Birthday Girl

I can't believe that one year ago (on the 27th officially) I got to welcome my sweet bouncing baby buckskin girl into the world! I had been wanting to breed FOREVER and still somewhat regret not breeding my amazing appendix QH mare years ago (I recently saw a 4 year old with almost the same cross - same stallion that I wanted at the time with the same breed of mare - and I swooned!)

I could not be happier with my little mini Jetta filly - she is the prettiest little thing with a great brain and I can't wait to see where the future takes us! Of course I had to give my baby a ridiculous birthday party. I made her a cake by putting water in her normal grain, dicing up a couple apples into it and then squishing it into the shape of a cake. I drizzled a tiny bit of molasses on it and then stuck some more apples on it. Maisie LOVES apples but hasn't quite figured out carrots yet so it was just apple-flavored this year and she thought the cake was delicious! (she can be really picky)

It was cute but also looked like a pile of dirt

<3

Marge the sheep is a party crasher

She didn't even care about the party hat!

Sparkles the goat was polite about sharing the cake

I have the most tolerant boyfriend!

Our new roommate even participated! (Hopefully she didn't judge me too much lol)

This girl is the best

Can't believe I already have a yearling on my hands!

Run Away!

I went to buy Jetta her birthday carrots and for whatever reason they only had baby carrots, no big bags of full sized carrots. So I decided to treat her and bought her some organic carrots that still had the tops attached. I thought she'd love them! She's never gotten carrots like these, but I couldn't see why she wouldn't be excited about them.

 

This was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. Jetta was straight up scared of the carrots. The first carrot she ate, she had the tops hanging out of her mouth and she was spooking at them, but she wouldn't let go of them. I was dying, I almost slipped and fell in the mud I was laughing so hard.

I just thought this was too funny not to share on multiple platforms. My horse is such a dork...

Reluctant

Well, I may have found Jazz's new home. I finally posted her for sale and had a huge response. The first person came out and looked at her yesterday and I'm going to do a few reference checks and a barn check, then that may be it.

Having her back is hard because she is SO MUCH FUN. I forget how amazing she is, she really is my second heart horse after Grady. Plus, this time around I'm actually selling her instead of just leasing her. Whenever I sent her off to her new year long home, the lessor was always surprised that I wasn't having a hard time giving her away - I was dry eyed and happy because she had a person to pay attention to her like I couldn't.

But, she was still mine. I called the shots - I could take her back at any time, I could ask them to feed her more or less, give or withhold permission for certain things, etc. And I knew I would always get her back at the end.

I'm just reluctant to sell her. I know that anyone she goes to will treasure her, but it just makes me nervous. She deserves the best care there is. I just hope that with my checking out the family that I can make sure that that's what she'll get.

I started tearing up a bit on the way home after they came to see her. It's hard when you've had a horse for 10 years and they've just become an integral part of your life. I'll still make sure that if she ever needs another home, that she'll come back to me. But she'll no longer be mine, she'll have a forever home somewhere else. She deserves a new little girl though, someone who can grow with her and learn with her like I did.

My girl ♥

In slightly less downer news, there's yet another contest! SheMovedtoTexas is doing a giveaway of a Horze leather halter. I've posted about this company before because they have some awesome stuff at great prices. Fingers crossed I win because Misty is in need of a leather halter!

And I saw this on Eventing Nation the other day and it made me laugh: http://eventingnation.com/home/16-gifs-that-perfectly-articulate-how-you-feel.html

Quite accurate except for the dressage show one, I love dressage :)

Full Seats

I've decided I might as well try some full seat breeches out. I've avoided them because I just didn't like the feel of them - they have less give in the butt region and I want my butt to be able to move, lol! But, watching videos from shows, I've noticed my driving seat crops up as I slip around my saddle. I've always had a driving seat, but most of the time it's manageable and doesn't really show up when I'm riding at the barn, only when I'm tense and nervous at shows.

So now I have the "I wants". I've been wanting new white breeches forever anyways, since my white cotton breeches are going on like 7 years at this point (it's a miracle they're still alive). Bonus is that more breeches come in white full seats than knee patches.

I mentioned my thoughts to a friend and they gave me a pair of Kerrits full seat tights that they don't use and I actually kind of like them. My first thought wearing them today though was "thigh sweat!" but it's not that bad and I kind of like how sticky they are, though it will take some getting used to. Unfortunately they're not really show worthy with being tights and all, plus they're a beigy-green.

This is what I have now but diff color

So the hunt begins. I think I'll ask for a pair for my upcoming birthday because I'm not particularly wanting to spend $100+ on breeches at the moment. Ideally, I'd really like FITS breeches because I like how there's more range of motion with the patches and you don't get that "binding" like some other breeches might have. Pretty sure my parents will not be on board with spending $240 on breeches (they hate buying me horsey presents to begin with).

Requirements:

• Somewhat low rise. Doesn't have to be super low rise, I just don't want them coming up to my belly button. 
• I like the 2" waist band a lot of breeches have nowadays so I can use a wide belt
• I would prefer a grey seat, staining shows up less
• Some sort of elastic or sock leg bottoms would be appreciated because I hate velcro
• Seat has to have some kind of "stick" to it because some of the faux-suede seems slippery to me

Any suggestions? Here are my top choices:

Tredstep Symphony No. 3 Rosa Breeches - no full seat, but they look really nice, I like the reviews and how they appear to fit.

Kerrits Sit Tight Supreme - they're tights so they're a little thinner material, which is ok, black seat is a little too much contrast for me, but at least you will never see stains from the saddle!

Romfh Sarafina Full Seat Breeches - these are my top pick, but of course the most expensive. They have everything on my check list and I like the look of the fit a lot.

Tuff Rider Piaffe Full Seat Breeches - these are my second pick because they are a lot cheaper and appear to have everything I want almost except they have a slightly higher waist and velcro ankles. But if my parents don't get me breeches, I may be getting these for myself...

And just to make this post even longer, Jetta has been great these past two rides! Not amazing or perfect by any means, but she's trying and wasn't an absolute brat so I count that as a success. We are really needing to work on our lengthenings, stretchy trot circle and leg yields for the upcoming show. Plus trot-canter transitions, fine tuning our turn onto the diagonal at the canter (we've been almost missing it sometimes) and our halt. It's been a lot to think about!

We've been doing our canter spirals and today when I put her on a 20 meter circle she knew exactly what I was going to ask and when I asked for the 15 m circle she shortened her stride a tad and rocked her weight back a little, then the 10 m circle was almost perfect because she was actually prepared for it! Usually it takes 2 or 3 revolutions to get that nice 10 m canter circle before we start to spiral back out.

I did a lot of riding squares today, in making our corners sharp by asking her to pick up her shoulders and move them, almost like doing a pirouette and actually did a couple baby ones on corners where she acted like she didn't want to do the quarter turn so I ended up asking for a full turn. While I wouldn't say I actually know what I'm doing when it comes to pirouettes, I'd like to think I know the basics of training a horse for them so at least I'm (hopefully) laying a good foundation for Jetta's future. I was delighted when I tried the exercise at a canter and got a quarter turn that felt like a baby pirouette! I think this exercise will really help with our movement where you turn onto the diagonal at a canter in order to do a downward transition at X since sometimes I feel like we almost miss the turn...

And, we are still schooling some second level stuff too, including sitting trot work which I've majorly been neglecting. And to my complete surprise it hasn't been that hard! I was thinking that there's no way I could sit through a whole test, but now maybe I should make it a goal to sit a whole first level test by the end of this year just to make the transition to second level easier. While I can't sit Jetta's fancy trot yet (yes, I do think Jetta has multiple trots and I do categorize them, lol) I can sit her respectable trot which at this point would be fine to show her with, though it's my goal to be able to sit her fancy trot through a whole test.

Saw this on Matt the Cowpony's blog and thought it was appropriate!

Pick Me Up

Today has been a no-good-very-bad day. I'm glad it's almost over.

Poor Queenie, all cleaned up and nowhere to go.

It started off with me showing Queenie off to MB (Tux's owner). She'd been wanting to come see her for a while and was pretty sure that she wanted to buy Queenie, she just wanted her husband to ride since she would be his horse for trail riding.

I got out to the barn early and groomed her up all nice. She had a bath the day before and was all freshly braided. I loved on her while we waited, she was chill. MB arrived and we talked a little before I saddled Queenie up in their western saddle and off we went.

We walk/trot/cantered to the right then changed direction. We went to canter and everything was fine for a few strides and then Queenie threw in a huge buck. Not super unusual, but not normal either since she usually doesn't throw such big bucks and she hasn't bucked in quite a while. I asked her to canter again, and again, everything was going fine. Then she tossed her head and started acting like she was going to buck, plunging her head down and shaking it. Weird. I thought maybe something was bothering her in the face, but everything was normal so we trotted off and everything was fine for half a circuit before she started spinning around and shaking her head, so I bailed.

I thought maybe the bridle was pinching her ears, but it's the same bridle we've been using for weeks now. Nothing has changed. MB thought maybe it was the neoprene girth on her saddle, since mine is felt. So I took off the bridle and just put her halter on. I put my saddle back on and got on again. Queenie immediately flew backward and didn't want to stop and was threatening to buck, shaking her head like she had something in her ear. I got off and she was EXTREMELY ear shy and didn't want anyone to touch either ear, which is not normal.

So I have no idea what was happening. I didn't finish my ride, I lunged her briefly and she was fine.  I just put her back in her stall. MB didn't ride and I don't know if they're going to buy her anymore. I'm super depressed because I just don't know what happened. I'm going to try again tomorrow and if nothing has changed, I'll have the vet out. MB, ever the optimistic person, mentioned "that's like brain tumor behavior". Thank you, thank you very much for now making me super worried. Yes, I know she's not my horse, but I really like her and I just don't want to have to deal with this.

So that was an amazing start to my morning. And it's gone basically all downhill from there.

So, with that gloomy note, I found this post, "First World Horse Problems" on Horse Nation, which gave me a much needed laugh. These remind me of Jetta:

Typical

Poor Jetta. Everyone thinks she's a gelding.

Shenanigans

I have a cat story. I think this blog is turning into a horse/cat blog. But horse people tend to like animals in general so I hope you like cats!

Snowball is the barn kitty that I love. They keep trying to get me to take him home but I can't which makes me really sad because he is my #2 favoritest cat every (second only to my Chloe-cat). Anyways, he's not particularly happy about the arrangement. You see, he adores me just as much as I adore him. When he sees my car he literally comes running and you'll see a streak of white making a bee-line for me.

He follows me around the barn while I tack up Jetta meowing loudly and occasionally will sit on the arena wall or the jumps in the corner and watch me ride. Yesterday, he decided that more action was needed.

After my ride I got in the car and sat texting people before I turned the car on. I heard a "thunk" and looked up to see Snowball on the hood of my car staring at me, obviously trying to tell me that he wanted to be inside the car too.

Giving me the most evil glare imaginable

I honked the horn at him and he jumped a bit but didn't move, just kept staring intently at me. I rolled down the window to try to call him off but he didn't budge. I started the car. Still didn't budge. I slowly started backing up and he walked to the end of the hood and firmly sat down. He obviously was not getting off, I guess that's the downside to teaching him to ride the four wheeler. He's no longer afraid of sitting on running or moving vehicles. I got the car turned around and started inching forward, sure that he was going to get off once he realized how futile it was.

The car is actually moving in this photo, albeit slowly, but he is not budging!

But nope. He settled down on the hood as I drove to the end of the driveway. I got out to shut the gate and set him on the ground. I'm sure if my hood was made of something he could have dug his claws into I would have had to pry him off. As it was he sat in the driveway doing those big kitten eyes trying to sucker me into taking him home with me. I wish!

That cat is just too cute. After I got home I saw that the BO had texted me - she saw the whole thing and was just dying of laughter. Oh Snowball...

Equestrian Problems

I saw this on HorseNation the other day and loved them! Very clever and I can agree with every single one of them. Go to Equestrian Problems for more! Here's ones that I related to the most:

Definitely been given dirty looks...

Most awkward tan line ever!

Definitely been asked this.

Fungus and Feet and Photos

I suck at titles for blog posts. Either they're boring or don't really make sense. Anyways, to the fungus part in a minute.

And I have no pictures so please enjoy the illustrations :) I don't know how this trend started, but I am officially in love. Pictures from here.

Today WAS CRAZY. I had a completely, absolutely, no-breaks full schedule from 7am until 8pm. It sucked. I'm finally home and now have to study. Ugh... Instead I blog and find awesome pictures on the interwebz!

I haven't ridden Jetta in five days!! Ohmigoodness... It's been forever. Today I didn't have much time so I just lunged her and she got her toes trimmed. Hopefully I will get to ride tomorrow though I have a midterm on Thursday. Maybe 19 credits was a bit too much??

Anywho, Jetta's feet look great! AC commented on the fact that she doesn't have any fungus right now, whoo! That's so awesome. She's had a lot of fungus this past year and it was causing cracking in her hinds so I'm thrilled that I've eradicated it, mwahaha. Now I just have to get rid of it in Grady's hooves.

Interesting to think about Grady's hooves. He's always been the delicate flower of the herd and he doesn't like walking on gravel very much, though we never had any problems with bruising or anything. But he has little itty-bitty QH halter horse feet and I've noticed that his frogs could be harboring some fungus so it'd be interesting to see if we can eradicate it, if he stops being tender-footed.

Back to Jetta. Her new growth has completely grown all the way out so her feet look very pretty now. Guess where my mind went immediately? Hoof boots! We can finally look into getting some Renegades or Easyboot Gloves for her so we can go and trail ride on the super large rocky trails or go galloping down the gravel roads (well maybe not galloping, but you get the picture). Her feet stand up well to walk/trot on gravel that is of an average size, but there are those huge chunks of gravel that even shod horses have trouble with.

Aaannd, guess what? Apparently Jetta has a weird size feet. I measured them to be at 5 and 3/4" wide and 4 and 1/4" long. The only size that looks like it *might* fit, is the 4WW which is 6" by 6". The largest size they carry. Wow, I really didn't think her hooves were that big? I'm going to email them and see what they think about sizing. It could work, on their website it says that you can cut down the length to fit.... We'll see. We don't really need hoof boots that bad. Hopefully I'll take some brand new hoof pictures (I'm going to email them to the Renegade people so they can double check my measurements) and I'll post them on here so you can see the amazing Thoroughbred hooves :)

Aren't these photos awesome?! Even though they're completely unrelated to what I'm talking about ;)

ETA: Oh, oh, oh! I forgot - I have 51 followers now! Yay, thank you everyone  ♥

Funny & Cute Video Overload

This is what I do when putting off studying for my Bio midterm...

Bwahaha

*Disclaimer* Ok, so I like Parelli for the most part. I've passed my Level 2 assessment. Generally, I like the training system. Of course you put training tools in any not-so-bright people's hands and you just have not-so-bright people that now think they know everything. But anyways, all trainers can make mistakes and I don't agree with everything that Pat and Linda have done. And come on, sometimes you have to take a step back and just laugh, even if you do support someone :)

I thought this was hilarious. Obviously not for the guy on the ground, but the caption and everything? Too funny.

White Trash Dressage

I stumbed across a hilarious thread on the COTH forums.

I think Jetta and I could really excel at this. Forget trying to improve so that we can do "real" dressage. After all, we have the drunken trot down, where we zig zag down the centerline and then the "I don't want to stop" halt, where the rider is almost pulled out of the saddle and the horse stops crookedly and on the forehand. The sideways trot (aka the trays) where the horse refuses to travel in a straight line, instead insisting on going down the side with the haunches in. The octopus canter with the legs all going in different direction and absolutely no steering. The bucking trot/canter transition and spooking at nothing or at spots of sunlight that weren't previously there. If I wear spurs I could probably achieve the spin and rear move.

I would definitely fit in by wearing my jean capris with western boots and western spurs. Oh, and I have a jumping crop that I bedazzled with pink rhinestones. If I just covered the whole shaft of it, it would be perfect! I could put on my purple polo wraps to go with my hot pink saddle pad and neon lime t-shirt. Or better yet, I could borrow my friend's wintec saddle and use a western saddle pad! Yes, I think we could fit in very well...

Now that's Desensitized!!

Jumping Cow

I meant to post this yesterday, but everyone beat me to it! I promise I'm not copying everyone that has posted this, really!

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you can see that I'm fascinated by cows being ridden. There was that one ad on Craigslist selling a riding steer. There was the Hahahorses.com photo of the day of a showjumping heifer. And now there's this.



While I have to say that this is awesome, I'm definitely not giving up my horse any time soon in order to get a cow. It's just not the same!

Friday Funny

Murphy's Horse Laws

1. If you do a thorough check of your trailer before hauling, your truck will break down.

2. There is no such thing as a sterile barn cat.

3. No one ever notices how you ride until you fall off.

4. The least useful horse in your barn will eat the most, require shoes every four weeks, and need the vet at least once a month.

5. A horse's misbehavior will be in direct proportion to the number of people who are watching.

6. Tack you hate never wears out; blankets you hate cannot be destroyed; horses you hate cannot be sold and will outlive you.

7. Clipper blades will become dull only when the horse is half finished. Clipper motors will quit only when you have the horse's head left to trim.

8. If you're wondering if you left the water on in the barn, you did. If you're wondering if you latched the pasture gate, you didn't.

9. One horse isn't enough; two is too many.

10. If you approach within 50 feet of the barn in your "street clothes," you will get dirty.

11. You can't push a horse on a lunge line.

12. If a horse is advertised as "under $5000" you can bet he isn't $2500.

13. The number of horses you own increases according to the number of stalls in your barn.

14. An uncomplicated horse can be ruined with enough schooling.

15. You can't run a barn without bailing twine.

16. Hoof picks migrate.

17. Wind velocity increases in proportion to how well your hat fits.

18. There is no such thing as the "right feed."

19. If you fall off, you will land on the site of your most recent injury.

20. If you're winning, quit.

Friday Funny

This has to be my favoritest youtube vid ever. Can you see a pattern here with the whole riding + cow = I think it's hilarious?

On a side note, I finally figured out how to make videos on blogger actually fit the screen. Have I ever mentioned that I hate embedding videos?

Friday Funny

Horse Sales Terminology Translated:

BIG TROT: can't canter within a two mile straight-away.    
NICELY STARTED:  lunges, but we don't have enough insurance to ride him yet.
TOP SHOW HORSE:  won a reserve champion 5 years ago at a show with unusually low entries due to tornado warnings.
HOME BRED:  knows nothing despite being raised on the back porch.
BIG BONED:  good thing he has a mane and tail, or he would be mistaken for a cow.
NO VICES:  especially when he wears his muzzle.
BOLD:  runaway.
GOOD MOVER:  runaway.
ATHLETIC:  runaway.
NEEDS INTERMEDIATE RIDER:  runaway.
SHOULD MATURE OVER 16 HANDS:  currently 14 hands, dam is 14.2, sire is 15.3 hands, every horse in pedigree back 18 generations is under 16 hands, but *this* horse will defy his DNA and grow.
WELL MANNERED:  hasn't stepped on, run over, bit, or kicked anyone for a week.
PROFESSIONALLY TRAINED:  hasn't stepped on, run over, bit, or kicked anyone for a month.
RECENTLY VETTED:  someone else found something really wrong with this horse.
TO GOOD HOME ONLY:  not really for sale unless you can
       1) Pay twice what he is worth
       2) Are willing to sign a 10 page legal document to allow current owner to tuck him in beddy-bye every night.
EXCELLENT DISPOSITION:  never been out of the stall.
CLIPS, HAULS, LOADS:  clippity clippity is the sound of his hooves make as he hauls butt across the parking lot when you try to load him.
FOR SALE DUE TO LACK OF TIME:  rider cannot afford to spend anymore time in the hospital.
QUIET:  dead (almost).
SPIRITED:  psychotic.
WELL BRED:  mother and father are also brother and sister!
COLOR IS BLACK:  brown and/or dirty.
ANY VET CHECK WELCOME:  Please pay for us to find out what the !@#$ is wrong with him!
SUITS EVENTING:  no brakes.
SUITS DRESSAGE:  no accelerator.
SUITS ANYONE:  except us, we hate him! 

More laughter

Ok, you need to go here and take a look: http://eugene.craigslist.org/grd/2197650594.html

Too funny! I want to ride a cow :) I couldn't resist posting it.

Here's a copy of the text if you can't view it:

Unique Riding Calf - $300 (Eugene)

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Date: 2011-02-04, 3:06PM PST
Reply to: mailto:sale-hj8ef-2197650594@craigslist.org?subject=Unique%20Riding%20Calf%20-%20%24300%20(Eugene)&body=%0A%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Feugene.craigslist.org%2Fgrd%2F2197650594.html%0A ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

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Five month old Jersey calf is in training to be your next cutting cow!! He is a steer (can never make baby's) He is dehorned (Meaning he can't kill you) He is halterbroke (meaning you can lead him around) He is cute (meaning if your a dude you can pick up chicks) he is growing well (meaning he will be huge when fully grown). His father is chill enough to be ridden around and I think this little guy can be too.

His name his "Weaval" but I don't care what you rename him. He was supposed to be a little girl but since that didn't work out I have to sell him. He is eating grain. He still loves his milk, but he can't have that because I need it. He doesn't need it anyway.

So, if your interested I would love to hear from you. If your not interested then look at a different posting. If you think this is a joke? Well kinda, riding the bull was kinda a spur of the moment idea that worked out much better than I expected. The steer is up for sale for whatever you want to do with him. Eat him, whatever. Pasture pet, whatever. I would like him to be well taken care of though. He is a sweet lil' guy. $300. Firm.

• Location: Eugene
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 2197650594

Look at its cuteness! What do you think, a lesson pony? Haha, I thought it was quite amusing...