The pictures that didn't make it into my last post

So it looks like Blogger is still being a pain, as it was in my last post, but this time I'm much less annoyed with the universe.

One festive Dragon:

Someone did not give a crap that I stuck a hat on her ear.  "Sure, whatever."

 Two comparison photos:

Justice, about 15 months old

Dragon, 9 months old

And some bonus photos!

Dragon's uncle (dam's full brother) doing a holiday event in early December. Most of the other stuff that day was canceled; the second round was two weeks later, very little was canceled, and we opted not to go take pictures, even though it was outside. He did great - stood still for kids and non-horsey people (including a wheelchair), didn't mess with the mares he was in company with, didn't flinch at traffic.  Honestly, the worst thing he did was poop on the sidewalk and get a little fidgety after three hours, and he was not the only one ready to go home and use a restroom by that point!

Giant-ass 9 month old baby.  Who is butt-high because she is growing agaiiiin.

Outtake.  lol This is what happens when everyone forgot halters and decided to do an impromptu photo session... and all the baby wants to do is follow the photographer.

And lastly... the most ridiculous unicorn.  lol I'll have to dig up the mossy unicorn photo; I don't have either one of these on a wall anywhere, because they're frankly weird.

Please excuse the flash on the left-hand side.  I always feel a bit bad making fun of this thing - it looks sad, somehow, and someone clearly put a lot of effort into it.  But... um.  It's... yeah.

2010s Photo Challenge

I see this one's making the rounds, starting over at May As Well Event, and it sounds like fun!  I... may have gotten carried away with photos.  It's one photo per horse per year; that's close enough, right?

(Also, hey, I'm still here! lol)

2010
This was one of the first years I started hanging out at the barn where I now board.  I don't have a lot of photos from this year, but I do have one that I think is worth sharing.

Back side - I have photos of both sides too.

This is one of those "why I wear a helmet every time" photos.  One of my now-BOs was wearing this helmet when she hopped on board a youngster that had already dumped her mom that day - just a baby thing, where she took off and mom, being not the best rider, came right on off.  Said youngster panicked a second time and took off with now-BO, who eventually decided to do an emergency dismount when it seemed like the "get away from human on back" panic was going to drive the little mare to try to jump the arena fence.

She landed ok at first, but quickly ended up flat on her back, plowing a few feet of arena, and was unconscious for probably a minute and a half.  No lasting damage, aside from needing to replace what started the day as a brand new helmet.

Every time, y'all.  Every time.

2011
...was apparently a really boring year.  lol More riding at the barn I would eventually board at, on whatever was trained for saddle and seemed safe, including a couple of times on this kind of daft little guy - one of only two horses that has ever licked me.  (So, so weird.)

This is his "you are not my mom" face.

2012
This was the year I met the other now-BO, as well as one of the crazy women who later went on to cause so much drama (and still are, omg), and I took photos while the others rode.

BO2's mare at the time; the mare has since passed away.

2013
The year I first started messing with Cessa, although I only have a few photos.  She'd been (temporarily) owned by a lady before this, one who just was not equipped to deal with her - much as I love her, Cess is just enough of a bitch that if you are spineless about enforcing discipline, she will take advantage of that - so even though I thought she was beautiful, I'd been hesitant to mess with her.  Her ownership transferred to BO1, and she assured me I could play with her all I wanted... so I did.

Mostly we played pretty princess, let's be honest here.

2014
It was a bumper crop of babies at the barn - as I recall, five that year?  I think this was also the last year the herd was as big as it was when I first started riding up there.  2015 would bring herd downsizing, particularly as we were in a lengthy drought.

A fraction of the herd - the white face in the middle is Boss Mare, with her son that's now a stud to the left of her and Cessa behind him.

2015
I'm not saying I had a problem, but I did buy a cheap halter and lead rope for a horse I didn't even own.  lol

Also, lesson learned: $2 nylon halters are not worth it...

And the year Justice was born.

Aww. So narrow. So cute.

Most importantly of all - in December of that year, I became a horse owner!  Of two horses, because I'm insane and my BOs are enablers.

2016
My first year as a horse owner!  Full of things that are really only exciting the first time you have sole responsibility of a horse, like "I have to buy a bag of grain!" and "I have to buy a blanket!" lol I... I may have been enthusiastic.

Pretty girl

One of my favorites of him

Sadly, I don't have a lot of not-head-shot photos of Justice for this year or the next.  He went through a series of godawful awkward stages.  Like "I have photos and I'm not going to share them, because there were times where I would come home and go look at his baby pictures so I could have faith there was going to be a nice horse come out the other side" godawful awkward stages.  I'd seen normal baby awkward growth, where they get fat and then convert all that fat into growth and ribbiness, and I'd seen draft baby awkwardness (which is a whole other thing indeed), but Justice took it to a whole new level.

2017
The year of the ridiculous selfies!

Yes, that's the spot where it itches...

And baby pony wearing a birthday hat!

Still makes me laugh. What are you even doing, little dude?

2018
2018 started off really rough, and never really recovered from there - by the end of the year, I'd had to put down a horse and a cat, and I lost a grandmother in between.

The horse?  Justice.

During his last month.

In July of 2017, we noticed he was having severe vision issues and his eyes had gone milky/cloudy where the pupil should be.  Medication helped some, but it never really went away.  If anything, it got worse.  By the end of the year, we knew he could only really see - at most - shadows and light.  Plans were in the works to get him to a specialist, but he also still needed his nuts chopped off (at two and a half, he had just started to realize that girls were a thing, so it was time).

The vet examined him for the gelding appointment in January and let us know that it would be best to put him down - and after watching him in the stall, where it was clear he had been relying on his sisters all this time and that he really couldn't see anything and it was freaking him out, I made the decision to do so that day.

On a happier note, my 12 year old broodmare finally got started under saddle.

And she was so thrilled about it, too.

2019
Which brings us to this year.  We got in some rides, but mostly it's been a quiet year.

OK, so maybe I took a selfie as proof I rode my horse. Maybe.

I'm looking forward to the new year - new opportunities to ride (and lord knows she and I both need the exercise, lol)... and possibly a new face, depending on what happens this spring...

All quiet on the stupid weather front

First week of January:

Second week of January:

Third week of January:

Fourth week of January:

Aaaaanybody want to guess how much barn time I've had this month, when it's an hour drive to the barn so I usually only go on weekends?  And when the ground is so saturated that it's taken four days for our normally dry back yard to dry out?  And when neither my BOs nor I particularly want to be outside in 30-45 degree weather, especially at the barn where there's not much to block the wind?  (Although we all have freakish husbands that like the cold and/or think that our idea of cold is far too warm because they're from points well north of Texas.)

Anybody?

Yeah.  I'm not thinking about it either.

I know we're not suffering from the godawful cold of the Midwest or the feet of snow, but this is so gross for our winters.  We're having 20 to 40 degree temperature swings in 24 hour periods - literally, 70 one day, 39 as the high the next, and 25 that night - and we usually only see that in the spring.  We haven't really had any snow or ice (and I know I'm gonna regret whining about that next month, which is usually our winter weather month), but the one day we did have snow, it was just... depressing.  It snowed during the night, and by the time we woke up... there was snow on the cars and that was about it.  Everybody is getting sick.

Just... ugh.  Ugh.

It's all adding up to quiet time for the blog.  Literally the extent of my excitement this month has been the discovery that one of the squirrels that's nested in our trees stole a dog coat from some poor Chihuahua or something somewhere, shredded it, and is discovering how terrible a nesting material it is every time the wind blows.  Although I have to say, whatever dog that was, it had to have been round when it wore the coat; I found the base of the coat first, which is how I know the size of it, and since then, I swear to god I've picked up enough fluff for a big dog coat.  I know for sure I've filled 2 plastic grocery bags, and there's more out there.  It just keeps coming.
 

Yeah, ok. I'm a little whiny and grouchy at this point. I have a cold clearing out and a spouse down with food poisoning. Doesn't help that today's the anniversary of putting Justice down - something that doesn't bother me too much day-to-day at this point, but is definitely not the happiest of memories.

Anybody else super ready for spring? lol

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Everybody's posting goals, and I feel like such a slacker for not really having any.

Well, that's not true.  Right now, I have exactly two goals for this year.

This time for real.

Cessa will get saddle training some time in the spring.  (And hopefully oh my god, mare, being tied is not a game of break-the-equipment re-education while she's there...)

Year 3 coming up!

And Justice gets his nuts off and diagnostics on his eyeballs mid-month.

I'd like to get one or both of them out to shows this year, but the lady that runs the show circuit we usually go to had a double lung transplant (!!) around Thanksgiving and is only going to run about half her usual number of shows this year.  So we'll have to look around and see what we can find here in the Land of Stock Horses that won't turn up their noses too badly at our drafties. lol

Happy Holidays!

Is this food?

It doesn't look like food...

Hey guys, is this thing food?

This. Is. Not. Food.

You've got to be kidding me, human.

I hear sleigh bells!  It's Santa, and he has FOOD!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Grown up halters!

I mean, it's on the smallest of holes and still a bit baggy, but he can wear an Average Horse-sized halter now!

Looking more and more like a big boy.

I tried to tell my DH that it's a manly halter.  Apparently silver dots on the metal that kind of look like rhinestones if you squint disqualify it as manly.  lol

NaBloPoMo Day 21 - Your perfect schooling outfit

Ooo.  I remember schooling outfits!

lol

As a kid, I always had riding tights, a stable of t-shirts that were thirteen kinds of screwed up by the time I grew out of them, and a french braid.  In winter, I had the lined riding jeans.

These days... yeah, um, since I'm not elbow-deep in neon pink Swat for three months of the year and can pick and choose when I clean tack, I'm not nearly so hard on my clothing.  That tends to mean I wear whatever rises to the top of the laundry basket that morning and yesterday's jeans, because the horses aren't gonna care.

Witness my stunning couture.  And a variety of faces ranging from "laughing" to "concentrating" to "I'm going to murder you for making me stand in the heat because you forgot how to walk on lead."

Really, the only thing I want is a good pair of half-chaps that doesn't cost an arm and a leg... and the other leg... and three fingers...  In my much-thinner-than-now days, I was a M in calf height and an XL or XXL in calf circumference; it hasn't gotten smaller.

NaBloPoMo Day 18 - Your grooming routine

I have three levels of grooming routine.

The Everyday
1. Catch horse and head over to the car trunk.
2. Optional scraping with a shedding curry.  Usually when there's mud, but every now and then because there's extra hair.
3. Curry and brush body and neck.
4. Brush legs and face.
5. Stare at mane and tail, decide not to bother.
6. Pick feet.

The Energetic
1. Steps 1-3 above.
2. Comb out forelock.
3. Despair of mane.  Tackle it with Cowboy Magic or the Canter detangler, a Tangle Tamer brush, and possibly scissors.
4. Despair of tail.  Tackle it with Cowboy Magic or the Canter detangler, a Tangle Tamer brush, and a lot of hope.
5. Cuss a lot.
6. Get stabbed by things stuck in the tail.
7. Bleed, cuss some more, and find a bandaid.
8. Finish the tail.
9. Run a comb through the mane, because at least it cooperates.
10. Braid the mane and forelock and take ridiculous pictures.
11. Pick feet.

The Bath
1. Put all electronics somewhere that's guaranteed to stay dry.
2. Hose off horse.
3. Put soap on horse.
4. Scrub.
5. Put on more soap.
6. Scrub.
7. Rinse horse.
8. Despair of mane and tail.
9. Put soap in mane and tail.
10. Massage hair and hope a miracle happens.
11. Rinse mane and tail.
12. Discover soap in horse's coat.
13. Rinse horse again.
14. Find more soap in the horse's coat.
15. Cuss.
16. Hose off horse again.
17. Pause to wring out shirt.
18. Find more soap and sigh.
19. Hose off horse and resolve to ignore any soap I find after that.
20. Pick feet.
21. Move horse away from the ant pile.
22. Comb out forelock.
23. Consider poor life choices, then pick up Cowboy Magic or the Canter detangler and a Tangle Tamer brush.
24. Tackle mane.
25. Contemplate whether tail is worth it.
26. Start on tail.
27. Seriously consider just cutting the tail off at hock level, because at least then someone can't get stabby bramble things in it.
28. Find a bandaid.
29. Take a break to commiserate with BOs about being completely and utterly soaked to the skin.
30. Finish tail.
31. Throw horse back in the pasture and curse at my 12 year old self, who loved horses with lots of hair.

NaBloPoMo Day 13 - A video of your horse/you riding

Mm.  Well, videos of me riding are ancient and I'm not entirely sure I have any of them in a digital format, but videos of the horses, I have.

Baby's first puddle:

And his birthday party:

And, not to be left out, Cessa followed me in polite confusion one day:

NaBloPoMo Day 12 - Favorite horse color

...

No idea.  lol

I really do love bay and brown horses - most of them, anyway.  There are certain shades of brown that just do not make an attractive bay horse.  (One unfortunate filly I knew was born a shade that one can only call 'mud', although she grew up to be a beautiful clear bay.)

If I had to pick a second favorite, bay dun or grullo.  Not really a fan of the red duns, but I do love a good black- or bay-based dun.

And hey, I caught up!

Baby butt!

Fall color: still kind of marble cake-ish.

Slowly frosting mane.

Cold weather, rain, and oh, the non-barn-related drama have things moving slowly around here, but there's always time for butt scratches.

A story of 3 babies

I had one of those irritating headaches that persisted through all the drugs I could reasonably throw at it, so no media from this weekend.

On the other hand, I do have a brief study in horses:

Baby 1: Justice

Haltered him, sprayed him with flyspray.  He circled and circled, unhappy with the process, and eventually stood still.

Baby 2: half-sister 1

No halter, spritzed her with flyspray.  She took off at a trot to the other side of the paddock and wouldn't come near me again.

Baby 3: half-sister 2

No halter, spritzed her with flyspray.  She flinched once, then stood rock-steady while I sprayed one side, walked around her, and sprayed the other.

They're all so different, despite having the same sire!  (Okay, half-sister 1, I expected that shit.  She is Cessa's baby, and Cessa stamps her personality all over her babies.  It's hilarious.)

Busy week

Last Sunday, my parents wanted to finally meet the ponies, so we headed up to the barn. Verdict?  Nobody died, nobody got stepped on, I didn't get squished because Cessa's pasture-mates have more manners than she does, and Justice is "at least as big as some of the horses you used to ride."  *snort*  Not horse people, my folks...

Saturday was a wedding, so barn day was Sunday instead.  And it was actually almost cool instead of... you know... Texas weather!

Ever get the feeling you're being followed? lol

And yes, he ran into me.  Oops.  We're gonna work on a verbal whoa cue there, I think, so maybe I can stop him running into stuff with his forehead (at least while I'm watching)...

His random ear spot has reappeared, too!

Best baby.

Apex selfie game.  It's all downhill from here, folks.

As for Cessa...  Well, someone was being a bitch because there was a new hay bale in the pasture.

This is the look I got when I told her so.

The hilarious part is that she let me catch her twice last weekend without a fuss, but this weekend?  Nope.  Not having it.  I wasn't even carrying a halter!  Mares!

At least the donkey wanted to see me.

Comparison shot: Justice's dam Love on the left, Cessa on the right.