Happy Birthday, Soot!

Soot was born in Ramona, CA and spent his early years learning how to accept many things. We recently learned more about his parents and now know that his sire was Brabant, and the dam was Percheron/Drum horse. We have updated our website to include more details of those breeds.

We recently received some pictures of Soot as a baby and he was adorable!!

Soot came to our ranch in July of 2019 and has been learning numerous things. Before he turned 3 years old, we had bought the surcingle in preparation for him pulling a wagon. He is exercised on a regular basis and enjoys cantering in the round pen, pulling a tire around, and taking tight turns when indicated to do so with the driving reins.

 

 

Now that he has turned 4 years old, is over 17 hands and nearly 1600 lbs, he is being worked under saddle and is learning what leg cues mean and how they relate to what he already knows from the driving reins. We are still on the lookout for a western saddle with a large enough gullet so we can use it on him.

Training on Your Timeline

Do you board your horse? Do you have your horse on your own property? There are pros and cons to both cases and we've done both. Here are a few things we have noticed. 

Pros for Boarding:

We found while boarding our horses for 20+ years... 1) You can take a vacation whenever you want/need. Because the ranch where we boarded our horses was setup with people who fed all the horses, we didn't have to be out at any special time to feed the horses. This worked great when we were in high school and college, with after-school activities, schoolwork, and weird class schedules. 2) You can use all your horse time to work your horses, rather than having to take the time to feed and clean up after them. For those people with a limited schedule, busy with work, school, or sports activities, it might be much better to not have all the other horse related chores to finish too. 3) There are probably other horse lovers around so even if you are the only person in your family who rides, there is someone else around who can go with you on trail rides (never ride alone) or even to just enjoy spending time with while riding in the arena on the property. 4) Most vets will attend to multiple horses at each location, so for standard vaccinations you might be able to split the call charge. 5) If the common area equipment or facilities need to be updated, you can just alert the manager an they can take care of the work. 6) If there is an emergency and you can't get to the ranch, you might find that the owner can move your horse with their own horses. This happened to us during the fires of 2007. We had 1 horse at that time, but we didn't have a horse trailer. The manager at the ranch took our horses with his when he evacuated. He is a horseman, so we felt comfortable to have him watch her. It worked out great, since it was needed.

Pros for Owning Horse Property:

1) Since you feed your horse directly it is easier to adjust the amount of feed depending on the workout, or depending on their weight. I notice the fit of the saddle on my quarter horse and can know if I should drop his feed. 2) Since you are the manager of your own property, you won't have people coming onto your property and bothering your horses. Even if your horse is friendly, it can cause the horse to have bad habits if people (at a public place) are always bothering them. 3) With your extra chores of cleaning up the stalls and feeding the horses, you will notice "red flags" that can help you realize health concerns much sooner. You will get used to how much water each horse drinks each day and know if they stop drinking. This is more challenging to notice if you have bucket that automatically refills. You will notice what their manure normally looks and know if it looks different. You will notice how they act each day when you enter their stall and know if that's normal behavior or if something weird might be going on. 4) You can set your own schedule to clean the stalls, so you know when they will be clean. You will also know they are cleaned on a regular basis because you're doing it. 5) If there is any barn or property maintenance you do have to complete it yourself, but you also get the opportunity to do exactly what you want rather than what the manager of a boarding facility decides. You can put your money into the places you find most important and can decide to save it for something special you want to purchase or update in the future. 6) You can check on your horse any time of the day or night without getting dressed and driving in your car to get to them. This can also be a positive thing if you have to give them medication or dress a wound regularly, or if you want to check in on them in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm, etc.