Lots Going On at The Point Arena Pinto Ranch

We have had such a busy time since the last post that I am behind  writing this blog.

1)Mama gave birth to a new colt  on May 18th and these photos were taken when he was a few hours old.

 His first human contact a few days later

Before he was born he was named Saunder after Saunder's Reef by our dear friend Eve Larson, who passed away June 16th.  When she saw his newborn photos, she referred to him as her baby.  Since that day he has been her horse and I promised her that he will stay on the ranch with the herd and will be given much love.  His wonderful spirit reminds us of Eve and he definitely holds a very special place in our hearts.

One side of his face is black and white

and the other side is all white except for his cute black spot on his forehead - I love his white eyelashes!

2)We were about to bring yearling  Majestic over to our property and 2 weeks before the date planned, he was kicked out of the herd.  He finally went to the back end of his property where there is an old corral.

While he was in exile for about 2 weeks (till he could be trailer-ed over to his new- our home) I went over to feed and check on him 2-3 times a day.  We had a great time bonding and I fell madly in love with him.  He can be  arrogant and also very sweet. He is a really beautiful horse.

When I would call him, he would appear silently to get some food.

The corral was fixed up and after some ground work, Kathe Smothers, Molly S, Kendra B, and Barbara F brought him over to the herd here safe and sound.  Many thanks to these lovely ladies for their help with him!!

Below Majestic and Sweetie running in our round pen.

3) Kathe is our wonderful horse gentler and teacher.  She was here a few weeks ago teaching  Kendra B (my horse assistant and dear friend), my grandson, and me more ground work.  We tried to absorb all the information we learned as much as possible.  Always new tools needed to work these horses!
My grandson working his horse Luna:

Kathe teaching Little One how to get use to someone sitting in a chair:

Sweetie, Kathe and Obstacle Course

We have had a lot of fun recently with our lovely horse gentler, Kathe Smothers, http://quietmindhorsemanship.com/.  She set up an obstacle course for us to use with the horses.
Below is a photo of Kathe introducing Sweetie to the course:

Kathe Smothers Clinic At Sea Ranch

Kathe Smothers is our wonderful trainer for the Point Arena Pintos as well as a dear friend.  I highly recommend her if you are looking for an excellent  trainer who has a gentle approach to horses.  She lives in Southern California but does clinics all over the state and also gives private lessons.  She is doing a clinic this week-end at the Sea Ranch Equestrian Center. 

Give Eve a call about this clinic at 707 785-2262 or Kathe  at 805 798-0234.

HARD DECISION

        Suki, Little One, Moonbeam (Missy) back end of our neighbors property the morning of the move

My intention when I adopted the herd was just to leave them be, free on their own and just feed them.  But reality and herd dynamics set in. I learned it is common for  the lead stallion to kick out the young stallions from the herd at a certain point.  Thunder sent Little One and Suki out at different times, and they found a safe haven in the back end of our neighbors property where they lived for over a year. Then after the old mare died her son, Sweetie was kicked out and ended up at our place all alone but safe.  Soon after Moonbeam (Missy) was also kicked out and got hurt in the process as she went through a barb wire fence and ended up at some kind neighbors who kept her safe until we could get her back inside the fence.  She then joined Little One and Suki.  (It is not common for a stallion to kick out a yearling mare but it is not unusual). Naturally Little One and Suki started fighting over Moonbeam ( who by the way can hold her own with the guys) so Little One ended up with marks on his body.

Enough!! We just want all these horses to get along!!  So after much soul searching it seemed, that the wisest thing to do was to bring the 3  pintos home from next door where they could join Sweetie and they would also get more daily attention from me and my friends.  We also made the hardest decision which was to geld the 3 stallions so they would get along better and so we would not end up with too many more foals as much as we love them.

The rest of the herd is still living next door on the ocean side.  The herd there consists of Thunder the lead stallion, 2 mares one of whom is about ready to give birth any day and a filly, Little Lady, born last May ( scroll down to see recent pictures of her).  All is calm over there now and Thunder will still keep making babies as we cannot fix him as he is too old.

So how do you get 3 wild horses into a trailer so they can be moved??? And in order for the vet to geld them they needed to be halter trained and who is going to do that in the kindest way???   

                                                          

                                                    KATHE SMOTHERS

                                          http://quietmindhorsemanship.com/

I met Kathe last year and  I knew she has had experience with wild horses as she has adopted and trained 8 mustangs.  She is an incredible horse trainer who studied with  Buck Brannaman the original horse whisper. You can visit his website to learn more about him and get the link to the new documentary"Buck" at  http://brannaman.com/.

Watching Kathe work with the pintos was one of the most profound, inspiring and awesome weeks of my life.  Her easy deep communications with horses, respect, love, kindness and gentleness towards them was very apparent.  I am delighted she is part of the Point Arena Pinto family! 

Kathe brought her own geldings to help with the pintos.  Apache was very helpful during training in the round pen as you will sewe in the photos below and Moonbeam enjoyed flirting with Blue!

                                                      THE MOVE

With Kathe's expertise and help from some friends we got the 3 pintos into the trailer in less than an hour!  It was a  very moving (no pun intended) to watch these graceful animals enter the trailer without fear and in a calm manner due to Kathe's gentle approach and  technique.

The more challenging part turned out to be getting her truck and trailer up my steep hilly dirt road!  Since her truck is not 4 wheel drive, we found a friend who had the right kind of truck and he thought the right kind of hitch.  The hitch was not a match for the trailer but he was brave enough to put a chain on his truck and pull Kathe's truck and trailer up the difficult hills.  Amazing day!!!

I am so happy these beautiful horses are finally home.  They are a little stunned to finally be back at the old homestead!

                                                                SWEETIE

Needless to say Sweetie was ecstatic to finally have his friends home especially the mare Moonbeam!  Here he is frolicking with her.

THE GOAL AND  NOW THE WORK BEGINS

The final outcome for these 4 horses is that they will be running free again in the meadows on our property but we will be able to walk up to them and put a halter on them in case they need to see the vet or if they break through the fence and we need to catch them easily. An additional plus is that we can touch them and give them lots of love!!  As mentioned earlier the other task is to get the stallions gelded.

In order for all of this to happen Kathe needed to work with them in the round pen.  I love the photos below, she has the 3 stallions going around the pen in sync and her only tools are a rope and a flag.  The goal this day was to be able to touch Little One, so he has the rope on his neck.                                                   

SUCCESS !  Little One experiences positive touch for the first time in his life!!

A few days later Little One and Suki were successfully gelded and are recuperating nicely with lots of love and food.  However, poor Sweetie will need to go to a vet hospital as he will require surgery since he has an undescended testicle.  We hope to schedule this for September when Kathe will come back and transport him.  At that time she will continue the training for haltering and leading all four horses.
I am deeply indebted to Kathe for all her help, expertise, and  big heart; and also for teaching the horses, me  and my friends her gentle technique so the pintos will remain happy horses!

SUKI

With the best of intentions, I had this fantasy that it would be nice to use the round pen as a place where the pintos could be seen by a vet or farrier if needed. However, that means they need to be use to wearing a halter. My plan was over time to get Suki, Sweetie, Little One, and the two new fillies comfortable with wearing a halter, being led around and being touched.

Kathe Smothers, (http://quietmindhorsemanship.com) a trainer who follows Buck Brannaman’s techniques was in the area for a week-end, so it was decided she would work with one of the horses. In the beginning we weren’t sure how we were going to get a horse separated from the herd and in the round pen alone….the gate was opened and Suki entered with another horse. It was either going to be Suki or Sweetie worked with that day. The other horse was let out and Suki was in for quite an experience.

I have been able to touch Suki ever since he was born a year ago and he is a good horse but although smart, he was also stubborn, arrogant and was on the way to becoming like his dad Thunder. I really don’t want him to be like his father …even though I adore Thunder and he is a beautiful proud horse he is also very mean to the other horses – often for no reason.

Kathe worked with Suki for 2 half days and at the end, I could rub him all over and he would stay perfectly still. Kathe taught me how to lift his front legs and he stayed calm and he is no longer arrogant.

Below are some of the photos I took of Suki with his trainer.