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Rio

11/29/2014

5 Comments

 
As I said a few days ago in my update post, Rio has been causing a bit of ruckus lately :)
He suddenly switched from being sweet and cuddly with an occasional stubborn moment to being completely unmanageable.

He suddenly decided that he wanted nothing to do with people and I couldn't even touch him.
I got the feeling that his behavior was just a phase and not his base personality, but still, it was a problem.

I knew I had to figure out something real quick. After the feeder incident and getting knocked down a couple times, I needed to get a handle on his behavior.

Which was easier said than done. I don't have any experience working with mules and they are very different from horses.

If Rio was a horse, I would have put him in a small paddock or round pen and attempted to do join-up by chasing him around until his body language told me he was ready to seek a relationship with me.

Join-up establishes authority, teaching the horse that you are the alpha in the relationship. Horses will at first resist any attempts to exert authority over them, but join-up teaches them to find security in your leadership.

I quickly discovered that mules do not work that way.
Their idea of a relationship with a person is a partnership. They will not be dominated like horses. If they feel that you are trying to dominate them, that's it.

Of course, my relationship with my horses is a partnership too, but that's not how I initially start my relationship with them. Horses find security in authority, but mules have too much donkey in them and they need to feel at least partially in control.

So I had to figure out how to start off with Rio and make him understand that while I wouldn't dominate him, we did need to have a partnership.

Yesterday afternoon, I went out to his pasture and after locking him with two other horses in a small pen so he didn't have quite as big of an area to run around in, I started shadowing him. If he walked, I walked, if he stopped, I stopped, if he trotted, I ran alongside.

The idea was to make him think he couldn't rid of me so he might as well try to figure out what I wanted.

After about fifteen minutes, he stopped and turned his head toward me. I took that as an invitation and walked up to him slowly, my posture non-threatening.

He tensed, but didn't move. Slowly I reached out my hand and rubbed his hip. I knew he would run off again if I tried to approach his head, so I stayed by his hip, where he felt he had control because he could kick me if need be.

After a few minutes of stroking him in the same place, I began inching my way up his body. Anytime I felt him tense up, I would slow my strokes and retreat, just a little.

Once he relaxed, I would start moving forward again.

After about ten minutes of advancing and retreating this way, I was finally able to touch his face. He wasn't too thrilled about it, but didn't run away so I kept going.

Once he was thoroughly relaxed and starting to really enjoy me touching him, I stepped about five feet away and just stood there.

He had let me come to him, but for the partnership to be complete, he had to come willingly to me.

I didn’t have to wait very long.  He missed his massage :)

The first time I stepped away, it didn’t take long for him to come, but he stretched his neck out as far as he could until just the tip of his nose touched my arm.

When he sought my company, I rewarded him by petting and stroking him. He quickly figured out that if he came to me, I continued giving him attention so the time it took him to come became less and less and by the time I left, he would gently push me to get my attention. I was able to touch everywhere with no issues.

So we finally had a breakthrough. I don't think he will give me too much trouble in the future.

I talked to my farrier about Rio's behavior and he too thought it was just a phase. He said that what probably happened was that after the shock of being weaned wore off, Rio took out his frustration on us, because we took him away.

Rio is going to be very big for a mule. He is already big for his age and since his daddy was a mammoth jack and his mom is a big girl too, he is going to be well over 15HH. Most mules are about 14HH. He will be able to carry a lot of weight…he is already super strong.

The farrier wanted us to keep Rio separated from his mom until spring so really complete the weaning process, especially since he still tries to nurse on the mare we have in with him. But the pasture he is in does not have adequate shelter for the middle of winter.

The farrier said we could move him back by his mom by the end of December(on the other side of the fence from her…but not actually with her) if his attitude is much improved and he lets us handle him in any situation.

So that means I will be spending a lot of time with him the next month to get him ready to be re-introduced to her.

He was a challenge to figure out and I'm sure we will both continue to learn a lot during his training process….mules are interesting animals!

5 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving!!

11/27/2014

3 Comments

 
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I am thankful for salvation, family, friends, a warm house, my horses, coffee, my blog followers, my author friends, good books, and music.
The list could go on and on! We should count our blessings all year long, but what are you thankful for this thanksgiving weekend?
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Reining Video

11/26/2014

1 Comment

 
One of the best moments of the horse show was when two little girls, ages 9 and 5, did a reining pattern. They were adorable in their little princess dresses and they look so tiny on those big horses! The horses were impeccably trained and the mare that the youngest girl was riding was only seven! They did an amazing job. Their pattern wasn't perfect, but for such young riders, they were incredible. They did spins and sliding stops. The crowd was wild!
Part way through the pattern, both of their wigs fell off!! They just hung on and kept on going!
I just had to make a video of them...their performance was so spectacular!


1 Comment

Photo Friday

11/26/2014

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I love taking action pictures but it is so hard to get good ones! My camera does not take really good pictures inside in unnatural lighting and when you add in lots of fast moving horses that's not exactly a great combination!
Out of 1,500 pictures, I only got about twenty that were tolerably good and only a few of those were good enough to post.
My favorite is the top picture. I love the intense look on both of their faces. This horse and rider team did really good in all the competitions and they won the reining. My next favorite is the second picture...I love this horse's coloring.
What is your favorite this week?
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Ooops! Lost her hat!
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Horse/Rabbit Show

11/25/2014

5 Comments

 
On Friday Mom, me, Levi and Lydia took the motor home for our last trip of the year and headed to Lansing, to the MSU Pavilion for a horse and rabbit show. This is one of the biggest rabbit shows of the year and Levi and Lydia really enjoy going to it and their rabbits usually do very well. The rabbit show is on Saturday and Sunday(though we only stayed through Saturday) and the horse show is on Friday and Saturday.
The horse show has the same schedule every year and the last time we went, I only got to see the Saturday show, which is mostly English and western pleasure...not my favorites :) The classes that interested me the most were the barrel racing, reining and trail classes...which were all on Friday.
So we headed down a day early, which would allow me to watch the horse show and let Levi and Lydia get set up ahead of time for the rabbit show.
My absolute favorite part of the show was the reining. I've always been interested in it and it was lots of fun to watch...there were some very good rides.
The rabbits did good in the show. Levi and Lydia brought home several ribbons and two new rabbits.
I was able to get a lot of pictures too. Here are a few teasers, but I'm saving my favorites for Photo Friday :)
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Photo Friday

11/21/2014

10 Comments

 
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I am happy that the snow is here for more than one reason, but mostly because it's given me some great pictures! I'm very glad we moved to our new house when we did because the new yard has given me lots of opportunities for great pictures during my two favorite seasons.
Picking a favorite this week was really easy...I love the one of the sheep! I can just picture it framed and hanging on someone's wall. Most of these girls are pregnant so we should be seeing some babies before long. I can't wait to get pictures of them :) I recently met a man who does picture matting and framing and he has offered to teach me. I have been toying with the idea of possible printing some of my nicer pictures. I got an 18x24 of the sheep picture and the one of Dad and Seth plowing printed yesterday and even at that large size, they look great. I can't wait to see how they turn out!
I also like the next picture (it reminds me of something on the ocean floor) and the one of Rio squinting against the snow.  
Can you find the sleeping man face in the picture of the stones!?
A couple months ago I did a guest post on Photo Friday where  my friend Denalyn shared some of her pictures with us. She invited me to do a guest post on her blog and it went live today! Click here to see the post.
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Update

11/16/2014

4 Comments

 
This update is long overdue but I decided to grab a few minutes and get it written.
First off, if you are reading this then I'm sure you have already noticed that something is different! Yes, I re-did the blog and website. I had some comments about how the white writing was difficult to read against the dark background and it was time for a change anyway :) Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the new look :)
Now for an update on the books.
Whisper is all finished and my part of the editing is complete. It doesn't look like it is going to work out with the publisher I was originally thinking of going with. I have some other options but it is going to take awhile to make a decision, then we still have to go through the publishing process. So it doesn't look like my original goal of Jan/Feb will be met but I will try to get it out as soon as I can! I added a page to the website for Whisper and you can check it out by clicking here. It gives a synopsis of the book as well as a little story on Ashwin and his role in Whisper.
I don't think I mentioned this before, (if I did I don't remember!) but I am working on a sequel to Whisper titled Thunder. It will feature Bethany, Rachel's younger sister and her struggles to overcome her fear of horses. Thunder is based off of Bannie, though he did not experience the same things as the horse in the story. A sample cover is shown on Thunder's page which you can see by clicking here! I am working on the rough draft of Thunder and am on Chapter 4 right now. It will probably end up being approximately the same length as Whisper.
I have been working on book #2 of TCCAS(The Christian Cowgirl Adventure Series), but its not going as quickly, nor as smoothly as I had hoped. I am still planning on having it published by April/May of next year. I plan on spending some these snow covered evenings curled up by the fireplace with my laptop editing away!!
#3 of TCCAS is at a standstill right now. I haven't worked on the rough draft in quite some time and by the time I finish it, it will have taken me the longest amount of time to write of any of my books. Other than finishing #2, I am going to give Amy and her friends a rest and concentrate on other things. After #2 is published, I will probably pick up #3 again and try to publish it the spring of 2016 if possible.
Last but not least, horse news!!
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Bannie is doing great(when isn't he!?) He hasn't been ridden much lately but that's just fine with him! He is content to be my best horsey friend and gives me hugs when I need them :) He looks like a giant teddy bear with his new winter coat! I tried to ride him the other day but he was in a mood and wanted nothing to do with being ridden. If it was any other horse, I would have made him go anyway, but I'm a softie when it comes to Ban so I just let him going back to eating or sleeping, whatever his activity of choice was for the day :)
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Smoke has not been herself lately and I'm not really sure why. There's no spring to her step and she just seems dull and uninterested in anything. I rode her the other day and she tried to buck me off, she has never, ever bucked in the two years I've had her so something is up. I'm giving her some time off and just monitoring her closely. All the horses have been a little off lately, but nothing like her. She's been more cuddly than usual, craving affection which is unusual for her. At first I thought she was in heat, that's usually the explanation when she's moody, but that's not it this time. Horses usually get frisky when the cold weather hits so hopefully that livens her up a bit.
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We've had several conflicting opinions on Lena's age, but based on certain facts, we still think she's about 20-22. Levi has been using her for sorting competitions, but because of her age and the fact that she is pigeon toed, its not very fun for her so we are trying to get Abby healed up so Lena can go back to just being the trail horse she wants to be. She's been a little depressed lately because of Rio being weaned but hopefully her spirits will pick up when we re-unite them in a couple weeks. She is in very good condition coming into winter and her colors make her pop out in a crowd!
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Rio is getting so big!! And unfortunately his attitude has grown right along with his body! He's been moody and grumpy lately, but he's seemed more personable the last few days so hopefully he's outgrowing that faze. I've been too busy to do a lot of work with him, but I am going to start working with him again before he gets too big to manage. He still shows off the baby side of him every now and then and even get Abby and Ashwin(his pasture mates) goofing around with him.
Rio has been a stinker about letting me halter him...this morning I was trying to catch him for the farrier. When he finally decided to let me put the halter on, I dropped the lead rope and slipped on the halter. Just as I tied the halter rope, he freaked out and jumped backwards. I tried to stop him, but the lead rope had gotten caught on the feeder(the one behind him in the picture) and Rio proceeded to drag the feeder over top of me, then into the woods about 150 yards away, where he finally stopped when the feeder wrapped around a tree. Needless to say, it was an eventful morning! He was shaken up and his one leg is slightly swollen, but I don't think any serious damage was done.
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Abby is finally starting to get over her lameness that was a result of the hoof abscess. We had our farrier out about ten days ago and he cut off all the dead tissue which exposed some sensitive areas, but in the end will help her to heal faster. She is still limping but the farrier will probably be putting some shoes on her today which should help her not be so sensitive and hopefully give her enough support that Levi can start riding her again. After so much time off, she is peppy and full of energy!
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And last, but certainly not least, Ashwin! He gets the special privilege of a blanket on these cold nights! He's still his same old sweet self, but I have noticed him get more testy and a little grumpy with the other horses now that the cold weather has set in. That's typical, especially with horses that are low in the pecking order. He and Rio buddy up a lot because Abby doesn't like Rio. A few weeks ago, Ashwin had a panic attack and while it lasted, managed to climb a five foot vertical bank and get himself tangled up in a barbed wire fence. There were  a few tense moments as he was suspended by the wire, but he managed to free himself and climb up the bank onto the farm lane before we could reach him. Miraculously, he only had four cuts and they were not very bad at all, barely breaking the skin. He was shook up after that, as were we, but there don't seem to be any lingering affects from the incident.
4 Comments

Photo Friday

11/14/2014

12 Comments

 
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I shared this photo of Dad and Seth last week on Studentstock's photography community on Google+ and it got picked as the photo of the day! This is the second time one of my pictures has been chosen as photo of the day(the other one was Ashwin's eye, the cover photo for Whisper).
Since it had done well on Google+, I decided to enter in a Rural Lifestyle contest put on by StudentStock.com. I got fourth place!!!
I titled it Side by Side.
Here's what one of the moderators had to say.

"Lauren's description states, “Father and son plowing with old fashioned equipment”...where she really captures the moment. This photograph describes an actual event on a farm near the forest. The father and son pass each other going opposite directions on two tractors in and out of the scene. A yellow tractor moves toward the viewer with the driver looking back and the green tractor moves away from the viewer with driver looking in the same direction. The left side wheels of each tractor are elevated on slightly crowned grassy ground whereas the right wheels are lower in the already plowed mud. Because both tractors are tilted away from each other and their passing large tires just miss each other, there is both an element of humor and clear need for serious concentration as both drivers lean slightly to their right to keep their eyes on track. It is an overcast day. There is a forest of cottonwoods with a few aspens in the background....life on a farm." -Geoff


Now onto this weeks photos!!
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I always wondered how people could get pictures of birds. They move so fast! I was never successful at it...until my siblings filled our yard with bird feeders. Now instead of only seeing a blur of motion, I was actually able to get some pretty good shots!
The boys built feeders that are attached to our window sills, the cat is having a hay day watching all the birds :) I've never really liked birds much, but I have to admit I am enjoying all the activity...our yard has become a bird highway. And I'm never adverse to anything that offers some great photo opportunities!!
I can't decide between the robin and the woodpecker pictures for a favorite this week. What's yours?
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12 Comments

Recommended Books

11/12/2014

1 Comment

 
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Recently I added a new page to the website titled Recommended Books. Click Here to check it out!
I rarely find books that I consider appropriate to recommend to others so when I do, its a treasure :)
Over the past few months I've read a few books that I really, really liked. While I don't necessarily always agree 100% with the content of these books, I will put them up on the website if I feel the issues are insignificant enough.  I will probably never read a book I agree with completely (excusing the Bible of course).
One author I only recently got to know is Alicia A. Willis. I posted a while ago about her newly released novel, "From the Dark to the Dawn". I have read several of Alicia's books and each time I am more and more impressed. I'm slowly working my way through reading all of her books and they will probably end up on the recommended books page when I finish them.
I will be continuously updating that page whenever I find a book worth recommending so check back frequently :)
If you have a book or author you think highly of, leave a comment with some info about it and I will check it
out.
1 Comment

The "God" Question

11/11/2014

1 Comment

 
This is a great video detailing the amazing world God has made for us....it is amazing to see the little things you rarely think about, but to see how complex our bodies and the rest of the world are is truly incredible.
1 Comment

Photo Friday

11/7/2014

10 Comments

 
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Last Saturday Dad, Grandpa, Seth and Levi fired up some of the old tractors and hitched up the two and three bottom plows and headed over to the five acres we own about three miles from where we currently live to plow. We use that field to produce the hay we need for our horses for the winter.
It was cold!! But it was fun. My uncle, Greg, showed up after awhile so we had quite a crew working.
These pictures were all taken as we were getting everything ready, then on to the plowing. Lots of fun memories :)
I love so many of these pictures its terribly hard to pick a favorite but I like the one of Seth plowing. What's yours?

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10 Comments

Just Five Minutes...

11/3/2014

6 Comments

 
Last Wednesday evening, I was rushing around getting my chores done so I could head out to a sorting competition(more on that later). I was running late and I still had to move Bannie from the farm to a pasture at my grandparents house across the road.

I led him up to the road and waited for an oncoming car to pass so I could cross.

Instead of passing me, the car stopped in the middle of the road and an old man rolled down his window.

Man: Is that a Qrt Horse?

Me: Yes, he is.

Man: He's beautiful!

Me: Thanks! (to myself: I don't have time for this!)

Man: I love horses and this one looks really kind and gentle.

Me: He is.

Man: (leaning back in his seat) I have a new helmet in my back seat that I just bought. I haven't ridden a horse in twenty years, but I used to be into show jumping. I loved it. My wife got a closed head injury and I gave up riding to take care of her. She recently passed away and now at 72 years old I'm going back to my old instructor and I'm going to ride again!

Me: Wow! That's great! I don’t' show jump but I love to ride. (I really need to get going!!)

He smiled: I had a horse just like that one there once. She was a national champion in reining and she won lots of jumping competitions too. She was something else.

He then went on to name several of his past horses and sung their praises. I was really getting antsy, but I stood there and listened politely. All of this took place in less than five minutes.

Finally, a car showed up way down the road.

The old man looked Bannie up and down one more time, then turned to me. "You have a beautiful horse. Enjoy him and thank you for listening to me."

Before I could say anything he drove away.

As I led Bannie over to the new pasture, I thought about his last words. "Thank you for listening to me." All I did was listen and nod my head, but he thanked me for it! I got the impression that he was lonely and he was touched that someone just took the time to listen, if only for five minutes.

Five minutes.

I got to my competition with a little time to spare but even if I hadn't, five minutes wasn't that big of a deal. It was nothing to me, but it meant a lot to a lonely old man who loved horses.

Take time to listen…it could mean the world to someone and you might not even realize it.


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