Checked Off The List

I know I've mentioned we get a large amount of black bears here every fall. They're literally everywhere from about Sept -Nov, eating everything they can find in preparation for winter. There's a whole neighborhood here of hobby farms backing on to crown land that goes forever (fun stat, 95% of the province is crown land/wilderness). Maybe aside from a previous life as a park ranger near a major salmon river, I'm not sure I've seen so many bears in one place, ever.

I have a few fruit and nut trees, plus the last of the garden, and it's an entire thing keeping the bears out of them and the fruit picked every year. Our place has an excessive amount of electric fence wire everywhere right now, and still...there are two people gates that it would be weird/inconvenient to have fortified, and it took them no time at all to start using them. One even opens the gate rather than climb it (and does not close it when he leaves) which is just beyond ridiculous. They can't currently access any of the fruit trees or vegetable garden from the yard around the house, but they still visit regularly.

Said gate with claw marks by the chain and bent hinges. Also my very sad flower garden and some apologies this week for the lack of media effort - it's been mostly dark and rainy and I have some grainy phone pictures and that's it.

So, long story short, despite all my efforts to keep them out, I had a feeling the boys had probably seen a bear or two by now. Generally speaking, nearly all the horses I know just get used to them minding their own business and ignore them but it is a bit like loose dogs, some horses just get grumpy or scared about it or have maybe had a bad experience at some point.

Sophie striking a dramatic pose yesterday because I left the lawn tractor/harrows parked in a different place than normal. Bears are no big deal lol

We put it to the test last night. I was walking Tradey back home from a trailventure and it was getting dark and a momma bear and her two cubs popped out on the road in front of us.  Her body language wasn't bad, but it wasn't great because she really wanted to head our direction but we were in the way. So we stopped and waited for her to decide where she wanted to go. After staring us down for a little bit she eventually rounded up her cubs and went off into the bush on the other side of the road to wait for us to go by. Tradey was a very good boy and patiently stood and waited and was intrigued, but not worried. He also marched past the spot where the bears were lingering with no problems, they popped out and continued on their way once we were past, and everyone was happy.

Home safe and sound. Looking at how dark it is, I did leave our walk home a little late :)

So, we can check that off the list. Reliable trail horses here really need to be ok with seeing wildlife. Buck saw a bear from a less worrying distance on our last outing and was fine as well, so I'm feeling good that my future riding buddies and I are going to be fine. I know sometimes I write about this sort of thing and some of you think it's crazy, but it's totally the norm here and everyone kind of just respects them but goes about their normal lives. Discovery channel does them dirty with all the 'a bear attacked me!' dramatizations making it seem like they eat people on the daily, but it's not like it could never happen either. So, I'm a chicken compared to many and don't go hiking alone this time of year - either husband or friends (or reliable ponies, yay!) need to be in tow :)

Also, I invested in a battery box and lots of lights after last year's adventure with a bear sleeping outside the barn at night lol

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Standard Horses

 I took an extra couple of days off work this past weekend and it was absolutely wonderful. I finally (finally!) finished painting the exterior of the house. That took a whole year, but who's counting? The delay was not due to lack of work ethic, more to do with the top of the ladder being a scary place for me and there being plenty of other jobs to tackle. I'll have to get some updated pictures, just need to do some further garden tidying before it's 'after photo' worthy.

Bedtime pony chores require party lights. It's getting dark so early again :(

Had his first mane trim/thin. I couldn't quite bring myself to go sport horse length, so it's long-ish still

Alongside that, I actually got all the ponies off property for assorted adventures. Tradey/Reggie had been out a few times in the spring, but it had been a while since then. No worries, though, he's quite happy to march off to see the world. There's a trail at the end of our road that loops up over a mountain, but there is a lower path that is horse friendly and spits us out in a city park, then we can walk through a residential area to home. It takes a little over an hour and is a nice mix of things to see for the horses. Tradey was a pretty cool dude and took it all in stride, as expected. I like that he's curious about his surroundings and the default is to snort and explore rather than spook/run if he's uncertain. He's naturally quite surefooted and aware of his body too, so rocky trails and up/down slopes don't require much of a learning curve. He's a good boy and I'd happily send him out with anyone and trust his manners to hold.

'wild stallion' interlude

I'm trying to think if Buck has been anywhere solo and I think maybe I took him for a couple of short 10 min walks around our little laneway last winter/spring. He's getting more confident so it felt like it's past time to get him out a bit more than that. So, off he went on a similar loop to Tradey's. He struggled a little more with the idea of being away from his friends so there was a bit of calling and pooping. I looped back before the park and stuck with the quiet forest trails for a positive first for him. Overall, very proud of him. He's not as naturally confident, but is so willing to try and by the mid way point was happily trucking along. He surprised me by being in no big rush to get home, either. He's not quite as body aware as Tradey so it's a bit of a work in progress keeping him 'out' and not bumping into me. I feel like half of it is needing further ground work, and half of it is genuinely he's not sure of where his feet should go on the more technical bits and is tempted to want to put them where mine have been. His inspection of the rocks and first steep grades on the trail was actually very cute - he needed to 'test' for grip before committing. Smart guy. I feel like I'm tempted to baby him a lot more than Tradey, and I try to be aware of that - it's one thing to take things at whatever pace they need to stay confident and learning, another to start making excuses for him because he's cute :)

Not so sure about this nature thing yet

With the weather changing and all the outdoor and gardening projects slowing down I'm hoping I'll have more time to do these sorts of things. At 18 months old, the boys are old enough to go for some longer walks and adventures and I'm not feeling shy about putting some things into the calendar for them. I can't see loading Buck up and taking him anywhere solo quite yet (I mean, I could, he's fine to load and trailer, but I want it to be fun for him and I think without a buddy in there he'd still struggle). I have a mid term plan of a few more walks in the same area so he's super confident with the routine, then loading him up for the 5 minute drive to the trail head. Then it's short and easy, he gets out at a place he knows, we do our normal trail loop and we go home. My other option is the club grounds across town, but it's literally across town and about a 25min drive.

Tradey returns to Pony Kindergarten at those club grounds tonight, so that's fun!

While we were out and about this weekend, G commented out of nowhere "it's nice to have normal horses again". I know what he means - these two guys remind me of a couple of horses I had years ago, who were definite favorites. They have their little quirks and likes/dislikes and they're of course very young, but basically they're solid citizens and 'standard horse' in their thinking. I'd like to hope I've learned some things over the years and have more tools in the toolbox than I used to, but it's a nice feeling with them both being super ammy friendly and uncomplicated. They're not hard work at all and that's a thing I think we both appreciate. I feel like the past ten years or so has been something else, we have super quiet/tuned out Bridget (and while we love her, that comes with it's own set of challenges) and then the other extreme with spicy, mare-y and very tuned in Sophie and Ginger. It's nice to be back in the middle of the curve :)

"you talking about me?"

Current status: will not willingly go through that gate and graze in her field, even if I put breakfast out there. It's always something.

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