Happy Birthday Max and updates

Okay, wow! It's been almost a year since my last post.  There has been a lot going on in life, but not much as far as the horses go.

Firstly, Max turns the big 2-0 today.  I guess he is officially an old man now. 

I haven't been doing much with Max or Maggie this year. They got to spend summer getting fat.  Given the winter so far, that's probably not too bad.  My life has been crazy and will continue that way for a while.  Max and Maggie are getting another treat dispenser (I'm pregnant) in about 6 weeks.  Little O loves to come out to the barn and help feed.  And he's crazy about riding with me, especially trotting.  I think the kid likes to bounce.  Hopefully the new one will too. 

Contest @ DIYHO

Olivia at DIY Horse Ownership is having a contest for Valentine's Day.  Be sure to check it out!

Visit her page here.

This is Max's treat face. He wants more treats.

I tried...

Last Sunday was generally lovely, aside from the wind. I had a notion in my head to see what Maggie would do under saddle out of the fenced in pasture.  The TL:DR version is that I have some ideas of what I need to do and how to do them.

We started out in the pasture and ended up in the front yard. She was being good, if a bit lookie.  Then we tried to cross the driveway and head back into the woods. This is when she decided to fight me, back up when I put leg on, and just generally not go forward. Eventually I got her going forward, hopped off and decided to hand walk her into the woods.  At this point my husband joined us.  I hopped back on to cross the creek since I didn't have proper footwear.  He hopped on her on the other side. She was very forward and fighting him a bit, but didn't really do anything bad again other than hollering. 

When we headed back, I hopped back on to cross the creek.  My husband ended up holding on to the lead rope attached to her halter bridle while I tried slow her down. She was very forward and pushing through the bit. I probably should have started to circle her where I could on the trail, but I was so afraid of her running through the bit and bolting. There was much hollering on her part, Max back at the barn, and eventually the neighbor's horse joined in too.

Finally standing still. Yes, my riding is this bad right now.

We went back into my little "arena" in the pasture and she started getting very impatient. She would not stand still, head tossing, pawing. I was getting frustrated. I circled her and made her move until she could stand still for a few seconds, then hopped off.

I realize that I haven't done much work with either of them lately (Maggie, really ever since getting her last June). I can't expect to let them lay about, hop on and have an awesome ride.  They both need more regular work.  My plan moving forward is do start doing groundwork and riding in the pasture when I'm able. Right now that can only happen on the weekends when the weather is half decent.  But maybe once DST hits, I can start doing more work with them in the evenings after the kid goes to bed.

I also question my bit choices. Both go in a double jointed eggbutt snaffle right now.  They were both lesson ponies several years ago, then pretty much sat around for a year or two before I picked them up.  I wonder if they are somewhat dead to a mild bit.  Or they don't like the double joints.  Maybe a mullen mouth with a port.  I just don't know.

I also desperately need to get back into riding shape. As can be seen in the picture, I am leaning forward.  And doing this a lot.  It's probably both defensive and because I lack core strength. My legs are another issue, but always have been in the past too.

WW (mostly): Inturrupted Naptime

Naptime

I couldn't resist a snuggle and a selfie with the yak. He didn't get up until I started heading towards the barn. 

I also have a new instagram account for the farm.  You can follow me @howlingowlfarm1.I'll be posting random stuff about our little "farm", not just horses.  But be assured, there will still be lots of these two.

Saturday Fun

If fun is spending two hours with three years worth of barn dust falling in your face. We don't have true electricity running to the barn yet.  Right now, we just run an extension cord down from the house.  During the summer, this usually isn't a problem since the barn has clear ridge panels (light) and the water doesn't freeze.However, in winter we need to keep two heated buckets running and have some sort of light to feed by.  Before Saturday, I had to rely on a single lamp at one end of the barn and a flashlight for the other end. Over the weekend, I found myself child free for a few hours and strung up a bunch of white Christmas lights all over the barn. It's festive and certainly helps, but didn't give me as much light as I was hoping for.  I can't wait to get real lights in there.

At least it's festive!  Both horses had their noses buried in their feed buckets.

After I strung up the lights and dusted myself off as much as possible I decided to take Maggie for a walk.  We have a new neighbor a little ways down that has a horse (yay!). She's been going around to other neighbors asking to ride across their property, including ours. I hadn't tested out Maggie in the creek yet and really wanted to get her feet wet.  Our spot to get into the creek is currently blocked by a tree that came down, so I wandered down to the new neighbors and used her area to get in. Maggie walked right in without issue. She even played a little in the water with her nose. We I decided to keep going on the other side and check out the neighbors trails. Maggie was trying so hard to be good.  Max was hollering back home for most of the time.  Maggie started hollering when Max finally stopped for a few minutes, but was mostly quiet for the walk.  She was on alert for most of the walk, but never balked or spooked. She was extremely interested in the big field nearby. My only complaint would be her trying to walk ahead of me. She never rushed, but was pushing a little. I resorted to swinging the lead rope in front of us and let her whack herself on the nose when she got too far ahead.  I need to get across the creek on our property and start bushwacking some more trails back there.  The far part is so full of thorns it's hard to walk through there.

Now, I just need the confidence to ride her back in the woods.

Changes

Just as an FYI for anyone who follows me, I will be changing my blog name and domain address to the following:  Horses of HOF - horsesofhof.blogspot.com

I'm not sure if the feed will update automatically once it's changed or not.  I may be creating a new blog with the old howlingowlfarm.blogspot.com domain.  Only time will tell. 

Here's a picture that is the complete opposite of the weather we had over the weekend :)

A Beautiful Browband

A while back, Stacey from Behind the Bit held a contest for one of her handmade browbands. I won!  She said she had made a mistake when making it. It honestly took me a while to spot the possible mistake, but I'm still not sure if it's the one she was talking about. Can you spot it? 

It's a gorgeous and well made browband. I was a little worried it would be too big for Max, but it fits nicely. I love the curved band she used. It will allow the beading to show when I braid up Max's excessive forelock. 

I apologize for Max's forelock. It was really windy and I kind of tucked it up under the bridle to keep it out of the way.  Pony only wanted grass.