I missed it!

2013 was a big year for me in terms of horses.  I bought Max and brought him to the boarding barn on July 13th.  Later that year, around Christmas, he came home.  Two days later I bought and brought home Cinderella.

Max is my first, and so far only, horse.  We've had our ups and downs and continue to butt heads occasionally. He isn't being ridden at the moment, but I have plans to at least climb on and walk around a little.

This is one of the first pictures I have of him modeling his new tack at the boarding barn. The saddle is a Wintec close contact that was purchased used. After sitting in a pasture for several years, he wasn't too excited to be tacked up.  Note the swishing tail. I'm not sure how my riding instructor got his ears up for this one.

We managed to go off site one time to some trails. He did really well, aside from being very forward. And the cars. That came up after this picture was taken. He really wanted to bolt.

Trying to get a Christmas-y shot a couple of weeks before he came home. He wasn't having it.

He came home and a week or two later we get hit by a massive snow storm. I wanted to see if our road had been cleared, but couldn't tell from the house.  In some spots, Max decided that jumping the drifts was easier than plowing through them. Koda followed in the trail we blazed. Note the half buried chicken coop to the side. The girls were nice and toasty inside their coop.

In 2014, we didn't do a whole lot. Mostly just conditioning around the property.  I discovered just how much Max hates mud when he decided to keep jumping a tiny, muddy ditch instead of walking through. That led to my first big fall off a horse.  But I got back on and made him walk through some other muddy areas, then called it a day. Thankfully, I was only sore.

One thing I noticed last summer was that we didn't have horse flies.  I was ecstatic.  Those suckers are nasty and hurt like hell when they bite. Last summer, my foot got fractured while camping (with my in-laws horses), when the one I was holding jumped on to me when a horse fly came swooping in trying to bite. I've also had issues with them while trail riding.  If they come close, the horse I normally ride likes to try to crow hop when she hears them. This isn't so good when you're on a steep, rocky slope.

Sadly though, I saw a horse fly yesterday in our pasture.  Max came trotting up from the back area when it was time for feeding and it was following him.  Thankfully, he wasn't jumping around or kicking, just aggressively trying to bite it when it got near.  I hope he stays that calm when they're around. Horse flies are why I'm trying to desensitize him to me randomly slapping him.  I'm hoping he'll understand that I'm trying to help him by killing them and stand still, rather than kicking, or otherwise flipping out when I'm near.

Anyways, sorry for that tangent. Horse flies = bad.