Got My Harness

Wed Jan 31, 2007

Or Quzqo's, more specifically!

It arrived yesterday, off of eBay, and it is KEWL!!! Even though it's relatively inexpensive, and made in India, it's VERY well made, and the leather is VERY nice! I'm impressed!!

It's got silver hardware, which matches the silver bling bling on the browband and the little dangly thing between the blinkers. It doesn't have the bling ON the blinkers (bling-kers?) like Tezlu's harness had, but oh well.

Coos tried on the saddle/bellyband last night after I got done riding him (he was a canterin' fool!), and I'll have to punch a couple more holes...luckily there's plenty of leather left for that.

Ground-drove him around the aisles again, because Bob's daughter & her idiot cowboy boyfriend were rampaging around IN the arena. Coos was actually pulling and I had to step it up to keep up with him, LOL! I think he's getting "into" it, because I had a heck of a time getting him to WHOA when we got back to the tack rooms!

For the record, the Big Mean Horse kept himself inside the stall every time we went by, LOL!!!

Next...the crupper!

Had a huge laugh at "Cowboy Brian" (the boyfriend)...he is such an ASS! He was riding Bob's new mare, that lovely Grulla from Minnesota. GAD, I hope he didn't wreck her...he was hauling on her face, she had her head up, back hollowed, tail wringing, jigging and going side-ways. Now when Bob's daughter rode her a couple weeks ago, she was smooth, rounded, VERY nice and pretty. Grrrr, pissed me off!

Well, I didn't see exactly what happened because I was bent over, reaching for Quzqo's hoof, but the mare apparently took off bucking, threw Cowboy Brian off, and managed to shake off her bridle as well, and went galloping/bucking around the arena!!! LOL! What a dumb ass!!! (Cowboy Brian, of course).

So the idiot manages to catch her (luckily she had a rope halter on under the bridle), ties her to a post, and LEAVES HER! Great way to REWARD BAD BEHAVIOR you dumb shit! Congrats...that mare just learned you can buck the monkey off, and they leave you alone!!!

After about 10 minutes he came back, wielding a lasso, like he was going to rope her! Bob's daughter barked something emasculating at him, and he put the rope away. Dumb fool! She has his testicles in a lock box, that's for sure!

He did get back on the mare, the man rides like Quasimodo!!! The mare took off buck-running again, but he managed to stay on, and after a bit of choppy trotting around the arena, gave up.

I hate Cowboys.

Interesting Horse Interaction

Thu Jan 25, 2007

On this one aisle at the barn that I have to lead Quzqo down in order to get to his stall, there's a HUGE horse in a stall w/no bars on the front, so the horse can hang his head out the stall. Lately he'd become bored, and entertained himself by pinning his ears and thrusting his head out at anybody who walked by.

A few days ago I was leading Quzqo past there, and that horse LUNGED his head out his stall window and CHOMPED square on Quzqo right butt cheek!! Coos squealed and KICKED with both feet at the horse, who reared backwards into his stall. Thankfully all Coos suffered was some moist areas on his butt from the horse's mouth & teeth...no injury, but still.

So, Tuesday night I was leading Quzqo back to his stall, and I got on his right side...as we approached that stall, the big horse had his head hanging out the stall, just waiting for us...JUST as we got there, somehow my lead rope jumped up and flung itself towards that horse's face! Gosh, how'd THAT happen! He JUMPED back into his stall...the rope didn't even touch him, just scared the shit out of him, HAW!

Well, tonight we're walking down that aisle, I got on the right side of the horse, had the lead rope at the ready. Coos was a little hesitant about approaching that stall...as we approached, that horse stuck his big head out...waiting...he saw it was that white horse...and he turned and went to the BACK of his stall, and stood there facing AWAY from us!! LOL!!! We stood there a few seconds...the horse turned his head and peeked at us, and quickly looked away!!! We walked on, and as soon as we were past, he came and stuck his head back out the stall, looking at us!

HA! Know and FEAR the Wrath of Quzqo! HA! It helps to have an easily-recognizible horse as well...that horse knows the little white horse has magical scary powers now!

Today I ended up ground-driving Coos around the aisles of the barn, because the arena was taken up by Bob's wife on her QH, his daughter on her young QH mare, and the daughter's idiot "cowboy" boyfriend who was TRYING to ride a very frisky Haflinger.

Coos did VERY well going up and down and around the aisles, between posts, over sawdust piles, past a tied-up pony (waiting for Bob's little grand daughter to show up), past his temptingly open stall door.

BUT...we approached the Big Mean Horse's stall..and his big mean head was hanging out the opening...I thought SHIT...I'm 3 feet BEHIND Quzqo, I can't slap the horse with anything... But, as we approached, BMH just retreated into his stall and stood facing the wall as Coos passed...LOL... We did four circuits of the barn, and every time we went by the BMH's stall, he was inside, looking at a wall!!

After I'd tucked Coos in his stall for the night, I was walking back to the tack room, and BMH had his head hanging out of the stall, and he just stayed like that as I walked past! So he wasn't afraid of ME..he's definitely afraid of Quzqo!! LOL! That's so neat! Smart horse, BMH!!

Quzqo's Driving Lessons Continue

Thu Jan 25, 2007

Who cares if it's 11 degrees, let's go to the unheated horse barn and run around behind an Arabian! It's FUN! It's a workout, that's for sure!

Just ground-drove Himself tonight, he's improving, but he discovered he can pull his same sneaky tricks as he does under saddle...like trying to ooze himself towards the center of the arena to STOP, and petering out in mid-trot because he's a lazy sod! BUT...he's learning his "Gee"s and "Haws", starting to turn left or right just by voice command, no tugging on the reins! That horse is so smart it's scary!

I tried my friend's harness circingle on him (that fit her horse-sized horse), at it was a bit big, but I could have snugged it up all right if I'd had tried and the leather wasn't so stiff and cold. He didn't seem to enjoy it though, I thought maybe it was too stiff on his back, and he walked around with his back sunk and head up. I swapped it for the nice training circingle, and he instantly rounded out and lowered his head. So much for that, but it's been stored in my friend's basement for years, so of course it's a bit crappy.

When we were done, I took him into the back barn where Bob's tack rooms are, since he said I could use any of his harnesses. My lord, the man has around 10-12 complete harnesses back there, from pony to draft horse!!! Most of them use collars though. I did find one horse-sized breastcollar harness, the circingle fit pretty good and had a wonderful maroon pad that looked SO snappy on a grey horse, so we tried that. Coos handled the breeching very well...he doesn't seem to care what dangles around his hind legs, LOL! That's a VERY good thing!!

The bridle for that harness was HUGE, and no way would that fit. Oh well, back to eBay I guess.

After I tucked Himself into his stall for the evening, I went to the downstairs barn and took another look at that jog cart. I re-measured it, and SOMEhow, it had GROWN since I last measured it this past weekend!!! SOMEhow the shafts had grown longer, and they were now 60" long!! SOMEhow they had also grown further apart, because there's a good 22" across the narrowest part!! (Quzqo's narrowest part is 16"!) Hmmmmm....it now seems that cart WOULD fit him!! HA, not that he's even going to SEE that cart for many many weeks, not 'til he gets the ground driving down pat, but still...

He looks SO darned cute trotting from behind though! I should get a pic!

Quzqo Learns to Drive!

Sat Jan 20, 2007

Ground Drive, that is!

TRIED to introduce him to ground driving the first winter I had him, but he had NO clue what the hell I wanted, so we gave up for then. Couple nights ago I figured why not give it a try again, and attached a pair of draw reins to his bit, ran them through the stirrups of my English saddle, got behind him and urged him forward! After about 15 seconds of confusion, he moved out, and "got it"! I was able to drive him all over the arena, what a good boy!

Of course one of the young boarder girls HAD to immediately get off her horse, unsaddle him, get a couple of long lead ropes, and she was ground-driving her horse, crowing that he was already trained to drive and knew what he was doing! Well, whoop-dee-doo! Grrr, I hate that kid!

ANYway, today I tried again (at least had the barn to myself!), and he did even better! Happily he already knows all the voice commands except "gee" and "haw", but he IS learning those very quickly! Even ground-drove him through an "obstacle course" I'd set up of ground poles and chairs! I think he enjoyed it...something different, and challenging too!

One of the other boarders is bringing in her harness tomorrow, and we're going to try it on Himself, and maybe work with her 3 yr old TWH mare as well...get her started ground driving! The woman is interested in teaching her to drive, because her knees are shot and she doesn't know how much longer she can ride.

I measured Quzqo for his own future harness, guess I'll go with Cob size again. Tezlu HAD a harness, but I sold it at a yard sale years ago when I figured I'd never ever drive him...which is true...I would NOT trust Tezlu with a cart. But Coos is a totally different story. Any horse who can tip over a 5-gallon bucket, and then step IN it and stand there quietly, then step out of it...with me riding him...is a good candidate for harness!


My friend at the barn brought in a training circingle and a set of driving lines...the actual harness circingle wouldn't fit him, it was HUGE!! Heck, he's on the last holes for the training circingle, which is too small for her TWH, LOL! And Coos is FAT with thick winter fur! It really wouldn't fit him in the summer!

Was a GREAT treat to drive him with LONG reins, I was a good 3 feet behind his butt today, and he did SUPER! A little more animated than before, probably because I wasn't literally on his ass like with the short draw reins. But he did very well, he had trouble with the vocal commands because the RADIO WAS ON SO LOUD! But we even did some trotting! He liked that, and he looked SO cute from behind as the trotted!! He was easier to keep up with than when I did that with Tezlu, LOL!

Bob was impressed, and said I could use this jog cart he had in the new section of the barn!!! Alas, it's got 54" shafts and is way too narrow to squeeze fat Quzqo into, so, that's out. Dang. He's got a lovely one-horse carriage that seats 4-6 people, but I don't think Coos could haul all that, ha! BUT, he said I could use any harnesses he has if I like. Considering he uses them for full-size horses and/or haflingers, I kind of doubt they'd fit, but was nice of him to offer. I'll stick with the circingle for now. He definitely needs training, but it's a great start!

Also did some long-lining with him, which is kind of like lungeing with two lunge-lines instead of one, and he did GREAT...really helped him work on his headset and flexibility I noticed. Hm. Good enough for the Spanish Riding School, good enough for Himself!

Bob's wife was there, and she exclaimed "Oh, look, he's a CART HORSE!" I could tell Coos took umbrage at that statement (seriously, he tossed his head when she said it!) I reassured him no, he's following in the proud hoofprints of the magnificent chariot horses in "Ben Hur", who were also Arabian, of course! And then I called him "Antares" for the rest of the lesson.

"Cart Horse" indeed!

Hm, if I could find a little plow...

AAAGH! My Arse!!

Mon Jan 8, 2007

Quzqo had a bad case of the Airhead Arabians yesterday (I should have been suspicious when he dramatically spooked in the cross-ties because a KITTY walked in the barn door!!). Took him on a trail ride near the woods behind the barn, and although he was acting goosey and snorting, I chalked it up to him not being ridden in 2 weeks.

Suddenly without warning (isn't it always), he SHOOTS out from under me in a galloping surge, I go UP in the air and come down HARD on the cantle of the saddle, and proceed to be bounced on the cantle for 2 or 3 more strides before I was able to get my butt back in the seat, and slow Himself down with a one-reined stop!

Goofy boyo had spooked at (and spooked) about half a dozen whitetail deer in the woods! Goofy horser!! I was laughing and cursing because I'd come down HARD on my tailbone and it HURT! GAAAH!

It's pretty sore today, sure hope I didn't break it (again)....last time I broke it was trotting on Tezlu bareback...Yikes!

Well, glad one of us is feeling 110%!!

I can see why war saddles have VERY high cantles though...to keep you IN the saddle instead of bouncing out the back, LOL! To think, I'd pondered using my treeless saddle yesterday (the cantle is about 2" high)...I'da been sitting on the ground, watching the horse disappear over the hillside if that was the case!

Tezlu used to spook in 180 degree spins... Quzqo seems to prefer the "lunge forward with amazing speed" route.

One of the teen girls yesterday told me that the horse was pretty much running wild in the pasture all morning, harassing and playing with the other geldings! I'd love to have seen that, LOL! He's probably worn out by the time I get there, which is why I usually get the draggy-assed old plowhorse routine from him.


Here's a pic of a cool old outhouse on the property adjoining the barn's land. I'd snapped this photo JUST seconds before he spooked! At least I got a nice photo out of it.