Sandbar Ranch on the McLeod River

Wow what an awesome weekend! Shirley hosted the (now) annual Sandbar Ranch Parelli trail ride. It's held at her sister and brother-in-law's ranch which is a spectacular piece of property on the McLeod River south of Whitecourt. I missed it last year, but am SO GLAD I made it this year. In fact, Shirley emailed me back in like February when she had to set the date for this year to make sure I'd be able to make it. I'm so grateful for that and thrilled that I made it. It also happened to fall on my birthday weekend, which was the absolute most perfect gift I could have given myself. It was probably the most fun I've ever had with my horse.

Well, except for the very beginning. Thankfully Louise was with me to help with the horses as well as maintain some good humour. I picked up Louise and her horse Rascal before heading out and everything was going great... horses loaded really well, the truck was packed and comfy, air conditioning on, we were laughing at our various adventures of late, then hmmmm all of the sudden there was a slight change in the vibration of the truck and trailer. I looked out my rear view mirror and it looked like there was mud or something flying off the trailer. Except there was no mud on the highway. Crap. I pulled over.... yup blew a tire. Crap crap crap! Oh well, it's 30+ degrees out, so we unloaded the horses so they wouldn't cook inside the trailer, and Louise led them into the ditch to graze. I got out the tire irons and jack to change the tire and a lovely man stopped right about then to give me a hand. We had no trouble getting the blown tire removed, but the bolt holding my spare tire on was so long my tire wrench couldn't reach the nut! Crap! And of course I didn't have any other tools. Neither did the lovely man who stopped for us. I called AMA, but they were going to charge me for the full service - even if all I wanted was to borrow a crescent wrench - because I didn't have RV coverage on my membership. The lovely man who stopped then offered to drive back to Stoney Plain to purchase a crescent wrench. What an amazingly generous thing to do! I gave him all my money (which was only $10) and we sat by the road and waited. Before said lovely man returned though, another man stopped who did happen to have a crescent wrench, so we were able to remove the spare tire and install it. Which was just as well, because Lovely Man #1 was unable to find a crescent wrench. I tried to get him to keep the $10 I gave him - for all his troubles -- but he was having none of it. After the tire was installed, I noticed it wasn't quite inflated enough, so I took it back to a gas station to inflate, then came back and parked in a nearby service road to load the horses up safely. And we were finally on our way again. We called Shirley to let them know we'd be late and to not hold anyone up waiting for us.

It was about 2:00 or so when we arrived. We found pens for the horses, pitched the tent, and grabbed a drink. I was going to head back to Whitecourt to replace the tire (I didn't want to return home without a spare), but Shirley's brother-in-law found one with exactly the same rim size and bolt pattern for me to borrow until I was able to replace the damaged tire back home. Another lovely man! So we were able to start playing with the horses and leave the stress of the blown tire behind us. Louise and I spent a few minutes in the arena with the various obstacles, then a bunch of people were heading to the river, so we grabbed our bareback pads and tagged along. I was thinking it might be too soon to ride Skittles (not enough ground work to get her mind settled), but didn't want to miss out on the river since I was a puddle of sweat by this time (really hot day). I rode her in just the bareback pad and halter (first time I've ever done that too!) and Skittles was amazing.

Her first exposure to water was a bit tentative, but after a few steps in, and pawing/frothing in the water, she got braver and braver (it helped that there were other horses there too!). That first day, she got in to just above her knees. I got off and also splashed water on her, which she really seemed to appreciate. After a while she was so relaxed, it almost looked like she was dozing. Maybe she was!

After the potluck dinner Saturday night (which was FABULOUS), most of us (about 15, I would say) got back on the horses for a nice long trail ride. This time I used my saddle. She was a bit more agitated in the larger group and I was grateful I put the saddle on as she was jigging a fair bit in the open fields ... I wasn't quite ready to let her canter and held her back in a trot. She probably would have been fine, but I'd rather try cantering her in a smaller group first. It was about 10:3o by the time we returned to the ranch and getting pretty close to dark. Amazing ride, wonderful scenic trails and even a couple challenging hills - which Skittles handled like a pro. Very proud of her.

Sunday was another scorcher day, although thankfully a bit more overcast. Louise and I started playing in the "playground" with the giant tires, bridge, log jump and "carwash." A year ago, I don't think Skittles would have gone into the same field as this scary fluttering carwash contraption, but last weekend, I was able to get her to walk calmly through it with about a third of the plastic strips tied back. I am continuously marvelling at her trust and confidence this year. A different horse! She also handled the bridge no problem and stood on the pedestal -first with just her front, then eventually with all 4 feet. No issues. And of course she jumped the log no problem (with about 3 feet to spare - as usual!).

Then we saw Shirley heading back to the river, and I shouted for her to wait and we tagged along. On Saturday, a couple of the guys were actually swimming with their horses, so I wanted to see how deep Skittles would go. I played circling game with her and each time around, I'd see if she'd go a bit deeper. Eventually she got deep enough so it was nearly to the top of her back, but didn't want to go any deeper. I didn't push it. I want this to be a positive and fun experience for her too. But while she was that deep, I was able to use the buoyancy of the water to jump up on her back. And she stood very politely and quietly while I flailed and splashed in the water and squirmed up on her back. Seriously - a different horse! We continued to play around in the water for a while, then eventually got back on and meandered through various trails back to the ranch. We gobbled up leftover potluck for a late lunch, then unfortunately had to pack up and head home.

I can't say enough how impressed I am with Skittles with every new thing I throw at her this year. She's turning into such a cool horse. I'm so glad I stuck with her. This weekend was amazing. I can't wait until next year! Thank you Shirley!!

Allegro goes to play @ Rafter XX

On Canada Day, I met Tamara and Toby (her little mini) over at Rafter XX. I decided to give Allegro some travel experience and start playing online with him. My daughter came with me and she absolutely fell in love with little Toby. Such a cutie! She had tons of fun playing with him and I think Tamara was happy to have someone to play with him (since her pregnancy limits her playing a fair bit these days!). Toby was really wary of Holly at first and vice versa. But within an hour or so, and with Tamara's guidance, Holly got more confident with him and he with her. It was pretty cute. Video clip of Holly and Toby at the end.

Allegro loaded and travelled really well. Once in the arena, we just walked around and investigated stuff at first. Then started playing the 7 games. Friendly was fine...we've done tons of that at home with just about everything. Porcupine was good as well... he's actually really ticklish in his side, so he was twitching, swishing his tail and swinging his head around to scratch his side every time I touched him there, but he soon figured out that just moving away would stop the tickle! Yo yo was no problem. Driving game was stronger on his left side than his right... which really became apparent when we tried sideways. He'd go sideways really well to the right (with me on his left), but couldn't figure out what I wanted going the other way. It was the same with circling as well. If I tried to send him to the right, and support with the carrot stick, he'd move in the opposite direction. So we had some fairly lengthy "discussions" and he eventually managed to figure out what I wanted. I quit as soon as I was able to get 3 good sends in that direction.

Squeeze also had some issues.... more with disengaging and stopping than anything. He kept wanting to continue in a circle, and especially going left, he'd pull against the line and run into the savvy string rather than come off that pressure and stop against the wall. Again, we had some lengthy discussions, but came through it out the other side with 2 or 3 very nice disengagements in each direction in the end.

Then we just went around and played with some obstacles... cavaletti, ball, cones and tarp. None of the obstacles caused him any grief. He's really quite confident with most things, which I love. Photo attached is of Allegro pawing the tarp. The first time he crossed it, he pawed it up under him, then stretched out and peed on it! Crazy horse.

We were there for nearly 3 hours. A really fun day, and Allegro made some great progress.