Recent photos of some of the Pintos

Recently I have been taking photos of some of the horses individually.

Mystery was born in December  10, 2013 and I love his light reddish brown markings.  He enjoys hanging out with his brother Saunder and they are always together.  He is very curious and follows me around in the holding pen - he loves people.

He is very smart and sweet.  

Chie was born November 9th, 2011 and this mare had quite a work out with Karyn last month.

Splash was born July 5th, 2010 and is our largest horse. She can be very sweet and likes to follow me around especially at feeding time!  Karyn got a halter on her for the first time last month.  Splash definitely wants a job!

In the background are never separated buddies, Mystery and Saunder.

Otumwa was born October 16, 2012 to Polka Dot and Thunder.  I love her white forelock and she has one blue eye.

Karyn and Saunder

Our amazing trainer, Karyn Shirley, was here recently working with ten of our horses.  She did an amazing job with each of them, including getting a halter on Splash and Otumwa! So now all of the horses that live here on the ranch have had a halter on..some still need more ground work training but it is great that they all have experienced a halter.

She also halter trained Saunder who will be a year old on May 18th. He has been gelded and is the most awesome special horse. Karyn had him doing ground work and learning about the obstacle course the second day.  I call him my zen horse because when he is in the holding pen he just stands there and looks at me very seriously.  He and Mystery love to follow me around.

Karyn and Saunder doing ground work.

Saunder checking out the bridge.

Over the poles, we go!

Changes at the Pinto Ranch

In the past month we have brought over two colts from next door. Mystery came first when he was 10 months old so that he could be gelded. Then we brought over Saunder even though he is younger because his mother, Mama was looking very thin and she needs to be able to rest and gain weight without having a colt to nurse. She makes beautiful babies but she teaches them bad habits, such as being pushy.  We felt Saunder would be better off learning better manners at a young age.  It is a delight to have these two colts here and they have joined the herd fairly easily.

We have a wonderful and awesome  new trainer, Karyn Shirly, of Purple Sage Equine in Nevada. She is devoted to the methods of Tom and Bill Dorrance, Ray Hunt and Buck Brannamn. Our horses feel very comfortable with her and she accomplished a lot in four days.  She worked with Kendra and Lil' (Little) One who really appreciated her gentle manner. She halter trained Mystery and assisted during his gelding. She helped Majestic and me improve our ground work skills and she also did body work on Suki to help him get out of pain.

Karyn is really adept at reading the  body language of the horse and this came in very handy when bringing Saunder over, even though Thunder was standing right next to him! She timed it just right so Thunder would not come through the gate as well.  She does a lot of research on horses and their health and gave us some very helpful suggestions.  We all had a very rewarding time, plus lots of laughter!

Our vet  Dr.John Fling has retired and so we  found another very qualified vet, Dr. Rich Brazil who comes from Ukiah.  We really appreciate his willingness to drive so far to help out the pintos. He had seen the herd in the past when they lived next door with a previous owner.  I think he was pleased to see how happy and healthy they are now.

We are very excited that the pintos have such a great new team!!!

Kendra took this photo of Karyn and Lil' One.  He looks very calm and attentive!

Kendra's photo of Mystery and Karyn during the halter gentling.

Karyn working with Mystery the  day after he was gelded.

 Saunder the morning we brought him over - he is running up the hill 

to find his new herd.

I took this photo of Mama yesterday. She was running very free - I

have never seen her run so fast!! Go Girl!