Serene Sunday

Their debut album cover:

Daenery's and the Eunuchs

Saddle Fitting, Riding Lesson and Ground Work Beginnings

 Seamus and I's first trip together was to Hillsborough, NC to the Rockin B Saddle Shop, this would have been the first weekend in March!!! Wow I'm a bad blogger!

The saddle shop is about 30 minutes from our house.  I've gone there before when I needed them to adjust Dani's saddle....the fenders actually.  I have short legs and arms compared to my height, others of the same height tend to have longer appendages, I just have a longer torso....fun.  Normal stirrup fenders tend to be too long for me.  I also add stirrup turners which puts the stirrups perpendicular to the fenders which easier on the knee but this adds a few inches of length to the fenders.

Seamus was a good loader and unloader; a little quick at unloading but we'll work on that as some point. I tied him to the trailer with a hay net and then went into the shop to view the saddles I'd discussed with the owner. He had hybrid saddles, part leather part synthetic that I was interested in seeing.  The brand is High Horse which is made by Circle Y.  Dani's saddle is Circle Y and I've loved it so I felt comfortable looking at these saddles.

We went out to look at Seamus first and the saddle fitter brought a couple trees out and some cardboard to get measurements.  Seamus was a good boy through this whole thing.  I went back into the shop and then sat on a couple saddles.  I chose one and then we went out to Seamus to fit it.  I already had a nice felt rounded pad to us for him so we put that on and then adjusted the saddle.  The saddle had very different rigging than I'm used to. You don't need a back cinch since the ring is angled so you loop the latigo through it in a Y shape.  We also used the rear part of the front ring to bring the pressure off the shoulder due to his conformation and gaited way of going.

I then got him ready to ride and we went into the arena to ride.  Seamus started with a nice gait and I was thrilled.  I had him in a snaffle though and as he sped up and became bumpy I had trouble getting him back into the gait.  We'll work on that though.  I was satisfied with the purchase and thanked the saddle fitter  The Rockin B Saddle Shop is awesome, family owned by a nice older couple.  The man is retiring but his son is taking over so it's great to know that this place will be a place to go to for years to come I hope!

The following day I worked with Seamus in the pasture.  We worked on softening his contact with the bit and lowering his head at the walk for relaxation. I've been following Ivy Starnes the gaited horse trainer on You Tube and have some of her DVD's in addition to being a member of the training group she has on Facebook.  I've learned a lot but in application it can be a bit hard to do when you are just learning with a new horse.  The concept is similar to stuff I have learned in the past but Seamus is a younger horse that is going from a harsh gag bit to a soft sample. I went to her clinic in Tennessee end of March so I'll have a couple posts about that and probably share some of the videos too!

The following weekend I had a lesson at Mountain View Farms in Bahama with Erin who has worked with my other horses, before the pandemic.  She's very busy getting ready for show season so I was happy to meet up with her.  It was a short haul to her farm but Seamus did well.  A little hesitation on the load...we are still getting used to each other and I'm still new to trailering horses. The parking was tight at her barn but we got in and I got Seamus tacked up.  We started with some groundwork, and honestly...this boy needs it.  Erin said he was difficult to turn clockwise.  I'd noted that myself when lunging him.  She showed me some tricks to better communicate with him.  He probably had not had much ground work done with him.  It was a good lesson and I have some things to work on with him.

Seems I don't have the time to blog like I used to when I didn't own horse property!  Spring is starting up so the mowing is beginning and we have a lot of rewiring happening in the barn and the workshop of my husbands.  Basically we are without power in both and have been for the past 5 months.  I've tried to fit in riding with my new young horse and even went to a gaited horse clinic.  I have a lot of posts in the queue!!

First Hoof Trim for Seamus at Geek Acres

When I got Seamus he'd been in the pasture for several months and really needed a trim.  It seems that his shoes had been left on and let to fall off....these are just the assumptions of my farrier. In the first picture of a hoof you can see there were still some nail heads in the hoof.  This hoof also had a piece of hoof wall "notched" out.  My farrier showed me a scar that looks like he'd had a coronary band injury in the past few months.  Nothing came up at the vet exam but I remember noting those back hooves being longer and one I did a double glance at thinking it was club.

The nails were removed and his hooves were trimmed not long after I brought him home.  My farrier is a great barefoot farrier. Both my horses hooves have improved since I came to NC and found her.  She's the farrier I suggest to anyone who wants a barefoot trimmer.  She knows so much more than hooves too!

His back feet were the worst with big wall flares but they are strong since the wall didn't crack or break off.  I'm still working with him on picking up his feet easily.  I ask with poking his chestnuts but sometimes use the hoof pick as a hook to scoop up his foot from the area of the ergot....hope that makes sense.

His hindlegs are easier to pick up and each time he gets better.  Below you can see the trimmed foot on the left and the untrimmed on the right.  It's always nice to see freshly trimmed hooves.

The angles were off on all four feet, especially the back so my farrier got them trimmed up nicely.

Below you can see the trauma that had occurred to the hoof wall and the possible site of the coronary band injury.  We'll see how it grows out.

Freshly trimmed back feet from the far side below,

Freshly trimmed back feet from the near side below,

Nice rounded edges of the wall.  I'm sure his feet will expand some being 100% barefoot here.  It will be interesting to get some comparative pics 6 months from now and a year from now. I'm glad he wasn't one of those Tennessee Walkers with the big pads on their feet.  He just had been a little long between trims and my experience is that trims are different for a shod horse and I'm learning that there is still that old school thought that horses need to have long toes to gait.

It's so not true.  For the longevity of the horse their feet should be trimmed for their conformation and have the best angles to keep their legs aligned properly.  Too high a heel, too long a toe or compressed heels....these all lead to long term problems that don't just affect the hoof but the entire horse. Bad angles in the hoof and legs and add strain to ligaments up the leg and into the spine. Needless to say we have a chiropractor appointment soon so we can make sure he's not been thrown off kilter. 

Seamus

I am so happy that we went to Kentucky to find this beautiful gelding.  He's going to be such a great partner!  He arrived this past Friday the 24th, earlier than expected.  We had him shipped from KY since another trip to KY would mean another weekend for us and we still need to get the barn and workshop rewired so we are still without power out there.  I may not have mentioned it in this blog but yeah, we cut the power 4 months ago since there was a short and my hubby is working tirelessly to get everything rewired and we are also updating the lighting.

Anyways......my new horse we've decided to go with the barn name of Seamus.  It just fit him.  I'd dreamed of getting a horse named Brego (Aragorn's mount in the LOTR movies) or Rhaego (the unborn child of Daenerys in GOT) or even Tybalt (Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet").  Rhaego would have been really fun since I have a horse named Daenerys.  But low and beyond he just seemed like a Seamus to me, I like Irish names. Names often just happen.

The first day he was just in the barn yard with the other two horses across the fence from him.  Squeals galore from my mare and even a few from the gelding.  Oh my poor neighbors!  Our little neighborhood had just enough hilliness to make some fun echoes. When they all seemed to be doing well I put them all in the Shire, our northern pasture.  Only for about an hour though since I didn't want Dani getting too much of the green grass with her issues.

The second day I let the horses be together in the Wormhole which is the area between the north and southwest fields and includes the smaller barnyard.  The horses can come and go from the stalls and they also have access to the run-in shed.  They all seemed to be doing very well, Dani was mostly chasing Chance and Chance on occasion made Seamus move. I was inside to let them do their thing but could see the barn yard from my seat on the sofa.  Seamus came galloping through the barnyard and jumped the wood fence, knocking out the top rail.  OMG!!!

I went outside to find him between our two sheds grazing some grass, a little freaked out but seeming fine.  I went into the barn to get a halter and Steve had come out to prevent Seamus from getting to the road.  We got him back to the barn and I checked him over.  Thank goodness he was unharmed.  Not a single hair scraped off.  Chance had jumped this same area back in September when he got his tail caught in the spring gate and he was all banged up.  I was relieved. 

Later we had an incident after feeding.  We were trying to figure out the best way to feed everyone since Chance has to eat 3 lbs of grain each sitting since he'd been losing weight last summer. It takes forever.  Anyhow, the horses were done so I released Seamus from his stall and we went to the bucket where there were still tidbit of food left.  Chance came over a little aggressively and our old dog Loki got in the way and Seamus turned around and struck at him.  I flung my hands up and Seamus backed off so I could grab my poor dog and get him out of there.  Loki is always under foot with the horses but I should have known better.  This is a new horse who is scared, in a new place with new routines, new horses and new humans.  I felt bad for both him and Loki.  Luckily Loki has a thick head and aside from a scrape by the eye seemed to be alright.

Those two events were enough for the weekend.  Things have calmed down and we have come up with a good routine to move the horses to the two stalls or barnyard in a certain order for feeding.  We also then release them in a certain order too.  With two horses it was easier but with three we are using a catch halter to quickly grab one at a time (Seamus and then Dani) into a stall and then leave Chance in the aisle to eat their grain. Why I've never heard of these before a Stacy Westfall podcast I don't know but this thing is so handy and better than just a lead rope to quickly maneuver a horse.

Seamus is settling in and is already proving to be a very in your pocket horse.  I was racking old hay, and he wanted to help.  Mucking the yard, he wanted to help. I entered the barn yard, he came up to sniff me and say hi.  So far we've just done work on the ground, his front feet aren't as easy to pick up so we are working on that. I'll be getting a saddle that fits him this weekend I hope. 

I just hope Dani isn't too jealous!  I love her dearly but I'm so excited to have a young horse that I'll be able to go do things with and meet other horse people.  Welcome to Geek Acres Seamus!