There are so many new things going on around the Tumbleweed right now! We are working with Jackson, Tuf, Shrek, and Fancy Pants. Also still playing with Arabella and our BLM mustang Soapsuds! We've had Soapsuds 14 days, and we had a saddle on her last weekend. We are excited about her progress. Last night her herd mate came in and we will be working with her as well. With the warmer weather we will be starting Friday Night Ride Nights again. We have a couple of spaces for full care boarding either in pasture or in a stall, and in May we will have room for one training horse and in June we will have room for two training horses. In June the kids camps at Spirit Ranch will get started again, and we are very excited to have been asked to come back and work with them. Keep an eye on the Facebook for regular updates! I will work on keeping the blog better updated. Happy trails!!
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https://www.facebook.com/tumbleweedhorses/posts/1556980904568602 Doing open ride night on Thursday this week since so many people will be leaving for Spring Break on Friday. Also, instead of charging $10 for food, we are going to do it pot luck style. So bring your horse, bring your Coggins, and bring a pot luck item. It would be super helpful if you could go to the Facebook post and comment hat you are bringing so everyone knows what dishes are still needed. Thanks!! And it's Wednesday! You know what that means! Yep, it's open ride night at the Tumbleweed. Gates will open at 4pm, well, who am I kidding? They'll be open a lot earlier than that haha. So come early if you want to get more hours in. I am in class til 1:00 and figure I'll be at the barn after that. Looking at moving the ride night to either Thursday or Friday nights in the future. I posted a survey but it didn't get much response. But I've heard a lot of people say Wednesdays conflict with their family schedules and church plans. So keep an eye out in the next day or two I will post what day we will do it next week. For tonight I am making taco soup, yummmm. So ya'll come on out, bring your horses, bring your friends and their horses. Bring $10/person to cover the cost of food, bring a camping chair if you want. And bring your Coggins! But leave the studs at home please. It's going to be a great time and the weather forecast looks awesome.
Rowdy is headed home today. We've sure enjoyed the big guy even with all his independent ways. We will be sad to see him go, but he is riding along nicely and it will be good for him to go home with a job to do. With that said, that leaves openings for November training, discounted to $500/month. So give us a call, we'd love to discuss what we can do for you and your horse.
Our open ride nights have been going awesome! Great people showing up with great horses! No drama, no judgement, just a whole lot of fun! Come on out tomorrow night from 4pm until sundown or however late everyone wants to stay. We will feed you! To that end, we will be making a few changes there. We've been charging $5 per person and serving Little Cesar's pizza, but we are going to bump it up to $10 and server REAL FOOD! Like BBQ chopped beef sandwiches or pulled pork wraps. Maybe some soups or chili as the weather turns cooler. The $10 is just to help offset the cost of the food and drinks. Also, be looking for a mini hay maze for the kiddos to play in, and hopefully a little barrel train to pull behind the four wheeler for littler guys to ride down the trail too. If anyone has any ideas for making out Wednesday night get togethers more family fun friendly, we'd love to hear them! Also, I am still hearing random comments about what days or times would work better for people, but noone has responded to the poll I put up on Facebook. If you'd very kindly go put in your preference, it would be easier for me to see where the majority of people would need it to be. Thank you!
Also, with Sugar and Rowdy going home this month, and Sticks moved to boarding status, we have several openings for winter training. So we are running a winter special, $500/month, that's $100 off! Now, I know it's easy to forget how irritating your horse is when you don't get to ride him much because the days are shorter, the weather less pleasant, and kids are in school and you are chasing football games, marching band competitions, and basketball soon. And I know it is easy to think it would be better to wait until next spring or summer to get that 2 year old started. But here's the thing... when next spring or summer hits, wouldn't you rather be riding?! So, let us work your guy or gal for the winter, getting it started or working out issues. So that next spring, your horse is ready to go, and all you have to do is step up in the stirrup and ride off into the wildflowers. We can handle a wide range of requests, barrels, western pleasure, trail, etc. Although our most requested is to have a good solid, dependable saddle horse to ride down the road on. I can teach your horse to have a rope swung off of him, to get into the box quietly and leave the box without a fuss, but we don't have access to cattle quite yet, and I'm really bad at throwing rope :) (I am trying to talk a buddy into giving me a few lessons :) ) We generally recommend that colts getting started stay with us for 60-90 days, to have a really good foundation and be going really well in and out of the arena, down the trail, etc. Horses with issues it is totally dependent on the issue and the horse, so harder to pinpoint a time frame on that without knowing the particulars. We are always happy to visit with you and discuss your horse and what you'd like it to be doing, so give us a call at 806-620-3207! Y'all don't forget our open ride night tomorrow night!! We will open around 4 pm, serve pizza around 6pm, and be there until around 8 pm. The arena, trail, and round pen will all be available to use. Also Luc and I will be on hand if you have any questions about our operation or an issue with your horse. Please remember no studs (Gus might not appreciate the competition, lol) and horses need a current negative Coggins. We will have liability releases to be signed for everyone. Cost is $5 per person this week to offset the price of food. Since this is the first time doing it, the cost may change from week to week until we get it to where it works out right for both sides. Come on out and let's have a good time! We will have a pattern set up in the arena, and it can be moved around or changed. Look forward to seeing everyone!
Address is 5710 North FM 2528 (North Frankford, 4.6 miles north of WalMart at 4th and Frankford). Feel free to call or text 806-620-3207 if you have any questions! It's been a busy but good week at the Tumbleweed so far! With the rain giving us some reprieve, we've been able to get everyone worked and more clean up done. All the boys are loping comfortably down the trail, in the arena, under control, stopping, turning, backing up, following pattern maneuvers. Rowdy has gotten a little grumpy about going down the trail by himself, so we are working on that this week Sugar is riding in the round pen off the lead line. She still gets a little hunched up sometimes when there is a new noise or sight, but she settles back down and hasn't been bucking, so she will stay in the round pen, working a mixture of ground and riding until we work through some of that, then to the arena and riding with a pal.
Seven and I are trying out for the Texas Tech Ranch Horse team Monday night. I had been under the impression that I had to take the two prerequisite courses and Seven had to go through a course with me, in order to even try out, but was told Tuesday that this is not the case. So even though we have been cautioned not to expect to place on the highly competitive team, and have to compete as an open rider even though Seven is not a finished reining horse, we are going to try out. If we don't make it, we have a place to start from. Seven has been taught Western Pleasure style riding, and has been mainly used for trail riding and lessons for the past few years. We had just begun teaching reining maneuvers when she hurt her leg, so we are still pretty shabby on spins and whatnot. But it is a starting place. So for the rest of this week we are working the pattern pretty heavy. We have a new client coming this afternoon for a lesson, (Yay!), and Abby comes for a lesson right after that. So Abby's lesson will be on the Pleasure portion of the pattern which Seven has down pat, so as not to confuse the mare by teaching another pattern while she is learning this one. Don't forget to come on out Wednesday, October 8 from 4-8 pm for our open ride night!! $5 per person, Coggins required! Call if you have questions or need directions. (806)620-3207. There is a map on the homepage of this website. Great day at the Tumbleweed, if a little broken up. We worked Sugar this morning, still working on getting on her in saddle and getting off without her being ready to explode. Then I had an exam in History...ACK! Came back out and we took Sticks and Billy to the trail, had a very good ride, working leg cues with Sticks sidepassing along the trail. Then I ran into town for my fit test for the equestrian team. Back out to the barn, rode Gus in the arena. I'm always amazed at how smooth he is. He's a little squirrelly in his reining, mainly because he'd rather go talk to the other horses than do what I ask, but we can work through that. It's only the third time he's been ridden since we got him, so still a lot for us to learn about each other. But it's nice to have a stud that is as easy to handle as he is. Not to mention a looker!! Pics below... ignore my bad hair day...we've taken to jokingly calling Gus 'Fabio' because his long forelock is always swept across his eye and he tosses his head like a model to move them. Then we worked at grooming the horses, especially combing out manes and tails, getting Billy and Sticks a little better about the Show Sheen spray bottle. Then Luc and Eric took Rowdy and Seven down the trail and worked in the arena some. Everyone is moving along quite nicely. I expect Rowdy will go home around the middle of the month, and Sticks is being moved into boarder status for October. So with that, the Tumbleweed has several openings coming up. Now that the cooler months are soon to be upon us, let us work your horses so they are ready to go when the weather warms up and you are ready to hit the trails or the arena with them! Horse training always slows down in the winter. It seems like when people don't ride their horse when it gets cooler, they don't think about it needing training, but the winter is a great time to send your horse in for a tune up or get that colt started right so it will be ready to go when you are! Had a really nice, busy day at the barn today. Luc and Sticks worked the trail, Les came and trimmed Sugar's feet. Billy got some good work, including a lot of trotting and loping, in the arena. It's always a bit of a challenge to get the notion of speed combined with direction control when we first start picking up lopes. Rowdy and Seven took the trail with Luc and Brittany, then Rowdy got some good arena walk/trot/lope work in. I worked Catori in the round pen and in the arena without much trouble, but she wasn't quite ready when we went to go do the trail. But she's only been worked recently for two days, so she's in good shape for the shape she's in. Les will be back out around the third week of October. If you'd like to bring your horses over for trims, shoes, or dental work, call or text me to schedule it. He will be here trimming two of the horses and doing dental on three. It would be a good convenient time to come check out the facilities, and get your horse cared for. Next week, weather permitting, we will start opening up one afternoon/evening a week to bring your horses out to use the facilities. You will have access to the round pen, arena, and trail, as well as the staff being on hand to offer advice if you'd like. We will set up a couple of patterns in the arena. I will post more as we get closer, with more details, but I expect it would be from 4-8 pm one evening, likely about $10/horse. Horses will need to have a current Coggins, and riders will need to fill out a liability release. No studs, please. If we have enough RSVP, I would expect we could have pizza, water, tea, and sodas available. Yay for new happenings!
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