Category: Horse training

As far as we know, our new 2 year old Tango had never been saddled before. In fact, we were told she was barely halter broke. And I spent our first session together teaching her to back off as she wanted to stand right on top of me.

So I didn’t know what to expect when I sacked her out. I’d used a rope around her legs before and she was obviously used to that. So this time, I used a rag rubbed then hung all over her, then draped an unfolded saddle blanket across her back. When she packed that around without flinching or spooking, I cinched it up on her with a soft rope. She looked it all over pretty closely but didn’t object to any of it.

So I got my old saddle – one my parents gave me for my 7th birthday – since it’s light enough for me to handle easily. She inspected it, then didn’t object when I put it up on her neck and slid it back, or when I put it directly on her back. She didn’t mind the cinching up either and walked off like she’d been saddled every day of her life.

So far, she’s making points in everything she does!

She doesn’t walk on me any more, but she leads so close she nudges my arm with her nose every few steps. I’m having to adjust to that and other things about her, too. Windsor has been my partner for several years now, but she’s much more standoffish, where this girl wants to be CLOSE.

We keep the fillies in a little pasture behind the house. It’s one of my pleasures every day to step outside and call them. They come on a lope and stand with their heads over the gate while I halter them. I’d like to think they love me that much, but truthfully – and as the Head Honcho says – it’s because I lead them to water!

Sonny and I spend nearly every afternoon riding. It gives Sonny an opportunity to get more rides on his colt and to introduce him to cow work at a slow speed. Pharaoh is at the “interested in cows” stage but doesn’t understand going by – he’s more into following right now. But they brought a pair to the corral the other day – even got them through a gate with no help. “He’s getting better every day!” Sonny says with pride…and hope for the future.

Wow! Sonny and I both had exciting successes that have taken a while to come about.

Sonny introduced his colt Pharaoh to pushing a cow around yesterday and today I cut open the cheddar cheese I made 2 months ago and it’s great!

OK – so Pharaoh didn’t pay any attention to the cow, really, but he’s easy going and agreeable. Together Sonny and I got a steer pair out of the heifer pairs, a heifer pair out of the steer pairs, and corraled a pair. The colt may not have done most of the work, but he was there and learning.

And then there’s success with the cheese! The cheddar texture is not as smooth as store bought, but it’s better than edible (it’s actually good) and such an improvement over my first effort which only the chickens would – or could – eat. All my cheese is milk colored because I don’t add coloring to get the traditional golden yellow color. I just add the culture (friendly bacteria that ferments the milk and changes lactose to lactic acid) , rennet to make it coagulate while it’s sweet, and salt.

I read in the Monday Morning Moos (the cheese making supplier’s newsletter) that cheese made frozen milk shouldn’t be aged more than 2 months. Mine is just 3 days short of that so I opened the wax and nervously tasted. Last time, I hadn’t followed the recipes faithfully as we were in the middle of calving and when outside duty called, I went. That meant that all my cheeses, about 10 blocks, all went bad. Disappointing but a very good lesson, and the chickens were happy. This time I chose a cold, rainy day then followed the recipe precisely.

The problem I haven’t resolved is that when I have buckets of fresh milk, I don’t have time to make cheese. I’d thought that freezing the milk was the solution, but not for aged cheese the Moosletter says. Perhaps I can get the cows to calve for 6 days, then hold off a day so I can make cheese.

I’ll have as much luck with that as Sonny’s kids have had trying to convince him not to ride this colt!

Next time Sonny asks why I want to go to all that work making cheese instead of buying it, I’ll have an answer. I’ll ask why he’d rather ride a colt than just buy a trained one…perhaps because we’re both “old school”. Very, very old school!