Mares

Most days I like my mares.  There can be a few days during the month that I like them less.  Two Saturdays ago one of my mares was on my "bad" list - Zoe.  She was in heat.  That usually means that I don't have her full attention when I'm working with her.  If I had been paying more attention I would have put some clues together that would have helped me out more that day.  It usually works that way-hindsight is awesome.

The Wednesday before she gave me some clues that this heat was more intense than normal.  That Wednesday while I was getting her ready for a solo trail ride she urinated twice.  She never goes pee while I'm brushing her.  There were no other horses around for her to "impress" with her activity.  I remember thinking that I hoped she was okay to go on a ride-that she was okay.  The ride turned out okay and I thought nothing more of the situation.

Fast forward to the next Saturday.  It was 1 week before horse camping.  As usual the first day of camping I have 3 horses and only 2 riders.  So I usually pony one of the horses.  I've done this before.  The last few times I ponyed Skippy off of Zoe with no problems.  (Skippy is Zoe's mom and also her pasture mate)  So this day I saddle up Zoe with my western saddle.  She hasn't had this one on for about a year.  I ride a few laps around the arena and Zoe doesn't seem to mind the saddle.  So now I'm going to pony Skippy off of Zoe.  Only it didn't work out like I planned.  I had a friend bring Skippy into the arena.  I was not quite in the shady corner of the arena but close to it.  No sooner than my friend got the gate closed from coming into the arena, Zoe started the snorting she does when in heat and before I knew it-I was up in the air.  Yup, Zoe reared.  Twice.  Not so much energy went into the second rear-so it wasn't as high as the first.  I had 2 people watching me.  Both were holding their breaths.  I stayed on.  Both times.  A long time ago I read an article on how to ride a rear.  I guess some of the information stuck in my head.  Now I'm mad.  Once we had all 4 feet on the ground we were doing circles, small circles.  Funny thing about a rear-once I notice that she is too light in the front end and she could be rearing-we are in the air.  I guess I would need more practice riding rearing horses to feel that better-but not so sure that I want to practice riding alot of rearing horses.  In retrospect I should have abandoned the ponying idea and circled towards the inside of the arena and worked her hard. Sweaty hard.  But I didn't.  Once things calmed down I attempted ponying, but I never had 100% of Zoe's attention.  Her ears gave her away.  This day-I didn't trust her.  After a few trys I decided that this activity would be better for another day.  Once she was back in her paddock she still had attitude so I turned her paddock into a round pen and we finished out the day with some round pen work.  Hard work.  Attitude was much better when we finished.  I was mad enough to keep going but thought I'd better quit while I had her in a better frame of mind.  Yes I was mad at her but I was also mad at myself.  I had clues that told me I might have problems.  I should have worked her hard right after the rear.  I should have been in the center of the arena at the start - it would have been safer for me and easier to move her forward to keep her from rearing.  Maybe it was the saddle that caused part of the problem - it does have a back cinch and considering her "condition" it could have irritated her.  Alot of "what ifs".  I might never know but I'll be paying better attention next heat cycle.

So I decided to try ponying the next 2 days.  After all camping was coming up and I needed to know how Zoe was going to act around Skippy.  As the days progressed Zoe was less in heat and that helped.  I never did use the western saddle again.  And I did this by myself in the morning before work.  I've worked these 2 horses together for years and didn't worry about being by myself.  I took many precautions tho....just having them be around each other and gauging their attitudes towards each other. I did manage to pony Skippy off of Zoe but wasn't 100% sure we were done with "heat" attitudes.  So on the 3rd day I ponyed Sky off of Zoe.  Sky is my gelding.  Zoe could have cared less.  It was easy.  So I decided during camping that I would try that combo.  I'll try the first combo again at home, probably after camping but before the next heat.   So more about camping and ponying in the next blog.