More cancelled rides and more ice & snow...

(Picture taken by friend A...I just love a snowy landscape!)

Our 4-H ride night scheduled for yesterday was canceled - roads are icy so hauling animals to an arena is not a good idea. It turned out that staying home would have happened for us anyway. R is pretty sick and had a fever over 103 during the evening.

I did make one necessary trip out to the barn to meet the farrier. Both horses had a quick trim - and both forgot their manners during the procedure. I can't wait until we are able to really start working them back into shape. This naughtiness has got to end!

The "present truck" stopped by our house this past weekend with a box full of horsey-stuff I had ordered from Country Supply. We now have another saddle pad and saddle blanket to use with R's saddle on Q. It's not as high end as Curly's saddle pad, but it will do the job nicely. There was also a pair of spurs in the box for R. I'm hoping he'll pay more attention to her once she starts using them.

Snowy days...

The snow started coming down fast and furious yesterday morning, but I decided that I really needed to go check on the boys out at the barn anyway. Driving was slow and a little scary but I arrived unscathed...until I went to open the barnyard gate. As I was walking the gate open, I slipped in a slushy puddle and promptly soaked my whole backside. This normally wouldn't be a huge deal, except that the temperature was below freezing and I was COLD!

My wet clothes made me do my barn chores a little more quickly than usual. Because there was so much snow, I didn't scoop out the runs - I couldn't see the poop! Just a quick treat and a pat on the nose for each horse and then I was on my way back home to some nice, dry clothes.

E. stayed inside all day with a low-grade fever, but R. spent some time in the backyard enjoying the 5 inches that fell:

Everything is so beautiful after a fresh snowfall!

Show couture

The latest issue of Horse & Rider came in the mail, which E and I immediately read cover to cover. One of the articles this month focussed on show arena clothing. I am absolutely blown away by the cost of the shirts, pants, chaps....well, everything. It is ridiculous that one show shirt can send you back hundreds of dollars! I took a look at ebay to see if there was anything available at a more reasonable price - and among the higher priced items I found one used shirt with a slight blemish in the back (it had a pull in the knit) that was still going for more than $40!

I think I need to learn how to make these clothes and start marketing them. The sales could easily support our horse habit!

Brrrrrr......

Lessons tonight were canceled. The thermometer reads 20 right now - too cold to stand in the arena for sure! These temps aren't so bad if you're the one on the horse. It's all of us standing on the sidelines who suffer.

L. passed by me at school today and said she can't wait until Friday's lesson. I sure hope it warms up 'cause I really don't want to disappoint her. Although, as her mom said, she needs to learn all about horses - not just the "hop in the saddle and go" part! So we'll have her out there mucking stalls at the very least.....

Fun on our own...

It turns out that Friday lessons will have to begin next Friday, so when we got out to the barn yesterday we had to decide if I was willing to haul horses out to the fairgrounds even though coach A. wasn't going to be joining us (she's still really sick!). Curly needs to get back into some routine, plus our friend L. was planning on meeting us to see a lesson....so that cinched it, and we loaded up the horses.

We've taken Curly out only one other time without A's supervision, when we traveled up to Dayton for my birthday fun. So I felt a little like a teenager getting to do something "grownup" for the first time - excited, but also a tiny bit apprehensive, realizing that I had to be the "responsible" one. Curly didn't help smooth the situation either - he was fidgety and breathing hard while just standing next to the trailer!

Since we only have one adult size saddle, we could tack up only one horse at a time. Curly was first...and did surprisingly well. E. was very nervous about riding him since he has been displaying so much spirit lately. But he listened to her cues, and by the end of her short ride (30 minutes) he had calmed down to a very respectable level.

Then we transferred the saddle and saddle pad over to Q. While E. had been riding, I had been instructing L. about how to lead a horse ("Remember, you're the one in control! You decide where you are going, not the horse!") and other safety details. She started out hesitant but was getting the hang of how to communicate what she wanted by the time E. was ready to put the saddle on. Since this was L's first time up on Q, and coach A. wasn't there, we decided to err on the side of safety and lead Q and L. around the arena. E. walked them around 3 times, then I took the lead and jogged them another time or two. I was breathing heavy by the time she got off, but it was worth it to see the big smile on L's face.

L. is hooked....her mom is wondering what they are getting into.....

New horse buddy...

Lessons last night were canceled. Coach A. has been terribly sick - yesterday was the first day she had spent any time outside the house and felt even remotely healthy in over a week.

We still spent some time out at the barn cleaning and grooming. And the best part is that we introduced a friend, L., to horses. Like many young girls, L has wanted a horse for many years. This past weekend her mom approached me about finding a way for L to begin riding and showing her what it takes to keep a horse happy and clean. So, we took L and her mom with us last night! They met Q and Curly, mucked out stalls with us, and brushed some of the mud off of Q. Unfortunately, the sun went down too quickly for L to take a short ride. We'll take her to a lesson on Friday and perhaps she'll be up in a saddle soon! The plan so far is that we'll share Q with her...until her parents get sucked in like we did and buy their own horse too. Bwaahahaaaa......oh, sorry for the evil laugh......

Curly was thoroughly naughty while I was cleaning his stall. He broke through the rope we string up to keep him out of the hay and grain area and was difficult to catch. I needed the help of A. and her husband to trap him. He's definitely become a "grain junkie" and will snatch a bite directly out of the grain bag whenever he can!

In the saddle again...

E. attended a 4-H ride night tonight - the first one for Curly in a long, long time. Between inactivity and a diet supplemented with grain, we were concerned that he might be a little too much to handle, so her trainer rode him for a couple of hours today to make sure he would be in a good frame of mind. Consequently E. was unable to get him to lope at all - the poor guy was pretty pooped out! But she said it was a great night; she was so excited to be up on her guy again.

M. had the pleasure of being the all-important "horse parent" tonight, hitching up and hauling the animal to the ride location and helping with the unloading at the end of the night. While I'll happily give him the chore of actually driving the truck and trailer, I did miss watching E. and all her buddies ride. Okay, I admit it, ride nights are a great "social hour" for me and I really look forward to just chatting with all the other parents!

While watching from the sidelines, M. took a couple of great shots of all the activity. The kids in the club played some sort of game requiring stickers - hence the strange dots on Curly in the picture below:


The club has been blessed with the use of a wonderful enclosed arena for all of their meetings and ride nights. Every-other Tuesday night all the kids gather to ride their horses, learn new skills and just plain have fun. What could be better than this??