Thank you for good words to Shella - she really is my hero. People who train horses for driving know how confusing that thing dragging behind can be for a horse, so training horse in 3 calm minutes by people who have no driving experience at all - she must trust us completely. I knew that Shella is a very special horse but I did not realize how very special she really is until we needed to try this.
Hooray for Shella, she has always been my favourite! I am so glad to see your herd doing well, we miss you over on ES!
Well done, Anna!
You have done a great job in your gentle approach in training! That’s why this new work went so well, plus her very special mind.
The lady looks so happy. You bring back the joy of childhood to her…
How is the sledge made? how wide are the runners? It looks like the front metal bar shifts left or right to start a turn. Is that correct?
My grandfather’s bob sleigh runners were about 4 1/2" wide. How wide are yours? I have a Canadian cutter, and it’s runners are narrow, about 2" wide. It was designed for packed low snow on the roads. The bob sleigh was for deeper snow that may not be packed.
The blizzards that we just had gave a similar height as your snow. Our snow is heavy and wet, with layers of ice. One of our main roads into town still is only 1 1/2 lanes wide, with snow pack still on the road. It is plowed every day.
The state brought in a huge snow blower truck that looks like a corn combine. It has made 14’ tall snow mounds along the road. The snow is up in the branches of the trees.
Great job Anna and Shella! Glad you were able to help your neighbor. She looks very happy riding on the sledge. Your stories (and pictures) are always so wonderful and inspiring.
Shella has also always been my favorite horse of Anna’s - going back to the time she “went to town” to party with the people.
Is she in foal this winter?
And may I say, also, I loved your January “winter” pictures, such happy horses munching their hay in the snow!! Something about seeing horses with hay hanging out of their mouths in the winter months warms my heart.
Yes, Shella is in foal - the same sire as for Sonora so we shall hopefully see a full sister or brother of Sonora. She is due on Midsummer, about 20th June. It was my fault - after Sonora was born I wanted to be nice and give her a little break, but she felt worse instantly so I learned my lesson and this year she will be put in foal again straight in the first heat if the birth will be as easy as it was with Sonora. Shella has that kind of heaves which really improves by pregnancy hormones so the only solution to keep her quite healthy is to keep her in foal.
As you can see by pictures, Shella is in quite good condition and keeps nice weight. We were both with my vet watching her weight last summer but she did fine. I was expecting her to start loose weight after a month or so when she was feeding Sonora and was ready to provide extra food, but she had not lost weight at all. Of course, she is getting all the supplements, her herbal teas, pumpkin and carrots every day so I hope nonstop pregnancies will not tire her system out. I would like to give her an annual break but this is for her own good.
Sonora was born as a nice foal, no faults, and at present seems that Shella is passing her nice character to her babies as well. At least Sonora is really nice and easy to train, very human orientated. It is hard to say if she will be also a good jumper like her mum was, but she is well built and easy to train so I do hope that she will grow into nice sweet ammy horse. Shella teaches her daughter really well so it makes my human job with the foal much easier. When we started to walk Sonora on lead, for example, Shella was walking after her and each time when baby was trying to do something wrong, mum was there to tell her off.
The only thing that makes me think about Sonora now is her size - she is a big girl for her age but vet is sure that she is just fast growing baby and will reach only her genetic height (16.1-16.2) and will not grow into a giraffe.
On lead Sonora walks perfect already. See in this picture
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/13-02-10driwing/PICT0656.jpg
lead is in the hand but not attached to the halter - Shella walks with a human by herself, shoulder in shoulder, and also tells Sonora to do the same. Sonora does it for a while now and then runs in anticipation. She is still a baby 
Actually a very spoiled baby who believes that any human being is for nonstop cuddles and kisses.
We are promised heavy snow again the coming weekend and this time it will be nearly zero so we shall get the heavy, sticky snow with ice as well. Wild animals are really suffering here - deers, for example. Even hunting birds, like owls, are starving and falling off the trees exhausted to die in snow 
whicker, I will measure the sledge tomorrow and post here. It is a simple sledge
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/13-02-10driwing/PICT0651.jpg
to transport weight like wood or something like that. We also have 2 old sledge for humans
(similar to these
http://i.ss.lv/images/2009-11-24/168923/VnsBFUpgQV8=/the-agriculture-agricultural-animals-horses-donkeys-other-1.800.jpg
)
but they are much higher and I was worried that they will be much easier to tip over. The old lady is very brave and was laughing that she is not frightened if the sledge will turn over - all what can happen - she will have her face in snow
But I was worried, of course - my great-grandmother was killed in an accident - she was driving the team of three horses, was speeding, and the posh high sledge turned over on the turning, fell on her and broke her back. She lived a month after the accident but there were no hope then for 86 yo to heal the broken backbone. It happened on 1898, when old ladies were strong enough to drive the team of three by themselves This story is in my mind since I was a child so I was worried about Shella as much as for the old lady, but all went incredibly well.
How many horses do you have now? Are you going to sell the babies? You guys are amazing…
Anna, Please, an Update
Hi Anna,
It is spring here in Virginia. The horses are shedding their winter hair, and galloping in the pastures again. No flies yet, but the frogs are singing. The birds are migrating. Every day is a new soft surprise. When I ride on the trails and play with my horses, teaching them new things, I think of you.
Please tell us, how you are doing?
I am so glad this thread has been resurrected… I completely missed the story of Shella pulling the sled with the elderly lady. Anna, you have got to write all of your adventures into a book or even a movie. I am so jealous of your life!
Hello everybody!
I had not had disappeared, I just do not have much news to report. We had a really hard winter and everything was such an effort so I did not feel to stay late and write much. You know, when weather for weeks is below -20C horses need so much attention - heating up water at home, taking down to stables to offer them lukewarm drinking water took nearly all the time. If you just get the water from the ice-hole, water is already nearly frozen when you reach the stables. And elderly horses as well as my heavey girls can not drink such a cold water. I do have that one old rescue who’s lips were turned apart in a cold winter years ago when she was left outside tied at metal post at - 23C - now really cold drinking water is painful for her.
Then making a warm evening meals at night and so on and on and on…
Then suddenly spring came and we had serious floods all over the country but again - our horses were safe, so nothing exciting so far.
Snowdrops are out, the first crocuses, grass under heavy snow blanket had survived well and horses are out enjoying pastures.
Last week we introduced our 10 mo Sonora to cross-tiess and mane pulling (no problems at all with both). She was getting a bit big headed (she also had her first heat last week) but after few repeated walking on lead lessons she again walks and stops along with us on loose lead. She is a good girl
All others also are doing well, so we survived this past winter.
Yay for the update! Glad to hear you are all doing well.
Our latest rescue is just a buzzard with a broken wing. Now he has a bar in his wing and we all do hope that it will heal well and will be able return back in wild. At the beginning he was not eating by himself so force-feeding was a bit of a job, but now he feels much better and has his mice supply arranged so we do hope for fast recovery.
I know, it is not a horse, but anyway, here are some pictures:
When he was spotted with broken wing at Riga airport
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/15-03-10common%20buzzard/DSC00725.jpg
Before surgery
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/15-03-10common%20buzzard/PICT0908.jpg
2 days later after the surgery
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/17-03-10cb/PICT0926.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/17-03-10cb/PICT0917.jpg
It’s about time, young lady. I posted several weeks ago asking if anybody had heard from you.
Glad to hear that you survived the winter. Keep us up-to-date on the status of the mares. Looking forward to a report on the first foal!
P.S. - that looks like a hawk, not a buzzard. Just curious…
It is a common buzzard, Buteo Buteo, they do look like this one here This is a quite young boy.
And here one flood picture from today (not in my area, we are on safe ground)
http://www.ziemellatvija.lv/resources/news/500x331x331x500/20100405194055-DSC09926.JPG
Mares have a long way to go, mid May the earliest.
Your bird looks familiar, so I looked it up. The European buzzard
Buteo buteo
is actually member of the genus which also includes the red-tail hawk
Buteo jamaicensis
which are quite common in most parts of the US. Has the wing healed enough for him to fly at all?
In the US, we use the term “buzzard” for vultures, such as the Turkey vulture
Cathartes aura
or the Black vulture
Coragyps atratus
, both of which are carrion eaters and scavengers and stink to high heaven (I used to do wildlife rehab.). They do, however, clean up the road kill.
As the spring is coming, there are more things going on and this one picture I really like
It is 80 years old Peter’s mother today (I know, no helmet, but it happened so unexpected that we had not had time to prepare).
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/15-04-10mother/PICT1349.jpg
Knowing the fact that January we were really worried that we might loose her soon, today was shocking for me. I offered her leg, but she put the leg in stirrup by herself and jumped on! And at the same style jumped off. I’m still speechless! (OK, this horse is only 15 h, not one of our usual 17,3 h giraffes so it made things easier, but anyway!)
Wow, all the power to her!! I hope when I am 80 I can be as spry as she is!! I am much younger and most of the time too chicken to sit on our mare!!!
Which horse/mare is this?
Rule Britannia !!
What a woman!!!
Oh to be that way at that age someday :yes:
This is Harpuna, our boarder’s little 6 yo mare - she is pony/TB mix, 15 h, and really sparky- not suitable for okd lady actually. But today was her “good day” and we took a risk - Harpuna has matured quite well under calm influence of Shella - when arrived she was spooky and sparky. Now she is only sparky but much more controllable. And they both enjoyed so much that time together. Peter’s mother is now full of ideas about trying harder and ride
