I have not fallen off the face of the earth

 

But I kinda feel like I have! Or at least the normal me.

 

Things have been hectic and rough. Really rough. Not for me, but for my dad which might as well be me for how much it affects me. In fact it stresses me out more. I don’t let issues in my life affect me too much, but when its someone else’s problems that I need to handle, its much more stressful.

 

I’m also stressed wanting to do things in my life that I used to do and am finding that I just don’t have the time or energy for those anymore. I am having a very hard time handling this as well.

 

I’m very, very frustrated with my horses, or I was anyway. Now I just don’t have the energy to do anything with them.

Lucy first:

I really wanted to start doing some flatwork with her and work towards some eventing. I was determined that I would be able to do training with Lucy out on the trail, with enough determination I could do it, I was sure. Except I have very little drive to actually do it.

Then I realized that I hate shows and that all I would be working towards with eventing. My problem is that I want to wow everyone with my amazing little horse. I want to take the horse world by storm with my amazing skills with my little grade horse. I think to big and always fall short of my hopes. My life would be a hell of a lot easier if I just aspired to lower aims. I don’t seem capable of looking low and therein is the problem of my doing anything for any length of time.

Well anyway, back to my mare. I have been riding out of the trail with her every once in a while and have been enjoying that. I am pretty sure I want to get her ready for the Fireworks endurance ride so I can get that first endurance ride out of the way and see how Lucy handles it.

My other plan is to get her driving, eventually.

 

Georgie is a whole nother kettle of tea! First off, she is by far smarter then Kezi, and that scares the daylights out of me! I am so worried of messing up with her that I am too scared to do anything with her. Well that and I don’t have the time to work with her (bad, bad me!!). Some moments she is an excitable Arab that doesn’t think, just moves. And other moments she is a thinking, calculating Morgan, that knows exactly what I want, and then decides if she wants to do it.

She has surprised me in two different instances lately. First, one day when I had her tied up and was working with her hooves, she got her lead rope caught over the top of her head. I have seen well grown, fully trained horse flip out over such instances. Georgie just tensed and waited while I fixed her.

Also, my future endurance horse is…. a jumper! In my paddock I have a small stall area that is raised up. On two sides the walls are about 4 feet high with a 2X6 about 4 inches off the ground (there were planks all the way up to make it enclosed but Lucy popped them all out with her big fat butt!). Georgie thinks that jumping down this is a funer way to get to the other side of the paddock, despite the fact that its also on a hill once she lands. Lucy could never navigate that without hurting herself, and she certainly wouldn’t do it unless she felt that was the only way to get away from something scary.

Georgie is smart, calculating and very sure of herself. Like I said, I am scared shitless that I am going to mess up with her. I think she has limitless potential for whatever she puts her mind too. I’m trying to keep things simple with her right now, teaching her to pick up her feet and go for walks with me and bond with me. But even those easy things will encounter other issues and I am scared of approaching it the wrong way.

Other then that I adore my filly!

 

 

 

On a non-horsey side note, I got truly drunk for the first time ever a couple of weeks ago ( I have been pleasantly tipsy before) and lets just say I will NEVER do that again AND I will NEVER DRINK VODKA AND POMAGRANITE MIXED TOGETHER AGAIN.

Ever.

 

Ever.

 

Ever.

 

Again.

 

Got it?

 

Good!

Lucy growing up

 

I got stuck waiting for a washer and dyer the other day, I got bored and so decided to make a photo slideshow of Lucy in the past ten years.

Yes, everything in my life revolves around my horses!

 

 

Anyway, she is going to be ten this fall! WOW! I’ve had her since she was 5 months old! I don’t have any from that age since I didn’t have a digital camera at the time, but I have some from every year starting at one.

 

I need to remember to take lots of pictures of Georgie as she too will grow up quick!

 

crochet fly masks

 

 

So this is something I have been working on since late last summer. On several rides Lucy was just having major problems with flys, so I decided I better make some fly masks for her. And since I crochet I didn’t see any reason to buy them. But as I thought about regular fly masks, I realized I didn’t like them. One of Lucy’s biggest problems in flys on her nose, which traditional crochet fly masks don’t do anything for, and other are ugly mesh.

So I decided to make something that would take care of her whole face. And look kinda cool at the same time.

 

Now, yesterday was supposed to be the first test run, however I had forgotten to add something at the bottom to secure it with, so weather they work or not is still up in the air, and I will kinda need a ride with flys’ (its been too cold lately for them).

Weather or not I managed to make them cool looking or not, is really a matter of opinion. I am unsure as of yet, part of me thinks they look pretty cool, and part of me thinks they are uber dorky and feels I should not submit my horse to that kink of embarssement! I tried to style them after old horse armor, but some how the look isn’t quite the same in baby blue crochet!

 

So without further ado, my crochet fly masks (a work in progress!):

 

 

 

This one did not come out nearly as well, its too narrow. I think I will add a border.

 

 

Now I plan to add tassles, at least on the nose, if not above the eyes too.

 

* Oh and the very pissy look on Lucy’s face is not because she doesn’t like the fly masks, but rather because she was trying to eat while I was taking the pictures.

Very interesting ride over the weekend

 

I am having a really hard time figuring Lucy out. We went for a longish (probably a bit over 5 miles) ride considering she hasn’t been out much this last month.

 

I think Lucy has given up fighting me and just goes along with what I want. Its very strange and I really can’t figure it out.

 

She was her normal slow self going down our hill, I hate walking her down it as I know she dislikes it and I don’t think it is good for her to be walking downhill that much without a good warm up. But my trailer is still wired for the other truck so I rode from home.

Going up the other side of the valley was pretty normal, except that I really wanted Lucy to walk in the middle of the road now that she has boots. But she is just so used to walking on the side that she kept fighting me. Or her back feet were still hurting on the rocks.

 

So now on to the strange part. I rode down White House Canyon, which is a flat, chalky road. When I asked her to trot, she stayed trotting. She only tried to break to the walk, once or twice, and didn’t even try that hard.

So have I just pushed her so many times that she is done fighting me about? Now I kinda feel bad, even though this is what I wanted.

The only problem I had was that her trot was agonizingly slow, espeshally for her. I had a hard time posting to it and staying balanced.

I also trotted her up a good section of my road (which can be rather steep at times) and she did really good and just powered up it. No breathing problems or anything.

Strange.

So for now the plan is to ride every weekend (possible both days sometimes depending on what my rides are like) and ride as often as possible at home during the week working on flatwork kind of stuff.

Right now I am mostly working on half halts  and transitions. And a little bit of lateral work. I like to do turns on the hunches and forehand. Not so much as a dressage movement as much as teaching her to move her body in different ways. She understands what I want, but her head goes up like a giraffe whenever ask her to do either one. So I am working on her softening and listening to me more.

 

I still haven’t gotten to play with Georgie much yet. My sister and I took her and Ollie out to eat grass on Sunday and that was fun. I always pet and scratch her when I feed, which she seem to enjoy. If I take her out without Ollie though, she is just herd bound. Which of course means I need to do it as much as possible so she learns to see me as another of the herd.

 

Hopefully more updates on her soon!

What I learned on our Hesperia Adventure (or Georgie is home!!)

 

First of all, YES! Georgie is in fact home and healthy and happy!!

 

But what I learned in the process:

 

Haulers are rather expensive:

Initially I had planned on having her hauled home. I didn’t really want to make that trip in my truck, or make that trip again period  (5 is pretty damn boring). But it turns out that hauling a filly in a box stall costs between $450 and $550. Um, for five hundred miles, and an eight hundred dollar horse, thats just too much.

So plan B. My dad (suprising) offered to drive me down to get her in his truck. WOW. Wasn’t expecting that! He didn’t want me driving my truck all that way with the steering not being right (the steering has never been right since I started driving that truck but apperent its only now a problem).

Friends can’t always come through in times of need:

Not friends won’t, just that they can’t always. My first choice of trailers to borrow (I’ll explain why not my trailer in a minute) was a co-worker of Lorens, but turns out the door on his trailer doesn’t always stay on, not so good for a long trip. My second choice (who has lent me her trailer before) was uncomforitable lending out her trailer when it wasn’t insured. I can understand, losing ones trailer would be a big deal. My third (who I just happened to run into in town and remembered that I had hauled for her before) co-owns her trailer with someone I don’t know and didn’t really want to ask if it would be ok. Really? Who co-owns a horse trailer?

I really need to rewire my trailer, and apperently my truck too:

So the reason that I couldn’t just take my dads truck and my trailer is because the trailer isn’t wired for his truck. Let me side track for a minute and explain this: When I first got my trailer it was like any other, it had its little end thingy and I had an adaptor for my truck and one for my dads truck. Then one day, I um, well, ahem kinda hooked up my trailer but, cough cough, didn’t hook up the electical. Um yeah. It drug on the ground for about 5 miles and totally stripped the end bare. Just wires left. Sigh. Yeah, my bad. So when my dad rewired it, for whatever reason that is beyond me ( but made perfect sense at the time) we rewired the connector straight into the adaptor, so only my truck (and other trucks with the same kind of hookup) would be able to haul my trailer. Yeah, bad idea!

So we finally just decided to see what we could do about hooking my trailer to his truck. Everything worked except the tail/running lights. So in theory we could drive down in one day and back the next thereby not needing the tail lights. Really glad we bypassed that option.

So on Wednesday (the day before we were supposed to go get her) my dad and I started work on the trailer. We succeeded in going from turn signals and brake lights working, to nothing working. Great. So in the end we left it till the next day, rewired the connector to my dads truck and left in the afternoon.

 

Bring along cash for an emergency, and you will be faced with one:

So arriving at our hotel (we got there too late to load and Loren wanted a good nights sleep anyway, and as it turned out, yet another thing that is a really good thing we didn’t do!) we found that the engine was leaking water all over the place. Not one for dramatics, I said lets go to bed and deal with it in the morning, not really anything to be done now. Plus I was very tired and had already slept a bit in the car. Last time I dealt with radiator problems I cracked several heads on my car, for those like me with little car knowlage, this means that you just killed your engine that that your vehicle aint goin nowwhere for a while!

Anyway, next day after a hardy Denny’s breakfast (you can always count on Denny’s!) because I believe that any problem should always be dealt with with food in your stomache, we went off in search of a car repair shop. Luckly the one we found was very helpful, figured out what was wrong pretty quick (long dead water pump) and fixed it by early afternoon. Which was the time I had planned on being home at. Oh well at least we got home!!

 

I bought a wonderful horse:

Well of course I did!! Silly me! But really, she did great! Her breeder thought it would be best if we pushed from behind to help her figure out her way in (my trailer is a step up). I really have to admit, despite being facing with a small dark trailer, and having a rope around her butt pushing her in, she tried really hard to figure out what we wanted and never freaked out. It didn’t take us very long to get her in and then she just stood there next to me, nervous but calm. Wow, is this really an Arab? She rode perfect the whole way, she didn’t even freak out when we left the farm and all her friends.

Horses from the desert take some adjusting in the mountains:

The poor thing had a hard time figuring out how to walk up and hill, with uneven terrain to boot!

 

Lucy has rules about new horses and her respect for me as herd leader stops once the halter is off:

I brought Georgie and Ollie up to the pasture on Saturday morning after they had all eaten their grain. Lucy and Huck hadn’t even noticed that I had a new horse and that Ollie had been in another paddock all night. Lucy came down to inspect the new inmate, sniffing her and deciding her plan of action. As soon as I took the halter off though Lucy bit her and kicked her, and then chased her off up the hill. No more then I expected really. But Georgie did not learn her lesson quickly. She kept trying to come down the hill to the hay piles (at which Huck and Ollie were peacefully eating). So Lucy decided she needed to really instill fear of God (in this case Lucy) into Georgie. So commenced the chase around the pasture, and remember that my pasture is very large, very hilly and has lots and lots of trees, both upright and on the ground. In fear of my new filly’s life I decided to follow them to keep Lucy from hurting her. At which point I learned:

That Ollie is a truely sweet horse:

Lucy corned Georgie in the far corner of the pasture, then chased her behind one of our water tanks. At which point I felt that Lucy had her pinned in a bad spot and talked with Lucy about it. No really, I just sat petting Lucy’s head and talking to her about it. Then I went over and pet Georgies head and stood with her knowing that Lucy would not charge Georgie with me there. Lucy finally left (glaring at Georgie every couples feet) and I decided to move Georgie from behind the tank. So I turned Ollie (who was standing behind her) around and pushed him out. He ran off around the side of the tank and started to run down the hill, but then stopped, turned around and run up to Georgie and sniffed her nose. After that he stayed with her the rest of the day. It was pretty darn cute that he stayed with her! Although considering all the care Lucy and Huck showed for him the night before when I took him out to put him with Georgie I can kinda understand him sticking with the filly!

 

 

That I have really wonderful and awesome boyfriend:

And that I cannot say enough! I probably didn’t mention that I cannot drive a cluch, and that my fathers truck is in fact a cluch. So Loren drove the whole way, and put up with me telling him how to drive (even though he has in fact trailered before ) and learning to back up a trailer. He  is wonderful!!

 

 

Ok, enough talk! Pictures of Georgie!!!

 

One of those silly little things we ponder in life

 

So this morning I was laying in bed listening to the rain, commending myself for having the fore site to put Lucy’s blanket on the night before, before it started raining (rather then waiting to see when it would start raining the next day, and inevitable it would start raining before I got a chance to get the blanket on her resulting in a cold, wet idiot of a horse that jumps a mile if you try to touch her) when I starting pondering blankets and horses.

I usually am pretty good about putting Lucy’s blanket on before it starts raining, as long as my father has warned me about the inpending rain as I never bother to check the forecast, if I am curious, I merely ask him, otherwise he will generally tell me.

So do you think that somewhere in the dark recesses of our horses minds (pushing aside the parts that think about hay, grain, whinnying at friends and how much being ridden sucks I am not sure how much is left) they relize that when we put the blanket on them that isn’t going to start raining?

Although there are times when I leave putting the blanket on till the last minute or am not prepared for the rain, for the most part her blanket does go on pre-rain. And there have only been a few instances where I put the blanket on and it didn’t rain. If it fact Lucy is aware that it will start raining after the blanket is put on she must have been very confused those times!

I KNOW my horse wants her blanket on when its raining, why she runs around like an idiot when I try to do so is beyond me, but I know beyond a doubt that Lucy is cursing my very name every second when she is in the rain without her blanket. I think that is why she is hard to blanket once the rain starts, she is just so pissed off at me that I didn’t get it on in time that she feels its ok to make my life hell because  I DIDN’T BLANKET HER BEFORE IT STARTED RAINING.

Lucy takes her personal comforts very seriously. VERY seriously. I (and even more so, Loren) make fun of her to no end because we know how seriously she takes her comforts.

 

But I still have to wonder if she sees me coming with the blanket and thinks to herself: “Ah crap its going to rain!”. Although probably Lucy blames the bad weather on me. It really wouldn’t suprize me in the the least, I do believe she blames all her other woes (and I am sure that is a very long list) on me.

 

Now do I wonder if Huck and Ollie realize its going to rain when Lucy gets her blanket on? Ollie, no. Ollie’s brain is mostly used for wondering why nobody loves him, why Lucy gets to wear a blanket (and what he might do to get such special treatment), divising tactics to make sure his head gets into the bucket first (he isn’t so good at that) and planning his next escape from the pasture (which is the only intelligent thing he ever does).

Huck, I am absolutly certain KNOWS EVERYTHING. I have no doubt that he knows every little thing that is going on at our house from how many eggs the chickens laid that day to when its that time of the month for me. If Huck could talk he could explain every one of the worlds problems, how they came to be and how to fix them. But he wouldn’t because its too much of a bother. Huck is not a horse, I think he may have an alien experiment gone very wrong, or perhaps very right, I’m not quite sure!

 

 

Anyway, thats what I was pondering today!

Just a bit out of it

 

Eek! Haven’t updated in a while! Not a huge amount to tell.

I haven’t been riding much, just too tired. I stopped riding Fadzki, I just wasn’t enjoying him that much.

Haven’t ridden Lucy in a while, but I am trying to get back on schedule.

Right now I am trying to figure out how to get my filly from Hesperia to home. Its harder then it sounds.

 

I told Loren that we could no longer stay up every night playing wow. Apperently I was very loud about this (I would chalk that up to sleep deprivation and moodiness from having not ridden in a while) because Loren refered to it as “yelling” and took me very seriously.

 

I got the flu last Friday and therefore missed a beautiful weekend to ride. It sucked.

 

So hopefully better news (or any news!) soon.