ColliesHorsesArtLove

Thrill Gets Certified For Tracking!!!!!

Yahhhhhooooooooiiiiiiieeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is Mr. Confident Tracker. Sue told me she had a friend mention to her yesterday "Are you SURE he's ready to get certified???" She sounded doubtful that he could be ready so quick. I guess this friend hasn't seen Thrill. 

This is Handsome's track. But of course Sue or Thrill don't know where it goes, or how many turns it has.

All Sue knows is direction for the first 30 paces. This is in case the dog takes off in the absolutely wrong direction, you get a clue here only at the start for a TD Test. After that it's up to you to read your dog. Or your puppy. Your LITTLE BABY PUPPY. 

This is Thrill's second leg. He's motoring along like a pro.

This is Thrill's 3rd leg. Sue actually tripped and flung herself into the brush and I tried to get a photo of it, but my camera was focusing on a branch in the foreground, so that is probably a good thing. Thrill actually had to stop to wait for her to get up, then restart the track, which he did fine. He is VERY motivated and Sue's crash to the ground didn't disturb him. It's those Muck Boots. They are really hard to walk in.

You can't even see Puppy Boy, but he just found the glove. This is the 4th leg. Sooo much fun!!!

Besides the judge & I, Sue's friend Sue drove an hour to watch Thrill, as did Ray of Sunshine. Ray did say seeing the tracking in person was way more exciting than watching it on video. You gotta love it though to appreciate how special this puppy is!!

There was another dog that Meg layed a track for and this dog did not pass her certification. So, it's not always easy. The reason the dogs have to get certified before a test is tests are very hard to come by, only a handful of dogs can run at a Licensed AKC Tracking Test and they need to be proven before wasting the time of everyone involved. The certificates are good for 1 year & I think the dog gets 4 of them. Thrill might not be able to run his TD Test before the Tracking Tests are done and the fields are brown. He needs to be 6 months old and he'll miss some of the tests going to the CCA.

Meg forgot to put "Collie PUPPY"!!!

Congratulations Sue & Thrill (ooooohhhh and me too hehehehe!!)

Reminiscing About FLUFFY Baby Soleil

I was going thru photos so I can do the artwork for the CCA High In Trial Herding and I have gotten sidetracked. This is probably not good because time is running out, but I can't help it.

I found these photos of Soleil as a baby puppy and I can't believe how fluffy she was!! No wonder I worried about Cardiffness being a smooth, or Sage and her stagey head. Look at this puppy!! Ty was like this also.

I groomed everyone last night as we went for a walk on the property and Soleil is just a very fluffy collie. She hasn't been in season yet (not since last March) and as far as I'm concerned, she can wait til this March if she wants. She looks so pretty right now, as does Cardiff. And, yesterday was "spray bottle weather" all day so everyone looked gorgeous!!

I love this photo of her. I know, her blue eye, but remember that doesn't bug me. I love the pretty finish and underjaw.

This litter out of Tirzah by Avalanche was probably THE fluffiest litter I've ever had. 

Soleil also grew up just like she looks here. Head and body stayed very consistent.

So, that's it for now. I am going to be a good girl and start sketching.

The Last Week ~ All In One Post ~ Such A Deal!!

I rode Aura. I rode Ali'i. I rode Aura. Fun, fun, fun. Oh yes, and it was really fun, fun, fun!!

I let the chickens out almost every day. They are the most perfect little creatures. I have so many of their little babies and yes Jolene, I am eating them.

I had Phil come out and trim Khaliq. This is the calm before the storm. She also was a perfect little creature. For the first foot. Then she turned into Crazy Baby. She flung Phil into my trailer (a few times) and bit him in the neck. Omg. He worked her thru her temper tantrum and only charged me an extra $5. (Omg.) I love him.

Then I went to help a friend and on the way stopped at a Walmart and saw these. I am thinking of buying them. For me. Or for Donna. They weren't even in the clothing section. They were in the check-out line with the candy. Like Donna says, "They even have 'European Styling'". Ha ha.

The next day we covered Winnie. A storm was coming. Finally. 

I wrapped up Stuffed Lana. She was FREEEEZZZZING!!!!!!!!!

Then I let Sage in to play with her toys 'til she was tired. It was going to be a long, stormy night.

I love storms.

Then everyone was in for the night. 

Complete and Utter Bliss.

Then after a long and extremely dry winter we had rain. 

Life is good.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Aura

I have been riding Aura consistently now for about 4 months. We are going really slow, lots of walking and long slow hills. The shorter rides usually have more trotting and the longer rides, lots and lots of walking.

Apparently she had enough training when she was younger so a lot of the things I was worried about, someone else already worked out, like just basic saddling, mounting, giving to the bit, etc. I am so happy for that, because it's turning out there is more bonus to her than I originally thought. I bought her to breed to Khemi and even though she was a replacement for Shahara, the fact that she was a good sized mare and had been broke turned out for the better. And, she gave me my most stunning Khaliq. If I never rode Aura, Khaliq would be enough. My filly is absolutely everything I was looking for in the breeding, though originally I wanted a colt so I could geld him........hmmm.......bonus bonus.....Khaliq might have a baby one day.

This mare though is VERY pushy. I am used to Ali'i, who I raised from a baby and he's so easy and would never think of running me over, throwing his head into me, or stepping on my feet. Now, granted, he is also very animated and has done his share of rearing and bucking, but he's easy to correct and it's done with. Aura, on the other hand has NO respect of my space and I've taken to keeping a crop close by at the trailer to remind her I am there. It drives me CRAZY!!!

BUT on the trail she is a kick!! I don't think she had done much if any trail riding, so she's had to get used to trail stuff, like funny looking trees, berry bushes (they scare her), boulders, CLIFFS, and water crossings. She's very thoughful on the trail and normally if she does spook, it's "in place" and most of the time, easy to sit. We are still working on her keeping her speed the same, in whatever gait we are working on. There is nothing worse than trying to post on a horse who speeds up and slows down ~ then puts the brakes on because of a boulder ahead that might eat her.

Last week, Donna asked me what I thought about letting her friend Natalie ride Ali'i. Natalie is sweet and mild-mannered and is like that on a horse. So, I said yes. We rode backwards on the Tevis trail some 7 1/2 miles (total 15 miles). It was a great ride and Natalie did great (AND Ali'i didn't buck her off). I rode Aura.

 

(Btw, on this ride Lily has a bug mask on her that is covering her ears. I was calling her a "M  U  L  E" ~ don't you think??)

In the meantime getting someone else to ride Ali'i I got to spent time on Aura. On the trail she's very, very strong and she's not in the condition that Ali'i is, but I can feel she actually feels stronger going up hills. It's going to be fun to ride her in her first 50, which I hope to do sometime later this year.

As we go on in our training, we have so much to work on. Don't beat the shit out of my trailer with your big HOOVES when I haven't left the property yet and don't run over me when tied at the trailer. These are two things that make me want to scream. Aura also needs to learn to eat at the trailer and that concerns me. When I brought Ali'i for Natalie Aura was very happy, chowing down everything in sight, but when she's alone, she's very worried. Because of this, I would expect her to be awful on the trail and she's not. She's mostly bold and steady. Funny. I guess just more experience will help. And keeping my crop close by so she doesn't smack me in the head!! Luckily the ride time outweighs the other pushy behaviors so I am having a blast!

T's Ride With Summer

I had a moment of brilliance the last couple of weeks. Why find Summer a new home when T can ride her?? He keeps threatening to get another horse and I'm not into that.

She's a big mare, very well trained and T won't ride her so much that we have to worry about her losing weight. I am so smart.

So we went for a 10 mile ride, mostly walking. After having to deal with Shiiq's lack of "work ethic", which meant crowhopping and rearing when he didn't want to do something, like go down the trail, Summer was a breathe of fresh air for T. She was forward, "go-ey", non-spooky and quiet. So much fun to watch him have a great time on a ride.

Here is Summer & Ali'i about 1/2 way thru our ride. We originally started out with our neighbors, but Joanie rides a ginormous Belgium X and he was done after 1 small hill and 3 miles, so I pointed in the direction of the trailer. It's harder to ride with people who don't do endurance, though we did have a fun time as short as it was. I am forever an endurance rider.

About 8 miles into the ride Chubby got renamed to Bucky. We came to a water crossing (the one he almost tossed me in a few weeks ago with Donna), he drank like a pro, we came out of the water and he went into a huge buck! I was so pissed at him and still am wondering what his issue was. I know he had to pee, and T took off with Summer so he didn't, so I don't know if that was pissing him off. When we got back to the trailer that's the first thing he did. Good boy. But don't buck me off for not stopping if he really had to go!! He was AWFUL!!

I'm not holding my breath for T riding a lot but taking beautiful Summer out for easy rides would be nice. She is a very cool horse.

Sage's First Tracking Turn ~ FINALLY.....

 

Sage had her first turn today ~ Yeah!! She's still all wiggly waggly over the straight legs, but the two turns she did she was right on and didn't have to think about where they were. That was a boost for me and I'm sure for her. She was very motivated and lunging and crying to get going while Sue laid the tracks.

I cut this video down and started towards the end of the first leg. It was long and I'm still trying to figure out how to get these videos to YouTube and not take forever. Whatever I did tonight was good because it was pretty quick. I went thru iMovie and I'm sure if I knew what I was doing I could add music and copy and cool stuff like that.

Thrill did a regulation track today, as far as length and he was fantastic. Sue wasn't sure if it would be too long for him, but he tracked it like a pro. Confident, right on and just when Sue thought he was off on one corner (no flags) she realized he was right on the track. Coooolllll puppies!!

Thrill Tracking ~ Poetry In Motion

Love the video on the iPhone but I had Sue download this to You Tube on her computer. I told her if she gets her bill next month and it's a $1000 don't call me, I'll call her.

What a great little puppy! Not even 4 months yet and practically doing regulation tracks with 4 turns and aged 40 minutes! I LOVE HIM!!! But so does Sue. Like a whole bunch!! I especially love the start and also how confident he is and able to find the turns. Really great little guy!! He also had to track thru that huge ditch and several spots of very different vegetation AND only 2 food drops on the track. Wowzie!!!!!

Beautiful Aura In Bling

Ok, you gotta admit this is one very nice photo of Aura taken with the iPhone. I was feeling all mushy towards her yesterday because she went in the trailer and was pretty quiet so I put Summer's Amanda Taylor Tack on her. I don't know why I was feeling guilty ~ but I was. Summer can still use it if I ride her. Why let it just sit around? And I did buy it in mind for Aura too. Really.

We did 12 miles, 1/2 downhill (me walking) and 1/2 uphill, her taking my fluuuubbbberrrry butt up. Slow, slow work. I really like riding this mare, but she is a PAIN in the ass tied to the trailer. She really needs to get over this. Hopefully by the time I take her to a ride, she'll relax and EAT. Geeeezzzzzz..........she is looking so fit though. Buff mare. Not as buff as Ali'i though but she's on her way.

The iPhone Girls

Donna and I went for a nice long conditioning ride a couple of days ago to the loop that was added onto Tevis this last year. It's a long grade down (7 miles), and then back up. Worth the drive to have the horses do a long upgrade. You'd think by the photo above, a storm was brewing. Ahhh....not to be. Not sure when we're going to ever have rain again. It's just soooo weird to be riding on trails in t-shirts and no mud. In the short term, it's absolutely wonderful but if it doesn't rain soon we are going to be screwed this summer. Needless to say, our ride was perfect.

Donna and Lily on the way down. We ran, walked and rode all to the bottom. According to Donna's GPS we both used up 850 calories. Does that mean I can drink more wine when I get home???

Here is Ali'i & I on our way up. I was wearing my fluffy riding pants and had 3 jackets tied to the saddle. Poor Ali'i also has his winter coat on and he can't take it off! Is his butt not so handsome????

Here is the top and on the way to Foresthill, part of the trail that leaves Chicken Hawk which was a vet check and the top of the 7 mile grade. Quite a few horses were pulled at Chicken Hawk this last Tevis because their butts were kicked after doing that hill. It's very deceiving because it's not a steep grade, but just LONG and gradual. It was fun this day to ride Ali'i without doing some 50 some odd miles beforehand and have him feel so strong going up. He has a nice attitude too and didn't seem to mind. 

Back to Michigan Bluff and our trailers. This used to be the 1 hour hold vet check for Tevis but the hold was changed to Foresthill. Crew can be here to help cool your horse down, as it's usually the hottest part of the day and you've just come out of the blazing hot canyons. The people that live here are very nice and seem to welcome the riders. It's a cool town.

So, this is cemented into the water trough in town. How wonderful is this???? I might have to work on this type o' buckle.

We did 16.31 miles. Nice, good workout. I love living here.

Aura & Khaliq ~ New Years Eve

I was out with the horses on New Years Eve and of course had my iPhone. Gotta love it!! This is Aura. She actually was quite far away and I was able to crop then play with colors.

I walked over into the sun to find the boys. They always go over the creek which seems to be a Mare Free Zone. I looked back and baby Khaliq is following me.

Here's Beautiful ~ 

We went to go see "War Horse" on New Year's Eve and it was a great movie, though there certainly are some scenes that just don't compute with real life, but I loved seeing the horse as a baby because he really reminded me of Khaliq and the baby things she does. He also has 4 white socks so he's a very fancy horse. Anyway, Khaliq is just sooo personable and really would like to be a house pet ~ or I think she would like ME to live in the pasture with her. This is the feeling I get from her. Live out here with us. It might be ok if it really never rains this winter.