OODA Loops

*shhh* Don't tell Dad I actually listened to something he said related to work. Forensic accounting is not exactly my cup of tea. LOL In fact, I admit freely that my eyes glaze over just about as soon as anything "numbers" related is spoken or there is 'accounting speak' going on- the progeny of two CPA's- an act of rebellion. ;-)

On occasion, something sticks in my head and some time ago he mentioned a course he'd attended and how their firm was going to implement the philosophy of the speaker/presenter. A man by the name of John Boyd had done a lot of work thinking about thinking. Specifically, he'd found a way to detail and outline his process of decision making as a fighter pilot. A process that kept him alive.

This process he calls an OODA loop. I instantly made the connection to what I tried to teach students in working with horses. In particular, at the time I was doing a lot of work helping folks who'd found that the gurus of natural horsemanship didn't give them what they were looking for. Folks whose horses still willfully ran over the top of them, avoided entering trailers, couldn't lunge or handle well. For all the techniques, gadgets, logoed clothing, DVD's, and tent revivals they attended, there often wasn't much going on between horse and rider.

They were missing the OODA loop. Techniques only work if you can make accurate observations of what is going on, orient yourself with your horse and the surroundings, make a decision based on that info and act on it. Of course your horse is operating this way too. He however is extremely fast at it. Horses are keenly observant, always oreinted, their decisions are based on a simple is/isn't filter, and they act with all the quickness of something that knows it's generally a food item.

Now, being human I figure its perfectly acceptable to use all the brain power I can muster to prepare myself prior to interacting with my horse. I can observe what is going on, orient myself with my horse's body and the pattern we are riding, decide on a course of action and then implement it in order to achieve the result I'm after in a particular task. In a sense, each sequence of aids presents an OODA loop.

Example: We were looking to achieve more activity from Ernie in all gaits, but specifically the canter where he gets a little straight legged and tends to start to jump closer together behind when asked for high collection.

Before I ask, I have to observe if he is ready for a collecting half-halt. Is he supple? That's my observation, _I_ have to check my orientation in my body to be sure my reins are short enough - no 'holding' him on that inside rein, decide if its all what I want- which means having a set standard in my head- a very clear expectation, and then either supple him if its not there, re-orient myself if not where I need to be and then make a new observation, orientation, whereby if I like where things are at, decide to ride my collecting half-halt or go back through my prep.

The tricky thing in riding I've found is that there are two separate "orientations". There is the orientation of the rider's seat to the horse's body and the horse's body to the pattern/track/movement being performed. So simultaneously, there can be two OODA loops going on... one in which the rider is making adjustments to their riding and one in which the rider is making adjustments to the horse. Neither can happen independently.

Fortunately, both humans and horses are creatures of habit. We tend to make the same decisions over and over again, and tend to have habitual ways of "orienting" ie: crookedness or handedness. Identifying these patterns means you can make up some custom loops. Loops you put into action without much of any thought. Simply react. This speeds up our processing especially in critical moments where the horse may have acted thus giving us new information to observe and re-orient to in an instant.

Here is an example of one of my "custom" OODA loops. I know my left arm is a lot shorter than my right. I know I have a weakness in my hip on the left. That means I love to let my left arm shrink back towards my navel to both hold up my horse on the left doing the job of my leg, and simply be more in its biomechanical comfort zone. So, I have an auto loop I work through at the moment I take a left half-pass. I know that its likely I'll observe a bad habit and orientation, so I simply adjust it, and act on it. No decision has to be made. I simply close my left leg by stabilizing my core muscles on the left, shorten my left rein as I check that my chest is pointed to where my horse's chest is pointed down the line of the half-pass. No decision, just action. I also know that as soon as I do this Ernie has his typical loop and I am at the ready to observe his reactions. If they are the typical, I have my next course already planned out.

For every aid and detail, its possible to keep track of the horse's typical reactions, and then come up with the possible orientations (aids) and act on them (give them). Then its a matter of being able to observe the most subtle signs that you or the horse are deviating from the course of action to implement a new action and keep things right rather than having to correct.

Absolute harmony..... the ultimate in horsemanship.

Did you hear it?

... that large vacuous sound of a toilet flushing just before lunch today? That was my riding skill going completely down the drain. I rode like %$@*! and I'm happy to send that ride away FOREVER. Yikes..... I've painfully watched the video and while its "not that bad" in that there was nothing really awful- we had some good moments of getting Philipe more around my inside leg in the half-passes to show more bend, we definitely have canter pirouettes, and the flying changes are super confirmed (if I actually ride to them) Uh, yeah we SHOULD be able to ride PSG next season.

Based on this, you would then assume I could steer my horse, look UP, and pretty much keep him connected and over his back. Basics baby. But, I was up to my neck in paralysis of analysis and yet completely unfocused on the relevant items of the moment. I could wallow in the muck of figuring out why, and maybe come up with some excuses/reasons, but I just didn't go out there and do what I know how to do. Its as simple as that. I could go on, but the pity party is over.

When I retreated to the trailer to untack, I started to feel sorry for myself and my poor horse when he pushed his broad bay head and thick black forelock at me with a nicker for cookies. For him, all was right with the world again with a simple apple treat. Gotta love our horses. Thankfully, mom is well, Wonder-Mom (and that could be as in "its a wonder she puts up with me") and let me go do my quick mental "poor me" followed promptly by the "self talked kick in the behind". By the time she made it up there, I had a plan in mind, a course of action to learn from my ride and make it better. She heard me out, offered a couple other ideas, and I'm ready for tomorrow.

One major factor of just not feeling anything going right was that my curb as mild as it is doesn't want to sit right in Philipe's mouth. I ride in it once in a blue moon, and two days in a row showed that its not comfortable for him. The bridle too is not quite right thanks to his typical Iberian head being fitted to a warmblood made piece of tack.... he wears a cob in length and a full in width. Karmen who rides up at Symphony and works at Christensen's here in town said she can help me hopefully find that cavesson in a full which will allow some adjustments.

At least earlier in the morning, Ernie was a rockstar. Generally, day 3, he says he's had it and resorts to full on bully/spook mode. Not today. He came out and showed he'd been thinking about things in the stall and showed us what he could do. We added in some work on passagey steps and then did some "canter on the spot", then walk to canter on the spot, and finally a few changes that had me beaming from ear to ear and Krisi boisterously cheering into my headset. From our work this weekend I know that the very not so ordinary trot I felt earlier in the week was no fluke or mistake, it was the trot we are looking for. We got a lot of it this weekend and I could glance to the mirrors and take a peek to match my feelings with what it looks like. I like what I see. Mostly, I like that my horse is now trusting his body, accepting that what I ask won't hurt and that he has time/space to figure it out. I DO however, have to ask for more... what feels like a lot more to me, but he needs that support. Brushing this afternoon aside, I have the confidence to go after it on my own over the coming weeks.

"The Boys"

Here they are loaded up this morning (Ernie left and Philipe right), with food in the trailer and ready to go. So far our clinic with Krisi has been fabulous. It worked out very well that she came back so soon and we could move on quickly from the homework of a month ago. My work has been paying off although I still have to make faster decisions with Ernie... which would come from simply not doubting them.

Philipe is back in gear and we've decided for sure that for some reason, simply wearing the double changes his outline and helps him carry his neck better. And this is not due to riding him off the curb or using leverage. Krisi taught me her method of handling the reins today. It was mentioned in the recent issue of Dressage Today which had her on the cover with the ever magnificent Rociero. It took a little getting used to, but with my small hands it definitely works better AND there is essentially no curb function at all unless you very deliberately take it up.
(It reminded me of the feel of riding a horse "straight up in the bridle" a la the old Californios... something I once dabbled in with a few rather knowledgeable folks) It will require some custom reins and People On Horses will likely be getting a call from me. LOL

I'll post more on that as I work with it further, but I did spend a while tonight trying to figure out how to switch my whip, keep my contact and organize my reins in this fashion. I think I've got it for tomorrow. Its not hard, just different and when you've done one way for so long, your body just doesn't want to change!

Makes one understand how the horse's feel when we have gone a little further down one road than we should and have to turn around, or we are heading one way for a while and have to go a bit differently to get where we are headed. We are all creatures of habit in need of further training. ;-)

Kristina Harrison Clinic this weekend

Tomorrow through Sunday Krisi will be up at Symphony Farms as will I with the "boys" Philipe and Ernie. I'm debating taking Romeo for one of Philipe's rides, but we'll see how things go there and if we want to do only two lessons with him.

The times are late morning and early afternoon so my lesson schedule will be shot for Sat. and Sun. but I'm actually going to make the best of it by auditing more. I've been riding and riding and riding lately, so two lessons and watching will be a nice relaxing weekend. HA!

Season premier of ER tonight! I'm set for the evening.

Desti..NO

Destino occasionally gets some blog time.
http://piaffedreams.blogspot.com/2007/08/destinos-first-show.html
http://piaffedreams.blogspot.com/2007/09/apex-farm-show.html
The pic above was from his sales ad in spring of '05

Mostly he's just been enjoying his life here as part of the family, a horse Dad can groom on weekends, Mom can hack around on, and I just enjoy seeing him make progress each week. He really had his mind warped about canter, but he's got it now. We tried to show at training level a few weeks ago and were denied as the show was cancelled. However, there are other shows and I still have the goal of doing first level and freestyle with him.

He's a fun horse with a great character... and a very wide back. For some reason, my old beat up 12yr Wintec pre-air panel looks like crap saddle is what works for him. It sort of looks like it fits, but doesn't look overly comfortable. I've put the very nice xwide County on him and he turns into a wiggly crooked horse. I even put the super plush Custom Saddlery Revolution that is made for my other wide flat backed andy and Destino rushes around with ears pinned. Remarkably, he seems rather indifferent to my obviously too narrow Custom Saddlery Wolfgang Valor, but perhaps that is due to the angled back points... I dunno, but it slides up his shoulder so that doesn't work. We are back to the Wintec which brutalizes my seatbones.

So, I had the opportunity to try another saddle with a wide tree that fits Mom's mare. I placed it on his back and it looked mildly too narrow, but we felt we'd be looking for the next wider tree size for her mare. If this worked for him, viola, share a saddle.

Uhhhh.... not only did he say NO... he said HECK NO and GET THE FREAK' OFF ME!! Quite politley I might ad as he made a huge flailing circle with his head and neck, tripped for two steps, crow hopped ever so gracefully not to disrupt me before tripping again and then planting his feet.

I hopped off, pulled the saddle off, put it on the fence and rubbed his back down apologizing the whole while. In that breif episode I saw all the "issues" his prior owner and trainer/assitant trainer saw. Do you think they ever bothered to get him a saddle that fit? *sigh* Poor horse.

He seemed happy with my rubbing his back and at 6pm the barn was too far away to retrieve our trusty ugly Wintec. We walked over to the mounting block and I popped on up (which thankfully is not at all far given he's 15hh) His wide back with a tending towards too generous layer of fat, broad shoulders and thick arched neck of lucious hair felt perfect. We took a walk around the ring and while he was at first skeptical that it would feel better gradually began to relax and reach towards the contact as I stretched my weight into my heels and found my classical seat sans saddle. For shoots and giggles, I tried the prior trainer's "fluidity" philosophy whereby you basically sit on your tailbone, slouch and turn your toes out. WHOA! Head flip, and ear pin all over again. I assured him I was only trying to be sure of what worked and why and returned to a balanced seat. He returned to a balanced horse.

Pretty soon we were trotting around the ring, working school figures and practicing our lateral work. I left the canter alone... I'd like to think I'd ride that fine, but its been eons since I rode bareback and I'd like to go to my clinic with Krisi this weekend! LOL

Destino a couple of months after we got him. Check out the topline and development in comparison to his sales pic and the recent "after bath" picture below.

I've only been trotting

For years now, I've just trotted. Forget about collected trots, medium trots, extended trots..... I've just trotted. I say this because today Ernie and I found a trot I only thought I was doing or perhaps only dreamed about. Needless to say it was a big "oooooohhhhh" moment.

It wasn't very sustainable since he was WORKIN'!! But, we were able to repeat finding it twice.

Romeo had a revelation today that the shoulder-in can happen on a circle, or quarter line and could even be a shoulder out. I've just begun to hint at it in canter. LOL

And Breanna continues to be the happy-go-luckiest animal I've ever met. She has no clue there is anything in this world not to be completely joyous about. Right now her favorite thing is sleeping in a damp section of wood chips and mud next to the water trough in the paddock thus applying a wonderful layer of 'guck' that requires a hosing off each day. I swear she has a smile on her face that her plan for playing in the water worked again. Today she was actually in the trough again, and I had to go find this photo I took of her during her 2yr old year in a particularly wet spring. She proceeded to lay down and roll in the temporary lake in her pasture. ;-) On the dressage front she's starting to practice the training level tests.

Puzzle pieces

I've been working hard to get quick enough to feel the subtle changes Ernie can make so quickly to drop behind my leg, tense through the neck, or get crooked that happen JUST before I ask for the flying change and make it not so great. We are getting the changes. At least that part is pretty confirmed, but he's a bit slow behind on the change left and wants to jump up rather than forward in the change right. Krisi and I worked on feeling the nuances and having answers or 'exercises' to go to immediately after aborting the change. There was my hard part! I couldn't quite act quickly enough in my timing to quit my aids for change and ride on in whatever fashion was needed, perhaps counter flexion and more forward, or shoulder-fore, or ..... All these pieces and parts that just need to be pieced together.

Last week I was starting to get it. Ernie thought he'd pull out his bully card and do the usual hard spook/spin maneuver at one of his predictable totally non-scary parts of the ring. Such a drastic drop-behind-my-leg moment as that earned him a ticket for some hard medium canter while being made to work well over his back. He was then given an opportunity to proceed past said spot in a relaxed 2nd level-ish collected trot. He didn't take the opportunity to go on quietly for a few times, but found himself getting a nice freewalk once he decided a better option was staying on my aids past that portion of the ring.

Once we accomplished that we had very nice rides. I continue to find a more solid left leg standing down into that heel without losing my knee and toe to opposing angles which totally wrenches my SI and leaves my seat looking like a bobble-butt doll.

Each day progressed and then today I decided (since I mentioned to Krisi last month we'd been working some in the double and I suspect we might be asked to ride in it next weekend) that I'd ride in the double today. Ugh... for the first few minutes I was cursing my idea and grumbling about why in the world its ever mandatory to compete with so much metal in the mouth. However, I know its benefits when used correctly and I basically continued on with my curb very much in neutral and working off the snaffle as if it was the only bit there. His left flexion was abducted by aliens for the first 15 minutes or so, but it made us go back to some simple school figures, spirals, leg-yielding and viola it showed up and never at the expense of his right hind trying to go anywhere but towards the contact.

I found that working in shoulder-in and doing walk/trot transitions helped him better understand half-halting within the movement without getting stuck so much as riding a full halt if he insists on blasting through my outside rein or bearing down on my inside. He did think albeit very briefly about a half-hearted rear in the back to trot trans, but kept his wits to figure out how to organize the body.

It was that increased understanding and gathering of added wits that I think helped us most in our flying changes today. Like all my rides lately we ride for counter canter only. I don't even think of changes until I feel he is very very in front of my leg and through to both reins in the counter canter on both leads. We did some very nice half-pass work, riding for "haunches in" on the diagonal, straightening a few strides and then going HI again before arriving at the corner and taking the short side in counter canter. The pieces were there, and so I started to move his flexion more dramatically right and left as I approached where I MIGHT change.... MIGHT being the operative word. I had no commitments to it. We just rode for feel. Dear Ernie though seemed to be so much more settled. He'd figured out in the SI trot/walks how to collect for the down transition without dropping behind my leg. So here he was able to collect the canter, gain more jump, still stay soft in my hand and in front of my leg which equated to a calmly waiting horse. It gave me time and on two occasions I was able to feel even tinier details and go on to fix them without doing a change. This built more of a patient "listen to momma" attitude and finally when I asked for our tougher right to left change it was there, soft, forward, straight, uphill, CLEAN.....

.... and followed by prolific amounts of cookies!

Updated video for Condalezza

I'm not at all in love with my riding here. Where did my left side go again. GAH!! Tired maybe? I do know I put a different saddle on her, my old Bates rather than my lovely Custom Saddlery Wolfgang Valor (shameless plug for the awesome CS folks). Um... they say you ride the horse not the saddle, but some saddles do help a whole lot more than others. ;-)

Anyhooo..... She is coming along very well. I'm going to miss her. She's a smart girl with a lot of try and just enough "zoom zoom" in a pet horse package.

She's the main video on my YouTube Channel page.
http://www.youtube.com/Equus3n

Barnyard fitness

Its no news to those of us who own our own barns that the daily operations are quite a fitness regime unto themselves. Unfortunately, the body has a way of adapting and the work gets "easy"... or easier.

I love Pilates class- I'm so much more aligned and in control.... hence they are my "controlology lessons"! I enjoy my brisk walks around our reservoir and I regularly torture myself with dropping my stirrups. However, its just not enough. I've found some fun ways to make my barn work more of a work out.

1. While filling the buckets, I do 'dips' on the bars. I turn my back to the bars, and rest my hands on the 2nd one from the ground, then dip down as far as I can and use my arms to push my body weight back up. Works the triceps nicely. 3 sets of 12 reps gives a bit of a burn.

2. Pull ups on the bars overhead of the paddock gates. Right now I've got the gate closed so I rest my tippy toes with soft legs on the bottom or second from the bottom bar and then use as much arm as possible to do pull-ups. By the 10th I'm having to help with a little support from my legs, but building up to letting them hang.

3. Lunges across the hay barn or down the barn aisle.

4. Push-ups on the tack trunk.

5. Jogging from here to there.

I'd like to say this has resulted in some lost weight, but the scale number is the same, but some clothes fit different and they say muscle weighs more than fat. I'll chalk it up to conversion. :-)

If you haven't seen this - be prepared

Be prepared to cry, to be angry, and ultimately be heart warmed and grateful that people exist who can do what the team of people here did to save this horse, Argus.

From Hell to Heaven: Saving Argus

Fall is here... almost

For the past two days the nights have cooled off considerably and when I'm out to feed at 6am, the horses are leaping around in their paddocks, dashing in and out of the stalls, coats fuzzed up and of course pulverizing their poop piles making them a CHORE to clean.

But, my rides have been fun with everyone having some added impulsion and bounce :-)

Ernie and I seem to have worked out our "this is counter canter, that's a change" fairly well, or at least we are able to make the exercises that we struggled with in the clinic AND do them while switching from true to counter flexion. YEAH! And that right hind is workin' baby workin'. :-D

The neighbors decided to get a group of goats though to clean up that front pasture and wow, has that led to some spectacular extended trots and passages out in the field. Philipe seems oblivious or could care less.

He and I are eternally working on getting the neck long, nose out with poll highest point. The absolute correct connection with him is a teeny bit tricky 1. that neck is huge and he isn't even a stallion 2. he's a teeny bit long in the back so he likes to use his stronger neck for some things and 3. he's just plain old dominant and wants to get that bit and keep it as his. We have to talk sometimes about the fact that its MY bit. Once we are in agreement.... and I fully release and GO forward after the half-halts all is good.

Romeo and Breanna are little champs. I still have to do her ridden video. I should have had the camera out there today as she handled her first small counter canters like the dressage diva she is. Romeo is getting his walk pirouettes figured out and the haunches in is improving as a result. I think he'll have the half-passes coming by the end of the month. Hmmmm.... maybe that price should go up?

Destino and I were supposed to show this weekend, but it was canceled due to lack of subscription. The economy really is hurting folks in this industry. Right now I feel lucky that for the most part we have committed students and clients who don't want to miss out on continuing the results they are getting.

So, I am bummed he won't get to go. He's been a little super star.... all that hair and good looks... he needs wings or a horn. My little fantasy pony- makes a girl feel like a princess on him. LOL

Clinic Recap

Last Friday, Saturday, Sunday we had our lessons with Krisi. It had been quite a while for me since I last rode with her back in February. She came again in April, but that was when I was hurt and not riding. Then with all her preparations for the Olympic Trials, we were on our own to take what we knew and go somewhere with it. I'd worked my tail feathers off both on the horse and off. First it was just to rehab myself and get back to riding and then fix the problems in the saddle so I wouldn't get the same tearing. My Pilates classes have been the biggest help in that. Then I've tried to make use of every moment in the saddle to be more disciplined about the quality of the balance and connection, the response to my aids, the position of my seat. I thought we'd made good progress and (a little personal cheer- YEAH!) we had.

Like any good instructor she basically said, great, now that you are at this point, lets go further. ;-)

I took a deep breath, enjoyed the compliments and then rode my pants off to step it up even more. The culmination was to ride through the trot portion of the Prix St. George test on Sunday before NOT doing any flying changes. Fun fun! We can do the moves, but to put them together in the sequence they are in the test pointed out areas where I could have more control of his haunches, and how to finish each movement so that it set us up better for the next one. The rest of the time was patiently putting him back to counter canter until he took a deep breath and waited for my aids. This took a little bit of time on Sunday as mentally it had been a lot, and the place couldn't have been more hoppin' with the sorts of things that make Ernie get very hot, tight and big which he was. LOL However, we did ride through it and push the envelope to make him more flexible mentally and emotionally in a way that was successful.

Friday and Saturday were about showing the work I'd done in teaching his changes (which he gets mentally, but isn't totally coordinated yet) and the level to which I had brought the basics of his connection, frame, and straightness into each of the lateral movements. I need to check that I can get more angle at times in our left shoulder-in. That left leg to right rein connection where he wants to blow through the right side still needs a lot of work. For that we at times asked for a lot more angle with less bend then brought it back, then made it steeper again to keep him listening to those aids. The opposing is also then a sticky point, the haunches-in right where I have to be careful not to lose the right hind too much inward and thus lose the forward energy. Occasionally I have to just take both legs off and bump him to a medium trot for a few steps to activate him.

Our weakest point is that right hind..... where he had his old (been healed for 2yrs, so I guess thats old) SI injury. That right hind leg is a bit weaker and his brain is a little less trusting of it. I know how he feels!! In my Pilates work, especially when I first realized it was the cause of my upper back and left hip pain, it was nearly impossible for me to even use that leg to push down on anything while balanced on the right. My left side couldn't coordinate. And I have good balance! I saw my seat deteriorating and couldn't figure it out. But, my body wasn't even able to talk to that part. My brain would freeze up with some movements that I felt I should be able to do because I had so many years doing dance and they were similar. Just amazes me how our bodies are one system that has to function as a whole or even simple things won't work.

Anyhow, he feels the same. I can feel his frustration. He knows, he tries and then it just isn't quite there- sometimes then he blows up because he gets mad and/or worried. So we build our exercises around it. Some is just mind/body: medium canter, collected .... he's got to be REVv'n to go! Leg means jump forward, not bulk up and push back against my leg. Some of it is physical coordination after getting the mind/body part reacting correctly: Flexion in the poll and jaw does not have anything to do with where the hind legs go! LOL counter canter on a 20m circle with changes of flexion and feeling for that right hind staying absolutely under me made a huge difference. This also gets him relaxed and loosens his topline. His "core" muscles engage... he finds his abs and the rest gets supple as a result.

Then strength training- working pirouettes. Here I still have to work on my mechanics. Inside hand wide and low. And then he still has to answer my half-halts on the outside and the forward aid of my inside leg pushing him forward and out again. I was pleasantly surprised that he seemed to "dig" these. He was trying very hard to figure out how to do them.

She's back at the end of Sept. Philipe will go too next time. And I've already found that I need to apply some similar things to Philipe.... riding issues not horse issues - I've got plenty of those :-D

Here is a video I made up with clips from our Saturday lesson and put to some music I like. The trot matches in beats, but not the canter. I COULD do more searching for a canter piece that fits the tempo, but the song says it all. Dressage is fun for this girl and I want more of it!

I'll never do it again

That is, buy young horses to raise and sell. Ugh... I hate it. I get way too attached. While I'm not exactly sure I can go through with it, I did put Breanna and Romeo up for sale on Bayequest yesterday. Of course Romeo got spooked big time today and did a bolt, buck, buck, buck deal which had me not entirely loving him for a few minutes, but then he had a lightbulb moment on the walk pirouettes which translated into a super medium canter/collected canter sequence. He is SO going to be ready for 2nd level next year. :-)

*sigh* When I decided to make the change to doing horses as a business, I knew from the start that I would find some things hard about it. Horses are pets for me. Always will be. Horses are not commodities traded about like cash cows. I don't breed and have no intention of it. I buy my show horses to be partners for life.... for better or for worse in sickness and in health. Its why I have 9 horses. The older, retired, lame, special needs critters stay with me.

So, here I have two beautiful young horses with all the world at their hooftips, yet, I don't have the time they deserve. I can ride and train up to 7 horses a day. Its a lot harder to make a living at this when 4 of those are your own. I need to be able to get paid for 5 horses, not 3. I need to cut expenses and I need to have the $$ to support my two big boys on our FEI journey. Ernie and Philipe are my guys. We have a bond that comes from having spent 5-6 yrs apiece with them. They are not replaceable now. And, they appear to be on the brink of PSG, able to fulfill the biggest of my intermediate goals with more possibly in store.

I have to go back and remember why I did buy the two young horses.... as investments. But, I fall in love. They are my friends and I know them. They each have their characters, their habits, and are their own beings that I know inside and out. I spoil them and pamper them, foster their growth and raise them to be good citizens. I'd love to keep them. Ultimately though it wouldn't be fair for them either. I don't spend nearly enough time with them and they could have just as wonderful if not more so a life with the right person. And, I'm very sure there are people out there for whom either of them would be the horse of their dreams. Why not allow them that chance? Thus, I've put them up for sale and will selectively sort through the prospective matches to find them their perfect partners.

If you think you might be it, take a look.
Bayequst ads

And, I have uploaded a bit of video of Breanna at liberty on YouTube. HERE

I'll take it as a lesson learned.... no more buying prospects to sell for me. I'm a "buy for lifer" and that's just the way it is. :-)

Fire! Be prepared....

Yesterday, as I was out at lunch toodling around town, I saw the smoke come up from the north towards the town of Lincoln. It got increasingly smokey through Loomis, and by the time I got home it had settled thickly into our basin, ash was falling, and checking a news report online confirmed it was in Lincoln. I was back outside for the next several hours and happend to come into the house to see a message left from student and friend Stacy Mortazavi. Her place was now in the direct path of the fire with the fierce winds whipping it from a small few acre blaze to well over 100acres. She was in a panic trying to find places to take some of the 23 horses owned and boarded at their farm. I knew we could move some horses around and put a bunch of her young fillies out in one of the pastures and so began to prepare for their arrival.

They loaded up and were ready to go, but things got really close, really fast requiring a different plan. I was a little worried for them when they never showed up, but was hopeful that it meant they had not needed a place to stay. When she called at nearly 7pm, it was good to hear they had held the fire at her house before winds took it further to the east and away from it- all the horses, her family and property were safe. Today she sent us this report along with pictures. We are very glad to hear they are all okay and didn't have any damage to their property. Unfortunately, others weren't so lucky.
Photos taken by Stacy from their property and/or the road in front of their house.

"Hello friends and family,

Here are the facts and photos of our fire danger yesterday.

We started watching a grass fire around 12 yesterday. We've had plenty, escpecially on Hwy 65 when people through cigarette butts out the window. The difference is the very heavy North wind. It kept changing directions, but was blowing in our general direction. They had planes and helicopters dropping water and retardent and at one point looked as though it was pretty well under control. Then we heard the planes again. We have 23 horses on the property with boarders, so I watched very closely.

We decided to go ahead, hitch trailers, pack important papers, etc. Word came from the neighbors that CHP was at the corner telling residents to pack bags and be ready to leave. We waited to load horses until I saw flames in the Oak trees across the street, about 700 feet away.

At that point we started running. We loaded 3 stallions and a gelding in our trailer, the 4 weanlings in Melodie's trailer and our two older fillies in a neighbor's trailer. We dropped the stallions, gelding and older fillies down the street and returned to take 4 more out. We ended up leaving 8 mares in our back pasture. We knew some of them would not be easy to load and didn't have the time to try to fight horses. We took the trailer back where the other horses were and left them there.

We returned to the house, ran sprinklers, filled up the water in the back trough and told the fire fighters about the water in our pool. They ended up pumping water out of the pool.

They managed to divert the fire away from our propery and our neighbors next door and on the same side. The mobile home across the street is gone, along with his propane tanks. We counted 4 or 5 blasts! The fire did jump the road, but went at an angle in the property next door to ours, which is an empty lot! The fire continued up another couple of miles from our place.

Here are the facts from Cal Fire:

500 acres burned, 80% contained right now (we haven't seen any smoke since last night)

3 houses lost, 10 outbuildings

300 fire fighters

40 engines

7 crews

All of the photos attached were taken either from our property, or the street in front of our house.

Stacy"



Moral of the story: Fires happen here in CA, both in the north and south. Last year, southern California was scorched with wildfires and so far this year, the northern part of our state has seen tremendous and devastating blazes. Its part of living here. We need a plan of action.

Here are some resources

Human Society of America

Wildfire Preparedness for Horses

Evacuation Preparation for Horses