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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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...

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.