Moving on...

Monte, with his new family....

Thank you, Monte, for a wonderful 4 years!

First ride

A young friend rode Monte for the first time today. I was very nervous about how he would react to someone new, but I really shouldn't have worried.  He was a perfect little gentleman, remaining calm and lovely throughout her ride.

Thinking back to when we first purchased Monte, I really had no reason to think he'd misbehave.  When Emily began riding him she was very timid and had limited skills but he took care of her none-the-less.  As her skills improved, he became more challenging, which in turn helped her become an even better rider.  So it seems that he is capable of understanding when he needs to be more of a babysitter and when he can be the more wild pony.  :)

The other thing I had to remind myself about was that most of his wild moments occur when he is in pain or terribly frightened.  In fact, I can't really remember a bucking incident that we didn't later trace back to him being in some sort of pain (usually related to poor saddle fit).

I'll have to make sure I tell our young friend all of this....I really would be pleased if they decided to keep him and love on him as much as we have.  I'm convinced that she would be a wonderful owner for our wonder pony.  :)

At the fence...

The ponies have been unbearably cute the last couple of months every time I come to the barn.  They must recognize the sound of my vehicle because when I park this is often what I see waiting for me:

I feel all warm and happy thinking that they actually look forward to seeing me.

New teachers

Every once in a while a new instructor will come out to our barn; I've been trying to take advantage of this by taking a lesson if at all possible.  And yesterday it was possible!  I got to ride with Sarah Lorenz from Stone's Throw Farm. 

Thursday (the day before the lesson) had been BEAUTIFUL!  Seriously, I couldn't have asked for a more glorious afternoon - the sun was shining but it wasn't too warm, there was just a slight breeze and the footing in the arena was great.  Friday, however, did not continue in the same vein.  The wind was gusting, the temperature was dropping and the clouds were spitting rain the whole afternoon.  But I was determined to ride....

I came home early from work (like 9:00 am!) because of a crummy tummy.  I was feeling a little better by the afternoon and with the help of my friend Pepto Bismal, I decided I could make it through a lesson. (Besides, I can always leave my horse safely with the instructor if I need to dash to the latrine.  It's a bit more difficult to leave a group of students when I'm teaching!)

I always get irked when Zoe finally settles in half-way through a lesson so I gave myself extra time to get ready and planned to ride for about 20 minutes before it even began to make sure I had Zoe's full attention.  The gusting wind was not helpful, however, and Zoe - being the super-reactive mare that she is - was a nut-case from all the thumping and moving around of the junk pile that sits next to the round pen.  I decided that I really did not want to ride an out-of-control pony, so I ended up just leading her around the barn yard while we waited for our lesson to begin. So much for being proactive.....

The lesson went fine in spite of my rushy-spooky horse. Sarah had me working on trot-walk (and then trot-halt) transitions, first in a small 15 m circle and then in a larger circle.  My directions were to ride the trot at a slow, steady pace and the moment Zoe began to rush I was to transition to the walk (or halt).  Sounds simple.... :)

We will continue to work on this exercise.  By the end of our lesson she and I were beginning to achieve a better pace and smoother transitions.  But there is still so far to go. Sarah commented that I did have a challenging horse (To which I replied that she was actually being pretty good at the moment - that got some raised eyebrows!).

I'm hoping to ride with Sarah again next Saturday.

Fall Sunshine

"Sunburn Watch 2012" is now officially over, thank goodness!  The harsh summer sun has morphed into a gentler fall one and Monte has begun to grow his winter coat, both of which have led to an end of pink, peeling skin on the poor pony.  His mane has begun to grow back as well and he is now sporting a jaunty little mohawk on the lower portion of his neck.

Monte has also been getting some exercise the past couple of weeks.  Two young women are now riding him to help him get back into shape, "tune him up" and remind him of all his skills.  I was a little nervous when Courtney first rode him, afraid that he might be a handful but he quickly settled into the ride and performed beautifully.  After her ride she wondered why people have said he is challenging!  Gabrielle rode a few days later and he was again well behaved.  She did notice that he's not quite as soft in the mouth as he had been the last time she rode him (about 2 years ago), but we think that is something that can be regained. 

I'm hoping that Courtney's karma with horses follows her with Monte.  In the past, all the horses she has ridden have sold not long after she begins to develop a relationship with the horse.  So come on, Courtney!  Work your magic!  :)

I've been able to ride Zoe at least 3 times a week for the past few weeks.  The consistent riding is definitely making a difference for both of us.  But I do need to schedule a lesson or two soon as I think I'm beginning to develop a few bad habits (like leaning too far forward as I ride).  Another set of eyes would be good.

Miss Zoe has been a pig lately and tries to get to her neighbor's grain each night.  That wouldn't be such a big deal except that she now has half-dollar sized sores on her front ankles that won't go away.  Dropping onto the concrete to reach under the rails is not helping them heal at all!  Cathy and I have been brainstorming how to get this problem fixed but so far we haven't been too successful. 

The Lunchtime Dash

School has started up again and I love being back with all the kids. It really is wonderful to see them growing and learning.

And I'm ready for the sun to switch to fall mode NOW!

Monte is still burning on his neck and in the rubbed-out portion of his mane.  So everyday I rush out to the barn (8 min.), put sunblock and fly spray on him (10 min.) and rush back to work (8 min.).  That leaves me a total of 4 minutes to wash my hands and eat something.

I'm so ready for some cloud cover.

Barn Chores

After this weekend, the fantasy of owning a large equine facility with rolling, green pastures, big numbers of beautiful, long-legged horses and miles of white fencing has now been delegated to my "anti-bucket" list!

Our barn owners, Cathy and Larry, needed to attend a wedding in Bend this Saturday and asked if Em and I would be willing to do barn chores Friday evening through Sunday morning.  Of course I said yes - they have done so much for us these past years that I was/am happy to reciprocate in any way at all.

I'll be brief and just say it took 2 hours to get the horses into their stalls Friday and we were quite happy that only 3 escaped during transfer from field to stall. I also only confused the identities of 2 of them (thank goodness they know more about where they are supposed to go than I do!).  Turnout the next morning didn't go too much faster - 1.5 hours.  But by Sunday morning, we had that down to a respectable 45 minutes.  :)

And we were doing just the bare minimum that keeps the barn running!  No mowing, no irrigating, no prepping of arenas....just moving horses and feeding grains and meds.

I was tired by Sunday.

Had to call the vet out on Sunday for Zoe.  She had some eye goop on Saturday, so I cleaned her up, put on her fly mask and sent her out to the field.  On Sunday morning it was tons worse - all yellow and crusty. Yuck!  A couple of other boarders independently told me that I really should call the vet (even though it was Sunday and would cost a ton more!)...so I did.  I was really hoping Dr. Adams would say, "Oh, this can wait 'till Monday." but no such luck.  Everyone told me horror stories of what it could be...but thankfully, it turns out that she doesn't have anything too terrible.  Just conjunctivitis.  So 5 days of eye ointment and all should be good.

Monte is dealing with that same bug bites on his back issue that he had last summer.  I think it is commonly referred to as "sweet itch," not that there's anything sweet about it at all.  I've been applying MTG, which seems to help but we don't dare put a saddle on him right now.  He has also rubbed out a good quarter of his mane.  We put him in a stall during the day for a couple of weeks to help with sunburn and he discovered that if he reached under one of the bars he could pull a bunch of hay off the bales stacked there.  He looks really pathetic right now with part of his mane missing, pink, peely patches on his shoulders and dirt everywhere.



I was sad that he is currently un-rideable as my friend Kate came out to meet him this weekend and thinks she might like to try riding him.  Yeah!  She spent time grooming Monte and then learned how we round pen him for exercise.  I then saddled up Zoe and Kate spent some time with her in the arena.  Hopefully, Monte will be ready to go in a week or two, and we can then ride together.  :)

I've had a few more calls for Monte but as usual, it's for children who are too young and small to handle his spirit.  The last person said she was looking for a calm horse.  I replied that Monte was "gentle, but has the high energy of an Arab."  Seriously people, don't you read the ad that says "for experienced riders" ?!?

Summer is winding down and I'll be sad to see my week-day barn time dwindle with the daylight.  Looking back, I wish I had taken more advantage of the lazy days I had and ridden Zoe a bit more, but I'm happy that I did get to spend a fair amount of time with her.  And truthfully, I love riding during the crisp days of fall oh so much more!