Boy, I have gone soft!

Went to a great trail clinic yesterday... more of a get together of some horsie gals with our horses. Anyway, I took Mia.

I took Mia 160 miles. From her stall to Maryanne's house. There she waited while I went to class and came back and cleaned stalls (and cooed at her to settle down and eat something) until almost five. After that we left back to Bend to get some fuel before I realized I left my change purse (and so my money) at home. Crap.

So we go out to the clinic. I had to call Keith in for an emergency fuel up. Meanwhile Mia and I got there first, and I unloaded her and walked her around for a bit. Nothing exciting, she was settling in just fine...

Until...

Anotherhorsearrived!!! Dun dunnn.

No, she did fine. She was obviously nervous (I can always tell because she doesn't seem to put her weight on her legs - she mini dances). I was trying to pay attention to what the trainer lady was saying to the other horse's owner - my mistake.

Anyway, after twenty minutes or so of Mia doing her own thing trainer lady takes over with her (I praised God).

I realized then how soft I've gone. I'm the horse owner I hate! When I'm training a horse, it's not hard at all for me to just expect the right answers. I turn said horse over to owner and 80% of the time it falls apart. It takes months for the owners to learn how to correctly ask for their horse's attention and respect.

I am that owner! Lord, what have I done to poor Mia? No wonder everything's going slow - I'm sloppy and inconsistent!

I thought I was going to learn a lot about Mia going to this clinic, instead I learned a lot about myself! I'm off to the barn to practice with new-found vigor. We will go over that bridge next week!

Oh yeah, and I didn't get home until sometime after 9:30... way too late for me to be hauling a horse around. Mia was starved because she didn't want to eat all day, so she just ate breakfast and a few handfuls of equine senior (calories) I was able to get down her throughout the day. She refused to eat hay at Maryanne's but was snatching at the grass near the end of the clinic so I could tell she had settled down a bit. What a day for us both!

Getting ready!

You called?

I'm very excited about tomorrow's upcoming trail clinic... so much that I can't wait for tomorrow to be over and 6pm to be here!

I'll be taking Mia in-hand through the obstacle course... let's see how that goes. I've never worked her around other horses (other than Static and the horses hanging out at the boarding barn(s)... do they count?). I'm even nervous about getting her in the trailer without Static there! How will she haul? She's been attached to him so much the last few months she might flip.

Really, she's been getting much much better the last month or so since we've moved to the new place. Way more confident and okay with being out of sight of Static. The other day I did pay her a visit with plans to ride, but she was playing so hard (bucking, rearing, running around Static) I didn't feel like she was ready to be ridden, so we longed and did some ground work. Man, is she getting better!

No more pushing into me, no more pulling me around, no more stomping her feet solid and refusing to move. It's a magical thing. She certainly didn't want to longe (who ever does) but once she got into the swing of things she went around a few times in good style.

I wish I had the energy to crop and post more photos... here's a good one of Static in his classic pose...

See why I call him Fabio?

Victorious in his catch... the mighty Static eats again!


That look says it all...

Miss Perfect!

Okay, so Mia is just coming out of her first strong heat of the season (whatever that season is.. Winger? Wednesday was a decent day so I decided to go riding.

Unfortunately I was so excited about the idea I forgot all my tack. Smooth. So I got out there and thought "heh, I can ride bareback... and in a halter..". No problem! The first (and last) time I rode Mia bareback I almost ended up in the wall. I kind of landed on my feet!

She did great this time. I got on, got off, got on, got off, got on, got off.. rubbed her so much I think at one point she fell asleep. All that buildup and I decided not to ride. It was perfect.

I know that seems strange, but I thought "heh, it can't get better than this" so I decided to just leave it as a mounting/one step lesson. It was great, and I was so proud that she was so calm with me. She normally stands pretty well while being mounted, but I can tell she's a tad tense about it (like she's dreading the ride). I don't know if it's because she was worked so hard when ridden by the previous owners, or what. Either way, I don't like her tension and I feel like it's a bad way to start a ride. I've been meaning to do a really good mounting lesson with her and this turned out to be the perfect day for it.

We're supposed to have great weather this weekend so let's pray that turns out and I can go real riding! Bareback, but maybe I'll put a bridle on her. Maybe not. I'd rather ride her with just a neck rope - but we're a looonnnggg way from that I think.

She's been so much better since moving her to the new boarding place - she can stand to be more than ten feet away from the love of her life, and is more confident and happy in general. Her hooves are really coming along nice, and I'm starting to really enjoy trimming her hooves myself and seeing them turn out really well.

I'll try to get some photos soon!

Not so sassy now, are we?

So we went out at feeding time today to check hooves and pick them out. The wind was crazy enough to ruin my riding plans today, but I was really happy to see her anyway. She only moved away from me once, while I was switching hooves. Given, I wasn't holding them up and wailing on them with a rasp, but she also didn't have a halter on today and there was some nice food in front of her :).

I've read a lot of blogs of people that are on the edge of giving up their troublesome ponies... maybe it's the weather? I think we'll all look forward to a summer of riding! I'm hoping I'll have a break in the weather this coming week and some free time between classes to work with her a bit. I'd love to ride, but we'll see how it all plays out... groundwork groundwork groundwork... grumble grumble grumble...

Fine then, let your hooves fall off!

Just had to vent a bit. Spent pretty much my whole afternoon sweating, covered in dirt and manure and horse hair. Why am I overweight when I get to lift weights in the form of stomped down pillars of bone and fur?

My workout was tidying up Mia's front hooves. Just the fronts. An hour and a half +. I usually take my time (a long time) as I'm no pro, but I really just went in there to clean up her fronts and make sure the thrush she's blessed me with was going away as planned.

Instead, she *tried* to walk away from me in the pasture. Thankfully, she does have a brain, and only took about two steps in the wrong direction, then turned back towards me. Smart pony.

She didn't do anything too naughty, just the fun little tricks of leaning into me, hopping over a tiny step (so I had to move my stand and all my tools back into reach), stomping her little feet into the ground. Bitch.

I try. Okay? I try hard. Times are tough and I'm spending all this money on a horse I can barely ride, because she's so insecure. She's green. She's just not used to trail riding. I call bull on my own excuses for this mare. Pray the weather rocks this weekend, we're going riding. I'm ready to canter some circles and get us both in shape for some serious summer fun in the mountains.

Sigh... Days like today she just pushes my buttons...

The costs of pets...

So today I gave the vet a call, just wanting to get an estimate of how much $$ I was going to shell out for our dogs this spring. I've been wanting to get them both tested for heartworms, as well as Hailey's rabies vaccine (picked up her booster Parvo vaccine this afternoon) so we can get them tagged and all that good stuff... After the call with the vet, I feel like putting them back on Pedigree (screw it, Old Roy) and forgetting all about heartworms, Parvo, Rabies, etc. and leaving them at home where they are "safe" and sound.

So I'm looking at about $310 for Hailey's checkup, heartworm test, 6mo. supply of heartworm medication, rabies shot + Hershey's heartworm test and 6mo. supply. Thankfully Hershey won't need to have another examination since he's been seen there before, and we can get Hailey's rabies vaccine at the same time so we won't have to go in for a seperate visit. And we're still making payments on Static's last choking incident.

This wouldn't be so hard if their dog food wasn't nearly $50 for a 35lb bag. And we wonder why we're poor. Also, Hershey and Hailey don't want to eat the $50 dog food unless I poor $18 probiotics on top of it. And they can't go out without their $24 head harnesses (without freaking out and pulling us over all the time anyway) and $35 matching leather leashes. Well, maybe the leashes was me. At least I got Hailey a cheap nylon collar since she's growing out of them like a weed in a flowerpot.

We love our pets (maybe not Keith sometimes ;) ) and want to do everything for them, but I thank God we don't have any more than we do. We still have to get Theo fixed - I'm thinking of doing the surgery myself at this point! Here we can't afford a $30 surgery for our one cat, but we can afford $300-$400 in vet bills for the dogs and $500 for the horses to fake choke. Poor Theo.

So once I can get ahold of the huge vet bills we'll be having in the next few months maybe it will drive me to yet another job... Maybe God will bless us with a huge tax refund for no good reason? God or the President save us!