Oops

I have missed the blogging world in the 5 months since I've posted! I've been trying to keep up but I'm not always successful.

I've got tons of news but the CliffNotes version is:
I got laid off and took the summer to go be a working student
Dee came sound and we went to Rebecca Farm

Dee told me loud and clear that she doesn't want to do Training anymore
I rode Sullivan for the first time

William schooled XC like a freaking boss

Dee and an 11 year old girl feel in love and now she's living the good life

I'm still unemployed, which is frustrating and kinda fun all at the same time

And the big news: I just picked up two new project horses! I went looking for one and somehow came home with two.

My mom and have been looking to pick up an OTTB sale project and we had a pretty simple list; 4+, 15.3+, sound and ideally a gelding (since everything else at my place is a gelding).

I did manage to get one that met most of the criteria. Meet JP Barley.

She's a 7yo, 16hh mare with 54 starts. She's very similar in type to William, delicate, fine boned and pretty sweet.

Bonus horse does not for the criteria. Meet the Vicar is a 16.2, 3yo gelding who is coming off an injury. We were looking at a horse in the paddock next to him and I asked about Vicar because I really liked the look of him. She hadn't planned on selling him but when I committed to the mare she said I should take the gelding and give him some more time off. She said if he comes riding sound to send her $500.

So I came home with 2 new horses. Oops 😀

#LittleAsshole is Growing Up

My original plan was to send Sullivan to the same trainer who started his sire. I really liked what Roland did for Ritchie and was hopeful for a repeat on my little guy.

Unfortunately Roland is booked almost 16 months in advance. So back in summer of 2015 I booked my then yearling in for 30 days in February of 2017 and 30 days in January of 2018. The plan was to put an initial 30 days on him as a late 2 year old and then another as a late 3 year old with minimal work in the meantime.

And then my yearling grew very very slowly. His joints as still huge and open and he's physically immature. And small. He finally hit 15HH in January (for the record his sire is 16.2, his dam is 15.2 but throws big babies, the last 1/2 warmblood is 17HH). And mentally he's taking his sweet time maturing as well.

He doesn't look small next to the cutting horses

So I decided that sending him for 30 days at this point was not the best value. He's at a point where he can really only handle 15 minutes of work/pressure every few days. So if I sent him he'd likely only end up with 4-5 hours of work over the month.

My mom used to train horses for a living and I've started a few on my own (under her supervision) so we decided that since Sullivan was going to be spending the winter with my mom anyways we would start him ourselves over the winter. This gave us the opportunity to do it very slowly in order to keep with his current abilities.

Since neither one of us was interested in putting the first few rides on my mom called in a favour and got one of her clients, a professional cutting trainer, to put the first few rides on, just to be safe. Sullivan was a star for it all. He bucked when he was first saddled and then hasn't even considered it since.

No longer just a pasture pet!

He's now had 10 rides, spread over the course of 4 months. He's willing, curious and brave. I couldn't ask for a better baby horse. I haven't had a chance to see him go in person yet but the videos make me super excited about his future.

Ride 8, and look at how balanced his canter is

He' going to stay with my mom for the summer and then come home in the fall. He's so happy there and it's very good for him as he has a 40 acre field, on the side of a hill, and a herd of 15 to terrorize. My place is only 4 acres so having one less to graze makes pasture management easier.

I can't wait until I finally get to sit on him. It's a dream that's been in the making for over 5 years.

It's hard to believe this was less than 3 years ago

11 Weeks In One Photo Dump

Break out the champagne! I wrote my last final for my degree last night. This semester has kicked my ass, hard, so blogging (and horses) took a back seat. I've been riding, but sporadically. Thankfully my creatures are all honest souls so there has been very little antics. And they live in the backyard so I still get my pony-fix.

This is exactly how I felt last night

Little asshole is enjoying living with my mom and is the first to the gate, every time.

We hacked out in January

And in February

My previous barn once again hosted two Sandra Donnelly clinics. I rode both horses in the first one. I was super impressed with William he hadn't done a grid or a course prior to this clinic but he took both in stride.  He also had never seen an oxer before this clinic and he just couldn't brain. Even when we disassembled it it took him quite a while to figure out that he had to jump/walk over both rails. The clinic was a great success though. Sandra told me I'd be crazy to sell him, but if I did decide to sell him I should sell him to her. It's always great when someone you truly respect thinks highly of your horse, even when he's being a sassy, green 5 year-old.

Jumper or reiner, you decide

Seriously, the cutest face ever.

And sometimes he forget that he has 4 legs.

Dee was her usual rockstar self and packed me around the 3'3" group. I missed her and I"m so glad she's back to her usual self. I've seen no back soreness at all since we started back jumping.

For my birthday we tormented the dogs

My kitchen window view never gets old

William was foot perfect for his first time in water, with a rider he'd never met
Also, she tried to steal him :)

When both the dogs and the pony need some exercise and there are only so many daylight hours

 It's been pretty low-key around here and I'm quite excited to get back into a regular schedule, with both the horses and the blog.

Photo Dump

In lieu of an actual post, here's some of my favourite photos from the last month.

She makes studying for summer classes very difficult

My farrier was running early so I caught Dee for him and then ran inside to change out of my office dress.
This is what I came back to. Note the lack of lead rope.

Henry and Frankie, my new barn cats

#littleasshole spends a solid portion of his day like this.
With how much he sleeps you'd think he'd be taller (he's about 14.2)

We took a much needed weekend off and headed out to Invermere, BC with friends

Jill did not drown, she's just an expressive swimmer and was displeased Anne dragged her out

The very best Grey Dog

 

Dee now does all of her dressage training in a double.
It's magic!

The weirdo rode like this all the way home from town

It's a god thing she's cute.

We helped my dad build his new shop.
If anyone asks for help building a steel structure like this, you want to decline, take my word for it.

So dirty.

I finally remembered to take a photo of their matching Rambos

Rails installed in my new (to-me) truck

I take a ton of photos of my dogs apparently

Another cooler for our collection!

???

I've totally lost my motivation to write meaningful posts. I've got a couple recaps I've started but all in all I just can't seem to get it together. How do you (especially the daily posters) keep yourself motivated to blog?

Baby's First Show

I've been meaning to do a clinic recap, then I lose all motivation once I realize I have very little media since my phone got cold and died. I'm going to track down some, or get creative with Paint and do one though because the clinic was very interesting.

An organization just over an hour away is hosting a winter Fun & Fuzzy show series. I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to get Sullivan out and about. So I loaded him and Chase up in the dark on Saturday morning, stopped and picked up a friend who's mare needed some show miles, and we were off.

It took us quite a bit longer to get to the arena than anticipated as the roads were icy and it was further away than we were originally told. Thankfully Chase is the best babysitter and requires absolutely no time to settle in. Since Chase was unconcerned and stuffing his face from the hay bag, Sullivan settled in within minutes as well. I was able to leave them while I finished up my registration and when I returned they were both still content.

Babysitter extraordinaire!

I had signed up for Halter (2 and under), Showmanship and In-Hand trail. I went into the day with no real expectations. This was the first time Sullivan was in an arena by himself (he's been to two other indoors, once for his foal inspection and once to the barn where Dee lives to romp with Chase). He was surprisingly good. Standing still is a skill we obviously need to work on, but as long as he was moving he was stellar.

He's such an ugly duckling right now.

We were allowed to school the trail obstacles for about 10 minutes before the class. He led quietly across the "bridge" (just a simple piece of plywood), backed through the "L" and had no issues with the gate. The only part we really struggled with was the trot poles. Now this horse has seen plenty of trot poles, he's even jumped little cross-rails in hand. But on this day it was a challenge. The first time through he leaped over all 3 poles. My friend made the smart crack, "Well, you did breed him to be a jumper" which the audience found endlessly entertaining. The second time though he treated the 3' trot poles like canter poles and he was so proud of himself he landed bucking and kicking and generally playing around. Unfortunately the #littleasshole managed to land a solid kick to my upper thigh. A mild reprimand was all it took to get him back under control. A few more times through the poles and he was trotting quietly.

Fuzzy indoor iPhone pictures :)

Overall, he was much better behaved than I expected. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can go to a few more in this series.

Living the Dream

I've officially reached a life-goal! I have my ponies in my backyard.

It was a bit of an insane weekend.  On Friday I was setting up temporary fencing because the back fences require quite a bit of work. We've got to mulch/chop down a bunch of trees that are right in the fence line before we can even begin to replace the fence.

Saturday we insulated the attic. Let me tell you, that is it's own circle in hell.  I now understand why people pay people to do it for them.  It's not a complicated process but it is miserable, thankless job.  But at least it is done and we won't see all our heat escaping out through the roof.

Sunday we actually moved all our belongings in. We've got some awesome friends so everything was moved in in under 2 hours, and now my entire house looks like it exploded boxes and furniture.

This trailer is completely full.  We have too much stuff!

The exciting part is that both my ponies made it safely home.  I picked Chase up on Saturday evening and he unloaded and settled in right away.  He seemed a little out-of-sorts being all by himself, which resulted in some minor pacing. The appeal of grass kept him from doing to much fence-walking.

He's looking pretty good for a mostly retired old man

Shimmer-E and Sarah hauled Sullivan over on Sunday afternoon.  He loaded reasonably well (for never having been in a small straight haul) and hauled really well. When he got off the trailer, the first thing he did was try and kick Jill's head in because she was running around like an idiot. I'm glad she can't get into the field because the #littleasshole really doesn't like dogs.

He's fat and fuzzy! Just the way I like my young guys.

Once I turned him out with Chase the two of them became fast friends. Sullivan tested the fence once, got shocked and squealed, farted and bolted.  I've yet to see him go anywhere near that side of the pasture since.

I keep standing at the window and watching them just graze.  The Boy thinks I'm a little strange, but he's learned to just roll with all the crazy horse nonsense.

So pretty.

I'm siting in class working on this post and I just received this photo with the comment that Chase has decided that all the cookies are his, and iPhones are a terrible tease because they don't taste good. I think he's liking having horses at home too.

One More Day

It's going to be an insanely busy week and tomorrow is a big day.  A really really big day. I'm so excited I almost feel sick. But more on that tomorrow...

Sneak Peek

Dee had the weekend off as I went to a tack sale on Saturday and then zipped down to my sisters to play with my nieces and get my hair done. For the first time EVER, I went to a tack sale and did not come home with a blanket. I did buy a few things but actually sold more than I purchased. I picked up a bridle bag (with long enough straps to use with my PS of Sweden bridles), a spare halter for #littleasshole since he's out grown one of his, a travelling saddle rack and 2 Ecogold dressage pads, all for $77! 

The pads need some TLC as someone dried them and the edging shrunk and the pad no longer is usable.  I'm going to pull the edging off and con my step mom into sewing on a new one. The rack needs a coat of paint but is going to be so handy to take to events.

Stock photo.  Mine is currently blue.

I also signed up for a clinic while at the sale, I actually got the last spot. Jessica Phoenix is coming to the area Nov 27-29 and we're now signed up to ride.  So much for not jumping until 2016, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride with her.

The Boy sent me this while I was out of town.
Apparently he went out and fed her and changed her blanket.  I'm pretty lucky.