Annacrew- My concern with the halter is not that is strong enough but will it break, as it should , if she gets caught on something. Personally, I always use leather not even a break away…Just want to keep your babies safe…
I am so glad they are thriving with you…it is so rewarding isn’t it?
New pictures?
Look at the shine on that coat!! Anna, Puika looks fantastic!!
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I just read this whole thread and want to say what a great job you’ve done with both horses! It’s nice to see how much common sense you have!
Also, I wanted to say that you have beautiful dogs, I love shepherds, I am the owner of a slightly neurotic one 
and have always wanted a st. bernard 
Thank you for the compliments, but it is just Mother Nature job - we had not had a chance to brush Puika a lot as they want to be close to each other and I try reduce the amount of different dust around Shella, so Puika will be brushed again when Shella will be taken to the stallion - so far no signs
All our dogs are rescues from local shelter, only St.Bernard has more devastating story than others but she seems to be nearly repaired now 
both physically and mentally.
And now the tonight’s news - my niece met the horses! And horses met her! And it seemed to be love from the first sight. Puika indeed somehow knows that she is a little foal and treated her like that, so hurrah! A big relief!
First we went to say hello and introduce ourselves to Shella.
Niece Sonora (she is five now) was promised horses, so somehow she was prepared, and on the long journey back I was filling her head with rules about horses so she did everything just right and so did Shella.
Here are few pictures of their first meeting:
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Then we went to say hello to Puika, and meeting was so sweet and nice as well as with Shella - no pictures at all, sorry, I was to concerned about his reactions, safety and all that. Careful and very gentle sniff and then - a careful and gentle lick. Very gentle. So she is a little foal of our pack for both of them. What a relief!
And here some other kind of farm pleasures that need to be greeted and introduced
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Boy Anna, those horses are lucky to have found you! I LOVE reading your posts, with so much sense and enjoyment. You were made for horses!
Today niece had earned her first time on the horse back. (To earn this she needed to learn to take care of horses, and she does it with such a love and care, and RESPONSIBILITY, that we decided that she is ready).
If you would see how happy and proud she was! And Shella was best horse ever. Before we had arguments with Peter about how safe is Shella to walk these kids around, but today Peter learned how different Shella is. He was walking Shella around and I was looking after niece and tried to snap some pictures.
Now Peter believes that it is SAFE after the proper race with galloping in full put a child on her back and she is not moving. She is following the human leader like it is glass of water on her back that can not be spilt out. And after we gave reins niece to walk her around by herself.
After the ride niece was soo extatic that she wolunteered to bring the wood in and made dinner And I’m sure that Shella enjoyed the baby ride too. Puika must wait a bit more for such honour, but soon, very soon we shall try niece on Puika’s back too.
So - niece’s first time ever on the horse
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Thank you!
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I love you!!!
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What a wondeful story! You guys are the highlight of my day! First you get the horse then another and now the entire family is riding! and they all look happy and healthy! How is Shella’s coughing and breathing problems…? I had a horse with heaves so I remember all to well how that was…
Keep the pictures coming…
Now can you imagine your life without horses? Welcome to the addicted club…remember it is an illness that cannot be cured? hahahahahaha!
Anna, has Puika been given the honor of letting your niece sit on his back yet? It is so sweet that he licked her, very cute!
Sorry, not yet. They both are a bit overexcited as Shella’s special days started, and it makes Puika a bit too sturdy to try out such experiment.
Yesterday Peter rode her to stallion, but she said no. Tomorrow we shall try again - let’ s see if she will be in better mood. By Peter’s opinion, Shella is not very impressed by the offered stallion
If she will reject the stallion completely, not a big deal, we are not desperate to breed her. But, anyway, no riding for niece for few next days.
But we have one offtopic foster project - an orphaned swan baby, he has been here for a week and so far so good. he is 11 days old now and growing well. So niece is very busy with him already so not a big sorrows for this breeding thing.
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Ok, everybody! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Poor wee thing. Glad he/she found you and your niece!
The second meeting - not so strict No
Tonight I took Shella to the second meeting with the stallion… She likes him more that the first time 2 days ago, but still she did not say “yes”. We shall try tomorrow again for the last time, and then will try the next time again.
It was a nice 2 miles walk one way - as I do not feel ready to ride her in traffic, we just walked. Good job that I do have long legs. It was lovely walk, very nice, calm evening, and we both enjoyed it.
Shella was stopped many times to say hello to the local farmers and she got a lot of kisses and hugs, and enjoyed every minute of her public life on Friday’s night.
So, here comes pictures.
What do you think? This one again? I do not know…
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He seems a nice guy, but…
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Hmmm… NO! Not tonight!
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Let’s go home, mum!
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On the way home just passing the castle in the village
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Tomorrow many are working as night from Monday to Tuesday is a Midsummer celebration night here, complete public holidays with BBQ, homemade cheese and a LOT of beer… And our grandgrand…grandmothers believed that it is the best night to work on babymaking, so maybe Shella has picked the wibes and is preparing herself for some fun on Midsummer’s night.
Tonight Shella did it! They did it! It was beautiful! So we shall go for another meeting tomorrow, and then the waiting will start to see if it worked OMG! I’m sooooo excited!
Shella had her own opinion about romancing so today she broke of the chain , went to Puika, helped him to break the chain, and then they both had a nice fun around the fields.
I was not at home, so poor Peter needed to sort out the whole disaster. And when he managed to catch Puika, the little swan baby escaped and appeared around the corner to say hello!
Imagine Peter trying to hold sturdy Puika (in complete stallion mode) and baby swan at the same time. Peter decided that baby must be saved first so let Puika run away and took baby in, put him in cage and then chasing Puika started from zero again
When I returned from town, there was all hanky doory and completely knocked man
But after such nice romancing Shella was in the perfect mode to meet stalion. So at least that. And day is just perfect - summer solstice… Here we believe that it is just the best time to make a baby So if it will take, we must have at least one happy and healthy foal next year!
How funny about Shella being romantic on Midsummer holiday! I think they would call Puika a “teaser” in the US. What kind of BBQ do they have in Latvia? I live in the city where they have the “World Champion BBQ Festival”. Here, it’s slow cooked pork with secret sauce. How do you cook it there?
Another day and another adventure, I love how you see fun and humor in every situation. I hope the next stallion visit goes as well and Shella will be a wonderful mom.
So tonight here is the Midsummer celebration. Beer, homemade cheese, bonfires all around country and some BBQ. There is no special recipes - each family do their own BBQ, but mostly it is marinated pork. Or sausages that you can quickly roast when bonfire calms down…
Anyway, peter dressed up a bit for festivity feeling (locals are dressing up in our national costumes, but as peter is not a local boy, he dressed up a bit different
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First he rode Puika, all ok, then went with Shella
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and then he spotted that our neighbour’s sheep have break out of pastures and are all over the road. So he went to give a hand and chase them back away from traffic. Imagine the picture People were jumping out of cars to make pictures of him
Then was nieces turn, and she got reins today - festivity bonus for being such a good girl
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She was so proud!
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And then horse must be walked to cool off, right? So here they go!
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Niece is having so much fun! Can you see that they are bounded or it is just me, proud auntie?Tomorrow we are going to stallion for the last time
Looks like everyone had a blast!! Peter looks great up on Shella, all dressed up!
Let us know how it goes tomorrow! I love reading your posts now, I’m sure they will be just as exciting with a new foal!
Seems like we are getting into it. We realised that we forget some shopping… quick thought - car or horse… decission - horse as horses need to be ridden anyway, Peter already had a beer and with horse it will be quicker as he can take some shorcuts… so off he goes to the local shop (2 miles) for shoppings
I think we are getting into this horse thing, do we?
You guys are just to cute! I love it…you are hooked now…Can you get a ticket for drinking while riding? heehee! But PLEASE be careful…your reflexes can be impaired very easily or your balance thrown off…
How is Shella doing? Is Peter going to get jealous if she goes to see the stallion?
New pics please…
Everybody looks so cute for the Holiday! What fun to ride (or walk) the horse to town and have everyone along the way greet you!
Shella reminds me of a television show here long ago called Green Acres, wherein the city boy moves to the country and takes his wife with him. She does not like country life and longs to go back to the city! Not that the riding school was exactly a city, but you can tell Shella loves to be around lots of people and activity - that is what she is used to. It makes it so nice for you as you can easily take her to town and know she will behave - not so nice when she decides to “go on her own!”
Tell Puika not to take it personally!
All kidding aside, Shella seems like a dream companion for you and for Puika. Hopefully she will like being a mom again.
Your common sense (dare I say “horse sense”) in caring for these horses is an inspiration to me.
All in all - very good day
This was in general very very good day. Shella’s heat is over, that’sone thing, so she went to village shop and back and had a blast. Yes, she is a bit of tart - she really enjoys crowdy places and many folk around so trip to the shop was exactly her thing - she got soooo many kisses there - people just asked can they say hello to her and Peter let them be… And Shella just stood at the shop enjoying being in the centre of the attention.
When they returned, we just gave reins to niece to walk horse up and down the road, to cool off and dry out. You know, it just brings tears in my eyes to see these two together… Niece has no fear, and Shella just likes her so she is very very good. Niece tells her stories, pats her and they are having so much fun.
Then Peter rode Puika who was very very obedient today.
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Puika so easy goes into canter now. Light command andhere he goes! He is still very heavy so no long cantering, he needs excercise level to be increased gradually, but at least he goes into canter so easy.
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Peter told me to try it out. It was just brilliant! I even made Puika step back! OK, he did only about 10 steps back, but with me! Me… making him work! WOW! I was soo proud! He was great on left turn, he was great on right turn, all these things. Brilliant! Peter commented that he can see how different Puika is with me on his back and that he is jealous - Puika loves me more than Peter
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I do not know is it right or not, but he is such a good boy now. he justneeds more and more training so he can learn what exactly we want, but he tries, he really does.
And then, of course, we tried the last thing! We put our 5 yo niece Sonora on Puika’s back. She had not had reins, of course, just sitting was enough, but he tried to be a good boy and it was great.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/barryz15/summer08/25-06-08/PICT4389.jpg
I’m sure now that he likes niece and tries really hard to be gentle with her.
And the last thing that I’m really really happy. Niece got a strong lesson. She was holding Puika’s lead, lost attention, Puika sneaked after a lead and grabbed her hand accidentally. No damages as he instantly released it and felt really guilty (now he knows exactly that it is no no thing) so we did not punished him, just short telling off.
I’m so happy because niece is so much in love and being just 5, she is loosing attention (and we all know that it is dangerous), and this was a perfect lesson without a serious damage. Otherwise I’m just obsessed auntie lecturing about safety again and again…
And quess what her comments were after we worked out that there are no damages from teeth? She said that it happened because she is just starting to learn, but she wants to learn to do it all properly so she can become Lorenzo, the Flying French man - she even tried to figure out how to skip the school thing in city so she can stay here all year around and ride every day after the school
