My delicate state

There seems to be a setback in Tex's training. Just as I had been on his back around three times, I found out that I'm going to have a baby! My husband knows my stubborn will, and his only request was that I not attempt to ride my young horse in my delicate condition. So, I have obliged (but only since he asked nicely). But as soon as the baby is born (it's due June 22 2010) and I heal for my 6 weeks (which I'm hoping to condense into four weeks), I'm planning to hop back up there, sitting tall in the saddle, continuing to be myself and achieve my goals, helping my little cutting horse become the best ranch versatility horse in the world. Hopefully someone will hold the baby, at least for the first 10 rides......

To flex or not to flex......

During the beginning stages of ground work with my "cutest little gelding in the whole world," I have been puzzled as to whether or not teach him to flex. Flexing is the action of the horse bringing his head around to touch his side without moving his feet- much like us turning our heads without moving our bodies. I've heard and seen two schools of thought. Many trainers teach that flexing is absolutely necessary, but I have not heard them explain a good application for the future. Other trainers disagree, not wanting the horse to ever move his head without the feet following in motion. My choice was the latter, to NOT teach Tex to flex (ha, that rhymes). I taught Tex that when I pull his rein to the side, his feet always move at the same time.

However, when I mounted the little guy for the first time last week and attempted to turn him, he braced against the bosal (a piece of equipment that goes around the horse's nose with reins attached, the predecessor to the bit). It was quite difficult to turn him from the saddle! Husband said that once you mount your horse, everything starts over again with his training. But the difficulty with turning made me think twice about my flexing training decision. I do want to be able to turn him with very little effort, and I want his nose to turn and then his body to follow. Additionally, husband informed me that a well-trained cutting horse (which is one of the things I hope to make Tex) needs to be able to walk forward or backward WHILE flexing its neck to watch the cow.

For further research, I found a video videos on YouTube to see the effect of flexing on a young cutting horse. Check it out, and notice how the trainer is continually turning the horse's head sideways WHILE the horse moves straight back or forward.

I have since decided that teaching Tex to flex could actually be in my best interest for the disciplines (cutting, working cow horse, penning, ranch horse versatility) that I want him to excel in. I will be teaching flexing from the ground for the next few lessons, and then work on it while sitting still in the saddle. TM

Moving- again

We moved Aug. 30th to a larger house on the same property. It's a beautiful house with no spiders, unlike the deer camp, which had some of the largest spiders I've ever seen. This second move will hopefully be our last in a LONG time

Tex had a break in training during the move, but I worked him today for the first time in around 3 weeks. I haltered him, groomed him, cleaned out all four feet, walked him out to the open area in my yard, and stuck out my right arm with a kiss, asking him to walk. He started in the walk, picked up the trot, and suddenly kicked up his rear and bucked a small buck or two while traveling around me. After finishing his first hissyfit, he maintained a fast lope until I pulled his head toward the inside, saying "easy, easy." He did slow down, but then threw another fit. At this point I realized that I hadn't brought my homemade lungeing whip, which was not a smart decision. Instead, I kept the long lead a little shorter, giving him around 6 or 7 feet of length while I kept 3 or 4 in my hand to wave at his hip. During the second and third hissyfits he aimed his inside hip at me, threatening with his body language to kick my face in. 6 feet of lead line could have allowed him enough room for his back foot to reach me. The foot never came up, but he got the message across, and it worked. I got scared and overreacted, feeling very angry. I stopped him, backed him aggressively, and tied him up for the rest of the afternoon, a bit discouraged, wondering if I can actually accomplish this goal of breaking a horse from start to finish.

My hope is that his attitude was due to his resting period, and that tomorrow will be a better day.

This picture is one I took in mid-August. Tex's weight is ideal for his height in my opinion. He is currently eating 4 pounds of Purina Junior feed and 2 pounds of rice bran, twice a day. TM

Tex's surgery- a scary moment

Tex is officially hernia-less and fixed! His surgery with Dr. Beauchamp (pronounced Beecham) was on Wednesday, July 22nd. Dr. Beauchamp gracefully allowed me to watch and even help a little with the surgery. I was in charge of holding the anesthesia drip, checking Tex's blink response, and adjusting the anesthesia as the Dr. told me to. The hernia hole in the abdomen was, by my best estimate, 2 inches wide and 3 inches long. The vet cut the skin, pushed the bulging intestines into the hole, trimmed the tissue along the hole's surrounding muscle, pulled the two sides together, and stitched them up. He first stitched the muscle, and then the skin. Tex has a total of around 15 stitches on the inside, and 15 on the outside. Then he was castrated, but I'll spare the details of that one for the sake of any guys reading the blog. He then woke up, stood up, staggered a bit, whinnied for Taz (who was nowhere near) and began eating grass. I was able to bring him home within 1.5 hours of the surgery.

My cute little horse felt bad the first night and moped alone in a shady spot in his pasture, away from his best friend Taz. He didn't seem interested in his food, which included a pain killing powder and an antibiotic, so we moved him to another pen. We left his food out for him to munch on as he felt better. The next morning, he had eaten every bit of his food and was walking about, seeming to feel much better.

Around the 5th day, I looked once more at his wound area to check up on him, and to my dismay, his belly area and private areas were quite swollen! My concern reached the point that the next morning, I highly expected my poor horse to be dead. Sure enough, at 5:30 am, in the bare twilight, I peeked out the front door, shone the flashlight, and saw the large hunk laying on the ground. While throwing my boots on and walking toward the area, I began to prepare myself by saying to myself "He's dead. He's dead." When I walked close to the grullo-colored hunk on the ground, it raised its head and looked at me as if to say "What are YOU doing up so early?" I petted him for a while, very relieved that my self-preparations were in vain. He later got up, ate his breakfast, and was a happy horse. In a phone conversation, the vet said I needed to exercise him more to ward off any swelling. Since that day, Tex has been lunged every evening for between 15 and 30 minutes, and the swelling is no more.

Here's a picture of Tex after his surgery, in the middle pen, meeting his friend Sparkle nose to nose for the first time. They had seen each other across fence rows, but never been able to touch. TM

The near past, present, and future for Tex

Past: Tex has, shamefully, been on an unofficial training vacation for the past few weeks due to backed-up photography work and heat. Hopefully once things level out with photography computer work, Tex and I can do some lungeing refreshers a few days in a row.

I have changed Tex's feed, due to a recommendation from a friend and from the feed store owner, to Purina Junior instead of Nutrena Youth. Mrs. Cindy at the feed store in Jackson swears that I'll see a difference by using the Purina, and she also guilted me into feeding him twice a day again. Of course, that's what feed store owners are supposed to do to pay their bills, but I do know that it's beneficial to feed twice or even three feedings a day instead of one large one. Taz, husband's gelding, has also realized that Tex's $17.00 per bag feed tastes better than his $8.00 per bag feed. This morning after their feeding I looked out the window only to see Taz, a full-grown, healthy gelding, eating poor, malnourished Tex's junior feed. And I thought they were friends..... It looks like Taz will have to endure being tied up during feeding time to teach him not to be a bully with feed.

Great news- Tex's registration papers are in my files with my name and a picture of himself on them!! This was a huge step for me. I was so excited to see my name on those papers!

Tex is growing still, but it's harder for me to tell when he's growing because I feed him twice a day. It's like my orchid growing in the kitchen window- the leaf is growing, but I don't know when. I just come home and glance at it, and it's larger than the day before. Tex is very similar.

In the very near future, possibly even next week, Tex will have his hernia repair and neutering surgery at Dr. Beacham's office

As for now, it's late. Much to do tomorrow!

Tex's first saddling (with me, anyway)

I've been lunging Tex as often as possible, usually once or twice a week. After the 15 minute lunging session, I usually take and work with him doing other ground work, such as teaching him to lead correctly, teaching him to back, and to give to pressure from the halter. One day, I introduced the saddle blanket to him, and it was no big deal at all. So, last week, I decided to try the wal-mart bag and the saddle. Everything went tremendously well, so well that i believe he's done this before. Tex only sniffed the saddle and then stood quietly. The girl I got him from had definitely put a saddle on him before, but possibly only once (please correct me if I'm wrong on this!). I love my horse's response to scary things. He looks, snorts, and faces the scary object. I truly believe that this will help us in future trail obstacles and competitions, and it's the kind of attitude that I would look for in a horse to buy.
My plan for the next several lessons is to "keep on keeping on." I need to solidify his lungeing skills. I want him to start the lunge at a walk, then at my request (two kisses) bring it up to a trot, and then with three kisses, a lope. We have not done a REQUESTED lope yet, but he has gotten excited and loped during lungeing before. After he learns speed control while lungeing, I plan to work on directional changes while he's moving, instead of stopping before changing directions. Then, after ground work, I plan to continue introducing scary objects, swinging ropes over his head, putting the saddle on his back, and teaching him to lead and give to the halter pressure. To recap (more for my own clarity) the grand total will be 15-20 minutes of lunging followed by 15-20 minutes of pressure and desensitizing work. Just to clarify, I have decided not to ride Tex until I feel as though his leg bones have grown and filled out. They are still quite delicate, and although I'm smaller than most people, I would not feel safe riding him at this time for the purposes of his future and long-term well-being. TM

He does look so nice under my western saddle! It makes me dream of team pennings, ranch horse competitions, and working cattle.

PS I got his official AQHA papers with MY name on them in the mail today!!!

Tex's Heritage

In April, soon after acquiring Tex and studying his pedigree at www.allbreedpedigree.com, I had a phone conversation with Tex's breeder and afterward mailed him a disposable camera and self-addressed stamped envelope for him to photograph Tex's parents and full brothers/sisters. The pictures have arrived! The bay is his dam (mom) and the dark pictures are the sire (dad). The pictures of the sire are difficult to interpret, and if anyone ever makes a trip to Gainsville, TX, I'd love to get some more pictures of the stud.

I'm no expert on horse conformation, but here are the traits I've observed from the pictures. The dam and sire both look short, which means Tex really may not have much more to grow. The full brother/sister (it's hard to tell with the picture- we'll assume it's a sister) looks EXTREMELY similar to Tex in nearly every way. I like the way she's crouching in this picture when she moves. I'm happy with the dam and sire's rear ends, but think that their chests could use some more muscle. The dam's front feet look like they point outward a bit, which would explain where Tex obtained those genes. Neither the dam nor sire appear to have a very thick mane. The stud seems to be pretty squared in all four feet, which I like. He doesn't look like a dun in these pictures, but he could be a red dun. Overall, without seeing the actual horses, or professional pictures, it's really hard to tell what these horses truly look like. Plus, I believe the mare is bred, which makes her look a bit more swaybacked. I'd love any further input on the conformation of these two horses, as well as the full "sister."