I love horses.

Belgian/Reg'd Paint cross filly "Breezy" (sire is Payday's Flashcat). Very sweet, but quite cow-hocked at this point of time. Here is a little photo of her daddy from the Warkentin Ranch website.

Percheron/Paint cross colt. The odd mousy coloured tail and extremities may mean he will end up a true black. This is a lousy photo, but I really like this colt's attitude, and he has good straight legs. He is one of my favourites. Notice he still has the auction stamp on his rump! We can't get close enough yet to remove the stamps.


TB/Percheron cross filly. She is likely related to my other favourite in the group (below): She is very nicely conformed, but already a little mare-ish in attitude.


This is my other favourite guy. He is a big galoof, and is all leg at the moment. Not sure how he will turn out, but he has a wise eye and is very interested in people.

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Plain and simple; I have loved horses forever, and I suspect I always will. It's like a chronic illness, causing the most misery when I'm in a living situation not allowing any access to them. Our time in New Jersey was brutal for this; horses are definitely only for the rich and famous there.

Our neighbour Arnold picked up another small herd of horses from Manitoba earlier in the fall. This is the nicest bunch he's purchased by far (my hunter/jumper/eventing background making me biased!). They are draft horse crosses, either with Thoroughbreds or registered Paints. And they are LOVELY. He also picked up two almost two year old colts for a song earlier in the year. He is not internet-savvy, so I brought home his paperwork and have done some investigating for him. Two of the colts have very impressive pedigrees; both have Percheron moms (my favourite draft horse) and their sires have heavy doses of Bold Ruler, Northern Dancer, Nijinksy and more! I've only heard back from one of the three ranches; hoping that the others will be as helpful.

On Monday, he asked Alison if she would come and help him introduce the two older horses to saddle. And she and I are both working with the weanlings; using natural horsemanship techniques with them. Horse training has grown by leaps and bounds since I was young; the advent of natural horsemanship techniques (such as round-pen training, and join-up for building trust) and Parelli games have been awesome for the industry (although they are really only formalized versions of "Listen to what your horse is telling you"!)

These horses were foaled at pasture, left at pasture, weaned early, sent on a train from Manitoba to Ontario, auctioned off and trucked to homes, all without being handled. We've been visiting them since their arrival. It is so rewarding to watch their different personalities unfold; the early adapters -- "Wha ..? Oh, that's good. I'll do pretty much anything for that grain!" to the very cautious. One in particular has captured my heart. He's a big galoof of a colt; really tall and very gangly. Also one of the most shy; but he watches you when you're in the pen with them, ears forward, and follows your movements. He has "the eye"; he has a lot of potential. I've been playing the normal games with him; we don't have a round pen available, but body language still works wonders with untamed babies. For instance, looking directly at a horse is very scary for them; that's what a predator would do. To invite them to approach you, you avert your eyes, and become as small as possible. I finally had victory with my big galoof #119 yesterday. He approached me and nibbled at the grass I was holding, then (more importantly!!!) came back quite a few more times. There is also a chestnut filly who has been quite shy, and she also accepted my invitation to feed her for the first time yesterday.

At one point I was crouched in the middle of their pen, and six out of the eight were surrounding me, heads down and blowing through their nostrils at me. It was a great moment; these six have finally begun to trust me. Although I do miss riding dreadfully, this is equally rewarding and our family is very grateful that Arnold is willing to let us play with his babies ... (heh, heh ... Arnold is an old-time horse trader; he's getting help gentling his horses for free. He's pretty smart!)

At some point I will try to get some photos of the horses! In the meantime, I reiterate ... I. Love. Horses.