5-11-00  Today was a pretty exciting day!!  The vet came out in the morning.  While we were waiting for him, I asked Spirit to move her butt over, without moving her shoulder.  It's something she's never done before, and I asked without even realizing it.   A few seconds after I asked and she yielded, I realized what just happened <smile>  What a good girl.  The vet floated Spirit's teeth, gave her the intranasal flu and strangles vaccine, pulled blood for a coggins and wormed her with liquid ivermectin!  Spirit's teeth were *very* sharp, but Ed got them filed down before Spirit even started to come out of her drugs <smile>  Ed's really good with difficult horses (he's the one who did the "vaccine day" in April) and Spirit got along with him even when she wasn't in a drugged haze ;-)  Ed also said he thinks Spirit is probably five, might be six.  Guess those numbers on her butt aren't the month and year she was foaled <sigh>. 

In the afternoon, we turned Spirit out in a 5 (or so) acre paddock, to see if I could catch her.  To get her over there, Christa led Shaman, my almost three year old that lives next to Spirit, and I led Spirit.  She did fine--no problems leading at all.  We turned both of the horses out, and I waited about five minutes before I tried to catch Spirit.  She would have none of it <sigh>  Turning out Shaman with her was a bad idea--Shaman thought it was a great game to run from the human.  (She's always been easy to catch before)  I worked Spirit in the field, and finally got her away from Shaman after another five minutes.  She was pretty easy to settle once the baby wasn't egging her on, and I caught her.  Christa caught Sham and took her back to her pen, while I worked on catching Spirit, letting her go and catching her again.  Once she was following me, and would come to me from across the paddock, I left to do other chores.  I came back about 10 minutes later, and practiced catching her a few times, then left again.  When I came back the third time, the weather was turning, so I caught her a coule times, then brought her in all by herself!  She was great--listened to me, stopped when I asked and even backed up.  She never even thought about getting spooky, even though the wind was blowing.  Good girl :-)

5-12-00  I had to move out of the dorms today, so I didn't get much time at the barn.  As of today, I don't have a place to live in Fort Collins, and I have no idea where I'm going to put my horses in Parker. <sigh> Alison said that I could leave my ponies with her, but 90 miles is really *too* far of a daily commute.   I'd really like to go up to FC next week and see if Spirit will load into a trailer, sack her out with a tarp, cans and stuff and see just how well she leads.  I'd also really like to get her started ground driving off of the bit, but I think that will have to wait.  I'm not too sure how this will all work, or when I'll be able to find a place to put the ponies in Parker, but I hope it will be soon ;-/

5-20-00  I've finally found a place to put everyone in Parker.  It's an old TB stud farm about 10 minutes from where I live.  I get ~20 acres just for my guys!!  I'm planning on taking Spirit and Shaman in the same trailer (a three horse slant) and taking Springer by himself--he doesn't trailer well, and he can be such a jerk.  I don't want him to beat anyone up.  I'd really like to practice loading with Spirit next week, but I don't think I'll be able to ;-/  I'm also not too sure if I'm comfotable turning Spirit out at the new barn right away.  I think I'm going to set up a round pen in "my" field anyway (the one this barn has is tiny with crappy footing) so maybe I'll just keep Spirit in there for a day or two, until she settles.  We'll see.

5-22-00  Wow!!  Lori from Powder River Rodeo emailed me about Spirit!!  Here's what she had to say:
Yes, we did raise the mare you have purchased.  She was a real pretty mare and nice conformation.  We raise bucking horses for our professional rodeo string.  She is out of a mare we call #93 Wedding Bells.  The sire was a brown and white paint called Poison Ivy.  Poison Ivy was raised on the Burch Ranch in Moorcroft.  We sold Poison Ivy because very few of his colts wanted to buck.  Although, he was a beautiful, big paint stud.  The mare you have was sold as a practice bucking horse to some people in Wheatland, WY but she too did not want to buck.  We were told that she was not even working as a bucking practice horse.  Which is good for you is you are planning on using her or breeding her for other purposes than as a bucking horse.  As a rule of thumb, when a horse quits bucking it is not in his or her nature to buck and can be a very nice saddle horse.  Our pickup man, Billy Ward, rides many of out horses that quit bucking, he really likes them because they are not afraid of anything and are great pets.

If you have anymore questions, just give me a buzz.
I am very excited to be learning about Spirit!!  It's good to hear that she doesn't like to buck--that's just going to make my job easier. 

5-23-00  Another email about Spirit!  I asked a couple questions, here's the response:
The mare was born in 1993.  That is why her number starts with a 3.  Her mother's number was 93.  That is the way we keep track of the year and breeding through hot iron brands for our bucking horses.  Her mother is a dark brown mare, I am not sure of her breeding, but she looks quarter horse.  Her father would have been part quarter horse, and of some bucking decent.  I was incorrect when I said red roan, she is definitely a blue roan.  When she was born she was real dark and and turned later into the real pretty roan color.  Her mother has a nice disposition, and I would expect her to have the same.

Good Luck on her.  She sounds like she will be a nice horse for you.
The header for the first email had read "red roan mare #393" which is where the subject of color had come up.  I would really like to get pictures of the sire and dam, see what they looked like.  I'd also like to track down info on where she was between Powder River and me--I think she's had at least one baby, and it would be really helpful to see what she puts on the ground before I ever breed her :-)  I'm also wondering about the color thing--if her dam was brown, and her sire was brown and white, why the heck is she roan??

5-24-00  I got to go up to Fort Collins today and play with all of my horses!  Today Spirit had a few "firsts"--first time she led solo for any distance.  First time longing on a line.  First time figuring out how to give to the bit.  First time letting me walk behind her without moving to see where I am.  That might be about it, but it sure was a lot for one day!  I was nervous about Spirit leading all by herself, but I wanted to see if she could do it.  First I led her over to a grassy area close to her stall to see if she would relax and eat grass.  She took a couple bites, but then horses running in a near-by turnout freaked her out and she took off <sigh>  The good news is, she ran to the end on the pens (maybe 80-100 ft) then stopped.  When I called her, she looked up, took a couple steps towards me, and let me take hold of the lead rope.  No problems there at all.  After that incident, I stood talking to Karen for maybe half an hour, holding Spirit.  She did fine--never really relaxed, but didn't even try to run off when little things surprised her.  We got to the round pen easily.  I let her stop a couple times and look at stuff rather than risk a full out spook.  My new goal is to get her ground driving, so that she's really prepared to ride, so I figured I better teach her to longe on a line.  To the left was easy--she picked up the concept, and easily stopped and came in with a "Ho."  The right was a little more difficult.  It took maybe five minutes before she would move forward with me on her right side, and then another five to get her out on the circle.  I really don't know why she's such a flake about her right side.  I've spent time to get her comfortable, and I'm beginning to think she might have compromised vision in that eye.  Definatly something to have Ed check next time he's out.  She finally got out and trotted very nicely to the right, but not without a little bit of a mishap on my part first.  Continued on next page.....
Questions?  Comments?  Just want to talk?  Email me!!
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