winter impression with furry critters

On going through some photos, I came across this shot. I took that in August, when it was miserably cold and wet most of the time. It's a lovely photo, the way the boys are standing.

They are half brothers by Nattfari fra Vindholar (Icelandic). That's where the fuzzy-furryness comes from :-). Rorion (on the left) is out of VR Reina Real (Peruvian Paso), and the critter on the right is Hagar who is out of Scarlett, a.k.a. Wildmoor Firefall (American Saddlebred). Considering how different the mares are, the boys show an amazing similarity in the face. They literally have Nattfari written all over them! However, they move differently, and they have different body types.

Soon, they will be old enough to start, which I'm looking forward to. I started all their parents myself and I know these guys will be fun. I will post comparison pictures showing them in their summer coats, when I get a chance.

spring is delightful

We went riding again today on Dacio and Carlotta. Neither seemed particularly impressed about the idea of going for a ride, but both went very well and we had a lot of lovely toelt and a relatively shy-free outing.

I got home in time for lunch and to feed the horses, before the rains came down. And down they came indeed! But that's spring for you :-)

Yesterday we had a long walk around because we had a visitor. The two pregnant mares are getting very broad indeed. As always, it looks like they couldn't possibly get any bigger. But they will :-) Having a big, fat, round baby belly make it hard to roll. And with all the winter fur falling out in lumps, the girls have itchy bits. And what face does a horse make when you scratch the itchy bits?

 

... a deligthed face of course  :-) 

That picture was taken by Yvonne and shows Samba (Paso Fino mare) getting a bit of TLC from yours truly. As you can see by the grey patch on her face, she had already indulged in a good face-rub, too.

Maremmano Horses of Italy

Well, while on the subject of relatively unknown horse breeds, I remembered that I recently looked at some Maremma saddles again.

I was contacted by Stefano, who is a saddler in Italy and makes Maremmano saddles. His website is http://www.saddlemaker.it . I did know about two types of Maremmano saddles used by the butteri, the Italian ranchworkers. One is called the Bardella, and it is a treeless version. I have one in my collection:

 

Then there is a version which is based on a military saddle tree. I think it's called a Scafardi. But I stand corrected here. The picture below shows one of them in use. The pictures is from the Creative Commons Collection and was taken at Equitana in Germany.

Notice the traditional curb bit, breast plate and leather covered rope headstall under the bridle.

Stefano has several interesting saddles on his website, but the most interesting (to me) was the third version of Maremmano saddle. He calls it a Sella col pallino:

Reminds me a bit of the saddles used in the Camargue region of France. I'd love to have a ride on one of these :-)

According to Wikipdedia, Maremmano Horses are also known as Maremmanas or Tuscan Horses. They are solid boned, agile and usually bay. They are primarily a working stockhorse. The breed is not well known outside Italy.

Here are some Maremmanos at the horse fair in Verona in 2007:



And here is a brief clip showing the horses and the landscape (without the glamour and glitz of the horse show).



More well known than the horses are the Maremma dogs. And I so happen to have one of them, too :-)

Horses of Chile

While looking for something else yesterday, I came across this interesting site about the Chilean Horse.

For some reason, there is very little known about the horses and horsemen of Chile, so it's great to see some information. I found the downloadable book chapters particularly useful.





I've always been intrigued by the ring bits and the saddles used by the huasos, the Chilenian horsemen. Finally, I've found good pictures and plenty of descriptions as well as historical info. Really fascinating stuff!

The chapter about the history of breeds on the iberian peninsula and the shipments of horses to the Americas is also excellent reading.

If you have an interest in the South American horse breeds, go and have a look.

spring is in the air

I've had a few more rides on Chewie. He's doing great.

He isn't quite so looky with things now. I suppose he's figured that the scary looking letterboxes don't contain evil horse-eating dragons. I've stuck Carlos, a grey half Paso Fino gelding, in with him and he's much happier now. They look a bit like Laurel and Hardy. Carlos is bigger, wider and darker. Chewie is smaller, white and quicker. They hang out like they are each other's shadow and eat out of the same bucket. Considering both are pretty opinionated (often macho around mares) geldings, I'm quite amazed.

The fun bit will come when I take one for a ride and not the other :-)

We took out a couple of Yvonne's youngsters last week. It was their first ride in months. The weather was sunny and all the neigbors were out on ride-on mowers and their kids on quad bikes. Everything was buzzing. I rode Dacio, Yvonne took Carlotta. We did a brief couple of rounds of lunging before we got on, as there were a lot of rolly eyes and busy feet. All ok, so off we went. Dacio had his usual 20 seconds worth of tight back. During that time, I ride "defensively" and keep a nice short rein. Just in case... Nothing ever happens and then he's fine and he's pretty relaxed for the rest of the ride.

However, with that sort of backdrop, and warm weather, and itchy coats (yes, he had scraped loads of winter fur out of them before the ride..), we did have quite a lively ride. There were some levades, a few shies, head shaking, foot stomping, that sort of stuff. Carlotta wouldn't go down some mini bank. Yvonne was going to let it be, but I made them go, haha. More snorting and footstomping, but they did it.

So they both got a good sweat up. Not a bad outing for two youngsters under the circumstances. Hopefully, we'll repeat it this afternoon. The weather is lovely. If Yvonne comes home early enough from volunteering at the dog show...

Yesterday, I took out Max for the first time in a long time. Oh yeah. Big red stallion, high opinion of himself, would rather be out surfing, that sort of thing. I put the Maestro bit on him, which I've been meaning to do for a long time. The last few years, I've ridden him in a snaffe, but I used to have him in a Maestro previously.

I think he bounced several times, kicked out at the whip at least three times, stopped, grunted, swished his tail and generally complained, all by the time we got to the front gate. So I gave him a job to do. Go. Fast. Rack on!

About a km or so along the forest trail he decided that this was beginning to feel like work and wanted to slow down. Nope. Sorry. We went a bit further and then I asked him to walk. Hey, what a beautiful walk!! He got his breath back a bit further along and we had another good long rack. His mindset changed from obnoxious prick to pleasant hack in just over two kms. :-)

He was a lovely horse all the way home. He didn't even grunt at the Arabs on the corner, and managed either a nice rack or a loose rein walk any time I asked. Was he sweaty when we came home? Do fish swim?

Well, there are a few more horses which haven't been ridden since the autumn or winter, and I'm sure I'll have more fun yet. I love it when they are lively like that. I won't accept stupid behaviour, but I have no objections if horses express themselves. I can't stand plods. That's why we don't have any :-) Even if it means that some rides are on the exciting end of the spectrum. They are alive. I am alive.

Riding Chewie

As I mentioned on my Narrawin blog, one of our new additions is Chewie, a 20 year old Paso Fino gelding. His proper registered name is Bachue Bravo and he originally hails from Florida, where he was shown in his younger days.

Chewie has lived at OliVaylle, in Victoria's far west. In 2000, he and a bunch of other Paso Finos came to Oz. When I worked at the farm, I used to take Chewie out riding. He was always a bit of a handful. The sort of horse you give to the visitor who brags about his riding skills (hehe, not for long...). But he could go all day, had endless gait, carried himself beautifully and was super-feather-light in the bridle. A horseman's horse, quirks and all.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, my friend Jorge is retiring and all his horses are going to have to go to new homes. I brought home a young stallion and will go back and bring a couple of mares, too. And Chewie, the white tornado, he came home with me as well.

We had grotty weather since coming home from the trip to the west, but last weekend, the clouds opened for a bit and I decided to see how Chewie was feeling. So here is the report of that first ride in oh, over four years:

I took out the white tornado today :-)

It was the first day of pleasant weather all week, and I'd been itching to grab Chewie and do a road test. So after harrowing a couple of paddocks and feeding up, I went and got him. He's quite friendly and walks up to me in the paddock, which is nice.

I tied him up the rail outside the shed. He looked at it as though it could turn into a snake any moment, and couldn't quite be convinced that the little puddle near it wasn't home to alligators. But he didn't pull back, although there was a fair bit of wriggling and at times he stood like a mountain goat, and with his eyeballs sticking out. Silly fool :-)

He looked at the saddleblankets with suspicion, and the saddle with disdain, and he bunched up and got all fidgety when I did the girth up. I did it up nice and slow, and he started breathing again. I walked him a few steps, but no explosion, so I tied him to the rail/snake again (with the alligators watching him!). Got the bridle out and decided to untie him to avoid problems. But he actually took the bit politely and voluntarily. Yeah, he fussed with it a bit, but didn't have issues. Got my hat and as I walked up to him he had that "oh-oh! I know what THAT means!" look on him.

I took him for a walk past the front of the house, past the stone lions and potplants (scary!), past Max and some haybales (NOT scary), then girthed him up again, asked if he was OK and got on. Surprisingly, although he had that glint in his eye, he stood still. Felt a bit like a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse as he walked off, but then sort of settled a bit. I was reminded just how light he is in the bridle :-) And then off we went.

He went really well. To begin with he was a bit cold and his step was very short and a bit choppy, but after a couple of minutes, he moved really well. The tracks around here are a bit sandy, so that's what he's used to.

And we motored along nicely. And because he's out of condition, I asked him several times to slow down and walk. And miracle of miracles, he did! Only for a minute maximum, before picking up speed again, but walk he did. On a loose rein, no less.

We did a round trip through the forest past Yvonne's place. She was just going out for a walk with her pup Nemo. I stopped and talked for a couple of minutes, and much to my surprise, Chewie was ok with that. He didn't even fidget. How's that??

Off we went again, past some heavy horses, two big grey part Percherons. Well, they had never seen a little grey horse move funny like that (though they have seen gaited horses, nothing that moves it's legs as fast as the grey tornado!!), and they got a bit stirred up. Chewie didn't dignify them with a more than a glance.

Down the road, coming home from the other direction, he was giving me hints that he wanted to go back, but must have realised we were heading in the right direction, as he suddenly picked up even more speed. Perfect gait. Sewing machine precision. Fantastic!

Then we came closer to my place, and Ramirez was moving about in the corner paddock. Suddenly, Chewie decided that something there looked awfully scary. Couldn't tell if it was Ramirez, the letterboxes on the corner, a treestump or the road signs. In any case, we had a Chewie moment: stop, turnabout, head off at high speed. Whoa! I had to correct direction and speed a couple more times, and then he figured all was ok and started hiking along again. All the while, I was laughing my head off, and calling him a silly old fool ;-)

But we did again manage to walk for a bit, in fact the rest of the way along the driveway. But not quite up to the scary tie up rail or the alligators in the puddle. So we compromised and stood a couple of metres away from it while I dismounted. The rail wasn't so scary after that, and he had no issues waiting while I brushed his (rather sweaty) coat, and then got his feed ready.

So there you go. First ride on Chewie in ages. Sadly, no photographic evidence. But we'll take some footage next time I take him out. All in all, I had the impression he actually enjoyed himself mostly. He was alert, forward, moving freely. Not fruit loopy at all. I really enjoyed the ride.

It's not often that I just go for a fun ride, mostly it's to work young horses. So this was like a special treat, especially as the weather was almost spring like. If he doesn't happen to have a "moment", he is a proud horse with capacity for many miles. He really carries himself well. He looks very different under saddle, compared to standing around in the paddock. Anyway, I'll forgive him a lot of "moments" for all the good sides he has. He's a fantastic horse, a bit like a highly tuned race-car with a a few quirks. And therein lies the fun. But I think I won't volunteer him for others to ride ;-)

working with horses - let's not be too serious!

As we worked with Funa this morning, Yvonne decided to take some photos. To document that it's not all serious business, here are some of the most amusing one.... Oh yeah, and we had a great session, she was fantastic :-)