The rain finally came!!!

The rain finally decided to visit us. We got 4 inches here a couple of days ago. Lacey was a little unimpressed by it all. We had a wonderful storm that lasted a couple of hours. I absolutely love storms and was happily celebrating by dancing in the rain. It was beautiful to see the lightening striking the surrounding mountains and the rain coming down in sheets. You really learn to appreciate rain when you don't have it often! I managed to fill every bucket and container I could find with the water coming off the gutters of the shed. So today, finally we have grass starting to grow again.

My beautiful arabian boys are now sold to a delightful lady locally. I could not have asked for a better home for them. They are going to be very happy running on 23 acres with 2 other horses.

Now I am back to 4 horses I can get down to some more learning. I have a clinic with Mel Flemming coming up in December and Sienna and I will be attending. It will be huge for her as she has never been away from the property without any of the other horses. I have decided to camp for the 3 days so I can be with her the whole time. It is going to be a fascinating time for both of us. She is such a unique animal with such a depth and grace about her. She often puts me in my place when she feels my behaviour is not sensitive enough. She has taught me so much and I delight in our walks together where she will walk beside me happily. I want to be able to communicate with her on a deeper level and I am hoping through this clinic I will learn to do so. I will also be talking to Mel about starting Scout early next year when Lacey is weaned.

All the horses are doing very well. They spend their days up the mountain which is all bush and the ground is very rocky so their hooves are looking fantastic. I am pleased I have the option to raise Lacey on this sort of ground. I am certain she will be a tough little number when she is older. She already comes down the mountain at a flat out gallop with her mother following close behind her. They are both extremely sure footed and agile. I hope to show Lacey what a halter is all about this afternoon. It should be very interesting!!! Stay tuned ;)

Beautiful Pure Arab Gelding for Sale

This post is all about Reid River R-Goss. He stands at 15hh as a 2 year old and has beautiful, floating movement. He is by The Accolade out of Reid River Phoenesse. His registration number is G24685.

I was told by his previous owner that he got reserve champion at his first show out. He has been professionally trained to stand for halter classes. I however have no experience in this field so could not verify that myself.

His most outstanding quality is his incredible temperament. This horse is as soft as any I have ever owned. He is a truly sweet and gentle soul who will only be sold to the very best of homes. He is wonderful with all animals and people. He lets my 8 week old foal share his feed.

He is very easy to catch (he walks straight up to anyone he sees enter the paddock), floats like a dream and loads with ease, easy to rug and is a lovely sensitive horse to work with in general.

This is a very relucatant sale of a quality gelding with a unique, super sweet temperament. He is not highly reactive as you could expect with an arab. He is a pleasure to watch move around the paddock. He has great hooves and is easy to trim.

He is for sale to the very best of homes for $2000. Please phone 0458 040 878 for further details.

For Video please click the link below

Busy days and Horse Politics

After the highs and lows of the past few months, I seem to have been welcomed into a lovely peaceful space inside myself again. I am so grateful for all the challenges and lessons life brings each day as they offer the greatest opportunity for seeking that eternal peace present inside and outside of us.

It has been many months now since we have had any decent rain here. The ground is hard and the grass is brown and now non existent in many areas of the property. My landlord has asked that I rearrange the horses to include rehoming some of them. I have been asked to only have 4 horses on the property and until the other day there were 8 here.

So the herd got an unwelcome shake up as horses were moved to different paddocks and one so far rehomed. The oldest mare left for her new home today where she will play nursemaid to weanlings on a 190 acre property. Arnie, the gelding that thinks he is a stallion, has returned next door to my landlords property much to the disgust of all the mares :) He really is a very popular fella.

Sienna and Kiowa have been placed up the mountain and as I type I can hear their occassional distant whinny echoing down to my little caravan to tug gently at my heart strings. I recently acquired 2 purebred arabians who will soon be looking for loving homes. Although I have only had them for 6 weeks, already I have grown extremely fond of them both. They are inseperable and despite always placing their feed buckets side by side they still often insist on both eating out of the same bucket. The oldest of the pair is 2 years old and he is a sweet, soft and loving soul. He really has the most outstanding nature and is a delight to behold. He loves people and follows me around begging for some attention. He already stands at 15hh high and captivates me with his grace in movement. His little brother is very similar however perhaps a little cheekier. He came as a colt and was gelded Friday. He got terribly swollen yesterday so he had to go under again today and be reopened and have more surgery. The poor little guy is a mess at the moment and must be in a lot of pain. This has made me very pleased that I mainly have mares as I am not certain I would ever want to put a horse through this process again. Despite all the needles and poking, prodding and spraying, little Bobbie is still as sweet as can be.

These lovely boys are now looking for a long term home, preferably together. I will be taking some pictures tomorrow and will add them to a post here for their imminent sale.

They are currently in a paddock with Scout and Lacey. Scout tells them in no uncertain terms that they are not welcome to near her. Lacey on the other hand decided that it would be a nice idea to eat dinner with them tonight. The boys both welcomed her and the three of them quietly ate with not even a raised lip or pinned ears at any time. As you can see from this picture little Bobbie has to gain some weight and coat condition. I have both boys on 3 feeds a day and they have really improved and Bob has even grown considerably in height in the last 2 weeks.

I am hoping that once all these changes are settled, then I can get back to spending some more time with Scout and Lacey. Lacey is as delightful as ever. Today I was quite exhausted after a big day in the hot sun doing various jobs on the property including fence repair and walking the 40 acre fenceline which is not as easy as it sounds as this whole property is on the side of a small mountain. It was most enjoyable and I can almost feel the excess winter kilos dropping off me! In the late afternoon, as the sun was setting I layed down in the front paddock and Lacey trotted over nickering to me then proceeded to enthusiastically lick my face and arms for a lengthy period. I am unsure if she has been told that she is actually a horse. What a delightful filly she is. She is certainly growing fast.

Can it really be this easy??

On an impulse, I decided to do some more work with Scout today. She did all I asked of the groundwork with ease although little enthusiasm. We started doing some sidepassing which she picked up straight away as well. Then I hopped up on her again. She was a perfect angel. I lifted the rope into the air and tilted my pelvis asking her for backup. She turned her head to look at me. I stayed in this position whilst she thought about what I was asking. I find she prefers me to just wait whilst she works something out. If I up the pressure at this point she will get annoyed and brace. I did up the pressure slightly and she then turned around and bit the air near my foot - I took her point and I continued to ask politely. She took a small backward step and I dropped the rope and relaxed. I sat there for a short while and then asked again. She immediately backed up a couple of steps. Again I relaxed and gave her a rub. I then asked her to walk forward which she did happily. I passed the rope over her head and asked her to walk forward to the right this time. Again she did this perfectly. We then did another 2 steps of backup and she sighed deeply at which point I jumped off and gave her a good scratch (her favourite thing!) and took the halter off.

She is such a different horse to work with. I have no thought or feeling at all that she will react with a buck or rear. She is all business not only in this sort of training but in how she handles herself in everyday life. She will not exert any more energy than is absolutely necessary and it appears this also extends to my training with her. My flatmates daughter was there while I was riding Scout and she was shocked when I told her this was only the second time she has ever had me on her back. What an incredible mare and it seems Lacey is taking after her in her unbelievably laid back temperament. I have still not seen anything that makes Scout or Lacey jump and flee in fright like you expect from most horses. In fact if something seems strange to them it is customary for them to march right up to it and check it out.

Whilst we were training Lacey decided that she needed to have both our attention and started running full pelt around the yard jumping a fallen tree on each circuit around. She was running at a flat gallop and clearing the log with ease. Lets hope she doesn't decide to try that on the fences when she gets taller! She gets herself so excited when she is running that fast and having that much fun that she makes little grunting noises and squeals and whinnies with delight.

What a pure privelege it is to have these two extraordinary horses in my life.

Scouts First Ride

Today I woke up with a distinct feeling that I should finally start training with Scout. The past few days she has been calling out to me whenever she sees me and she is following me around more. I like to trust these instinctive feelings when it comes to Scout. She is a strong and very independent mare who knows full well that she does not need people in this world to survive. She is not a horse that seeks affection (unlike Lacey who thrives on it). She shows her bond and trust is much subtler ways. She will allow me to do whatever I need to with Lacey and often she will actually leave Lacey with me and wander off for a moments peace without her. She respectfully shifts her hindquarters away from me when I walk past her at feed time and she will not touch the feed until I give her the ok.

I started her on a different homeopathic last week and have seen some very significant changes in her. She has softened slightly and seems brighter and more willing.

So this morning I got up walked out to the yard and went to put the halter on. She kept walking forward and positioning her tail to me for a scratch. I stayed at her shoulder and she then turned and put her head in the halter. She walked quietly beside me and when I asked her to walk in a circle around me each direction she quietly complied. I have noticed with Scout that if you ask her to do something like the circle work to much she will stop and look at me as if to say 'what on earth is the point of this!'. She nicely yielded her hindquarters and forequarters, she backed up softly and then I stood on the milk crate and clicked my fingers. She stepped forward and I laid on her. She moved a little so I slid off and we went back to the milk crate. This time she stood nicely and I got on her and gave her withers a scratch. She had a look at my shoes and then stood quietly completely unperturbed. She eventually walked around a little with me on her and I slightly tipped my pelvis and she stopped straight away. I got off and gave her a good tail scratch and hopped up from the other side. She stood still again unfazed and I called it quits after that.

It is hard for me to adequately describe the feelings I get when I am around Scout. She is a very wise, old soul and her intelligence astounds me. I feel that she is craving stimulation at the moment and I am so looking forward to her release from quarantine so we can go out walking each day. I think she will love being out on the trails. Her personality is so different to Lacey's. Lacey is very extroverted and wants to be a part of everything I am doing. She is bold and loves affection. She is healing very well from her injury.

Tumultuous Times

Life has been a bit hectic of late to say the least. Many changes are in the air yet again. Scout was tested a couple of weeks ago for CEM which would then allow her final quarantine release. I got a phone call from AQIS a week later saying the test was transported in the wrong medium and despite the negative result Scout needed to be retested when she was in season again. I was very frustrated at this news as this whole process has taken over 12 months now and still Scout cannot run in a herd or leave the yard she is in. My partner and I were due to move that weekend up to our new house up North. All our stuff was already up there as well as 3 of the horses so we were keen to get up there. I had a whole truck booked to move Scout and Lacey but all that had to be postponed. Then a couple of days following poor Lacey fractured her nose. I think she was kicked by Sienna. She was extremely sore and that afternoon the vet came out to x-ray her which confirmed it was a break. A few hours later that evening I was sat with Lacey as she lay with her head in my lap. She was really struggling to breath so the vet came back out to give her a steroid injection. Whilst that was happening I was holding on to Scout and she was extremely agitated. This is not normal behaviour for her. She is more than happy to let people handle Lacey and will keep a eye on her from a distance. She was pulling me all over the place and would not cooperate at all. Then just as the vets were about to leave Scout dropped and coliced. So she was tubed with parrafin and I decided to put a mattress in the tray of my ute so I could sleep beside them and keep and eye on them. Despite how stressed I was, it was a truly beautiful night laying with my dog beside me and my horses layed down on the other side. I will remember that night always and the feeling of wholeness I felt at being so close to the 3 of them. It was during that night that my dream of living a truly simple life walking with my horses was rekindled. I thought what more could I possibly want other than this.

The next few days also saw me separating from Rich. I have decided to stay where I am now and therefore it means moving everything I own back to Brisbane again for the fourth time in 12 months. The word simplify seems to keep being repeated in my mind often!!! I fondly imagine what it will be like just living with the bare necessities when I finally am able to live a nomadic life with my horses.

In amongst the emotional upheaval of my personal life at present a gift has emerged in the form of Lacey. I can honestly say I have never experienced any horse quite like her. Our bond was instant from the time she was born. She follows me everywhere and likes to sleep beside me when we lay down in the afternoon sun. She is a gentle yet outgoing little soul. She has bounced back remarkably well from the trauma of late and within days was running around being her normal self again. It is hard to put into words what I feel when I am around her. I was told that the bond you can form with a Spanish Mustang is a deep, unique and very special one but nothing could have prepared me for Lacey! She is pure joy and I watch her often when she is unaware of my presence. She will spend along time watching a bird sitting on the rail near her. I also watched her staring for a long time at some tibetan prayer flags that were blowing in the wind nearby her. She has a serene and gentle way about her when she is in those places. Just quietly watching the beauty and wonder that is apparent in the world all the time, if only we just stopped long enough to notice.....

Lacey has found her feet!!!

Lacey is just such a little character. She boldly marches up to me and licks my face and arms. She is very gentle and sweet and just loves to be scratched. Scout has eased up on protecting her so much now and is happy to let her do her own thing now.

Here is some video I took yesterday of a play session:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_tqxWuhcSo

I couldn't be happier with this little filly