Step 2: Continue to mentally coo as she gets up and stretches a little. Halter filly with de-wormer syringe ready in your pocket
Step 3: Quick hands and quicker head tosses–I swear most of it went in
Step 4: Pay the price as filly eyeballs you suspiciously on next approach in case you are carrying White Murder Paste again.
Hug your Arabian, because they are never boring and really kinda lovable.
As usual in stormy weather Sheza tried to evade capture the first time, pulling away from the halter all wild-eyed and spooky, but this time when she saw mom get haltered she promptly rushed up next to me and let me halter her without further issue. She spooked about on the lead line like a spazz going down into the barn and lasered in on the first open door, putting herself into the far stall while Bandito put himself next to Desire where Sheza usually goes. All I saw was bodies safely in stalls so I promptly called it all good and shut the silly things in their respective boxes to sort themselves out ,with lots of hay and water. Despite rain gear and muck boots, a full wardrobe change was necessary after that a.m. adventure!
Inmate #3 19 mo old Sheza Blazunhaat Xpres
Around noon my husband, who sometimes pretend to be gruff about the horses and their spoiled treatment, casually but obviously entreated me to put Joey into a stall, too. We can see his pasture with the goats easily from the living room window and Joey’s violin playing was loud and clear as he stood at the gate in his blanket with his head down. I immediately got sucked in and went out to “Rescue” him, in the process discovering that it had rained SO hard his hand-me-down but just re-waterproofed blanket was soaked all the way through! No wonder he looked miserable, he was all wet under the blanket and cold in the gusty winds. Sticking with his usual tendency of behaving perfectly when it’s really necessary, Joey was a total gentleman for me to stop and collect Blaze on our way to the barn and everyone greeted each other wildly when we arrived and zoomed around their stalls for a few minutes until the excitement wore off. Desire was dry and warm in her midweight blanket already so I snagged her polar fleece cooler and put it on poor wet Joey.
Inmate #4, 16ish yr old Arab cross Blaze, imperturbable as usual
Inmate#5 7 yr old DF Touch of Mojo, a little bedraggled but looks sharp in blue I think!
Inmate #6 Lex, adolescent Red Bourbon SuperTurkey, not to be left out in the rain!
Oh, and I skipped a post so here is a few shots of Joey boy out on the trail the other day. We only went about 5 miles but climbed a couple steep short hills in there and he was much slower and nearer the end of the lead line by the time we strolled in the driveway! I put my weight in his stirrup from Blaze’s back out on the trail after a few miles and he couldn’t be bothered to look up from grazing. He is just a different and happy horse out there.
Following the Sedona butt down the lake trails
A spot for ponies to BEHAVE
Tack adjustments, scary bush inspection, the usual
“I know I saw carrots go in that bag back there, GIVE”
Looking chipper after charging the big hill!
Posing after our hill charge, thanks for the great photo J!
Good endurance steeds slurping down. Sedona Mustang and J completed another AERC LD at Lake Sonoma a few weekends ago, woohoo!
Sweaty steed ready for a fleece rug and a full hay net
Ask and ye shall receive
Wild woolly man at home after some good rolling–look at that muscle under the fuzz!
Why are you crouching down over there and stealing my soul with your silver box?
Joey hooves haven’t been messed with in a while. This is a crappy photo of left front, he isn’t as upright and funky look as it makes it look, but shoes toe before quick rasping. It is QUICK because he doesn’t have much patience for it and I try to make things short, sweet, and successful with him, especially if he hasn’t done mileage yet!
Left front, need to get his heel back farther
Right front, need to get that heel back farther and scoop the quarter a little I think
It was 30 degrees this morning when I fed at 6:30 but by 10 am the sun was warming things up a little and after much screwing around, a good hour anyway, I had Desire tacked up and Sheza girthed up for the first time in my bareback pad, ready to hit the road. The bareback pad fit fairly snug on Sheza on the very tightest hole, and it’s a normal horse size pad! What the heck happened to my BABY filly?!
The two personalities: Forward and OHShitBehindYou
Sheza likes to stop and eat. A lot. It takes a long time to get anywhere with all the eyeballing and eating, but that’s okay
“Hmm black hole beneath my feet, possibly..”
Testing new reins, ponying Sheza, taking pictures, and keeping ADD mare on the trail intead of taking a shortcut through the woods to ??? like she always is
The Girls out on the trail(road)
A little quieter back home after a few hills 😉
..after 2 seconds, “Hmm, I’m hungry”
Momma mare steed
I’ve been wanting rope reins for a long time, but the few times I’ve bought them they haven’t been the right sort of rope and have pilled out on the Velcro on my pommel bag really quickly. After some consultation online and with friends, I went to the local Surplus store–which is stuffed full of awesome random junk–and bought two different weights of technical climbing rope, $10 a piece for 50 ft of rope of each. Then I bought some more scissor snaps and some rope clamps in different sizes from Tractor Supply and last night my husband and I whipped the reins up in about 10 minutes.
The black rope rein is VERY lightweight and I loved riding with it today in gloves. I was too busy with the filly to switch reins out as I had planned so I haven’t tried the heavier weight grey and blue rein yet. It should be equally nice as it isn’t even as heavy as a normal rope rein so may just sit more comfortably in the hand width-wise. We’ll see!
Filly wandering off
SuperTurkey training
Desire’s ultra lightweight bridle, custom bit hanger by Distance Depot and rope reins by us!
I won’t deny it, living in our own home with all our animals surrounded by beautiful land and critters in the woods is my Heaven. No matter when, where, or what, I am a country girl at heart, for ever and always. True my early years were spent in the Suburbs of Maine, but even there at our cool old 2 story rental house we had 2 big yards, a pond to ice skate on in the winter, a dog, cats, and a handful of critters in aquariums on top of the bookshelves along the walls. My mom ran a successful print shop business full time as well as mothering the 4 of us kids, and she made sure we had space to play, animals to play with, AND I got that one riding lesson a week at the barn that started it all. It doesn’t matter what else happened along the way, I declare that a positive and wonderful childhood and I’ll be forever grateful for it.
Just stuff I was thinking about yesterday as I worked around the place, trimmed Blaze’s hooves, brought in more firewood from the bottom field. Working hard in the clean country air surrounded by a cast of animal characters fills my heart, especially with an equally enthusiastic and outdoorsy guy by my side.
Some of the characters:
Jay, 7 yr old Catahoula/Shepard mix
Blaze Hind mustang rolls, see Joey in the red blanket in the back, watching closely
Blaze right front, the smushy heel on the left side of the pic is getting better, quarter crack on the right, I am still learning to scoop the quarters and keep his flaring down
Blaze left front, out of the pasture
Blaze left front, in progress
Fuzzy winter Blaze ❤
Took 10 pictures and this was the best of ole Mule Ears out in her blanket. Sometimes she is so photogenic but bedraggled in a blanket that she is still half-protesting wearing is not one of those times, Hah!
I’ve visited my puppy twice in the last week and may I just say, he is *divine* Happy, mellow, trusting and relaxed. He gets tired first and sleeps Hard! He has ice blue eyes that should stay that color and is very fluffy and soft. Unfortunately he can’t come home until he is four months old, because he needs to complete all his Parvo vaccines before coming home to our property which is a known Parvo zone. Our county is really bad for Parvo, unfortunately. Luckily the breeder is a good friend of mine and only lives about 9 miles away! I will be seeing lots of my pup in the next few months. He was 5 weeks old on Monday.
Barn name Rip Van Winkle (Rip) because the first 2 times I met him all he did was SLEEP and you see he is still quite good at it
Grass is growing, Blaze in his foresty home 🙂
Looking stormy behind ole Joey boy
One paddock is empty and soon grass will be tall
Sheza is still very squirrelly in bad weather and it was very cold and windy this morning, her least favorite sort of morning. Surprisingly she crammed her head into Desire’s halter and I took her to the cross ties and put her new blanket on. Which. Is. Too. Small. AGAIN. Le sigh. First time foal owner here and I have now failed 4 times consecutively at blanket buying!! I swear I measure every time, but if they are long enough (usually barely) they aren’t long enough on the sides to cover her big ole body. Hmmph. So she doesn’t fit in a 60″ now. Still, proof below that she is out in a blanket at some point this winter:
Redheaded Endurance 