horse never calmed to a point that we felt comfortable riding her and even seemed to want to rear up several times. E ended the exercise with the comment "I feel safer with Curly than I do with Ginger." That was my cue that this is not the horse for her. The whole point in looking for another horse was to find an animal that E would feel completely confident on.

So the search continues....

(Credit for the clever post title must go to dear hubby M. Such a funny guy!)

In the saddle...and the dirt

We've been waiting and waiting for decent weather but that just doesn't seem to be happening so we decided that no matter what, we were taking Ginger out to the fairgrounds today to ride. And of course it rained. Hard. And the wind was blowing.

Our trainer, A., came with us to help me decide if Ginger is an acceptable horse. We've all felt good about the animal so far, but this was to be our first time out with a saddle. Also Ginger's first trip to the fairground arena with us. And she's still in heat. And she hasn't done any real work in almost a year. Oh, and did I mention that it was raining, hard, and that the wind was blowing? Nothing like stacking the cards against a good ride!

As before, Ginger behaved poorly while tied. She has not learned respect, but we had already decided that this was something we could live with until we taught her what is expected. Getting a saddle on her was not as easy as I had hoped. She got spooked when E approached her from the "wrong" side, plus the trailer's tack room door slammed shut during the process. Finally, we got her into the arena and E jumped on.


Ginger was tense (and I'm sure E was too!) and it took quite a while for her to relax into the ride. E kept her at a walk for the majority of the time because the horse was anxious. Wind kept blowing rain droplets in, making Ginger even more jumpy. And as E said at one point, the horse was "feeling a little too good" and had more energy than she knew what to do with. Nothing unmanageable, but not exactly easy and trust-inspiring either.

Doing tight circles to regain Ginger's attention...

Finally, E asked for a canter. Ginger immediately transitioned into the requested gait and then promptly bucked E off. Luckily E fell on her bum (which hurt enough to make her cry) and was not injured. Ginger, also luckily, stood in place. I'm not exactly sure what caused her to buck - was she protesting and being thoroughly naughty? Or did another burst of rain drops come in and spook her? E did get back on to walk her for a bit more.

So now I'm even more unsure about what we should do. E and I are planning to take the horse out at least 2 more times this week. We are supposed to give her owners a decision by Sunday. I hope the answer is more clear by then....

Slip-n-slide

I have recently developed the gift of predicting rain. The day we choose to do barn chores will inevitably be wet. Never mind the fact that the preceding 2 days were sunny and warm! And like usual, as we walked out our back door today, the rain drops began to fall. At least it was above 40.

As we clean each stall, E and I have gotten in the habit of releasing that animal into the trail course area so he/she can stretch his/her legs a bit. Ginger nickered as E walked her out, obviously happy to have a bit of freedom. She ran around the poop pile and visited with her friends until it was time to be returned to captivity. Before putting her away, E tried some flexing exercises with her for the first time; it took Ginger a few moments to figure out what was being asked of her, but she eventually got it. These ground work exercises are a good way to get the mare re-focused on her job. She was very docile as E led her back to the stall, in contrast to the wild-thing that had just moments earlier been charging through the barnyard.

Curly was more than happy to take his turn at freedom. He, too, charged through the barnyard and at one point mis-judged the slide factor when stopping in mud. He slid right through a web strap that was blocking off the barn, broke the snap and then fell over in the main aisle of the barn. Luckily, the only thing damaged was the snap; he quickly got up and charged right back outside and to the far field.

Varmints are getting into our grain lately so we transferred some to a big plastic bin. I'm surprised, actually, that it's taken this long for them to discover the stuff....

Spring blizzard?

Crazy weather today. We had everything from wind to sunshine to furious snow-fall. It was no wonder that Ginger was a bit crazy herself. She is still cycling, and thus a bit unpredictable.

E tied her to the hitching post while we cleaned out her stall. When I came to return her to the stall 20 minutes later, I found her untied, happily munching new spring grass. I later learned from another boarder that she had been more than a little anxious at one point and was pulling wildly at her lead rope, and eventually was able to pull it loose. Sure wish she had told me while that was going on! No harm done, though, and Ginger was quickly re-captured.

She was not calm, however, so I jogged her in a few circles around me to help refocus her attention. She proceeded to ignore me and present her hind quarters to me rather than a respectful front-end. I was not happy. She also pulled out of my grasp and ran through the barn, stopping next to her gelding buddies. Being in heat has caused her to go a bit wack-o. We'll have to really think about if this is something we want to deal with. High energy and raging hormones are not a great mix!

On a positive note, she is incredible sensitive to our requests. It takes little pressure to get her to move and she appears to be a quick learner as well.

Curly was happy (or as happy as he gets!) to see us. Perhaps he's jealous?

Muddy, dreary days

The weather is warmer...but wet and dreary. All the fog seems to sap the energy right out of me. One of R's greatest wishes at the moment is "3 days of sunshine, in a row mom." Too cute!

Here are some pics from my latest trip out to the barn. Everyone is muddy. I can't wait 'till it's warm enough to hose our friends down.

Ginger, poking her head out of the barn.


Looking down the main aisle of the big barn

Curly, telling me he likes his muddy coat just the way it is, Thank You Very Much!