Trail Ride #2

Jeff came out to the ranch with me this time. I rode Axel and he rode Cody. We had more time so we ended up going up the hill in the back pasture and through the woods. Save for some issues with low branches, it was a good ride. The boys enjoyed themselves and were champs stepping on fallen branches and what not.

Our First Trailride

Anne and I decided to go out for a little ride today. Of course when we got to the ranch we couldn't find the boys. We walked all over the back pasture and even up the hill across the stream. No sign of them anywhere. Tom whistled for them for a while but no one came running. We three set out along the dirt bike trails in the farmers land next door. We split up to make the search easier. I finally came across some fresh hoof prints on a dirt trail and followed them up to a clearing between two bean fields. Calm as could be. They looked up at me like "hey what are you doing over here?" Anne came around the other side and we haltered them and met up with Tom. We decided to walk up the farmers access road and down his driveway instead of through the bean field. So after all that excitement it was finally time to go for a ride. We rode around the front pasture a couple times and both boys behaved wonderfully. So we decided to go down the back pasture and up the hill on the other side of the creek. We wandered around the bottom of the hill and decided to give the big hill a try. Axel was excited and ran up the hill, followed closely by Cody. By this time it was quite late so we just walked up to the clearing to look at the view and then we headed back down the hill. The boys were great and I'm looking forward to another ride soon. Now if we could only keep the boys in their own pasture instead of the neighbor's bean field.

Don't Forget the Flymasks!

And of course I couldn't forget the new flymasks. Jacque hooked the boys up with some fancy flymasks to keep the flies from bothering them. And for not having ever worn them, they acted like old pros. And so far neither of them has lost their masks in the pasture.

Cody can't quite figure out that his ear is supposed to stay in the ear part, but he'll get it sooner or later. ;)

Time For A Manicure

Jacque and I did a little shopping and picked up some new halters for Cody and Axel. We chose yellow for Axel and orange for Cody, and boy do they look spiffy. They have matching leadropes as well. Now we just have to find yellow and orange feed buckets and maybe yellow and orange saddle blankets. Nothing's wrong with looking good, right?

Axel and Cody had their first farrier visit with their new farrier. I think they did pretty good picking their feet up, especially for the first time in a new home with so many distractions. And Axel didn't lean on the farrier at all. We'll still have to practice picking our feet up so we can impress everyone for the next farrier visit, but for a first try they did good.


And now their feet look mighty fine.

Cody and Axel: The DVD

Jeff took some video footage (about 2 hours of it) when we first moved the boys into their new home. Axel looked like a big, fancy, award winning horse standing there meeting his new friends. He must have been trying to impress them. I wish the stills from the video looked good enough to print. Maybe Jeff can get better stills for me.

Corey lined his herd up so they could all see what was going on.

After some introductions and some hay. The people had some lunch and then we watched the horse run around like crazies. Axel was bucking all over the place. They ended up running themselves into a good sweat before they finally relaxed and went back to eating.

Cody and Axel's Big Move!

Jeff spent most the weekend making some improvements to the horse trailer. Early Monday (Labor Day) morning we got everything loaded up and went to fetch the horses. I was a little concerned with trailering the horses for 3 hours, especially after everyone shared the various horror stories of pulling horses with a bumper hitch. We got to the shop and the boys were hiding in their shelter, taking turns peeking out the window.

The boys were very excited to finally get off the trailer. We walked them around the pasture and into the paddock for some water. They had a few words with Corey over the fence. But when Corey got tired of trying to herd his women away, Kiko came to say hi.


They were very interested in the other horses. Cody would call for them when they were on the other side of the barn. Kalani wanted to make friends with the boys from the very beginning. Rusty was a little interested in what was going on, but he's seen it all before. Kakei was interested at first but spent most of her time hanging out with Corey. Corey is the head of the heard. He keeps biting at Axel to show him who's the boss. Beau is the old man of the group and he really would rather just be fed, these new boys are of no concern to him. Kiko is smitten with the new boys. Axel is equally interested, but Cody looks like he might be jealous of Axel's new friend.

All About the Boys

Axel
I don't have a lot of information about Axel but I think he is a Quarter Horse or some sort of QH mix.
Black with white socks on hindlegs
Foaled in 1993
9/5/05 -
Height: 16hh
Weight: 1260 lbs

Goldie Cody
Cody is a Sorrel/Overo registered Paint
Foaled on June 8, 1990 in North Dakota
Sire: So-Big-Cody
Dam: Chesters Goldie
9/5/05 -
Height: 15.2hh
Weight: 1100 lbs

Cody's baby photo from his APHA registration - wasn't he a cutie?


Here is Cody's pedigree from www.allbreedpedigree.com: