A Day At Little Remuda Ranch

You might wonder what I do at Little Remuda Ranch. Fran Robertson is the owner and trainer.
Well today was a typical day. I start out giving grain and supplements to the horses and the mares with their babies. This year there are three babies, two fillies and one little colt. Cesar has already fed everyone their hay and checked their water before I get there at 9:30 AM. If it has been a cold enough night for them to be blanketed I take the horse blankets off and turn certain ones out into the pastures. If any of the horses needs doctoring, care for cuts, injuries, etc. I bring them in for Fran to check and treat them. Today we had a vet in to check on lameness in a colt that was gelded (castrated) last Wednesday. It seems that he may have swelling in the groin that is pressing on a nerve but he was put on 7 days stall rest and an mild anti-inflammatory medication. He will be checked again next week.
Today we started working with the 2 year old colts. They are getting used to the feel of having a saddle on and a bit in their mouths. We lunge them in the round pen. (That means we have them trot on command around the pen and them have them turn towards us when they stop.) This is all based on their psychology and how they react to their environment in the wild.
We make sure that all of the horses are exercised every other day. All of the horses at the ranch are trained towards being finished horses. At a lot of ranches the brood mares are just expected to have babies but we work all of the horses to reinforce their training the goal being to have them be well trained, safe riding mounts. I usually ride two to three horses a day. I warm them up, get them limber with trotting, backing and maneuvering through a pattern of obstacles, then Fran takes over and puts them through their more difficult maneuvers.
I have been doing this for a month and I know that I have found my passion in working with these horses.