Sunday, December 18, 2016

Photo Dump

Just because I have no content and a few photos...

Ahh! Scary Christmas stuff!  Run away!

Really?  We just want breakfast!

Okay, fine, I'll play along.  Happy??

My barn cleaning buddy.

Best buds forever.

Then she came in and became PITA barn cleaning buddy who would not move.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

WW: Makes Me Smile

I get the feeling a lot of us could use a pick-me-up today. So here are some pictures of the animals that make me smile, or laugh, or just shake my head and call the pony a shithead.


















After I looked through all those pictures, I realize I never really introduced Maggie on here.  That will be coming up soon.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

2pointober and winter

My start time was 5 seconds and my final time was 49 seconds which resulted in an 940% improvement according to the magical formula. Since I did this bareback, I think that's pretty damn good.

I'm also counting 2pointober as no stirrup November, since, ya-know...bareback and all. I actually do want to get back into something a little more secure and take the mare around the pasture. That is one of goals.

Winter is coming, and so are the yaks. (recycled pic, but we are getting there)


The other one is to ride at least once each weekend. With the changing weather, the impending loss of daylight in the evenings, and simply not having enough time, I won't be riding during the week. Somehow this decision makes me feel better.  I think 2pointober helped to set a precedent for riding on the weekends and I'd like to keep that going for as long as the weather holds. Even if I only get 15 minutes and ride bareback in the paddock.

Old picture, but he's been doing some of this again lately.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Of 2pointober, Shenanigans, and Prison Breaks


I rode!  Both ponies!  Saturday was gorgeous and as soon as the kid went down for his morning nap, I chucked the monitor at my husband and told him I was going riding.

First up was the mare.  It was windy, so we started in the paddock just walking.  Then some short trotting. She was doing well, so we moved to my sectioned off portion of the pasture near the paddock.  We did some more walking, tripped in some high grass, but kept going. I had her doing reasonable straight lines and got some times in for 2pointober.  My max time was 16 seconds, which is big improvement over my initial time of 5 seconds.  I attribute it to our ability to walk mostly straight. I should note that I'm still doing all this bareback.
On high alert in the pasture. Don't know why.

Then I got real brave.  I hopped off to move the "gate" (a step in post), hopped back on and we wandered into the pasture.  She was very looky and alert, so we just did wide slow circles, serpentines and wobbly lines near the pasture. Then slowly worked our way out. We rode around half the pasture, but stayed away from the road. Something kept getting her attention in one corner we couldn't see. Since I was bareback and didn't want her to learn Max's spin and bolt tricks, I didn't take her that far.  At one point we were able to see Max locked in the barn and they hollered at each other, but Maggie really didn't try to get back to the barn like I expected her to. Good mare.

I finally got off and left her in the pasture.  Last time I put her in the barn and rode Max, she tried to break the door down. This time she just ate grass where she could see Max and me.  I just rode Max in the paddock for a bit. We did walking, trotting and stopping.  Nothing exciting to report other than he was very good.  I hopped off and thought I was done until I spying the extra crib mattress in the barn. I had gotten this thing used when I bought a crib at a garage sale. I refuse to buy anything like that used that can't go in the washer, so it sat in our garage for a while. I've been wanting to use it for desensitization/obstacles, but haven't gotten around to it, until Saturday.  I think the pictures tell the whole story.


The hard part is making him stand. He wants to keep following me.
On the teeter-totter bridge.
No halter, never been exposed to the thing before today...why the hell not?  Shortly after this the mattress fell off. He just wanted his cookie.

This morning, we had a bit of a shock.  It's dark outside when I leave for work.  I get up, let the dogs out, and go back inside.  All is quiet.  Go back outside to put things in my car for the day, still quiet. Finally, head out the door with the kid to leave, while my husband goes down to feed and what do we hear?  Thundering hooves coming right for me from the opposite direction of the barn.  Those shits had broken down the fence and were gorging themselves on grass.  We couldn't see them until they were nearer the barn, so I don't know how far they had wandered.  I hope they stuck to our yard and didn't venture into the neighbors garden or worse, the road.  I know it was the mare.  Max is too lazy to try to break anything down.  Thankfully Cinderella stayed in the paddock and there weren't any noticeable injuries, though I will have to have a closer look after work. I'm just thankful they didn't get hit and are so greedy for food.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Drunken 2ptober

I haven't ridden since August. Today I managed to get a half hour free and rode both the beasts. Apparently I'm very lazy but also love to torture myself. I didn't want to dig out the saddles or put much effort into riding so I just threw on a bridle and rode bareback.

It's also 2ptober so why not do my baseline too?

Today I started with Maggie. We wandered around the paddock like a couple of drunks. We need to work on walking a straight line.  Also got a baseline of a whopping 5 seconds.

Then I rode Max. He is so different from Maggie. He feels like a narrow TB compared to her. He has a smoother trot and can still walk reasonably straight.  After riding Maggie I couldn't go longer  than 5 seconds. The entire time I was riding, Maggie was hollering in her stall. I had to end my ride early when she started trying to break down the sliding door. Max didn't care at all about being separated.  Good boy!

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Custom Artwork

A while back, Emilie over at becausepony was raising funds for something (I honestly can't remember what).   I purchased a pack of her blank greeting cards featuring the one and only Crumble. His looks remind me of Max, except Max's forelock isn't quite as crazy long. For every purchase, you got entered into a drawing to have a piece of custom artwork done.  And I won! 



She did a painting in oil pastels on a greenish type background.  It's gorgeous and I love it!

I sent her several pictures, but it was mostly based off of this one.
Showing off his new bridle way back when.


Sunday, July 10, 2016

The Most Awesome Saddle Pad

Seriously.

I was in need of a saddle pad and was casually browsing custom ones online without the intention of buying.  This is what happens when you're exhausted and on leave with a newborn for several weeks.

Llamas!  And not just llamas, but blue llamas! My favorite color :)


So, I saw a very small image of what looked like a llama pattern. Had to click...no questions there. It took me to The Chestnut Mare's Etsy. And what to do I see?  Awesomeness.

All I want is grass!

 I paid more for this saddle pad than I probably should have, but it's so awesome and handmade. So I don't feel bad.  This saddle pad is very well made.  I wasn't sure of the coloring and asked The Chestnut Mare for her opinion. She sent me some photos with several binding colors up against the fabric to help me choose.  Great customer service!

New stirrup leathers...I was too lazy to adjust for such a short ride.
The pictures don't do it justice. I need to remember to not take pictures in direct sunlight.  I also didn't realize the flaps were so long on my endurance saddle and I should have gotten the dressage sized pad.

I had to do it! (No, you don't ride llamas but you can drive them)
As a side note, I have very much been MIA from blogging and reading blogs, especially over the last 3 weeks or so. Having a kid and essentially starting a business while working full time kind of limits the amount of time I have.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Ermmm.....

When was my last post?  Sorry!

The main reason I'm posting is because I'm a bit horse-fund broke and could use a RW giftcard.  Why am I broke?  See #3 below.

Oliva at DIY Horse Ownership has a new domain and is celebrating by holding a couple of contests. Check out her site.

I do have some posts in the works. Teasers!

1. I bought the most awesomest of awesome saddle pads in the world. Yes, awesomest is a word now.

2. Beautiful custom artwork

3. Can't have just one Haflinger :D

The Three(!) Amigos. Max being goofy as usual. Someone else is not amused.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Redheadlins Blog Hop: HR Complaints

How about an excellent filler post until I can get around to actually writing the 3 awesome posts I have floating around in my head.

From Redheadlins

"If your horse was your co-worker what kind of reports would you have to make to the HR department?"

Complaint:  Max ate everyone's food in the fridge and he's not even sorry about it. Yes, I know it was him. He didn't try to hide it at all.

Complaint: He constantly tries to get out of doing actual work.  We are supposed to be working together but I constantly feel like I have to nag  him to get something done.

Complaint:  Naps in the middle of the day. (not really a complaint, but it would be amusing to have a coworker who blatantly napped at 2pm each day.

Max tries to get out of work unless there is food involved.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Recommendations Please

In other words, do my research for me.

I'm still very much a beginner rider. I may have balance, but I don't understand a lot of what is discussed in articles, blogs, etc.  For this post, I'll just ask about collection and the top line.

I have yet to come across an article or video explaining what a top line is. It's referenced a lot...this horse has no top line. Look how the top line filled out. And so on.  What exactly are you looking at or for when describing a top line?  Are there any YouTube videos, or before/after pictures with descriptions showing the change in top line after it's developed?

The same goes for collection. I can't spot a collected horse or tell you if he's stepping under himself.  About the only thing I know about collection is to look for the back hoof stepping in the same spot as the front and the head placement at or near vertical.

So, do you know of any YouTube vidoes or articles with pictures that will help me to better understand collection and top line?

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Making Progress...maybe

Everyone's all "I ride my horse 4 times per week" and I'm like "yup. Sat on my horse a couple of times so far this year".

However, a couple of weekends ago, I felt like progress was being made.  I took advantage of Riding Warehouse's 15% sale and got a girth and webbers for the Wintec endurance saddle I bought last year. Now I can finally get it on Max and do an evaluation.

I also got some supplies to fence in a section of pasture to make an "arena".   Setting up said arena didn't happen because I had to set up for these guys...who just happened to follow me home. It was also crazy windy to the point where I was out of breath walking down to the mailbox.

Ducklings!
Last weekend it was cold and nasty. And snowed! And the kiddo got sick. Screw that! The rest of this week and weekend is supposed to be beautiful. I'm going to see if I can set O up in the pack n play in the shade and get that fence done. And maybe even get on the pony. 

Plus, I have what I believe will be the awesomest of awesome saddle pads coming in the mail tomorrow. I can't wait!  It's the perfect excuse to get the pony groomed and tacked up. 

I like big butts and I cannot lie...



Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Rode Max

Yesterday, D got home from work early enough that I could have him watch Baby O for a little bit while I did some chores. I went out to water the experimental garden (you can see it in the background. I put up hoop houses with cold weather seeds earlier this year. So far so good), and feed the animals.

It was a very windy day and as I was feeding, the town's tornado sirens went off (state-wide test day). Normally, we can't hear them, but the wind was coming from town. I asked D if he could hear them in the house.  He couldn't.  Good to know.  Wind + sirens = pony on edge.

Rode the pony!  He wasn't impressed, but obliged.

After I gave Max his grain, I decided to groom him since he's finally shedding all over.  Something in my head thought it would be a good idea to get up on him in the paddock just to see what it was like. And it went fairly well. I could tell he was a little on edge and kept getting distracted, but he never offered to spook.  I even tried trotting him a short distance. He listened (yay!) and didn't seem like he was going to offer up a buck or bolt (double yay).  One thing we need to work on is standing still.  I had put him in place to take the photo, but after a couple of seconds he veered off to the right.  So back we went. 

One interesting thing about this short ride was that it felt he was responding to light leg pressure.  It really didn't take much for me to get him going into a walk or trot. It almost seems like he knows all this stuff, he just chooses to ignore what you're asking out of laziness. 


Monday, March 14, 2016

I continue to live

I continue to live and have a horse.  I haven't done much with said horse recently, but some work has been done. A couple of weeks ago, I worked with Max again with lunging.  I was pretty darn impressed with him. It was a nice windy day with at least two houses near by doing target practice. Boy wasn't really spooky, though it was hard to keep his attention on me. He did try to evade by doing his buck/bolt thing on the line, but I was able to hold on and yelled at him to whoa...which he actually did. Good boy! 

The paddock was slick with mud, but I decided to pop on him bareback just to see where my own balance was after having the baby.  He wasn't fazed at all, but my core leaves something to be desired. We only did one lap and that was enough. I was glad I got off when I did because shortly after there was a big cannon-like boom.  We still don't know what it was, but there have been other booms since and I heard some law enforcement agency is investigating. Local theories are explosives or aliens. 

Derpy pony is derpy


More recently, Max met Baby O.  He wasn't impressed once he realized Baby O neither had treats nor was he edible. Or, at least that I wouldn't allow Max to get close enough to try.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Ground work

Baby O is keeping me quite busy. I haven't had much time to see the yak let alone work with him. I managed about 30 minutes a couple of weeks ago and 45 minutes today. The boy needs a  refresher. Both times we worked on leading, personal space and not diving for grass. The grass has been a constant struggle.

Two weeks ago he spooked and took off bucking while we were lunging.  I wasn't able to hold on so he got rewarded with pasture time while I went to retrieve him.  He tried a similar stunt today but I managed to hold on. I'm proud to say that after that incident he was really good on the lunge.

Today we also worked on yielding and standing still for mounting. I didn't actually get on but just stood up on the block. I'm surprised at how good he was today.  It was windy and felt like an early spring day where you'd expect a fresh horse.  There was also someone doing target practice nearby. He was a good boy.

Friday, January 22, 2016

Happy Birthday Max

Max turns 18 today.  He doesn't act his age at all, the little shit.  Or maybe he does in human years...still a pony though.

With having the kid and it being so cold, I haven't been able to go out and actually visit with the boy since the weekend.  Even though he is only 100 yards from the house.  This weekend I will get out there, maybe try some groundwork if it's not too cold, and give him his last Uncle Jimmy's lik it thingie.  That's his birthday present.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the birthday boy. I'm sure I've posted them all before.






Sunday, January 17, 2016

New Year, New Life

Long time, no post.  The big news is that baby O is here!  He was born on January 3rd, so between that and the holidays, things have been crazy. 

The pony is feral.  My sister-in-law came down to cook and play with O the other night.   She rode Max for a bit while I watched. She's a much better rider and way more confident than me. It's a good thing she did because now I know what I'm in for. The feral beast tried some evasion tactics which included bucking and bolting. My SIL handled it well, but seeing that did nothing for my confidence. It did, however, solidify my roundpen idea.  Once the ground thaws this spring, I'm going to put a simple one in. She did say that he was a good ride and was trying to be a good boy.

I made a post with my 2016 goals. It can be found here.  I don't think it was published in the feed, but is linked off to the side bar on my blog.

Max got an Uncle Jimmy's lik-it thingie from my mom for Christmas. I ended up having to move it because he got frustrated with not being able to get a hold of the thing.  But he loves it now.

I can taste it! 

But I can't bite it. Help! You do it!