Pony Up!

It has taken the grass a while to start growing, so we did end up having to feed some supplemental grain this winter. Fortunately, the grass has started to come in wonderfully before my trip to Florida, so I took the horses off grain before I left. Of course, they think this is horse abuse in the worst form, but they’ll get over it, haha.

Star and Laurie

In other news, Star and Laurie have moved to Porter-Brakebill with us. Star was having problems keeping his energy under control due to being in a stall for 14 hours a day… now that he has moved to Porter-Brakebill and is out 24 hours a day in a herd setting, he has made progress in leaps and bounds! Laurie rode him for the very first time. I’m so proud! They are still not sure if they’ll keep him, but if they decide not to I may take him myself! He’s pretty stellar.

Toby and the K’s

The K family has decided to look for a second horse, so we have spent a lot of time on the road, looking at horses! We finally found a great one for them. Her name is Katie, and she’s a 15 year old QH mare. We tried her out and she was super good for the girls and very solid. She comes home this week, so I’m excited to hear how she does with the Alpacas. Toby himself has made vast improvements. Before I left, he and Sibylle had a very positive lesson, even cantering! He is almost consistent at the trot, and I feel very confident that he will continue to improve.

Scooter was one of the horses we looked at. Here, Theresa rides while Lisa stands by.

Tessa

Tessa has been great. We’ve been working on the go forward cue, and she’s almost got it down. We even did a little gaiting! When I get back from Spring break, I plan to really hit the books with her so I can start doing trails over the summer. We still have a lot to learn, but she learns so quickly that I am enthusiastic about it.

First Ride!

It has been a while since I’ve posted with news, thanks to school and everything.

We moved the horses on November 1 to Porter-Brakebill farm, a little establishment down the road from the farm we were boarding at. We loved the other place, but the price raised and with five horses there we just couldn’t afford to live in “luxury” anymore. Haha.

We ended up selling Dolittle. Fortunately, we found a family through one of my mom’s friends. The family has a young son whose horse died last year, and so Dolittle is his new horse! They have their own farm and a bunch of trail Walkers, so he’ll be living in hog heaven.  I’ll miss him though!

Shortly before he left. I’m going to miss the big moose!

In other VERY exciting news, I backed and rode Tessa for the first time a few weeks ago! She has been a saint through it all and I’m very excited about the whole deal. There was no drama to her at all. She just looked at the saddle and bit the stirrups a time or two, and then was cool with it. When I got on her, she was more worried about chewing on the fence. Oh, I have high hopes for this child.

Tessa wears a saddle for the first time!

Tessa’s very first ride! I rode her with a halter for  a little bit, but now we’re starting to work with a hackamore. I have a bosal coming in for her very soon, so we’re not doing much with the hackamore.

She has plenty of brakes… the issue is getting her to move! She’s not altogether sure what she should do while I’m on her back, but she gets the hang of it pretty quickly. We’ve been following mom and Daisy, who are doing well and learning more about each other, around the field, up hills, across the creek, and around other horses, and she does just fine. Oh, I am most excited by this.

Our new boarding farm is a seventy acre field with a barn in the  middle of it. It’s cute, it’s quiet, and the owners and boarders are really nice! We’re operating out of our trailer currently because the tack room won’t hold our sixty zillion saddles and assorted other horse crap. Haha.

More updates as life goes on!

Mom Rides Again!

Mom came out this evening to ride Daisy. It went really well– the two seem to be getting along quite nicely. Daisy tried to be a bit of a stinker, but Mom managed to let her know who was in charge of the operation. I was very proud! The two trotted around the arena for the better part of a half hour, and I’ve gotta say that even though she may have not ridden for years, Mom still has a good seat.

I got ahold of the vet today. He said that Daisy had uveitis flareups in 2001 and 2002, resulting in her right eye going completely blind. She hasn’t had a flareup since, so hopefully there won’t be a problem with her good eye. He said that fortunately, they don’t normally need to remove eyes from uveitis, so her blind eye is just fine where it is.

I rode Quinny. It has been about a week and a half since I got on her, so she was a little surprised to see me. She complied though with typical Quinny behavior and was great to ride as usual, which was nice because I needed to focus my attention on Mom and her horse.

We moved Dolittle to the gelding field. He has had some separation anxiety since we moved Daisy to the fat field, so I’m hoping that being with geldings will give him some new friends and calm his anxiety. He is a sweetheart. When we left he was making friends with the geldings, who were all very curious.

I worked with the baby on Tuesday for a bit. She’s so smart! I sacked her out with a large towel, which was almost pointless because she didn’t care one bit. Yay Tessa! She was a bit miffed with me putting it over her face, but that’s only to be expected and by the end she was wearing it like a hat. I have high hopes for her.

Here’s some pictures from today. Please ignore the overweight girl in shorts riding Quinny in bad position. Jeez, I look like a trainwreck. At least the horse is pretty, eh?

Choices

After riding Daisy, my mother refused to ride the other two horses and said she’d found her match. I agree– Daisy is a great match for my mother. She has brains and is a very settled horse. I’m in the process of calling the vet who has her medical history to see what was up with her eye. The vet who looked at her previously said she was blind in it since 2000, and the horse seems unaffected. I just want to make sure there’s not an underlying illness I should be watching for.

This decision of course means that Quinny and Dolittle are the two to be sold. I have them up on two or three sale sites and have the word out to some friends of mine. Hopefully we’ll find some good homes for them. I’m not interested in having them end up in a bad situation, and I plan to keep in touch with them. I feel it’s my obligation to at least know where they end up!

The descriptions for both horses can be found on my horse page at whinwhinsituation. They are also on these sites:

Dolittle:
http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-99334
http://horsetopia.horse-for-sale.org/classifieds/ad319587
http://www.dreamhorse.com/show_horse.php?form_horse_id=1259602

Quinny:
http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-99331
http://horsetopia.horse-for-sale.org/classifieds/ad319585
http://www.dreamhorse.com/show_horse.php?form_horse_id=1259615

We are also selling one of our trailers:
http://www.tacktrader.com/show_item.php?tack_id=234630
http://horsetopia.horse-for-sale.org/local/trailers/l291125

Mom and Daisy

We’re in the midst of figuring out which horse we’d like to keep for my mother. On Wednesday she came out to the barn with me and rode Daisy. She started out on Moochie, who is a veritable rock, and then got on Daisy after I’d ridden her for a bit.

I am really impressed with Daisy’s sensible attitude. While she is still interested in talking to Dolittle across the farm, she never acts up. I am also very impressed by how little the blind eye affects her. She hasn’t spooked at anything with me, passes other horses with no problem, and seems to trust that her rider will alert her to anything on her right side. I think we’ve figured out that she likes the big mechanical hackamore, so we’ll probably stick with that for her bit. Mom steered her around with  no difficulty, and although she (Mom) is a bit timid when it comes to horses, Daisy did not take advantage of her.

Some photos from the day:

Mooch is mildly bored by the arena.

Mom loves riding Mooch.

Mom and Daisy get used to each other.

Mom and Daisy ride around.

Daisy is happy.

Mo’ Horses, Mo’ Issues

Recently (last Thursday) we bought four new horses. My dad signed the check “(dollar amount) and no sense”. Our original intent was not to buy four– our original intent was to buy one for my mother. However, upon seeing the other three, it was decided that we ought to take all four in the name of kindness to animals. It is a bit of a sticky story, but for the sake of tact I’ll say that it was a case of neglect.

So here I am with four new friends. This brings us up to six horses– Drummer and Mooch, our original two, plus Dolittle, Daisy, Quinn, and Tessa. Six horses are too many for me to handle– Mom and Dad are still getting the younger brother through high school, so their ability to help with their own horses is limited. This fact is fine with me, as I fully expected it. However, six is still too many. We decided to find good homes for two of the new horses.

Herein lies the problem.