Spring is upon us!

Long time no post, yet again. It just goes without saying nowadays I suppose. Recap of recent events...nothing much. Missed the second in the series of Winter Woolies shows with Gypsy, it was the second weekend of February. I was moving the weekend prior to a new apartment, and was still getting settled in and didn't have time to get her ready and work her. On a sidenote, I am loving my new apartment and having my own space again. This is really the first time I've had my own full apartment without having a roomate. It can be lonely at times, but also very nice. Thank goodness the Allie Monster is here to keep me company. But anyways, Gypsy has also been mysteriously lame. My best guess is a left front lameness. Farrier didn't think it was an abcess- couldn't find anything. I couldn't find any heat or swelling, and no prodding or poking seemed to irritate or hurt. So I've left it alone and let her just chill. Its been a few weeks since I first noticed it, and today when I went out there she seemed better. I didn't really notice any head bobbing today.

She has also been banished to the front paddock square full-time until further notice. She kept escaping out of the pasture fence, and after the third time in a month, that was it. I don't need a horse hit by a car, or getting colic from eating who-knows-what. So she is less than thrilled with her current situation, but certainly was asking for it. So today it was warm (or as warm as February can be) and so nice and sunny with blue skies! I took her to the pasture and lunged her, and she was just full of crazy beans! She got over herself eventually, but it was pretty cute. She was especially excited by the hand grazing she got in the back pasture. Nobody has been back there in months and months, so the grass I'm sure was delicious! Allie of course came with and basked in the sunshine. Gypsy got to have her first good blanket-less roll of spring in the squishy dirt, only made better by the fact that she ruined her beautiful grooming job. Mhmm. She was pleased with herself.

Speaking of Allie, she has had the toughest time adjusting back to apartment life. I mean, its been years since she's lived in one- not since I first bought her in Albany. She was at first refusing to eat, and would lay around and mope constantly. I was so worried about her. She is getting better now, eating more normally and seems perkier and happier. I have been trying to take her to a big dog park near our apt at least once a week. Her first dog park experience? Terrible fear of all the other dogs, but happy to be out off leash to wander. But every time I take her she gets better, and wants to say hi to other dogs now, and walk along with other dogs. There is hope! I really like the park- there are so many friendly dogs and they are all so happy and playful, and all the people are super nice too. I have walked and chatted with quite a few people now. I think Allie is really starting to enjoy going. And of course I bring her back home to "the farm" as I now call it, to play with Franklin pup and have barn adventures.

Ribbons for Gypsy

 Gypsy and I went to our first in-hand show! It was Winter Woolies at the fairgrounds, a very low key schooling type show. I was worried at first when she was a bit crazed getting off the trailer. She couldn't settle at first, and was terribly worried about being not near other horses. I was very annoyed my leather halter didn't come in the mail in time for the show, and I didn't want to take her in the ring with her appearingly flimsy arab cable halter. So off we went into our first class with our lame purple nylon halter. I was a little disheartened when she was very wiggly and distracted in our first class- Novice Horsemanship. But after we went out of the ring from that first class, she really settled and seemed to chill out. There is hope! Our second class was right after the first- first year showmanship. And she was much calmer and less wiggly. We earned a third place ribbon! Yay! Such excitement! Our third and last class had a pretty good wait between, and she was so chill by then that I decided to give the cable halter a go. I was worried for nothing, she was totally fine in it. Better even, since that has a small chain under the chin. Our last class was the 19 and over handler, and I was nervous for that one. It was a more difficult pattern, but she did her best yet in that one. We earned ourselves a fourth place ribbon there, and I was so surprised and happy! Great job pony! She needs some more work on setting up quicker and not moving once we set, but she is getting better with work at home. There is another winter woolie show the second weekend in February that I'd like to take her to as well. 

Ha, and today, I got a wild hair to take Gypsy out and do a mini-wannabe trail ride with her across the street in the field/woods thing. HA. The most riding I've been doing on her is riding bareback down Beasley street and back. So I'm not sure why I got this bright and also suicidal idea. But I led her down the road to the gate and through, then climbed on. And actually, I was fairly happy with how she did. By all means, she pranced just about 98% of the time...but there was no rearing/bucking, and only one big giant spook. I thought, for what I've done with her (ZERO trailriding almost) she did fairly well, especially since she is such a fanatical anxious little thing. Head was up in crazy mode, tiny prancy trot, and there was a lot of stopping and staring at a potential horse-killing tractor/wood board/puddle. But we went all the way around the path through the trees, big field, and down the side of the other field. She was so terrified of the big tractor in the field, she felt like a coiled spring about to bolt any second. I was very happy she tried to trust me and we walked by with no incident. I did get off and led her through the path through the actual woods. I was especially proud of her when she rode through some water that had flooded over the path. So yes, a bad idea, asking too much of my non-trail riding, retired-from-riding old pony, but didn't go so badly. Ha

Giraffe Polos

Here is a short clip of miss Gypsy being long lined/lunged or whatever. She was being good. She is wearing her brand new giraffe polo wraps that I got for Christmas. She looks so adorable! I am trying to get her a tad less flabby to take her to the show. We also walked down the road. I rode her bareback with her halter and lead rope around her neck. What a champ. She was great.
Joe is still around too, probably will leave next weekend. But I groomed him up and I put all black polos that I also got for Christmas on him .He looked very nice and snazzy in them. He was a little hot and up because I haven't really worked him in ages, so the decision to ride bareback down the road as well was probably a lousy one. But he was a good boy about it. Very looky-loo, but behaved. Got very upset when I experimented pulling his mane before our ride. That must be why his mane looked the way it did when he came. Ha.

Pictures of Joe

 Before Joe goes away, I thought I would share some of my pictures I have of him. I hadn't realized they had made it to Facebook, but not here. This first one is from the first trail ride I took him on, just across the street through fields and some woods. He had been great that day.

And this is one of my all-time favorite pictures, because it makes him look just HUGE with Gypsy in the background like that. Its big grey and little grey! He looks like he is going to eat her. 

And here is Joe after I gave him a bath, and he looked so clean and pretty. 

And this was that same day right after his bath. He is a handsome boy.

So much happening.

Oh my it has been close to two months since my last post. So much has been happening, it is hard to find somewhere to start, besides guiltily apologizing for my lack of posting. Let us see.
Jett is no longer at my barn. He was escaping from the pasture into the neighbors field every time I turned him out. So I started putting him in the front paddock square- the only place I was able to completely finish the new line fencing with new posts (Which turned out beautifully, and now I can't remember if I posted about). He pushed on the fence a lot, but it held up fine so that wasn't the issue. Instead, he started pawing at the gate and lifting it off its hinges, while simultaneously pacing so much that he created a muck pit of water and sludge in the paddock that I could not bear to put him out there. So moving along the line of possible turnout, he then was being turned out in the arena. Where he also paced non-stop along one wall, thus creating a bare dirt footing-less section of my arena. And if I left him in his stall, he was the dirtiest, messiest horse known to man. And he seemed so miserable and sad to me, not being out with the other horses. So for Jett's best well-being, he went home to Oregon last week. He can come back when I can finish the rest of the property's new fencing. But for now, I am down to two horses.
And speaking of down to two, very soon it will be down to one.
Joe has turned into a nightmare. It started a little bit some time ago, when he had his occasional episodes of pulling back when tied. But for some reason, it has become a dangerous habit, and he will pull back EVERY single time he is tied. Cross tied, or tied to the wall, it doesn't matter. And when he pulls back, he sits down and means it. He will not pull back, feel the pressure and come up off it. He will pull back until he breaks his lead rope/halter/whatever he is tied to. Some weeks ago, he pulled back and ripped a 12 foot board off the wall and it hit me in the face, putting a nice hole in my lip. I was so very lucky it was only that, and not my eye or something terrible. But since that day, I can't trust him any longer. He is getting steadily worse, and now refuses to load in the trailer as well. He pulls back hard whenever he gets nervous or even mildly spooked. It makes me so sad and depressed, but I have told his owner I need to send him back. He is so big, I am scared that he will seriously hurt me. He was rearing in the barn aisle the other day, and that was it. Not worth it. I haven't done anything with him since, until yesterday. I felt so guilty looking at him in his stall. He is still a sweet boy, and wants attention, and should get it. But I haven't ridden him now in a long time, and am so nervous to mess with him alone in the barn. But yesterday I brought him out and lunged and brushed him in the middle of the arena, and he was perfect. If I let him stand in the arena, I can throw his lead rope over his back and do whatever I need to do, and he is good and fine. But I feel so defeated by him, and so terrible that I am ruining him. I have tried everything I can think of, but he is just so danged big. It really depressed me when I decided to send him back. He is such a good ride, and I had so many plans for him, not to mention the giant-sized trailer I bought so I could haul him. But no, it isn't worth the chance of being hurt. And one day, I will own or lease another horse, and I want that horse to be big (Maybe just not the 17.3 or whatever he is), and I will have the trailer I can haul that horse with. So I don't regret the giant trailer. It gives me options to haul whatever I will ever want. But no winter woolies or schooling shows, or christmas caroling that I was so very extremely excited for, it makes me want to cry.
But this also gives me the opportunity to come back to Gypsy. I am so bad about ignoring her when there is another horse around. But now I am really determined to take her out. Now that I have the trailer, I can do the things that I had planned for her in the past. I have been playing with her on the ground, and she is her good old perfect ground manners self. I am planning on taking her to winter woolies instead, and will show her in the showmanship classes. Before Joe, I was getting Gypsy ready to show in Halter. Then I realized she is a swaybacked old nag, and it would be silly to show her halter! But showmanship, they judge her and my skills, and how well she is mannered. So we would actually have a chance of doing really well, I think. She will trot and walk in hand, do the haunch turns nicely, back up, side pass, and do all the things quietly. So it will be fun to take her out, and start her showing career at 21 years old! Ha. Although I have taken her to two other shows in her life, both little schooling dressage shows. But it is fun to go out and brush and clip and pamper my Gypsy. She will stand to be groomed for days and days, I swear. She likes to be primped on. Today's plan is to go out and dress her up a  little and take a Christmas picture of her :)
Joe should be gone in a little less than a month, and I am hoping Gypsy doesn't get super lonely here alone, but there are the three neighbor horses on the other side of the fence still.
And Christmas, oh boy Christmas is here in  9 days! Time flies. It is so strange to look back and see what a totally different place I am this year compared to last. Last Christmas season was a little sad. It was just before Christmas last year when I moved back home, and just a few days after Christmas when my long-term boyfriend broke up with me. I am still living here at my parents house , but my current boyfriend is wonderful and I am hoping this season goes a little happier and smoother.
This is becoming a very long rant. So perhaps my camera battery has enough charge now that I can go out and play with my Gypsy pony.
If I don't post again, Merry Christmas everyone.

Let there be trailer!

Guess what is sitting in my driveway at this exact moment in time? Guess what is shiny and brand spankin new? My new horse trailer! And when I say new, I really mean new! It is a 2012 Exiss two horse straight load...warmblood sized. So 7 foot 6 inches tall, super wide. Nice tack room up front too. Never been a horse in it yet. BAHAHAH :D So very excited! My very first horse trailer! And to make it better, I was approved for financing all on my own- no co-signer. So it is well and truly all my own. I can't wait to haul Joe around in it. I want to take him to winter wooly horse shows, and trail rides, and the fairgrounds, and all sorts of fun places.

Although I have been bad and haven't been good about riding Joe enough for the past few weeks. I have been letting my fence building get in the way. Shame, shame. But really I was working every available second on getting the fence done. I rented a bobcat with a huge drill auger to drill fence post holes. Then sank posts, cemented my corners and braced them. Then ran line through and tensioned it up nice. Well, that is only the front small paddock square that is all done like that. The long back section has the holes dug, but the posts aren't set yet. I went and did a whopping three posts this morning before my trailer sales place called me and let me know I was approved, so off I went. I shouldn't have waited this long to set those posts though...because it has rained a lot. The dirt I have to fill the holes is wet and muddy and mucky gross. Does not make it fun, and I don't know how effective it will be at really setting in those posts. We will see. But in any case, I need to get on getting that fence done. Jett, evil as he is, has taken to breaking out of the main pasture fence and running on the neighbors property. My creepy neighbor. Great. So he has lost a lot of turnout privileges, the snotty booger. But yes, the fence is still a work in progress. Although I am pretty proud of my mama and I for doing this all ourselves. And my boyfriend, who has been wonderfully helpful with drilling holes and setting posts...in the middle of the night in the rain, before my deadline to return the bobcat... haha. Which in turn gave me a cold.

But anyways, fence is still going up, and now I have a beautiful new Exiss trailer in my driveway. Let us see where the first place will be that I haul my big beasty!

Jett's Trotting Adventure

It only will let me fit one video at a time in a post, so here is another vid. This is me riding Jett. This is his first trotting ride under saddle. Well, "under saddle" since I was bareback. We tend to do these things on a whim, my buddy and I. It mostly goes like...."well I will mess around with him today, oh wow he is being pretty good today, hey Kelsey do you want to try trotting him today? Eh sure why not! Climb on!" Hence the bareback. But he was an excellent boy for his very first actually trotting work. I mean, he had taken a few baby strides before, but this was his first ride where he was actually asked to trot out and keep going. We unfortunately did not get video of Jett's first canter. We were preoccupied with me not getting killed in the process, even though it turned out we were worried for nothing!

Oh my. You wouldn't believe the ridiculous amount of time it is taking for this video to upload.

Mr Joe and Mr Jett

Hey look, finally at long last a video of me riding Joe! And let me tell you, I haven't had a chance to SEE myself ride in a long long time, and I am slightly horrified. Please be kind. I had no idea I had such a bad habit of leaning forward, and by god! What is that awful rocking I am doing in the canter? So since seeing this video, I am attempting to make a serious effort to lean BACK.
It has been too long since my last update, oops. But nothing too different has been happening. Have been riding Joe- and he is fabulous of course. I like to play with what he knows and can do. We can now do halt-canters both ways pretty consistently. I have been practicing a lot of haunches in/shoulders in. Both at the walk and the trot. I still struggle a lot with sitting his trot, but once I thought SIT BACK, it is much easier to do, although still not easy by any means. I have used him a few times to pony Jett, who is progressing quite a bit in his training, despite not being worked very often or regularly. Which is great news.
Speaking of Jett, he is coming along. We can now walk/trot him under saddle. Not the best steering at the trot still, but he is forward and goes when you tell him, comes back down to a walk or a halt in an instant. His trot is just a little too forward, he rushes too fast. But it will come. And quite exciting, I rode him in his first canter under saddle last week! It was a little nerve-wracking...We lunged him in a canter both ways and he had some scooting- jumpy bucky moments. But hey, what the heck I thought, its now or never! He is short! So we kept him on the lunge line and cantered both ways. No incidents! He picked up the canter and went along quietly! No hunching, not even a thought of bucking or getting silly! Great success! Going the the right though is very rocky and awkward. He is very very one-sided. He counter bends a LOT going that way, so the canter is very difficult. He does it trotting too, just not so badly. So I think it is time to introduce him to side reins while lunging. Lets straighten that booger out! And last time my buddy and I rode together, we took Jett outside, and after the huge evil bot fly chasing him and stinging poor Jett was over, we rode Joe and Jett together down Beasely road. I ponied Jett off Joe. The boys did fabulous! So Jett's first outing went lovely. No spooking or sillyness.
Now today I am going to take Joe on a trail ride. A slightly more real trail ride! Something that isn't riding down apaved road! YAY! My neighbor told me I can take Joe through their gate and ride on their back 50 acres, much of which is field. Oh so I am excited! I can really take Joe out for real! So that is todays plan.
And speaking of taking Joe out, I am now in the market for a horse trailer, at long last. I got approved for a loan and now only need to find one that would be approved and is in my budget. Tricky thing is it needs to be small and lightweight enough for our rather very small rig to haul, but big enough for hugemongous Joe to fit in. So I am looking at two horse slants. Found a couple promising ones so far; need to go out and start checking them out now. Exciting!! Then I can start hauling Joe to real trail rides, horse camping, little shows at the fairgrounds, the beach...wherever I want!

Big day for Jett!

Today my best buddy and I had a great pony day with Joe and Jett! Jett has only had a very few rides on him...quite intermittently. The sad life of a busy busy person and a need-to-be-broke horse. But today we both went out and played with the horses, and they were great! We rode in the arena a bit. Then we decided  to try and pony Jett off Joe. It worked! We tested it out in the arena first, then once we got the hang of it, took them outside. We walked all over the yard and the front of the house, and they were great! It was Jett's first time being ridden outside the arena. He was calm and quiet and awesome. Yay for pony success!

Jett looked very teeny from way up there on Joe. Haha. Then I let my buddy get on Joe and walk him around for a bit. She loved him. Of course! Everybody loves Joe! 

Go Joe, Go!

Brief update. Have been exhausted and tired nonstop lately, what with work and taking care of the horses, and also pet-sitting the neighbors critters. Because of the icky tiredness, been big time slacking in the riding department. Both Mazzarati and Joe. Doesn't help that last time I rode Mazz about a week ago, we had a terrible time. Makes me slow to jump back on, especially when I have Joe to enjoy. Even though I've not been great this past week or two about riding him either. But I rode Joe tonight and he was his normal awesome self. Also haven't been working on the posts for the new fence. Slacking all around. But been putting in close to ten hour days at work every day I'm there. But this weekend I am going to the beach with the fam for a Christmas in July...in September. So a mini vacation will be nice. Not to mention, Monday is labor day so no work, and Tuesday is my normal day off. So I'm looking at four days off in a row. Fantastic! Should help me rest up and be back to myself.

In the meantime, heres a teeny mini clip of Joe, being super lazy on the lunge line so I constantly have to be telling him to GO!


not to self. terrible idea to try and upload two videos at once. Even if they are short. It takes flipping forever.