The Equestrian Nomad

The idea to foster a horse was based on good intentions, and a desire to spend more time with Odin the Mustang out on the trails this summer. Which means leaving Bragi the Mustang all alone at home.

Horses, all herd animals really, do not like to be alone.

They evolved to feel safer in numbers in larger numbers. Since my horsemanship goals these days outweigh my riding goals, I decided to respond to a social media post from a reputable rescue for foster homes.

A few years ago I had applied to be a foster home after I lost Beege so that Odin wouldn’t be by himself. At the time, there wasn’t a need for foster homes which is how I ended up with Bragi the Mustang.

This time, however, the response was immediate and I had a foster horse delivered a couple Saturday’s ago.

Meet Sparrow, a 22-year-old retired Thoroughbred who raced under the Jockey Club name, Proud Texan, in the early 2000s. He’s a little ribby in this photo as he was rescued from a starvation situation and spent the last 5-6 months in rehabilitation at the rescue.

Sparrow also is sway-backed so is not a good candidate for a riding horse. This suits me as I already have one riding horse and Bragi is just starting on the path to become a riding horse. I work full time so barely have time to ride Odin. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to manage when Bragi is ready to ride.

I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. In the meantime, the introduction (with a solid fence between them) to my geldings went well.

Sparrow is the one with the star on his forehead. Odin shows interest later but was stand-offish at first. This is normal for him.

Having a third horse increased my horse management workload by about 50%. Sparrow requires high calorie meals. My mustangs are on the chubby side so require low calorie meals. There’s 50% more poop to pick up and barrow over to the covered pile. I talk about this during a recent podcast episode.

I turned Sparrow out into the round pen so he’d have soft sand to roll in and have a place to run around. He enjoyed that quite a bit, especially sharing Odin and Bragi’s breakfast.

That turnout situation went well until Odin and Bragi walked away, then Sparrow would get anxious and pace. Not good. More management.

The second thing that happened was that Bragi developed a painful abscess in his left-front hoof:

Poor Bragi was truly miserable for a few days. He was not in any condition to be face to face with a new horse as they run around, sniff, squeal, sort out their pecking order.

When Sparrow had been here for 10 days, Bragi was feeling better and my trainer was coming to help me work with Bragi. We decided to use the last 20 or so minutes of my session to introduce the horses.

As predicted, there was running, posturing, and herd order: Odin is definitely the leader, a polite leader but leader nonetheless. Bragi was acting the most stud like, puffing up, posturing, wanting to keep Sparrow away from Odin because Odin is Bragi’s friend and no one else. So says Bragi.

Sparrow is at the bottom of the pecking order although he defended himself when either Odin or Bragi would get too personal. I was glad to see that because it’s less likely that he will get trapped in a corner and beat up.

Horses, even geldings, can be jerks.

The new routine is for them to eat their breakfasts separately, turn them out around lunchtime, pick manure to keep an eye on them for any shenanigans then leave them out.

That was fine until I came out a couple hours later to see Sparrow standing by himself in a corner. The mustangs were at the other end of the pasture ignoring him. Strange…

Sparrow followed me into his own pen, seemed relieved to be in there. I found out why a few minutes later when I started the evening feed routine.

Bragi started chasing Sparrow up and down the fenceline, even though they were separated and trying to herd Odin to the far side of their pen. Bragi’s cow-cutting maneuvers were truly amazing and Sparrow fell for it even though he was completely safe from Bragi.

I took Bragi out of his pen and started focused training exercises to distract him from Sparrow.

Even though I worked with him only for a few minutes then worked with Odin for a few minutes, it was enough to reset his brain at least for the moment so Sparrow could settle and eat his dinner in peace.

I wasn’t sure what to expect the next morning when I came out to feed breakfast and what I found was that Sparrow and Bragi had apparently made peace with each other overnight as they were conversing through the fence.

My plan for peaceful turnout was to put Bragi in the round pen and let Sparrow and Odin hang out together since Odin will only bother another horse if he’s challenged. I haven’t had to do that yet but it’s only been a couple days.

The last time I let them out together a stray dog came to the pasture and wreaked a little havoc on the herd. Odin and Bragi are not easily harassed by dogs, in fact I’ve seen Odin go after them. I suspect that Sparrow lost his marbles and ran through the electric fence to the recovering west pasture. Odin and Bragi took advantage of the down fence to graze on fresh spring grass.

Not good for chubby horses. They can suffer metabolic issues on high-sugar grasses. Luckily, Harley the cat sensed the kerfuffle out back and alerted me to something amiss. Then I saw the black dog coming from the creek between the barn and house.

Harley, the watch cat, starting his rounds in the shower.

My guess is that the horses had only been on the pasture for 15 minutes. Sparrow immediately came back to me, knowing he was in the wrong place and wanted to be in his safe pen. Odin and Bragi on the other hand were not as remorseful. Odin easily came with and Bragi only came along because I was leading Odin away.

The fence is fixed, no harm done. My project today is to bolster that fence a little better because I don’t want them to get any bad ideas!

Spring seems to have arrived with the time change! It’s still frosty most mornings but the sun comes out and warms up to almost 60F.  Is this spring or will another bout of winter arrive before true spring?

With the time change, the sun rises after 7 a.m. in my part of the world. This means that there is plenty of knitting time while it is still dark.  I finished the second Setesdal hat that was meant for Randy; however, even though I used larger needles it’s still too tight. I’ve knit two hats for him before, one of which (bicycle motif) he wears all the time. At least this recent finished hat is in different colors from the first so I have two distinct knitted hats. My next attempt for him will be a hat in brioche, which is a very stretchy double stitch.

Currently I have three projects on the needles:

1.  Hermione socks in a green speckled hand-dyed fingering weight yarn I bought from Skein & Tipple. I’ve had trouble making socks that fit correctly using the standard 64 stitch cast-on. Part of the problem is that the needles I use are 2.5 mm and most patterns call for 2.25 mm. Hard to believe that 0.25 mm makes that much of a difference. The other part of the problem is that I have long skinny feet. Weird, I know. I started the pattern by casting on 60 stitches. Nope, still too big so now I’m trying 56 stitches. I’ll report my progress.
2. Exploration Station shawl by Stephen West. This pattern is the first Stephen West pattern I’ve knit. I really like his instructions on fairly complex stitch patterns. I’ve struggled with brioche stitch on other patterns and chose this pattern simply because one section of the shawl is in brioche stitch. I’ve found that this stitch is straightforward but I have to pay attention to make sure the yarn is on the correct side of the needle. For the most part this section of shawl is lovely but I have found a few mistakes. The colors I chose are Knitpicks Gloss in bright magenta, mauve, gold, and grey. When the shawl is finished I’ll post on my Ravelry page.
3. Crossvine cabled sweater by Berroco. I’m a sucker for free Berroco patterns. Some have been duds but for the most part their patterns are well written and easy to follow. The duds are just a matter of personal preference. For instance, one pattern was mostly in purl stitch and I don’t mind purl stitch as I find that knitting left-handed makes the purl stitch almost identical to knit stitch in practice. Still, I’d like the majority of the pattern to be in knit stitch. I’m knitting this pattern in chunky Ultra Alpaca in a dark emerald color.

The Junkyard Garden is showing some life, including the parts I planted outside in repurposed fruit containers. These make excellent mini-greenhouses, by the way. I’m almost ready to put some seeds in the ground: peas and radishes. First I need to set up a barrier to keep the bunnies away from the seedlings. The starts are on top of raised containers and bunnies can’t reach them. At ground level, however, bunnies dash out from their convenient hiding place/warren under the porch to snack on my seedlings then dash back.

One thing I have learned during the winter indoor growing experiment is that I’m not really a fan of microgreens, at least not those that I grew in soil. It’s fun to see green life during winter but the microgreens are  too much bother for the amount of greens produced to top a salad, although I do like the little radish greens and garlic chives as they have lots of flavor.

What will I try next? Probably see if I can grow individual lettuces, even if they are miniature in compared to the outdoor variety.

Odin the Mustang has recovered from the scary trailer loading experience I wrote about in my last post. Yesterday he loaded in the trailer at liberty and stood quietly with the divider closed. Bragi practiced coming in, just two feet and almost 3. I’m not sure how to communicate to him that he needs to get in diagonally as my trailer is a 3-horse slant so I will wait for my trainer to arrive next week for more information.

And next time I write, I will have a surprise on the horse front! Stay tuned!

Clearly, I dropped my blog for a while actually in favor of establishing a (small) presence on YouTube. Check it out if you prefer listening to reading. My channel has everything in verbal format that I ordinarily include here in written form.

Junkyard Gardening

What is junkyard gardening? It is starting and growing plants in every imaginable container that will support plant growth. I use plastic berry containers to start seeds, broken feed tubs, plastic bins as mini-greenhouses. In other words, it is growing vegetables on the cheap.

Besides being pre-gardening season, it is also pre-horse-riding season and pre-bicycling season. In other words, it’s still too cold and wet to enjoy any of those activities in comfort. Knitting, however, is a year-round activity; hence the YouTube channel. Also, it’s much easier to show knitting than to write about it. Furthermore, horse care is a year-round activity even when there isn’t much riding going on. I’ll get to that later in this post.

My gardening mojo kicked into high gear shortly after Christmas, when daylight began to reappear about mid-January. What to do to satisfy the gardening itch when there’s snow on the ground and frequent below freezing temperatures? Well, watch a lot of YouTube videos and knit and plan. I learned about indoor gardening from CaliKim and started an indoor garden set up.

I also watch Ben from Great Britian who lives in a similar climate. I don’t have a spacious greenhouse but he gives me plenty of other ideas and my favorites are his money-saving gardening tips.

And finally I started watching this gardener from Michigan. After all, if he has year-round content there are things I can do in my garden year-round. Again, he is a professional gardener with access to a glorious greenhouse but also provides a tremendous amount of useful information for the home gardener.

I may have to get a (small) greenhouse eventually.

I have harvested a few greens from my mini indoor garden and I am most proud of the little tomato starts. They have real tomato leaves and are about 2″ tall. Growth is slow under grow lights but I am learning and that this the main point of this exercise: to learn, adjust, and amuse myself.

Odin & Bragi the Mustangs

And what about the horses? They are hairy and happy, living their best lives. I made a huge mistake with Odin a couple weeks ago. In my effort to teach Bragi, the younger mustang, to trailer load, I have asked Odin to get in the trailer and hang out to give Bragi confidence. It’s worth it to Odin because Bragi ceases to be a pest and I give him lots of cookies and scratches to stand there patiently while I work with Bragi.

In general I work with the horses at liberty, with no halters or lead ropes because it gives them an element of choice to engage and gives me clear signals as to when I’m asking too much.

One day a couple weeks ago, I asked Odin to get in the trailer, at liberty as usual. He started to get in then backed out suddenly as if his nose was on fire. That’s weird, I thought, and looked out the windows to see if there was a monster or mountain lion out there, checked the floor for hoof-eating holes.

Nothing.

I asked again and Odin started to get in then backed out like his nose was on fire. This is too weird, I thought, and went to the front of the trailer to check the hitch and see if there were any obvious scary things. Nope.

One more time, same result. By then he’s kind of mad at me and trust between us has been eroded.

So I ask Bragi to get in because Bragi has not been traumatized and wants to figure out how he can earn some cookies.

At this point, Bragi only gets two front feet in the trailer and I give him lots of pets and cookies to build his confidence. Except this time he also backed out like his nose was on fire. Very weird and whatever is wrong is bothering them both.

Side note, this is why I teach them to back out and we practice so they know what to do. If either of them was to whirl around in panic and I’m inside the trailer there’s a greater chance of me getting hurt. Not good for any of us. Backing out is safer, although it can be worth tying their tails in a knot so they don’t step on it. Note to self for future.

I do the round-the-trailer check again and this time notice that the electric fence is touching the trailer. I keep the trailer on the horses’ side of the fence and the truck on the non-horse side of the fence so that they aren’t inclined to chew on mirrors or cause other expensive destruction. The fence is strung over the hitch and when it’s windy can blow over plastic hitch protector and evidently touch the trailer.

Anyway, this is how sensitive horses are. The trailer has rubber mats and four rubber tires. No one is getting hurt but they know. I couldn’t hear or sense the fence touching the trailer. This doesn’t seem terrible to us but it is to them. Recognizing their point of view is critical for communicating with them.

I fixed the fence so that it is not touching the truck or trailer. By then Odin is quite a distance away and glaring at me. Bragi has his ears forward and appears interested. I invited him to put two front feet on the trailer. He did and stayed there. Problem solved, lots of cookies!

Odin is not willing to get close to me even though Bragi demonstrated that the problem is fixed. I halter him to provide clarity (no pulling, pressuring, or whacking) on what I want but I’m not going to ask him to get all the way in the trailer. I need to regain his confidence and trust.

Getting near the trailer was a bit of an exercise and finally he was willing to put his head in. He thought hard for a very long time about that. When horses are thinking or absorbing information their gaze can be dull, eye lids and muzzle a little twitchy, and their ears may position a bit lopsided. It’s a great time to wait until they finish processing. I either stand quietly by and rest a hand on their neck or stroke their withers very gently until they lick and chew and return to the present.

When Odin returned to the present I asked him to back up away from the trailer just to get a short mental break from it, then come forward and put his front feet in. He still didn’t quite trust me but after a couple times backing up and moving forward, he put his front feet in and stayed. No more nose on fire. I gave him a few cookies and asked him to back out. We were done at that point. Halter off and let him process while I stood next to him.

We repeated this exercise another time a few days later. My plan was to give him one more opportunity to build trust before asking him to get all the way in the trailer (now I turn off the fence before the exercise). Unfortunately I got sick for a few days so he had a nice vacation from trailer loading. The next time I asked, though, he got all the way in. Maybe the short vacation wasn’t unfortunate after all.

I’m finding that there’s no such thing as going too slowly with horses even though I put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself to “do more”. They don’t care, they don’t have competition aspirations or even exploration aspirations. What they like to do is hang out, learn a few things, and be handsomely rewarded in cookies and snuggles.

It is worth the time to build trust and take as much time as it takes because this relationship translates to riding when we get to do that. There was a time when I just wanted to ride and didn’t care as much about the relationship with my horses. Now I care more about our relationship than I do about riding. I think the horses like that order of priority too and when it’s time to ride or do something difficult, the relationship we built makes accomplishing the task so much easier.

Summer was late this year, later than the usual July 5 start date; it started on July 11. Spring was cold with late frosts; the garden took a few tries to get going. A friend gave me a tomato start, which nearly didn’t make it past the final late frost. I brought the tomato in at night and set it out in the sun during the day, hoping to toughen it up.

It decided to live, after I put a plastic pop bottle over it as a personal greenhouse and has thrived. We’ve eaten several sweet orange tomatoes from it and neighboring tomato plants. The beefsteak tomato has been wildly successful.

My other project these past several months has been podcasting on Youtube. I call my channel, The Knitting Equestrian Nomad, as the content is about my knitting projects and my horsemanship journey. It’s been a fun project, click on the link above if interested! Each episode is about 40-45 minutes long and I have 13 episodes so far.

As far as horsemanship goes, I’ve ridden Odin a fair amount on the local trails with different friends and Bragi is starting to learn about trailer loading. I have a whole different approach with him than I did with Odin. Odin required a combination of positive reinforcement and pressure-release with a strong dose of leadership. Leadership is a mindset, not the use of force or pain as a consequence. Odin needs to know that he must otherwise he’d rather not thanks.

Bragi responds very well to positive reinforcement and is a lot more sensitive to pressure compared to Odin. However, he’s far more accepting of fly spray, fly mask, and sheets. He loves his fly sheet. Odin still resists fly spray and the fly mask, which we continue to work on. The good news is the Odin will self-load in the trailer now.

For Bragi, I’ve been using target training to ask him to get in the trailer. This means he touches an object, in this case a traffic cone, with his nose and gets a reward. I’ve been putting in the trailer and he’s very proud of himself for putting his front feet in the trailer. He will do this part at liberty. Putting that 3rd and 4th foot in the trailer is a lot more work for him so we practice and more importantly I teach him how to back out of the trailer quietly and safely.

Yesterday I introduced Bragi to the mounting block. He doesn’t mind that I stand over him, but he doesn’t quite understand moving away from pressure, especially toward me when I tap his opposite hip to get him to move his haunches toward the mounting block, where I’m standing. His tendency is to shut down to the tapping on his hip; I add a cluck and he moves. Reward! Repeat ad nauseum. It’s a lot for him to process so we take our time. He’s only 4 and still growing so there’s no pressure for actual riding. Plus, I barely get out enough to ride O.

Someday I hope teach them to pony so that if I ride one, the other can come along so everyone gets exercise and a change in scenery.

It’s been very smoky from nearby wildfires recently so trail riding has been on pause. Before the fires I hurt my back right after the opening photo was taken. Not much riding for me except around here with the bareback pad and sometimes a bridle.

Podcasting!

Hi All! I started podcasting 12 episodes ago. Check it out! The Knitting Equestrian Nomad podcast channel.

Explaining the Nomad Part of The Knitting Equestrian Nomad

Youtube link: The Knitting Equestrian Nomad, Season 1 Episode 5: The Nomad Part of my Handle

It’s spring and still rainy, although yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. I picked up hay for my horses, mowed the lawn, gardened, and planted 14 raspberry canes that a friend gave to me.  I’m sure the newly planted raspberries appreciate the rain.

Welcome everyone! If you’re returning, welcome back! For new viewers, this podcast is primarily about my knitting projects, and my horsemanship journey with my two horses, Odin and Bragi the Mustangs, mustangs I adopted from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse adoption program.  I’ll talk about them in more detail later in the episode.

First I’ll talk about knitting, which includes old finished projects, recently finished projects, and what’s on the needles now.

I’m wearing a project I finished I finished a few years ago. It’s a scarf made from 2 skeins of sock yarn, the red was a solid color skein and the other skein is either variegated or self-striping, I can’t remember which. The pattern is very easy. Basically you cast on as many stitches as you’d like the width of the scarf then the pattern is a simple repeat of knit 5, K2TOG, knit 5, M1, repeat. Knit two rows with the same color then use the next color until the scarf is as long as you like or you’re out of yarn.

This week I finished the pair of socks I was making from Patons Kroy yarn. If I make this pattern again, a free pattern from yarnspirations, I would knit the cuff, heels, and toe in a contrasting color.

On my needles are the raglan sweater I’m making from an acrylic wool blend DK cake yarn by Lion. I only have 3 more rows in the yoke!  Also, yesterday I cast on a pair of mittens then had to recast them on because I kept getting the main color and the contrasting color mixed up. So I decided to cast them on so that those two colors made more sense in the chart.

I’m also trying to teach myself brioche so I checked out a book from the library called Brioche Knitting for Beginners and Beyond by Leslie Ann Robinson. I still needed help and found a YouTube Brioche Knitting for Beginners – Single Color Brioche Stitch by BHooked that was actually more helpful than any of the other brioche how-to videos I found.

I’m still working on the Arne and Carlos #springalong blanket but didn’t make any progress this week as I was working on the socks.  The Ghost Horses sweater by Caitlin Hunter is still resting so I may not bring that up again for a while.

Recent life events:

1. We returned from vacation and have been back at work for a week. I miss vacation but who doesn’t?!  I hope to include a little more video at the end of this episode. We’ll see if I can make that happen.
2. I’ve got sourdough bread going in the kitchen. I’ve used the same recipe for several years. It’s an easy mix together flour, water, starter, and salt then fold it every 30 minutes for a few hours. The 30-minute rest periods are important to develop the gluten I think. The bread turns out delicious as long as the starter is lively.
3. This week I’ve focused my cooking efforts on things that need to be eaten before they go bad. I made a chocolate pound cake out of homemade butter that was nearing the end of its life as butter. I made a pear sauce out of an overripe pear that goes well on the pound cake. I made soup from radish greens and plan to make pesto from carrot top leaves. I’ll let you know how that turns out. It’s safe to say that I don’t like to see anything go to waste.
4. Gardening — my little porch tomato, an orange hat plant, is doing well and I transplanted a couple tomatoes I got from the feed store to be its near neighbors. I hope they’re all happy together. I haven’t harvested anything yet from the garden but I think the greens and radishes might be ready this week. Some asparagus has come up from the crowns I planted a few weeks ago and there are a lot of strawberries that will be ready in a few weeks. Rhubarb should be ready this week.

The nomad part of my handle — I’ve loved horses since I was a little girl and often my school friendships were based on horses, which isn’t as bad as it sounds. I had one wonderful friend from 3rd grade who had two horses, which she was more than happy to let me ride. We didn’t understand horsemanship at all and sometimes spent hours trying to catch the horses in the pasture before we could ride. We always rode bareback and often with just a halter and lead rope or some kind of baling twine headstall. I got my first horse when I was 20. At the time I exchanged cleaning stalls for riding lessons and learned how to saddle a horse as well as the different gaits. I showed western pleasure with my Paint mare then eventually started working cattle, including roping steers with an Appaloosa gelding named Prince Pike. Eventually I sold those horses when I decided to go to college. What I remember most about that time was learning about cooperation with horses, rather tricking them so I could ride as my friend and I did as children. I’ll talk about my continued journey in horsemanship in a subsequent episode as this one is getting long.

The closing bits:

This week’s inspiration for horsemanship & knitting & gardening: 

Knit all the Yarn podcastKnit All The Yarn Podcast – YouTube Lisa from Michigan describes her podcast as “her awkward little podcast”. She inspired me to do my own podcast as hers is simply recorded and posted — she does not have a highly produced podcast such as many of the other podcasts I watch.

GrowVeg Podcast GrowVeg – YouTube

Dan & Kay Jones, The Bakery Bears in Great Britain The Bakery Bears – YouTube

Where I can be found:

Facebook: The Equestrian Nomad

IG: @Cmeqnomad

Blog: equestriannomad.net

Email: theequestriannomad@gmail.com

Video tacked on end: John Day Fossil Beds, Clarno Unit

Episode: Season 1 Episode 3 The Knitting Equestrian Podcast Season 1 Episode 3

Hi, I’m Corrina and I live in western Washington state with my partner, two kitties, and two horses. I’m recording on  May  15, 2022 and the weather is sporadically rainy. Spring continues to be unusually chilly.

Welcome everyone! If you’re returning, welcome back! For new listeners, my horses are Odin and Bragi the Mustangs. Odin is a gelding from the Cold Springs Herd Management Area (HMA) and Bragi is a gelding from the Warm Springs HMA. Both HMAs are located in Oregon. I adopted Odin from the Bureau of Land Management program in 2018 and Bragi in 2020. Odin is now 10 and is my riding horse, on nearby trails or we work on dressage training exercises here on the farm. Bragi is just 4 and is learning good horse citizen skills, like how to be a good patient for the veterinarian, walking with me, stop when I stop, go when I ask.

Recent life events:

1.  Main bathroom remodel, we have new toilets! More than one working toilet! We are back to 3 toilets for two people! The shower glass is going to take several weeks but the bathroom should be mostly functional hopefully this next week. If I didn’t mention it before, the reason for the remodel is that our shower leaked and popped up the tile over the radiant floor heating. We thought that the leak had damaged the subfloor but luckily it did not. And we get an updated bathroom!
2. Gardening is slow because spring is reluctant this year. I have a few starts that are trying hard to grow but it is definitely not tomato planting weather yet.
3. I took Odin for a walk on the local trails Saturday mid-morning. For now I just hand-walk him because we both need the exercise and I was going by myself. The trails are a couple miles away so I trailer him since the road between home and the trails can be quite busy. I will post some video of our walk in here somewhere.
4.  lesson with Bragi Saturday evening with my trainer Meghan Valenti (Valenti Horsemanship). We’re working in the round pen on basic maneuvers to prepare him for walking up to the front yard where I keep the trailer. It’s a bit of a journey between the barn and house, with a creek separating the two. The road back to the barn is good but narrow and goes over a creek. We need to work on trust and leadership and good following in order to even approach the trailer.
5. The horses have been out on pasture and that makes them happy. Unfortunately it also makes Odin a little chubby so I will need to spend some time making sure he gets adequate exercise to keep him healthy.
6. We are also getting ready to take a vacation in a week. We’re going to Oregon, mostly central and southeast. I worked at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge over the summer in 1994 and want to visit again. We plan to mostly camp so we need to gather our gear, make a menu, and generally get out act together. I hope to take a little video during the trip for future episodes

On to knitting:

Finished objects:

I’m wearing a sweater I finished in 2018. My partner gave me a couple skeins of this red yarn for Valentine’s day one year. He doesn’t know how much yarn it takes to make a project so I found a pattern on the Plymouth wool website and bought more skeins of the same yarn. The yarn I bought is a different dye lot but that’s very hard to tell. The pattern is by the Plymouth wool designers and is called #1574 Women’s Jacket (Search Patterns | Plymouth Yarn Design Studio – Knitting Patterns for Everyone).  This was one of the first cabled projects I’ve knitted.

I also have a hat that I finished this morning. This is the second time I’ve knitted it, the first time it was too small so I ripped it out. The yarn is acrylic yarn I used in a sleeveless top for my sister a few years ago. She’s allergic to wool. The pattern is by Mina Philip of The Knitting Expat. Her pattern is for a cowl but I thought I would turn it into a hat instead. This was going to be another gift knit but the hat is a little snug. I have a small head so if it feels snug on me, it’s definitely going to feel snug on someone else.

My goal this year is to use as much stash yarn as possible so hopefully I won’t have too many new acquisitions but generally I can’t help myself if there’s a good deal or I’m sure I “need” more yarn. The caveat is that I get to buy yarn when I’m on vacation so I may find yarn stores during our trip to Oregon.

My project bags aren’t anything special, except for the two that were sewn for me by my mom and a friend. Otherwise, they are canvas bags or even plastic bags — whatever bags I have!

On the needles:

This is a raglan sweater out of DK Wool-Ease yarn, which is 80% acrylic, 20% wool. I bought the yarn online for another project and found out it wouldn’t work so I’m using a choose-your-own-adventure pattern from Knitting Fool (www.knittingfool.com), which is actually a nifty tool to help you figure out how many stitches to cast on based on your knitting gauge, yarn weight, and needle size.

Also on the needles is my Ghost Horses (Caitlan Hunter) project, that I need to rip out to the point where I divided for sleeves and add more to the yoke. This should be fairly simple but I have other projects I’m enjoying knitting.

The Arne & Carlos #Springalong knitted blanket squares. I have one square, the Faroe, finished, and the Dove on the needles..

I’m still working on socks by yarnspiration for Paton Kroy yarn; initially  I used too small needles so I’m knitting the second sock with 2.75 mm needles and see if I like it better than the sock I started with 2.5 mm needles.

This week’s inspiration for horsemanship & knitting: 

Karen Rohlf, Horse Training in Harmony (Dressage Naturally with Karen Rohlf – Learn to Move in Harmony)

Glenn the Geek, Horse Radio Network (many shows can be found here: Horse Radio Network | The Voice of the Horse World)

Marie & Michael, northeast US (Woolen Forest Knits – YouTube)

Tracy & Jodi, Edmonton Alberta (Grocery Girls Knit – YouTube)

Arne & Carlos, Norway (ARNE & CARLOS – Designers, textile artists and authors (arnecarlos.com)

Where I can be found:

Facebook: The Equestrian Nomad

IG: @Cmeqnomad

Blog: equestriannomad.net, which is where my show notes can be found

Horsemanship & Knitting in April Showers

Season 1 Episode 1 – YouTube

The Knitting Equestrian Nomad Season 1 Episode 2 – YouTube

Hi, I’m Corrina and I live in western Washington state with my partner, two kitties, and two horses. I’m recording on  April 30, 2022 and the weather is rainy. We’ve had an unusually chilly April.

For new listeners, my horses are Odin and Bragi the Mustangs. Odin is a gelding from the Cold Springs Herd Management Area (HMA) and Bragi is a gelding from the Warm Springs HMA. Both HMAs are located in Oregon. I adopted Odin from the Bureau of Land Management program in 2018 and Bragi in 2020. Odin is now 10 and is my riding horse, on nearby trails or we work on dressage training exercises here on the farm. Bragi is just 4 and is learning good horse citizen skills, like how to be a good patient for the veterinarian, walking with me, stop when I stop, go when I ask.

Happenings this week:

1.  main bathroom remodel, hopefully only a couple weeks left to go!
2.  lesson with Odin last Saturday. We’ve been working in the round pen, practicing giving to the bit, bending at the rib cage, turning on the forehand and hindquarters. These exercises help in part with flexibility and maneuverability, balance. The exercises are like yoga for horses.
3. I’m also working with Bragi in the round pen to prepare him for walking up to the front of our property where the horse trailer is parked, to load and take him places. Right now we are working on basic principles of standing and waiting, allowing me to flip the stick and string over his back and legs so that he knows my stick and string are tools or aids, not weapons. This exercise is by natural horsemanship trainer Pat Parelli. He refers to this exercise as “the friendly game”, which shows the horse that the tool is friendly, not scary. I’m also teaching Bragi how to walk in a circle on a long line around me, which can be referred to as “lunging”. He’s doing well at walking, stopping and turning on his forehand to face me. We are also practicing trotting in a circle around me, or “sending”.

On to knitting:

Finished objects:

I’m wearing a sweater my late grandmother made, probably 30 years ago. The yarn is acrylic, which she chose I’m guessing because it’s more affordable and very durable. She made it for my stepdad but my mom gave it to me when she cleaned out their closets recently. It’s warm so perfect, for a day like today. I love the cables, the fisherman’s knit pattern.

I also have a hat that I thought I finished for the first episode but afterward I decided to add ribbing to make it fit better. So now it’s a finished object again. It’s made from stash yarn for my sister. She’s allergic to wool so I’m used acrylic yarn from a sleeveless top I made for her a few years ago. The contrasting color is also acrylic and is leftover from an afghan I crocheted my stepdad a while a go.

My goal this year is to use as much stash yarn as possible so hopefully I won’t have too many new acquisitions but generally I can’t help myself if there’s a good deal or I’m sure I “need” more yarn.

My project bags aren’t anything special, except for the two that were sewn for me by my mom and a friend. Otherwise, they are canvas bags or even plastic bags — whatever bags I have!

On the needles:

This is another hat that I’m making with the leftover afghan yarn. The actual pattern is for a cowl by Mina Philipp (The Knitting Expat) and the yarn for the cowl pattern is for fingering weight. I’m modifying the pattern into a hat since I’m using worsted weight.

I’m also working on socks by yarnspiration for Paton Kroy yarn; however, I think I used too small needles so I’m probably going to rip it out and use the needles recommended by the pattern, which are 2.75 mm.

Inspiration for horsemanship & knitting: 

Karen Rohlf, Horse Training in Harmony (Dressage Naturally with Karen Rohlf – Learn to Move in Harmony)

Stacy Westfall, Train your own Horse (Westfall Horsemanship | Official Site of Stacy Westfall)

Glenn the Geek, Horse Radio Network (many shows can be found here: Horse Radio Network | The Voice of the Horse World)

Arne & Carlos, Norway (ARNE & CARLOS – Designers, textile artists and authors (arnecarlos.com)

Sarah from FiberTrek, Maine Fiber Trek – Calling the wild back to craft (wordpress.com)

Chelsea & Sue, Legacy Knitz, Vermont & Connecticut spreading love through commuKNITy and creativity (legacyknitz.com)

Where I can be found:

Facebook: The Equestrian Nomad

IG: @Cmeqnomad

Blog: equestriannomad.net, which is where my show notes can be found

My knee injury, Odin’s knee injury, Bragi’s colic all in one week!

Good grief, March has been maddening. Thankfully not all of it though. I had a great riding lesson on Odin and a couple trips to the tree farm to practice trailer loading, going somewhere and having nice walks on the roads in the tree farm. Oh, and we bought a canoe! Plus, I finished knitting a couple projects and started on new projects.

And then a week ago Monday, I started it all by having an uncharacteristic clumsy moment, tripped or slipped and fell bashing my right knee. I got to spend an afternoon in Urgent Care then emerged with a brace and instructions to brace and ice every hour for two weeks.

I didn’t read the instructions until after I drove home. My right leg is my driving leg and I cannot drive while wearing the brace. Thankfully I can work from home so driving is not required of me at the moment. Randy helped me feed horses and chauffeured me to pick up a prescription. I am lucky!

Friday evening, I was hobbling well enough to feed on my own and discovered that Odin had cut his knee. I sent a photo to the vet, who said it was fairly superficial but to watch it to make sure that he wasn’t sore or puffy, etc. Odin hates hoses so he got a quick lesson in bucket washing. Luckily the cut healed nicely with a little TLC.

Then Monday morning at breakfast time, Bragi just wasn’t right. He wasn’t the first one seeking breakfast like normal and when he did come in, he pawed instead of ate. Bad news.

I called the vet and took the hay bags to their outside pens because I didn’t want him to go down in the stall then have difficulty getting back up again in the smaller quarters.

Bragi got an impromtu lesson in receiving an oral dose of banamine, per the vet’s instructions. We have been working incrementally on standard veterinarian procedures. Bragi is very sensitive about needles and ordinary procedures that most horses tolerate with a little patience and kindness. Bragi needs more patience and kindness.

Banamine (for pain) administered then wait. The vet called me an hour later as planned. Bragi was standing but still very uncomfortable. I confined him to the round pen then waited for the vet to arrive.

Since he was shivering or quivering, Bragi got an impromptu lesson in blanketing. He didn’t mind that at all. The vet arrived and he got an impromtu lesson in tubing.

Bragi minded the tubing since a long tube goes up the nostril into the digestive system. I was glad to see a little protest because to me that means he still has a little fight and will to live. In other words, the pain hasn’t completely taken everything from him. Through the tube, the vet administered about a 1/2 gallon of oil to get the impaction moving.

The only thing left to do was wait and keep the vet informed. I checked on him about 45 minutes later. Lying down. Napping? He normally naps about that time of day. Left him alone and checked again another 45 minutes later. Still lying down, now I’m more worried.

Called the vet; she advised giving a half dose of banamine and getting him up to walk around to see if that would help the oil move through his system. He protested getting up and resisted walking but pooped almost immediately. What a relief, probably for both of us!

An hour later I checked again. He seemed almost normal but there was no additonal poop. Of course, he hadn’t had any breakfast and the vet said it could take 24-48 hours for the oil to work through his system.

I let him hang out with Odin for a couple hours then moved him back to the round pen for a dinner of very soupy mash. By then he was banging at the rails demanding to be let out and so he could eat Odin’s hay. Fat chance buddy.

Instead he took out his frustration on the trot poles in the round pen by chewing on them. This could be how he developed the impaction so I removed those from reach. So then he grabbed a mouthful of dead leaves. Jerk! I raked the round pen and advised him to eat his sloppy mash.

In the evening, he looked a lot perkier and was impatient. The vet said I could give him a 1/3 of his hay if all went well overnight.

By morning he pooped 5 times! Yay! That is pretty close to normal for him. I gave him his allotment of hay and more soupy mash. He banged at the rails demanding more, sort of like Oliver Twist but cheekier. That’s my Bragi!

This morning he left me 7 piles of poop. I think we can go back to our normal routines.

The last few days have been stunningly beautiful. It’s easy to forget that we had snow for more than a week then torrential rains. Except that I’m still picking manure from that time it was buried under snow, impossible to wheelbarrow.

During that time I focused on precision with my horses. We can always become more precise. With Bragi, his job is to stay out of my space when leading. He is learning to stop and backup a step or two when I stop. Odin’s job is to pay attention to me. He would prefer to ignore my requests but when I ask him to move his bum, he needs to move his bum. At first I asked nicely, then popped his rump if he didn’t move. He’s much more attentive now.

Today Odin and I refreshed our memories about trailer loading. He is not a fan, mostly because he doesn’t feel very confident. We start gently. Need to move your feet to get the nerves sorted out before getting in? Okay, let’s trot a couple circles. Ready to try to get in? Front feet in then back out. Rest a moment. Try again. All the way in, good boy. Let’s back out and rest.

I build a little each time. Get in, get out. Get in, shut the divider, open the divider, get out. Next time add closing the trailer door. After that we take a spin around the driveway circle then get out and graze for a bit to clear our heads. Then we do it again, take another spin around the driveway circle, get out and graze for a bit.

Finally, we repeat the first step: get in and get out. Graze and we’re done for the day.

This is also good practice for Bragi being alone for a little while back at the barn. We can hear him whinny occasionally for Odin; Odin is very good about not calling back to him.

Currently my favorite training resource is Karen Rohlf’s podcast Horse Training in Harmony. Karen is a professional dressage rider whose philosophy is that horses can be high level athletes and happy too. Her podcasts make me want to go out and play with my horses. I’m getting a lot of inspiration from her.

My on-the-ground trainer is Meghan Valenti (Valenti Horsemanship). I’m lucky to have found her several years ago when I had an Off-the-track-Thoroughbred (OTTB) who grew up traumatized from the racetrack then whatever post-racing life he had. Meghan has given me lots of training tools to use over the years and with a great deal of practice, they are working!