Alison gets on Tandy

I think that I have mentioned Alison before. She boards two horses out at the Ranch where we board our horses. She is pretty much an expert in the Parelli training methods. She is volunteering her time to help Dasha with Tandy. This last Sunday she decided to actually get on Tandy and begin teaching him to yield his head. This is for more control when Dasha rides him and a tool for Doug who usually rides him out on the trail.

 

 

 

After a while Tandy got the idea

 

We have moisture

My new island bed is appreciating the showery weather. I have Lupins planted in there so maybe they will live.

 It has rained slightly. this is cause for celebration as it has not rained for many weeks. I  had to turn my garden sprinkler system back on... but now this moisture may last for a week or so before everything dries out again.  Southern California is so different from my native climate of England. In England a sunny cloudless warm day is   rare, here an overcast day with rain is very rare, and Doug and I even start to get SAD, a condition where your brain chemistry changes because of lack of bright light and we feel depressed until the sun shines..

Dasha and the seven games

Dasha ( my step daughter in law) is really making headway in teaching her horse Tandy the seven games. (Pat Parelli method of horse training for ground manners and developing trust)  She has had some bad experiences riding him, when she was thrown, and on another occasion, run away with in the arena. Dasha is a newby to riding. So thanks to fellow boarder Alison who knows the seven games very well. Dasha is now perfecting them and Tandy appears to be focused and enjoying himself too. I do not  remember the proper names for each game. I learned them about twelve years ago. I sold all my Parelli equipment, ( thinking I would never need them again) except for the carrot stick which Dasha is using.

Tandy relaxing after the seven games. He rolled, his bedding is rice hulls.

the touch game

the go away from the carrot stick game

the turn is a circle

the flip the lash of the carrot stick over  his back and head

 taking a moment to concentrate

lunging or the circle game, with whoa by disengaging the hind quarters

Tandy and Coco on a beautiful California January day

Marlane's step daughter in law with Morgan mare Coco aged 22, and Husband Doug with Dasha's Morgan gelding Tandy 7 years old and our training project.

Dasha prefers a Western saddle. Doug rides English and Western.

Tandy standing quietly for mounting, this has taken a while.

Coco also had to be taught not to move at the mounting block until her rider was ready.

About a mile and a half from home at the Ranch where we keep our horses.( we have four of them ) I am on a Quad bike.

 

The pitfalls of writing my horse memoirs

 The cat ( Smokey also known as Kitten is a 12 year old ex feral cat) is now more of a nuisance, because just when I am looking at my screen for pictures or about to type something important for my blog he is there !! I have tried training him with compressed air , believe me he is stubborn !! ( He is about the fifteenth cat that I have owned. )

Smokey may be realizing that I do not want him treading on the keys, or in front of the screen. 

Then I do not sleep as well, because my mind is busy thinking, there is a lot to think about. Such as what did happen at a certain time, what were the names of certain horses. I can not ask my twin, because we are not speaking, or my first husband, he is no longer here in physical form. I could ask my daughter but she is busy  and reluctant to go there. My son does not want to remember because of his dad. I am able to remember enough to  hopefully  make things interesting for the reader, But it is more for me. I am realizing many truths that I did not in the past. It almost like having a good therapist.  Looking for photos is challenging, because I never took the time to organize them, Except for Sierra's photo album. Then it is deciding what pictures to include. I am fortunate to have a great scanner, and of course figuring out how to put things here on blogger .I have enough material to keep me going for quite some time.

Some of my photo albums

I know that I can not include them all

Just one page of un cataloged pictures in my computer files. Yes I do have back up.

I want to make "photo books"I have just got one via Face Book which I am very pleased with.

A test day at Willow Springs Doug and Jon drove.

Our friend Adrienne and Doug

Me and Doug

Doug driving many years ago

Time to go home Jon helping load the car

Racoons. Possums and Rats

The family that come and feed every night

Peeking at Doug taking the picture through the glass door

 Last night we heard a noise in the back room of our house. A racoon had come inside the house. It had entered through the dog door, which had accidentally been left open. Doug got out of bed and we paused the TV. I shut both doors to our bedroom, and me and Smokey our cat waited nervously to see what would happen next. The racoon kept climbing up on things to escape, such as paintings hanging on the walls. no damage was done, just rehanging and straitening was needed this morning.  Finally Doug got him or her to go out through the front door. It was a juvenile, about half the size of an adult. Doug enjoys feeding the raccoons and he puts out dry dog food and scraps for them every evening. We also have two possums. One very recently was brought here from Doug's daughter, whose dogs were chasing it. Then we also have either rats or kangaroo mice who feed in between. They are all  usually nocturnal.