Week 17

Yesterday (Tuesday) I got a wonderful surprise. We had a new horse at the stable! His name was Tiny and he looked almost exactly like my horse upcountry. I instantly fell in love and learned he was here on a trial basis. Apparently he had a head tossing problem, but other than that was well suited to trail riding life. Christine told me about how she had been riding him to test him and gave me some great news: I was going to ride him on the trail that day to help test him out! I felt privileged, probably overly much, but needless to say I was very excited to ride him. As soon as I started saddling him up I loved him that much more, he was really sweet like Kiko without the attitude. As soon as I started riding him on the trail I knew he could never leave because I liked him too much. He was a little pushy, but that's not hard to train a horse out of. He was smooth and relaxing to ride. Some horses (like mine) feel like fire crackers; ready to explode at any second. He wasn't like that at all.

After the ride, I told them how much I liked him and I think they are going to keep him. He still needs a vet check before they make an official decision. His name will be changed to Manini (which means Tiny in Hawaiian) but I have a feeling I'll nickname him Manny. Not only can I not pronounce Manini, Manny suits him. I'll post pictures next time I go to the ranch. I'll be going up Sunday instead of tomorrow (Thursday).

Week 16

This Tuesday and Thursday were morning rides again. Sometimes we get behind in our work and in turn that always stresses me out, no matter if it's horses or photography or whatever else. I hate feeling rushed. But anyway, I felt pretty rushed that afternoon when I had to feed a lady's horses since she was on vacation and I had a company meeting in Lahaina to attend to. I was thankfully able to sneak off early and take care of a lady named Kandi's horses. (Pics in the post.) I love being able to be around horses so much, and I like that I get to work with a variety of personalities.

Thursday was an average day, it felt like a Saturday for some weird reason.

Week 15

This week on Tuesday I got to ride again. I rode Ginger for the first time. She is really good under saddle. I love to ride out with everyone even though it's the same every time we ride. Normally I have to stay back the ranch in case something happens while everyone is riding. But sometimes Pat is there so he'll stay behind. Ginger is definitely the most respectful of the three under saddle. I included pictures of our ride in the post.

Thursday we had an evening ride. I arrive at 1:30 and start mucking the stalls. Then we pull out horses, groom them as normal, and saddle them. The people arrive and go out around 3:30 or so. I stay behind and give the horses twice as much hay since it's evening and watch the sunset from the ranch. It's so gorgeous down there. I see a lot of color when I ride the Polaris back from watering the cows. I can only imagine how beautiful it is on the vent. When they get back, I strip the saddles off them as usual and groom. No showers at night (it can sometimes get chilly and we couldn't see well enough to give them showers anyway.)

The horses!

I decided to make a post dedicated to all the wonderful horses at the ranch, pictures included. I'll go in order of their paddocks, left to right. *The pictures were messed up when I uploaded them, so here are the horses pictured, top to bottom.*
Harrison, Mahina, Ginger, Makena, Sparky, and Makani.


Ginger: Ginger is Christine's personal horse. She's a middle aged chestnut mare that was rescued from another stable a couple years ago. She's a roping horse. We think she is part Bashkir Curly horse because of how fuzzy she gets in the winter. She is really sweet and not quite as mareish as Makena is. Sometimes she'll give me some attitude, but when I pull her out to groom her or whatever she is the sweetest thing in the world. Once I was in a lot of pain because of my hip and she looked over at me to make sure I was okay and didn't leave my side until she was sure I was okay.



Harrison: Harrison is a total gentleman. He's a chestnut quarter (?) horse. He is an old champion rope horse. When you ride him, he's totally push button which means he'll respond very well to pressure and whatever else you ask him. As nice as he in looks and personality, I don't have any personal attachment to him.



Makena: The princess! Makena is an older horse, but she has as much spunk as the rest of them. She is a cherry bay, half arabian. Arabians are known for their dished faces which you can really see in Makena's face. I rode her on the ride once and she was good, kind of fast though and she wasn't exactly fond of the fact I was riding her in the back.




Sparky: Sparky is Pat's personal horse and doesn't take tourists out on rides. He is a paint and in my opinion one of the sweetest horses in the world once you get to know him. He is also push button like Harrison. Sparky has a terrible habit of colicing at least once a year and did so when I was there. It wasn't serious and all it took was a little medicine to get him feeling better. Sparky is the movie star of the stables and he totally knows it.




Makani: Makani is the newest horse at the ranch. He is a gorgeous buckskin quarter. He is a total in-your-pocket type but not the smartest horse at the ranch. What he lacks in brightness he makes up for in personality. I really like to groom and work with him because of his happy attitude toward everything. I don't think I've ever seen him pin an ear or lift a foot up to kick.

Keola: Keola is a cherry bay like his half sister, Makena. Keola is by far the smartest horse on the ranch and because of that he is very mischievous. He's really good on the trail but for some reason he and I don't get along at all. He always has an attitude toward me and someday I am going to do groundwork with him so we can work out our differences.

Kiko: My personal favorite! Kiko is a lightly spotted grey horse (fleabitten is the correct term) and a total sweetheart. He was rescued with Ginger and I think is the oldest horse on the ranch. Sometimes he walks slowly when you lead him because he's lazy, but he has a lot of get up and go and even has a mischievous streak. Occasionally he'll pin his ears and has bitten workers before, but other than that is a gentleman. He loves to be rubbed on the face.




Mahina: Mahina is the biggest horse at stables. She is a half Percheron mare and the least mareish of the three. She got hurt a few weeks ago but since then has completely healed. She acts as a mother in a lot of ways, protective but not overbearing. She and Kiko are really good friends and share a paddock together. She's grey like him, they almost look like siblings or mother and son.

Week 14

Since I forgot to post the Kimberwick bit in the last post, it's now in this post.

I tried the new bit on Shannon and it worked wonderfully. I feel so lucky to be working with someone who knows horses so well.

I'm starting to pick favorites when it comes to the horses. I used to like Makena the most but my heart was stolen by a little white horse named Kiko. Makena is my second favorite though, followed by Sparky/Makani and then Ginger/Mahina. I can't seem to get attached to Harrison, though I don't mind him. Keola and I don't get along, but he is a very good horse.

This week I also worked Tuesday/Thursday morning.

Week 13

This week I have been learning a lot about bits and saddle fit. Bits are the tools that go in a horses mouth that helps you communicate with them. Saddle fit, is of course, proper fitting of a saddle on a horse's back. It's very similar to fitting a human for a shoe. Not all shoes are going to fit and if you get the wrong fit it'll be very uncomfortable and do more bad than good. Bits are extremely tricky. Christine came up and met my horse, Shannon, for the first time. Shannon is a good horse and progressing each day but she has a bad habit of throwing her head. We both weren't exactly sure why she kept doing it. It seemed to be out of bad habit.

Pat gave me a good answer the next time I saw him. He explained that the right bit can solve a lot of head throwing problems. He took me in his tack room and explained a lot about different bits. It's all about leverage. I was riding my mare with a Kimberwick bit with a high port. A high port is a bit that is straight but broken at the top. When the reins are pulled, the port hits the horse in its mouth. It's not exactly painful, though used incorrectly it can be very uncomfortable. I posted a picture of a Kimberwick bit below. Pat gave me a straight bit with no port and very little shank. I am going to let Shannon use it and see if she likes it and can get used to it.

Also worked Tuesday and Thursday morning ride this week. It's a little odd we're getting so many rides at this time of year as it's supposed to be the slow season. Can't complain though, horses are expensive and they have to earn their keep.

Week 12

Time goes by so quickly when you work with horses! This is my third month working at the ranch even though sometimes it seems like I just started.

The ranch has hired a new ranch named Chris. He is super friendly and knowledgeable about horses. Unfortunately, I don't get to work with him or Lynn very often since we all come on each other's off days. When they first put the job offer out for someone new to work at the stables, I thought it would be a piece of cake to decide who gets the job. It isn't! There are so many factors I had never thought of when it comes to hiring someone. I noticed there is a lot to consider when it comes to horses but I imagine it's similar with any professional position. One lady I met that I would have hired in a heart beat (she was so friendly and the times were perfect for her since she was retired) the manager didn't want to hire because of some important incapability. Another guy called that didn't know much about horses, and others were okay, but just didn't seem like a good fit for the ranch. I'm glad they chose Chris though, he really like his job.

I had two more days this week, Tuesday and Thursday morning ride as usual. I'm still getting used to waking up at 5 AM in the morning but it's worth it when I see the horses happy faces in the morning.

Week 11

I learn something new every time I go to work at the stables. Sometimes it's about feeding, other times it's about equipment, sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with horses. Recently I've been learning more and more about roping and rodeo. Both Christine and Pat are very good ropers and they are teaching me what they know. I haven't actually roped a cow yet (or swung the rope over my head for that matter) but I do know a lot more than I did before I worked here.

Roping is a timed event. It involves two people - a header and a heeler. The heeler rides behind the cow and ropes the foot while the header rides in the front and ropes the head and horns. The header takes a dally and wraps the rope around the horn of the saddle. Numerous ropers have lost a thumb in this part of the roping. Sometimes their thumb gets caught where the rope and saddle horn are. The roping saddles are particularly heavy and sturdy, usually more so than a trail or barrel racing saddle.

There are three roping horses at the ranch. Sparky and Makani are Pat's horses and Ginger is Christines. Keola, one of the trail horses, loves to rope but is a barrel racing horse. It takes a lot of work to get a horse to used to cows. Some never truly get used to it. There is a lot of training to roping. I have learned so much since I first started working here, and I look forward to learning more as time goes on.

Week 10

Occasionally I get to go on the ride instead of staying behind. When I do go, I ride different horses. So far I have ridden Makena and Sparky on the ride. Makena is a half Arabian, really pretty mare. She does have attitude though; she thinks she's the princess of the stables. And really she is. Sparky is Pat's roping horse. He's a gorgeous paint gelding with excellent training. He's actually the movie star horse, he was once in an Expedia commercial. When I ride different horses I get the chance to learn more about them, such as how they react to other horses on the trail and to pressure (that's important in horsemanship.)

When we ride, Christine teaches us about the area. First we ride into an old Hawaiian village filled with goats. We learn that cows used to terrorize the Hawaiians and the Hawaiians couldn't do anything about it since killing the cows was a serious kapu and was punishable by death. Eventually a wall was built to keep the cows out and that stopped them from eating the people's homes. As we ride up to the ocean, dolphins or whales are usually playing in the water and it's always interesting to see and share them with the tourists. We ride back the way we came and start going up into ranch land. We learn about the people that help build the walls on the ranch land with only the lava rock. The farther we ride the more we learn about the islands, including the bombing that happened at Kaho'olawe. We trot the horses a little, and finally arrive to our break spot. We take our break on the top of the last lava vent to erupt and can see everything from where we are. The big island of Hawaii is to our left (which is visible if it's a clear day) and Big Beach is the right. Below us are Hawaiian burial caves. It's a gorgeous spot.

We go back the same way we came up and before we know it, we're back at the ranch. I help the tourists get off the horses and check their feet, take off their bridles, and loosen girths. Soon Christine comes by and starts taking off saddles as well, then the horses get their showers. After drying, they go back in their paddocks after a hard day of work.

Week 9

This Tuesday, there wasn't a ride so I went to just muck, feed, water, and groom the horses. It has been hard lately because I have a problem with my left hip. Going to the chiropractor seems to be helping a little bit, but I can't pick up horse's feet without being in a lot of pain. Because of that I haven't been doing it lately. When I find out what's wrong I won't need special treatment though, it isn't fair to the other workers or the horses if I can't pick up their feet. I didn't have to Tuesday though.

Thursday was another normal ride. I have only done the evening ride once and I liked it; the horses don't get showers like they usually do so we get to go home earlier. When they're gone on the ride, sometimes I do different things such as cleaning saddles. It's important to use special leather cleaning to make sure the leather doesn't break or get moldy. There are many different parts to a saddle. The part on the top that people hold onto is called the horn. The part that keeps the saddle on the horse is called the girth or cinch, and the seat is where a person sits. Under the saddle is a blanket and/or pad so the saddle doesn't rub the horse. All parts of the saddle need to be checked regularly because if the leather breaks, chances are it'll be an important part of the saddle and it could fall off, which could injure the person. There is so much to keep in mind when running a trail riding stable.

Week 8

When I started back on my intern, I started working on Tuesdays as well as Thursdays. One of the other employees couldn't work Tuesdays so I took over, which I was really happy with. Tuesdays are the same as Thursdays, morning ride at 6:30 in the morning.

There weren't many changes that happened while I was gone. Another horse left, so we are down to only 8 horses. I really miss the little paint they used to have named Kelakoa. (sp?) The more I work at the ranch, the more I learn about each individual horse. (And apparently less on which saddle belongs to who... I'll figure it out eventually though I'm sure)

Working with horses is very rewarding. They respond to your love, work, and efforts to make them into better trained horses. And what many people don't know is that you train a horse every time you're around them. Anyone who works with horses or rides them is training them, whether or not they know it or not. If you put a person on a horse and they keep jerking them around or let them eat too much, they will remember that when the next person gets on. Thankfully the horses we use are very nice, good horses and put up with a lot. But not all horses are like that.