NaBloPoMo Day 15 - If you could speak to any horse, dead or alive, what would you say?

You know, this is one of those questions I stare at for a long, long time.

I... have to admit I've never really felt a burning need to speak to a horse...?  I mean, are we talking about the horse having a human-like intelligence here, or are we talking about a talking horse with the walnut-sized brains we all kind of suspect they have?

And even if we're talking human-like intelligence, we'd then have to assume human-like understanding and vocabulary, wouldn't we?  Because otherwise, we're having a conversation about "the big noisy thing that comes by home a lot" or "the green stuff I stuff my face with all day" instead of "the train that goes by the pasture" and "grass."

...

It's possible I'm overthinking this.  By a lot.

Here. Have a photo of the one foal my BOs had this year.  None of this happened.  Look at the pretty baby.

 

NaBloPoMo Day 14 - Your dream barn/farm

Ok, like, seriously - who doesn't have this planned out?  lol

My wish list has changed over the years.  I used to want a big metal barn like is ridiculously common around here, because... that's what's common around here.  Metal barns?  We got 'em.

These days... well.

What I really want is a concrete block and metal barn, with a bunch of stalls.  Probably way more than I need; I have dreams of a 20 stall barn, and what on earth am I going to do with that many horses?  Anyway... I want the outside stalls and walls to be concrete block (reinforced, of course) for coolness; I've seen photos of barns like that, and to be honest... the dorm I lived in in college was concrete block, and it was freaking cold year-round.  I'd probably do half-height concrete block on the stall walls, metal bars above that for equine socializing, and a concrete floor with drains, that stuff they put on the floor of gyms for traction (both in stalls and the aisle), and then big, thick rubber mats in the stalls as well.  And I want big stalls, like 16x16 or 18x18.  I know they're more expensive to bed down than the 10x10s and 12x12s, but if I'm building with concrete blocks, gotta have space for foaling/stall rest, right?

I want a real concrete wash-rack in the barn.  And I want a grooming area like they had in one barn where I rode, where the three grooming stalls were basically thick wood uprights for the crossties, front and back, and between them was a horizontal rail at just about the perfect height to drop your saddle on while you worked.  (I think they were actually telephone poles, to be honest, but it was really cool.)

And I want a freaking indoor arena, not a covered one like we have around here; the covered ones are just... they're gloomy, and they're effing hot in summer and freaking cold in winter, and "oh, the wind will cool us down" is a lie.  I want a full-on indoor.  My only remaining decision there is whether to go with the Coverall-type fabric one or the metal one, because I'm not entirely sure how well the fabric ones hold up in our (occasionally exciting and hail-filled) Texas weather.  Either way, I want light.  And Big Ass Fans, and probably a swamp cooler.

And to top it all off, the barn will have solar panels on the roof.  And if the arena is metal, it will too.  There's enough sun on our house to make solar panels potentially worthwhile; you better believe I'd be putting up solar panels on a barn with a ton of roof space.  lol

Of course I want an outdoor arena, and a couple of pastures.  And a round pen, which I'd put in the middle of the nice big loop in front of the barn that the driveway would make so that trucks trailers can be easily extricated without a bunch of shenanigans.  (U-turns?  We don't need no stinkin' u-turns in Dream Farm! lol) 

And all the equine parts of the property would be double-fenced.  I want a nice wide alley between the actual pastures and the property fence, so a) I can "trail ride" there, and b) I have an extra layer of security in the event of loose horses.  Interior fencing would be something like Centaur, exterior probably a 5 or 6 foot pipe fence (criminally common around here) or pipe and wire fence.

The house would be at the front of the property, so that you'd have to drive past it to get to the horses - although I'd kind of like the barn to be close to the house as well, so I guess that's still a question.  And somewhere near the front as well, my husband wants a shop and space for his hobbies...

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!

NaBloPoMo Day 11 - Find a horse for sale online that you would want to buy

Well, I mean... I've always wanted an Irish Draught (don't ask me why), and if we're going to go whole hog and dream...

This girl would be welcome in the barn.

So would she.

And honestly, so would she...

NaBloPoMo Day 10 - How your family/friends feel about your riding

The word you're looking for here is "politely mystified."

My parents aren't sure exactly what happened.  They've been willing to humor it, to a point, but it's not their thing and they generally don't 'get it.'

Willing to man the camera and the cookie bag, but that's about it.

My lovely husband doesn't entirely get it either, and - thanks to the ex-wife of his boss - is convinced that horses are so fragile that they can and will kill themselves by walking across a pasture.  But he'll humor me and come along to the barn now and then.  :)

NaBloPoMo Day 09 - Any injuries that occurred from riding

Oooo, yeah.  I've had one or two - maybe not as spectacular as some, but I am perfectly okay with that, universe!

The very first one wasn't the result of a fall - but it was the result of a totally barn-sour mare, an instructor not paying any attention, and a kid that didn't realize warning signs were being given until the hoof impacted the thigh.

Same mare, different day.

There was the time a certain bay mare of my instructor's decided that she didn't like how I was lunging her.  Her choice of how to express this was to flip me the equine bird and take off at a full gallop for the other end of the arena.

Yes, I'm talking about you.

But hey, that was the day I discovered that:
a) Flat canvas lunge lines can cause some hellacious rope burn, and
b) The water at the bottom of black horse troughs is still cold, even in the middle of summer in an unshaded spot, and
c) Cold water doesn't really do much for rope burn blisters.

There was the time I found out that leather reins can also cause rope burn, when a certain idiot chestnut Arab mare of that same instructor's dumped me.  (Through no fault of her own, really - that was a confidence issues fall.  In hindsight, it's both a vaguely hilarious fall and pretty pathetic.  Hooray for a slow-motion fall as a result of a perfectly predictable behavior!)

Good with kids, but a brain full of butterflies.

Same instructor, third instance (though in her defense, I rode with her for a decade).  Big brown Thoroughbred chickened the hell out when a car went down the gravel road near the arena and spooked, first into a gallop and then out from under me.

Actually, you can almost see the section of fence where I fell in this picture.  It's a bit further to the right.

Two problems here.
1) I was riding in the morning before college classes.  I basically had time to leave the barn when I was done, get back to my apartment, shower, and go to class.
2) When I landed, I landed sitting on one hip, with my elbow slung up on the (tilted) arena fence.  Imagine, if you will, a pose something like this, only sitting on the right hip with the legs extended to the side, and you've just about got the right idea.

I got back on, we finished the lesson, and then I went home, showered, and headed to campus.  My first class was at 12:30.

By the time I got home that night - 5:30 or so - I had a bruise basically from hip to knee on my right thigh, a pair that together perfectly matched the fenceline if I bent my elbow, and one on my left shin that I never quite figured out where the hell it came from.  Every one of them was a spectacular shade of purple.

I would like to note that shoving a gallon baggie of ice down my pants to try and make the giant freaking bruise less sore was not entirely effective.  Hilarious and frustrating, depending on just what it was I was trying to do at the time, but not effective.