The Blog Has a New Home!

Well, I've finally made the switch to Wordpress! This has been coming for a long time, but today I just got the courage to change things around...I'm excited to present the new blog, which you can find here. There will no longer be any posts here, so go follow the new blog if you want to keep up with Red and I. :)

Not Really Wordless Wednesday

Well, the mare ended up not working out - we couldn't find anyone to haul her because she didn't have a new coggins and things just kept coming up to make it more difficult. We have been offered another mare, but I'm not sure about taking her. We may, we may not. We're not necessarily searching for another horse, but this one just popped up and seemed to be perfect, but I guess not. I'm pretty bummed about it but oh well, what's meant to be will happen.

On another note, Red has been seriously sweet in the last week. We did join up one more time after we lunged last time and he's totally back in the zone with liberty. Moving him kind of jostled things around a bit but he's finally into the new schedule and doing super well with it. He also seems to be a lot more content, even with just Spirit in the herd. Maybe he's enjoying the playtime more now that there's just one horse and he doesn't get too beat up. ;)

Nowadays, when I come to the gate and open it, I typically have this either behind the car or behind me. Most of the time I leave mom and the car and walk up with him because...how can you resist this face?

head low, ears relaxed.

These were really hard to take because he kept getting closer to me..closer...closer...until he was pressing into me ever so softly and I couldn't get a picture, lol.

This is week I don't even wanna think about how long it's been of no riding. The weather has been terrible (rain every day and cold) but even if it was nice and sunny, this whole week has been terrible and busy. And it's only Wednesday. But seriously in the last 2 weeks I've lost my mind somewhere. On the brightside, I get to feed him every day which allows cuddling time, grooming time, and maybe some lunging or groundwork each day. So our groundwork has been great and I've really seen improvement. Right now I'm getting him to kick the habit (no pun intended) of pawing when he see's his dinner. He only does it if he see's the feed pan, and he's not mean with it or anything, but I don't like pawing for various reasons and he's not allowed. ;) Pretty sure he learned that from Spirit.

I punish him, he decides to be cute and catch raindrops on his tongue. Because yes, he does that.

I've also discovered a new quirk of Red's - he enjoys sticking his tongue outside of his stall when it's raining or snowing and catching raindrops on his tongue.

See, blogging world..I'm not the only one with a weird bay horse. 

We've been throwing some hay out ever since December 1st, they still have some grass in the pastures and they aren't starving or anything but it's definitely time for some hay. Once their done eating, we throw the hay so they can eat some more. Typically Red runs to get water from the trough, makes a few laps around the barn and rolls. Spirit just eats hay and watches like "Red you crazy"and so do I. Since when is Red the hyper one? Luckily he doesn't do that when I get on. ;)

oh mah gosh hayyyy I'm calm now

I'm obsessed with black tips ears. Like, obsessed.

Can you find the mom?

Then he left the hay when I started to leave. Apparently horsey has priorities.

he looks back to the hay longingly, "BRB HAY MY OWNER IS LEAVING ME"

 

Favorite.

I'm serious, there's nothing more gratifying than having a horse follow you around everywhere. Red has a very puppy dog personality but he doesn't follow anyone else like that unless they have food. Following really isn't in his personality, he prefers to just chill out wherever you leave him. But yeah, having him want to be near me really makes me feel good. I must be doing something right, some how.

Obligatory pony selfie.

Hell Hath No Fury....like a Chestnut Mare?

Well, I have pretty big news.

To start things off....yesterday, my little nephew asked his mother when we got a new horse - she said that we hadn't, and reminded him that Shalom didn't live here anymore, but he lived in Heaven. She probably figured he was just missing Shalom, he loved him so much and was fascinated by him and his issues (He wants to be a vet, haha.) and then he said, but it looked just like Shalom! His mother told him it was just a dream, but he insisted that it looked really real and just like Shalom.

Then, on the drive home from church, I was reading ads on our Facebook group The Tack of The Town to make sure everyone was following rules, etc, and I noticed an ad without a location. I commented quickly to tell her to ad one, but then I actually read the ad more thoroughly and kind of fell in love. Deadbroke AQHA/APHA mare, sorrel with a blaze, no other markings, very calm, with great bloodlines. Also in my price range...I don't know why I did, but I asked for photos. Read the ad for my mother, she kind of got excited too, so I talked to this lady all throughout the day, and scheduled a time to go see the mare on Tuesday.

When I got a photo of her, finally, from their ride yesterday, I literally started crying and was in shock. This mare looks identical to Shalom. I won't post photos until she's actually mine, if we do get her, (99% sure she's going to be mine.) but it's almost to the point of being creepy...in a good way, of course. I showed the photo to all of my friends and they all thought it was Shalom. I mean seriously, her blaze is the exact same and she even has the dots on her nose, same markings, same face, same everything. She's just in a shorter body. And she's a mare, obviously.

here have some Red to break this post up.

 We called our old barn manager, A, after we found out and she's going to try to come along with us. We're hoping and praying that we can find someone to bring a trailer with us because we only have until this weekend to bring her home if we want the price reduction. She's already a good price but frankly, after everything with Shalom, we can't find it in us to pay that much. obviously she'll get all the care she needs (Vet bills, farrier fees, etc) when she's here, it's just the sticker price. Anyways, it's been an emotional time because it almost feels like Shalom is coming back, in the weirdest way. We are NOT trying to replace him in the slightest and it's so weird because I never look at ads like that or comment, and I definitely wasn't looking. This mare just seemed to find us and slip right in. So here's hoping that Tuesday goes good and I come home with a pretty chestnut mare...

Who hopefully has no fury...;) ;) :)

Selfies For Days

I am officially done with rain.

It's been raining since Sunday and it's causing a big muddy mess at the barn, then the day when it's supposed to stop, I'm most likely going to be delivering presents to some folks from my church who can't come to church anymore due to health, old age and etc. While part of me feels terrible for thinking, "Ugh, I need to ride." because I know it's a very good reason to miss a ride, I am just utterly done with bad weather. And my horse is getting chubby. And I feel like we'll lose all of our progress if we have another few weeks off.

Red says "Idk mom I'm cool with this whole no riding thing"

In other news, the horses have been great. They obviously don't mind not working and Red is still obsessed with the cat, who decided to stick around 90% of the time. I named it Downey (after Robert Downey Jr because he's my hero and I've talked to him and yay I'm still excited about that) and my mother named him Pharaoh. So right now he's being called Pharaoh Downey Jr by myself while mom says "Downey is a terrible name you obsessed weirdo"

stare down. Red just wants to cuddle. Downey just wants to run.

Right now, Red is being Downey's creepy overly attached girlfriend/creepy stalker while Downey wants absolutely no part of that huge brown creature.

So yes, my time nowadays is taken up by cats, children, and selfies with my horse.

Red enjoys shoving his head on my shoulder.

 

Sigh.

On the brightside, I may be trading one of the saddle pads that I never use (that cost me like $85 after I begged the guy for a discount because it was my birthday) for another saddle pad. Coincidentally, it's also like, my dream saddle pad that I've been wanting forever and ever and ever. She's coming out to check my pad out today and get one of our horse blankets, so I'm crossing my fingers that she falls in love with it so I can get hers. It's brown. It's striped. It's fancy. It's built to look like a saddle blanket but it's padded. I've always loved how put together western tack looks with this style of pad and I've been wanting to get some more neutral pads and reins for Red for when we don't want to look like a rainbow vomited on us....

I just love how this looks. Everything matches and has color but not too much, and it's classic and western.

I HAVE A DAPPLED BAY.

Okay, so I've been noticing some dappling on Red in the past couple of weeks and it's gotten pretty profound. I never imagined that he would dapple because his coat was always so dull and blah, especially with the sweet itch, but man, I'm pretty happy about it. I prefer dapples and etc over chrome, so I'm excited. I was also looking through some photos to see how his coat has changed and decided to post a bit of a transformation collage....I think it's crazy how much he's changed - his coat is different, his body is different, his personality is different.

about a month after I got him.

A couple months later.

A couple months later.

A couple months later.

And from yesterday.

•  Photo 1: Coat is very long and straggly, a dull brown. Obviously no muscle and he needed some weight because of his sweet itch issue.
• Photo 2: Coat is more brown than anything, very dull, no shine and obviously no dapples, haha, uneven hair everywhere because he shed out really weird, still needed muscle and weight.
• Photo 3: Coat is still dull and bleh looking, weight looks much better but could still stand a couple of pounds IMO, needs lots of muscle.
• Photo 4: Coat is much healthier, shiny and a penny color (he was very, very bright that month and his coat was super light) As far as muscle goes, he could use a little bit more but looks great.
• Photo 5: Coat is a dark red now, dapples are forming, he has a hay belly because of winter but by far the best shape he's been in since I've had him, very sturdy and feels great (perhaps too good, some days, haha)

His coat has gotten a lot darker and I really love his dark points, his facial markings have grown as well (His star is absolutely massive this year??) 

And just for fun...here's another change. Everything from his body, to coat, to personality is different. I vividly remember dragging him through the pasture for this photo and mom having to wave a crop behind him because he did NOT want to move, lol.

Terrible picture because it's a screenshot from a video.

 And now, he happily follows behind me, lol!


Sometimes I wonder if Red has fun tricking everyone and is trying to make us believe he's a different horse, what with his random stripe and snip that comes and goes, his dapples, his color changes, personality changes and everything, haha. He's definitely not the lazy horse I brought home, but he's so great!

Dedicated Horse People

I knew I wanted to lunge yesterday, so after Red was done eating, I gave him a few minutes to drink some, graze a little and then hooked him on a lunge line for some light lunging. No more than about 10 minutes of walking and some trotting....or so I planned. He trotted a few nice laps, very collected which I was very proud of. His head was nice and low but his neck was collecting up nicely and arched beautifully, just like I was up there using reins. He was very relaxed and supple, and went into a really nice extended trot and then a jog for the first time ever at a lunge. Normally it's a chore to get him into a jog, but he's been doing it by himself recently and going into an extended trot really quickly when I tell him to. Woot woot, I'm seriously so proud of how he's doing. I also managed to find another brother of his named Spanky's Steppin', who is an absolutely gorgeous bay. Looks just like Red, and is a phenomenal barrel horse. I'm back in contact with his old owner and going to message another person as well later this evening, so crossing my fingers for at least some more info on what they did with Red - my biggest hope is for older photos, or at least photos of his dam/sire.

Red looks scared 99% of the time but he's not, 99% of the time. ;) He has a bit of a hay belly and his butt needs a lot of muscle, but I think he looks pretty good for a 1 ride a week thing with lots of hay because of ew winter.

join up afterwards.

He decided that, less than 5 minutes into trotting, he wanted to join up, haha. I made him do a little more work but then stopped after a few more laps of trotting and let him play around. He was probably the cutest he's been in awhile, following me everywhere and literally playing with me, trotting next to me and shaking his head like "Come on playyyy woman" and then he moved right off when I told him to shoo so I could put things away.

He did worry me a little yesterday because he bit at his sides a few times after eating, but he pooped twice (Very common for Red, he poops 24/7, LOL) and it looked totally fine, and he was fine trotting around, playing with Spirit. He did lay down once but they always roll after they are cooped up in the stall for more than 15 minutes, lol. He got right up and followed me and seemed fine, cool as a cucumber. But of course, everyone who knows me knows that I'm an anxious wreck, and even though he was totally fine, I decided to go visit him when we drove by on the way to Wal-Mart.

In the cold, pouring rain.
In my boots, with holes.
In night.

But of course, I didn't mind the mud in my socks or the cold rain because Red is cute enough to suffer for. He came right over to me when I called and was chilling in the stall with Spirit, ears perked at me when he saw me. Spirit was sleeping and let me lay next to him in the stall for a minute while he was laying down. He's the most cuddly horse when he's down, lol. Red tried following me to the gate but decided that the rain wasn't okay so left me about halfway, lol.

From earlier that day.

So yes, I went into Wal-Mart with mud soaked boots, wet socks, very wet jeans from climbing the gate (totally looked like I peed my pants.) and looking/smelling like a horse.

Oh well.

So much adorable in one horse.

It's going to rain literally every day this week, so I'll probably just be feeding and grooming for the next few days. :P We do need to worm them all sometime this week.

Red & His Cat

I rode yesterday. It was decent - a friend (same one who was actually going to buy Spirit awhile back) came out and we tacked up. I rode like a bag of potatoes, Red was barn sour and the wind was kind of making him mad, but honestly he was a good boy but my legs were still sore and exhausted from our ride on Saturday, in which we rode ALL of the scary trails and ouch, riding down steep hills hurt. Red was probably sore from it too and I kind of got off feeling meh, knowing I should've ridden my horse better and not have let him down by being sloppy. What stinks even more is I have a post drafted that I wrote up on Sunday about how good I'm feeling about my riding ability at the moment.

Oh well, everyone has off days.

Today, the farrier came out. It was a good, short visit. Spirit was sore somewhere and we decided that it was in his hip area, farrier thinks he just tweaked himself somehow by playing hard in the pasture because he's not gimpy or lame, just sore when he had to lift his leg high to get his hoof trimmed. He was a pest but not his usual, "I'm a bad boy for the farrier mwahahaha" kind of way, you could tell he wasn't feeling great. Red did wonderful, I didn't even have to hold him, he just chilled. Halfpint tried to lay down on farrier which was humorous. We went out to feed and I was determined to have a really nice time, even if it was just me hanging with Red in his stall while he was eating. I would make up for the mediocre ride and prove to me and my horse, oh hey, I'm not a potato today. Red and Spirit were in very happy moods and followed us around while we fixed their dinner and while they ate, the barn cat decided to come around again. I saw it for the first time on Saturday, but yesterday it got braver and followed N and I around the whole time while we rode. Red is utterly obsessed with it and pesters it nonstop. It finally let me touch it and once I scratched it's head one time, it decided that I was a great human and wouldn't leave me alone. I'm not a huge cat person but I do like them and I enjoy having them around at the farm, so we'll buy some cat food for it and see if it'll stay around. :)

Once they were done eating, we turned them loose and I took some photos. Red was being a puppy dog and joined right up with me. We walked around the farm together for awhile until he saw the cat and literally trotted around after it when it ran away. The cat finally went into woody area and he stayed right at the bush until I called him over. When I left in the evening, he went back over and tried sniffing it out, haha. Anytime he noticed that it got away, he'd go running for it again. He's really sweet with it so far and just sniffs and hangs out. Spirit isn't a huge fan of the kitty though ;)

Red's hind end looks funky in this because of the angle, but this was when he was following the cat and I thought his expression was adorable, haha!

Our neighbor (J) came around later on and we chatted while Red chilled next to me. I decided to hop on him for a minute with just his halter. Our first "tackless" ride since he's been at home, it was nice to sit on him again like that without anything on. I love having a horse that I can trust like that, no matter how our previous ride had gone. I love using him as a couch, of course.

That was my mounting block!

It sounds odd to a lot of riders, but I enjoy that simple time even more than I enjoy riding itself most of the time. Just sitting on him for a moment, or doing liberty out in the field is so special to me. It strengthens our bond and proves that yes, we still have one, without a doubt. It's been hard since Shalom passed away and Red has helped me get through it a lot easier.

"Who, me?"

In which Red saves my butt from scary trails.

Mom and I took advantage of the 60 degree day(!!!) today and tacked up for the first time in 3+ weeks.We were planning a really simple ride but it ended up changing pretty quickly. I tried the australian saddle on Red first but it didn't fit well...the flaps were digging into his sides and looked too long. Since I didn't have time to fool with things, I just fixed my other saddle back up after grooming quickly then hopped on. At first we rode around the front, just walking around. Mom decided to try the Dr. Cook bitless bridle on Spirit because he keeps fighting the bit when she goes to put it in and we wanted to take things slow while he's getting used to such a big change. A few people pulled over when they saw us and two neighbors said hello, I love how the horses attract everyone, haha. We went down to the lower pasture next where the horses used to be all the time and let them do some trotting. They were definitely both fresh today but they didn't push it too much. Our neighbor came by again afterwards (he and his wife own the Arabian next door) and let us go ride around at his place. They have better trails than we do so we were interested to see how they were. Crossing the road was easy but the trails turned out being quite rougher than I imagined. Mom repeatedly reminded me that my horse isn't nervous at all and it obviously 100% fine and steady and that I was the only one nervous, haha. We made it out alive (baha) and ended up in a beautiful hilly pasture.

Trails are quite boring to write about, but I swear it was interesting, lol. It was definitely a big test for me on how brave I'm wiling to be (the trails weren't terrible and they were quite clear, but rougher than what I'm used to and there were a lot of steep hills and etc) and how much I can trust my horse. Red was perfect while I forced him to go at a ridiculously slow pace. It was definitely worth continuing on even while I tried not freaking, haha. The pasture was gorgeous and you could see our whole farm from the hill.

Taking photos while Red finishes...um..doing his thang. Yuck. ;)

Posing in the field!

We went back down the hill then crossed back home to the farm after one more lap around another trail. They were definitely happy to be home after a pretty tiring ride. They went through a lot of hills so they got quite a work out. Granted, being sleepy didn't keep them from trying to bolt towards the barn when GASP FOOD OHMYGOSH I SEE THE FOOD!!!!!! A quick circle around a tree made them realize, "Oh shoot, if I bolt, I have to wait longer for food. Dang."

We also crossed back into the lower pasture again for a moment and they weren't too pleased about going away from the barn, but once they went through, they didn't mind.

love the view.

Then we let the ponies go back home. Red and I got to wait for a moment while mom finished up the grain so we didn't have to deal with two horses eagerly trying to get feed ;)

Untacking.

Red also proved that he doesn't always look like a mule ;) I think this is one of my favorite pictures of us. :)

 His legs are getting soooo dark.

Going to go out for a huge grooming session tomorrow and cleaning up our tack. Farrier should be out this week, he's late because of everything with Shalom last week. Riding as soon as I get another chance. :) Maybe tomorrow.

I'l Always Love You.

"I know there's gonna come a day
When he's still gone and it's okay."

It's been a week.

 

Meanwhile...

Red is thoroughly enjoying this crazy time in my life because he's not getting worked - sadly for him, his break ends tomorrow and we get to go back to work. He's been extremely happy in the last few days and every night, he runs around and bucks and plays. I'm just happy because it's really good seeing my guy out there kicking up dust after everyone told me he never plays and is lazy...

Not anymore, guys.

It was dark by the time I saw him this evening, but he decided to gallop to me when I called and then put his head down and followed me around. I love how he can go from crazy and playing to being submissive and respectful. Since I have no good playing pictures, here's one of him rolling like a doofus the other day.

 "I'm going down..."

 "I'm yelling TIMBERRR!"

 he just laid like this until he got pets from me

"K Spirit is eating I must go eat too"

He also helped us open the gate today. He's just that kind of guy.

 

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