Photos For All

Time for the usual...

Slang and Cam continue to do well in their lessons. I'm finding all sorts of creative ways to do jumping exercises without any actual jumps to work with. 

Mike recently sold a whole slew of jumps to a woman in North Jersey. She posted pictures of them set up in her ring. Even unpainted, his work looks so sharp :)

I randomly got this Thumbs Up Horsemanship LLC pen in the mail. I don't have an office or I'd order a bunch of them. Nice quality pen that's oddly satisfying to write with. Thanks, random pen company!

Miss Grace graduated from training last week. I'll still be working with her occasionally, but she's not in three day a week training any more. Her last session was super productive. Her owner rode her in the round pen, then in the outdoor, and Grace was perfect. Then we stuck her in the horse trailer (she self loaded like  a pro) and took her for her first actual ride around the block. She was perfectly behaved and was unfazed by the whole experience. In fact, she was more than happy to hop right back in the trailer when we were done. The plan is to have her owner ride her a few times a week. I'll step in as needed. She's only three and there will be a lot of walking in her near future. The thing about training gaited horses is that their walk has to be really good before you can develop a proper gait. So far, Grace is right on schedule as far as that goes. Her owner did pace her out for a lap in each direction to see how she would do, and she rocked it! 

Ozzy tried to take a selfie while I was doing night check.

JR is thankful for fly spray. And cookies. But mostly fly spray.

Grace was being so good on our last ride in the outdoor that I was able to take my phone out for some pictures and video. 

Let's talk about a pet peeve of mine. I am all about people riding their bicycles along country roads. Legally, they have the same rights as vehicles do. They also have to obey the same laws (stop signs, signalling for turns, etc.) Nothing makes me see red like a flock of bicycles spread all across the road with no concern for anybody but themselves. I am very polite about bikes. I approach slowly, pass wide (only when there's good visibility) and don't tailgate, etc. This particular group was moseying down the road at about ten miles an hour (in a 40mph zone). They did not get in single file. They did not allow anyone to pass. They did not stop at the stop sign. They did not signal. As a horseback rider, I totally understand the value of share the road, but what so many street bicycle riders around here don't seem to understand is that "share the road" goes both ways. ARGH!!!

Now that Grace has graduated from baby horse school, it's Mica's turn! I started back with her this week. She definitely remembers some of what we did over the winter. It's funny going back to a blank slate after working with a young horse for four months. While Mica is naturally bolder than Grace, she is less inclined to want to work. Grace was so eager to please, whereas Mica is more, "And I need to do this why again?" She's a little more stubborn and a little pushier. Changing her to a rope halter made a world of difference, and we're reinstalling basic groundwork before going back to working with tack. I am slightly concerned because Mica trips a lot even when she's not going very fast. Her feet are well balanced, so I don't think it's a matter of hoof care. At one point this week, she tripped at a stepping pace and just never regained her footing. She fell to her knees and scraped her face in the process. She got up pretty quickly and was sound and unbothered, but it startled me. I wasn't even attached to her at the time, so it's not like something knocked her off balance. I'm hoping it's just a matter of being a gangly two year old, but I'm not comforted by the sight of her fumbling around as she goes. Yikes.

Mr Julio fast asleep on the couch. Yesterday was his fourth Gotcha Day. He got an entire venison roast for dinner. (Well, I mean, Herbie had half of it.)

Julio has a skin tag on his left elbow. It has been there for a few months. It has gotten gradually bigger, but hasn't been bothering him. He decided to chew on it this week and now it's all red and irritated. I called my vet to get an estimate on removing it, and it looks like we'll be doing that soon. If I still worked at the cat clinic, this would be one I could do myself, but there will be no DIY surgeries at our house...

We've been going to Deli on a Bagel after Wednesday lessons. They close at 3pm, and throw out any unused bagels at the end of the day, so if you're in the store at 3pm, you get to take home all the bagels. My students think this is the coolest thing ever. I'm just in it for the fries.

Since Nick died, Jocelyn has taken Grady on as her new project. He's 18 years old and just now learning how to be a proper horse. It's good for him to get the attention, and nice for Jocelyn to have a horse to play with again. I was giving a lesson on Gunner and Jocelyn was riding Grady. I had actually never sat on him before, and was excited to try him. I totally forgot I was wearing shorts until after the fact. The good news is that I trotted for the first time since my fall and it wasn't painful. Hooray!

Grady was unamused by me.

A view down our street.

Mishka's little boy learned a lesson the hard way this week. He's been riding off the lunge line since we fenced in a formal riding area. As you can see in the photo above, it's been going well. He is totally comfortable trotting all over the place, and he even remembers to post most of the time. This week, we were working on cantering on the lunge line and it was going smoothly. He did three whole laps on the right lead and was keeping his butt in the saddle and his shoulders back. Afterwards, I let Mishka off the line again. I told her little boy to keep it to a walk or trot. There was a lawn mower going just through the hedge row, and while Mishka wasn't spooking at it, she was definitely not super thrilled about the mower being behind her. It didn't take her little boy long to figure out that he could get her to go faster if he asked while her back was to the lawn mower. I told him to knock it off (and explained that it's not nice to scare your horse into running). But he's a kid and he has his own ideas on what is fun. So despite my warning, he turned the pony away from the lawn mower at a trot, then wound up and gave her a big kick. Mishka cantered. The boy went "whee!" The horse went "whee!" too. Only, her version of "whee!" was to buck twice. I have an anti-grazing device on her so she couldn't get her head down, but she still managed a decent buck. Her little boy sat the first one, then toppled off to the right, landing in the soft grass. Mishka looked horrified and stopped to stare at him with an expression that said, "I didn't think he'd come off! We were playing!" The little boy was uninjured, but I think the fall scared him a little, and he shed some tears before getting back on his (now very subdued) pony. That'll teach him not to listen to me when I tell him not to do something! I guess I'm getting used to kids, too, because I didn't have a stress-induced stroke when all this happened. It definitely doesn't make me want one of my own though. *shudder*

One thing Mica excels at is bath time. She loves being sprayed with the hose (even her face and under her tail!) I can't blame her. It's super hot out. It did take some convincing to get her to stand on the rubber mats that make up the outdoor wash stalls, but now that she knows what they're about, that is also a non-issue.

Look at how cute she looks in her rope halter. 

Herbie has been enjoying long games of fetch in the yard. The nice thing about living on several acres and having a former baseball player husband is that she can chase that ball to her heart's content. I do worry about her arthritis, especially since she's so rough on her body (she likes to flip over and slide in the grass). 

Mishka flips her lip if you scratch the itchy spot on her chest.

Mica is so pretty :)

Just doing baby horse things.

Driving home yesterday, down one of my favorite local roads.

I am super unhappy with the way I look, and the fact that I can't really do much physically to combat it right now (stupid injury). I have taken up power walking as a way to rehab and also burn some calories. From our house to the bend in the road (where the alpaca/llama farm is) is half a mile, so if I walk there and back, it's a mile. Easy to measure and easy to do. I'm starting with a mile a day and working my way up. It being 90 degrees and humid helps. Gross.

Gunner's conformation and muscling has improved so much through lessons :) He looks like a "real horse".