more square bales and a little accident

The stable was open today again. The weather was sooo crappy no one wanted to go for a trail ride in the morning... Only Katie and I worked today. Dave had a good job for us to do : unload a horse trailer full of hay bales !!! According to Dave there were around 150 square bales, we did the job in 1 1/2 hours. Then we fed the horses in the barn and after lunch we had one trail ride with two people. Katie went for this ride and I cleaned the barn. Some of these doors from the box stalls are pretty hard to open, so you need some speed and strengh. I had speed and strengh but unfortunatly my thumb was in the wrong place in the wrong time... So I crushed my thumb between the box stall door and the box stall wall.. :( Now I have a pulsating finger tip. Good thing I am off tomorrow and Sunday so my thumb has a chance to heal without getting dirty. Oh well, I guess things like that happens from time to time.

stables closed - day off

Stables closed which means : Day off ! It is a long time ago since I had a day off the last time. I really needed to sleep in. The weather was not good, grey clouds and no sunshine at all. Katie and I wanted to go for a hike when it's not too bad weather but we postponed it 'cause it was a light rain around noon. So we decided to watch a movie, Armageddon. And then I watched 'the holiday' as well. I had a very lazy day which is good. So I can be full of energy tomorrow for work again.

more horses... and finally COAL !!!!

The weather was great today, sunny and some clouds. Dave brought 5 or 6 horses today. They were still on the community pasture in Brule. And one of them is Coal. A gelding of the size of a small horse , black, 22 years old. Dave bought Coal from my friend Reg a long time ago. Reg told me about this horse and I thought he is a tall horse.... So I was sooo surprised when Dave gave me the lead rope and said, this is Coal, he has to go in the barn... I said, Oh this is Coal ??? Dave thought I didn't understand the name so he repeted it. I was so excited to finally meet this horse ! He is a real cutie ! You can see he is an old horse he gets white hair in the face now. Only here and there one... Dave decided to use Coal and another one of the new arrived horses to be a guide horse today. He didn't say specific who rides which horse... So I said I will ride Coal ! ;D So I rode him in the afternoon. I am not sure if he is impatient or just fights the bit... As soon as I wanted to stop him (to let the dudes catch up) he started to toss his head around. I don't know how he managed to unclip the lead rope and go for a walk in the next corral... Maybe he is a king of escaping :) I really like this cutie !!

horse change and a good amount of patience is needed sooo badly

I was suppost to be the front guide on the 2 hours-ride with my horse Heureuse. But my girl decided not to cooparate with me and turn around.... Great idea with a string of 12 dudes on their horses with us !! So the back guide took the front position and I walked beside my horse for at least a half hour. I mounted her again at Old Fort point (?) and then she was fine. It's never good to have two horses to stick to each other like glue ! Anyway, I don't ride Heureuse anymore now. My horse is a bucksin gelding, called Mohawk. He is a big thing and has a hard time to stand when I want to mount him. Okay, this would be our project : stand still for mounting ! I had to jump off him today out on the trail to shorten a kid's stirrup. Mohawk thought I could mount when he walks away.... And it didn't help either that the rider behind me didn't listen what I told him... I told him to keep a distance between his horse and mine. He rode his horse this close so the nose of his horse was right behind Mohawk's butt. Sometimes I really ask myself how hard it can be to follow orders !!! There is a good reason for these orders, it's not just because I can give them. 'grrrr !' I need a good portion of patience !!! Otherwise I will go crazy soon. There are a lot of nice dudes only some objects are just horrible.

horses, different charactars

I wanna introduce some of the horses: Jack, a chestnut gelding, dude horse, he gets bored pretty fast and likes to untie himself or take the briddle off. So we have to make pretty good knots to prevent his game and we have to briddle him just before we put a dude on his back. Baldy, a paint gelding, dude horse, he is pretty competitive on the trails, no other horse is allowed to pass him not even the back guide. Ghost, grey gelding, dude horse, like to walks over small trees so he can stratch his itchy belly. He leaves the trail (especially with a dude on his back) and walks out in the bush. I had to laugh when I saw that the first time :) Rocket, bay gelding, dude horse, he doesn't care if the person on his back pulls the reins back to stop him. He plows right through this aid. He knows exactly that the person on his back has no chance !! So he ended up behind us today. We had to put him back on his place in the line. Punch, bay gelding, dude horse, I had to ride him in the front to guide a ride, he got soooo impatient and fast 'cause he was annoyed of the speed from the other two horses which were with us. And then is there Heureuse, my guide horse. She is a Canadian mare, 11 years old, ex brood mare and the second summer here in Jasper. Last summer she was in the back country. Heureuse has a buddy, Moka, these two girls are best friends. They always hang around together in the pasture. When Moka is also in the same string like Heureuse I have a hard time to ride my horse where I want. Usually Lynda rides Moka and I ride Heureuse. We need to have other horses between these two otherwise my horse will turn and try to follow Moka. When Moka is staying at the barn I don't have so much troubles with Heureuse. They call each other from time to time. My horsey can be pretty impatient especially when she has to be tied up or has to wait for the dude horses to catch up. We improved the listening to leg aids already and she is listening to my voice when I have to calm her down. She doen't like to walk sooo slow when she is in the front. When we are last in the line she starts to dream and doesn't pay attention where she walks and so she is stumbling a lot.

back to work and winter

Back to work again today. It was pretty chilly in the morning and in the night we got rain. So all the area outside the barn was muddy. We didn't have trail rides in the morning 'cause of the weather. Good thing the rain stopped when we started work at 8.30 am. Dave brought the horse trailer (room for 10 horses in there) full of hay bales. The three girl of us had to unload all the bales and stack them in the barn. Rachel was in the trailer and threw the bales out, I had to carry them in the barn and Katie stacked them. We were all covered in hay and sweat after awhile. It was a good workout for us :) In the afternoon we had two trail rides. One with dudes and the other one with staff member. I went on the one with the dudes. We had a good time. I was front guide this time. My horse was already bored in the beginning and saw her ghosts again. I kept her occupied with exercises (leg yields, bending,...) She gets better now with listening to leg aids. I am so happy ! I don't like just to ride with pulling on the reins. Sometimes I only have to put my leg on her belly and she moves over and there are times when she needs a bigger reminder to move over and I have to use the reins as well. Yes, my girl can be Miss Impatient or Miss Pissed ! A mare totally for me :D I really like her.

a lazy day with a few snow flakes

The weather is not so nice today, grey clouds and it should be rainy. There were also few snow flakes. I decided to take it easy today. I slept til 8 am, put all my washed clothes away, read almost the whole morning, had a nap after lunch and went for an exploring tour in the bush behind the stables. This time I took my bells with me :) I went to the Trefoil Lake. We see this lake when we are on the 1 1/4 hour-trail ride. It is a nice little lake. The duckies really enjoy it there. One day I will walk to the Lake Edith which is also on the tour of the 1 1/4 hour-ride. Since I know how fast the weather can change here I prefer to go there when it's nicer.
It depends on the weather but maybe I will go for another walk after supper. This time to the shore of the Athabasca River. I'll see...