Officially horseless

So, little crazy Callie mare left Tuesday evening. Was I sad to see her go? No, not really. We didn't click, and she wasn't really that much fun to ride for me. But, she was a fantastic learning opportunity, reminded me how much I've been able to slack off on push-button horses. Oops.

I am sad to no longer have "My" horse at the barn. I still have two horses I can ride. Baby, the 21 year old thoroughbred mare that knows it all, just needs to be brought back into shape. And Magic, an older QH lesson mare who needs a bit of a tuneup after being ridden by kiddos all the time. And with the current changes in my life and how dang BUSY I am all of a sudden, it's for the best really.

Things too have fallen through with the baby I was going to get. I was going to get a very nicely bred Warmblood baby, but the stallion owner hasn't really been cooperating, with the stallion actively competing it's super hard to have him at home when the mare is in season. And things in my friend's life (who owns the mare) have kinda gotten turned upside down in the past month as well. Then, considering what all is going on in my life right now, realistically, I cannot afford a new horse right now, and probably won't be able to do so for at least another year or two, maybe three. We'll see.

So, for now I'll settle with catch rides here and there, and be satisfied that I'm still lucky enough to be able to go and be around horses every day regardless!

And in the mean time... I got a new puppy!! So all my time and what spare change I do have, will be going towards spoiling her <3 I will be sure to do up a post about her in a little. She's my baby. :)

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Half-halts and the Lunge Line

I had a bit of a light bulb moment the other day while lunging Callie. It finally truly dawned on me how important half-halts and leg are while lunging a horse.

You may be thinking, "whaaaa? but I'm not riding, leg? are you crazy?" I might be lol, but just because you aren't riding your horse doesn't mean you can have your leg on.

Most people think of  lunging as a quick and easy way to exercise their horse, slap some side reins on, throw them at the end of a line, and voila, I can build fitness, exercise them, and help improve their balance. Right? Wrong.

Only if done correctly. The horse may have side reins on, may have a bit in their mouth and saddle on their back, but if they are just carrening around on their forehand, unbalanced, hindend disengaged, they are doing more harm than good.

In order to have impulsion in the gaits and to have a good, solid working walk, trot, and canter, the leg needs to be in. In lunging, the leg is the whip and voice. With Callie she is incredibly sensitive to these cues, I often only have to give a little cluck or lift the tip of the whip about a foot to get the desired response. This keeps her engaged and her hindend working up under her.

But then I need to be able to control this forward energy and not let her just run it into the ground by being on her forehand. So that means that the half-halt must be effective. There is where I see sooooo many people getting it wrong, their horse either doesn't understand the contact, or refuses to take it. When lunging there MUST be contact with the horse's mouth! If they keep cutting the circle and coming in towards you and giving slack in the line then they are not on the contact. Callie is awesome with this, she really likes a steady, solid contact with the bit and actually puts quite a bit of weight in the reins/lunge line. This is not bad and not to be punished, this is just what she finds comfortable.

So, whenever I give a "leg" cue with the whip or voice I make sure to give a little half-halt, just a soft squeezing of my fingers on the line, a subtle yet quick give-and-take of pressue, often many of them in a row as we go around. This reminds her to pick up her forehand and balance, and not plow around on her nose.

The result? A balanced, energetic picture of a horse working correctly, with implusion, responsive to the aids, and able to change gaits quickly and easily because... they are balanced!

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The Canter Under Saddle

It exists!!! *happy dances*

After about a week and half of focusing on fitness and only cantering on the lunge with side reins (which is definitely improving, her freak-out-run-away moments are becoming fewer and less frequent), I cantered Callie under saddle yesterday. Initially she tried to fight me, and tell me "NO I can't do this!" but I insisted, we had a bit of a discussion about listening to inside rein and inside leg aids, and when I asked for the canter again, she gave it to me. HUZAH!

It is still very unbalanced, and a little rushed, and still definitely not 100% relaxed, but it was without fighting, without her head in the air, without her trying to stop, and she was yeilding to the bit and just, cantering! She did it both ways, it's obviously hard for her to hold, but that will come in time.

It kinda stinks though, I'm probably only going to keep her through the end of May, then I need to start saving $$ for my new horse (which still hasn't been bred, ugh!). I can still go ride her, but it's in a very uneven pasture with not-so-great footing. But, the thing is, by the time June 1 rolls around, when she'll be headed home, is when she'll really be read to start doing more fun things like jumping! Pooey.

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4/27/11 Conditioning Ride

Yeah, couldn't think of a title, just some quick notes on how the ride on Callie went today.

Decided to do trot sets, and I didn't lunge her prior. I had considered going outside, but it was blowing like no tomorrow, and since she is so spooky in the outdoor as-is, I decided I better save that endeavor for another day.

Walked for 10 minutes to warm up, doing lots of suppleing, getting her forward first and then to give to the bit both directions. Also did some leg yeilding out on the circle. 

Then we did 3x 6:00minute trots. A light contact on the bit, almost bordering on long and low, and just really encouraging her to move. She felt great, she felt loose, forward, and free in her gait. Didn't feel sucked back at all, and (for her) felt really focused the entire time. Only a few moments of ears-back-mare-witcheyness. For the first half of the last trot set I picked up the reins a little more and asked for a little more connection, just to remind her that she still has to do what I want when we ride, she fussed about that for about 5 strides then put her ears forward and marched into the bridle. Good girl.

Cooled off with 15 minutes or so of walking. 

And she hardly broke a sweat, despite the indoor arena always being a good 10-15* warmer than outside. The thing is going to be awful in mid summer... yikes!

Tomorrow she gets off, Friday might be a lunge only day with emphasis on canter transitions, and Saturday I think I'll do trot sets again, this time outside. That should be interesting!

Anyway, i'm off to bed, here's to hoping ya'll have better weather than the first day of Rolex got today!!!

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Crazy mare!

It's been raining here, off and on moisture, not a torrential downpour, but off and on showers with patches of sunshine inbetween. It's been nice, things had been getting waaaay too dry here, so the moisture is much desired. Last night we had our first real thunderstorm, hurray!!! Today dawned clear as a bell with the sun shining brightly, they are calling for more thunderstorms this afternoon. Everything is getting green now with the rain, and it's lovely.



A beautiful evening on the farm from a few days ago

 Yesterday evening I decided to put in a quick ride on Callie mare, my plan was to do trot sets... that didn't exactly go as planned!! For starters I forgot my watch, oh well, I figured I'd just do X number of trot laps around the arena instead of timing my trot sets. Well, yeah... the ride ended up turning into a "You listen to me or else, and you go FORWARD or else!" lesson. Oy vey!


You see those horse eating goblins? Do you SEE them?!
RIGHT THERE! Horse eating!!!

Right from the git-go she was spooking at that... that stupid metal trough-turned-flower-planter. Spun on me walking down the drive, and then we walked past it one way inside the arena and she was fine, went to go walk past it the other way, and all hell broke loose! She spooked and spun, nearly unseating me. Then she just flat out refused to go anywhere near it undersaddle. I'd kick, she'd pin her ears, toss her head, swish her tail and try and spin again. Bad girl!! I was sooooo wishing I had a riding crop to reinforce my point. It went something like this:

Me: Kick, kick, kick. "Get over there"
Callie: "Nooooooo!!"
Me: Kick, KICK "GEEEITT!"
Callie: "But it's SCAAARRY"

I finally got off and dragged her over to the fence and made her STAND by the thing. Then I got on and walked teeny tiny circles, hurray for bending. Lots and lots of leg, a couple butt smacks, and she was finally in front of my leg. I think a lot of these spooking issues with her is that she is just not forward, cuz I know she's not scared, she'll walk by something just fine with me leading her, under saddle it's another story. I eventually progressed to larger walk and trot circles, my goal was to trot a nice quiet circle on a longer rein and lower frame, aka relaxed!

That was not to be, once she figured out I didn't have much rein contact she took advantage of it, spooking out of nowhere and spinning, she nearly got me off!!! I thought for sure I was going to eat dirt, not only did she spin but she started doing this hoppy thing with her front end, bouncing back and forth throwing a major hissy fit over the whole ordeal. Once I regained my balance it was back to trotting, this time with a much shorter rein, a very forward trot, and an incredible amount of flexion to the inside clearly telling her "you pay attention to me!"

Managed to end on a good note, and I hopped off her right away and hand-walked her to cool her out. Looking back, I guess I deserved it. She'd had the day off prior, and I decided to try riding her without lunging first... on a hot little mare, not such a good idea lol. Oh well, it was a good lesson, and the forward one that must be learned. I swear though, I sound like a pirate when I ride this mare LOL, I growl at her a lot when she feels like she's starting to do something, combined with a strong leg, it normally works.



Silly mare, we'll figure each out soon... hopefully

 So, I'll leave you with that for now. Have a good day, on Good Friday :)

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A Must Read

If you read nothing else today, you should read this: Eventing Etiquette For Dummies

Anybody and everybody who has anything to do with horse showing, even if you don't event, should read that blog. Thankfully in Eventing, stuck-up and rude people are few and far between, but I unfortunately know that in other disciplines that is not the case.

If more people got off their high horse and put a smile on their face and made an effort to help someone ELSE out instead of themselves... the entire horse show world would be a much happier place.

In other news...

Little miss Callie mare threw a shoe, her left hind. And get this. She took it off while leaving every single nail behind. ???? Don't ask me how she did it, it looks like there should be a shoe there, the nails are there, but, the shoe just isn't! I found it in her paddock, flat as can be, she didn't bend it or anything. I have NO idea how she managed that. I took a picture of her foot, I'll see if I can't get it posted, it shows the nails still left in her foot. Thank goodness she had a farrier appointment for this Tuesday. On the downside, so much for getting to ride her, we went for a stroll down the road instead and she got to munch on some grass for awhile. It was relaxing :)

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Now back to the reguarly scheduled programming

Ok, I'll drag my mind back outta LOTR geekieness and update on horsey things.

Good day yesterday, I love my Saturday afternoons, get to ride multiple horses, clean pens, do what I want. My barn owner has asked me to do some training with one of her horses, an older QH mare named Magic. They use her for pony lessons to beginner riders and she's started to get a little sour with the kids, not wanting to stand still, not wanting to trot, etc. So I'm going to work with her 1-2 times a week to sort out the kinks. Fun stuff.

So I rode her yesterday, first thing, almost right off the bat, I noticed that her saddle didn't fit right, it was a little too wide. When I mounted up she was not happy. I jumped off and added an extra pad to fill in the space behind her withers, muuuuccch happier horse! Worked on standing still while mounting, transitions (she was surprisingly responsive to very subtle cues!) and on keeping a steady rhythm at the trot. It was fun, it'll be a great way to earn a little extra cash :)

Callie is looking AWESOME, she has really put on a lot of weight and I'm finally getting pleased with how she's looking. Now we just need to build strength. She's still fussy under saddle at the canter and just throws a fit about it, keeps trying to stop, etc. Lunge line canter however looks beautiful. Weird mare. Got the owner of the barn across the street to watch her go, he's a rather skilled dressage rider, and he thinks it's just a strength issue. So I'm gonna just do lots of long and low trot work for awhile, do some cavaletti, and lunge her as much as I can when I don't have time to ride with side reins to help build back strength. So, that's my plan for the next two weeks, and re-evaluate the canter under saddle on May 1st.

My birthday is tomorrow, I have nothing planned, lol, just work and a Chemistry lab. And to attempt to ride/lunge my horse.

Umm... oh, I did want to comment on the recomentation of David O'Connor by the Elligible Atheletes commitee to the USEF as the next Eventing Coach.

While I have nothing against David, I think he's a fabulous rider, a fabulous coach (look at what he did for the Canadians? I mean really, their Eventing team has improved in leaps and bounds!!!) , and all in all, a great representative of our sport. My gripe in this whole thing has been the process, I was sooooo excited when I first saw the list of applicants, Leslie Law, Jimmy Wofford, Phillip and Bobby, etc. And then only Leslie and David got picked to move along, which at that point it was obvious to all that David would get the job, and that the High Performance commitee only added Leslie so as not to make it toooo biased. I mean, really, David is literally on celebrity status here in United States Eventing.

What it comes down to for me is this: Do I think David is a good choice? Yes. Do I think the process for selecting the next coach was fair? No. I felt it was very biased, and while they did give out reasons for their lack of recommending certain applicants (such as Jimmy Wofford, I'm a huge wofford fan, love his writings), I just think from the git-go everybody wanted David and that was that.

That said, I truly hope that he is able to do for our team what he has done for the Canadians, we sure need it, our results as a team from the Beijing Olympics and the WEG were truly dissapointing.

Ok, I think that's it, I'm bored at work and could ramble on for awhile, but I think I'll close things up for the afternoon and go do something else... like read up on Hobbit movie goodness!!

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Pony pictures

Finally dragged some photos off my phone to share!

First we have Mr. Pie, who is doing just fine in his new home, I'm so happy, I couldn't have asked for a more loving home for him to live out his days in. I will miss his personality though, he is most certainly one of a kind! If I could have kept him I would've, but my budget said otherwise, that's ok, what I wanted to do and what he could do physically just weren't the same. It's a perfect situation really. I'm happy.

Taking one last spin on my boy the day before he left. <3 him!

Looking pretty in pink, lol.

Handsome boy :)

 Only one of Callie, she could still use another 100lbs before I'm satisfied, that and she is not the most photogenic creature in the world, ha! Happy to say no more running away at the canter under saddle, now we just need to get those darn walk-trot transitions down without her being witchy about it. Mares.

She may look innocent enough!

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Ah-ha!!

Ya know what I'm talking about, you've been fighting with an issue for days, weeks, months, trying to find a solution to it, and all of a sudden you stumble upon the answer. Most often on accident. Depending on the degree of the discovery, I classify it as either "lightbulb" or "ah-ha" moments. Lightbulb being the best! Lol.

Today though, was an "ah-ha" moment :)

Been having an issue with Callie and her canter, she has been throwing a fit on the right canter lead, major resistance, head in the air, running away on the lunge line, wanting to stop and not move, etc. In general not wanting to maintain a quiet, relaxed canter. Either on the lunge or under saddle. Left head has been fine. Both her owner and I decided that perhaps it was that her feet needed to be done, ok great, we'll get that done and go from there. The farrier is currently scheduled for sometime this coming week.

Well today, I decided to get her out and see what happened. I saddled her up and put her on the lunge, no side reins. Same thing, fine to the left, but horrible to the right. But, today she threw in bucking as well, obviously not happy. My gut told me that it was the saddle, so I took it off and asked her to canter again, perfectly fine, no running away, no bucking, a little tense still, but a reasonable canter. Then I tried the saddle on without the thick fleecy half-pad I have normally been using with her. And voila, she cantered just fine! See, she was a lot thinner last month, so the half-pad was fine, but now that's shes putting on weight and filling out its no longer needed. So I'm going to give it a try for a little bit with no extra padding, see how she does. I'll start cantering her under saddle again once her feet get done.

That said, here is a pic of how she is looking now! I'm finally happy with her now to show ya'll, and yes... I know, her head is behind the pole, silly mare being shy!

Callie mare

I then also rode another mare today, she is a 21 year old TB mare named Baby, owned by another boarder. I'm giving her owner lessons in exchange for me getting to ride Baby as much as I want. Cool, will work perfectly when I quit leasing Callie and won't have a horse for awhile. Baby is funny, she's got some good training on her, through 3rd level, she knows how to do all the lateral work, and she responds to those aids easily. She's a perfect lower level schoolmaster. She's just horribly out of shape and very stiff. So i'm working to get her fit and limbered up, I know she has a trot in there besides her little western pleasure jog!! I'm also getting to JUMP her! Wooohoo! Callie isn't yet to the point where I can jump, but Baby can definitely go over a few little things, which at this point is about 18" LOL. But hey, it's a jump, right??? And I haven't jumped in like 10 months..... so needless to say, it felt wonderful to be jumping her over that little fence today. I am definitely out of practice though, oh my.

Well, that's all for now folks! G'night from colorado.

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Nothing much of consequence

So, I'm at work, bored, actually getting a lot of calls, but they are short and quick, with time inbetween to do whatever... and I'm bored!

I'm riding little mare Callie a couple times a week. We had a good "discussion" on the lunge yesterday, she's AWESOME about up transitions, walk-trot, trot-canter, awesome. Down transitions? Huh? What are those?? When I become a little more insistent upon her listening and obeying, she slams on the brakes and turns and stares me down and then tries to bolt the other direction.

Uhhh... I don't think so!

So we schooled transitions on the lunge and were able to end on a really good note =), walk-halt still need a tad bit more work, but they did really improve.

Undersaddle she is such a busy body! I see now why she didn't do well out on Cross Country! If you let her go more than 4-5 strides without some sort of half-halt, transition, or change in direction, her attention is gone. She's off thinking about the trees, or that bird over there, in general NOT paying attention to you... she definitely keeps you on your toes! I like it. When you ride her how she asks, she really goes quite nicely.

Now I just need to see about getting a jump or two set up!!

...

meh, well this only killed about 15 minutes, little over an hour to go at work... pooey, oh well, I still got a blog in!

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Oh mare...

I had forgotten how "fun" mares can be!! Ah but I love them.

A couple days ago I didn't have much time, so I decided to just stop by to groom Callie, as she is shedding in great gobs of hair! Holy moly!! Well, I just wandered out to the paddock with the shedding blade. All was going well until the other horses decided to mob me, and Callie started to get agitated as I was trying to get her to stand still but she wanted nothing to do with the other horses (she's bottom rung on the authority ladder). As I was trying to get hair off her bum she finally had enough and leapt away, letting out a not-so-well-aimed kick right at me!!! Oh. no. you. don't.

That landed her a prompt round pen session about who is alpha "mare" and I very clearly told her that kicking at me is NOT ok. She did pretty good by the end, but while she did show submission, it wasn't truly what I wanted, as she was still a little like "i don't have to" when I tried to get her to yield her hind-end. She did it, but not truly in willing submission. So, got a little authority thing to sort out and then I think we'll be golden. Just one of those little things that needs to be established with any horse.

Two days later I took her out for a ride, I lunged her first as this was the first time I had decided to ride her in the large outdoor arena, which is right next to a busy road and can be a LOT distracting for some horses. I put her on the lunge and she instantly flipped into an AHHHHH I'M IN TROUBLE FOR KICKING mode from the round pen  the other day, even though she had really settled by the end that day... silly mare. So I just let her do what she wanted, let her do her thing while I stood there patiently, she ran a bit, then settled down for me to ride her.

We worked a lot of transitions, I probably only rode her for 15 minutes, but I figured out pretty quick that her mind was in typical TB mode, busy busy busybusyBUSY. She was paying attention to anything and everything but me, and just felt very squirrely and not truly giving her back. So we did transitions, transitions, and more transitions. I don't think I went more than 20 meters in any one gait. walk-trot-walk-trot-walk-halt-walk-trot-canter-trot-walk-trot-walk-trot-canter-trot and so on. Her head was all over the place, so I focused on doing each transition from the leg and seat only and keeping her soft on the bit, instead of flinging her head. I finished up the ride with two great 20m canter circles, one is each direction, the last one she really relaxed, gave her back, and truly went on the bit. GOOD GIRL! I ended on that note :D

Haven't gotten out to ride her again since, I'm really hoping to do so today, we'll see *crosses fingers*. We finally got her cribbing collar adjusted so that she's not cribbing anymore, which makes me happy. And she's been moved to her own paddock so that she can have as much hay and goodies as she wants so she should really start to put on the lbs here soon.

I think that's all for now, as long as the wind isn't blowing a million miles and hour the weather is really gorgeous so far this year, thought I wouldn't mind a couple rain showers, it's going to be a very dry summer if we don't get some moisture soon.

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Yes, you must trot

I rode Callie at my barn for the first time yesterday. It wasn't a terribly long ride, but it was a start!

I lunged her first, and she looked a tad looser than the day before, I rather like her trot, it has a lot of natural elasticity to it. Once she gets fit and really loosens up I can see it being pretty nice. I then got on her and did some bending back and forth, she's actually rather supple laterally, I was a little surprised, it's the longitudinal suppleness and fitness that she's lacking at the moment.

Then I asked for the trot. This is how it went:

Me: Callie, please trot
Callie: no....
Me: Callie, trot.
Callie: No.
Me: Trot, now!
Callie: *puts ears back and slows down* NO!
Me: *change in tactic* Ok, do a walking turn on the forehand, get that hind end moving up under you, now GO trot!
Callie: noo---wait, oh. ok...

She is not a mare who will take any sort of heel cue, no matter how small. She wants squeezes and seat/upper leg cues. So went spent the next 5-10 mins doing walk-trot-walk-trot and so on until she quietly picked up the trot without any objection. I then called it good. :)

Other than that, she was great, she doesn't have a spook in her, the soccer ball in the middle of the arena that I completely forgot about until she politely stepped over it on the lunge-- it didn't phase her. Compared to Pie, she's downright lazy! I don't think I'd really realized how hot Pie actually is, I was riding Buddy boy for a long time and he was more sensitive than Pie so I had labeled Pie "lazy", lol, oh how wrong I was! It's been sooo long since I'd ridden those little lazy ponies that I'd forgotten what it's like, now I get on Callie and it's a completelly different feel. I'm sure though that she'll perk up considerably once she builds some muscle.

Today is looking to be warm (relatively), sunny, and windy... good day for a ride?

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Oh my, that's a mane!

Callie is starting to settle in, she got turned out with the gang on Sunday and all went relatively well. The little hackney pony was being his normally tiny studly self, which is hilarious, he thinks he's the top dog and yet he's the smallest horse!! Callie for now is at the bottom of the chain, but I think she'll work her way up. She seems a little stressed about the move, not being around her buddies and in a new and strange place. I'm trying to show her that I'm the cookie lady and happy to give her loves and grooming. However, she's definitely not as food oriented as Pie is so we'll see how it goes.

As for Pie, he has settled in very nicely at the pasture, and has VERY quickly established himself as head-hancho over the two little Arab mares. No more squealing or shenanigans from the mares, they are happy to touch noses with Pie now without raising a fuss, but don't they dare try and take a bite of his food! Other than that, Pie looks happy and content. I'm not terribly worried about him :)

But... Callie's mane, now that's another story!

In need of some serious TLC

I'm going to try to pull just a little bit here and there, I did a tiny bit last night, while the hair came out fairly easily she told me pretty quick she wasn't a fan of having that done. So it's going to be a slow work in progress, I don't want her to think I'm the mean-hair-yanking-goblin! And yes, she doesn't have much of a topline, hopefully that will change soon.

Telling me what she thinks of mane pulling

She is a sweetie though, really, she's got a kind look to her eye that I really like. She just doesn't know who I am yet! Even though I only have her for a few months, we'll see where we can get.

I did put her on the lunge last night to see how she'd go. She is pretty stiff from lack of work and lack of muscle tone as she's a tad underweight at the moment. But I was able to get her to track up at both the walk and trot, and she looks like she can have some nice gaits when in shape. Her canter looks smooth, as is her trot. If it'll warm up any today I'm going to try and ride her for about 10 minutes in addition to the lunging. It's currently only 20* out... BRRR!!

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"New" mare is here

Successfully swapped horses yesterday!

And for the next few months at least I'll have a little thoroughbred mare named Callie to play with. She's cute, little, in horrible need of a haircut, and can jump!! YAY

Her owner brought her over and she got off the trailer just fine, we put her into the arena which shares the fenceline with the main turnout where the herd lives. She immediatly wandered down there to say hi, and all the horses came over. She stood there, just stood there, not making a fuss, while all the other horses squealed and make a fuss... namely the little hackney pony, he's the smalled horse out there but thinks he is the biggest LOL!

Then we got Pie and went to load him up to go to the pasture, and I was fully prepared with "motivation" and all expecting him to through a fuss about getting into the trailer.... Instead he practically dragged me into the trailer before we could even fully open the divider door!! Way to make a liar of me.

But then he gave me a near heart attack, of course per usual he was pawing in the trailer, being a turd. All of a sudden I hear a big BANG and the trailer shakes and then all is still.... I jump up and peek in, I seem him standing straddle legged behind and oh my he has his front foot in the hay net!!!! Somehow he had gotten it waaaay up high and through the net, which was now wrapped around his knee holding it up. Visions of severed tendons danced through my head as we both leapt into the trailer. I managed to push his leg up high enough to give some slack to the net and Callie's owner grabbed my pocket knife out of my back pocket and cut him free. He was very happy to have his foot back and I was very happy to see that short of a few loose hairs he was none the worse for wear. We cut the net down (as he had pulled the knot so tight it was untieable) and decided to go sans hay for him. There is a reason I prefer hay bags over nets, yikes!!

Aside from that, the rest of the day went fairly drama free. We introduced Pie to his new stable mates, Pie couldn't have cared less... he was much more interested in the hay on the ground. Whereas his two new buddies, these cute little arab mares who are veeerry much arabians, were incredibly curious in him but refused to approach him. They wanted him to come after them but he refused to do so and it was driving them crazy. And if he DID so much as look at them they'd squeal, leap in the air, and run off head and tail in the air. The look on Pie's face was priceless LOL, he thought they were NUTS!!

I got back to check on Callie and to bring her in for the night, she was a little nervous about being in the barn and in the stall by herself, the walls are fairly high so she can't really see the other horses, but I think in a night or two she'll settle down just fine. I'll be going out this evening to see and play with her. Maybe if I have time I'll ride her, we'll see!

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Big changes ahead!!

And I'm ridiculously excited!!!

I am still getting that little mare, Callie, to lease, she will be coming this Saturday. I'll have her for a few months at my barn before she goes home, should be fun to have a horse to ride regularly for at least a little!

But, the big changes, well, I think I'll keep my mouth shut for a little longer until it's finalized here in a month or two... but in short, I'm going to getting about as close to my dream horse as possible. Pie will be going to a loving retirement home where he'll be ridden lightly and just pampered, it'll be perfect for him. I want to be able to run and jump and he just doesn't fit that bill anymore unfortunately. I love him to little bitty Pie pieces, and I wish I could hang onto him because he is so wonderful, but I cannot afford both him and a new horse, at least not at this point in my life.

I'll stop there, when everything is down in writing I'll spill the beans wide open, but, all I can say is... I'm having a VERY hard time not saying anything more!!! SO excited!

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Horse Swap!!

So, it looks like I'll be "swapping" horses for a couple months! Should be fun I think. See, Pie right now, he reeeaaally needs his shoes pulled and to just go barefoot for awhile to let his foot grow out, he's just not staying sound right now. So, I was poking around on craigslist a few weeks ago, and came across a link for a horse for lease, a 9 year old TB mare who has a knack for jumping. The owner is pregnant so can't ride at the moment and wants to find someone to lease her mare until July or so. She said either the mare can be kept at her pasture, or can be boarded somewhere. So I emailed with the proposition that I take the mare to my barn, and my horse, Pie, goes and lives at her pasture, barefoot. My idea was met with great enthusiasim and it looks like it will work out perfectly.

I went and took a look at the mare yesterday, her name is Callie, and she's little! Probably about 15.2hh and very petite in her build. Pie is built like a tank, she is the exact opposite! She's a little sorry looking right now, poor girl, she's lost weight being out of work and has no muscle definition at all. Part of it is that she's living with two arabs, and she needs much more food than they do, but there is no way to separate them at the moment, so while the arabs are fat and happy, she's been dropping pounds. It'll be good once she gets to my barn and she can eat all she wants in her own stall.

While she's nothing super duper fancy, she's really cute and has a super sweet and quiet look to her eyes. She can be a little marish when saddling and if you nag her with your leg--but otherwise she is DEAD quiet and compared to Pie, lazy. At least right now, once she gets fitter and puts on weight I expect her to perk up a lot. She is in desperate need of a clip and mane trim, which she will get both asap once she arrives!

I'm excited to have a sound horse I can ride on a regular basis, and one I can jump! I was telling the owner of the barn I do chores at about it, that I was looking forward to jumping again, and he said that they will be getting some jumps soon, that makes me really excited, I won't have to pay $$ to go down to the local boarding stable to use the jumps there.

Not sure yet when the swap will take place, probably in a week or two, once we do paperwork/contract stuff and let my barn know, things should all be good to go. Yay!

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