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!