6/2/14

Life is rough, gotta be tough.

So, went out to the barn party yesterday and was welcomed by at least 30 people. We had to park in pasture. ;) "A" already had the horses stalled so I said hello, introduced myself and went into Red's stall to check him over. My barn manager is literally the best ever so she's been putting ointment/spray on his tail and mane every day. I took over on the shift yesterday and noticed a bit of scabbing on his bridlepath area (Which REALLY needs trimmed...) which is the same place he rubbed last year. I'm thinking I'll trim it ASAP and then start medicating it heavier so it doesn't have a chance to scab again. But his tail is looking really good. He's definitely in desperate need of a grooming session - fetlocks need trimmed, whiskers need trimmed, bridlepath needs to be clipped, and his mane needs to be groomed up a bit, I need to cut off the burnt edges to get it growing again.

Everyone moved into the barn at some point in time and met the horses. Of course, Patches (a leopard spotted Appaloosa) and Spirit got the most attention at first but everyone started gravitating towards the ones who would actually let them pet them. (AKA Red, Bay, Sii and Raven.) One older lady (probably in her 80's) walked over and Red pretty much let her hang all over him while I tacked up and stood close.

I got him tacked up and he slept the whole time. Very good pony. ;) He was already really clean so I did a quick once-over with the brush and started up. His new pad worked perfectly with my heavy saddle, yippee! I used the leather halter under my headstall (which fits him much better than the one-ear) so it looked like I had a lot of gear on his face, but in reality he just had a halter underneath... :))Once we were ready, mom and I decided to walk on up while "A" was helping Jeff. Mom stayed down there on the driveway but I let Red walk up the hill a bit to stand so he was on the grass. He amazes me with how long he'll stand, even with other horses already galloping around and having fun with riders.

Chilled out.

Redman don't care. (Notice my brown reins, just hanging there.)

Once we got going, we went to the 4 acres so the people could watch us ride and take photos. None of them were really horse people so I think they had fun just watching.

And then, the drama started.

Spirit and Red were perfect... Sii however, was not. I'll leave y'all on a cliffhanger until later in this post to say what was wrong. ;)  She started out okay in the pasture, a bit on edge but that was to be expected. She just kept wanting to back up and, Jeff not being a rider, was confused on the cues and how to get her to move and stop when he wanted her to. Red and I kind of stayed on her side so she knew to follow us, then mom took over when I was called over to the other group of ponies. "AM" wanted to let Annebelle gallop for a few minutes and of course, Ms. Thoroughbred wanted her boyfriend. And hey, I won't say no to a good little run. :) "C", "R", "A" and "AM" were all over there and went ahead of me. C was on his racking horse, R was on Bay-Bay, a Quarter, A was on an Appendix and AM was on her TB, so Red and I were kind of obviously going to lose, but once I gave him permission (Mr. Slowpoke insists on only walking during races UNTIL you let him know that he can run.) he galloped past everyone but Annabelle. Apparently everyone was surprised that he listened to his RUNNN cue so quickly because he's most definitely the lazy horse at Ivy Hills...

In case you can't tell that I'm not a man, I'm on the left, R and Bay are in the middle, C and Lady are on the right.

I love this because Red is in the middle of his two mares. ;)


 

We posed for a few of the party-goers photos, Sii tried to run Jeff home (when I say run...I mean walk...like I said, he isn't a rider, LOL) but he handled it pretty well. Then we went to the fruit and berry patch, where the horses really did fall apart. And when I say horses, I mean Sii.

She literally went koo-koo. Like, crazy. Sweating, trying to run everywhere, backing up, everything. Mom had to dismount once to calm her down and Red had to be her seeing eye horse basically the whole time. We did find Spirit's true calling, however - he's a rescue horse. Seriously, every time a horse needs some help, he totally turns into old reliable Spirit and is basically the pick-up horse. He'll stand for hours, let mom dismount and mount, run up the horses all calm-like and just stand there while mom helps whoever needs it. Red basically just lagged behind and was a good boy. We didn't need a big 15.2'ish horse trying to run in between fence posts and horses, Spirit fit the job much better and he actually enjoyed it.
(A goat was out...only reason Red's ears are actually up, LOL.)

But yeah, Sii went absoloutly nuts. All of it was stress. She got so hot and hyped up, sweating, stressed and playing with her mouth. Mom ended up having to dismount on Spirit and make Jeff walk him home while she walked Sii and I stayed close behind on Red. Sii was wanting to bunny-hop on the lead and as soon as we got home, I looked at her a did a double take. Her hackamore was on upside down and it was pinching her. I told mom and she just looked at her and was like "oh my gosh." We didn't even look at it because we didn't tack her up, and we never got a chance to look at her bridle. Of course Jeff who rode her wouldn't have known because he's not a rider and doesn't know tack. We fixed it ASAP and checked her over, untacked, cooled her off and just calmed her down. Needless to say, Mom and I felt awful for not noticing sooner.

Once we fixed her up, we told "A" and she went to go fix it while mom and I took Spirit and Red back up to the round pen to work with a bit more. They were perfect and deserved some fun times and treats. We basically just took pictures, but I let Red lope a little and he perked his ears up like "Yayyyyyy I don't have to hold back now!)

I don't know why he doesn't throw me off sometimes, I swear.



Notice the lead. ;)


He did great with the leader under his bridle and I think Ill use it with a nylon halter next time so it's less bulky. He didn't mind it but I did, lol. I'll try to use it a few more times then take it off to see how he does. :) Worst comes to worse, I use it until he comes home and I can work more.
Always hamming. In her new pad and bridle and bit!

 

I went ahead and dismounted, loosened Red's cinch and walked him home. He deserved the break and I wanted to end on a good note. Put him in the barn, let him cool off and walk around. He gets the whole barn because the stalls were full. I medicated him, gave him treats for the first time in forever (he was getting nippy.) Then I tried on his sleazy with C, which was hilarious. It's too small and hot for pasture use but I found it absoloutly amazing.
The look of shame.


It took me a minute to figure out how to get it on, so he just stood there with it covering his face (the eye holes and ear holes somehow got to the bottom..woops!) and C was like, "He is just so done with you." Poor Red doesn't even try anymore. (Either that or he's tired - check out that droopy lip.)

Fascinated with my coke.

This post is getting long, so I'll spare you the details of dinner. All in all, it was a good day.

Today is the day that we are getting our barn built! Also have a dentist appointment and a farrier visit back to back so it shall be interesting.

3 comments:

  1. Glad you had a good day! Yay for the barn being built!

    ReplyDelete
  2. exciting about building your barn!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Having a barn party sounds like a lot of fun!

    ReplyDelete