First Ride

Knight was great, Coco had to trot most of the way to keep up. This is good because she needs to be fitter and lose some weight. Knight was ridden in a ported kemberwicke ( kimblewick if you are English) with a curb chain. This was ineffective as husband Doug riding him had to pull him around in a circle a few times. but we did trot and canter for a few strides uphill. We saw the train twice fairly close which honked its horn and everything was new, but Knight was unmovable and enjoying himself. A bit with a bigger port that is a curb is on order. This is the kind of bit we use on Coco,

she loves it and has a very soft mouth in it. When we first rode her she was impossible to stop or slow in a snaffle.

Knight is settling in well

 Shown in turnout with our Morgan mare Coco (VJC Mystical Enchantress) We plan on riding them together for the first time next week. We want Knight to settle in and also we are waiting for a new bit for him. A bit with a curb strap. For some reason Knight has a very unresponsive mouth. I don't know if he was trained by having his mouth jerked and therefore has many fractures and callouses on his jaw bones. Or if he was never taught a one rein and then the other slow and stop. All I know is I do not want to be the one to teach him this. We were also told the Knight had major allergies to flies. That he need to wear a fly sheet, and fly boots, and that he kept ripping off his fly boots. None of this proved to be true.

Welcome Dark Knight

 We went to look at a horse for sale, an 8 year old black Morgan Horse gelding trained to drive and ride, 15.1 h h.  We bought him and he will be delivered to the ranch tonight. His full name is LC The Dark Knight.

King Karrot RIP

 We lost King Karrot on Thursday September 17th at about 2:30 pm. I was home and woke suddenly from my usual afternoon nap. my husband came to the door. He said he had just got a phone call from a fellow boarder at the ranch. Karrot was down. I drove over as calmly as I could, it takes about 15 minutes along a freeway and city streets, fortunately traffic was light. When I pulled up alongside Karrots pen I saw Hector standing by him. Hector is our cleaner and feeder. Karrot looked in dire straights. I won't go into further detail. I got a hose and sprayed cool water over Karrot as it was a very hot day and he was lying in the sun. I rinsed out his nose and mouth. He got up. He seemed OK for a moment but then went into a violent fit. I leaped over the railings so as not to get hurt. Karrot then fell. I knew that it was the end. He passed quietly within a few minutes. We will miss him, we had him for 13 years and he lived for 33 years. We have two other horses Coco and Pesky. Today we decided to look for another horse so that my husband and I can enjoy riding together again. Coco is our only rideable horse.

Sierra Gold Rush a horse of many colors

 A blogging friend Karen of Bakersfield Dressage put on about getting coat color genetic testing for her horse. Because her horses coat changes color from a dark bay to almost Buckskin every year as he sheds out his winter coat. I wanted to share with Karen  about my horse Sierra, and her coat changes from being age two to about age five. I put the original posting on Face Book.  I had Sierra from age two until she was 26. I trained her to be ridden, but she developed arthritic knees and had to be retired early.  I also researched her pedigree extensively. I paid to get her sire and dam registered as Appaloosa's and wrote letters to people to find out information. This was before the internet. So Sierra is a mix of the main horse breeds here in the USA. Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, Arabian and Appaloosa. She was a very nervous and high strung horse and because of that I decided not to breed her. She was also inbred being the result of the mistake breeding between her sire and dam.