strange weather and a tough horse for sure.

It is Thursday morning and I was simply too tired to write last night. Maybe I was just a little frustrated as well.

We woke yesterday morning to really nice and warm weather, I was out feeding horses in a shirt, no jacket or coat. I was thinking that this was nice for catching and haltering horses! The horses already haltered and in pens seemed to becoming familiar with their new rawhide halters and dragging lead ropes, the horses still out in the trap seemed to be figuring out that we are not all that bad. Lunga, was a good bit of help yesterday morning. She managed to help lead 5 horses into the large paddock and then into smaller paddocks for sorting. I think she is coming to terms with her new job as bell mare and maybe she is a little cheeky in the thought of trapping the horses that are bothering her so much. We managed to trap and sort some of the older and fresher horses. I was happy with this because I was ready to get my hands on some of these older horses.

We let the geldings finish eating and I cinched up Pochita and walked on into the round pen, rope in hand. We had to start with a 3 yo filly that was still in the pen from the day before and I was not sure how she was going to be. She has a beautiful eye and seems very very kind, but sometimes they are the worst! She acted like she wanted to jump the padock fence when I walked in to head her to the round pen but she looked and found her way in. The next hour was very uneventful and we had a halter and lead rope on her with very litle work. Pochito worked like a truly seasoned horse and was very patient and very willing to work. This was just what he needed to build his confidence in working horses. He has so much try in him and so much ability to do this. He needed something to do and I think he has found his calling. This filly was sharp and quick and she actually dropped her head into the halter. As soon as we had her back into the paddock and drinking water, the wind began to blow, and I mean blow! It was gusting and we could see to the west that the rain and snow was coming. We put Pochito under the shed and took a break during the rain.

It settled down a little and I was eagar to get my hands on the little blue roan mare who is nine years old. The wind died down and the tempature was also headed down. I got back on Pochito and headed back into the round pen to catch this mare. She was very fast and quick and knew how to duck the rope. I finallly got her roped and her first reaction was to strike with both front feet and she never missed a lick moving around the round pen. It took a while to get her reeled in and close to me, but she was very strong and she knew how to turn and pull forward against the rope and my horse. I ended up having to switch to a bigger horse who was stronger than her and stouter than Pochito. But, I will tell you this, his heart and will were a fraction of Chito's! After a good back and fourth battle she began to remember the routine and she was letting me rub on her and touch all over her. During this time, it rained a little snowed a little and went from freezing cold to almost muggy and hot. At one point we had steam rising from the ground and from the horses backs, it was almost as if the fog was rolling in from the sea shore and we would soon be invisible to everyone and everything. That of course did not last long and before you know it we were freezing cold and dodging big fat snowflakes again.
The blue roan mare gave us a few more fits and revolt and then started to settle down a little, but in the end she needed Tommy on Butch and me on The Dude to kinda "split her in two" to get her full and undevided attention. I was on the rope end and Tommy was on the leadrope and halter end. I was expecting a big blow up when the halter would have to dip down under and up over her nose and over her ears, but I think she had come to some kind of agreement with us. She was very accepting of the rawhide halter and even with being lead by Butch. She took a big sigh of relief and her eye softened greatly. In the end, no-one was hurt(horse or man)and we learned something new. Between the weather and the horses we did not get many horses haltered but we did learn a new aproach to dealing with some of the difficulties of working with these horses coming out of the wild. You can truly go from one extreme to another, with horses and with weather!