Favorite time of Year

I can't help it - I love clipping. Yes, it takes forever, you get hair literally everywhere (I found some in my teeth even!), but I think it's super fun.

I mentioned that I wanted to do something similar to what I did last time I clipped and I didn't realize how similar the clip was! Basically I did the same thing, with less hair on the neck, than last time so it's a modified blanket clip. I'm super happy with how it turned out!

So shinyy

Also, I've been wanting to buy some Snaks 5th Avenchew treats for a while now, so I finally ordered a cute Halloween cookie set and the unicorn crunch cups. You can give them to both dogs and horses and Kaida loves them! I've given her some of the crunch cups and she really likes them even though they're very hard and she had to figure out how to crunch them up with her soft mouth. 

Noms

 Jetta was a little less sure about her cookies, especially as they're pretty big. Once she figured out how to eat them she really liked them. They're just so adorable, I will definitely buy them again for special occasions (they're a little spendy), but they'd make perfect gifts.

A monster cookie for my monster pony

Fall (basically all of October) and Halloween have to be some of my favorites. Love this time of year <3

Christmas List

I always really enjoy reading everyone else's Christmas wishlists, so I thought I'd add my own. I'm someone that always has a huge list of "I-wants" and this year is no different!

Tack

Le Mieux Windsor Halter - I just saw this gorgeous halter. It looks so neat and what do you know, it's in our colors. It'd only have to be for special occasions since I'm not sure how you'd clean it, but it's so neat!

Ogilvy custom baby pad - I can't decide if I want a navy base with turquoise binding and gray piping, or a gray base with navy binding and turquoise piping... But I think I need a dressage and a jumping one in my life.

Since we're going with saddle pads, I think I have a problem. I love these Le Mieux one's. I think I need a turquoise, emerald and plum one.

Majyk Equipe Color Elite X Country boots - as soon as these came out, I knew I needed them. In turquoise obviously. I've heard such great things about these boots and we are definitely in need of an upgrade.

Harry's Horse Dressage Boots - if it comes in turquoise, basically I have to have it. We already have some dressage boots, but I love the color of these ones!

Cambox Helmet Camera - I've been wanting a helmet camera for a really long time and this just seems like a great design!

Apparel

20x60 I need tee - I love this shirt!

G/FORE leather gloves - these gloves are gorgeous. They come in pretty much every color and look amazing, they would be so much fun to have for schooling in aqua!

Coolblast Medallion Shirt - I really enjoy this pattern. It's a bit out of my price range for a schooling sun shirt, but I'd love to give it a try!

Dubarry Glanmire boots - My Dubarry's have seen a lot and I love them but they are definitely starting to show their wear after a lot of hard use. I love this new design!

Miscellaneous


 Truck tent - this would make horse showing so much easier!

Portable water heater - It would be so nice to have hot water for bathing in the winter. I feel so bad using cold water so I try to avoid bathing, but sometimes it just has to be done! Stacey just got this one and gave it a great review so it's going on my list :)

Internet!!

The internet is an amazing thing. I mean, just having it is awesome. We've been internet-less for about a week and a half so I haven't been able to post anything. Ahh, the joys of being a broke young adult and living with four others in the same situation...

Anywho, back to the ponies. As always, there hasn't been a ton going on. But, I did have a great trail ride last week. One of my roommates has been wanting to go riding for a while and I finally had a day off where I didn't have anything planned so I loaded the ponies up and hit the trails.

Both girls were good, at least once I got Jetta loaded. I dealt with a lot of trailer loading issues when I got her, but we worked everything out. Now, it still crops up occasionally where she throws a complete and total hissy fit about getting in the trailer for about 10 minutes and then will randomly decide that she's done and then proceeds to hop in the trailer like it's no big deal. Sigh.

Minus that incident, everything went great. I haven't hauled the trailer in forever so I was afraid my poor old truck wouldn't start, but it was fine. The weather ended up being perfect and it didn't even rain on us!

I LOVE BEING OUTSIDE

My roommate is one of those people that just picks up riding really quickly. I gave him the rundown of how to steer, stop and go and do an emergency stop and we were off. He told me he wanted to gallop and so after a discussion on how to trot (he picked up posting right off the bat) and then ask for the canter, we went for an easy lope on a flat stretch.

We walked the horses for a while and then came to this really steep hill. Much easier to canter up it than to walk right? I let Jetta out into a nice extended canter and Misty came quickly behind us as fast as her little legs could go. It was fun!

Both girls were puffing a little by the top, but luckily the trail loops nicely around so they got to walk the rest of the way and weren't even damp by the time we got back to the trailer. Overall, a lovely way to spend the day. I haven't been trail riding in forever it feels like and it was good to be back on my monster pony. I haven't ridden her in too long! Plus, it's always better to hit the trails with a friend.

And, almost as exciting (or maybe even more exciting? I can't decide), I got my blogger exchange gift! I love it. I was super vague on what I would like to receive, but it's absolutely perfect. Thanks Kristen and thank you Tracy for hosting it!

Rest assured, there will soon be better quality pictures on the pony!

Horsey Valentine

A day late, but I got to spend some quality cuddle time with my ponies yesterday for Valentine's Day. Jetta has been extra cuddly for the past couple days, following me around her stall while I cleaned, trying to groom me even, except for today when I really wanted to cuddle, she wasn't interested. She briefly sniffed me all over to make sure I didn't have any treats and then went back to eating her hay.

Oh well, I still love the big goofball.

cute stuff

I saw this on Facebook and thought it was too perfect. This is basically our relationship!

Funk

I'm sure you've probably noticed that I've been in a bit of a funk this past month. Both in terms of riding horses and blogging. I don't know what it's been, but I've been so out of riding recently. This tends to happen off and on over winter for a day or two every so often, maybe up to a week tops before I get back into the swing of things just because of the weather, but it's seriously been a month. I am starting to be concerned. While I love seeing the horses and cuddling with them, I just haven't been feeling the desire to ride. At all. When I first moved the horses home, I hated it because I wanted to ride so bad but I didn't have the time. Now, it's just whatever.

Conveniently just saw this on Pinterest. I think the first part is very applicable for me right now!

So as it is a new year, I decided that my first action would be to get rid of this funk. It has to go. I decided yesterday that regardless of weather (it was super foggy on the first) I was going to go for a trail ride. It just had to happen.

And I'm really glad that it did. It had a ROUGH start. It's kind of a long story:

First off, our driveway is really small. It takes a fair amount of finagling to turn the truck and trailer around and if there's other vehicles in the driveway, there's no way to do it and my brother left his truck at home with no spare key... Which meant that I had to drive down the hill through the forest and through the bottom gate of the pasture.

Did all that and then went to get Miss Jetta. Who saw me and immediately galloped in the opposite direction. Brat. I had to walk up to the barn and grab some grain to bribe her over. This is why this horse needs to be ridden often. She has enjoyed her time off way too much.

I tacked her up and then went to get her in the trailer. She would not go. For like the next half hour we bickered over it. She hasn't been this bad for like three years almost. She was rearing and tearing around and being an all around terror. Misty was even trying to be helpful and was sniffing the trailer so I asked her to get in and she hopped right in without a halter or anything, then I asked her to get out, thinking that Jetta would see sense and realize that the trailer was not a death trap. Jetta still wouldn't get it. Eventually I did win, but by this point I was starting to reevaluate my decision to go for a ride...

Then I had to drive the trailer through the pasture gate without letting Misty out who by this point was having a conniption fit over the fact that Jetta was leaving. Of course the gate is wide enough that I can drive the trailer through and there's still room for Misty to come through, so once I got through a little bit I had the truck door open so I could keep shooing her away. At one point she came all the way through so I jumped out of the seat to chase her away (no way was I letting her onto the road!), forgetting to put the truck in park and while I was getting Misty to go back it started slowly rolling away...

Luckily I finally got it all together, Misty didn't escape, the truck didn't roll away from me and Jetta was in the trailer. Phew. We went to my favorite horse park for a ride and ended up going for a seven mile ride in an hour and ten minutes. Jetta was REALLY good. She walked over all the bridges without me having to get off, by the end with no hesitation. She jumped over all the fallen tree trunks and went in the water. It was a great ride!

In da river

Really neat new trail we found

The Great Blanket Massacre

Oh horses. I was cleaning stalls yesterday when my brother, who was driving past the pasture, called to tell me that Misty's blanket was half on/half off of her. I sighed and walked down. Sure enough, she had broken both leg straps and had the blanket up around her neck.

She saw me walking down and walked up to greet me which I thought would make my job of fixing the blanket easier. Then Jetta took off at a gallop from behind Misty, which of course Misty has to follow....

Both horses galloped two laps around the pasture while I watched as Misty's blanket came completely off the back end of her. It's like watching a train wreck in horror... I was sure she was either a) going to catch the blanket on the fence or a tree and hurt herself, b) step on it at a full out gallop - which she did repeatedly - and break her leg, or c) trip and fall over it.

Finally she stepped on it in such a way that she got "stuck" and when I walked up both girls just stood there. Jetta with a totally innocent look on her face as if she didn't instigate this whole thing.

While originally the blanket had been salvageable before she started running, after, both leg straps and surcingle straps were broken and the entire neck region was shredded. Definitely beyond saving. Luckily I got her light weight blanket bag from being cleaned and repaired so I got to put that on. Just what I need to do right now, buy her a new blanket! I guess she wasn't satisfied with her Christmas present and thought she needed something better...

Help me?

Such a bad pony... Though I mostly blame Jetta on this one.

Speaking of Christmas, the girls got some hot bran mash for Christmas. I always make it for Christmas and Birthdays, it makes me feel good and the horses love it :) Well, at least Jetta does.

Misty actually rather liked it, but she didn't even finish it before turning to her hay, so I had to give her feed pan to Jetta who licked both bowls clean. Jetta LOVES her mash, she got excited when I let her in her stall and she could smell it on me.

apples

Wheat bran

some molasses

and combine!

"Hm, I guess this stuff is good"

"Omnomnom, this is the best stuff ever!"

Good Start

I don't know why, but I am having a FANTASTIC morning today. I'm just super happy, which is unusual. I guess it's a combination of:

• Sleeping more than 6 hours last night! 
• Getting all imminent homework projects/studying done last night so that I don't have to worry about them today. Feels good!
• Found a forgotten Almond Joy candy bar in my backpack during class. It was delicious. 
• I easily found a parking spot on campus this morning and didn't have to drive around looking for 20 minutes. 
• I get to have a 4 day weekend at home which = two days off of school work and riding my horses!
• Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I LOVE Thanksgiving food. My mom is an amazing cook. Can't wait!
• Took a final exam in one class today and I felt great about it.

There is still the chance that my amazing day will decline, but here's to hoping it won't :)

But really, there's so many things I'm thankful for!

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and also share two things:

First, Niamh had a bunch of tack stolen the other day. I can't even imagine... So if you could go to her blog, maybe see if you have anything she needs that you'd be willing to donate to her, or just offer support. The blogging community really is awesome for things like this.

Second, Tracy at Fly On Over is hosting a Blogger Gift Exchange! I'm so excited about this. I briefly thought about doing this myself, but decided that I was too unorganized to run it, so I was so happy to find that someone else had this awesome idea! I LOVE giving gifts, especially to horse people. So I'm really looking forward to that :) Everyone else should go join too, it will be so much fun!

Sunny Day Jaunt

I had a pretty good ride on Jetta today, but the best part was the weather!!

Sunny and 56 degrees = warm enough to ride in a t-shirt! After our ride I took Jetta outside to graze in the sun and soak up some vitamin D and it was glorious. I miss the sun.

I just sat on Jetta for a good 40 minutes while she nommed then decided I wasn't going to get off anytime soon so I put her bridle back on and we took a quick jaunt across the road to the weigh station just for fun. While I would love to ride down the road, despite being a country road in the middle of nowhere, there's A LOT of big trucks that go through so I don't think it's very safe.

But we did get to at least do a mini "trail ride" across the street and weighed ourselves :) Such dorks, I think Jetta and I go well together. I definitely didn't want to leave the barn today!

Can't really see it in this pictures, but I guess we weigh 1300lbs together!

Not a bad way to spend Valentine's day - just me and my girl in the warm sunshine!

Questionnaire

Happy thanksgiving!

I saw this survey on a couple different blogs, starting with Viva Carlos and thought it looked fun - everybody's doing it :) 

Splurge or save: 
1. saddle save-ish - it's used and nice, not super fancy but it works!
2. board save as much as I can w/o compromising care, I really lucked out at finding an amazing, cheap place!
3. halter well, Jetta has three halters - two cheap ones and one fancy one for shows, so in between
4. bit  save, try to buy used ones
5. bridle save - most of my bridles are used, I actually only have one I bought new and it was on sale
6. saddle pad  save
7. trailer well, it was expensive, but when compared to other trailers, it was a save :)

First thing that comes to mind: 
1. Haflinger Cute!
2. Quarter Horse Jazz and Grady, my two most amazing horses
3. Thoroughbred Jetta
4. Warmblood Someday...
5. Welsh Cob So freaking adorable! And talented. I'd love a North Forks Cardi baby someday :)

This or That:
1. English or Western - I do both but have started to prefer english
2. tall or short - tall horses are my favorite :)
3. trail ride or beach ride - love both, but beach rides are so much fun
4. long mane or short mane - easier to maintain
5. hunters or jumpers
6. XC or barrel racing
7. outdoor arena or indoor arena - at least when it's nice out!
8. trot or canter 
9. canter or gallop - the faster the better
10. paddock boots, tall boots, or cowboy boots
11. horse shoes or barefoot - barefoot all the way!
12. saddle or bareback - all my horses except Tux have super bony backs - no thank you!

About you: 
1. How long have you been riding? 11 years
2. Do you own or lease a horse? own 4 horses, Jetta is the main girl though
3. Breed? Age? Height? Name? (if you don’t own or lease, you could talk about your lesson horse) Thoroughbred, 6, 16.2hh, Jetta

4. Do you have any other pets?   Yes, I have a cat named Chloe that lives at my parent's house and two family dogs
5. If your horse was a person, what kind of voice would they have Hmm, tough one. Probably slightly preppy and obnoxious even though she's super smart :)

6. Does your horse have a “color”? If so, what is it, and what do you have in that color? aqua blue and navy - aaand we have saddle pads, duct tape, polo shirts, blankets, etc.

7. Does your horse do any tricks? She plays with a bouncy ball :) But not really

8. Have you ever dressed your horse up for Halloween? Not Jetta, but it would be fun!

Favorites: 
1. Breed? QH, TB, Warmblood

 2. Discipline? Eventing, Dressage, Jumpers
3. Coat color? In order - Palomino, Buckskin, Gray, Chestnut with chrome
4. Famous horse? Snowman 

5. Horse race/competition? Hmm, Inavale HT is my favorite that I've been to so far, but I love watching Rolex!
6. Brand of tack? Antares!!
7. Thing to do with your horse? Trail ride or basically doing anything outside

Mashing It Up

I love to make the horses a yummy bran mash around the holidays. It makes me feel like I'm giving them a nice treat for Christmas and they sure seem to love it too!

I made up some mash for Jetta this morning and gave it to her this afternoon when I went for a visit. She got this and a hoof trim, though she wasn't exactly a very good girl today! Apparently someone has forgotten how to lunge...

Yum!

My Horsey Valentines

Jane over at TLH started a great thread about blogging about how you met your horse and why you chose them. I thought it was a great idea, so here's my story for my three horses:

My first horse was Grady. I've talked about him before, but he is truly my first love. It really was love at first sight. My parents had finally agreed to let me get a horse and had found a knowledgeable horse person to help us out. He was the first horse that we went to see, and ended up being the only one.

We showed up and it took a while to catch him in the field. He was 16 years old, a bright chestnut color (he is my favorite color: that of a shiny copper penny, though at the time I hated that he was a "brown" horse), 15.3hh QH. I had never really ridden horses (except for my bratty neighbor's horse) and most of what I knew how to do came from reading books. I was (and still am) a major bookworm.

I walked, trotted and attemped to canter him around a little dirt paddock and decided right then and there that I wanted him. He was perfect in my eyes. We bought him and I started taking lessons on him. Even though he was a brat, I still loved him. I didn't matter that he tried to buck me off daily, enjoyed scraping me along the fence, and rolled in the mud after hours of careful grooming.

What makes me love him the most is how much he tries for me. We've broken most of his bad habits and even after having the winter off I can hop on and he remembers everything. He tolerated me as a beginner and helped me learn to ride, developing that stubborness that has helped me to work with difficult horses and inspired me to become a trainer.

 




Next was Jazz. She has an almost opposite story of Grady. I didn't want her. My mom wanted a horse that should could ride with me and I was going to use this horse to do 4-H because Grady didn't really understand the concept of doing a pattern.

There wasn't anything that made me dislike Jazz, but we just didn't click. I rode her and she was perfect. I just didn't like her. My mom decided that she liked Jazz and we bought her. I took lessons on her but nothing really changed. I still didn't like her and she didn't like me much either. She wasn't much of a people horse, she liked to convince Grady to gallop away when I came to ride them. She didn't respect me, though she was never bad, but I couldn't earn her trust. She never bucked me off like Grady, though I did fall off several times through my own fault.

I can't exactly pinpoint when I really started to bond with Jazz. We did very well our first year in 4-H, making it into the medallion class. My work doing Parelli with her really paid off and she began trusting me. I switched trainers and started doing dressage and trail, both things that Jazz preferred to pleasure. We really grew together. I started trusting her and in return I have her complete trust. That is what I really love about her. I can ask her to do really scary stuff, like drag a heavy log through a small waterhole (which by the way was really hard, but Jazz didn't even bat an eye) or jump a giant oxer covered in flowers and while she'll be hesitant, if I ask her to do it, she'll try.

Then came Jetta. I had been looking at buying a new project horse, this time set on a Thoroughbred or a more dressage/hunter type horse. Jetta was the first horse we saw (again with the firsts) and one of only two horses that did not have any issues. One mare had issues with her reproductive system which were outwardly visible (yikes!) and one gelding had four clubbed feet (though it might have been because he was growing too fast for his body). There was only one other horse in contention, but he was more expensive and had one slightly clubbed foot, though I wasn't all that worried about it. What won me over was Jetta's attitude. She was so curious and sweet. She let me hug her face and snuffled me all over, ending up nibbling on my shoes. It just clicked immediately. There have been times when I've questioned why I got her, as she can be stubborn and a little obnoxious, but I still love her <3