Category Archives: Kiger Mustangs
A New Riding Buddy
Thursday last week, we took our Mommy’s Day Ride again but this time we had another “man” along. We always have Otter with us, and sometimes Sunnie, but this time Maleah brought along her grulla gelding, Smoke. Smoke has “issues” or rather, Cushings Disease which is basicly a non-cancerous tumor in the petuitary gland which affects him in more ways than one. So, to remain fit and healthy Maleah decided to drag Smoke along, and I think he thoroughly enjoyed it! He kept up with the group very well and even trotted a bit to stay up with Maleah’s mare, Tiki.
Maleah calls him her “new main squeeze.” I’m pretty sure she’s awefully smitten with Smoke and intends to do everything in her power to keep him strong and healthy, as much as she can. Both Maleah and I are more on the “natural healing” side of things so when Smoke came here from Washington with a package of herbs and supplements, we were more than pleased to see this route being taken in his health. He receives big amounts of Chaste Berry and various other herbs for health, and nutritional goodies such as flax. Smoke is in good hands here, and all of us are excited about him being in the neigh-borhood. Okay, so Sunnie’s a bit jealous, but it’s a guy thing.
Fall is certainly closing in on us lately, with very cool nights and warm days. The shadows are getting deeper and the days are shorter. We Mommy’s decided we had to be in the saddle heading out at 5 pm otherwise our rides were only going to be about two hours instead of three like we were enjoying.
Jenni and her boy Otter B Good – Extreme Mustang Makeover horse who attended the first ever in Fort Worth, TX.
Dixie and her Haflinger mare, Fancy.
Cali’s glamour shots – I could hardly get her to stand still, she kept wanting to stick her nose in the lens!
This coming Thursday we’ll be meeting at Dixie’s house and going down to the river to play in the water. Most of our horses are fairly new and most don’t like water — mine normally don’t have that problem. We’ll see this week though!
Cali’s Turn
It was Cali’s turn to go riding this past Thursday and I believe she was actually happy to be picked this time around. Just like last time with Sunnie, I brought her out early to groom her up and braid her mane to keep her neck a bit cooler.
Aren’t her braids quite striking? You can see where her bi-coloring weaves down through the hair — and it doesn’t cost her $50.00 + each month to get those highlights either! There in the middle to lower part of her mane you can see that she has rubbed out the bi-coloring and it is standing on end in the photo… too short to lay down yet. But I do love Cali’s coloring, she’s a very handsome gal.
Cali is normally a very calm mare, almost too calm if you can believe that one. She tends to saunter down the road, rather than go somewhere with purpose but that could be because of her rather “fluffy” frame she’s carrying right now. We’ll just blame it on her baby weight she never lost — though her colt is 3 now. Hey, some just lose it quicker than others right? Anyway, this trip out she spooked at a few more things and walked out a bit quicker.
I was pleased that she had a bit more energy this time and wasn’t sweating near the amount that she did on our first real outing up in the mountains. We did go to the same place, up in an old burn from back in ’93 or there abouts. The roads are wonderful for riding on, and have turned in to trails. The trees planted by Sierra Pacific logging company have grown in beautifully and are about 10′ tall now.
We did find a way behind a gate that significantly cut down our riding time up the dirt road through a small mountain neighborhood. We had permission from someone who had enough authority to say we could cut through if we so chose. Maleah is there in the background, with Cali wondering what on earth she is doing with a large stick in one hand and a pocket knife in the other — she soon learned that those are essential trail riding tools to cut back the blackberry bushes from our very narrow path.
We rose higher and higher and higher, all three of the horses did very well though Jenni’s gelding Otter threw a few mini-fits and so did Cali, but it was nice to see them gaining a bit more energy. All this working out is working out well for all of us.
We stopped a couple times and took in the scenery — here’s a local layout if you care to know.
I think Cali even liked stopping to take in the view… or maybe to take a breather.
And then she was ready to go again, back down the mountain before the sun left us.
It was another lovely ride, and I am so thankful to have friends to do it with again. It feels wonderful to be back in the saddle again, climbing mountains to look at the view.
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