What’s Red & Blue?

The inside of our trailer! Why? Because MIL and Chase had a great show on Saturday! Chase started off with walk/trot. He looked great (yes I am biased)! He’s still having a hard time knowing what to do with his “free” hand but he kept it off of the reins so I was proud of him. He did a fabulous job and came out with a 1st place blue.

Next it was MIL’s turn. She looked great as well and had a nice ride. Sis was a bit fast for my liking but the judge must have liked her as she placed 2nd (1st place horse was very nice & would have been my choice as well).

Then MIL moved on to WP (Chase is still to young for that). I didn’t get to watch because I was in the class with her (on Abby lol) but they ended up winning the class so she must have had a nice ride. Abby didn’t do too badly. I figured at the beginning we’d be sitting in the middle of the ring before the class was over but the most she did was chomp at the bit. She got both leads well and while I had to push her to keep a trot she was more then happy to lope.

Next it was time for the games! Chase didn’t want to do poles because he always forgets the pattern. I told him to do them anyways and he did and won! He did the pattern perfectly and did most of it at a lope!

MIL and I took Abby in for shit and giggles and that little pony can turn! I ended up getting 5th on her which is sad because she wasn’t even trying (hmmmmm the wheels are turning – just kidding).

Next it was time for barrels. Chase got 2nd in this class but he did great! MIL and I didn’t place but we had a blast. Abby wasn’t as thrilled with it but it was good for her.

Here are a few pictures of “the man”. Doesn’t he look sharp?

Man is it hot!

I’m sure it isn’t as hot here as it is other places but it is what you are used to and for me it is hot out!

Saturday Redfield had their “Old Settler’s Days” and the saddle club was giving pony rides. Since Sis is out for the count at the moment MIL decided to use Abby in the parade. I was a bit nervous since this was Abby’s first parade and I wasn’t going to be riding to see how she did.

For the most part MIL said she did very well. She is having issues focusing on her footing. For example: It took me 5 min. to get her from the grass to the street. Once on the street any pavement that was a shade darker/lighter was an issue. Same for the grass, if there was an area that was darker/lighter she didn’t want to cross it. This is something that I’ve known we needed to work on so I guess it’s time for me to get with the program.

I thought that she looked very nice in the parade though. Here are a few pics.

She’s the very last horse/pony



Next to Anna (the youngest drill rider)



Pretty little pony



The end!

Lean on me

At night I typically put the feed for the am feeding in each horse’s stall. This way I know that they get fed what they are supposed to get fed and so that if I am feeding I don’t get dirty (I have to feed on the days DH works and I’m in my work clothes). Today was a work day for DH so I really wanted to make sure I had the feed ready to go last night.

We had to go set up a round pen for the “Old Settler’s Days” so I wasn’t able to get my am feeding put in like normal. After we were done setting up I decided to go out and get the feed put in each stall for the morning so I wouldn’t be late for work. When I arrived Lucy and Sis were head to butt stomping off the bugs. A storm was moving in and it seems the bugs are always worse before a storm. The horses were miserable so I decided to get some spray and put it on them.

My pasture is split and I have an alley that goes behind the barn and opens up into the pasture I want them to come into. When they are in the “back” pasture they know to go down the alley to come to the barn. When they are in the “front” pasture they don’t like backtracking to the alley to come to the barn so they sit and look at me with sad eyes. As I walked into the barn to get the fly spray Black started to head towards the back of the pasture so she could get to the alley (smart old gal) while the others sat there and looked at me with those big pathetic eyes.

As I come out of the barn I notice that Black has stopped by one of our little trees we planted in the pasture (there are 2) and she’s looking at me. The next thing I know she barrels her shoulder into the tree causing it to bend and then positions herself directly over the tree and rocks back and forth over the top of it to scratch her privates! OMG I was laughing so hard until I realized she was going to uproot my tree!

She finally stopped and stepped off of it so I sprayed down the three horses that were close to me and then headed towards her. I no more then start in her direction and she gets the tree down into position again and “goes to town”. This can’t be the first time she’s done this. Seems she has it down to a science by now. I drag her off of the tree and as I go to spray her she runs off. Little fart!

Movin on up!

After Thursday nights ride MIL decided that Sis was still “off” so she called the chiro. Friday the chiro came and now Sis is on a month of rest. Needless to say the poor gal had more things wrong w/her then mine combined. Her shoulder was dropped down and pushed back (hmmm, drill fall maybe) and her hip was dropped (probably from falling in the hole which was the reason for the call), multiple ribs out, back out, etc. Sis looked like she was in a coma by the time Jen got done with her. She still has heat in her butt muscle so Jen suggested a month off and then for her to come back after that time (this is the first time Jen has ever suggested coming back).

MIL was pretty upset. She is gone for 2 weeks this month so I told her to just use Abby for drill. She was very nervous about this (ummm not sure why, she is Chase’s pony) so last night I went with her to practice. If Abby was going to do anything she would try to kick. We started the pattern and LMAO ¼ of the way through I thought that poor fat pony was going to die. I could tell she was thinking about kicking so I kicked her up a notch and the thought disappeared.

When we got ½ way through she was fuddling out on me so I popped her w/the over/under and she kicked up so I popped her again. Finally she went and when we ended I think she thought she was going to die. I hopped off and let MIL jump on. Their “run” was much better but you could tell poor Abbs was tired. I think this will be good for her.

Oh and yes, the show got cancelled. At this rate we won’t have to worry about showing at all this year.

First Show of the Year

Well if it doesn’t get rained out that is. Saturday is our first show of the year so we headed over to the arena to practice last night. I want Chase to use Sis for w/t instead of Abby (he doesn’t have a chance w/Abby) so I wanted him to practice on her. With him being gone and Ty being sick he hasn’t been on Abby much either so I knew she was going to need ridden before he “ran” her barrels and poles on Sat.

It was a beautiful night. DH’s back was still bothering him so he watched Ty and I took Lu. When we got there I did some LFR w/Abby and then put Chase on and he started off w/his flexing and his ORS. After some ORS at the w/t I had him do the passenger lesson at the trot. Chase really needs to work on his balance so doing the passenger lesson is just as good for him as it is for Abby.

By this time I’d gotten Lu saddled up and into the ring to do some LFR. OMG was she full of P & V! She was trying to crow hop & buck and fart. She was really feeling good until we hit a few good hard turns and then she decided to mellow out. I bridled her up and jumped on.

I told Chase go to ahead and do some ORS at the lope and after about 5 min. of that I let him do the passenger lesson at the lope. Abby hates that. She’s becoming so slow at the lope that it isn’t even funny. She almost goes up more then she goes forward. When she finally stopped trying to be close to Sis or Lu I let him stop her and rest her. By now I was trying to do the passenger lesson w/Lu at the trot but she decided she wanted to lope instead.

Since loping is one of Lu’s issues I decided to let her lope until she was tired enough to trot. To my surprise she went for quite a while. Chase and MIL swapped horses (what a sight) and Chase practiced his w/t with Sis. We worked on passing and only using one hand on the reins.

Lucy still didn’t want to trot so we loped some more. Chase and MIL finished up and I worked on a few more things with Lu & then got off and tied her up. While she was cooling out I jumped on Abby and loped her around a bit. She’s changing so much and it is a nice change. She’s going to be a really nice pony.

Tomorrow MIL will be doing w/t and wp with Sis. Chase will be doing w/t with Sis and poles and barrels w/Abby. I won’t be showing. Lu isn’t ready and I’m afraid if I do then I will want her to do things that I haven’t asked her to do yet which isn’t fair to her.

Pretty Pony

Not much to report here but I took some pictures of Abby this weekend so I thought I’d share.





Can you see her blanket?



Does her belly look like it has the brindle lines to you?





Her little jug head is growing on me (or maybe it’s just growing)

Not enough time

It seems that as we creep further and further into summer I lose more and more time.

Last Sat. DH and MIL rode in the Van Meter parade. I was very shocked and surprised that DH wanted to ride but I was happy to give up the spot. I had planned on riding w/MIL so she didn’t have to ride alone but parades aren’t really my thing. Black was a bit nervous when we got there. I wasn’t sure if she’d ever been in a parade before but she did fine. As soon as they started moving she settled right down.

Last night was drill practice. MIL was late getting there so I rode Sis around to warm her up for her and ended up riding her the first run. One of the members who is new this year said “Are you riding Sis?” I replied telling her yes I was and asked why. She replied with “she looks like a totally different horse with you riding her”. lol Sis did look nice. She had her head tucked and was moving very well. She still needs to work on her breaks and she’s still leaning on the bit a lot but she’s not my horse to fix. ;)

After MIL showed up I hopped on Lu and rode around with them while they cooled down between runs. My saddle was on Sis so I rode bareback. Lucy will teach me balance! She is so small that she is harder to stay on bareback. She was very good though & after some time I felt my body relax and we were moving more in sync. Not much else is going on. The weather has been on/off raining and it seems like when it rains it pours.

Goofy Lucy

Not much to report. Ty has been sick so I haven’t really had a chance to do much with the horses.

Saturday I did meet up w/a friend from the JL board. We road the gravel road (we were supposed to go on a trail ride but they were too muddy) and had a nice chat. It was nice meeting her. We learned that Black has a bit of a “hitch” in her giddy up. We knew she had a stifle issue (it pops) but never gave it much of a second thought since we hadn’t had any issues. Well she has some issues with it going down hills. I’m glad we learned about it on the road vs. on a steep trail hill. I think she’ll be fine once we get muscle on her and we can strengthen that joint.

After the ride I decided to see if I could give Black a bath. I was preparing myself for a long battle. To my surprise she was wonderful! Stood perfectly still even to do her mane and tail. God only knows she needed it.

While giving Black her bath I heard a funny noise. I couldn’t figure out what it was until I looked up and this is what I saw.



I think it started out as her trying to “mouth” the water that was coming out of the hose but even after I shut the water off she continued to do it.





Check out that tongue! Lol



She absolutely cracks me up!