Life Goes On...

Well, nothing too terribly exciting has been happening. I continue to work at the barn some days a week, come by my parent's place to work with Gypsy every so often. But I did get hired at a feed store! A regular 40 hour a week job, a shock to my system! I haven't started yet though, that will be the 5th of July or so. So hopefully that will go well, I am excited but at the same time slightly disapointed that I am giving up my ideas of making a living working horses. A job like this is so much more realistic though, with hours and money I can rely on without worry.
But anyways, until then I am going about life as usual. And of course I took lots of pictures of day to day occurances that catch my eye.Haha I love this picture. This is at work, four of the 6 horses. The grey gelding is Joe, he is a huge 17.2 hand boy. Here he is flirting with Fortuna, the bay Andalusian from a previous posting. In the back is Lilly, the paint mare I have ridden a time or two. And the silly yearling in front is Leo, a colt out of Lilly by the Andalusian stud. I think he was halfway through getting down to roll...

Here is a picture of Charlotte from today when I went in their stall to clean. She just looked so darn cute. After I cleaned the stall and dumped new pellets in the stall she was curious about the empty plastic pellet bag. So I put it on the ground and she sniffed and licked it. So I picked it up and set it across her back. She just stood there. What a BRAVE baby! The scary noisy plastic bag that would probably scare my 20 year old mare. Ha.




Speaking of my mare, I gave her a bath the other day. She wasn't a fan, but was a good girl. She got all soaped up and beautiful, then I clipped her bridlepath and face and legs....She looked fabulous. Cue picture.

Have a few other pictures, and a video of Gypsy cantering off when I let her go after her bath...but my new phone is still giving me some issues. Need to call tech support and get this pic messaging figured out.

Ponies from work

This is Fortuna...She is a pure Andalusian from work. She is lovely. I want to take her neck and put it on every living thing....

New Baby!

Well I started at my new work at Three Creeks Farm. I love the horses there, and the stallion that I am very in love with is a total sweetheart, and a breeze to handle. This is him, when I put him in the round pen to walk around and stretch his legs. Ahh.. drool over his perfectness. Him and the other pure Andalusian that is there, her name is Fortuna, make me want a spanish-type horse. I love the neck. I have to say it, I love the big arched neck.
Anyways, perhaps more exciting is the baby! One of her mares, an off the track thoroughbred who is also oober sweet, was prego and due any day. I offered to take a night to foal watch for her, and voila, she foaled that night! Even after my breeding horse class, this was the very first baby I got to see born! Grace went into labor around 2:45 am, and the baby was delivered by about 3, if I recall. No complications, all went well. The filly had to have a little help standing- the rubber mats and straw were slippery, but she was up and nursing.

A bump in the road

Well we are all moved into Woodland house and we love it. Was a bit worried at first because the house seemed a little crummy, but now that we have all our stuff in it, it looks awesome. Had a bonfire in our fire pit last night. Good times. Started the job at Three Creeks farm...unless she doesn't call it that anymore. Not sure. Just working at her personal barn cleaning 6 stalls and turning in and out her horses. Not too bad.
Bad news? Because it always has to show up somehow? Well the other job that I was fairly sure was MINE, is not. The other girl didn't end up leaving, so now I'm stuck. I didn't get the vet clinic job yet, nor this other one. Now I only work two very short days a week. Bad. Very bad....How will I pay bills? Well that is an excellent question.

But enough depressing news. Now that I live one town up from my folks, I can visit and play with Gypsy all the time. I rode her the other day, and today I came down and worked her on the lunge line...well sort of. I can't find my lunge line, so I tied my two side reins and a lead rope together... Okay, just for the record....that works terribly. I need to find my lunge line. I experimented today with sliding side reins. I recently read about them in a lunge training book, and liked the idea. Instead of one rein from the bit to the surcingle like a regular side rein, you hook a line from low on the surcingle through the bit, then back to higher on the surcingle. This way she can lower her head and really stretch to the bit without losing all contact. I guess it encourages the horse to stretch down through their topline- something Gypsy could definately benefit from. So I tried it, and I like it quite a lot. I'll be using that again I think. I will slowly get Gypsy back into better shape.

Godzilla, run!

" I hate Godzilla too, he destroys cities!"

Haha, it just reminded me of The Hangover.

But anyways.

So yesterday I went over and played with Meg, the super giant horse that is owned by the same people as BeauD. I have been itching to try riding her ever since I first saw her, if not purely because she is a gihugemongous monster pony. And she is part Thoroughbred, so I guess she is pretty sensitive for all her size, and can get a little hot. Add that into her not being worked in a year-ish, and it was going to be an adventure. But she was actually really good! I rode western, thought that might be a tad more secure, lol. She was a tiny bit goofy on the lunge at first, but she figured life out. I was super careful and did all sorts of ground stuff before I finally scaled mount everest and got on her. But she was excellent! No weirdness at all. We only walked around a little in the round pen, but still. She was slow and calm and turned and stopped and flexed her head around. Yay! I feel like she would probably be a great dressage horse, if I could just get over the little fear of asking her to move forward. Just think in your head and say.....Okay, she is going to feel huge and fast, but she is under control and being good...she is just huge, so she will just feel like that. She has some nice movement it seems like. It would be cool to lunge her in a bigger area so she could really stretch her trot out. :)

Great Wonderful Success!!

AHHH!!! Yes, it has all officially come together wonderfully! Heres the scoop.

Today I was called and given confirmation that we can rent a duplex in woodland that we wanted. We got it! YESS!!! Its a cute little place back in the woods and has a wood fireplace and everything. So super excited for that. We will be moving out of our apartment and into the duplex on June 11th, a week from today!
I also have gotten me a job! Possibly three jobs actually! Hahaha, so much for totally stressing out! And I am so excited for all of them.
Firstly. May get a few days a week working as a veterinary assistant at Ridgefield Equine- yes, the job I was dreaming of ever since I volunteered there! This is the only job that isn't 100% set in stone yet, I am waiting on a call from them to make a final decision. I am crossing my fingers, that would be the coolest job ever. Period.
Secondly. I will work a few days a week at Three Creeks Farm, which actually relocated and is in the process of getting built. But she has her 6-7 horses there and needs help with day to day work. So feeding, cleaning stalls, turning out, and possibly riding. She owns an absolutely gorgeous and well mannered Andalusian stallion named ...Oh gosh, I can't remember his name at this second. I am listening to music and it is distracting listening to words while trying to remember something else. OH! Novelisto. That is his name. And he is like looking at gold. I felt so amazingly honored that I just got to hold his lead rope while he hand-grazed. So I am super stoked to be working there.
Thirdly. Even though thats not a word... I may choose to work some days a week at Blue Moon Equestrian Services. I would be grooming, tacking up, wrapping legs, and lunging horses for the trainer there- he rides 17 horses a day and needs help getting that time-intensive stuff out of the way. So that would be cool too. YAY!
Now I can't wait to just get the little bit of school left out of the way and get the heck outta here! I want to go work! :D

Another Baby

Well there were actually two more babies at the barn for class. One was a mare and foal that came and was assigned to my group. The mare is getting re-bred. The foal is already a month or two, maybe three. He is a big giant boy, very adorable. The mare is one good looking piece of horseflesh, and I think the baby will follow suit.

So this is Satin, the mare, and her colt. We are calling the baby "Teddy" because he is like a fluffy teddybear! They are both palomino.

There was another mare that foaled at our barn a few days ago, but they went home already. It was a little filly.

Tales of House-sitting

CHICKEN ATTACK! :O

Okay, I can't even tell you, I am so tired of chickens. They are NOISY, and smelly, and messy. And I swear, there were five billion of them. True story, five billion. I spent the long weekend...thursday to sunday, house sitting for the couple that own BeauD and co. Co meaning their 5 other horses. And I developed a dislike for chickens. Especially one that earned the name evil mama chicken. She had one little chick, and felt the need to protect it....very viciously. I would go to put feed in her cage and she would fan out her wings and attack, beak and all....Not nice, chicken.

Besides the chickens it wasn't too bad. Feed dogs, feed horses, ect. And I also got to work some horses if I wanted, and of course I wanted! So first off I rode Azar, the old little chestnut Arabian. I have ridden her before, but this was first time alone. Second time riding her at all. I groomed her, saddled her, walked her around, then hopped on. And she was so good! We walked out in between fields on a little path, then back. And no jigging, no prancing coming home. Totally perfect little mare. Yay! Does that tack look familiar? I am rather proud that I can completely outfit a horse to ride out of the trunk of my car. Hehe. All fit her pretty well too!

Well the next day I decided to play with Silvi...or is it Silve? I don't really know, neither of them look right to me. I will pick Silve. She is a two year old....warmblood thing? Not sure. She is actually pretty- I like how she is built. She is gonna be very nice once she is done filling out and growing up. But she doesn't have much training at all, so I decided to work on ground stuff with her. And at first, my goodness was she a butthead! Pushy, wasn't yeilding to pressure. I round penned her a little, then we worked on leading and moving forward when I asked, promptly stopping, backing up, and yeilding her hindquarters away when I asked. She got a lot better once she knew I was the boss! Couldn't tell if she had learned it before and was just testing me, could be the case. But anyways, I groomed her up and she looked great. She is a really light bay with a huge blaze- almost encroaching on bald face territory- the white covers both eyes and she has two blue eyes. She is going to be a real looker. I would love to keep working with her- getting her in lines and teaching her what a bit is about, and introducing her to saddle and such. Too bad I'm leaving so soon, but I could put a start on, and thats something, isn't it?

I actually only groomed BeauD, but never rode him. I wasn't sure how much I trusted him, to ride him when I was there alone. I had a brief moment of insanity when I thought I'd try and ride Meg (godzilla huge horse) but then came to my senses. She is ....17.2 hands I think she said? And actually a little bit hot from her Thoroughbred blood, and hasn't been ridden in a really long time. Oh if I thought BeauD would get me in trouble, I'm not sure why I considered Meg for even a second. I'd like to ride her, but lets do that in an enclosed arena with others around, shall we? At least for my first ride on her please.. Ha.

Horse and Tack Expo

So this weekend was the Horse and Tack Expo in Eugene, and of course I couldn't resist! Saw lots of super awesome things and horses. Also bought me a nice hunt cap for shows for....wait for it.... 10 BUCKS! And it is in perfect shape, beautiful and nice :) What a steal. Also got a nice hunt show shirt for 5 bucks, with the collar and all. Ah.... I love cheap stuff..

Saw some horses that made me drool all over myself. Including Jeljer, a Friesian stud who is oober beautiful. Only got to see him in his stall though, so excuse the terrible photo.

Also saw an Andalusian stud named...um...

Well the name escapes me for the moment. He was black, and so very extremely handsome. I have a video of him being ridden. I actually have a lot of videos of the expo, but currently they refuse to be small enough to text. So until I find a way around that, everyone gets to wait.

Also have a video of a lady doing a reining pattern bareback and bridle-less. The horse was great! Sliding stops, rollbacks, spins, and the works. At one point...hehehe.... The horse was running down towards my end to do a sliding stop, but stopped way too late and almost ran into the panels of the arena right in front of my nose! And I got a video of it....hahaha.

Also a video of 'horse soccer'. The funniest and most fun-looking thing I've ever seen. Horses actually being ridden around chasing a giant blow-up soccer ball trying to make goals.

All in all, the expo was really fun :) And sooner or later I will be able to share the fun videos... Just don't hold your breath!

Baby Happenings

Went to the barn today, and lo and behold, another foal has arrived. This one is the mare my group is assigned to. Had a little bay filly. Can't do a lot with her at this point- mare is very agressive. Thats all I will say..

So to soothe my not-able-to-pet-baby woes, I went and visited Smokie and her filly (the first foal that was born). Smokie is such a sweetheart, she loves to get pet and have attention. The filly has been super shy, but today she was curious and wanted to investigate me. She let me pet her a little bit (a first!) She is totally adorable, but still name-less at this point.