Potential

It's been a while since I've posted. Life's gotten busy and distracting. It's been great having Maverick so close by, where I can see him and Kachina on the same day, almost every day, as opposed to having to split it up during the week. This is a really good thing since the apprenticeship at the ranch takes away one of my weekend days.

Kachina's doing great. She's getting bigger, and with that bolder, and she's taken to stealing Fancy's grain. She does this in the most amazing way: she waits for Fancy to take a mouthful and lift her head, then she grabs the feeding pan and drags it as far as she can away from Fancy. This gives her enough time to help herself to a couple of bites before Fancy comes to chase her off. Then Fancy takes another mouthful, lifts her head, rinse and repeat. It was hilarious to watch; Kachina's not lacking in cleverness.

We're suspecting that Kachina's craving the supplements in Fancy's grain -- calcium phosphate, cod liver oil and flax seed -- so I've decided to try giving her some. The flax seed is proving a little hard to come by, but Donna volunteered to pick some up in Livermore the next time she visits S'Prize.

As Kachina loses her winter coat, her color darkens. Her socks are very black now, and her shoulder bars and ear bars are getting very dark. Her front half, which shed out first, is not a darker dun than her back half, which is still relatively fluffy. (I promise there will be pictures Monday!)

This past Saturday there was a team penning show, and the family that owns the ranch where I apprentice was competing so I got to go along and help groom and exercise the horses. This meant waking up at 2 am (and coming home at 2 am!), and about ten hours in the saddle! But it was worth it; my grandfather was there, and I got to see him win the Open division and almost win the whole thing (the family I apprentice for actually won it).

On top of seeing my grandfather ride, I got to see some really nice penning horses and compare them to Kachina. I know that she's only a filly, but I already see so much potential and athleticism in her, not to mention her natural curiosity and intelligence. When I first bought Kachina, I had no idea what I was looking for; I only had a basic idea of characteristics that I thought would be important in a penner. I think I really lucked out, accidentally finding a horse with so much natural ability. As soon as she's old enough, I'm going to work alongside my grandfather and get her started right. That'll give me time to save up some money so I can send her to The Ranch for some polishing.

I have a feeling she's going to end up being one of the best penning horses to come out of the area. Of course, I may be a little biased.