Between Golden Ears

Now That's The Stuff!

2012-02-09T07:09:00.001-08:00

The weather here has been weird. Monday, I got to the barn and things were slightly overcast, but I pulled blankets anyway because the forecast said it would be sunny. And things were starting to clear off. But then, it got cloudy and windy. At least it wasn't too cold, or I would have felt sorry for the horses since I pulled their blankets. Tuesday was rainy-showery, with on/off rainstorms all the time, including one that just had to start as I was just putting Jet's Wintec saddle on. Thank goodness the thing was waterproof. I walked her to the lunging barn, and we put in some time there before I just walked her around on the barn paths.

Rode her yesterday. The weather was freaking gorgeous, blue skies, warm sun in the 70s. You'd never have thought that it had been rainy just the day before. She seemed a little off at first, but worked out of it and was moving better after a while. I was in the dressage arena, sharing it with one of the dressage riders and I asked her to look at Jet. She said she seemed a little off in the right front, (which is the leg with the slightly dropped pastern and the bone splint on the inside) but after I walked her out some more, and then asked her to trot again, Jet was moving better. She is getting MSM with her supplements, although maybe I'll need to get her on a joint supplement again. Her Equine Saver has glucosamine and Chondroitin so she should be getting something, but I'll need to check if its enough. She doesn't act sore or feel lame, it's just a minor head bob at the trot for a few minutes. I will get the vet to look at her when he comes to give the shots. She had a really nice canter yesterday, but it kept getting messed up by her giving Mare Face to the other mare in the arena. *sigh* I think she's in heat already.

Wormed the dynamic duo on Tuesday. They were not happy pony or happy mare. Mitch put up a big fuss. Wuss.

I did my taxes, and am getting a pretty decent refund. I think I'm going to look into the possibility of trading my Tex Tan western saddle in for a possible Wintec dressage saddle. Somewhere and somehow. It doesn't fit either of my horses, and I'd like to get a dressage saddle for Mitch. While the Billy Cook is one awesome saddle and I like using it, some days I don't want to pick it up. It's heavy! I'd ride Mitch in my Wintec AP (he's a medium wide, go figure!) but it has the medium tree in right now, and I'd like a saddle with a slightly deeper seat for him. I don't mind a used Wintec, so will look into that possibility as well.

Pony Penning Day

2012-02-05T19:04:00.000-08:00

Hooray hooray, it's Pony Penning Day!!

Wrong Pony Penning

Right Pen, Wrong horse*
*this was a picture of Jet back in 2007

Bingo!

Gosh, Mitch looked so different back in 2008. He didn't have much of an ass, hahahaha, but he was in good weight. Also, once upon a time, he actually had a mane. That was before he rubbed it out so bad, I had to roach the thing. But it's finally really growing back, the Omega Horseshine they get with their supplements is really helping. He's changed so much. Now he's got more muscle and body toning. He's lookin' good.

He got a good run in the round pen today. It was a pony. In a pen. On a day. Get it?

Rode Jet on Friday, after turning her out in the round pen and letting her run. I like to use the upper round pen because it's larger and has much better footing than the lower one, particularly for her since she doesn't like deep footing, as I think she has trouble in it, physically. Long pasterns and all. She's doing much much better than she was on Wednesday. I took her over to the lake arena which has pretty firm footing, and she has a beautiful canter transition. Used my english saddle too, with the new girth.

I'm considering putting Jet on Mare Magic. Or Moody Mare or something. While she's generally very sweet and loving, she can really get hit hard when she cycles, and she's often girthy and cranky and witchy from time to time, especially when she's in heat. I'd like to try Mare Magic, see if it works, and then get raspberry leaves in bulk which is cheaper. But I'd have the scoop from Mare Magic which can help me determine the correct dosage.

The Mare Feels Her Oats Tonight

2012-02-01T18:18:00.000-08:00

The wonderful thing about Jets

Is Jets are wonderful things!
Their tops are made out of rubber
Their bottoms are made out of springs!
They're spooky, looky, snorty, cavorty
Bolt buck buck BUCK!
But the most wonderful thing about Jets is
She's the only one!

Once more, I am reminded that I really really really really need to put my horses in the round pen and free lunge them before saddling up to ride (or saddling up and free lunging them, but letting them get their antics out before I get on) This isn't so much a problem with Mitch, he free works himself frequently and as he has the space where he can actually run around and buck and play and cavort and burn off steam, I can generally pull Mr. Laidback out, saddle up and hop on. However, Jet can't do any of that. This is largely because the people who were boarding in this particular corral before I was had a horse, a hony (something that's too big to be a pony, but just barely horse size) and a regular pony. So the hony and the pony got one side with a gate and a fence up between them. I cannot pull out this gate. For one thing, it might be supporting the center divider and for the other, it's friggin heavy and would probably cost a crapload just to remove. So... Jet doesn't cavort around the way Mitch can, and instead, saves it for when I get on her back. Doh!

To be fair, she usually does not cavort, and she did get 2 full days off. Monday was Feets Day and by the time I got there after work, it was time to do Mitch and Jet, and then call it a day. So, no lunging. And then yesterday, I rode Mitch and then had horse care stuff to do, and just didn't get around to working her. So... I can't really blame her for feeling spunky today. I got to the barn after worked, took her out and brushed her up good, gave her a good grooming, which she loves because she's a mare and mares like to feel pretty and then put her pink western gear on and off we went.

It started out OK. Walked her in the dressage arena for a while to let her loosen up and stretch. That was nice. I felt pretty good with her. Started trotting her. So far, so good, she was a little grouchy about it, but I've always has some crankiness from her the first few seconds of a workout, so it's nothing to be alarmed at. Then for some reason, she threw her head up, spooked and bolted, taking a sharp left at the telephone poles that form the dressage arena and leaping the thing like a deer, headed right for the driveway. Thank Epona I'm a good rider. Despite the fact that I had been caught off guard for a fraction of a second, I handled it the way a kid who grew up riding a stroppy pony who pulled shit like this all the time did. Inside rein, outside leg and disengage the hindquarters.

Jet stopped right past the telephone pole facing the dressage arena with this look like "What?" on her face. Mares. Took her back in, and made her work. Lots of trot transitions. And then came the time to ask for the canter. Buck, bounce, buck, bounce. Boy, she was feeling pretty hyper. I finally got her to pick up the lead and her canter was bouncy. But I do have to admit, when we were doing trot transitions and she dropped her head, lifted her back and got gosh durn collection and hind end impulsion, I felt on top of the world. Who says you can't get collection bitless.

I just need to let that mare blow off some steam before I hop into the saddle.

I got her new english girth today. It's pretty nice. I'm betting tomorrow after her antics yesterday, she'll probably be good enough for me to ride her in her english saddle. Mitch will probably get ridden too, if I have the time. I'm waiting for daylight savings time to kick in so I can have an extra hour or two to ride. That would be nice.

Poetry at Dusk

2012-01-31T19:16:00.000-08:00

a setting sun sinks,
hard hooves crunching on gravel
he carries me home

I'm getting pretty good at this haiku thing. I admit, I sort of cheated and have a link to this checker thing that can tell me if the haiku is valid or not, but hey, I have to write the poem. So I'm gettin' good, gosh durnit!

It was Pedicure Day yesterday for the pony and the mare. Mitch, as always, impressed greatly by walking patiently with me (hey, I managed both the pony and the mare at once) down to the crossties so the farrier could trim them up. Now, mind you, Mitch's first experience with the farrier was last year when he yanked the farrier's assistant off his feet and dragged the guy belly down across the wet grass. We had a real issue with that bolting thing, but I've done a lot of ground work with him using Buck Brannaman and Mark Rashid's philosophies and I switched to a leather track halter and a stud chain, and Mitch has been good as gold. He stood stock still in the crossties while the farrier trimmed him up (OK, he was a tad bit naughty knocking the farrier's hat off a few times but he was just playing around) and then it was Jet's turn. And then they walked back home, nice as you please.

I rode Mitch today. Tried out the Professional Choice pad, and didn't like it as much as the 1-inch Diamond Wool pad. So will use the latter, with a pretty saddle blanket. I really love that Billy Cook roper saddle. It looks very masculine on Mitch, and sets off his physique really nicely. And riding in it for the second time really proves that it's the best saddle for him. I feel very lucky that we have it on indefinite loan. He had a really great forward moving trot, and his canter was very animated. We went around on the barn trails afterwards, and it was really nice riding as the sun was setting and just enjoying being with the pony. I love him.

Tomorrow, I'll ride Jet. Probably in her western saddle since I needed to order a bigger english girth for her, and that won't arrive for a few days. I probably won't ride Thursday since we've got a trainer coming that I like to watch, so I'll probably watch her after I get to the barn after work. Wish I could just take the day off and watch her all day, but I do like my job, and somebody has to pay the bills.

I need more pictures of me riding. Dad says sometime, he'll probably have to come out to the barn and take pictures of me on my horses. I can take all the pictures of them from the ground that I want, but I don't have enough of me with them.

Out of the living room and into the tack shed...

2012-01-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

It's been a week of incredibly weird weather. From Stormageddon on Monday to OH-MY-GOD-IT'S-SUMMER! Probably upper 70s, lower 80s weather today, sunny blue sky, warm tee-shirt weather. And slowly, but surely, my paddocks are drying up. Hooray! I pulled blankets this morning, like usual, and left their sheets on to keep Mitch and Jet as clean as possible, I'd rather the sheets get muddy, and not the pony or the mare.

And today, of all days, I wanted to keep the pony clean as a whistle. Today, we tried out that saddle.

See, it's been living in my friend's living room for a while. It's been borrowed by others a few times, but never for very long, so if it fit Mitch, it could come stay in my tack shed for an extended visit because I've never been particularly satisfied with Mitch's saddle, I'm too poor to go out and buy a saddle like it right now and it's currently unused, so it could get some use and purpose. I really liked the saddle, Wades saddles are ... well, quite honestly, there's a reason why top clinicians like Buck Brannaman and Mark Rashid use them (and it's not just because Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt used them before they did.) They offer close contact, they stay up off the horse's shoulder so the horse can move under it (kinda like gaited saddles) and put your leg into a nice position similar to a dressage seat. They're premier ranch saddles, and when I went to the Buck Brannaman clinic last April, everyone had a Wade saddle, most were the McCall Wades. Someday, when I have money, I'd like a Lady Wade. It's a little lighter (more like 35 lbs as opposed to 40) and designed for a woman. Not that Billy Cooks can't suit me just fine. Actually, when I win the lottery, I'm buying 2 Lady Wades. One for Mitch and one for Jet.

Anyway, the verdict on the Billy Cook is ... it does get to live in my tack shed for a while. Of all the saddles I've tried on Mitch in recent times, this saddle fits him the best of the lot. It's great, it really sits up off his shoulder, so I felt when I was riding him that he was pretty pepped up and excited, walked out fabulously! With none of that somewhat crabby gait he gets when he's got a saddle he's not thrilled about (like the Tex Tan -- but hey, I've been poor and no money, so we make do, right?) And it's a nice short skirt that doesn't interfere with his hips. Boy, when I was trotting him in the dressage arena, he stretched his head down and out and I felt his back lift up into the saddle. And what a nice little canter he had, not stiff or forced at all. Sure, it's heavy as sin, but we had a great ride, and I did a little trail with him. Really nice going up and down hills.

So here we are:

He looks like a little ranch pony ready to go out and cut cattle and mend fences

I'm sexy and I know it...

Fits him real good. I'm using a 1" Diamond Wool felt pad with a Mayatex saddle blanket, and I did pull the pad up into the gullet. I'm almost tempted to try the Professional Choice pad on him, just to see. It sits great on him.

Mitch is clearly ready to go...

Butt shot. He's not really a "Wide Load" anymore, but he's got some booty

Like the saddle!

Schlurp ... schlooop ... schoooolp

2012-01-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

Hear that sound? That's the sound of rain boots slogging through mud. My paddocks ... are just a horrifying sight. Jet does have the slight advantage of getting a little raised part in her paddock, so that's already pretty dry, and she doesn't have to stand in the mud. Mitch on the other hand -- well, to be perfectly frank, Mitch wallows in mud. I don't think he's rolled much because his blanket seems a lot cleaner than Jet's, but he looooves slogging around in the mud. Hopefully things dry out soon.

This afternoon, I took Mitch out, hosed down his legs and picked out his feet before taking him over to the lunging barn and letting him move for 10 minutes at the trot. He is a lazy ASS, totally won't canter, just preferred to bum it around at a trot. OK, fine by me. He's been doing just great, very polite, very good and no more bolting off for grass. I've since learned my lesson that my horse has zero respect for rope halters, and now use a leather track halter with a stud chain and a 14 foot lead rope. The result: a happy human and a well-mannered horse.

Jet was next. She was feeling pretty frisky, so she actually cantered for a while. Unfortunately, I need to really start wearing a portable oxygen tank in the lunging barn because the bloody place gets so damn dusty. I have to admit, Jet was a super girl to keep trotting around in a circle while the human (yours truly) retched up a good portion of what had been a perfectly good lunch.

Tomorrow, or probably Thursday, I'm trying a new saddle on Mitch. This was my friend's Billy Cook Wade roper that I tried on Jet last year, which was fabulous and wonderful and perfect, except for the small matter of 'It's sitting smack on her withers'. We were talking about saddles in general, and realized that hey, I never tried it on Mitch. The skirt is much shorter than Mitch's Tex Tan and I've always loved how the Wade trees stay off the horse's shoulder, so we'll give it a go. It's a heavy-ass saddle, probably weighs a good 40 lbs. Good thing Mitch is vertically challenged.

Funny thing about saddles and Mitch though. I actually decided that treeless saddles weren't for him. Namely because they're way way too light. He did his weird sidepassing crap downhill on the Gaviota ride 2 years ago (and into the bushes with all the ticks -- my skin still crawls to this day at the idea of finding said ticks on me) in his Barefoot treeless saddle. And then he was better in his Sensation treeless, but still not perfect. But put a 32 lb saddle on his little golden back and he's "Right away ma'am, yes ma'am, I'll do anything you say ma'am." Walking downhill ... NO SIDEPASSING SHIT. And boy, he's a good boy with some weight on his back. So hey, 40 lbs of saddle, plus me ought to be a real walk in the park.

Pictures tonight! It's the golden boy, of course.

Pretty in Pink or Tantalizing in Turquoise

2012-01-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

Found an old picture of when Jet and I were down at the beach waaaay back when I used to lease her (it'll be 5 years ago this November or something) All of Mitch's gear was originally bought for Jet. So of course, Mitch inherited it all.

It poured rain today. My paddocks are mudpits. I hope the rest of the week is really sunny and warm to dry everything up. The golden pony and the black mare were warm and dry under their blankets, and very happy.

I love them so.

I love my pretty girl (and my pretty boy)

2012-01-22T22:04:00.000-08:00

Jet was a sweetheart tonight. I bribed Mitch with teff hay, pulled her out, and took her over to the lunging barn for a good ten minutes of trotting and cantering, and then brought her back and tacked her up. She's such a doll. We went for a nice walk around the ranch. I'm thinking about getting her a nice biothane sidepull from Moss Rock Endurance (actually, I'm thinking about 2 ... one in pink for her western trail gear and then one in black for when we ride english)

Mitch is also a darling love too. He's very happy and cheerful. I haven't been riding him as much because I've had a lot to do, but I'm hoping that once daylight savings time kicks in, I can ride the pony and ride the mare, and then everyone can be happy.

Winr Winr Chick'n Dinr

2012-01-14T19:42:00.000-08:00

That would be me. And no, I did not win a chicken dinner. (Mmmm.... chicken)

So first an update on me. When we last left our intrepid heroine, she was down for the count with the plague of some kind. The good news is that it didn't turn out to be pneumonia, or bronchitis (so far). The bad news is ... the cough is lingering. I feel great other than the cough which is infrequent enough to be more of an annoyance than a problem .. and Tussin DM has been my very best friend in allowing me to sleep through the night. After staying off my horses for nearly 2 weeks since it took me the best part of an hour to clean, muck and feed at the rate I was feeling, (I just about died of that alone) I hopped up on Jet bareback yesterday, and took Mitch for a walk today. I'm feeling as good as I'm ever going to feel, and this cough might stick around for a while yet. I'm drinking plenty of tea with honey, and completely laying off dairy products for the time being. My appetite was kind of craptastic for a while there, but I'm eating healthy for now, although I think I'm losing weight. I was able to squeeze through some bars of a pipe corral at the barn and those are pretty freaking narrow. I don't mind weighing what I do (under 150... but would get seriously worried if I dropped down to like ... 125 or something)

So that's me... time to talk ponies. Jet got a Christmas present from Davis Manufacuturing. A few months ago, a friend of mine told me about the company having Facebook and how she had just won a contest over there and gotten pink boots and stuff. My reaction: "You had me at pink" so I "Liked" their company page right when the company was asking for people to test out their new splint boots. And so Jet and I got to be a guinea pig. It was cool. Then just before Christmas, the people at Davis Manufacturing asked on the Facebook page what people wanted for Christmas, and I wanted something pink. Very pink. For Jet. So she got a pair of splint boots and bell boots as a Christmas present! It was awesome.

In fact, I urge anyone who has Facebook to get their butts over to Davis Manufacturing and like their Facebook page. They have contests all the time and give away great prizes! They're wonderful people, and very supportive of the equine community. Top notch!

Which really is ultimately the reason why I'm on Facebook. I don't post a lot, but I like to follow company pages. I've won several contests here and there, including a contest for products at Zephyr's Garden (the founder of the company actually boards at my barn) and while I haven't exactly won anything from Davis yet, I've gotten some nice things from them. Maybe my next goal is to get some splints for Mitch even though he doesn't really need them the way Jet does. But tonight was the real reason for winner winner chicken dinner!

I also "LIKE" Action Rider Tack on Facebook. I bought a Myler bit from their booth last year at Equine Affaire Pomona, expensive as sin, but it's turned into a real blessing as far as bits go for Mitch and me. He's so much better, I'm so much better and we're pretty happy. I know Jet goes better bitless, but Mitch has a neck like a paper weight and he's not afraid to use it. The Myler bit is a comfort snaffle that actually has a little leverage action so it keeps him from getting too heavy on the forehand, and I don't have a tendency to choke up on him and crank his chin to his chest. But enough about that, I wanna talk about my win! I won the Fan Friday contest. I logged on today, checked Facebook, and noticed my name. They DREW MY NAME out of the helmet, and held it up in front of the video camera and I won!! WHOOHOO! This comes after I was a total dork and locked my keys in my car (I swear, the thing is possessed and locks itself. It's becoming Hal 9000) I'm feeling so lucky!

Dunno what I won, since the people at ART didn't have their wheel of win with them, but I'll find out Wednesday. I'm gonna totally keep my fingers crossed and hope I win something really good. Last week's winner got a saddle. I wouldn't mind winning one of those. (Dressage, of course! I can dream, right!)

Whee! And my barn mates are totally loving the rhythm bead necklaces I made all of them. I see people riding around with them all the time.

How Do You Like Your Plague in the Morning?

2012-01-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

I'm not dead yet.

I'm getting better.

I feeeeel haaaaaappppy!!

I haven't posted for almost a month, holidays were whirlwind, there's so much I wanted to write, but after working all day and doing one thing or another, well, there just wasn't time.

Right now, I'm sick as a dog. I hope it's not bronchitis, pretty sure it's not strep or mono, but this cough is a sunnovabiotch and will not get out of my body. Die, cough... *squish, squish*

Will post more later when I'm not wheezing out my lungs.

Poetry at the Ranch - Haiku

2011-12-08T21:09:00.000-08:00

On a fall evening,
Gold and black lips kiss the grass.
I dream of horses

Valid haiku. Go me!!

No riding today. After mucking 12 paddocks and 3 pastures at my little side-job-until-I-get-back-on-my-feet-with-regular-work, I boogied over to the barn and mucked out Jet's paddock. I was getting her rope halter to put on her when she decided to head right out the gate and go nom the grass. But a good handful of O&M in a feed pan is enough to get her to come right over, and plus, she's trained to ground tie (she must have learned this in the time she spent away from me because I did not teach her this and I doubt her former-former owner would have) and once I got her halter on, she stayed right where I put her while I mucked out Mitch's paddock and then brought him out for some grazing. He was good for maybe a few minutes before he decided to try the bolting thing again, and I promptly moved his golden butt around.

At which point his grazing privileges were revoked and I let Jet stay out there for a while longer while I puttered around and put Mitch's blanket on and got his dinner and his supplements (so he probably figured he got the better part of the deal anyway), and then got Jet's dinner and her supplements and I was just getting ready to go get her when she saw me with that feed pan, and decided that she'd had enough grazing and it was dinner time and she was coming to me.

God, I love that little mare. I feel so blessed to get a second chance with her. I love Mitch too, of course. He's my challenge pony, and he's worth the joy that my life is given when being with him. He means a lot to me, and I love him for it. But Jet's got a special place in my heart. She's really the horse that saved me from the heartache of losing Flair. Mitch gave me grounding, because I really desperately needed it after the lease ended and Jet left, but Jet was the one that gave me reason to keep on living. I'm so privileged to have both Mitch and Jet, they're the lights in my world.

Blingstar Pwonies

2011-12-08T07:50:00.000-08:00

So hey, the Girl got the goods and went to town, man. I'm sporting some bling, baby!! You know fillies just dig guys who flash bling. Although I'm not sure if they go for gold bling or turquoise. But since turquoise is my color, dig it.

I've got a matching mane clip to go with the rhythm bead necklace which has lots of silver accent beads and a turquoise pendant. There's even some wooden beads which are pretty cool because they're right around the bells. I was wearing them the other day when the Girl and I were trail riding on the ranch trails. We eevn saw a California Mule Deer. Haha, she probably heard me first and was lying low thinking that Santa had run out of reindeer and was now recruiting Mule Deer. But then she popped up out of the grass just a few feet away from us and skedaddled. I'm a very good boy, and didn't even freak out.

Just gotta show off more of my fancy goodies. The Girl has been sick, so she's got lots of time to sit in a chair and make rhythm beads necklaces and mane clips. I think she's made some she probably doesn't know what to do with. I heard her say something about a web site. I don't like spiders or their icky webs that we sometimes ride into, so I hope they keep their web sites far away from me.

See how fancy and flashy I look!!

Some of the finer details

OK, bored now, let's blow this popsicle stand (.mmmmm... popsicles...) Oh wait... I have to tell you that pink is really dumb and ....

**MARE-SHOVE!**

You just keep on thinking that, toots. I happen to think that pink is very perfect for a Barbie Diva Princess like me, and I can flaunt it because I've got it, and you're just jealous, neener neener.

So naturally, I got a rhythm bead necklace too, with a mane clip. The Girl doesn't play favorites with us, nope. What one gets, the other gets ... except for hay because I get forage and Mitch doesn't. It would make him too fat, ha ha ha ha ha.

My necklace has many shades of pink in it with a little heart pendant and gold accent beads. It's really cute!! Too cute, like Zenyatta would say! Oh look at me, name dropping. But what's a girl to do.

Showing off the mane clip

Pink ... every Barbie Diva Princess Pony's dream come true

I wonder if the stallion of my dreams is going to come wandering over right now...

Pretty pretty. Mares like to be pretty.

So here's the deal. I've learned how to make rhythm beads and think I have a pretty good eye at doing pretty combinations of colors and stuff. Would anyone be interested in getting any from me? I wouldn't mind doing a little "supplemental income" to help out my expenses with the horses. Gotta pay for the hobby, after all.

Mrrrt. Saddle Woes

2011-12-03T22:33:00.000-08:00

I think that for as long as I live and ride, I'm never going to be satisfied with saddle fit when it comes to Mitch. We've gone through a fair number of saddles now, including 2 treeless models, and it's been up and downs the whole way.

So the long story short is ... Mitch got Jet's Tex Tan saddle which didn't fit her that good when she got her gaited Fabtron because he was a bloody sod and broke the fence and I sold my Sensation treeless to pay for the repairs. That was a good 7 months ago, and since then, Mitch has gotten into pretty good shape. I've always wondered if it really really really fit him that great, or me being in my hard up for lack of saddle cash and him being generally stoic and uncaring about life, just wanted it to fit because I couldn't afford another saddle at the time, couldn't return that saddle, and didn't want to go through the pressure of selling it to buy him a better fitting saddle (and thereby just assumed it fit)

Well, tonight, I finally got pictures of him standing in crossties on concrete and level ground. And then asked on a message board with knowledgeable people. The verdict is ... I needn't get a wider saddle because this one is too wide. I always knew that a FQHB was too wide for Mitch, now that he's lost weight, he's not as wide and drafty as some Haflingers are apt to be. He's got some decent lil withers and a modern build. He's definitely not skinny, looks to be in good weight, but not plump. (I really pride myself on getting the weight off him) and even QH bars and 6 3/4" gullets are too big for him. But better a tick too big than too narrow.

Guess I'm gonna have to go back to using my 1-inch Diamond Wool pad which him which totally bums me out because I really like the Professional Choice pad, but ... he's gonna need that thicker pad. I'm not sure if I can convince Santa to send a Big Horn flat top saddle in his sleigh, but I'm gonna give it a try. They were designed for horses with very flat backs, and Mitch is pretty darned flat up there. If not, hopefully we can persevere with this saddle. I'm not going to go treeless again because I think the heft of the saddle really does help Mitch put life in perspective. We had a few scary moments in the treeless saddle (probably because it was so light) and I also prefer ponying Jet in a solid Ralide tree. I feel it's better for Mitch's back for me to be ponying in a saddle with an actual tree.

You can see how it actually doesn't come into contact at the top of the shoulder. Angle is too wide

Gullet drops down over his wither

Well, I always knew deep down that getting a wider tree than this would have been a bad idea. I might ask a few friends who have semi-QH bars to try their saddles on Mitch, but all in all, this is probably the best one we got. Especially if he's never fussed about it, and then there's adding my weight to the saddle. It may be that I'll just never be satisfied.

Jet's Horsey Bling

2011-12-02T19:20:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Jet got to wear a set of rhythm beads I made. This one was yellow with black stripes and white accenting and silvery-colored accent beads. And a big copper pendant. I really want my other beads to get here because I have so many color ideas I want to go with.

Mitch Pimps His Ride

2011-11-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

It's bling, baaaaaby. The Girl put something on me today. First, she waved it in my face. It was yellow, like corn! I wanted to eat it, but it made noise, so I acted all cool and told the Girl "WHATEVAH!" so she put it on me and started taking pictures. See, see, this is Blue Steel*

*Bonus points and cookies and milk for whoever gets that reference.

I was rockin' it, folks, rockin' it! I'm not sure how yellow, gray, white and black go for me, since I'm more of a turquoise kinda guy, but there were some very pretty bells that made a soft jingle-jangle sound. I liked the sound of that.

The Girl says they are called Rhythm Beads and that she has been learning how to make them because she's going to be utterly dirt poor this Christmas between board, the hay guy and the farrier, plus presents for the family. Personally, considering how abundant dirt seems to be, I think she'd be rolling in riches...

... no wait, that's just poop.

Anyway, she's going to make them as gifts for her special barn mates. And maybe if she gets really good at them, she'll even sell them online or something. Anyone interested?

It really looks nice. The beads are plastic, but I'm told that you can use glass or acrylic or wood, or anything! The Girl made a pattern and everything. She calls it "Sunflower Seeds"

See, the little bell? Some people like putting pendants on their rhythm beads, the Girl says that she has a turquoise pendant for me once she makes me a turquoise set. Jet's supposed to get a necklace too. I juuuuust know it's going to be pink.

Turkey Trot 2011

2011-11-26T22:04:00.000-08:00

For some reason, the wild tom turkey that's been hanging around the ranch made himself scarce about a week before Turkey Day. I did hear him the other day, but saw no sign of him. He's probably waiting for the chance to come out into the light of day again without anyone thinking of having him over for dinner as the "guest of honor"

This Turkey Day, I went down to my aunt's house to see the family. Normally me, the brother and my dad don't go, Mom does, but I usually can't because of work, and wanting to spend time with the hayburner. This year, we did go because my grandparents are getting up there in years, and it was probably a good idea to go visit them. Wouldn't you know, but I was a really good girl. I didn't spend hours staring out the window at the neighbors across the driveway who have horses. My aunt and uncle have 5 acres, which are just dying for a pair of golden ears. I swear. :D

Got home yesterday and fed the horses before zonking out. I hate traffic sometimes.

Took Jet for a ride this afternoon. She was feeling pretty spunky and kept crow-hopping at the lead changes. I think I'm going to start letting them out in the round pen to buck and play before we work. Not because I think they need to work off any jitters, but because it's a chance to be a horse and move around and loosen up. I normally just saddle up, and get on and let them walk it off for a while, but free lunging might be a good idea.

Pictures!

Lookee, that.... DAPPLES! This is a fully body clipped horse, mind (well, except for the legs and ears) and he's spit and polished all shined up. And dappling. The Omega Horseshine does wonders for 'im. And I think the teff/bermuda diet is really good for Mitch. He's put on a spot more weight since I was concerned he was losing too much on straight bermuda, but not so much weight that he's a founder-risk. The flaxseed helps a lot too.

I'm likin' what I'm seein!

Jet's doing pretty awesome too. She's handling her weight beautifully. She does get forage/oat hay in addition to the bermuda/teff, but she's doing really good with all that. Holding weight great considering she was getting 3 flakes of alfalfa when I got her in January and looked a little skinny. She's really shiny and pretty too. I love the Omega Horseshine product for them. It helps them feel good, helps their coats and hooves and I do know that Jet feels less itchy and bothered by flies.

Mitch Sez: Needs Moar Salt...

2011-11-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

And now, it's KHOOF 360.1 News Radio...

Welcome to Mitching in the Morning. Good Mitching to you.

The Girl came and checked up on me this morning after I was coughing and horking and made green goobers come out my nose last night. Well, of course I was fine. I'm a Haflinger. We're made of WIN! The Girl says I have to poop gold though. Well, maybe I don't feel like pooping out gold. Or farting rainbows. I thought that was left up to the La-de-Dah Magikal Gypsy Vanners.

Anyway, I had Teff hay for breakfast. If anyone is wondering what it is, Teff is supposed to be somewhere between Bermuda and Orchard in terms of NSC value depending on how it's grown, but has nearly the nutritional value of Timothy hay. So it's like having those flavored rice cakes. Like oh oh oh... Vanilla Creme Brulee!! It's really good stuff. I'm happy that The Girl decided that me living on Bermuda grass was too boring, and wants to manage my weight better with two kinda of grass hay. Eating Bermuda all the time is like eating those dry flavorless rice cakes. Blech!

Excuse me. All that talk about food was making me hungry. Need moar hay. Om nom nom nom. There, that's better.

Tonight, Jet and I got some new goodies. New salt blocks! I started licking mine right away. Free choice salt blocks are very good. We also got our multivitamins and Omega Horseshine. And tonight, The Girl put lots of water in my hay pellets. Listen. *slurp slurp sluuuurp*

Hooray for Hay!!

2011-11-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

Jet! JET JET
JET! HEY JET!

Goodness golden boy, you
don't have to scream at me.
I'm two feet away from you.

I see the Roadrunner Truck.

Beep Beep. Here it comes!

Look! Look! Look!

Oh my gosh, it is the

Roadrunner Truck.
You know what that means

OM NOM NOM NOM
NOM NOM NOM!

It's really a Roadrunner skiploader. At least I call it the Roadrunner skiploader because there's a picture of a roadrunner on it. Obviously, today was Hay Day!! And guess who got to ride the skiploader.

Mee!!!

My hay shed is full for another 6 weeks. We have to order every 6 weeks because there isn't enough room to store more than a month and a half worth of hay in there. I had 5 bales of Bermuda, and stacked atop each other, there wasn't barely enough room for any more hay, and it'd be awful hard to get it down. And there was still more hay I needed in there. Jet gets forage hay in addition to the Bermuda. And I'm adding Teff for Jet and Mitch. Our hay guy was a week late, and I, in my desperation, borrowed a bale of Teff hay to feed them. Well, they loved the stuff. I'm thinking pure Bermuda is incredibly bland for Mitch, so getting Teff is a bit of a mix up for him and gives him some variety. There's 4 bales of that. And 3 forage for Jet.

Goodbye money, hello Happy Pony and Happy Mare.

And then Mitch had to stop my heart for a few minutes and probably scare 3 years off my life. I had just finished feeding them their hay, their supplements and hay pellets, and was just getting ready to get in the car when Mitch stepped away from his food, and started blowing out his nose and coughing. Freak out time! (For me that is, not him, he takes everything in stride) So he moved around a little more, walked around the fence line, and then snorted out this glob of green.

Yeah, it looks suspiciously like choke. Like a certain gobbly-guts pony was snarfing down his goodies a little too fast, and horked up something. I immediately got his halter on, and walked him over to a friend, whereupon we poked and prodded and listened to his lungs with a stethoscope, and I wiped out his nose and walked him back home. No more yuckies coming out his nose, and he totally wanted to go back and eat more of the pellets.

Duuuurr...
I want moar, Girl.
Pellets taste guud.
Daaa-hur.

Quiet you.

I took the pellets out, and he was willing to start in on his hay. Palpated his neck, and couldn't find any lumps or bulges. He seemed like a normal, happy, sane (debatable with him) pony. He wanted hay, he was his usual chipper self ... I'm pretty sure it resolved itself within a few minutes. And there wasn't anymore gookies from the nose. I've talked with friends, and I'll wait and see how he is in the morning depending if I need to call the vet or not. I'd rather have to call the vet for an obvious problem than have him come out, tube him and say nothing's wrong. And then I'd have to pay the call fee. (On the other hand, the other vet for our ranch has call-fee free Wednesdays, so if there is a problem, I can have him come out and save myself $50.)

Anyway, pretty sure there wasn't much of a need to panic. I'll see him in the morning. He should be OK.

Golden Ears in the Bluegrass

2011-11-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

Ah, Haflingers and Kentucky ... can life get any better than this?

Last week -- November 1st through 6th, I ventured beyond the range of the Sierra Nevadas for the first time in my life, striking east aboard a airplane for the first time in 6 years. I've been north, to British Columbia, south to Esenada, Mexico and west to Hawaii, but so far, my travels to the east have been absolutely nil.

But all that changed when a friend and I decided to go to Kentucky for the Breeders' Cup. We're both avid racing fans, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to go. Breeders' Cup will of course be at Santa Anita in 2012, making it incredibly easy for us to travel down for the races, but there's nothing like going to the heart of Kentucky horse country and visiting all the farms there and seeing the stallions.

I knew we were going to certain farms like Lanes' End and Three Chimneys and Gainesway, and I knew what stallions we were going to see, but little did I know that my friend, Maureen, had a special surprise planned for me.

That surprise turned out to be Deer Haven Farm. Of course there were golden ears to be found there. I even had heard of their premier stallion, Avanti, but it never would have occurred to me that we'd be visiting. That tricksy Maureen, she really surprised me for sure! I had a great time watching Avanti out in the pasture, meeting Rachel King who owns Deer Haven and talking with their trainer, Emilie.

But that's not all! Guess who got to go riding. And guess who got to go riding on a son of Nobleman of Tudor Oaks, who is (along with Aristocrat TOF) probably one of my favorite stallions who is absolutely stunning and magnificent (and sometimes makes me wish that Mitch was really a Mitcha)

... ME, of course!!!

Rachel let me ride her personal horse, Non-Chalent (otherwise known as Buddy) and I got to saddle up and take a spin around the farm with Emilie. What fun!!

I don't know why, but I have a hard time smiling for the camera. I'd swear I was smiling, but I guess not enough. But oh boy, how excited I was!!

I love this shot! Buddy had a HUGE trot. You'll have to excuse my lack of riding boots. Maureen couldn't exactly tell me to bring my riding gear without spoiling the surprise.

There we go! A smile!! It was a lovely way to spend a morning in Kentucky, riding a golden pony before the rain began.

I had a wonderful time riding with Emilie. So happy she could take me out for a ride.

After the ride. Still no rain yet. It didn't start till after we left the farm, for which I breathed a huge sigh of relief and thanks.

Buddy gets a groomin' Of course I helped tack and untack.

Back in his stall. I had a wonderful time!!

How lucky I was.

Scratch Kentucky off the Bucket List

2011-11-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted, but after October 5th, I was crazy busy trying to get ready for the Kentucky Dream Trip, and a host of other assorted things.

But I'm back now! And Kentucky was wonderful! I had a great time. Went to a lot of stallion farms and saw lots of stallions.

And for the Haflinger lovers who follow this blog, I got to do something very special. It was a surprise! Watch for pictures!

The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling!

2011-10-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

It begins on a dark and not-quite-yet-so-stormy night:

Hey Jet, Jet.
Hey Jet.
Psst, Jet.

Oh for crying out loud, Mitch
What is it? I'm trying to finish
my dinner.

Did you notice that the Girl took
your blanket off and put another
blanket on you. She also was muttering
something about "battening down the hatches"
What are hatches, can I eat them?

So, you're not wearing a blanket.
You haven't worn a ---
... wait, what was that?
Did you feel that?

AHHHH! I'm getting wet!!
AHHHH!!

Well, we've gotten our first rain since April. It probably was one of those muchly needed rain things. It didn't last too long. I woke up at 6:30 and it was already raining, so it must have blown through overnight, but the rain stopped by about 1 pm, so everything was already starting to dry up by the time I got out to the barn at 3:30. With lots of sun and wind in the forecast, things ought to be dry in no time.

On the plus side, my car is no long dusty. I kept putting off washing it and finally the rain came through and did me a bit of a favor. I'm also not dreading how my mare and my pony are going to look. I did swap Jet's summer sheet for her lightweight turnout, and left Mitch naked. He's starting to get a good coat (which will be shaved off as soon as I get back from Kentucky in November) so he can go without. Surprisingly, he wasn't a mudball this afternoon, although I suppose I'll have to wait and see how he looks tomorrow. The mare, I keep covered up. She's not got as good a coat as he does, and I have to admit, I like my mare black, damn it! Covering her up means no sun bleaching.

Life has been good. Jet got a package today from Davis Manufacturing, and if only it weren't raining, we would have busted out the goods and gone for a test ride, but that might have to wait till this weekend when the footing's dry. I'm doing well riding Jet, and she's enjoying it. We're getting ready for a Halloween playday, and since Mitch has been ~~humiliated~~ dressed in costume for the last few years, it's the black mare's turn. We've got the mostest awesome costume though. Here's a hint: Think of a movie with a black horse in it. And wait to find out if you were right!

Mitch has also been doing well. I'm having saddle thoughts again with him. I get them every so often. I do know I never want to ride him in a Wintec all purpose saddle again. I put it on him the other day. Fits him great. But when I asked him to canter, I nearly went off. He's so heavy and pounding on the forehand, I need to work to get him lighter and start shifting his weight to his hindquarters. But I need to do it in a western saddle because there's not very much of him in front. I'm having thoughts about his saddle, but I know he's not such a wide horse that a wider tree is going to fit him much better, in fact, I think his saddle fits him just fine, but I get squirrely and want something else now and then (that's the dreamer part of me kicking in, and the rational part of me needs to rein that in). I think I'll ultimately resolve this by getting him the Professional Choice Illusion pad in turquoise, and everything will be fine. Jet will of course get the Tough Enough to Wear Pink pad. Her saddle fits her just fine, and I know where to put it just so she likes it. The advantage of using a gaited tree with her, even though she's not gaited, is that there's plenty of shoulder freedom, and she definitely needs that or she'll pin her ears and buck. Mitch tends to be a bit more stoic about things, so that's why I get waffly about him, even though I probably shouldn't.

I'm trying to rein myself in rationally because my big Kentucky trip is coming up. Yep, the one in November. For Breeders' Cup. Spending money right now is not much of an option. And with my job situation being iffy and dicey, it's not a good thing to start oogling tack that I shouldn't be oogling. I can order the pads after Kentucky.

That said, I've got a job to help me out while I'm still waiting to see if I can go back to working full time with my company. It's poop scooping! A friend of mine referred me to her barn manager, and I'm scooping poop for 12 horses 3 times a week, which is the three days I'm not working at my current job. So it gets me out, gets me exercise and keeps me from going crazy. Plus, I get to be around horses, and am earning a bit of money. It's not a lot, but every little bit helps.

Morning Pony Time

2011-09-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

There are times when I envy those who keep their horse(s) on their property -- the ability to run out and give them hugs on the spur of the moment, or muck paddocks twice every day so there's no oodles of poop lying around. Someday, when I am rich, I will have a home with ponies in the yard. Until then, I've got to be content with what I have.

With this not-working-three-days-a-week thing that's going on with my life, I took the time today to spend more time at the barn in the morning. Usually I only have time to go feed, and then off to work, but today I mucked out the corrals while Jet and Mitch were having their breakfasts since I didn't have time to do that last night and then cleaned and reorganized my hay shed. We're getting a new load of hay tomorrow, yummy bales of Bermuda for Mitch, and forage hay (oat) for Jet, but Mitch gets some of that too.

And then I cam home, had breakfast and puttered around until going to lunch with a friend, and then going back out to the barn to work a horse for a friend, and play beauty shop getting the knots out of his tail before saddling up Mitch and going for a nice early evening ride.

The perfect end to a good day.

Bareback sounds kinda dirty....

2011-09-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

... after all, you get horsehair all over your pants.

The weather's been strange lately around here, fluctuating from really cloudy cold days to rather warm sunny ones. I've been riding, but I haven't been in the mood to really put the saddles on and go. I was riding bareback, but since Mitch lost weight, he doesn't quite have them ummm ... padding that he used to, and it feels a little funny sitting up there on him. Besides, I'd rather not get my pants all dirty.

So I went out and found a used bareback pad with two nice little pockets on the back. And it's oh so soft and comfortable. I can also use it with Jet. Here's a few pictures of Mitch wearing it. Please ignore his rather ummm ... indecent exposure. I don't think he realized I was photographing him at the time.

And we're off...

I've been riding a lot more lately. I'm going through some ... troubles ... at work, mainly due to the fact that I'm not working 3 days a week, and it's driving me crazy. So, the ponies are getting plenty of saddle time. I rode Jet the other day and had a really nice time.

I Can Lead A Horse To Water AND Mitch Can Make Her Cross

2011-08-31T18:07:00.000-07:00

So I DO have something to post today!

Jet has always been something of a weeny about crossing water. Years ago, back when I was still leasing her, we were on a trail ride and had to cross a flowing stream that she probably could have stepped over in two strides. Hell, I could have stepped over it. But she would have none of that. So we dismounted to cross over, and she hurtled the thing. Right. At. Me. Thought I was gonna get it for sure before she twisted, and I didn't die after all.

So yeah, the mare ... hates the water to the point that she won't even splash through a puddle. We have a water obstacle at our barn and every time we'd ride over that way, she'd shimmy up on this little bank to avoid going in the water. It's not like water is a frequent thing we come across in Central California, but, I think it was a minor frustration I had with her and had I kept her past the lease (as in actually buy her from Jerkface Owner) we would have done some serious water works and I would have pushed the envelope and probably it would have ended crazy for the both of us -- although I'd prefer to hope we were both sopping wet.

Flash forward to now. Got the black mare back (yay! Mine mine mine!) and she's been doing great. I've been pushing her when it comes to water, but she still doesn't want to quite go into the water obstacle. Cue the secret weapon which happens to be one golden pony who's born a water pony (hey, he's a Pisces like me!) and a lead rope. I took both the hayburners out today, ponying Jet off Mitch, and let me tell you, I did lead a horse to water, and Mitch did make her cross it.

So hurrah, we did that 4 times! Success!! Riding her tomorrow.

And Friday can't get here fast enough. I'll even have pictures!

Long Time, No Post

2011-08-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

Ok gang, I know it's been like 3 months since I last posted. There just really isn't much to post about, and I've been busy and riding and working and doing a million other things and I've been lazy and not updating.

I mean, really. What's there to update? I've been working with both Mitch and Jet and have been having a great time. But it's nothing I haven't been doing, and unfortunately, there's no real point in posting anything because I haven't got anyone taking pictures of me riding (I need to bribe someone somehow)

I've also been really bad about reading other blogs lately. I'm a bad girl. Yes.

I do have a package coming on Friday, so maybe I'll have something to post about then!

Happy Ponies!

2011-06-09T23:22:00.001-07:00

Oh nom nom nom nom!

Booyah!

2011-05-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

I had a FANTASTIC ride on Jet today. The weather's great, not too hot, not too cold. I got there around 3-ish, and took care of some business (mostly finding distraction for Mitch in the form of a little handful of hay to nom on -- put that in a bucket since I didn't dump it into his rubber tub until just before I put Jet's sidepull on.) Took Jet out, and tacked her up with her saddle, and then went to give Mitch some distraction-food before I put Jet's sidepull on and we took off. Mitch is usually pretty good about us leaving (and vice versa if I take Mitch out and Jet's left behind) but I usually give a little hay to nibble so they're distracted until we get out of sight. Mitch is pretty sharp-eyed though, he can spot us coming along the road and see us through the trees.

I really like riding Jet in her sidepull. It's a great tool to use with her, because she's very calm and very steady. She's quite happy not to have a bit in her mouth, and we get along well and have a good working relationship. I trust her inexplicably as a bitless horse, and while I love Mitch, he does much better with his Myler snaffle than he does in a sidepull or a hackamore (intending to try his short shank hack again soon though). We went over to the pond arena, and I trotted her around a lot. She's got such a lovely trot, some of the other ladies riding in there were commenting about how nice Jet was moving. With her glistening black coat, and her lovely way of going, she really stands out. I feel very blessed to have two unique and special horses. Mitch always draws the eye too. Jet feels really good when I have her trot, and I like using my hot pink braided nylon reins that are about 8 ft long. I could probably have a little longer ones, but I like having them, and I have enough contact with her sidepull without being on her mouth. My hope is that other people can occasionally ride Jet, and I don't want them on her mouth which is why I use a sidepull on her 99.9% of the time, I train her in it, so she can be ridden in it.

I did trot poles today. They had been placed out, so I figured I'd work Jet over them. We trotted around the whole arena, went over the trot poles and kept on going. I also did some spiraling circles and leg yields. I don't canter her right now because a lot of what I'm trying to accomplish is building her topline and elasticizing her at the trot. Trying to get her balanced so she is moving well before I ask her for the canter cue. Trot poles and the hill work I do with her really is helping with that. She's muscling up wonderfully, and looking better. I will need to get pictures to share here really soon. I opened and closed the arena gate from horseback, and Jet was helpful in pushing it closed. Such a talented mare, we're gonna clean up shop in trail classes.

I took her up on the barn trails after the arena work so we could do some hills, and it was starting to get a bit windy. But she's as steady as they come, and I have no qualms riding her on trails bitless. We also did a little puddle schooling, and I am happy to report that Jet walked through a water puddle without spazzing out. It just took some patience and persistence on my part. So proud of her!

And tomorrow, it's the golden boy's turn! Mitch and I will probably do the same kind of work as I did with Jet today. Arena work, and trot poles, and then some barn trails.

How doth the busy bee...

2011-05-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

Life's a rush! I'm pretty busy these days with work and two hayburners, and after I get home, I sort of veg out. My secret vice is Netflix streaming, which I can watch via my Wii. But I am getting all done that I need to do.

Mitch has been doing super. He's looking really svelte and nice these days (no more jiggly puff belly!) and I was riding him the other day when we stopped to talk to a friend. I can't believe how comfortable it feels to sit on him naturally and not with my legs stuck out at ninety-degree angles. The Tex Tan fits him well too. He's not really wide enough for a FQHB, but is probably too wide for a semi. So the QH bars with a 6 3/4" gullet fits him well. I do think he needs a slightly thinner pad as the 1" wool felt one might be a trifle too thick, so I'll probably be getting last year's model of the Professional Choice Charmayne James pad for him (the Illusion, since it comes in turquoise) and he ought to be really nice with that. Ever since he lost weight and actually looks like he fits a saddle properly again, I've noticed a lot of different things about him. He just looks better, moves better and feels better. And he's soooo much better about listening to me. I feel we can accomplish a lot this summer.

Jet's also doing famously. I finally found her a saddle that fits her better than her other one, this one being more narrow and with a higher gullet. It's a Fabtron gaited horse saddle, and it fits her very nicely even though she's not a gaited horse. She does, however, have a similar build to a gaited horse, being narrow and having some fairly prominent withers. I test rode in it on Thursday, and she feels really good with it. I think I might want to get a pad that fills in the hollow behind her shoulder. Either the Classic Equine Biofit pad, or one of the ProfChoice orthosport pads. For now, I'm using a wither pad that helps even the saddle out, but it accommodates her withers nicely for the time being.

On Friday, I got a friend to climb back into the saddle. Jet was super. :)

It's been windy over the weekend and I couldn't ride, but since today is so nice, I'll probably ride them both.

Mitch Should Be The Spokespony for Weight Watchers

2011-05-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a long hard year, but Mitch has done amazingly well. As I posted last June, at Mitch's annual vet check (and spring shots) in May, my vet said "He has quite the layer of fat on him" and estimated Mitch to be between 75-100 lbs overweight. These were pictures of him in April 2010:

And here he is in June 2010, he's wearing a 32" dressage girth and looks like ... well, a pregnant hippopotamus.

He wasn't always that porky though. When I got him in 2008, he was actually in good weight. I've got some pictures from May 2008, and he looked pretty good. In fact, he was wearing a regular saddle then. I suspect that part of the reason why I did go treeless with him was because when he got fat, he ballooned out and had a huge belly and that made his back get all flat and wide.

So I put him on a diet, got him a good slow hay feeder, moved him somewhere he'd move around more and the most important thing of all. I got him off the orchard grass and on to bermuda. It also helps that he's on self-care now and that I'm 100% in charge of his feeding routine. I measure out his hay exactly and adjust as necessary. Being 100% in control has really helped a lot because he's definitely been losing weight. I taped him today at 945 lbs, a huge drop in the last year. He was well over 1000 lbs, and probably pushing 1100 lbs last May, and here it is a year later and he's down below 1000 lbs. Big accomplishment. And most importantly, I took it off gradually over the course of the year, and he looks great.

He looks like a pony again!

And actually, I did have some pretty hefty pony-related bills, and had to sell my treeless Sensation western. It was awful because I didn't want to, but by selling it, I could pay those bills. And since Mitch has lost so much weight, I found that the Tex Tan fits him pretty well. It's a little tight (he might need a narrower gullet too) but otherwise, works. It'll do for now.

And now it's my turn. I'm not fluffy or anything, I'm not even particularly overweight for my height. But if I'm using a heavier saddle, we are getting awfully close to that 20% ratio of how much weight a pony or horse can carry. I'd like to lose 10 lbs myself, just to get us down towards that ratio. I'm going to try the Special K Challenge for a while. I've been too tempted to just buy fast food lately rather than make lunch, so the shakes and meal bars along with the fruit crisps and cereal bars are easy things to toss into my bag before I leave to go feed before work. Add some fruit and veggies in little reusable cups and we'd be pretty good to go. I got some Rock n Fit shoes from K-Mart. They're a sort of cheap knockoff of the Sketchers shoes with the rocker heel. I'm on my feet so much, and walking, I think it'd be good to tone my thighs and legs and stuff. It's not like I need to lose 100 lbs or anything, right?

Thrift Shop Find For the Win!

2011-04-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

I got the good news, and I got the bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?

... well if you wanted the good news, that's too bad. I gotta start with the bad news to make the good news even better.

So the bad news is ... that nice Tex Tan saddle I bought? The one I really liked. The one I've only had for a month now? Well, it's too wide. It's definitely too wide, and restricts Jet's shoulder. She bucked and kicked and threw a fuss on Tuesday even with the one-inch Diamond wool pad. I think the gullet might be all right for being a tick too wide, but she needs something that stays off her shoulder. I chalked up a lot of her surly antics to fussing about being in work, but I'm beginning to think it's definitely saddle fit now.

I borrowed a friend's Billy Cook Roper with a Wade tree after attending the Buck Brannaman clinic on Saturday where everyone was riding in a saddle with a Wade tree. What can I say, the saddle is up off the horse's shoulder and puts you in a nice position. Jet liked it, she strode out yesterday much better than before with no pinned ears, no bucks or kicking. The only bummer is that the gullet is too wide and hit the top of her withers.

So it was back to the drawing board. I could have borrowed my friend's Bates Isabell Werth again. Jet seemed comfortable in it, but I just about went mad riding on it. I don't know if it just didn't fit me right or what. I know dressage saddles have deep seats, and you ride with a long stirrup, but I just felt disjointed in the thing, and felt like I couldn't sit down into it and it felt nearly impossible to post in. I'm not sure if it was the saddle for me.

I lucked out though. I normally don't frequent thrift stores on a regular basis, but today I went to one to kill time, and lo and behold, they had a Wintec 2000 for dirt cheap. It's used and the older model, but who cares. It will do for now.

I guess my career as an english rider is back on.

Let's Hack Some Grass

2011-04-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

After 2 days and about $40 later, the fence line that Mitch broke through is repaired. The bottom pole was still in place, so that was one less thing to fix, and I got a rail end cap for the middle pole to fix the side that broke (I did ask about pipe corral panels, and it would have cost me $220.... noooo thank you) and then since he broke the top one clean off as it was a continuous piece of pipe, I had to go get a piece of pipe cut to size. I originally got a 10 foot piece, but it was too long, so I double checked my measurement and had them cut it down. Perfect fit. With a rail cap, it fit in perfectly, and the top rail was complete. I put a plywood board across it, and hammered in another bit of pipe to brace it. All fixed.

Didn't put Mitch back in his corral though. He's on Jet's side, and locked up on the side with the shelter behind the panel and gate with the stud wire. I feel bad that he can't enjoy the full run area, but that's the consequences. The fencing on that side is much stouter (I think largely the problem was that Mitch's side backs up against the hill, so when it got wet... the fence posts moved easily in the mud when he leaned on it) because Jet doesn't have a tendency to lean on fences. She respects them, and seems content to stay behind them and not lean to get grass. So for right now, I have the two of them on switched sides. Jet has the full open side, and Mitch is locked up on the smaller side. When I put Jet in Mitch's usual side, she wandered around, sniffed the ground, and looked down at the grass and popped her head through the rails, but couldn't reach. So she wandered off. She's not a pusher like Mitch (gotta admit, the golden boy is a persistent one) so I feel comfortable leaving her over there.

This weekend, I'll be having some handymen do some work on the corral, as long as the weather is good. They'll pull the leaning posts up, replace those with thicker stouter posts and cement those in place. Then, they'll replace the fence posts and level the gates out for both horses. And once I have the corral fencing level again (as in not resembling the Leaning Tower of Pisa) I'll be putting up some plastic thingies for hot wire rope or tape. We'll run three strands of tape at three levels along that curve of the fence line, which should hopefully help discourage Mitch from leaning against the fence, and then the panels under his shelter will get triple-thick plywood on either side, and Mitch will be able to return to his normal abode once all is in place.

My dad purchased a really cute little weed whacker. It's a cordless, so it's battery powered (since my section of self-care doesn't have any electricity, and a gas powered whacker is heavy as sin) and I hope to be able to use it to keep the grass trimmed back and stuff so as not to tempt Mitch even if he should try and brave the hot wire. I know why he's leaning ... he wants that grass! I just don't want him taking down the whole fence line in the process, that's all.

Mitch has been very subdued the last few days. I'm keeping an eye on him, and not finding anything alarming (i.e. no definite digital pulse or anything serious that might indicate founder, etc -- I can't feel a digital pulse and there's no heat in his hooves) but he just seems ... well, not exactly himself. I went into his paddock to clean and he went and hid behind the wall in the shelter. He seemed perfectly happy to bug Jet this morning at feeding time, but I think he's kind of worried that I yelled at him for about 10 minutes on Sunday full blast, and threatened to sell him. He's picking up my frustration and anxiety and general bad feelings about all this, so I had to give him a big hug tonight (several!) and a couple of kisses, and tell him I loved him no matter what, and that I wasn't mad at him, but at what he did. I took Jet for a ride tonight, but tomorrow, I'll take Mitch out and let him play in the round pen.

I think I can sleep soundly tonight.

What Do A Hurricane and A Pony Have In Common?

2011-04-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

They're both named Mitch.

Today was an ARGH day. I went out to the barn to feed. What I was supposed to do was go out to feed and then go to the dressage show. Mr Butthead Pony had other plans for me. When I was driving up the driveway, I caught a glimpse of him lying down. My first reaction was "Huh, he seems awful close to the fence" and then "Huh, he seems to be lying down in grass." Got to where the paddocks are, and realized that not only was Mitch lying down on grass, he was also not in his corral. Umm ... shit. I found quite a path of destruction left by a pony named after a freaking deadly hurricane. I've been at the stables more or less all day, and because it was a Sunday, pretty much nothing was open to even come close to fixing this damn paddock fence. I walked him a little, he pooped twice and just seemed content to stand around. I'm hoping because he ate Jet's flake of forage hay for breakfast that he filled up on that, and hay before he got to the grass. Considering he went out the back by the shelter, that's my guess. Luckily, yesterday was a shitty drizzly day, so my hope is that he at least doesn't get grass founder. My fingers are crossed.

I rode Jet today with the new pad. She did buck a little, but she was feeling her oats. Most of the time, she trotted out really nice and fancy. She was really good. Mitch wasn't too bad either. I only screamed at him for 10 minutes after I got his halter on and put him in the other half of Jet's paddock. I've threatened to sell him because I am so damn pissed off at him right now. I hope he doesn't need the vet because that's the last thing I need to pay for right now. I already have to fix the fence.

*sigh* I fucking hate this horse shit sometimes. I really do.

This Doesn't Make Me Look Tacky, Does It?

2011-04-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Tack sale, whoo!

Every year, there's a used tack sale here in town put on by the riding club that I belong too. I go every year, although last year, I didn't buy anything. This year, since I'm on the LPTR board as Newsletter Person, I was pretty heavily involved, and was involved in helping with membership recruitment and stuff today. So I pretty much was there the entire time. And this year, I had a small list of things I wanted, mainly stuff for Jet (although Mitch did get something too.)

Because I was there right from the beginning and watched people set up, I could see what people were bringing in. And as soon as selling started, I made a beeline for the things I wanted. Among those things was a Diamond Wool (as in the actual company) western pad. 1" wool felt. Really nice pad. People kept saying "Nice pad, what a nice pad". Grand total for that... $15. I got a cute western breastcollar for Jet too, it has some rawhide v-braiding or something on it. Makes it look not so blah. $15. And I bought some nice western stirrups with 2.5" necks and a 3" tread for my Sensation treeless saddle, as my trail stirrups pain my ankles.

I looked for a flank cinch, and actually found one. Not only that, it was a Tex Tan flank cinch with an acorn and oak tooling pattern that would have like totally matched my saddle. Unfortunately, it happened to be attached to a $900 Tex Tan show saddle. Bummer! I did end up borrowing a flank cinch from Sara. She has to find the billets for it, but I temporarily put nylon off billets on the saddle where the flank cinch billets go. It'll do for now. I think between the 1" wool felt pad, and the flank cinch, this saddle ought to fit Jet pretty good now. And the pretty breastcollar just jazzes it up and makes it look sexy.

Today was a blah miserable day, and I spent almost all day inside so it doesn't matter. Hoping tomorrow is nice so I can ride.

On Your Mark ... Get Set ... Clinic!

2011-03-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

I think spring is here! It was hot as blazes today.

Thanks to a somewhat obscure holiday -- I think only California and Arizona celebrate Cesar Chavez Day -- I got the day off, and went up to Arroyo Grande for a Mark Rashid clinic. My one regret all day was that I wish I had a trailer so I could have brought Mitch.

We stopped by to visit a friend of our who lives right around the corner from where the clinic was being held. I helped her move some of the little Rocky yearlings around, and then one of her riders came back after working the stallion, and I got the opportunity to hop aboard and try a gaited horse for the first time in my life. Damn, they are one smooth ride. And that was one sweet stallion. I think that just goes to show, stallions who've been taught how to behave properly are good mannered animals. I never once felt any difference that I was riding a stallion.

I'm going to go pass out now. Sooo sleepy.

Speechless...

2011-03-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

Words just cannot express how ... well, peeved off I am. So allow my amazing Photoshop skillz to explain it for you.

It has been raining for-frickin-ever. Why won't it stop, damn it. My beautiful dry and clean corrals are once again seas of mud. Do.Not.Want!!

This is all.

Hail Daylight Savings Time!

2011-03-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

WHOOHOO!

A whole hour longer of daylight now! I can't wait till summer when it's still light out at 8 pm and I'm loping around the arena for my second ride of the day. Yay, more sunlight! Why can't we stay on daylight savings FOREVER? It's not like I need light outside my window when I'm getting dressed in the morning for work anyway.

Didn't ride Jet yesterday. She seemed a little sore -- rightfully so, she hasn't been worked at all in months (maybe even years!), so I decided to just take it easy and took her up to the round pen to let her roll before taking her for a little grass walk.

On the matter of her saddle, it might actually be a little too wide (like a teeny smidge, not huge) and as she muscles up and gains muscle around her shoulder and back, it should fit her better (better than fitting now, and then being too tight later) so a slightly thicker pad will help for now. I'm going to take it slow with her, do lots of hillwork to build her topline by ponying her off Mitch and longing her with the neck stretcher to encourage her to go long and low. It'll probably fit great in the end.

Then I did some ground work exercises with Mitch. He was really good. And took him out and saddled him up for a ride in the big arena. He was so good, very calm and quiet, and he carried his head just right and picked up his transitions on cue. I think this Myler bit is really doing the thing, he's responsive and listening.

Getting their feet trimmed today, so no riding, but I love all the extra daylight, it lets me do things!

The End of My English Career in the Saddle

2011-03-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

Jet's saddle arrived yesterday, and I went out to try it on her. I can proudly say that after watching a gazillion videos on tying that western latigo, I did it. I've never really done that before, since I rode english as a kid, and then my western sport treeless saddle for Mitch has english billets, so it's a first for me, and gosh darn, I did it. I took her over to the dressage arena, and was riding with a friend. Jet hated her gelding. She did the pinning the ears back thing, and the glaring, and she tried to kick him. And she was grumpy and cranky when I asked her to trot, and kicked out and bucked a little.

So today, I rode in the big arena, and didn't ride with that gelding. She bucked and kicked a little again when I asked her to trot, but once I got her going and didn't take sass from her, she picked up a nice trot with her head low, and I had my reins long and open by my knees. I'm hoping it's not saddle fit, but since today was the first time I really really worked her (not just walking her around with a bareback pad or the dressage saddle) since I got her in January, I'm wondering if that's the reason. She's more or less done literally nothing for the last 3 years, and needs to get back into a working mentality. Today was really the first day I asked her to trot with me on her back since I brought her home, she didn't seem enthusiastic about starting it, but once we got going, she was really good without protest.

I really looked into saddles, and did a template printout from Horsesaddleshop.com with their different gullets. The wide angle was really close to her withers, but the normal one looked good. She's not a wide horse. We've got some pretty wide ones at our barn, and she's skinny compared to them. I know her last saddle was my Abetta endurance saddle which had the 6.75" gullet, so that was pretty much the target range. Which is why I'm hoping the Tex Tan saddle works out, because I really like it.

Here's some pictures. I'm borrowing the pad, it's a Classic Equine and is 32"x34" and has the memory foam that's pretty much brand new and hasn't been broken in (since my barn mate has a horse that can't wear it) My pad hasn't arrived yet, but it's a 30"x32"

Her sweat patterns look pretty good. I can get my hand under the gullet, and it seems to fit her well. Really hoping this is the one. I like the weight of it too. It's supposed to weigh 32 lbs, but I can heft it pretty easily, so maybe it's lighter than that.

On Saddles and Vitamins

2011-03-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

Jet's saddle arrived today. I got it out at the barn, and OMG, loved the looks of it. It's a Tex Tan, so not exactly a cheap saddle, but not a saddle that breaks the bank either. It definitely needs to be broken in. Brand new leather, eyugh.

But it fits her well. There's plenty of wither clearance with the gullet. Sits nice on her back. And I was comfortable in it too. And it didn't pinch her shoulder or anything. She was a little stroppy in the dressage arena, but part of it was that she was pissed at Sarah's horse (a gelding, she kept pinning her ears and trying to kick him and he kept giving her the meanie stare too -- we probably can't ride together unless I'm riding Mitch) and part of it was me asking her to trot. I haven't really asked her to work much at all, so she got a little rebellious about it. I'll ride her again tomorrow, but turn her out before to let her buck and play and get her sillies out. And not ride with that particular gelding she so dislikes. I'll take pictures for sure. We're borrowing a pad, so it's not pink. And I might try my Myler bit on her tomorrow. I'd like to keep her bitless as much as possible, but a tune up in a bit now and then is not a bad thing.

She's a spoiled pink little mare. I went a little stir-crazy on the brushes, but she's got a whole set of pink brushes and stuff. Now it will be easy to keep her brushes apart from Mitch's. His stuff is in the blue tote, hers is in the pink one.

Mitch is doing well. We've been doing a lot of groundwork inside his corral, and working on moving his feet, and keeping him facing me at all times. Yesterday, I was doing an exercise I learned at the Chris Cox demo at Equine Affaire about putting the rope around the haunch, and turning their hip out so they turn to face you. (Or was that Jonathan Fields... goodness, I watched a lot of stuff that's very useful) and mainly I've just been working on stuff to keep him with me, and respecting me and not to go charging off like he does. I think we'll be ready to go for handwalks again soon, although I think for now, I'll take him out in his leather halter with the stud chain.

On another note, I've made some final decisions regarding supplements and multi-vitamins for both horses. Before I got Jet, Mitch was plenty happy to scarf down the SmartVite Easy Keeper Grass pellets with a cup of bermuda hay pellets and he was thriving. Jet on the other hand absolutely refuses to touch the stuff, so it feels like I have two kids and I'm trying to figure out what to feed them for dinner that they'll both eat. Getting vitamins and minerals is an absolute essential for both the mare and the pony since they're on grass hay, but I didn't want to have to order one thing for Jet and one thing for Mitch from two different places (which is why I chose not to feed Equine Saver). I also don't want to feed them grain per se, neither of them need it, but Jet also needs her MSM and Fluid Flex. She's getting rice bran pellets too. I want something that's pretty easy to feed, but makes them think they're getting some goodies. Also, Mitch was getting low on his supplement, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to re-order through SmartPak again. I've kind of disliked the little plastic wells for a while because recycling them is an extra step compared to feeding out of a bucket.

So I picked Triple Crown Lite. It's good because it's a pelleted feed rather than a grain mixture, and is heavily fortified with vitamins and minerals that I'm not going to have to feed a lot of it to make sure they're getting what they need vitamin-wise (I prefer to make sure they have enough necessary hay in a slow feed hay net rather than feed grain to a horse) And it's low in NSC which is great. I gave them a little tonight, both Jet and Mitch scarfed it down and I will gradually increase the amount over the next week or two so they're at the recommended amount. Feeding only a pound of this stuff is definitely a lot better than feeding pounds and pounds of grain, and it's $24 a bag at the feed store. Since I buy Jet's MSM and Fluid Flex there too, it seems better to pick up TC Lite there rather than ordering online and hoping it arrives in time. My vet definitely recommends it.

Is that a plastic bag on the end of your training stick or are you just happy to see me?

2011-03-06T21:53:00.000-08:00

One thing I don't always talk about is this small tendency of Mitch to be pushy. He's a big horse trapped in large pony's body and sometimes I wonder if he's happy about that. In his mind, he's 20 hands high and when he walks, you'd damned well better get out of his way. Or he'll stomp you. Just cause. He's got a bolting problem in-hand, and it makes hand walking difficult unless he happens to want to respect the stud chain. He'll also be willing to pretend that he's actually respecting that rope halter. Sometimes. It's very aggravating because that's the way he is, and I'm forced to work pretty hard to make him better.

Today, as I was finishing up with the stuff I had to do, and started to bring the pan of supplements in so I could put his blanket on, he got really bargey, and tried to go for the pan while I was still halfway through the fence rail. So I squeezed out, yelled and gave him a good verbal what for and he pushed to the corner of his shelter where he couldn't go out because there was a wall there on his right, and the fence separating him from Jet was to his left. So he was scuffly and huffly, and had just about presented hindquarters at me, so I gave him a kick with my boot and he started backing up so fast that he just about fell out of the shelter. Which meant I wasn't going to let it end there, and got my rope halter, and training stick, and tied a plastic bag to the end of my stick, and we proceeded to have a 'Come to Jesus' moment. Every time he'd swing those haunches at me to try and take off (didn't have anywhere to go since he was still in his corral) I'd shake the bag and slap his butt with it so he'd disengage his hindquarters. I moved those feet. Got him to back up, and approach, and wiggled that rope to get him to move back. I made him work.

Led him back into his shelter, put his blanket on and made him wait like a good patient pony for his supplements and his hay. Aint takin no sass from you, golden boy. There's gonna be another session like that tomorrow.

A Game of Thrones

2011-03-06T09:50:00.000-08:00

I love reading George R. R. Martin. I've been reading his A Song of Ice and Fire series for a very long time. I R Nerdz.

So just what is my game of thrones? What are my thrones anyway (no, silly rabbits, they're not made of porcelain) and how do they relate to horses? Why, saddles of course!

As I've posted, I'm currently borrowing a Bates Isabell Werth dressage saddle from a barn mate for Jet because she doesn't fit the two Sensation treeless saddles I have. The dressage saddle was just right there on her withers, even with the Skito pad, so it was a no go, she had a little more clearance with the western sport, but it was still not as easily fitting her the way it does Mitch. Mostly because she has withers, and he doesn't. She doesn't even have shark withers, she just has them. So she needed her own saddle.

I was going to get her an Abetta leather saddle, but didn't like the way it looked. Their cordura models are excellent, and I've lots of praise for the endurance saddle I had, but I didn't like the leather ones as much. So ... I was looking at Circle Y saddles, thinking maybe I could find a nice used one. Instead, I'm going to be getting a Tex Tan Albany pleasure saddle. I liked the look of the tooling, and the saddle, so I think it's something I'd be very pleased with. And the Ralide tree is the same as the one I've used on Jet in the past so I know it's something that fits her decently.

Of course, buying this saddle meant I needed to spend money. Where did the money come from? Well, my Sensation G3 treeless dressage saddle will be leaving this next week for its new home with an endurance rider. I thought really long and hard about it, but I basically bought that saddle on a whim in September without knowing that 4 months later I was going to find Jet and get her back, and that she wouldn't fit either of the saddles I owned for Mitch. I haven't really used my dressage saddle as much as I have my trail saddle, because that one was always Mitch's main saddle.

So I decided it was better to sell the saddle I hardly use to give me enough money to put towards a saddle for Jet which is far more important to me than hanging on to a well-liked saddle for the horse I already have a saddle for. Of course, with this saddle heading off for its new home, it means the door has closed (albeit temporarily perhaps) on my riding history in the english disciplines.

Mitch's Gloomy Birthday

2011-03-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

Hey Jet. Hey Jet.
HeyJetHeyJet.
Guesswhatguesswhat
guesswhat!!

What golden boy? I'm trying to
get my beauty sleep

It's my birthday!

It's also raining, and the girl isn't
here with the food yet. Go away and
leave me alone.

I am going to write in my diary.

Dear Diary. Today is my birthday.
It rained that day.

Today was Mitch's birthday. He's a whole twelve years old today, having been born on March 2nd, 1999. What really makes it neat is once Mitch's birthday comes, it's only a matter of mere hours before the human counterpart occurs -- namely, my birthday. I always thought it was nifty when I bought Mitch and got his papers that I looked at his foaling date and saw that his birthday was March 2nd. Mine is March 3rd, and then my mom's dad is March 4th. Kind of a neat little run of 3 birthdays right in a row there. I'm not sure when Jet's birthday is, I might have to make up a day... I'll probably end up picking sometime in August because that's when I started leasing her 3 years ago.

Unfortunately, it's raining. So Mitch didn't get anything major like he did last year with the streamers and the birthday hat and stuff.

Haaaaaay thar, pard'ner

2011-02-27T20:53:00.000-08:00

Sadly, I have to report that Mitch, the Freedom Feeder Killer has struck again. He left the victim with a gaping wound in it's side and bottom....

...at least this one lasted a whole month this time. Which is some kind of record considering how quickly he destroyed the first Freedom Feeder I bought for him last year, and then the replacement that was sent. Hence why I ended up having to buy the Busy Horse Grande because it was tougher. But that's Mitch for you, just a wacky personality of a horse who can't be trusted with anything that's not tied down. He's very mouthy, and likes to chew, he's got lots of toys, but I guess it's the Haflinger personality, can't stop eating for anything, even if it means eating something inedible like lead ropes and rope halters and that black screen mesh that was supposed to block wind and rain from your shelter, Mitch. Haflingers ... the billy goats of the horse world.

On the other hand, I also bought a Freedom Feeder at Equine Affaire for Jet, and she's absolutely wonderfully doing fabulous with it. I started her using it right after Equine Affaire, and fed half of her Bermuda hay in it, and half in her tub so she eventually got used to using it. It looks almost as new as the day we got it. She's not aggressive at eating the way Mitch is, she'll push against the net, get some hay to pop up, and pull it out with her lips, not her teeth. She now gets most of her hay in the mini net now, and will readily choose to eat from the net over free-choice hay in her tub. She was a notorious cribber at one point, but now that she's eating almost all the time, she's really doing well and doesn't crib anymore. She still has to wear a collar because that's barn policy, but because she's "grazing" (as my dad put it) she has hay to buffer her stomach acid all the time. In fact, I talked to one of my barn mates today who ordered Freedom Feeders for her horses because she says she'd come out to unblanket/feed early in the morning, and Jet still has hay in the net, and is still nibbling away. It's brought a definite change for her, she used to be out in pasture, and was anxious about eating, now she can take her time, and enjoy her meal.

How Many Women Does It Take To Put A Blanket On A Horse?

2011-02-26T18:11:00.000-08:00

The correct answer is 3. 1 to hold the horse (who happens to be infamous at the barn for biting) and 2 to put the blanket on. Guess who got to be the lucky person holding the horse.

Nah, he was good. Really.

So it was windy as hello today. Which made it cold. But I saddled Jet up with the dressage saddle to see if it fits her now that I put the black gullet in. That's the medium (so I'm saying likely average) She's got an average back, not too A-framed, not too wide. I think when the time comes to get her a western saddle, she's going to be pretty easy to fit. She wore a standard Abetta endurance saddle pretty easily, so I've pretty much decided to get her an Abetta again, only, I noticed they're making leather saddles now which would be rather nice. We'll see.

Anyway, I've been riding her in a rope halter with reins clipped to the fiador. It's all right, but not really workable, so I borrowed a side pull. Poor Jet, right now she's just being ridden in loaner tack without a single personal item to her name. But that's gonna change, you'll see. Anyway, side pull works great with her, she's very responsive with it, and does really well. So I'll probably order one from Moss Rock Endurance... in pink, of course.

I want it to dry up faster!

Batten Down the Hatches

2011-02-24T20:08:00.000-08:00

... A VERY COLD STORM SYSTEM WILL IMPACT SOUTHWEST CALIFORNIA FRIDAY INTO SATURDAY...

From the weatherchannel.com. Gee, isn't that peachy? We had a few days of sunshine, which meant the ground got to dry up, and just when it's just about perfect, we're gonna have another crapload of rain dumped on us again. Well ... buuuuullllyyyy.

I dug a ton of trenches. I hope the water drains out really good.

I think I broke my back right now. (Not literally!) I'm borrowing a Bates Isabella Werth dressage saddle from one of my friends. Jet's put on weight and is looking good, but she's still not up to carrying a western saddle yet. I really need to do flat work with her, with transitions and trot poles and hill work, but I can't do it bareback on her as she did not like me sitting smack on her backbone (can't blame her there, I wouldn't want someone sitting like that on my back) and she's clearly peeved even with the bareback pad on. So ... borrowed the dressage saddle. I tried it on her today, and even with a too-wide gullet, there was a definite change for the better in how she carried herself -- lifting herself into the saddle, etc. We did some lateral movements (shoulders in, half-pass, etc.) at the walk as we were going along. She's very responsive. I should mention that I'm riding her right now in nothing but a rope halter with some reins clipped to the fiador loops. I like riding her bitless. I'll probably get her a proper sidepull real soon.

So how did I "break" my back? Well, lemme put it this way. Easy Change Gullet System my ASS. That took me 40 minutes. And it was no walk in the park. I put in the black gullet (medium), crossing my fingers and hoping that Jet doesn't need the blue one (medium wide.) Unfortunately, it's gonna rain tomorrow (BLAH!!) so I can't see if it fits her. But once the rain stops, I can do riding work with her now. I didn't want to do too much with her because she needed some weight put on, but she's looking good now, so I think it's time to get some muscle on her. I'll start slow, but riding is really the only way to do it since I don't want to be lunging her forever in a round pen.

Mitch is doing fantastic. I took him out to the big round pen for a good run yesterday and then walked him around for a while. He's behaving nicely.

Here's Miss Jet a few days ago. She's shedding like a little woolly rhinoceros. Lots of red in her coat right now, but she goes a really nice blue-black in the spring and summer.

Hay is getting delivered next week. Hooray. Also, the two are due for a trim. Hopefully it should be nice and sunny. I kinda hinted to my brother that since my birthday is coming up, I'd like pink grooming brushes for a birthday present, so Jet can have her own. I already got her a pink grooming tote.

Petite Syrah and Dutch Mimolette

2011-02-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

Why yes, yes -- as a matter of fact, I will have cheese with that whine.

It's raining in SoCal. My corrals were dry.

*pout*

Feeling a Bitless Than Crazy Now

2011-02-13T19:45:00.000-08:00

Had another great afternoon with the ponies.

I'm just taking things as slow as I can with Jet. She's basically been out of work more or less for 3 years, and needs to get plenty of conditioning and weight back on to be well rounded. I'm not trying to do too much on her back, but I did walk her around again today. Just on a whim, I decided to try a rope halter with some reins clipped to the fiador knot. Good as gold. In fact, she felt better in my hands with the rope halter than she did with the bit yesterday. I could get her to move off my leg -- both her hip, and her shoulder (boy, that's gonna spoil me compared to Mitch who is about as thick as two planks and not very sensitive) just with my leg, and not even any rein contact. I'm pretty sure I'll be riding her without a bit most of the time, and definitely want her to be bitless when I let friends ride her later this summer. I want people to stay off her mouth.

I worked Mitch this afternoon. I had to find him a very thin rope halter because he continually ignored the one I had with a fancy wrapped noseband. Less is more for him, go figure.

The State of the Corral

2011-02-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I had a squeeful afternoon.

I swung by Hearts on my way out to the barn to pick up some stuff from the Tack Shack. One of the things I got was SMBs (the original ones) although I have plans to eventually get Jet a nice pair of SMB III's for the front (and probably get a pair for Mitch too) as I wanted to see if leg support boots -- namely the Professional Choice variety -- would do anything for her. As we suspect she has an old splint, or bone chip or something going on with that right foreleg, I think leg support boots would be very helpful. So I picked up a used pair for now, and tried them on her today.

Well, I'll be darned if she didn't trot out sound as a bell in the round pen, both directions. So I borrowed a bareback pad from one of my barn mates, popped the myler bit and western headstall on, and hopped up. Boy, I am happily in love with this mare (but don't tell Mitch ... or maybe DO TELL him so he starts acting like her) She's really soft in the mouth, held her head in a great position, and just moved out really nice. I think giving her lots of time to settle in, and get some meat on her bones was a good idea. I even had her pick up the trot a bit, and she was just great with me sitting on her back.

I'm thinking I've found the right combination -- leg support boots, Fluid Flex and MSM seem to work out really fine for her. She was just awesome. I'm going to have to find her a saddle eventually. I've tried 3 saddles on her so far (not including my Sensations) and one was way too narrow, one was too wide and the other was great on her shoulder, but sat too low over her withers. I think we're going to try a friend's Wintec dressage saddle for right now, because I don't really like to trot horses very much bareback. I prefer to post because it's a lot kinder for their backs than the sitting trot, and I just can't post well bareback. I'd also like to try a loping hackamore or the Gentle Control Hackamore on Jet. I trust her inherently more than I trust Mitch to go bitless, and if I have other people ride her, I'd like them to stay off her mouth.

She's a happy mare, scarfs down her rice bran and supplements with a chipper attitude. I'm really glad she's with me. She deserves it, no matter what. She's lewarned how to eat her hay from the slow feed haynet, and takes a long time to eat. I think that helps with the buffer for the stomach acid, and she doesn't crib much, if at all. I still keep the cribbing collar on her just in case, but maybe eventually I can take it off.

Mitch is also doing well.

A momentary tiff at the gates

C'mon Jet, just put your ears forward!

Voila! (You can see how skinny Mitch is looking these days. Whoohoo!)

Hacking ... no, it's not going for a horseback ride

2011-02-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

I seem to have caught some kind of bug. Not the cute little ladybug kind, nooo, this is a big ugly pincer bug. I'm pretty sure it's not the flu since I don't feel sore or tired or worn out, and I'm congested out the wazoo, but I'm pretty sure it's just a cold. I get a headache a bit, but so would you if you've been coughing a mile a minute.

Drinking lots and lots of water ... OMG, pissing like a racehorse here!... and taking my meds and stuff. Taking care of the ponies still.

I got things arranged for someone else to feed them this weekend because I'm going to Equine Affaire. Cold or no cold. If you're there and happen to see someone with a face mask, it's not the ghost of Michael Jackson. It's me.

Rain, rain... GO AWAY!

2011-01-30T11:03:00.000-08:00

I liked it these last few weeks. It was sunny, it was warm (70-80 degrees!) and just great for working with Mitch and Jet. I've been riding Mitch a lot, and ponying Jet off him because she needs to build muscle as she's very uncomfortable with me sitting smack dab on her spine bareback, and I have no saddle that fits her at the moment. As she's been pretty much a pasture puff for the last 3 years, it's not hard to assume she has no conditioning overall.

She also seems a trifle off, but doesn't seem lame. She's perfectly fine with me handling her all over, and puts her weight square on all four legs, but there's a slight wobble at the trot. It's been 3 years since I've ridden her, and it was generally not much faster than a walk, so ... I can't seem to remember if that's the way she's always been. I gave her Bute for a week, and am giving her MSM which should help her feel comfortable. It's also possible that she is just so weak and unmuscled that she's generally flopping all over herself when she trots. I'm taking things slow with her, and giving her plenty of time. She's happy, she's willing and she just needs to get back into the feel of things.

I've decided I'm going to ride her western and will buy a western saddle for her. I just need to make a decision about which brand, and which one fits her the best. I'd really like a nice leather one instead of a synthetic because it would be nice to show in trail classes and stuff with. She very much looks like a good western horse with her build (I still can't find the Morgan in her, she looks all Quarter Horse to me) I'm also wanting to wait till I get more muscle on her. It's probably going to be another month at least till we even start thinking saddles. I just have to be careful not to pony her too much off Mitch because I can't switch them around and give his back a rest.

We did hill work the other day. Just walked up a couple of big hills a few times, and got out for some exercise. They were both very good, and work well together.

I went to see Cavalia on Friday night. It was awesome beyond words!

Well... SHUCKS!

2011-01-19T07:08:00.001-08:00

So my brilliant plan to use Mitch's saddles on Jet might in retrospect have been not so brilliant after all.

I forgot, he's not no withers and a flat back. Ooops.

Going to borrow a friend's Wintec Isabella and see how that works. Treeless saddles might not be an option here.

Maybe I need a new title

2011-01-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

I can't say I see the world through just golden ears anymore. I will soon see the world and the trails and life through golden and black ears.

As I posted just before Christmas, I found the little black mare again. It's nothing short of mind-boggling because after my lease on her ended, and someone came to take her away from the ranch, I thought I'd never see her again. But to find her of all places on Craigslist, nearly 3 years to the very day that my lease ended on her ... well, let's just say I bought myself a horse for Christmas.

In what perhaps I consider the greatest of ironies ... she had changed hands, and was now owned by someone else. Thankfully, I'm glad for that because the new owners were more than happy to work with me on getting my girl back.

Anyway, we brought her home on January 2nd, and she's been living in the self-care with Mitch. I went self-care to be able to afford both of them (because $450 x 2 for full care was not gonna happen, thank you!) and I've been doing lots of work to take care of them (hey, plus side is, I'm wearing a size down again, and I'm getting really strong.) I haven't ridden Jet yet, but I've been ponying her alongside Mitch, and we've had a break through in that she stepped square into a small stream of water the other day without freaking out. Mitch splashes through just fine, so she listens well to him.

I'm really happy to be getting a second chance with her. I never considered being a multiple-horse owner... had my hands plenty full with just Mitch, and under ordinary circumstances, I never ever would even have considered a second horse. But I knew this mare, I knew what she meant to me 3 years ago, and what I would have been willing to give up for her had the circumstances been different. I feel this was fate, karma and destiny to get a second chance.

Picture time!

Mitch of course hams it up for the camera. The other nice thing I like about the self-care area is how much bigger it is compared to even his last paddock which was bigger than the space in the mare motel.

Mitch thinks I have carrots in my pocket. Or horse cookies. He's coming over. Gimme some, now!!

Here's Jet!! Home again, home again!

She's pretty happy with her own space. I've seen the two of them touching noses around the fence by the gate.

My two hayburners. Jet always gives Mitch the semi-suck-face, but then she hollers like crazy for him if I take him out to work him. I've been ponying her a bit to keep her with us.

You haz foodz 4 meeee???!?!?!

Well there goes that plan...

2010-12-24T07:25:00.000-08:00

So it rained. A lot. The rings are incredibly sloppy, the ranch trails are going to take at least a month to dry out. However am I supposed to keep Mitch exercised? My thought was going into the lunging barn. I know it gets dusty in there, but I thought I could tough it out.

BIIIIIIIIG MISTAKE.

I was so violently sick yesterday with all the dust flying around that I thought I was going to cough my lungs out. Couldn't breathe at all, and was choking and gagging, and hacking. I ended up handwalking Mitch for about a half-hour outside because it just was not gonna fly being in the lunging barn. I forsee a LOT of handwalking until such time that the weather gets better and it dries out enough for the round pens to be used. I'm prepared though. Got a stud chain for him, and I wear my heavy-duty work gloves. We're golden.

And in other news ... I've got a big surprise coming. Longtime readers on this blog will remember a certain black mare that appeared in posts when I first started this blog in 2007. Well, if you will all recall, I had to end my lease on her because things weren't working out (unfortunately, at the time, I said I had to do it before it ended in tears, but alas, it ended in a lot of tears.)

Well.... she's coming home.

I'll have further details forthcoming, and it's going to take some sacrifice on my part (hello, self-care) to afford 2 horses, but ... I gotta do it. It's karma, and fate and destiny and a miracle that's brought her back into my life, and I can't walk away from it.

Watch this space in the coming weeks...

The Girl Who Slogs Through Mud with Horses

2010-12-21T07:02:00.000-08:00

Ain't it a beauty? This is the 5 day weather forecast that we're looking at. It's already been raining since Thursday evening/Friday morning pretty much non-stop, so we've got 2 more days of this, and then thankfully... thankfully a break!

But the rings are slop. It's going to be many many days before it's dry enough for us to ride in them. We did get enough of a break in the rain yesterday afternoon that I pulled Mitch out, took his blanket off for the first time in days, and let his skin breathe (of course, his blanket's a Saxon, so it's breathable, but he's been wearing it through this whole storm. Walking him down the driveway was a lot of fun because he was jazzed. But I prepped for it, and was wearing my heavy-duty work gloves and he had his stud chain. I knew he was gonna be all hyper and dancey, because he hadn't been out of his paddock in days. In fact, he even reared a little, popped up into one cute little levade before I chastised him for it, and we made it to the lunging barn without incident after which I proceeded to lunge his little golden butt for a good 20 minutes.

He was really quiet walking back to the barn area. Good juju.

And then one of my barn mates said one of the pasture horses wouldn't come down off the top of the hill, even though the feeders had just been through and her dinner was down there waiting, so I slogged up the hill in the mud. Should have brought a lead rope and halter, but I hadn't really thought about it. I coaxed her down very very slowly using my voice, and hand to pat her and stroke her, and lead her down in a winding way because she wasn't too eager to put weight on one foreleg. It's possible she's got an abscess or something. We called the BOs, called a bunch of vets, and put her in a paddock so she wouldn't have to go climbing up that hill again.

I gave her a couple of carrots and much loving. She's an eighteen-year-old TB mare named Shelter Island. (Won 3 races, and about $31k in her day.) Her owner is somewhat absentee (I think they moved to Europe, but kept her on in pasture) so she gets a lot of love from everyone else at the barn. I think my vet, Dr. G. is supposed to come and look at her today.

More rain today. Bully.

Let the Rain Fall

2010-12-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

POOPIE!

That's right... poopie. It started raining yesterday. Southern California is finally starting to look soggy. Grah. We're looking at a week straight of this, pretty much. There goes any riding plans I might have had for the few meager days off after Christmas I get.

I think that is all.

Me and My Big Mouth (Or I Spoke Too Soon)

2010-12-14T22:39:00.000-08:00

I should have known better than to complain about the warmth . Or gloat. Maybe I was gloating. Was I gloating? I think I was.

Aaaaanyway ... we've got nasty forecasts ahead. Rain starting tomorrow morning, and then continuing pretty much ... till Christmas and beyond. Glug glug glug.

Despite the gloomy cloudy gray skies and the rather chilly bite to the air, I took the pony up to the big round pen and let him rip. I love watching him run. He's like a ~~speedy~~ little sports car on second gear. After letting him get a good run in, I brought him down and tacked him up in his dressage saddle and his dressage bridle. I recently switched bits on his dressage bridle. I've tried a lot of bits, and I think one of the bits he's happy with is the full cheek snaffle with a french link mouth (I still want to try him in an eggbutt snaffle with an oval mouth) and his flash noseband. He was a good little golden pony. Very proud of the lil monster.

I bought him an early Christmas present, and that'll probably be all he'll get from me. He's a spoiled pony with many toys, including an Amazing Graze, and a Nose-It. The reason why he has both is because he will play with the Amazing Graze on its own without treats. And because I was keeping the Nose-It in a tub, as he's in a bigger paddock that has a lot of sand. I don't want him eating hay pellets off the sand, so I put the toy in a tub for him to roll around. Problem is, it's a small tub and he can toss it out fairly easily. So I bought him a new one. A 75 gallon one that I got a discount on because the plug was broken (and since I wasn't using it for water anyway.)

Voila. One happy pony.

What the heck is this? Summertime?

2010-12-12T19:20:00.000-08:00

Look, I know we aren't going to get any snow. This is Southern California (nevermind that it's snowed in Malibu on the freakin' beach a few years ago) but honestly ... the weather had to be at least 75 degrees if not encroaching into the lower 80s. And the weather report says same for tomorrow possibly.

I had a really nice ride with Mitch today. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I actually tried a new bit on him yesterday. Our first experience with a kimberwick about a year ago had him less than enthusiastic, but it was a jointed kimberwick, whereas yesterday I tried him in a low port kimberwick. Kept the curb chain super loose because he liked it that way.

One reason why I'm considering a kimberwick is because while Mitch goes very very well in his short shanked curb bit, it is ... well, a shanked bit. You can't have two hands on the reins in a shanked bit (well, you could, but it's not meant for direct reining) I feel flustered without two hands on the reins -- like my right hand is just flopping off to the side or something. So I'm considering putting a kimberwick on Mitch's trail bridle and going with that.

We bummed around the barn trails today. Lovely view of the ocean.

In Which Mitch Gets Dental Work

2010-12-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

Thank you for showing off your pearly whites, Mitch darling.

And yes, sadly, there is something in your teeth. Or rather, you're going to have to get something done to your teeth.

But look on the bright side, once it's done, it's done, and you won't be bothering for a whole year or more.

Today, Mitch got dental work done. We actually got a late start because my vet had to go on an emergency call for a colicky horse (which unfortunately didn't end well) before he was able to get to us. So we were about 2 hours behind schedule or so, and it was a sort of race till dark.

I swear up, down, left and right that my pony knows certain vehicles by color and model. He knows exactly when I get there (Red CR-V ... it's Mom!) because he's shown clear confusion when I show up in a different car. And he absolutely knows the vet's SUV because the minute Dr. G arrived, Mitch was puffing and huffing and snorting and making it very clear that he was not looking forward to getting poked with a needle again. In fact, when Dr. G jabbed him with the tranq needle, he backed off, and I had to hold on to him. And then he half-reared when Dr. G stepped over to push the syringe closed. He needed two doses.

I can't blame Mitch for acting that way. I like my dentist. She's a nice lady, but holy moly, do I ever (and I do mean ... ever) hate going in for a cleaning or anything. Personally, Mitch has it way better than I do. I have always begged my dentist to jab me with a tranq, give me a load of Novocaine and jam my mouth open with a speculum. It would save me squirming around like a nervous Nellie. When I had to get my wisdom teeth removed, I remember lying down on the chair, making Darth Vader sounds and floating off blissfully into a hazy drug-induced stupor. Why can't a cleaning be like that? Why?

But then, it was done. Dr. G. finished rather quickly, and said that he really likes Mitch's mouth, that he had a great mouth to work on. And his teeth are in good shape. We might even manage a two-year cycle, depending how good things go.

Mitch .... Miiiiiitch .... your eyes are getting sleepy....

This looks like torture...

My vet liked the fact that Mitch is a little guy.

Dr. G grinds away

Checking the fronts

Mitch ... of the floppy lip

Finally done. I can't walk Mom

Oh, the ground looks so pretty...

He started drooling

A little video. Poor guy. At least he won't have to go through it again for a while

Knock-Knock Joke

2010-12-02T17:55:00.001-08:00

Knock-knock.
Who's there?
Sam n' Bodie.
Sam n' Bodie who?
Somebody went riding this evening.

It's awful. (I know, I know, kill me, yeah.)

I had a really nice ride this afternoon/evening. It was after 3:30, so I was really glad that I had clipped the pony last month because I could just ride and not worry about him sweating or anything, and I'd just toss his blanket on afterwards. Actually, because it's been fairly cool during the day, he's been wearing his blanket all day, so the nice plus to that is Mitch stays nice and clean which makes grooming and tacking up a breeze.

Mitch is due for a dental since my vet recommended it when he came for fall shots (we got some hooks and sharp spots) and the appointment is set for Tuesday. I've been doing a lot of hacking around with Mitch with his short shank hackamore, and he's really doing well. I rode him today in my western treeless, and used the hackamore. We went over to the dressage arena, and did some trot and canter work. He's lazy, I had to practically push him into the canter, but once we did, hoowee! It's fun!!

Here's some pony pics I took yesterday when he was in the big round pen

Mitch Gets A Mini-Vacation, I Meet Zenyatta!

2010-11-28T10:08:00.000-08:00

Remember how I was planning to spend the Thanksgiving holiday riding? Well, as it turned out, Mitch got a mini 2-day vacation because I was down at Hollywood Park with a barnmate getting to experience greatness and perfection. I'm a huge Zenyatta fan. I've been to many of her races, and watched the others on TV. When I found out a month ago that she was doing meet-and-greets, and how to visit her on the backside, I told my barnmate who I always go to the races with, and we planned a trip. Originally, the plan was to go down Sunday, but since I had Friday off work, we decided to go then. And ended up staying overnight in Inglewood to visit Hollywood Park again Saturday. As a side note, don't ever ever ever stay at Sea Breeze Inn. One of the worst motel-notels in my experience -- and that's not just because Inglewood's practically a ghetto.

In any case, my friend and I drove down early Friday. We went to the stable gate with a gift basket of Guinness Extra Stout for The Queen of Racing herself, and got signed in. We had such a great time that we ended up staying for a second day, and visited Zenyatta again twice. Of course, my friend and I weren't alone. There were about 100 people to see her on Saturday morning, but she's been doing 'meet-and-greets' for a long time now. I got a Zenyatta Breyer model at the gift shop at Hollywood Park, and John Sherriffs, her trainer, signed it for me.

I went to the barn this afternoon, and took Mitch up to the big round pen. He ran around a lot. Tomorrow it's back to work. He gets next weekend off because I'm going back down to Hollywood Park to see Zenyatta again, and to attend her Appreciation Day/retirement party.

Here I am at Barn 55 South. Home to Zenyatta (and Harmonious and Zardana, and more!)

Here she comes, the incomparable Zenyatta!!

Zenyatta says Hello! And that's Frank, one of the guys who takes her out to graze

17.2 hands of pure perfection. She really is a HUGE mare, people.

Trying for some tasteful artistic flavor in black & white

What a mare! What an engine! She can go fast to win, coming from behind the way she does.

She's really beautiful!!

They let you touch her

OH MY GOD!!! I'M TOUCHING HER!!!

It was very special. Truly memorable. I can't wait to do it again.

Hoofin' It ... Or A Thoughtful Interlude Into The World of Horse Boots

2010-11-24T18:51:00.001-08:00

I may yet ride on Thanksgiving Day!! The upper round pen is dry, and it looks like people were having a lesson in the dressage arena. The lake arena might be open too. We'll probably bum around mid-day or something. Won't be eating Turkey Day stuff till dinner time (supper time?) anyway.

I worked Mitch in the lunging barn today and nearly spazzed out with the amount of dust in that place. It got so thick, it felt like the Dust Bowl or something so the pony and I got the hell of out dodge and back to the crossties where I tacked him up in my dressage saddle, and his short shank hackamore and went for a walkabout.

Over the last few days, I've been thinking towards my plans for 2011. I'm hoping to do an ACTHA ride in June (already networking to get my trailer ride lined up with a fellow Haflinger owner, who'll likely be able to get us to the River Romp as well.) I'm also going out more and more with my barn mates. Things are definitely looking up.

I've noticed though, on the last few rides we went on, that the footing has been really ugly. This is California, home of sunshine, dry weather about 99.9% of the year and some really hard shale and rock. Mitch is barefoot. He's got great hard little Haflinger hooves (as easily testified when he stomps on my toes during tacking up every now and then) and gets biotin and stuff, so his feet are good. He has a great trimmer, and looks darned spanky. But, depending on where we ride, he comes back with some chips. Live Oak is pretty hellacious for him, there's shale beds along the trail itself, and the last ride I went on in Summerland had rocky switchbacks that climbed up to the reservoir where we then had to go on the gravel road for a ways.

The folks I ride with tend to have shoes on their horses, so I forget to ask what the footing's likely to be like at those locations. I think in the interest of keeping Mitch's feet barefoot and at optimal condition under the circumstances of each ride, I'll likely be purchasing hoof boots for all four feet for Mitch by the spring. That way he can stay barefoot, ride in the arena barefoot and I'll just put the boots on when we go riding off the ranch as a way of protecting his feet, unless I know the trail we're going on is nice and soft.

I already know which boots I want. Renegades, of course!

'Freeze' Tag

2010-11-24T07:28:00.000-08:00

So California DOES get cold after all.

Case in point ... last night was barely above freezing. And tonight and tomorrow night? 34 degrees. I've got Mitch double rugged, he's got a sheet on under his 180 gram blanket, and I'm half-tempted to put his 80 gram on, but I'm afraid that'd mean he'd be wearing 2 blankets that come out to about 260 grams, which nearly makes it a heavyweight. I'd rather have him a tick too cold than put a heavyweight on and have him too hot.

Anyway, it rained yesterday afternoon. I think my hopes of riding on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is probably gonna be a bust. The rings are messy messy messy. I could probably ride him around on the gravel roadway, but it's not really exercising him. I took Mitch for a walk yesterday, and he was hyped, so we went on to the lunging barn where I let him rip around for a couple of minutes at the canter before we settled into a nice easy working trot. I set the timer on the light so it went off at 10 minutes.

Gonna work him again today, I think.

Wet 'N Wild Weekend

2010-11-22T07:21:00.000-08:00

It rained this weekend. That is all.

Ok, seriously... yeah, it rained on and off Saturday, and throughout the day on Sunday. We're probably expecting some more rain tomorrow, and again next weekend. And while I'm staying home for Thanksgiving (we're probably going to a restaurant because it's just me, Dad and the brotherling) I'm not sure about my chances of actually getting saddle time if the rings are a soaky soggy mess.

I hand walked Mitch yesterday, and he felt a little fresh and jumpy, so we went over to the lunging barn (which was the only bit of dry ground for working horses... thank goodness they put the thing in a few years ago) and did a couple of minutes each way. He sure was quiet coming back up to the barn. I feel so good about getting him clipped. Now if I need to, I can really push him to work and not worry about him turning into a wet dish rag with sweat and his hairy hair coat.

Anyway ... probably gonna jam off soon to check his blankets before work, and then skedaddle to work. Moar lunging this afternoon. Nowhere to ride (I miiiiight put his dressage saddle on and we'll walk up and down the driveway)

Bare Nekkid Poneh

2010-11-17T18:43:00.000-08:00

This year, Shave A Pony Day was actually a 2-day Festival of Fun. I clipped Mitch in 3 stages, mostly because I was pressed for time yesterday, and he was getting bored and fidgety. Yesterday, I clipped his neck and barrel and as far as his hips. I clipped his butt and belly early this morning before work, and finished off this afternoon with his face and touch-ups. He came out looking pretty darned good.

I am definitely satisfied with the Andis clippers. I read all the reviews on SmartPak, and it sounded like people were using them to do a full body clip, so I pretty much was crossing my fingers and praying. It took a while, mostly because I was working in stages, and because I probably wasn't oiling my blades as much as I should have been (next time, I'll set up a timer to remind me to oil) but there was no problem cutting off the hair.

I trimmed his bridle path, and clipped him up nice and pretty. He's a really lovely peach and white now. I shall call it, "peaches n' cream"

Such a noble pose. And clipping his head really makes me realize what a nice head he has

He looks so cute, and the clip looks really good on him.

Last year, I shaved out a heart on his butt. I thought this year, his MLP (My Little Pony symbol ought to be a bit more manly. Hence, the lightning bolt. Also, this year I clipped around the hair instead of shaving it off because last year, he still had his winter coat on that part of his butt.

So it is done. It's supposed to rain this weekend, I'll have to set the pony all snug and stuff with shavings, and nice warm blankets. Next week is supposed to be freaking gorgeous, so it'll make up for the rain this weekend (which we kinda need anyway) and now that Mitch has been clipped, it'll make it a lot easier to work him late in the afternoon.

The funniest thing is, with all that winter floof removed, it looks like I actually found a pony under there. His stomach doesn't look nearly so well ... round and haybelly-like, he's got a super cute head, and I dunno... looks like a horse instead of a wooly mammoth.

Bed time now, I think.

A Tale of Two Trails

2010-11-14T07:49:00.000-08:00

I would have posted these yesterday, but after the long day, I ended up going with my parents to see the CIA-thriller movie with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn about the Bush administration's outing of undercover agent, ~~Valarie Plame~~ ... uh, I mean Joe Wilson's wife, and came home and pretty much zonked out.

But I woke up early today and started editing my trail pictures, so here they are! Mitch was happy and eager to load up yesterday when I met Donna at the barn. Hopped right in the trailer, easy as you please. Dad asked me if Mitch likes going on these trail rides, and I told him Mitch loves getting on the trailer. That should be enough of a clue. If he hated the trail rides, he wouldn't go on, no matter what. And trust me, if this pony wants his way, he WILL make a statement about it. He could just as easily not budge as opposed to him hopping on the trailer without a second thought.

We went to Summerland's Greenwell Preserve yesterday. Or we started out there anyway and then went on a nice trail ride through some residential areas and some horse farms. I love living here. We might not always go to wild and exotic back country locations to ride, but we can manage to get a good 3-4 hour ride just going along in our own backyards, practically. Mitch wasn't too thrilled to have to stand off the shoulder of the parking lot in the weeds, but he took a dump, and I was just as glad that he was in the weeds when he did it.

We met two of Donna's friends at the trailhead. Bethany was riding an elderly (but feisty!) Thoroughbred and Clarissa had her Quarter Horse and was ponying a yearling. So that was a total of five horses. We took a fairly moderately easy trail, and had a nice time. We had some great views of the ocean, and it was a lovely lovely day to be out in the sunshine. Donna and Red rode drag because Red is lazy-slow, Mitch and I started out in third behind Bethanny and her TB. Despite the TB's antics of feeling a little hot to get started, Mitch was nice and quiet, which is a good thing for him.

We had several steep hills to traverse. One went fairly straight down, and I am very happy to say that all the work I've been doing with Mitch on navigating hills has really paid off. No more weird side-passing shit. He went down, nice as you please, with his hind end tucked under him. He did get a little jiggy at the bottom since he took so long to go down that Clarissa and Bethanny and their horses were already well ahead of us, so I let him trot a few strides to catch up. But he was well behaved. We went by this lemon orchard, and a man ponying a little girl with two more girls behind him came by and said "Hey, a Haflinger!" Gotta love the recognition! Gooo Haffies!! Proving they can do anything, if you ask it of them.

Eventually, we moved along to this part of the trail that just felt like some surreal fairy-tale world. Like Ireland must feel, all cool and shaded and green. I kept expecting to see fairies, or gnomes peeking out at us. There was ivy everywhere and it was just awesome. A really magical feeling. We got to a little stream, and then stopped and waited for the other two. I love the second picture, with Mitch's little ears pricked up. It's how I see the world ... through golden ears.

After riding around a bit more, we passed a horse stable that was just ... wow. They had this awesome dressage arena, and a big jumping arena, and the whole place was major rich-looking. Nice people though. We stopped to talk for a bit with the lady giving lessons because Bethany knew them, and then we introduced ourselves and were waving to people as we went past down this lane with flowers on either side of the fences.

After we got back by the trailers, Bethany and Clarissa called it a day, but Mitch and I were still raring to go. Donna and I went on another loop, this one was the one that leads up to the old Ortega Reservoir. It was a pretty rocky trail with a lot of switchbacks and we stopped a few times on the way up to let the horses catch their breaths for a minute or two.

I feel that this is probably a good time to admit something about myself. I'm a lousy hiker. I really really lousy hiker. I was telling Donna as we went up the switchbacks that if I was hiking with my family, and we hit that stretch of the trail, well .. I'd pack it in. It's not that in trail riding the horse is doing all the work (hey, shifting your weight around to allow the pony to use his back is work too!) but Mitch has 4 legs and a hell of a lot more ass than I do. I'm just not a good conformational specimen for hiking.

We had to do some roadwork, walking on the road once we hit the end of the trail, and rode up around the reservoir and then back down into the canyon. Going downhill was pretty steep, but Mitch held together. No moar side-passing!! I'm proud of my boy. I feel like we've made a vast improvement and we're really starting to get our made trail-horse thang together.

Once we got back to the trailers, we untacked, and then went to the deli market on the corner to get lunch because it was so late already. Mitch and Red had to wait in the trailer, but they were really good about that. Got home and hosed Mitch down because he got real sweaty. Definitely can't wait to clip him so he feels better.

I also think I'm going to consider hoof boots. Most of the time, Mitch has good hooves and doesn't need them, but some trails can be really rocky. I'll have to think about that anyway.

Yesterday was fun! I'm going to put my dressage saddle on the pony today and walk him around since he did hard work yesterday, but still needs to get out today.

Aint Got No Bit Between His Teeth

2010-11-12T19:40:00.001-08:00

I decided to ride Mitch this afternoon in his short shank hackamore. I guess it was a whim or something. He was super in it. We did a little bit of trot and canter work in the little dressage arena. He behaved himself admirably. And then we did some hacking around on the ranch trails.

I wish my clippers would get here already. The weather so far has been in the mid 70s during the day. Nice and sunny and warm, but it starts to cool down fast as soon as the sun starts setting, which is not much longer after I untack. I lunged the pony in the round pen for about 15 or 20 minutes and he was puffing a little, and a trifle damp. I tried not to work him too hard because he's still got all his hair, and managed to get his belly slightly damp, which I popped his cooler on for a while to let him dry up some more. At least he wasn't soaking. Oh well, a few more days, and the clippers will be here, and it's goodbye hair!

Going riding with one of my barn mates at Greenwell Preserve in Summerland. Never been there before.

Holiday Ride

2010-11-12T07:13:00.000-08:00

While I didn't get to clip Mitch yesterday, as it's likely my clippers won't arrive until early next week, I did go for an awesome little ride yesterday. We did a lot of work in the big lake arena, and Mitch tried to pitch a fit, but I kept riding him forward. And then moved over to the dressage arena where he got excited seeing two of our barn buddies unloading from their trail ride and tried to run over to say hello. So my reaction was: Wanna run, ok, run. It only took half a lap at the canter before he was nice and quietly trotting around with his neck arched.

I didn't work him too hard-hard. It was a fairly warm day, if a trifle windy, and about 68 degrees. Knowing he's still got his full winter coat on, I didn't want him to sweat much, and I popped him into the crossties on the sunny side of the tack area after the ride to let him dry out. I definitely see he sweats a lot on his neck and on his belly and back, although I knew that before when I was clipping him. We'll probably have to stick to light work for a while until the clippers arrive and I can do my job.

Possibly going trail riding at Greenwell Preserve tomorrow. We've never been there before.

Shave A Pony Day Has Been Temporarily Postponed

2010-11-09T14:08:00.000-08:00

For me, November 11th has meant for the last 2 years "The Day the pony gets his hair shaved off" mostly because being a national holiday, it allows me to clip him fairly early in the day and get done before dark. However, this year it's being postponed. Why? Because after years of mooching off my barn mates to borrow their clippers, I've finally bought my own online. Since I'll need to wait for that to arrive, I'm going to have to put off Shave A Pony Day until then.

Clipping a hairy-as-a-yak Haflinger in Southern California is almost a necessity it seems, especially when one is like me and has a limited window of time between the end of work and full-blown OMG-it's-darker-than-the-inside-of-a-hamster. So, I needs must clip so that he doesn't sweat up. Given that our reaction to winter is generally along the lines of "The sun is shining, it's like 60 degrees out, let's go riding" I do as I always have, and intend to work this pony as much as I can barring anything unforeseen like a sudden rainstorm or anything.

I thought I'd take a little trip down Memory Lane and wax eloquent on his past clipping jobs and then talk about the one I plan to do this year.

Ghosts of Clippings Past

When I got Mitch in February 2008, he was still pretty hairy, and I went through a lot of craziness when shedding time came. I had never really clipped a horse before, I did clip Flair full body one year, but I never bothered with it before. The old man needed his hair! So once fall came around, and Mitch was sweating more than a pig in a sauna, I decided I was going to clip him. Only, I, being conservative by fault -- I hate taking off more of a horse's hair than I have to... because we can't just paste it back on. I decided to try a low trace clip which worked out decently enough but he still was pretty sweaty. I did like it because I could leave him unblanketed except when it was really cold (which by California standards is probably nowhere near as severe as say ... the Pacific Northwest) although he could get pretty sweaty just wearing the blanket.

Enter 2009. Knowing that Mitch was too sweaty even with a low trace clip, I considered my options for fall of 2009. I thought I might do a medium or a high trace clip, but I saw someone post a picture of their horse on COTH with a chaser clip and decided to go with that. As you can see, Mitch still sweated up (although that first picture is from Feb 2010, when it was starting to warm up a lot again) on his back and neck. He also got itchy under just a sheet, so I think given our climate, he had still too much hair on him.

Shave A Pony 3.0

Which brings us to this year. I am considering two clip styles this year. Mitch has 1 sheet, an 80 gram ultra-lightweight blanket and a medium-weight 180 gram blanket. Clearly, he's not lacking in the horsewear department. With all this to think about, and mindful of last year's clipping job, I'm tempted to do either a blanket clip or a hunter clip, with a leaning toward a hunter clip.

I've chosen these two because while a lot of horses in my area are still showing, or actively being ridden and have gotten a full body clip, I dislike removing hair on the legs. This is partly because I go trail riding beyond a neatly manicured ring, and feel that protection from brush and rocks is important. However, because this is Southern/Central California, Mitch doesn't need most of that body hair.

I'm leaning more towards a hunter clip right now because of a friend's horse last year who got this clipping job. While I think that the blanket clip is nice by leaving more hair on the horse's back, I think it might be too much hair for Mitch under the 180 gram blanket even on the 'colder' nights (again, in terms of my area of CA, colder means like 30 degrees which is apparently a warm winter night to someone in another geographical region) so I need to consider my options here. I'm hoping to ride at least 4-5 times a week, if not 6-7 depending on the weather. I have 2 hours from the time I get off work, sunset, and shortly that will be reduced to an hour. It's easiest for me to clip and put a sheet on him during the day (means my grooming time is shorter) and then I can put his cooler on while I put my stuff away to let him dry out more.

The hunter clip is the clip I'm leaning towards the most. I don't want to take it all off for a full body clip including his legs, but I think I like the hunter clip because it removes a lot of the hair that Mitch really really really doesn't need here in Southern CA. If this is a LA Nina year like they're predicting, good-bye rain.

I've also considered the blanket clip and rather like it because it has allowed for hair to remain on his back and loins. My gut feeling though is that he is going to sweat and get itchy under it. If a skinny whinny Thoroughbred can get a hunter clip, then stout little Mitch could probably get one too. The advantage of taking any hair off his head and neck is he could wear his hoods (yeah, did I mention he's got 2 of those too?) or Sleezy. Last year I left his neck fairly covered, and I think he was uncomfortable.

First things first ... wait till the clippers arrive.

Healthy as a ... Horse!!

2010-11-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

And yesterday was Happy Fun Poke You With Needles Day. Like Christmas, only it comes twice a year, and my vet doesn't look like Santa Claus.

Mitch has a clean bill of health. He will need to have his teeth floated, which means needing to make the appointment for that, and the vet still wants him to lose some more weight, but we're getting there. He wants him at a 5, and Mitch is at 6-6 1/2, so it's getting a lot closer. I bet by spring shots, we'll be golden.

I probably won't be clipping Mitch on November 11th like I usually do. I'm trying to see about getting a set of clippers for myself at last instead of mooching off someone at the barn. And ... I'm debating on buying new or used. Used is definitely cheaper, and that'd gonna take some eBay and CL scouting.

Will update on that later.

This week, Mitch is getting a bit of a laid back week. I've been a bit busy, lunged a horse for a friend (and got paid for it) on Monday and yesterday. Did some bridle work on him too, and then with fall shots for the golden boy, he got yesterday off. Today, I'm helping a friend clean her place for a Breeders Cup party this weekend. And tomorrow, well, we'll see. Saturday of course, I'll be watching the Breeders Cup. So Mitch gets a break this week. We'll probably be back to work on Monday.

And Mighty Mitch Wins The Breeders Cup!!!

2010-10-31T20:10:00.000-07:00

Haha, yeah right. Maybe if the other horses gave Mitch a 2-day head start. Zenyatta could give him a week's head start and she'd still run him down at the wire.

I'll be honest here. Sometimes I wonder if Mitch likes Halloween. We rarely get what you call flattering ears in all of our photos. I suspect he's bored. And silently wishing the damned holiday were over already so I'd take his costume off. He is tolerant, I can tell you that much. He was tolerant long past the point I think my Thoroughbred would have been. God, I love my little golden pony.

So in honor of next weekend's Breeders Cup ... well, Mitch and I dressed up as a jockey and racehorse in matching silks. I got the silks a few years ago off eBay as a Halloween costume, so I already had them. I just had to make Mitch's costume match up to mine. I bought the hood from Big D Web and then drew the stars on it, and colored those in with fabric pens (and did the same to my helmet cover) and the bridle also came from Big D. I had the polo wraps for his hind legs, and his bit was a Waterford D-ring (yeah, he was wearing a snaffle!!) The shadow roll was a fleece noseband cover I used for Flair's old bitless bridle. And I made his saddle cloth by dying the saddle cloth (it was white) purple in the washer with dye, and then cut out the number and the letters in white felt and pasted them on.

I'm really proud of how good Mitch was. Especially since he had a hood on with half-cups and couldn't see behind him. Plus, he was wearing the shadowroll. I got him used to the hood by having him wear it a few times leading up to today, and he was a driving horse, so he's sort of used to wearing a bridle with blinders on them anyway. I also used my treeless dressage saddle, and jacked my stirrups up pretty high (the last hole!) but didn't want to sit in a real jockey crouch.

But enough chat ... you want pictures.

I bathed Mitch yesterday, despite the cold and the wind because it had rained Friday night/Saturday morning and he was well... filthy. So bath it was. I blanketed him once he was fairly dry, and then went to the barn early this morning to prep him. I braided his mane with rubber bands and then rolled the braids and secured them (because he's got a long mane, and racehorses usually don't... so we borrowed from Rachel Alexandra's braided mane) I also did up his forelock to keep it out of his face with the mask on.

I think he looks adorable with his mane done in little hunter pony braids except for the two little tufts where his mane is still too short to braid. Boy, he doesn't know what's in store for him. I took him to the lunging barn to lunge him for about 25 minutes right after this. It was too wet in the round pens, and I figured better safe than sorry, especially with my stirrups as short as they were.

Hey wait... that's not my saddle cloth ... oooooh, hale ... you mean it's that time of the year again? Clearly, Mitch realized the jig was up when I put the purple saddle cloth on his back.

Here's the saddle cloth. I don't think it was meant to be worn by a pony as broad as Mitch is. Most Thoroughbreds are skinny whinny compared to him, even if they're usually a foot taller.

Took his halter off to put on the noseband and his hood. Poor guy, he's feeling pretty sorry for himself right about now.

Yeah, with those cups, he's not gonna see behind him. But he was really good with the hood. I felt pretty secure putting him in a snaffle today.

Riding Pictures!

And that's it for Halloween 2010!! I'll start planning Halloween 2011's costume sometime in August or something.

What's purple, blue, white and red all over?

2010-10-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

A bruised polar bear with a sunburn.

Ok, bad joke. Sorry. I blame the influence of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup filched from the Halloween candy basket. Sugar has a bad influence on me, apparently. Sorry. Ooops, sorry I said sorry.

So Halloween is almost here!! And it's just about time for our annual Halloween costume parade at the barn. You would remember previous years of course -- the first time we did it, Mitch was a unicorn and then last year, he was my valiant warhorse. This year ... well, hehe, this year is still a secret. Let's just say, it involves the colors of red, blue, white and purple. And it's something you would never in a million years guess Mitch could do.

... which is a lot of things. Not that. Keep guessing.

Today was a trial run of a sorts for part of his costume. He took to it swimmingly. Very good indeed. Also, I'm ever the safety conscientious one, and have thus prepared my headgear for the costume. I've always worn a helmet (up to the point of covering it with a shitload of yarn for 'hair' and then covering it with tinfoil last year to make a shiny knight's helmet.

At least this year, my helmet doesn't have to be hidden. The costume sort of demands a helmet after all.

We're aiming for "Most Authentic Costume" "Best Dressed Horse" and "Best Dressed Rider" for the second year in a row here. Let's make it happen, Mitch!

Mitch, Get Yer Game Face On!

2010-10-24T20:02:00.001-07:00

What does Mitch's game face look like anyway? Well from the looks of that picture, he was either really really pissed off at Red or he's gotten into the competitive spirit.

So after yesterday's awesome beach ride, the fun wasn't over. Although it looked like rain with dark clouds looming threateningly over us, we had a wonderful time. I was in charge of planning the events, and I think I did a pretty good job. We always have a trails course. Not everyone rides in all the events, but we always start with a trails course, and most people ride in that because it's pretty fun. My goal was to make things challenging, but not difficult because not everyone is a stellar rider, but if things are too easy, there's no fun in it. I picked 7 obstacles, and we managed to borrow a wooden bridge from the show barn trainer. Even horses who had never walked over a bridge in their lives were soon traipsing across. Mitch did super himself, although he sort of acted squirrely along the line headed for the three trot poles laid out in a fan-shape. He always acts squirrely on that line though, it borders the big pond/lake and he doesn't like it much. He also acted really nutty about the mailbox obstacle, but we did it. Had a great time.

So on to the pictures.

My noble prancing steed

Heading for the last obstacle ... having to turn a 360 in a box made of ground poles.

With our barn buddies

Waiting to do the obstacle course

Toilet paper race!

Down the line at the trot

Coming back! OMG, my face! We won though!!

I'm sad nobody got pictures of me in the flag race. I made that one up. We had to ride down to the other side of the arena, canter back to the the gate, grab a flag made out of a dishcloth and a jumping bat off a jump standard and canter back to the other end of the arena. Mitch cantered! He moved his fatty-fat butt. I was actually pumping him like a jockey on the way back. What a blast!

Next week, we're having our third annual Costume Parade, and Mitch has a great costume. But it's a surprise!! You'll find out next Sunday.

The Young Haffie and the Sea

2010-10-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

And the score stands: Ocean: 0 Mitch: 1

My barnmate, Donna, called me today to talk about tomorrow's Play Day at the barn. Yeah, that play day -- the one I'm sort of in charge of. I've got a nifty trails course all planned out, and some additional games (including ye olde toiler paper race which is always popular. So after we talked about the plans for tomorrow, she asked if I wanted to go to Ellwood.

How does the sexy Geico guy in the suit say it: Do birds migrate south for the winter? HELL YEAH!

Mitch was stellar. Between his need to get all that dead sole cleaned up, and then the rather early rain we've had here, I haven't ridden him for about 2 weeks, he's been worked, and I've walked him around under saddle, but not really ridden. He was great today. We did a lot of trotting up on the bluffs and then booked it down to the beach.

The last few times we've gone to the beach, Mitch has been an absolute weeny about the ocean. Granted, it's hard to blame a horse who loves water to want to go in water that seems to be running away and then chasing him before it runs away again. The last time, he just backed up down the beach before freezing, screaming and hollering about the injustice I was putting him through. Today, he stated backing, realized he was headed for water, and spun around -- only to get his front hooves wet, and realized, "hey it ain't so bad!" So he sniffed at the water, and sniffed some more. And then started splashing around like a maniac the way he does when he plays in water. He got my riding sneakers all soaking wet! But he walked quite a bit in the water today.

Very proud. And tomorrow, is the Play Day.

Getting ready to set out

Heading back to the trailer

One sweaty, wet and satisfied pony

What the eff is going on here?

2010-09-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

So a little backstory: I don't do any hoofwork myself. I know a lot of people who's blogs I follow will do their own trimming but I ... am clueless. It's funny, I routinely pare off my finger nails and toenails because I don't like long nails at all, but when it comes to my horse's hoof, I just blink and stare and don't understand angles at all. I suspect this is because of my math disability ... geometry and angles were never something I understood very well.

So anyway, I have someone else do my trimming. Mitch got trimmed 3 weeks ago. Nothing has changed as far as his living conditions have gone. Nothing should be different. Anyway... this is his foot as I took pictures today. I first noticed it yesterday. THAT does not look like a foot that got trimmed 3 weeks ago.

Front right

Front left

His hinds don't look as bad, but they don't look good either. I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing, but I do have an appointment with my vet tomorrow. I'm just not too keen on getting charged loads of moola to be told to consult a farrier. :P But I'm not sure what else we do (not sure if I want to call my regular trimmer at this stage, I'm not very happy although that person had done a good job the two years I've had Mitch) and I'm hoping my vet can make recommendations.

Will update tomorrow.

Double Trouble: Two Posts in One

2010-09-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Today, it must have been like 80 degrees in the friggin shade and 100 degrees out in the sun. Clearly today, I was not going to be riding. The entire weekend was pretty much blazing, I rode on Saturday around 3, and it was bloody hot, and I rode yesterday around 10 AM and it was bloody hot. Mitch was not terribly amused. It looks like it might be a hot dry fall and winter, so I'm going to need to think about ordering a set of clippers of my own so I can clip the pony.

Anyway, because I am incredibly uncomfortable as my room still feels like 90 frickin degrees, I'm just gonna do a post dump and post two updates on the same page since I haven't posted for a while. Go go gadget bullet list!

Mitch has been doing awesomely. Because he's awesome like that. I've been doing a fair amount of riding, although if this heat wave trend continues, we're likely to stay in the shade as much as we can and not move. Mitch likes to play in his water bucket when the heat is on. He is happy.

Sensation G3 treeless saddle arrived. Is full of win. This gives me two saddles to ride with. Which allows Mitch and I to be more flexible. I was very comfortable posting in this saddle the other day. I like how it puts my leg into a very good spot. Not that my western saddle doesn't, but this one feels great. I think Sensation treeless saddles are really good treeless saddles. They fit Mr. No-Withers-FlattieBackFatFat and put my legs into the right spot. Good deal all around.

Went trail riding a few weeks ago and went to Ellwood. Had a nice time. We went out for 3 hours, and rode into Isla Vista. A guy was playing basketball in the street and nearly dropped his ball when he saw the horses.

And now, picture time!

These pictures were all taken on Saturday. You can see how nice and thin Mitch is starting to look. He could probably afford to take off another 10 or 15 pounds, but so far, he's looking really good.

My friend, Donna and her horse Red, at Ellwood. Donna's the best. She trailers Mitch and me out, which is totally awesome!!

Man, this picture makes me look funny. Maybe because I was wearing that shirt or something, it makes me look like I have no waist. I already know I haven't got a chest to speak of, but dude, I'm not waistless. :P

Following Sylvia and Flame, who we were also riding with. We had a great time.

Back at the trailer after the ride. Mitch hardly broke a sweat, even though we did some trotting.

Back home, Mitch chills it old school in his brand new big paddock. He's so amazingly happy to be in there. I think it's made him a lot better mannered and he's back to his laid-back self.

Quick Update

2010-09-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

Life's been busy. I probably don't update as much as I should, but it'd be kind of boring to type: "Rode pony for a bit, was good. Yay." every week. I mean, what's the fun in that, right? Work keeps me pretty busy. I'm sure it is fun, but well, it doesn't really feel like it's really such a big accomplishment that I need to share it with the world. I did have some weird back problems that didn't seem to affect me during the day, but lying on my back at night trying to sleep wasn't very comfortable, so I was also a bit wishy-washy about actually riding. I did lots of round pen groundwork with Mitch. Did you know he can walk/trot/canter on commands these days? Feeling very accomplished with that.

We did go for a lovely trail ride a few weeks ago with two of my barn buddies. Went to Ellwood, and ventured as far as Coal Oil Point, as well as making it down to the beach. For such a water horse, Mitch is a weeny about actually going in the ocean. I don't get it. He just stood there and hollered. But he did great. Will post pictures at some point. Maybe this weekend. Other than that, I haven't been doing much riding. The back thing, see.

We're awaiting the arrival of a Sensation G3 dressage saddle. It's 3 years old, and used (but that's OK, my Sensation western treeless is pretty much my main saddle anyway, I wouldn't want to spend another $1000 for a brand new dressage saddle.) I'm hoping to take some dressage lessons if I can, and since I grew up riding english, but feel way more comfortable riding with a long leg, I wanted a dressage saddle for flat work. That way I can keep my western for the trails. Hence why having a second saddle that's used is better. No point in having two brand new saddles. And I got a good deal on it, so I figured why the hell not.

Had a great ride today. Mitch did lots of work on the lunge line, then I swapped out his dressage bridle for his western one with the curb bit, and we bummed around a bit bareback. We're doing really well, and I'm feeling very accomplished with what we've been doing.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures soon. I never did replace my trail camera that got splatted, but I've been borrowing my dad's old camera (it's a little bigger and clunkier, but it fits in my pommel bag.) I probably will keep using it because I'm broker than broke right now after buying a treeless dressage saddle.

Finally ... An Update!

2010-09-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

So I realize I have been very lax in updating. Here it is, September and my last post was back in June with my memorial to Flair. Things have been very very busy on the home front -- mainly dealing with work, which takes up a lot of my day, and then doing stuff with the pony, doing some online stuff and sleeping. Between that, I haven't had a lot of time to update here.

And things have been pretty boring to be honest. I haven't been trail riding at all, mainly because my day is so busy. It's been a relatively mild summer, so I've been doing a lot of ringwork though, usually late in the afternoon/early evening. That won't be lasting much longer.

The biggest news is that Mitch moved out of the mare motel last month and into a bigger paddock. It's costing me more, but he's got so much more room to move around. He's definitely very happy about it, and I think it's helped him get back to the laid-back pony that he was.

We've been doing good riding. Today when we were out riding, we saw a bobcat down by the self-care area at the ranch. It was very cool.

For Flair: Honoring The Memory of a Heart Horse

2010-06-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

Three years ago on this day, at approximately 7:30 pm, it was the end of my world as I knew it. My heart horse, my beloved Flair, lay down in the grassy green pasture, and was no more. I was shattered. It had been a long emotional day for me, my nerves strained as I stood there beside my darling old man and watched the vet fight for his life. It was colic that got him in the end, and because of his advanced years (he was 30, a grand and noble age for a gentlemanly horse of his nobility) when we shipped him up to the clinic, we were advised that surgery was not going to be an option. Flair had been with me 12 years, he was my rock, my compass and my entire world -- he saw me through thick and thin, through despair and hope. He saw me at my worst, and my best, and carried me forward with the greatest of joys that his glorious spirit could contain. We did everything together -- we learned together in Pony Club, and he carried me into the show ring.

Flair was 18 when I met him. He'd been many things, and one of those was a champion jumper. While some said I'd soon outgrow him in terms of riding ability and should have had a younger horse to compete with for longer, I could care less for that. I was lost in his glorious red coat, and his soulful brown eyes. He meant so much to me, even from the beginning. I would die for him, I felt, and do everything in my power to keep him for myself.

In everything, Flair was my teacher. He taught me to love the moment when we could fling ourselves over fences. There was no thought for the hunter ring for us -- no, for us, we were speed, power, grace and beauty hurtling ever onwards. We were jumpers. And I loved entering jumper classes with him. We could tear around the ring in no time flat, and many of the blue ribbons that I cherish and keepsake carefully are thanks to the athletic ability of my beloved Thoroughbred.

I often like to tell my dad how much Flair influenced my life. When I look back on it, 12 years is a long time for a horse and human partnership, and it meant so much to me growing up. Looking back, having a horse kept me out of trouble, kept me happy, gave me drive and determination, and helped me value the importance of caring for someone who cannot always care for themselves. This has helped me become a better person, and shaped who I am today. I've long said that horses were my anti-drug, and as I jokingly told Dad a few days ago, now that I have to pay for my golden pony, I have no money for drugs anyway.

Much as I wish it could have lasted forever, we are all mortal. Flair was a great horse for many years, and showed into his mid-20s. But in time, age catches up to us all, and we retired from the show ring, he and I. I ceased riding with Pony Club, and we took up the reins of being pleasure riders. Flair aged gracefully. He had dental problems as the years spun on, and required specialized feed. Every winter, he grew a winter coat that always seemed nigh beyond the scope of a Thoroughbred, and every year, he shed out to a handsome sleek coppery chestnut. I spoiled him shamelessly. There's the story of the winter blanket I bought him, having gone into the Stateline Tack section when it was still at PetSmart to look for Wintec webbers and coming out with a blanket instead. It kept him warm though, on those winter nights, and when it rained, and helped him keep his weight on somewhat better for the toothless old man he was becoming.

He still loved to be ridden though. In consideration of his declining years, I rode him lightly, but enough that he was sound and happy to the very end. I have pictures, taken mere weeks before his sudden colic episode, of us trotting around the dressage arena. Flair took to being ridden bitless the way a fish takes to water, and I daresay he was happier for it. We walked the barn trails -- the very same that Mitch and I explore now. Life was good.

I remember the last day with a great sorrow, and even now, three years later, can't help but cry. It had begun so innocently the evening before, with him grazing, and me singing to him as the sun set. And then the horrible long terrible day before I was forced at last to make a painful choice. But I gave him his due, in that last. He has a grassy pasture, and me to lie beside him, and bid him farewell as he began his journey where I could not follow.

Life however, goes on. I'll never forget Flair. He was my heart horse, my first horse and truly a great teacher and friend. He was a loyal companion, and has well earned the love and fond memories of my heart. I hope that over time, Mitch and I can share as great a bond.

In which Lei has not posted for over a month

2010-06-08T20:39:00.001-07:00

I'm busy people, BUSY! And all of it is due to a pony (well most of my busyness anyway) so it's a good kind of busy. But anyway, I haven't really posted much since well .. late April.

First off, the bad news. I'm kidding ... there is no bad news. Not really. Last time I posted (well, maybe a few days before that) I mentioned the River Romp was canceled but the LVR poker ride was that same weekend in May and I was hoping to go on that instead. I even had a potential ride all lined up, although my fellow Haflinger owner was sadly unable to make it after all. And nobody from the barn was going. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go either, although this year was sort of better than last year, because I had a physical excuse this time. I was lunging Mitch a week before the poker ride was supposed to happen, stepped on the lead rope, and my legs flew out from under me, and my glasses went up over my head (Dear America's Funniest Home Videos... WHERE WERE YOU PEOPLE?) Anyway, threw out my knee pretty bad, and I was limping around for a couple of days before I started riding again. Big mistake. It made my leg hurt worse. So I was unable to ride for another week. But I'm A-OK now. (If you don't count the fact that I seem to have temporarily killed my other knee in a non-horse related beach BBQ incident -- but the rides must go on!)

On news about the golden pony, he's fat. Like fat fat. In the words of my vet when he came to give the spring shots on May 4th: "He has quite the layer of fat on him." Dr. G. estimated Mitch was probably able to lose at least 75 lbs so we've cut down the hay he's getting, and I've kicked up the exercising. Remarkably, after about 5 weeks, Mitch is slowly but surely starting to look like a pony again instead of a pregnant whale. Hopefully at the end of summer, he'll be at the right weight, and as a reward for it, Mitch will get a brand new Zilco trail gear (halter/bridle combo, breastcollar and crupper) I'm also losing weight because of all the exercise I'm putting the pony through.

And last, but not least, after waiting 4 stinking months for it, my Skito pad for my Sensation western has arrived!!! I've been borrowing a Skito dryback from a friend all this time as the company was having major material obtaining problems. (First it was the bottom material, then the foam, then the top material ... crazy!) I got a 50% discount and a free upgrade to the wool bottom because of the delay, so it worked out nicely. But boy, am I glad to get the pad. My borrowed pad wasn't working out as well as it could have. It was a little short in back, so I couldn't pull it up into the gullet to get the pad off his withers. Still, he wasn't fussy or anything. I'm just glad to have my pad.

That's all for now.

April Showers Bring May Flowers Part 2

2010-04-20T07:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was fantastic!!! Mitch has been doing fabulously, and I've been working him pretty good. I lunge him for at least 20 minutes before I ride, not so much to get the jitters out as to try and work off the blubber he accumulated this past winter (Ez-keeper .... I haz one) and slowly but surely, that hay belly of his is starting to disappear.

We did 20 minutes (10 minutes each direction) yesterday and all was great. I tacked him up, and we went out to the dressage arena, but there was a great blue heron over there gulping gophers and Mitch wasn't worried -- in fact, he wanted to get closer to the bird to check it out, and that was interfering with trot work, so we moved on. Did some canter work with him in the big hilltop round pen. He's got such a great little canter, I remember he wouldn't canter at all the first year I had him, but now that he's got his treeless saddle, he feels good.

And now, apparently he's going to be getting a few days off. We've got rain a-comin! Or showers at least, or something. Very late season storm (rather cold, so Mr. I-shed-all-my-winter-coat is going to wear his lightweight rain blanket today) but perhaps it's all to the good. More rain means less of a chance of fire season starting early, and the wildflowers ought to be gorgeous!

Awwwh, ... craaaap.

2010-04-18T09:27:00.001-07:00

Well, I said I was going to just train Mitch up to the River Romp, and that we'd do barn trails, and conditioning work, and get out on the trails when invited, and that the only thing that would keep us from going to the River Romp was a way of getting there.

Well, snikit. I checked the website for the NATRC Region 2, and found out the bloody thing is canceled. And there's no way I can go to the one being held down in San Diego.

On the plus side, the poker ride is that weekend, and I think I'm going to try and figure out a way of getting there. Starting like NOW. I really want to go this year.

Mitch is doing super! Soon I shall have pictures and stuff!

So It's Not All Gloom And Doom

2010-04-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

... it just looks that way.

The weather was predictably ugly. Cloudy, windy... it actually started drizzling a few times, but it didn't last, and we were able to get out to the trail head for the fundraiser trail ride for the Santa Barbara Trails Council. There were hikers and a couple of people that ran the trail, and there were supposed to be bikers, but I think there's a big bike event in town, so nobody showed up. They were really happy they got a good equestrian turnout though. About 20 riders. It was the biggest group Mitch has ever been in, so it was a totally new experience for him, and he handled it like a pro. Of course, riding him every day this last week (we're trying to get his extra flubber off after all) and lunging the crap out of him (he literally pooped twice in the round pen when I was free-lunging him, heehee) before we left helped a lot. He was great. No weird side-passing shit, no freaking out. He was a little jiggy when we left the trail head, but settled the minute we hit the first big hill. I'm very very proud of my pony.

Here's the map of the trail. We did a 3 mile stretch from the Ocean Mesa campsite down to the upper part of El Capitan Canyon, and then we turned around and rode back the way we came for a total of about 6 miles. Great conditioning ride!

Mitch is ready to go!

Mitch and Lei are ready!!

The obligatory "between golden ears picture"

Stopped up on one of the open ridges. Very windy!

At the rest stop before we head back. There were 3 mules on this ride. Also, all the other horses weren't sure about that covered wagon in the back, but Mitch walked right up to it and bumped it with his nose.

One of my barn mates who I went on the ride with.

Back from the ride! Mitch has his cooler on.

I see you eating red vines. Gimme some!

One of the women we were riding with is named Pat, and she owns a Rocky Mountain mule. I love Long Ears. I want a Haflinger mule. That would be awesome. It would be the most stubborn equine on the planet.

I can't get enough of this mule.

So cute. Also, the guy in the ranger hat is really really tall.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

2010-04-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we've had a little bit of April rain. We're supposed to have more tomorrow night, although I'm hoping it holds off until late late late afternoon or sometime later at night because of the awesomeness that will be happening tomorrow. A trail ride and a BBQ. Whoohoo! So it better not be a washout because it's gonna be awesome! Mitch and I are ready to go!!!!

In fact, getting Mitch ready for this thing was kind of like getting ready to ride in a CTR or endurance ride. I'm not sure how long we'll be out. I've heard 2 hours, and the whole trail loop is 12 miles, but I'm not sure if we'll be riding it as it's a trail council festival thing and there'll be hikers and walkers and trail runners and mountain bikers as well. But anyway, I've been getting Mitch worked plenty to build up his stamina (and maybe try and wear out his energy a little, heh) I've been riding every day and today we went out on the barn trail loop, and then did some trot work in the dressage arena. I'm sure Mitch is still bursting with energy though. I'm probably gonna run him in the round pen in the morning before we leave.

So I guess it's time for me to crash! There's a lot I need to do tomorrow, and do it early. I've got to figure out what I'm going to do about Mitch's hay so he's got something to nibble while we're at the BBQ. He's got a Busy Horse Busy Grande Slow Feeder now, instead of his Freedom Feeder because he was just beating the crap out of that thing. Now, his slow feed hay bag is a little tougher, and a little harder to try and toss around. I could bring that, or I could put his hay in the Freedom Feeder bag and let him nibble on that one. I'll see in the morning, I guess.

Mitch's new slow feed hay bag!

This is my sad face .. D:

2010-04-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Bad news people.

It's not working out. I just can't keep this pony from being cute, in your face and lazy as paint drying on a porch in the middle of winter time. I'm selling him. Off he goes. No more ponies for me.

...

...

...

...

...

APRIL FOOL'S!!!!!

I'd never sell this pony. Never ever! He's doing great. He's raring to go, all healed up and having the time of his life. I'm totally in love with his mane growing in, and now that it's long enough to lie over on one side, I've stopped braiding it and am just treating it with the Eqyss Avocado Mist spray and Mane 'n Tail conditioner to keep it silky and smooth and moisturized. I've got a new mesh sleezy that's faceless (ends right at his neck instead of having the face too) because his old mesh mane tamer is falling apart and never really worked out the right way for him. The sleezy will be easier to put on and keep on without having to buckle it to his fly sheet or anything. He's got a new tail toobie too instead of keeping him on in a tail bag.

I can't help it. I have a pony that should have a long flowing mane and tail. It's the breed standard, really. ;) So naturally I pmaper him to try and keep mane and tail intact.

Mitch says hello!

Here he comes to eat the hay! Mighty Mitch is on his way!

See! His mane is growing in!!

His mane is longer now that last year when he rubbed it out.

Possible trail ride this weekend, people!!

Mitch is on the mend!

2010-03-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

On Friday while I was handwalking him, I could sense that he was really really needing to move, so I took him to the round pen and just let him run and buck and do all the things he wanted to do by himself. Tacked him up yesterday and did a little bit of trotting with him in the dressage arena. He's moving so much better now.

Today I'm going to give him a bath since he hasn't had one in months.

Mitch loves his haynet!

The Lameness Hokey Pokey

2010-03-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

You put your lame act on,
you put your lame act off,
you put your lame act on
and make the human go insane
you do the hokey pokey
with never a head bob
and that's what it's all about!

Mitch got cast in his paddock on March 9th. I guess he was trying to roll in the sandy part, got three legs stuck and just lay there until someone noticed him. I was at work, with no way to get out there, so I was pretty much hyperventilating when they called me, but my BO got ropes around his legs and they got him hauled out. He seemed all right, but I just walked him around for the week and did groundwork with him. Last Tuesday, I tried riding him, and he didn't feel right. He wasn't lame, he just didn't feel good at the trot. So I mostly walked him under saddle for that day, and Wednesday.

Thursday he got a trim job, and I tried riding him again this weekend, but he still didn't feel right. He didn't have a head bob or anything, but didn't have the same get-up-and-go he usually does. And then being as I'm a paranoid person and seem to be surrounded (at least in terms of the internets) by people who have horse with metabolic issues or lameness or laminitis or navicular or a host of other problems, I worry. I feel Mitch's hooves constantly, don't let him eat grass particularly if it's a sunny day, he doesn't get carrots or apples or other sugary goodies except as a very rare treat, and he doesn't get grain either, and has a slow feed hay net with grass hay. I live in a constant state of worry. Yesterday morning, I felt his hooves, swore they felt warm (but not hot, remember that, not hot) and immediately called my vet who said he'd be out that afternoon.

So Mitch got the works. Flexion test, hoof testers, plapation. No reaction. The vet did find he was short on the upswing on his left hind, and he was mildly sensitive through the neck and told me to handwalk him for the week with no riding, and gave me some Bute to give Mitch for the next 5 days (well, 3 now.) He wasn't too worried about his weight, but wanted the pony to loose some weight just to be sure, which will happen as soon as I can work him consistently.

So, I'm glad the pony has a all-systems-go card, and he's got no physical problems once I can ride him again.

Sunny Day Sweeping the Clouds Away...

2010-03-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

I think the rain in Southern California has finally finally finally stopped, (excuse me, I need to pound on my wooden desk for a few minutes .. knock on wood, you know) and the world is drying up. We can use our round pens and arenas again which means Mitch is starting to do more than just walk around on the gravel road and driveway. He's shedding up a storm but I got lucky and found a equine-sized Furminator on eBay for $13.99 and give him a good going-over every 2 days or so. He's also been awful awful dirty. Getting a good roll (he makes his own mud... ewwww!) so every day I get there and find a dirty pony. I'm putting his fly sheet on, hoping he at least stays remotely clean.

It's gorgeous here today -- lovely sunny and warm weather. And I just passed up an offer to go trail riding up at Live Oak. I know... shocking, huh? But it's the Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon at our museum of Natural History, and I volunteer every Sunday at the Museum's Sea Center (I love the shark touch tank!) so I already had plans. I'm hoping with how gorgeous the day is, they'll have the luncheon outside by the creek under the trees. It'd be so perfect! (Ack! Good thing my laundry's in the wash, I wouldn't know what to wear!)

Since there's not much more new in terms of horsey stuff, I guess I should finally get on to the awards I've gotten, but never got around to talking about them. First up, the Honest Scrap Award courtesy of Ashley and her GoPony Mimi. I got this award back in July of 2009, so ... it's a long time in coming.

When you receive The Honest Scrap award you must stick to some rules:

Recognize your award presenter and link back to their blog in your post.
List 10 honest things about yourself that others might not know.
Present this award to 10 admirable bloggers and link to their blogs.
Leave a comment on your recipients' blogs to let them know to visit your post to retrieve their award.

So my honest scraps:

I think I finally have to admit that I get distracted easily. It's not that I procrastinate, but I guess I put things off in favor of other things. Maybe it's that I have too much going on in my brain and start something, but get sidetracked on to something else ... look how it took 9 months for me to post this award. It's the story of my life, really.
I live at home with my parents. I probably shouldn't have to, but given the price of housing in the California real estate market, it's cheaper this way. My brother lives at home too, and since our parents aren't in any hurry for us to move out, it works out fine.
I've had my driver's license for 3 years. Before that, I walked and rode the bus, and rode my bike. Now, I'm really lazy and prefer to drive my "draft horse" Rosie (a.k.a. the Honda CR-V)
Flair, my dearly departed Thoroughbred (I can't believe it's going to be 3 years already this June) was my Heart Horse. He was the best teacher I could ever have in introducing me to the world of horses, and caring for a senior horse. Now I know taking care of Mitch in his golden years (many years from now) will be a breeze.
Mitch pushes my buttons. He's my Challenge Horse. As my second horse, I've had to learn so much about trying to out think a pony that's got more smarts than he has height.
I am single. Very very very single. I have never had a boyfriend, never gone on a date, never really been interested in guys in any realistically romantic fashion.
The above said however, I do have major crushes on lots of actors. But like I said, "realistically romantic interest" right? I think Karl Urban is H-O-T. And he can ride .. *coughcough* horses. So yeah, him. For the win.
I have a terribly twisted sense of humor. Like very twisted. I'm the kind of person who might start laughing if someone is crying. I can't help it, and it's not that I'm an insensitive jerk, but I find the most bizarre things funny.
I want to join the SCA. However, the only thing holding me back is the fact that our local chapter doesn't do equestrian stuff and I don't have a trailer. So we're kinda screwed right now. Mitch however would make a wonderful destrier. Just look at his pictures of him in barding to know!
In terms of worldly travel, I have only been as far north as Whistler, British Columbia and far south as Ensenada, Mexico. I have been to Hawaii, but have never been farther east than Lake Tahoe in California. I would like to actually visit east of the Mississippi River someday.

And now, for the 10 people I'm supposed to give this award to. I think I'll cheat and not give it to 10 people because a lot of people have probably already gotten it (since I posted 9 months too late!) so, umm, yeah, I'll do my best, wot!

The Adventures of Lucy - I'm all yay for Thoroughbred goodness! Kate seems very happy with her new girl, and I think it's wonderful they're a pair.
Golden the Pony girl - Want more golden pony love? Hurrah for Haflingers!
Half-Passes and Oxers - Hello my fellow Californian. Leslie and Winston are gonna be jumping and dressage stars, just you wait. But you can't visit her blog because it's invite-only.

I think that's uh .... it. On to award #2!

This award was given to me by Golden the Pony girl which means I can't give it back. (harhar) I'm supposed to post 7 things you all don't know about me and then pick 15 people to give this award to, but since I already posted 1o things about me previously ... I'll wing it, and see if I can get 7 more things.

I like to draw, paint and take pictures. I have a digital SLR camera and take it with me to big events like horse shows and the races and stuff. I do a lot of digital art as well.
I love to write. I write fanfic stuff all the time, and someday plan to write an actual book, if I can ever figure out just what to write.
I can read fast. I just finished Chosen by a Horse yesterday. It's 248 pages. I read it in 4 hours. That's about 62 pages an hour or just about 1 minute per page.

I think that's all I've got. Now to pick 15 people. Err ...

Rain ... rain ... rain away ...

2010-03-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon was one of those torrential downpours -- almost monsoonal, really. I kept watching the weather report all day, and it kept saying rain/rain/rain and then showers right before I left for the barn. Also, the weather report kept changing. First it was supposed to start at noon, and then 1 PM, then 2, and 4 and 6. I was just ready to wash my hands of the whole situation. As it was, I left for the barn without being prepared. No rain jacket, no rain boots, nothing. Good thing it didn't start raining until I was just getting ready to put Mitch away.

Didn't ride yesterday, I was going to, but then ended up doing some ground work with Mitch using a long 12' lead I borrowed from a friend. We did well, and then I went to tidy up his paddock. I'm trying pine pellet bedding instead of shavings. The cost is about the same, but the pine pellets seem to be doing better overall. I've been spending so much money on shavings, it's not funny. And with all the rain we've been having, I've been buying bag after bag and having to change it out a lot because it would look nice on top, but then there'd be huge puddles of pee and water (plus, the ground's starting to get so saturated, we've got water coming up under the mats) so I'm finally desperate enough to try the pine pellets. Hopefully though the rainy season is coming to an end, and I don't have to buy any more after this.

Mitch and I have hit a temporary training snag. You know how I posted a few weeks ago about how I was just going to train and train on the barn trails so that if we couldn't go to the CTR I was hoping we'd try for this spring then the only thing that would stop us was the means of transportation? Well, that's all good and well if we've had a place to ride. ;) It was an El Nino year, and we've been swamped by storms the last few months or so. And it was either a big week-long storm, or we'd get rain every few days which meant it would start to look like things were drying out and then *sploosh*, more rain! The lower gravel road and drives around the barn are fine, but the back trails are mostly dirt and have turned to mud, and the BO wants to preserve it for the spring and summer so we haven't been doing anything but walking around on the driveway and stuff. This last storm might have been our last (weather forecast says we have 10 days of sunshine) so things might finally be able to dry up again and we can get to work.

Go Mitchster, it's your birthday!

2010-03-02T20:26:00.000-08:00

Mitch ran away from me today and couldn't be caught for a while. He was being so good, and then threw a wretched attitude today (although I could hardly blame him for it ... more on that later.)

I do need a longer lead rope though. I've got your standard bought-from-the-store kind that's maybe 7 or 8 feet long. I wasn't doing anything with him, just leading him back to the mare motel when he did a u-turn and went the other way. The rope at that point was at his haunch, and I just ran out of rope before he was gone. I'll try a 14 foot line, I think. I signed up for Giddyupflix, and will be trying the Clinton Anderson DVDs for a while because I want to improve groundwork with the pony.

So on to the reason why Mitch ran away... he had his birthday of course! With streamers. And a hat. And he was less than enthusiastic about it.

I can hear horses laughing Mom.

No, seriously, I look stupid.

Oh hey, a carrot! (Carrot bribes apparently make him look forward!)

Aren't you overdoing this birthday thing a little?

Are you trying to bribe me with a carrot again?

I'll never take bribes! Never!

OK, you can give me a carrot.

When I get dis off, u die.

I hate you.

Really hate you. Why couldn't you be like a normal owner?

Stop taking pictures. I mean it. Mooooooom!

I'm going to do something really mean to you, just to get you back!

... and that's when he ran away and wouldn't let me catch him for a while. So Happy Birthday to the bestest pony in the whole world! You're now spared Birthday Humiliation for a whole 365 more days.

Ridin' Before The Rain

2010-02-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

So we're due for another little rain dump tomorrow and this weekend. I tacked up this afternoon for a nice little ride (or what should have been a nice little ride) and headed off for a short trail ride around the ranch with two girls that board there. Mitch was super, very quiet and very calm even in company, although he clearly wanted to be in front. One thing I've noticed since I started riding him in a treeless saddle is how nice his stride is. His walk is very free-swinging from the shoulder, very energetic. He was with two larger horses (the mare was a good hand taller) but he was walking the smoothest of all. I know Haflingers aren't gaited, but he's got a very nice slow sitting trot, and a very elastic walk. Very comfortable.

So we went up and around, walked along on some loops and just chatted and talked. And then one of the girls realized that her horse's bit had blood on it (maybe a cut? maybe a knocked out tooth? who knew?) so we all stopped, stood around and then I hear this grunt from Mitch, followed by a very distinctive sound of flowing water. This is probably the second or third time he's been really really comfortable with peeing with me in the saddle. When we had the Barefoot, he'd wait till I got off and pee in the crossties. Gah, it would aggravate me to no end!

So anyway, after a couple minutes of trying to find the cut in the mare's mouth, we got the bright idea of me riding down to get a halter so she could be ridden back. So off Mitch and I went, down the hill just as two more horses went by, two little lesson kids and their trainer on foot going for a trail ride. Mitch went on right by them down to a friend's area a little ways down the hill where I hopped off, rooted around in the trashcan for a halter, and then hopped back on, and up the hill we went at a nice trot to get everything fixed up, and went back down towards the barn area. He also was pooping while walking. It's a wierd sensation in a treeless saddle when your horse takes a crap.

Mitch is being such a good boy! I think he's finally clicking everything into place (our first year was our "honeymoon year" and then he tested me like wildfire last year, tried pushing all my buttons, but now, I think he's got it. I've been doing a lot of softening and halts with him, and he's becoming quite responsive. It also helps to have the hay net so he's eating throughout the day, and settling better when I work him. I've got a lot of good hopes for him this year. We're doing so well right now. He's settling back into his laid-back self again, and feeling better about walking away from other horses again.

Trail-ridin! I'm not Bluffing!

2010-02-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

Today was a simply gorgeous day! It was sunny, and beautiful and the weather was at least 70 degrees (yeah! yeah, I have to rub it in *winkwink*) and what did we do! Pony went in a trailer! We went trail riding -- yaaaaaaaay! It's our first time off the ranch in almost 9 months but it was a gorgeous and perfect day for it!!! I am soooo happy. I just knew somehow things would work out.

I went to a tack sale today, didn't buy anything since I'd just bought the saddle, but it was nice meeting up with people I know, and having a little social life. And looking at stuff I didn't really have money for (well, I would, if I hadn't bought this saddle, but I needed the saddle for riding, so ... problematical dilemma, eh?)

So, I went out to Ellwood with Dona today and had an awesome time! It's still a little muddy, but it was wonderful and warm and sunny. Quite the contrast from the snowstorms back East. We met all sorts of interesting people, including some Asian tourists who wanted to get pictures of the horses (and pictures of them standing with the horses which Mitch and Red were most obliging) and a guy from the Netherlands who knew what a Haflinger was. :D

Super fun day! And now... pictures!!

Mitch wasn't looking at the camera, but you can see my pretty saddle!

Still muddy and some standing water in places, but overall, great to ride on!

Mitch's little braids, lol. The tourists really liked them.

Lookit that green! And sunny blue sky. Easterners ... eat your hearts out! ;)

After the ride, a sweat and satisfied pony

But that's not all...

Being a boarded horse can be a rather rough life sometimes. While I know Mitch gets excellent care, he still only gets fed twice a day, and while he gets plenty of hay at each feeding, he stills eats far too quickly for my liking. It's not anyone's fault, but horses were designed to eat for long periods of the day -- up to 20 hours of grazing, although they probably don't spend all 20 hours actually eating, but they can nom nom nom most of the time as they choose. It's hard to make that work in a boarded setting, unless of course the barn is feeding unlimited hay, and few boarding barns can afford to do that unless they grow their own, and even then, it can be costly. So the norm is to feed horses twice, or three times a day, even though it really isn't their natural lifestyle.

Since Mitch has grass hay, he gets very generous portions of it, and I've been searching for a way to slow down his hay consumption -- I still want him to get lots of hay, but I want him to spend more time eating it rather than hoovering it up and standing around bored as heck for the rest of his day until evening feed. I looked and looked, since I liked both the Busy Horse Busy Buffet and the Nibble Nets, but they seemed like an extra step or two with opening the bag and putting the hay in. And then we found the Freedom Feeder which can be rigged up so the back is open and hay can just be dumped into the net. I went to my barn owners, presented them with the liturature and got their approval. Set it up the other day, and already, Mitch is picking up the hang of using it. And it's taking him a long time to eat his hay. In fact, when I got to the barn at 12 pm today, he still had maybe a couple inches out of the bottom of the bag to eat from the morning feeding at 6 or so. Full of win that! And by the time we got back, evening feed was already in the hay net. At this point, he's getting nearly 24 hours worth of hay instead of bolting it all down and plotting nerfariously in the meantime.

And of course, a video...

A "Bit" of a Thought

2010-02-11T21:48:00.000-08:00

So guess who went around the ranch on the roads and stuff like a little dreamboat today in a snaffle. Well, all right, it wasn't quite smooth sailing because we did have a minor snag. Mitch loves to play with his tongue. I know it sounds dirty, but he'll pull his tongue over the bit, poke it out the side of his mouth and flap it around while we're walking. Which is ... well, a problem. Because he's got his tongue over the bit. A curb bit no less. I've checked everything, the cub straps done up right, the bridle's at the right height in his mouth, so how he gets his tongue over, I have no clue. Maybe he's like a snake and can unhinge his jaw because however he does it, he gets his tongue over and starts waving it around like he's proud of himself. I did a Google search about horses getting their tongues over the bit and some of what I read say they're trying to evade the bit or they're just being pigheaded little snots. Mitch falls into the latter rather than the former category, I'd say. He's just a pigheaded little snot sometimes.

I've been working him a lot. The ground's still wetter than a mad cat in the bathtub so we're reduced to walking around in our $1300 saddle. Oh glee. Mitch and I have been working on softening exercises, with some squeeze-the-rein/release in his curb bit, and he's really softening up and giving to pressure nicely. The instant I release, I stroke him and say "Good boy" and he's learning fast. We did some of that today, but then he decided he wanted to walk into the crosstie area ("We're done woman, get off my back!") even though we weren't done, and I steered him away. Walking away, I noticed him do his tongue thing -- like saying "Oh yeah, move me away why don'tcha, well look what I'll do, monkey!" It's like the equine equivalent of flipping someone the bird, only with your tongue.

So I hopped off, put him in the crossties, went and got my dressage bridle (which doesn't fit him, it was Flair's and Flair had a smaller muzzle than the pony does!) with the flash noseband. It had my Waterford D-ring on it, so I put that on him, hopped back on, and off we went. He went really good in it. I think maybe he was just being a snotty little shit last year because he was testing me. I do know he doesn't try and get his tongue over the bit in a snaffle, but I have been riding him in an open bridle. I'm starting to think maybe I ought to have a noseband for him. I could probably rig up my trail add-on bridle somehow to allow for it.

Maybe we can go back to the snaffle. Oh I hope hope!

Here Come Da Rain..

2010-02-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

It's going to be another one of those one-day rainstorms again. Dammit! These are the worst because it gets everything wet and muddy for a day, and we have to start drying out all over again. Boo!

Anyway, love the new saddle. It is awesome awesome awesome! If I ever get my camera out, I'll take a picture of me riding in it. I am continually amazed at how wonderful my leg position is in this treeless saddle. I even forgot my breastcollar while walking Mitch around today and the saddle didn't so much as budge. Went back to get it, and mounted from the ground ... no problem!

I put my merino sheepskin seat saver on it. Haven't tried that yet, but it's bound to be cushy. My leg is even closer to my horse with the pommel bolster under the seat.

Yep, we found our saddle. Now we just need this rain to stop, and get to working on getting our butts out on the trail.

In Which A Sensation Gets Unboxed!

2010-02-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

Mother Nature has conspired mightily against me this last month. We've had lots of rain, but despite this, I managed to demo that saddle, fall in love with it and decide to spend a boatload of money to buy myself one just like it.

And despite the fact that it was pouring rain JUST as I got to the post office yesterday, and me hardly dressed for it (it wasn't raining when I left the house!) I got my package, brought it home and unpacked it.

So without further ado...

I haz a box

Inside zee box, there iz plastics. And sweet sweet leather

Yes!

Iz my saddle! Not yours, MINE!

This was taken with my crappy camera phone. Bully! I found my trail camera shortly thereafter

Saddle, oh beautiful saddle!

The leather looks so HAWT!

Plz to be ignoring teh clutter in my room

Cushy seat! With a pommel bolster to give a bit more twist to boot.

LOOK AT THAT THING! It sure doesn't look like a Barefoot seat to me. (which is cause it aint)

So today is windy, but no rain. I took Mitch for a walk yesterday, but holding him back was like holding a freight trail at the end of the lead rope. He felt good. He wasn't bad, but he felt rarin to really go. I think today I'll put my saddle on him (borrowing a friend's Skito pad) and we'll go out for a walk around the (drier parts of) the property.