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.

Tallness evidence

 

I forgot I got my dad to take a few pictures of me on Joe the other day. Evidence of just how tall he is, finally! I like riding him in my front yard...no dusty arena. And he rides just the same out there as he does in the arena. But all has been going well with riding Mr Joe. Been playing with his lateral work- he is awesome at it. Still can't sit his trot, but beginning to feel less like a sack of potatoes on him. It is becoming less and less that I get thrown off balance during transitions or get stuck ahead of/behind his trot. Practice makes perfect, and I will strengthen my leg and core riding him. Yay! Although I've started wearing little nubby spurs with him.... to fight against the laziness. He likes to try and poke along at barely a trot. No thanks! You've got big legs Joe, you can use them!

Bad Decision? Nah!

 

Today I was feeling guilty that I haven't been doing much of anything with Gypsy since Joe got here. So I decided to bring her out to the yard and hand graze her. This turned into, I will sit on your back while you graze. Which in turn turned into I will walk you around the yard. I just looped her lead rope that was on her halter around her neck. Secure? Sure! She was being great and calm. So we decided to walk down Beasley road in nothing but her halter. Haha, but she was so good! I haven't been on her in quite some time, let alone on her outside. But she was calm and great. What a good old mare. Now that I am not trying to do things with her that she hates or is just darn bad at....she is great. But OMG. Did she seem tiny midget short sitting on today, after the time on Joe. Haha.

Oh yeah I forgot...

I keep forgetting to post. Mostly because I've been waiting to get a good picture, but now tomorrow its been a week, so its looking like a good picture might be a long time coming.
Joe lives at my house now! The lease is official, and he has come to live with Gypsy and Jett!  Jett loves him to pieces, Gypsy would rather he didn't exist. But he has been a good boy. I've ridden him a few times in my arena- my arena looks teeny tiny, way too small for him when Im on him. Ha. My whole barn looks miniature with him in it. But he acts like the gentleman he is riding in my arena. And the other day I rode him down beasley road, hoping he would be good. And he was wonderful. Better than I'd hoped. He looked all around, but walked happily down the road and back, no sillyness at all. WOOO!
Now to get my tired bum out to ride him tonight....

Heres the only pic I really have of him here. And its lousy. Sorry. It was the first time I put Joe and Jett together. And they promptly began grooming each other. Ha, cute :)

A Lesson for Me!

I got to take a legit, real lesson tonight! I have been riding Mazzarati (though not enough) and today got the opportunity to take a dressage riding lesson on him, from the wonderfully talented trainer that comes once a week to the clinic barn. I was very nervous- I have never really taken any fancy lessons before, and haven't had instruction since my equitation lessons in college. I was a bundle of nerves, since I'm really not a very advanced rider, but once I was up on Mazzi, it was better. And boy let me tell you, it went SO well! I told her my goal was to get better downward transitions with Mazz, because I struggle with him getting all strung-out and upside down in them. And she showed me the correct way to ask him to collect and round himself and be on my aids, and how to feel when Mazz is doing it right. I like the way she teaches- its not 'move this rein here and that leg there'. Its- this is the idea of what you need to do, but work with it a little bit to find the right way to do it for this horse and what he is doing right now. And OH BOY! Did I have the best ride ever on him. I started to be able to really feel when he was rounding and bending through his body like he should, not just being a noodle and bending in his neck. And he also pulled more naughtyness with me than he has before, but she gave me new tools to deal with the naughty, and exercises to do with him to strengthen my aids and his body. And let me tell you, when I got a GOOD downward canter-trot transition, and a trot-walk transition, it felt great!
Now I want to go and ride Joe and try the things out I learned on him! I was really wanting to ride him tonight, but now I am feeling tired. I got up early and went to work, got off around 5:30, my lesson on Mazzarati was at 6:15, got home around 8, cleaned stalls and fed horses and ate my own dinner at 9..... and now here it is at 9:30 and I am finding it slightly difficult to get myself out and riding Joe. Ha. I had coffee with my dinner. Maybe that will kick in shortly and give me a second wind.
Yay for riding lesson succcess! I am looking forward to using what I learned and riding better, and hopefully eventually taking another lesson!

A flood of horses!

It makes me laugh a little bit, that just some weeks ago I was getting rather sad and depressed I didn't have any horse to ride. I was surrounded by people who had lovely and well trained horses to enjoy. Well, now I do too! All of a sudden, I have two! I am now allowed to ride Mazzarati! The wonderful lady who has been riding Mazzi to recondition him back into work is out of town, and so now I have been given permission to ride him every day if I'd like! Mostly walk, some trot, a tiny bit of canter. It takes a lot of work to get back into work after six months of rest, after all. And oh boy do I love to ride Mazz. He is the smoothest ride I think I will ever have the pleasure to ride. He has a few silly goofy arabian moments, sure, but what manners! You tell him hey, please focus on me again, and he comes right back! His trot is like floating when I can get him to relax into a long, low frame. And his canter, oh my goodness his canter.... I could rant on and on. I just had to laugh and smile when I cantered him for the first time last time I rode. Smooth as silk. So I am greatly enjoying my time I get to spend with him. I really like that horse :) Always have. So glad he is healing and doing so great, after we just weren't sure for a while.

And further exciting news! I am officially going to lease Joe. It was agreed upon today, and very soon we will meet and sign a contract and work out all the little details. And then he will come to live at my house with Gypsy and Jett! I am so excited to be able to ride such a good horse anytime I would like. Maybe we can enter some little po-dunk shows, just for fun. I feel like I will become a better rider because of Joe, and will also get much stronger and stable in my core, since he has such huge gaits. :)    Woohoo! 

The Quest for a Decent Picture...

Is finally a success! I rode Joe for the second time today, and it went even better than the first! He is such a good boy, I can't get over it. Today I wanted to see what else he could do, so I played with some lateral work. We tried to do a bit of shoulders in and haunches in, both of which he did willingly for me. And thats with me not even sure I know how to ask correctly! We also did some... I don't want to call it half passing, because I'm pretty sure that wasn't it. More like a...two tracking thing. But he did that awesome too. All of this was at a walk...I  am still totally incapable of sitting his trot. I think it will take a lot of conditioning and practice on my part to get back in shape before I can sit that trot. Its so huge and takes some core strength I just don't have right now. And we did a walk-canter transition in both directions. Yay! And wait for it....a flying lead change! Ohhh this horse makes me excited to ride. A possible lease is in the talks. :)

Next quest for a decent picture mission....me on him.

Riding Joe!

I finally got to ride Joe!! I was so excited! I was told he was a very good wonderful boy, and I was not dissapointed! He is so much fun, and it is so nice to ride a horse that is well trained. I was sad to not be able to get a picture of me on him- what a change to ride a nice, tall horse! Just look at those stirrups! That is where I had them to ride! And for such a big boy, he is delightfully light on the aids, once he wakes up. The first few minutes he wanted to poke around, but a smack or two woke him up and he had just the biggest gaits I've ever ridden! And he picked up the canter like nothing at all! As I rode I thought, now this is a horse that I could really enjoy owning. And speaking of which, I am considering the idea of a lease on him.... HMMM..... :) It is still a big giant question mark, investigate details and such. But it is hiding out in the back of my mind. I would love to ride around on him and take a lesson or two on him.

Look how wonderfully giant and tall he is!

I hosed him off after our ride and let him graze a little. He was silly and just HAD to eat the grass at the top of this little hill.

Back to the barn

Well, I have decided to stop working at the barn cleaning stalls once a week. I am working 40 hours a week at the clinic now, and am just worn out and tired of working both. I talked with the barn owner, and she totally understood. But I did say, anytime you are in a bind and really need somebody on my old regular Tuesday, let me know and I will come. Today was one of those days. It has only been two or three weeks since I was there last, but it was nice to see all the horses, and I didn't mind much at all the work today. The babies, who are now 1 year and 2 years old, were in a pen together today, and I snapped this picture of them. Isn't that so cute? The grey filly is Charlotte- who I helped foal out last year! She is getting so very big! The bay is Leo.

Also today I lunged the Joe man. This is not a flattering picture of him....I plan on riding him in the next week or so, I am excited! He was usually very lazy to lunge, but today I really made him move out and pick up the pace. And boy was he always hiding what he can really do! So I am looking forward to getting on him!

Last of all...Yes, I did retire Gypsy and I am not riding her anymore. This was because I am buying a saddle (sadly, my first good english saddle I will actually own, instead of borrow) and I wanted to sit in it on a horse before I committed to it. Gypsy was the only one around. Haha. I really like the saddle. I also like this picture because I can tell I have lost weight in it.... something like 35 pounds!

Zoo Time!

Went to the zoo with a few friends. Haven't been in a long time. It was nice, lots of fun! Saw this duck. Loved it. Named it Frank. I was pretty sure I was going to steal Frank and let him live at my house. He was super cute, and make the most adorable squeak noise. Also saw a Giraffe. I LOVE giraffes. They are my favorite at the zoo. So here is a picture, because you really couldn't have gone the day without a random picture of a giraffe.
I closely listened for it to make a noise. But alas, it made no noise. Still waiting to one day find out the secret giraffe noise.

Happiness!

Oh my, its been almost a month since my last post! Incredible laziness! But I have been very busy working, but to make up for my lack of posting, here are some wonderful pictures!

This Friesian gelding is named Jupiter, and is owned by the owner of the equine clinic I work at. Jupe is wonderful and sweet and I love him. He is ridden by his owner in an equine 'dance troope' of sorts. They do tricks and performances to music at exhibitions and such. If you ever have the chance to watch them, I urge you to go! It is amazing and beautiful. Feather Dance is the name of it. I was watching lessons after work, and was given the chance to walk Jupiter to cool him out. I was the happiest person in the world to cool out a horse. I couldn't wipe that silly grin off my face the entire time. The owner had Jupiter do a few steps of spanish walk with me riding to show me his tricks, it felt so awesome to ride that! I never wanted to get down off his back. I hope one day I can ride him again, even if it is just cooling out!

Other happenings...well, not a whole lot. I can't remember if I already mentioned wanting to take Gypsy to some little shows this summer. I want to take her and show her in halter or showmanship. Not that I think we will win or be very competitive, but I am tired of doing nothing at all with her. I think we could potentially be fairly good at it though- since she has such lovely ground manners. Which would lean more towards showmanship, I suppose. So I have been buying the getup to show her in those. I have a beautiful fancy arab show halter, but nothing yet for showmanship. I can't imagine it would be appropriate to do showmanship in a patent leather shiny cable halter. Haha. So I am on the hunt for a low key leather halter that looks nice. I have been practicing with Gypsy on trotting in hand, haunch and forhand turns, and setting up. Setting up nicely definately being the toughest for us. In other news... farrier came today, trimmed up Jett's god awful feed. Thank goodness. His feet are night and day, but will still need some TLC and work. But we are on the right track now. Now to just rein in that sweet itch of his a little better.... 

Been working in the barn more again, this time on the pasture and fencing. Did lots of weedwacking the fenceline, and getting ready to start re-doing the back pasture fence so I can turn out horses on it. Got the arena tilled up so its nice and squishy. Much better. It seems when I'm not at my job working, I'm at my barn working! Speaking of barns, I gave my tentative notice on working out at the barn I've been doing stalls at the past year. I am just so exhausted all the time from doing everything. My boss is very understanding. I will still occasionally go I think, for holding horses for the farrier and such, and keep working until she has a replacement. Maybe I will miss some of those horses, but it is a relief to have one thing off my plate.  

Well, that must be all that has happened in my horsey life lately, besides some very interesting goings-on with horses at work. So until next time!

I always forget to put titles here.

Soooo...yes. This video is sideways. Isn't that awesome.

But it is also cute. My Gypsy likes to lick popsicles. She likes lemonade ones, and now apparently lime ones too. This is also after I gave her a bath, but I gave up hope trying to load two vids in the same post. Also not sure if theres hope of putting two pics in here with the vid. I'll attempt. But the pics are of Gypsy poking her head into the house. If my mama hadn't been home, I might have let her step a foot or two inside, since the hardwood floor isn't real wood. Haha. It would have been a funny picture to walk her inside to the kitchen and have her eating something out of the fridge....One day...

Showing Gypsy?!

Look at my pony go! I gave her a bath and she was lovely and clean. I then lunged her in the front yard in the sun so she would dry off, and she was being so slow and quiet! So you know me, I had to video it. The other secret reason for videoing is...well, every time I bathe Gypsy I have to either take video or photo of it, because the clean lasts for about three seconds. But look how slow and nice she is going! :) Makes me happy.  
I think I have decided I want to take Gypsy to a show or two this summer. OH DEAR GOD NO not riding! Ha, no. I want to take her to little open shows and show in halter or showmanship. I have done so much ground work over the years, and she will haunch and forehand turn, trot in hand, and sort of stand square when I ask.  I think it would be finally something sort of fun to do with my own horse. And no riding means I won't stress out over it. I figure...starting her "showing" at 20 years old, well, we may not win, but it could be fun getting her all pretty and showing her off a little. So I think I found a couple little shows in my area over the summer. And I want to take her to the open show during our county fair! That would be cool.

Mazzimaz

Here is another photo of Mazzaroti. I groomed him a little bit today while on my lunch break. He looked beautiful :)  And there he is not wanting the stand on that bum leg of his :( 

The Painted Pony!

So I was with my buddy the other day and we tried to chalk our hair. You wet the hair a little and use just regular pastel soft chalk and rub it on your hair and voila! Super temporary fun colored hair that washes out with just one wash! But sadly... we totally failed and it didn't work at all. So the great idea surfaced....Gypsy has white hair. It should work in hers. And so it did, oh yes it did. So purple dipped hair for my pony! Hahahahaha Everytime I looked at her it was so funny and cute. And no worries people. Non toxic, washable chalk. Totally harmless. This would work great for parades and stuff! So now we want to chalk both our horses with red and green for Christmas and go caroling with them! We could put little santa hats on them and jingle bells on their tack! :D  So here's my pretty purple pony.

And here Gypsy is being friends with Jett- My friend's gelding. He is about 4 or 5 years old now, and now boards at my house, so Gypsy has a buddy now. She is so much happier now! Jett has lived that past few years out in a pasture fairly untouched, so he is settling into living the stable life. He is finally able to be turned out all day on pasture with Gypsy now. Yay.

Here is a full body of Jett. My friend and I always joke that he is not the prettiest thing in the world, conformation-wise. But hes not so terrible either :) He's pretty cute. He isn't broke, but that is the goal for while Jett is boarded at my barn. We will use the arena to good use! Speaking of which....

 Here he is while we worked with him the other day! This is only the second time ever being sat on. The first time was probably over a year ago, and not worked at all after. So its practically his first time saddled and sat on. He was excellent! We lunged with saddle, flapped and pulled on saddle, stood in stirrups, the whole she-bang. He was a champ. So I sat on him and my buddy led us around and he was great. Success :)
More training for him on the way! I rather enjoy risking my life  by being the first rider on horses. Haha

Skinny success!

I had to share my excitement!  I have had much too big legs my whole life to comfortably wear boots, and when I started riding english I ran into the tall riding boots problem. I had to search and search for my tall boots, and ended up having to order them special online. Boo. Sad day. But! I have recently lost about 35 pounds. And I was in an awesome tack store with my friend just the other day and we saw a big sale on english tall boots. Hmm, I thought to myself, I wonder. So I found what might be my size and tried them on. OMG!!! They fit! They fit over my legs! Zipped up all the way! This seems silly and stupid to people, yes. But in my world, thats a big flippin deal! I have NEVER been able to just go to a store and find a normal pair of boots that just fit. HUZZAH! If thats not motivation to keep losing weight, nothing is. It was very exciting :D

Mazzi

This is Mazzarati. He is a National Show Horse, I believe. He broke his coffin bone. Its been months and months of stall rest, which he deals with suprisingly well. But not getting much better. I think he will unfortunatly be put down at some point in the near-ish future. Which makes me sad...I have grown to like him a lot. He is not super well liked by some of the others-he can have an attitude and doesn't always like to be good for vet work. But I don't blame him much, what with all the stall rest. I think he is pretty sweet and he is so gorgeous. I also hear he is actually pretty highly trained in dressage. I will have to try and get a better picture of him soon. He gets to be outside now for short periods of time in a small paddock, so I will take a picture of him there next time. I will be very sad when he goes.

New horse!

New horse at the barn I work at! She is a cutey, sort of lovey too! I was cleaning her stall and she was nosing at me the whole time. Follwed my every step for a while before she got bored of me. Thoroughbred I'm pretty sure. Not sure what her name is, I'll have to ask next time I see the owner.

Chubby pony! I think it is safe to say Gypsy is no longer looking too thin. Good ol grain. And look! The wild pony is in a -GASP- stall! And now looking at this picture...her tail looks sad and wimpy. I promise it doesn't really look like that.
And now I sit here watching HRTV...instead of doing something productive like weed-wacking in the pasture or along the fenceline. And there is a very strange trainer on the program lunging horses and trotting around with them. They look like arabians. Except for this one very furry pony. And one horse is cantering around the roundpen and being crazy...and rearing at him. Okay. Pet peeve time. People who decide they are magically now "natural horsemanship" people who parade around and poke at horses with their big long sticks and magical wands. And either one of two things happen. One. The horse is horribly 'trained' and bites and strikes and rears and has no respect whatsoever. Or two. Sure, my horse is my best friend and will follow me around and jump over barrels and play some games. But does this make a good horse that you can show or do something with? Does this horse move under saddle nicely and put together? Could it go in a show and stand a chance? Well no...but my horse is my friend! And look at us rub this stick all over its face! YAY!
If you can't tell, I don't much like 'natural horsemanship'. Don't even get me started on parelli. Who is now currently on tv. I mean, the fundamental ideas seem good to me. But so many people just watch a tv show and buy an overpriced rope halter, then decide they are trainers and go out and do stupid, stupid things. And have horses that will run you over and disrespect you in every way- "because you can't get in his space!" But perhaps my biggest beef with it is how commercialized it has become. I'm sorry, but no halter is worth $200. And a string on a stick? Yes, good tools, but they jack up the prices so high, because you can ONLY have this magical connection with your horse with them! Don't forget to buy my $300 set of dvds!
......Okay. I am done I think. OH! A cute little mule. On tv now. But yeah. End rant.
/rant. 

Boarders, anyone?

Well wow look at this, a new blog format? Seems fancy enough..
I'm in such a good mood! I had such a good day at the clinic- got stuff done, nothing bad happened, ha. And.... my buckets came in the mail!
I have been slowly but surely trying to improve and fix up the barn so that I can begin boarding just a couple horses at a time. I figure...we used to board years ago and it worked great, and it is a shame to have 9 stalls out there with only Gypsy in it. I miss running the barn, and it is something I really enjoy and take pride in. So I am in the process. It is taking a lot of little things here and there, some cheap or free fixes, some not so much. But I think I am just about to the point where I am comfortable getting a horse or two boarded, and the rest of the fixes can happen with a horse here. And then the board money would help fund all the changes! The biggest of which would be tilling up the arena floor and adding a whole bunch more footing. It has gotten sort of lousy over the years. But now I have feed/water buckets in all stalls, the pasture has been cross-fenced with water lines going to them, hay storage areas made...cleaned up in general. It isn't anything outrageous and fancy, but it is a homey little private barn for somebody to keep their happy little pony :) And hey, a covered arena at all makes people happy, even if we don't have a wash rack or individual fancy tack lockers. People seemed to like my barn years ago, they should now I suppose. So I am excited! Now I just need to do some finishing touches and things like evening out the ground nicely under stall mats...but then I might venture an ad for the barn, see what happens! Gypsy would be happy to have some company in this big old empty barn!

New Bridle Happiness

Feast your eyes on my beautiful new bridle! I finally broke down and bought my own bridle, no more long-term borrowing! Little bit different style with the flash and crank noseband. Neither of which Gypsy really needs, so I fasten them just snug enough that they aren't flopping all over. I have ridden her in the bridle once so far, and she actually was really good for the ride. So yay :) It is pretty and leather and soft and nice. I like.

Geeky Time!

Feeling rather lame today, I got bored and decided to revisit my old notes from college classes on ideal equine conformation. And lets see how Gypsy measures up! If you ever wanted the little nit-picky points of conformation, read on!

In this pic I was measuring Gypsy's proportional back length. You don't want an overly long back or it will be weak and hard to collect, but a very short back will create a choppy stride. The ideal back length is about 65-75% of the horse's overall body length. How is my horse? Well she sits at 55%. Rather short! I also noted on this picture, but forgot to draw it, that my horse would be considered slightly uphill built! Yay! The root of her neck (where the neck originates from) is above the point of buttocks! Just barely, but it is.

This second pic I was seeing what her proportional hip length is. A big giant hip is good, everyone can agree with that I think. But how can you really check?! Well this is how :) Measure from the point of hip to point of buttock, versus their length of body. Ideal is the hip to be 1/3 of the body length. Quarter horses, as you could probably guess, are often more though. I'm rather proud of my Arabian (not so known for big ol hips) sitting pretty at 0.3. Yay! A big hip is what drives the horse forward and gives power! Also on this picture I attempted to measure the angle of her shoulder, only to find that Paint program is way too pathetic. It doesn't have a way to measure angles. But Ideal is 90 degrees, and I'd say that looks pretty close. A nice big angle on the shoulder gives a good long stride. Oh and now I see I also checked on her pastern angles too...which should be 45 degrees in a perfect world. I think Gypsy's look pretty dang close to that too.

Oh and theres other angles and things to look at, the breast box is important for straightness of front legs and all that jazz, but I don't have a good front-on shot of Gypsy.But I did get bored enough to tape some of Gypsy's skeleton on her. HAHA.

She is so tolerant sometimes. Here you can see the angle of her shoulder again, and also her hip length sort of. It would have taken way too much tape and just looked like a jumble of blue craziness if I included all the ribs and such...so they aren't there. Those aren't important anyways right?!

So pretty much...I really enjoyed that class in school, can you tell? It is nice to know what I'm looking at and looking for when I look at horses. So that when I see a horse and think 'wow that thing is ugly', I can tell you exactly WHY!

Clean Pony Time

Look! Gypsy is clean! Yes, you didn't think it could happen, but ha! I show you! This is right after a bath, and right before a roll...an evil attempt to thwart my clean plans. She was a suprisingly good girl for her bath. Yay. Then I rode her a day or so ago, and she was marvelous and good. Until I gave her a tiny challenge, and then I about came off her slippery little back. Trot and work in the front yard? Easy, cool. Walk down the road. Piece of cake. Walk in the little grassy patch next to the road. HOLY COW THATS SUICIDE!

Seriously, horse? Because we don't walk in other patches of grass? Apparently not. But we walk over there, and the psycho switch got flipped, she got incredibly barn sour and anxious. Like...feeling like a coiled wire about to explode and she prances in place. Okay, lets make this a wonderful training moment, I thought! We will go to the road where she wants to be, and work really hard there. Tight circles, trotting, tons of side passing and not fun things. Then we will walk to the grass and stand there and rest, right where she didn't want to be. I have seen and read of this method lots of times. Sounds pretty legit, right? I repeted this a few times, work on the road, rest in the grass. But the resting wasn't really resting. It was still prancing in place and be anxious and stupid. No matter how many times I worked on the road and rested in the grass. Then I was losing my temper. So I gave up. What wonderful horsemanship on my part. But it really felt like it was going nowhere. Gypsy did not mark her approval on that method. Now to think of a new one. Dismount and lead her around the grass patch, let her eat some, relax? Then get back on and ride home? Maybe that will be the next attempt. It has worked in the past. BOO to my lunatic horse.
But at least in this picture, she is beautiful and brushed and groomed and lovely. Crabby old lady.




And here is a very random picture of a baby duck I wanted to buy and take home, and let it live in a kiddy pool in my barn. Yes.

Gypsy

Okay, I know my last post sounded sad and depressed about my difficult little pony mare. Which largely has not changed. But a day or two ago I was feeling bad about my lack of working my horse, so I went to mess with her. I lunged her in some lines and actually asked her to work a little, stretching that topline and actually coming on the bit. She did great! So shows that teeny short video up there. My phone doesn't like to send videos that are longer than that...

But then I decided what the heck, I'll ride her too. And....she was so good! Wow, it made a big difference really making her work on the ground first, and then just trying to ride quietly. We trotted around, and she was really trying for me to keep her nice frame and be on the bit. I could tell she was getting tired towards the end, and it wasn't a very long ride, but I was very happy with her! It was an exciting moment :) And I had braided her mane all nice and pretty, so she looked good doing it.

Not that any of that will probably convince me to work her more regularly. Sheesh, what a lousy horse owner I am. Ha. Anyways, I am house/dog sitting this weekend, until tuesday. So just chilling. The dogs are all very wonderful and sweet, and very easy to take care of. I love german shephards :) The house is really cute too.

Craziness

Hello all! All of the zero people who read this! It has been crazy at the clinic trying to learn my job. There is so much, it can all be very stressful at times! But I really enjoy it. I got to watch a baby born today, it was awesome :)

Because I've been feeling sort of stressed, I want to do nothing once I get home but relax and sip on tasty apple cider. Which translates to doing next to nothing with Gypsy. Which is so bad for her....but gah. And since I haven't been working her, she is acting silly. She is in wild-pony mode. I go out to feed her twice a day, but oh snort-prance I am a wild crazy pony! So I lunged her at some point last week or this week or something.... Actually got her to think about working up a sweat! I am losing motivation and desire to do anything with her lately. I am falling back into the frame of mind that....she is old and crabby and will never be what I want her to be, I am sick of trying with that mare. I am sure I'll yet again change my mind at some point, but right now... Bah.

Mr Joe Man

Today I went to the barn to work and was asked to lunge a few horses. As I lunged Joe, I realized I have no pictures of cute giant Mr. Joe! So I had to fix that, you know. I wish I knew exactly how many hands he is. Super ginormous. Has got to be 17 hands. I wish I could get somebody to take a picture of me standing next to him to really showcase his hugeness. But I think the pic kinda shows how big his head is next to mine. And he is super lazy on lunge. Its so hard to keep him trotting with any sort of impulsion at all, lol. But I would love nothing more than to ride him. One day maybe I'll ask the owner if I can!