By Patty Wilber
The wind howled down the mountain slopes, the ground was snow-wet and the trees fell down all around, all around this winter in the Pecos Wilderness!
Luckily, Back Country Horsemen, Pecos Chapter, to the rescue (and a bunch of other people, too, but this post is all about US, not them)!
Yes, we cleared this!
Done! Keith, Siri, Chris, Melissa, Mary Ann, Linda, Kevin, Peter, Me, Jim. This was a fun “wreck” to clear and took about two hours with most of us busy! Photo by Siri!
By Patty Wilber
Jim and I went for a whirlwind trip to the Santa Barbara area this past weekend to visit Progeny #2 (Mark) and his better half (Erika). We got in Friday morning around 10am, and pretty much went non-stop (except for the part on Saturday where I took a “less drowsy” dramamine at 3pm, had a glass of wine at 7pm and about passed out at 8pm…Alcohol and dramamine apparently don’t go well together. It probably says that on the packaging somewhere…) until Sunday evening when we flew out at 7:30pm.
Friday, we went hiking, checked out a mission, hit a brew pub and played board games.
The hike went up a canyon with water and this gopher snake. Mark is a herp guy (as in herpetology) so of course he had to catch the snake!
By Patty Wilber
“The expression of Leopard Complex (LP gene) includes several components: mottled skin around the muzzle, anus, genitalia, and eyes, and progressive roaning of pigmented coat areas with age. (My underlining.) White spotting may also be present, with pigmented leopard spots tending to occur on the white spotting background of heterozygous horses. The mutation is an incomplete dominant and expression of Leopard Complex is variable ranging from absent to extreme white patterning.” (UC Davis genetic testing site.)
Indy has an Appaloosa with spots father and a quarter horse mother. When I bought her, I didn’t look too closely (because color wasn’t why I bought her), and I didn’t think she had inherited any Appaloosa color genes from her father. Her mom being a solid colored quarter horse, didn’t have any Appaloosa genes to donate!
Indy at about nine months old. Dark bay, Dec. 2014.
But then she shed her winter coat and became a roan! Thus, she did get one copy of the LP gene–from her dad!! One copy is fun–a horse of a different color every season and every year! I happy with only one LP gene copy though. Horses with two copies of the LP gene have “Congenital Stationary Night Blindness (CSNB) which is the inability to see in low to no-light conditions.” (UC Davis genetic testing site.)
Indy, June, 2015. 14.1! 860 lbs yearling. Roan!
By Patty Wilber
We called a range tech in the Magdalena Ranger District for info, scouted all over on roads off of Hwy 60 between Magdalena and Datil based on her input, and decided to camp in Sargent Canyon on FR 476, off of State Road 52 (goes right by the Very Large Array). But then the weather looked questionable, so we revised to Monica Cabin (168 off 60 which becomes FR 549, go left on FR (not state road) 52) because those roads were not likely to turn into tire sucking mud pits in a big rain event.
Turns out, we had cool and dry weather, but it apparently rained and snowed and hailed practically every where else in the state (0.66 inches of rain at my house)!
There were five of us and we used three different methods of overnight equine restraint.
Marcia: A portable pen. It is stored on the outside of her trailer for transport, and attaches to the side of her trailer. Up in a flash!
Siri and Linda: High ties. A high tie is a flexible pole that swings out from the side of the trailer. An equine can move around a little, and hay bags and water buckets can be secured to the trailer.
Zodi: i got this!
By Patty Wilber
I get the horse’s teeth checked every year in the spring.
The young horses are losing teeth and the old horses have hooks and ramps, and every once in while there is some other odd thing that needs attention.
Horses have teeth that grow throughout their lives. This works because they are grazers and their jaws move in a back and forth motion to grind their grassy diet. The grinding wears down their teeth. But, since the teeth continue to grow, they are not reduced to nubs.
If the teeth do not articulate perfectly, all surfaces do not wear down evenly and hooks and ramps result where the ever-growing tooth is not ground off. This can cause problems with the bit, laceration of the cheeks, and poor utilization of feed.
Ok. Yikes. Hooks are on the top.
By Patty Wilber
My friends Justin and Miriam have a flock of Navajo Churro sheep, and a couple times of a year they have “Sheep Days” where people come and help with shearing, vaccinating, foot trimming, castrating, etc. I have never been able to go, so in January, they picked this date, and I put it, in capital letters, on the calendar in my phone. (Of course, there ended up being a horse show that conflicted, but so sorry, I was flocked in for the whole day!)
All sorts of friends and relatives and lots of kids were there. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were provided. As one participant said, it felt like a barn-raising (not that any of us had ever been to a barn-raising), where people came together as a like-minded group to help out. In today’s world of electronic self-sufficiency, he pointed out, sometimes this sense of community purpose and group connection to the rhythm of the Earth gets lost. It was nice to think of the day in this way, and of course it was a lot of fun!
Seventeen or 18 sheep needed shearing. Justin did all the shearing. He got better and faster (and more tired!) as the day went on. Churros have a coarse, carpet grade, wool (great for Navajo rugs) that has a lot of lanolin. This gums up and dulls the blades of the shears, so they have to be cleaned and changed frequently.
Here comes a ewe!
Assume the position!
That seems like a lot of wool! Where are ewe?
By Patty Wilber
BCH 101 was at the Edgewood Arena. Sandy and Peggy are enhancing the sign. Thanks Elisa for the picture!
Last Saturday (April 15th), the NM Back Country Horsemen, Pecos Chapter held a BCH 101 clinic to go over some basics of BCHing.
Welcome and check in. Each participant chose a group and got a packet of information. Then the participants went and participated!
We had four stations.
1. Horse containment.
When we do an overnight project, equines need to be contained. Typically, we use existing pens, highline, or set up portable electric-wire pens. Animals can be hobbled to allow grazing time, as well.
Cheryl and Kit covered highlining, portable electric fencing and hobbling (since everyone already knows how to use existing pens)!
Because our containment instructors were stationed in the parking lot of the Edgewood Arena, they set up the highline between two trailers!
Kit, being supervised by her horse while supervising Cheryl, who was explaining how to put the metal doohickies on the rope to which you can tie the equine. This keeps the highline from having lots of knots. Hence, the doohickies are really called Knot Eliminators. Picture from Elisa.
By Patty Wilber
Recently, in the horse show world, there has been an explosion of Ranch Horse classes. They are a lot of fun. Here are some reasons.
1. You can wear chinks instead of chaps. I love my chinks! I had some custom made by Judith McCollum, and they are attractive, but even better is that you can walk around without having to fold up the bottom or trip over the fringe!
Chinks. Cheapest price for this pair was at Valley vet. $304.
Western pleasure type show chaps. See how long they are? They look nice when one is on the horse, but good luck walking around. These are from Walmart. 68 bucks. I had no idea Walmart had chaps.
2.You can enter all the ranch classes and never have to change your clothes. That may seem silly, but I once was at a show where I had to have FIVE different outfits. I really don’t like to change my clothes, especially when we are talking midsummer in the windowless sweatbox tackroom of my stock trailer.
3. Lots of different types of horses, moving in a variety of ways, can be successful at the Ranch Horse classes.
The classes are Ranch Trail, Ranch Riding (a pattern class), Ranch Rail (ride around the arena at the different gaits, but not too slow), and Ranch Conformation (horse is judged on its build). I have not yet tried Ranch Conformation, but for Appaloosas, it has to be after the riding classes, (and the horse has to have been in at least one of the riding classes), and I guess you just pull the saddle and get judged, sweat marks and all…
I have a video (thanks Siri K., my friend, not a phone app!) of Indy doing a good job in a Walk-Trot Ranch Trail class at the New Mexico Buckskin’s show last Saturday. I didn’t get video of the walk trot lope pattern, and we didn’t do a such good job on that one, so not sure I’d be showing it in public anyway!
Ranch Trail has different obstacles (e.g. throw a rope, drag a log, dismount, remount, ground tie) than “regular” trail classes and the patterns are not usually as tight. The poles are sometimes natural logs instead of painted poles.
By Patty Wilber
Andy was here as a yearling and Shelley (his breeder and owner at the time) and I took him to the World Show 2015 in lunge line and hunter in hand. He handled all the commotion and excitement like a seasoned veteran. We had to up his grain to INCREASE his energy level for the show. That’s how mellow he was!
He was sold to Zoe and now he is back here as a three-year old to begin his big boy training!
He came last Saturday, and I did a little ground work with him Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
By Patty Wilber
This winter has been warmer (Accuweather) and slightly wetter (at least until February) compared to the historic averages as reported by Intellicast.
We didn’t get a lot of snow.
Here is a summary: Precipitation from Intellicast, and my rain gauge, temperatures from Accuweather. Links above.
Historic Averages My house ppt Accuweather this year temps.
November: 1.2″ 45F 1.46″ 48F
December: 1.3″ 36F 1.58″ 39F
January: 1.2″ 37F 1.54″ 39F
February: 1.3″ 41F 0.21″ 46F
March: 1.4″ 48F 0.60″ 55F (as of 3/29/17)
In February, we only had one precipitation event, (Feb. 13th, 0.21″) and it was dry again until March 23rd (0.24) and March 28th (0.36).
Mar. 28th. The rain gauge is on the railing!
A late afternoon break in the damp.