Shoes and ships and sealing-wax

Things are quiet here because things have been busy!

The biggest 'busy' isn't horse-related, though.

Friends of ours found this guy in their yard - skinny, beat up, but otherwise a healthy 3-5 year old pit of some stripe or cross.  Couldn't find his previous home, so he's moved in with us.  He's got a lot more energy than our last dog (not a shock!) and he's a little clueless about things like 'personal space,' but he's sweet, clearly had training at some point, and has not yet met a stranger that he wasn't sure wanted to pet him or play with him.  (This has included people, dogs, cats, squirrels, birds... pleaseletmeplaywiththemall!)

We also have a new baby up at the barn:

Wonders of genetics: two spotted parents, not a spot or sign of the appaloosa gene to be seen...

But!

Cessa's home from the trainer, as of last weekend!  The weather has been ass - yes, we wanted 96 degrees with like 50% humidity, interspersed with thunderstorms dropping up to tennis-ball-sized hail, thanks! - so I haven't been up on her yet.  The trainer noted that she was breathing harder than might normally be required for trot and canter in the humid heat, although she cools out normally and her breathing settles down just fine once she goes back to a walk, so I'm planning to take it easy over the summer. It's hard to tell with a 13 year old pudgy easy keeper who just got her first working job ever if we're dealing with allergies (which we know she has), COPD, roaring, or just poor cardio without calling out the vet, and to be honest, she ain't the only one not equipped to deal with the heat right now.  (Related: why. Why did the universe give us a dog that really really needs daily walks in summer?)  So the plan from now until September or October is walk for a while, possibly interspersed with let's trot a long side of the arena and then slowly die of hot at the walk for like ten minutes, ok?  If she's still breathing like a freight train after a short trot once the weather is no longer akin to a vacation in Satan's loincloth, then we'll see what the vet thinks.

In the meantime, I'm exploring bit options.  Trainer had her in a Junior Cowhorse bit like this one:

And from the photos, looks like she was in a copper twisted wire on a loose ring before that, so it sounds like I may need something a little stronger than the stereotypical snaffle.  I say may - trainer is a Western rider who does a lot of barrel racing on her personal mounts; she does an amazing job with starting the horses and exposing them to stuff, but unsurprisingly, she's got more of a Western emphasis than I want or need.  Reading up on the Junior Cowhorse bits, they're geared towards that transition from snaffle to curb and from direct rein to neck-reining; I cannot neck-rein to save my life (Seriously, I can do left and right. Most of the time. If I think about it. Do not ask me to stop or back up; my brain locks and I'll just stare at you.), so I'm not worried about her progressing farther along the Western training scale. 

I'm relatively bit-agnostic; I'll ride in what works, but I'm biased towards things more often seen in English rings and I'd prefer to avoid gags in general and sliding-cheek gags in specific (blame that one on the crazy-ass owner that rode their calm, sweet horse in a sliding-cheek gag with a thin wire for a crownpiece - that shit mentally scarred me as a teenager, because I had ridden the same horse in a Tom Thumb and he was perfect, and I felt so bad for him). That said, my end goal is to have her in a dressage-legal bit, if possible.  I was never expecting a middle-aged broodmare to be a high performance show horse, but I would like to get her into something that I could actually take her to a dressage show in with minimal fuss; if I can't get her there, that's fine, but it's a goal.  :)

Word from the trainer is that she'd moved up to this bit because someone has 'don't wanna' moments, so I want to ride her in it a couple of times to see how she does before I start exploring other options.  My initial thought at this point is to swap straight to a pelham and work off the snaffle rein as much as possible (although me learning to manage two reins may be hilarious and may lead to purchasing a converter), then step down to something like a baucher, but we'll see if it works that way or if she really needs the leverage. 

The best part is, my BOs have lots of knowledge and lots of bits I'll be able to bum for a few rides.  :)

Photo series: Hello, boys

We cleaned up one of the young stallions at the barn this weekend and took some glamour shots.  :)

This guy is one of the stallions available for me to choose for future baby daddy.  He's four, but hasn't hit the four year old bloom yet.

Please excuse his blinking...

Doofy outtake photo. lol Flying grain and 1970s hair ftw.

And this guy is not one I was considering for a baby daddy, but I am looking at maybe making a half-sibling of him...

How did I get the Good Child?

Someone - a certain bitchy bay mare in training I could mention - has been doing...

Photo from the trainer...

And another...

Freaking outstanding.

Those are days 37 and 41 under saddle, y'all.  (And yes, she crossed the bridge - I have video!)  She's even gotten to go on a field trip to the local covered arena; this trainer not only puts them under saddle, but she takes the time to really expose them to stuff.

The gelding she went down there with is having confidence issues, so he's going much, much slower.  Which is fine - slower is safer in this situation! 

But it's cracking us all up that Cessa is the good child.  Who woulda thunk it?

Uh... so my hand slipped...

Look, I'm not saying that I'm a bit of a tack junkie or anything, but I do acknowledge that maybe I don't need three bridles, five - no, wait, six - different sets of reins, a saddle with matching girth, a surcingle with two matching girths, a breastplate, and a breastcollar for a single horse.  And let's not talk about how many saddle pads I own.

But... um... I went to a tack swap today?

And there was one of these?

And I think they're pretty cool, so I was looking at it - even though it doesn't match anything else I own - and the lady who was selling it was like, "That's $15, if you'd like it..."

Which is a pretty good price.  It was in good condition; it could use a cleaning and I'm not sure the rings for the reins are original, but otherwise it's fine.  And I had cash in my pocket.

Later, when I got it home, I realized that it's a Prestige...

Quiet, but not TOO quiet

Photo courtesy the trainer.

Look who's had a saddle and a human on her back?

Guess who's also managed to not break the indestructible halter, but did break the lead rope I sent her down there with during bath time?

*facepalm*

More seriously, reports from the trainer are that she's doing great.  Still pulling back now and then, but mostly she's given up on it.  She's been ridden at least once that we know about, and just generally is being pretty calm about the whole thing.

...

Not gonna lie, I got the ear pictures and did the nerdiest happy dance ever.

Boot camp!

Fat mare is off to boot camp!

Things have been pretty quiet around here otherwise - we got Coggins done a couple of weeks ago.

It was maybe a little windy that day.

And then on Saturday, we loaded up and hauled to the trainer.

We were supposed to be taking Cessa and the boss mare of the herd, but that... did not happen.  My BOs picked me up on the way, so I didn't get to see exactly what happened, but the short version was that Cessa freaked out at the sight of boss mare headed towards her butt, which freaked out boss mare, and... it just wasn't happening safely.  Boss mare stayed home and one of the geldings also on the 'to be trained' list came along instead.

They unloaded just fine and were introduced to the herd.  Of course Cessa had to kick someone right off the bat - and threaten to kick a baby shortly thereafter - and that's how I found myself shouting, "Don't be a bitch, Cessa!" across a paddock ten minutes after meeting the new trainer, so... there's that.  lol

This is not how you make friends at boot camp, silly mare.

The wonderful thing about this trainer is that even though she's a couple of hours from us, she constantly updates with photos and messages.  So I know that since we dropped them off Saturday afternoon:

• Cessa spent some quality time with the patience tree and the 'unbreakable' halter.  Cessa: 0, Halter: 1.  I am impressed with the halter.  lol
• The gelding has, at least once, run away from the mini horse.  We have video proof, and it is hilarious.

She'll be there for at least 60 days; I'm willing to do 90 days if she needs it, but I don't expect to know one way or the other for a few weeks.

So... excited... to... ride... my... horse... soon...

All quiet on this front. And wet. Did I mention wet?

Ah, Texas.  Gotta love the weather - or move far, far away.

After an unusually dry winter, suddenly we had this:

Three of those limbs should be way up in the sky.

Yes, that's a solid 1/8" ice on those tree limbs.  Something - sixth sense? - told me that morning when I came back from an errand, Don't park in the driveway.  Don't do it.  It's not a good idea.

See that pavement to the left of the tree?  Yeah, that's the driveway, where my car would have been.

So thank you, random sixth sense!

This was one of the weirder ice storms we've had; everything not on the ground froze over.  The ground, however, was too warm - it was 70 the day before, because Texas - so all the roads were was wet.

The next day, it was in the 60s.

It then rained for five days.  And not a little rain.  Depending on where you were, you got 5-8 inches of rain.

Two days of dry, and then it rained again.  Depending on your location, you got another 2 to 5 inches.

Another couple of days, and then more rain.

This past Friday, BO#2 and I had the following conversation, which I think sums up most of February nicely:

But there's good news!

Someone is penciled in for pony boot camp, starting the end of this month!

She looks thrilled.

Now all I have to do is...

Thank you, autocorrect.

You know, make my horse look respectable by removing the giant-ass bramble from her tail while trying not to laugh like Muttley.