Good Stories, Western Horsemanship

My New Gelding has a New Name.

Last week I picked up a new gelding.  I’ve been trying to figure out a name for him. I thought of several, but nothing stuck. Figured I’d just wait and see if something jumped out at me as the perfect name. I think I have it. I’ll get there in a minute.

He’s a golden palomino about 5 or 6 years old, I think, of unknown origin, but I think he’s got a lot of Missouri Fox Trotter in him. He looks like a Fox Trotter. He’s got the deep, narrow chest, short back, and nicely shaped head of the Fox Trotter, and he has a natural gait. In fact, in the short time I’ve had him, he’s shown several gaits as he moves through the pasture. So far I have identified five separate gaits: walk, flat-foot walk, fox trot, running walk, and a nice canter. He seems to like the fox trot best and slips into the running walk as he gets faster, until he breaks into the canter. I’m pretty excited to start working with him.

This new boy is not yet broke to ride. I was going to start  his training this weekend. I had planned to go to St. George, Utah for a ride with the local Fox Trotter club and some friends, from Thursday through Monday. My plan was to take this new gelding along and start him out by ponying him along behind my mare, Lizzy. I was going to put a pack saddle on his back and get him used to having straps hanging and rubbing all over him.

Howsoever, that plan failed. I couldn’t catch the son of a gun! He would walk right up to me, let me scratch his nose, but as soon as I started moving toward him, off he would go. I worked at it for at least 45 minutes, before giving up and deciding I had to get on the road.

As luck would have it, we got rained out in St. George (I think it only rains about once every two or three years there) and I returned home yesterday afternoon. After letting Lizzy back into the pasture I used some horse treats to make another attempt at getting a halter on the new boy. No such luck…but I found he really likes the treats.

So, last night, as I was sitting in my easy chair contemplating this new horse and the challenges I’m going to have with him – the first being just catching him out of the pasture – I recognized the fact that I’m likely going to expend a number of swear words in his general direction before I get a good handle on him. That somehow turned my mind to one of my all-time favorite historical characters from Mormon lore.

J. Golden Kimball

J. Golden Kimball, son of Heber C. Kimball, was a General Authority (First Quorum of the Seventy) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon Church) for more than 45 years during the latter part of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.  He is, even today, one of the most loved and quoted (or misquoted, as the case may be) of all of the General Authorities of the church. In his time he was beloved by both Mormons and non-Mormons alike, for his straight-from-the-heart, unpolished, and unfiltered way of teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Brother Kimball was known for his dedicated service to the Lord and to his fellowman, his deep and abiding love and support for the leaders of the church, his quick wit, and for his more-than-occasional use of foul language in his discourse, both private and public. People would come from miles around to hear him preach from the pulpit.

To this day, stories and quotes attributed to this “Mormon Will Rogers” may be heard anywhere Mormon congregations are found. Most of these stories are of questionable origin, a few have been somewhat substantiated, many have been added to and colorized to suit the occasion, but all are in keeping with the humor and character of the man, and none I have heard detract from his humble and deeply spiritual character.

At the age of 15 years, upon the death of his father, J. Golden Kimball became responsible for the maintenance of his mother and five siblings. He landed a job as a mule skinner. It is to this employment that he credited his colorful and most notable linguistic skills. He asserted that mules don’t understand plain English and that one had to speak their language, which included a wide range of various levels and intensities of foul language, in order to get them to do any work. Brother Kimball, however, later pursued formal education at the Brigham Young Academy (now Brigham Young University) and became a voracious student and reader. He allowed that what most people heard in his everyday speech was but a pitiful remnant of a once very ample vocabulary clearly comprehensible to a mule.

On one occasion, Brother Kimball was guiding several dignitaries around Salt Lake City, showing them the sights of the town and of the industry of the Mormons. As they went along, Brother Kimball heard a number of comments from particular individuals in the group about how long certain buildings had taken the Mormons to build and that such structures could have been built in half the time in their hometowns.

As they approached the Salt Lake Temple (which had been 40 years in the building), one such fellow asked how long it had taken the Mormons to build it. J. Golden turned and glibly replied, “Hell, I don’t know. It wasn’t here yesterday!”

It was also well-known that J. Golden struggled with his love of coffee after his brother-in-law Heber J. Grant, then the Prophet of the Lord, began to encouraged church membership to greater strictness in keeping the Word of Wisdom, which forbids the use of coffee, tea, tobacco and alcohol. Brother Kimball’s wife laid down the law in their home, so Brother Kimball had to get his coffee elsewhere when occasion required.

On one such occasion, it is told, J. Golden Kimball was in a particular cafe, one he often frequented, and was sitting in the back when he was recognized by one of the members of the church. She approached and asked, “Is that you drinking coffee Brother Kimball?”  He quickly responded, “Ma’am, you are the third person today who has mistaken me for that S-O-B!”

On another occasion, during a semi-annual conference of the church, our Brother Kimball was preparing to preach from the pulpit of the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. After he arose to speak, President Heber J. Grant passed him a note at the pulpit instructing him to refrain from the use of foul language during his discourse. After reading the note, Brother Kimball turned to President Grant and said, referring to the note, “Hell, Heber, I can’t read the damn thing!”

Someone once asked Brother Kimball whether he thought his use of foul language might ever endanger his membership in the church. He responded, “They can’t excommunicate me! I repent too damn fast!”

I think my favorite of all the sayings attributed to J. Golden Kimball, however is this:

“I may not always walk the straight and narrow, but I sure in hell try to cross it as often as I can.”

J. Golden Kimball was killed in a one-car accident in Nevada in 1933, at the age of 85. It has been told that when he reached the Pearly Gates, Saint Peter exclaimed, “Well Brother Golden, we finally got you here!” to which J. Golden Kimball retorted, “Yeah, but by hell, you had to kill me to do it!”

So, it occurs to me that with my new gelding being a dappled golden palomino, and knowing some of the language that might possibly slip from my lips during our get-to-know-each-other period, I might pay humble homage to one of my favorite heroes from LDS history (or maybe mythology) by christening him “J. Golden.”

I think I’ll probably just settle on calling him “J.”

J Golden, my new gelding

Here’s a video of my little herd running in the pasture. J is the one trailing the herd.

P.S.
This evening, with a little teasing and rewarding with a few horsey treats, “J” let me slip the halter up over his nose and buckle it on. I spent a few minutes brushing him and fiddling with him before letting him go again. I thought, “How about that! And not a foul word was needed.” So, we’re on our way. The journey has begun. I’m pretty excited.

Much of the information for this post was taken from an article written for Meridian Magazine in 2007 by Eric A. Eliason. You may find the article here.

Western Horsemanship

Finally made the decision – bought a new horse…

Last month I posted a little about a gelding I have been considering buying, to bring my horse cadre back up to three and to find one that paired well on the trail with my Fox Trotter mare, Lizzy. I finally decided to go ahead and buy him. So, here’s a little about him.

I haven’t yet settled on a name for him, so he’s just going to be known as “the gelding” until further notice.

He was purchased last year by the previous owner at the Anderson Livestock Auction Company in Willard, Utah. The owner’s intent was to train him up and sell him, but he never got around to it. He decided to go ahead and put him up for sale this winter. That’s where I came in. I saw him on an ad in the KSL Classifieds out of Utah Valley. He was advertised as a grade Fox Trotter about ten years old, not yet broke to ride. I thought the price was high, so right off, before I went out to look, I asked whether he was firm on the price. He said he’d negotiate a bit, so I went on out.

The horse is between 14.5 and 15 hands, but is quite thin. The owner’s father told me he was way under-weight when they bought him, so he’s picked up some weight since then,  but could use another 200 or so pounds. The auctioneers also told them the gelding was a four year-old Tennessee Walker, but he and his son (the owner) took a look at his teeth and estimate his age at somewhere around ten years.

The man haltered the horse and took him out into a pasture, where I could see him move a bit. The gelding had to be cornered to halter, but other than that he seemed to be well halter-broke and followed well. He let me lift a front hoof, but wasn’t comfortable with me lifting his rear hooves. He let me lift it, but kept his leg moving and wouldn’t settle down. Still, it was evident he’s had some handling. I looked at his teeth and he let me open his lips without much fuss, which actually surprised me a bit. I would guess his age to be closer to the 5-6 year range, but I’m certainly no expert in that area.

As the horse moved on a longe line, I could see him pass through a fox trot-like gait, but he went right through it to a hard trot. Still, it was a gait. I liked the way he moved and he was not a lazy mover. He showed no lameness and seemed quite athletic. His canter was smooth and even.

After a little longeing, I put my saddle on him. He let me saddle him without too much trouble, although he didn’t like me tightening the cinch and moved away. I decided to try putting a foot in the stirrup with a little weight, to see how he would react. He didn’t like that at all. He reared a bit and jumped aside. That confirmed he is not saddle broke, which was a bit disappointing (I don’t bounce like I used to).

So, after about a month of thinking about him while I looked for other options on the Internet, I finally decided to go ahead and buy this boy. I texted the owner an offer that I felt was a good one, but he stuck by his guns. Last night I met his offer and I picked up the horse today.

My policy when buying a horse, since I normally buy horses that are somewhere between broncs and greenbrokes, is that I don’t hand over the money until I have the horse in the trailer. It becomes uncomfortable to ask for money back if I can’t safely get the horse in the trailer. The one time I violated that rule I spent over two hours getting that horse in the trailer, and was lucky to get it done without serious injury to the horse or my helping hands. Luckily, this boy walked right into the trailer without any hesitation. That was a great relief to me.

So, I brought him home. After a little familiarization with my other horses over the fence rails, I let him loose with the rest of the herd. They mulled around a bit an huffed and puffed a bit, but no fighting occurred. After a few minutes the gelding moved off into the open pasture, where they spread out a little. I was pleased when he broke into a very nice fox trot and headed across the pasture with the other horses following. It appears he likes that gait and it is natural to him. He also showed a nice flat-foot walk. He should turn out to be a very nice dappled palomino once he sheds out this spring.

So, with the new fellow socializing with my other horses, I took a few pictures and a short video and left them alone. I look forward to getting started with this boy.  I think he’ll pair up nicely with Lizzy and, once I get a little meat on his bones, will work well for my trail rides and pack trips. I think I’m going to like him.

Now to think up a good name for him.

https://youtu.be/8cLOgfeGrC0

 

Good Stories, Western Trails

Riding Down Memory Lane…or Peak….or Up It….er…

This is one of my favorite photographs of Linda and me. It was taken in 1981 by my dad right on top of the tallest peak in Arizona, Mt. Baldy, at 11,421′ elevation.

Linda and I were dating then. I had invited her to come with me to Springerville, Arizona to meet and visit with my parents. While there, Dad suggested we take a horse ride up the mountain. We loaded up the truck and trailer and off we went. It was a memorable trip and an important part of our courtship, for both of us I think. That trip remains a sweet memory for me.

The first time I went there was also on a horse. That was in 1977 on an 8 or 10-day horse pack trip with my dad and 22 young Boy Scouts we brought along for a pioneering experience. It was on a Sunday and we had a religious service on top of the mountain with those boys, not far from spot you see in this photo.

You can’t ride to the top of Baldy anymore, because it is a sacred place for the White Mountain Apaches and that part of the mountain (the very top) is within the boundaries of the White Mountain Apache Reservation and horse travel has now been prohibited. The last time I tried to ride the lower parts of that trail, in 2009, it had not been maintained and was no longer passable for horses, due to blow-downs.

It’s been nearly 36 years since that photograph was taken. Linda has been my wife for 35 of those years. Life has been good to me.

Though I will likely never go there again, that spot will forever have a very warm place in my heart.

Tony Henrie

Land Use and States' Rights

I’m learning new things already: Land use issues…

I spent quite a bit of time today searching and reading information on the Antiquities Act of 1906, also known as the Lacey Act, as well as information regarding the evolution of the legalities and legislation involved with preservation of lands in the United States of historic, scientific, and esthetic value, including the creation and development of the National Park Service and the United States Forest Service. Interesting stuff. I’m learning a lot of new things.

For instance, I learned that Casa Grande Ruins was the first of the historic sites specifically denominated a “monument” in the United States, and that the creation of national parks and monuments originally began as a cooperative effort between the legislative and executive branches of government to balance the demands of a growing country, growing economies, and to stop the wanton destruction of historically and scientifically significant sites on federally controlled lands by antiquities seekers and traffickers.

Proponents of the protection of significants sites lobbied Congress for many years, gaining here, losing there, until the Antiquities Act, in its final form was created and adopted in 1906, giving the President of the United States the authority to “proclaim” national monuments to remove historically, scientifically, and esthetically significant objects and sites from the public land disposal system that handled the conversion of public lands to private use and ownership (such as through the Homestead Act) and to afford them enhanced protections through the provisions of the Antiquities Act.

One of the significant arguments involved in the development of the Act was  whether the President’s authority should extend to determining the size of such monuments and whether there should be size restrictions. Original discussions included such numbers as 320 acres or 640 acres, however the provision finally settled on was simply that the monument should be the minimum size as to allow for the preservation of the “object” of the monument, and it was up to the President to determine the monument’s boundaries.

So, the Antiquities Act provided the President of the United States the authority to proclaim national monuments, without restriction as to how many may be created, without any restrictions as to the size and scope of the monument, without respect to the voice of the people, including the extensive use of Eminent Domain for the seizure and forfeiture of private properties that may be in the way, and without recourse from the Executive Office that created it.

Over the years, since the Act became law, the size and scope of national monuments has increased dramatically. The largest of our current 126 national monuments is the Papahānaumokuākea National Monument, an underwater monument, which is the largest protected area in the world, created by President Barak Obama in August 2016, comprising more than 548,000,000 acres. In comparison, Yellowstone National Park, at about 1,900,000 acres is dwarfed.

Currently, the State of Arizona holds the greatest number of national monumnets at 18, followed by California with 15, and New Mexico with 14. Utah currently has 7 national monuments, two of which comprise a total of more than 3.2 million acres.

The Bears Ears National Monument, created by President Obama just before leaving office in January, 2017, in the State of Utah, despite loud protestations from citizens of the state itself, comprises approximately 1,352,000 acres. Utah representatives both in the US Congress and the State of Utah have campaigned hard against the monument, and continue to do so, citing damage to the local economies, seizure of private lands, loss of control of state trust lands, and other issues.

According to most polls, a majority of the state’s voters over age 35 are against the monument, while a majority of voters younger than 35 are in favor. Over all, more voters are against the monument than in favor. In the immediate area of the monument, support for it is almost nonexistent.

Since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2017, there has been speculation as to whether President Trump will attempt to retract or counteract the Presidential Executive Order that created the monument. In my reading today, here is what I found relative to that issue:

I found a link online to a document entitled:

Authority of a President to Modify or Eliminate a National Monument

In a nutshell, it says that while it may seem logical that if a president can create a national monument by Executive Order, a subsequent president could also remove it by Executive Order, but things in the legislative world are never quite that simple.

A strict reading of the Act shows that while the Act grants the President the authority to proclaim a national monument, it does not provide him the authority to remove  that designation. Since such actions as determining the disposition of federally controlled lands is wholly within the legislative realm of responsibility, the President only has the authority to proclaim national monuments because Congress has delegated that authority to him, via the Antiquities Act of 1906. Therefore, since Congress delegated to him the authority to proclaim national monuments, but did not delegate to him the power to remove them, he cannot legally do it.

No president has yet attempted to remove monument status from any national monument, although a number of national monuments have been altered in size by Executive Order, and others have been converted to national parks, while yet others have been turned over to state control.

It appears that unless the US Congress enacts legislation specifically granting the President of the United States the authority to remove a national monument status,  in the issue of Bears Ears National Monument, President Trump’s authority by Executive Order will be limited to possibly reducing it in size and/or possibly turning it over to state management, but he will not be able to kill it.

We’ll see what the President and Congress make of this issue.

I will continue to research the issues regarding land use and states’ rights and reporting what I find.

Western Trails

I am about to become politically involved…..

3 Comments

I have been following, although somewhat casually, the issues regarding land control and use in the State of Utah, which includes the recently created Bears Ears National Monument. I have read blog and facebook posts, articles, and other information shared by organizations of which I am, or have been, a member, which includes blatantly false and misleading information calculated to instill fear in the public mind that if control of federal lands is returned to the states, our treasured natural parks and other lands and resources will be forever lost and their beauty destroyed.

This evening I decided I will take an active part in this issue. On this  website, westerntrailrider.com and on my facebook page Western Trail Rider, I will be publicly supporting the efforts of the State of Utah and other states to return control of federal lands within their boundaries to the states themselves.

While I will invite and encourage educated and civil debate of those issues on this page and on my website, I will not tolerate uncivil or mean-spirited commentaries.

Western Trails

Gear Report: Mini Q battery device charger

In reading over some old posts on my blog about my pack trip from Eagar to Flagstaff, Arizona in 2016, I came across my post about a device charger I bought and realized I never made a report on our experience in using it on the pack trip.

So, here it is. I have linked the original post as well, for your reading pleasure.

http://westerntrailrider.com/blog/received-a-new-gadget-for-the-pack-trip-today/

Siliconized rubber upper

The Mini Q is a device charger that operates by heating an element in the unit and converting that heat to electricity. Water is used as a heat sink to regulate the temperature. The device has a base of machined aluminum, inside which are installed the electronic parts that actually convert the heat energy to electricity.  It has a heat-resistant siliconized, foldable sleeve, attached by a hose clamp to the base, which holds a bit more than two cups of water. The unit is placed on top of a heat source (camp fire not recommended), which heats the unit, thus generating heat, which is converted to electricity.  The water simply regulates the heat and gives the user an indication of temperature. The device has a permanently attached heat-resistant cord with a USB female plug on the end, which extends just far enough to keep the plug end out damaging heat.  A device may be attached to the unit via a USB cord with the appropriate mini charger plug on the device end.

I purchased the Mini Q, due to one particular incident that occurred on the pack trip in 2015, from the US/Mexico border to Eagar, Arizona. We had been traveling through a treed area and the weather had been rather cloudy, reducing the effectiveness of our solar chargers. Over the period of a couple days all our battery operated devices were exhausted except the DeLorme InReach Explorer GPS unit, and it was getting low. Our solar chargers were unable to keep up with our charging needs, due to clouds on the horizon in the mornings, when we got most of our charging done while we broke camp and packed up for each day’s travel.

As it turned out, we pulled the Mini Q out and gave it a go during a similar period on our trip in 2016, when our batteries were being exhausted faster than we could charge them.  Here’s what we found.

Durable zippered case
Mini O, by Ajirangi

First off, the unit is compact and durable. It comes with a zippered-closure vinyl case and packs to a nicely compact  1-1/2″ X 5″ diameter. It has no moving parts and the USB plug is attached permanently and extends far enough to keep your USB cable away from the heat. Once enclosed in the case, the unit can be dropped down into a panier or pack without much concern for it being damaged.

I read the instructions and made sure I used it exactly as it is intended to be used. Dad and I did all our cooking on a single-burner propane-powered coleman stove, which is what I used to heat the Mini Q.  I used filtered water in the Mini Q, to keep residue to a minimum, although I am sure unfiltered water would be fine. In fact, the use of propane could be maximized by using the Mini Q to boil water for drinking as well. The silicon rubber is easy to clean.

I filled the unit from my canteen and brought the water to a slow boil and connected my iphone 6 to it, via a USB cable. Once the water started to boil, the green indicator light turned on and my iphone began to charge. I was disappointed to find, however, that within a few minutes the charging light went out and the phone ceased to charge. I tried adjusting the temperature higher and lower, each time finding the charging light would go out after just a few minutes. I was unable to get enough charging from the device to increase the battery charge in my iphone more than about two percent before it stopped charging. After working with the unit for about two hours, trying to get it to work as advertised, my iphone went from 40% to 37% charge, after which I stopped trying.

Compact, about the size of a good hamburger

It appears the device has a very narrow temperature range within which it will operate. I was unable to keep it at a steady enough temperature on my single-burner stove to keep it charging.  It is also possible my unit was defective. In the end, I found the amount of propane used, even while the device was actually charging, was disproportionate to the amount of electricity produced, and if the unit was not watched continually, a lot of propane was wasted. For our purposes, the propane was more precious than the electricity produced.

Lamp was an unexpected bonus

Had the Mini Q operated as advertised, it would have been a useful device for keeping a cell phone or other device alive in an emergency situation, however, I could not get it to function as advertised in a primitive camp environment.  Additionally, the unit charged (when it actually worked) too slowly to offset the value of the propane required to heat it. For the price of over $90, including shipping, I cannot recommend it for pack trip use.

After the trip I forgot to contact the manufacturer, who is in Korea, so I have to admit I have not given the manufacturer the opportunity to address the issue. It has been nearly a year since I bought it, so it’s probably too late now.

So, my evaluation of the utility of the Mini Q for the purposes of horse packing is a “thumbs-down.”

5V LED lamp included

The included USB LED light, however, works fine and uses little electricity. It comes in handy on occasion, if you have the battery power to support it.

Maybe your experience will be different. If so, feel free to post your comments.

 

Western Horsemanship

Just sitting here watching the snow fall…

It’s just January 12th and already I’m starting to feel the “cabin fever” setting in.

We’ve had somewhere around two feet or more of snow fall in the past three weeks or so here in Salem, Utah. It seems like every time we have a day or two with decent weather, something comes up to keep me from heading out for a horse ride. So, for the past several days I’ve had a nearly overwhelming desire to get into the saddle and just ride.

I find myself getting on Youtube and searching for trail rides and pack trips in places I’d like to go. Found one this evening from Miller Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona that advertises their trail rides through Monument Valley in Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation. I’ve always wanted to do some riding at a number of sites on the “Rez” in Arizona. I need to get my foster brother, Harrison Gorman, to guide me through some of those places.

Lizzy
Jimbo

Last week I sold my paint, Reno, so I’m now down to two horses. Hopefully, my Fox Trotter mare, Lizzy is in foal (I’ll get her checked in another month or so) and will give me a new little spotted Fox Trotter foal in September, so I’ll have to start taking it easy on her starting about July. While I love my little mustang, Jimbo, he’s just not the trail partner I want for Lizzy.  Although Jimbo is a great horse and I won’t sell him, I’m wanting another Fox Trotter to pair up with Lizzy.

So, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a good buy on a Fox Trotter gelding.

Found one in the local classifieds that has me interested. He’s a grade 10 year-old (by the owner’s guess) gelding that has a gait. The owner believes he’s a Fox Trotter, due to his build and conformation, but he was purchased at auction so he doesn’t know the breeding. He was told the horse was a 4 year-old Tennessee Walker. He was pretty poor at the time of the purchase, so I assume he was a “rescue” sort of horse that went to auction. The owner intended to put some training on the horse and sell him at a profit. Turns out the owner just didn’t have the time, so he’s got him up for sale. The owner told me he’s had a saddle on the horse, but hasn’t yet tried to ride him, doesn’t know whether he’s saddle-broke.

I went out and took a look at this fellow. The owner’s father got him into a halter and led him out for me. I could see the horse needs work right off the bat, because we had to corner him in the corral to get the halter on him. Once the halter was on, though, he behaved himself very well, just maybe a little skittish.

He is a well-put-together gelding, although still a little light – could use another hundred pounds or so. I could feel his spine back in the loin area, and he could use some muscle in his chest and back. His conformation looks much like a Fox Trotter, although the folks at the auction told them it was a Walker. He has the typical short back, deep chest, and nicely sloped shoulder and rump, of the Fox Trotter. He has straight legs and good hooves (although they need a good trimming). He’s a very nice looking dappled palomino with blond mane and tail.

I watched him on a longe line for a few minutes and he, indeed, has a gait that looks like a fox trot, although he wouldn’t stay in it long before getting quite lateral and pacey in a trot. He has a nice, smooth canter. So, whether he’s got more Walker or Fox Trotter in him I can’t say for sure, but he’s got the gait. I think I could train him to clean it up and produce a very nice fox trot.

He let me raise his front left hoof without problem, but didn’t like me lifting his left rear. Still, he didn’t try to kick me or anything. He let me saddle him, although he didn’t like me tightening the cinch. Still, no cow-kicks or aggressiveness. I tried putting a foot in the stirrup and putting some weight in it, to see if he’d let me mount. He didn’t like that and reared and jumped forward. So, I assess that he’s not saddle broke and has only been handled on the ground.

Other than that I liked him. So, it’s down to whether I really want another horse right now and whether I have the gumption and time to break and train another horse. The gelding didn’t display any aggressive nature and was actually quite calm. I think I could probably get him broke to ride without getting dumped. That’s important to me nowadays, as I approach my 58th birthday this month.

As I’ve said before, I have to take my time and really evaluate a horse before I buy. I tend to bond with my animals, especially dogs and horses, and I’m not much of a horse trader. I tend to think of them as friends and trail partners, so when I buy one, I usually keep him – warts and all. There are few bad habits a horse could have that would cause me to sell it, unless it was dangerous or just plain mean. At the same time, I try to buy horses that have no conformation, health, or behavior issues, because I know horses with those kinds of issues won’t be able to do what I want them to do. If I think I can train them out of a bad habit, or if they just don’t have any decent training, I’m generally ok with that; I like to train my own horses. However, it’s been awhile since I actually broke one. I don’t bounce like I used to, so this is something to think about with this guy.

While I think this fellow is somewhat younger than the 10 years the owner puts him at, I’m still looking at a grade horse, possibly 10 years old, whose breeding is unknown, that has no training, and is not even saddle broke. In my book that puts him in the $500 – to – free price range. The owner listed him at more than twice that.

We’ll see what happens.

 

Tack and Gear

Trying something new…Fiebing’s Snow-Proof Weatherproofing

Snow-Proof Weatherproof, by Fiebing Company

I was in the Tandy Leather store in Orem, Utah last week, buying some leathercraft tools and supplies, when I happened upon a container of Snow-Proof Weatherproofing wax. Since my packer boots were in dire need of a new coat of weatherproofing wax, and since I had never tried Snow-Proof before, I decided to give it a try. In reading the labels, I found Snow-Proof is made by Fiebing Company and I have had very good experience with other Fiebing leather care products, such as saddle soap and Neatsfoot Oil. I was excited to find they make a weatherproofing wax.

As you may have read in a previous blog post, for weatherproofing for cold weather, I prefer weatherproofing wax to any other kind of weatherproofing application for leather boots. I have used liquid sprays, oils, and mink oil, both siliconized and non-siliconized, and when it comes to keeping water and cold out of my boots, I prefer a good wax over them all.

Now, oils will penetrate the leather and protect and condition it, but oils are essentially liquid, which is absorbed into the leather, making it essentially wet with oil. While it helps control water penetration, the cold seems to just seep right through. I keep my boot leather well conditioned, using pure neatsfoot oil, but never to the point the leather is saturated with it. On the outside I like to keep a good application of weatherproofing wax. Wax fills the pores of the leather, but does not absorb into it. Therefore, through a winter I may apply the wax several times, as it gets scraped off with use.

There are several good brand names of weatherproofing wax, including such well-known names such as Kiwi. Again, I was pleased to find that Fiebing makes a weatherproofing wax, as I have been pleased with their other leather care products.

So, a few days ago I pulled out my dried-out packer boots and gave them a good wipe-down with neatsfoot oil and let them sit overnight. Then I made an applicator from a piece of sheepskin I had in my leather scraps, and gave the boots a good coat of Snow-Proof Weatherproofing wax. I liked the way it went on. The wax is not at all oily, but firm and waxy. It is pretty easy to tell when a good coat has been applied.

Now I’ll have to give it a good test run, as soon I get a chance to take another ride in the snow.

I’ll make an addendum to this post with the results.

 

 

Western Trails

A cold, but enjoyable afternoon ride at Elberta, Utah…

Heading out from Salem, UT

This afternoon a friend and I took an afternoon ride to see an abandoned railroad tunnel near Elberta, Utah, a little southwest of Utah Lake. We had planned to get out there early in the afternoon, but a few complications arose and we ended up saddled and riding around 3:30pm. We decided we would start our return to the truck about 4:30pm, since it would be dark by 5:30. Besides, it was below freezing and temps would be dropping further with the fading daylight.

The trailhead, well not really a trail, but where we started our ride, is at the intersection of US Route 6 and Elberta Slant Road, several miles west of Elberta, Utah. After nearly getting stuck in the snow a number of times while trying to park the truck and trailer, we started riding north on Elberta Slant Road.

Taking the railroad bed

A short half mile or so along the road, we came across the old railroad bed. The railroad was to be a narrow-gauge, intended to service mining interests in the area, but it was never completed. The railway beds were graded, but track was never laid. This was between 2009 and 2015, after which the effort was abandoned. The failed railroad effort left , for folks who like hiking, ATV-ing, and horseback riding in the hills, a very nice network of trails through much of the area between Eureka and Elberta. We left the road and followed the railroad bed.

The tunnel

About two miles along, after a few twists and turns, while enjoying some very nice (although very cold) riding and scenery, we came to the old railway tunnel. It runs through a low hill that interrupts the climb of the railway bed through a turn. The tunnel is large enough to allow a full-size pickup to drive through it. It is not reinforced, but does not appear to be dangerous. It runs about 100 feet in length, so it does not get any darker than shadow and one is never out of sight of at least one of the entries. Still it was pretty cool.

The tunnel entrance

By the time we headed back to the truck, the light was already fading. We allowed the horses to trot much of the way back, to save time. By the time we were about halfway back, I noticed my face was stiff and I was having a hard time talking. When I raised my gloved hand to warm my face, I found my face was completely numb! I had to pull my glove off and rub my face a little to make sure I didn’t get frostbite.

By the time we got back to the truck it was full dark and we were very cold. Our feet felt like solid stumps. The horses and my dog, Clancy, though, seemed unbothered by it. We hurriedly unsaddled and loaded the horses. By the time we were halfway home we were beginning to thaw out.

Still, it was a very nice ride, one I will take again under warmer conditions.

 

Horse Health, Tack and Gear, Western Horsemanship

A little of my own experience at horse training…

I have a horse up for sale. He’s a very handsome, good, solid four year-old palomino paint gelding I bought earlier this year for a  pack trip. We were short one horse for a trip from Eagar, Arizona to Flagstaff, Arizona, about 200 miles total. Let me tell you a little about him.

When I came across Reno, I was actually looking for a mustang in the $5-800 range, that maybe needed a little  training. They are pretty much a dime-a-dozen around here, because so many folks get caught up in the romance of adopting a mustang and training it themselves, only to find out they are in way over their heads. Then, a couple years down the road they end up selling an unbroke or greenbroke mustang for almost give-away prices. Well, it’s simply a fact, and that’s what I was looking for.

Reno, as advertised

Anyway, back to Reno, I came across an ad for him and really liked the photos they included of him. He was advertised as being about 14 hands and a 3 year-old. The asking price was above what I was looking for, but was still within my range, so I decided to pass by and take a look. He was located in Heber, UT.

I found that he had been raised from a foal by the family who owned him, and that he was very personable, almost a puppy dog personality, but, also like a puppy, he was somewhat disrespectful. Now, a disrespectful puppy is one thing, but a disrespectful horse can hurt you. He wouldn’t let me lift his hooves, cow-kicked when I messed with his belly, and would turn his rump into me when he was annoyed, rather than moving away as a horse should. These things I can work out of a horse with a little training. What I look for is good conformation, good straight legs, good hooves, and a good attitude. With the exception of a quarter-crack in his right rear, he had all these things. He was also a little taller than advertised, coming in at about 14.2 or so, and stout, which I liked.

After a good inspection and a couple weeks of thinking about it I decided the quarter crack was due to lack of hoof care and not to any kind of coronet injury and that it would heal up just fine with some good care. I dickered with the owners and we agreed on a price that was good for both of us.

I have to be careful when buying a horse, because I rarely sell them. I get pretty attached to my animals and once they are mine I tend to keep them, regardless of any shortcomings they may have. I wouldn’t be a very good horse trader. So, two rules I have set for myself when horse shopping are 1) I don’t take my trailer or any money when I look at a horse for the first time (unless I have to drive a couple hours just to see it), 2) I don’t hand over the money until I have the horse in the trailer. Rule #2 is very important, because I generally  buy horses that “need an experienced rider,” which usually means they have little to no training and might not have ever been in a trailer. Once I get a horse into the trailer, I’m good to pay the money.

I forgot that rule with Reno. I bought him, paid the money, then headed out to the trailer. That was a mistake I won’t make again. What a rodeo! It took us more than two hours to get him loaded. He fought, reared, fell over, and pawed. We finally got him into the trailer and headed home. Getting him out of the trailer was just about as fun. He eventually tried to turn around in my 4-horse slant-load and got stuck in the loading door. He reared over backwards and fell out of the trailer onto his back. No harm done, just shook up.

So, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

The first thing I had to take care of was the disrespect. This horse was about as friendly as any horse I have ever owned. In fact, I think he likes people better than horses. Having him in a pasture with four other horses was good for him, because they began right away to teach him the horse etiquette he had never learned, being raised by people with no other horses around.

The cow-kicking and moving away from me were first on my agenda.

Now, from my experience with horses, I have learned that training a horse is not a whole lot different than raising kids. In fact, I often wish I had garnered more horse training experience before my kids came along, but I just didn’t have time for both back then. I find that horses require a gentle, but firm hand and consistency in order for them to progress well from step to step in the training. The one exception to that rule is when something they do can get someone hurt. There are times when swift and severe punishment will cure a bad habit faster and more surely than any other method. The horse learns very quickly that “when I do that, I get hurt.” So, with that in mind I decided to cure the cow-kicking the very first day.

I have a very stout lead rope, made from the shrouds of a heavy military cargo parachute. It is about 3/4″ thick and has a very heavy brass snap hook on the end. With Reno dressed in a stout flat-braid nylon halter and a strong lead rope tied to a solid post, I moved in beside him on the “on-side” with my heavy shroud lead in my hand, dangling the heavy snap hook on about three feet of lead. With my left hand I began to touch and rub Reno’s belly. As soon as his left rear hoof came off the ground in a cow-kick I swung that heavy lead and whopped him hard on the rump with that heavy snap hook. He was quite surprised by that, so he jumped and moved away from me. We did it again. As soon as the hoof came off the ground, I whopped him. The fourth time I rubbed his belly, his hoof stayed on the ground. He has never again attempted a cow-kick as I touch his belly, rub him, brush, or saddle him.

Next up was teaching him to move away from me, rather than showing me his rump. We started that lesson when we worked on the cow-kick, but there was more to do. I found that he would not let me lift his left rear hoof. As I would try to reach for it, he would move into me and warn me off with his rump, threatening a kick (which he never did). We started working on this by me taking something pointed (not sharp) in my hand, such as the handle of a rasp, the handle ends of a pair of nippers, or a hoof pick, and whenever he moved into me I would let him move into that pointed object, so that he would feel it. The harder he pushed, the harder he felt it. He didn’t like that and learned to move away from me. I would not poke him with it, or push him away with it, but let him move into it. That way, as soon as he stepped away, the pressure was gone. Had I followed him with it, he would not have learned how to avoid the pointed object poking his hip by moving away. Now this, being a more gentle (but firm) method of training, it was several sessions before he learned not to move into me. Now, several months later, he moves away with a simple nudge from me with no stubbornness at all.

The third thing we started working on was lifting his hooves. While he was still somewhat disrespectful, he allowed me to lift his fronts and his right rear, but would not allow me to lift his left rear. I don’t know why. There is no apparent injury or scar I can see, but for some reason he’s touchy about the left rear. When I would try to lift it he would  cow-kick and move away from me. He wasn’t really trying to kick me, he just didn’t want me lifting his hoof. To address this, I took my heavy lead rope and looped it around his left rear pastern, under the fetlock. I would lift his hoof with the rope and simply hold it off the ground while he kicked. I would hold both ends of the rope in my right hand, while leaning against the horse with my left, so I could keep my balance as he kicked away. You have to stand back a bit, just to make sure he doesn’t connect with one of those cow-kicks. After a minute or two, he would get tired and stop kicking. As soon as he stopped kicking and let his leg relax, I lowered it to the ground. If he kicked as I was lowering it, it got raised up again until I could lower it all the way to the ground without a struggle. In this way, after a number of sessions, Reno learned that when he was relaxed I quit bothering his leg. He also learned that the kicking did no good and was just wasted energy. Now I can lift all his feet without trouble. In fact, he lifts them for me as I reach for them. He is learning the respect lessons.

I started riding Reno shortly after I brought him home. The owners told me they had given him to a local rancher for the summer, to have him broke and trained. They said they had often seen the rancher’s kids riding him around. At the time I didn’t think too much about that, except to consider him somewhat saddle broke. I found out pretty quickly that Reno was simply greenbroke, meaning I could saddle and ride him, but he didn’t know much else. I took him for a couple rides in the local area and was pleased with him. He learned pretty quickly that I was easy to get along with and we had no real problems on the trail. In fact, my dad and I took Reno along with the rest of the horses on a three-day ride south of Moab, Utah in April, on which I was quite impressed with Reno’s calm demeanor and good head on the trail. We went up and down, and round and round, trail, no trail, bushes, gullies, over fallen trees, and even through a tunnel under a highway. Reno took little convincing and was willing to give anything I asked of him a try. I was very pleased.

Reno in his first packing training experience

I later took Reno on a  day ride as a pack horse. I Loaded a 50# sack of feed in each side of a set of hard-sided, bear-proof paniers, and took him on a trail ride. As far as I know this was his first experience with a pack saddle. At first he was scared by the noise the paniers make, being hard plastic, and we had a little bit of a rodeo for a few minutes. After that, he settled down and did well. It didn’t take him long to learn to keep the paniers away from things like rocks and trees. Once we rounded a narrow trail with a rock face on his left and Reno allowed the left panier to hit the wall. The force knocked him sideways off the trail and down a steep embankment into the shallow river below. Once he got his feet back under him, he simply climbed back up the embankment, let me grab his lead rope, and we went on. By the time we were done for the day, Reno had learned to keep those paniers away from obstacles near the trail. From that day to this he has never rubbed my leg or knee on anything alongside the trail.

In May, Dad and I embarked on our pack trip. We had four horses and a mule. The horses were rotated as pack and saddle animals, to keep them fresh and rested. Reno was everything I hoped on the trip. Never did I have any problem with him.

Well, I did have one problem. When I was leading him as a pack horse, whenever I stopped to rest the horses he would walk up next to my right leg and drop his head to graze. When he would lift his head the lead rope would come up under my stirrup and get wrapped around my leg. When I complained about it out loud, Dad laughed and said it was my own fault. He pointed out that whenever Reno came up next to me, I would reach over and rub his neck and scratch his ears and he liked it! Ah, well, I guess that’s a bad habit I taught him.

You can see a video of me on Reno, crossing Clear Creek on the Arizona Trail, about 70 miles south of Flagstaff, Arizona here:

After we finished the pack trip I decided to continue Reno’s training. There are a few things I like my trail horses to know, such as moving off leg pressure and heel cues to move their fore and hind quarters; there are times on the trail when you need to position a horse in order to cross an obstacle or ascend or descend a particularly difficult place.

I took Reno into a small training arena to start working on his cues, only to find that he became extremely excited in the arena. As calm as he is on the trail, I was quite surprised. He was, in fact, so excitable in the arena that we did very little training at all. I just tried to work on him simply walking around the arena calmly. I found I was having to handle him more aggressively with the snaffle bit than I like, occasionally causing him to get a sore mouth, so I have moved  him to a 3/4″ braided rawhide bosal for this training. He responds much better in the hackamore.

I generally start all my horses on a snaffle bit, then move them to a bosal hackamore for the bulk of their training. When they are easy on the controls I move them to a solid curb bit. Reno had been doing so well in the snaffle, that I had just left  him in that and hadn’t done much hackamore work on him. He’s progressing well now.

The only thing I can guess with Reno is that the former trainer (the rancher) probably had his kids riding him most of the time. I expect that was often out pushing cattle, which would explain is calm demeanor on the trail, however, my guess is that the kids also attempted to try roping off him in an arena. I expect he got spurred a bit in the doing. That is the only explanation that comes to mind and fits the evidence. Regardless, I have been spending my time lately, trying to continue his training and get him over his excitement – fear – inside enclosed areas.

I normally train with spurs on , as I find horses tend to learn quicker with their judicial use and I can give more precise cues with the touch of a spur than with a heel. However, with Reno, I have removed my spurs. He over-reacts to them, I suppose, as a result of being exposed to some undisciplined spur use from his previous “trainers.” With much patience and a gentle hand, I have been slowly getting Reno to recognize what I am asking with my heel cues. He is very willing, but still reacts more out of fear than desire to learn, which makes learning difficult. Fear simply isn’t a good training tool. My job, therefore, is to teach him that my cues don’t hurt and that learning to respond to them calmly brings peace and rest (my, that sounds almost religious!).

Reno gets better each day. I have been trying to ride him more often this winter, when time allows. When I can consistently ride him an hour or two every day or so he improves rapidly.

The problem with that is that every time I ride him I like him more and more and want to sell him less and less!

He’s a good horse.

Reno, south of Moab, Utah April 2016

For horse and mule packing, camping, and trail riding in the western United States

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