Fun with Side Reins!

Oh hey! I forgot about this blogging thing that I was doing. Just kidding, it's only been 5 days. But I have been slacking a tad. So here's what you've missed!

Last Thursday Ref had his first lesson in lunging with side reins. The ever fabulous Megan came out in the cold and dark to make sure I wasn't doing anything that would screw him up. What a smart cookie he is! He has obviously never been worked in side reins, and was a little tentative going forward the first time they were attached. But no meltdowns, hooray!

Friday Shoshana came to meet him for the first time so he just had a little free lunge in the indoor while we cooed over how stinking adorable he is.

Fast forward through the weekend where I tried to pretend I have a life other than horses (ha!) and was an awful, neglectful mom, to today, Monday! I lunged him in side reins again, going up a couple holes after he was nice and warmed up and remembered what he was supposed to do. He looks so fancy when he gets his nose out of the sky and carries himself! I'm still blown away by how QUIET he is. Granted he wasn't excessively hot when I tried him the first time, but he's pretty unflappable. And he prefers to put forth as little effort on the lunge line as possible. Apparently I need to strengthen my whip cracking muscles (or figure out some other way to get him to move out of his stilted short stride). I tried to take some video but it's really difficult to hold a lunge line and whip in one hand and video with the other. The picture is the only decent still from the video I could find, but he was much rounder when I wasn't trying to finagle everything at once.

Also, Reffy will be coming home at the end of the month. Woo hoooo! I can't wait. Then I'll have to invent reasons to leave the farm. Haha. Such a hard life!

My horse is adorable....

When dressed in dressage tack. Just sayin!

<3 him :)

Scraggly Tail Syndrome

I have always had the pleasure of owning and riding horses with exceptional tails. Dusty's was ridiculously thick and grew like a weed. One winter I kept it bagged and by summer he had 4 or 5 inches that drug on the ground. Theo was the same. Beautiful, full tails all around.

Reffy, on the other hand, is not so lucky in the tail department. His is fairly long, skims the ground when wet, but he has some unfortunate fried and bleached layers in the top half of his tail. His tail bone also brags an abundance of flakey, itchy skin. Poor guy.

Today started his, probably weekly, ritual of tail management. After washing as much as I could dunk in a bucket full of water with some Mane and Tail 2 in 1 anti-dandruff shampoo and conditioner, we set out on the fabulously tedious task of detangling his tail. By hand. While rubbing copious amounts of MTG into the tail bone. And spraying the entire length with a lanolin based hair moisturizer. Lol. The whole process took about an hour, and man was he a champ. He stood, and by stood I mean napped with a hind propped, in the cross ties the whole time.

I didn't have enough time to work him today, but I'll have plenty tomorrow. I think maybe he'll get all fancied up in dressage tack for his lunge. ;) Onward!!!!

Reffy comes home!

Yesterday (Sunday), Jeff, Ashley's dad and the owner of the farm where I work/live, and I drove out to Midatlantic Horse Rescue with his trailer to pick up my boy, Reformation. He loaded like a champ and made the 2 hour trip to his new temporary home like it was nothing. Of course, you can't bring home a new horse without some kind of excitement, and ours came with unloading. Reffy had a bit of a meltdown coming off the trailer and bonked his head pretty good on the step down :( Poor kid! No bumps or boo boos between his ears, but he did manage to scrape some hair off his nose. No more excitement please!

After that, he settle right into his stall, realized his straw bedding was NOT for eating, and got down to business munching some hay. Sadly, I had to go home and clean stalls and feed horses before I could come back and play with him. We had a good romp in the indoor, along with a nice roll in the sand before he was tucked in for the night.

Today, I got to come out to the barn around noon, now that I'm only working at home. Woo hoooo! My intentions were to see if he cross ties and lunges, and if he doesn't, start teaching him. Well, what do you know, the boy does both! He gets a little antsy in the cross ties, but didn't try and set back on them or walk through (I had the front and back doors closed, effectively boxing him in if that had happened). He definitely needs a little refresher for lunging, he gets confused when I ask him to slow his gait and stops and turns in on me or tries to change direction. We'll fix that in no time!

The rest of the week will be more of the same. Grooming in cross ties, lunging with and without tack, before Megan comes on Thursday or Friday to give us a lesson in proper lunging with side reins so I know I'm not doing it wrong. Wooo hoooo! I just love this horse :-D

Pictures are:

Cute nose speckles ;)
Grazing after lunging
Cross tied!
Hanging out in his stall.

BIG news

It's been almost a month since my last post, and I have plenty of reasons (excuses) for that, but mostly I've been a little down in the dumps. Between getting injured at work and not having a horse to work steadily towards a goal (Pepper the hony is probably moving this winter) it's been a rough month for me.

But never fear! I am about to be back with a vengeance, because..... Wait for it......

I BOUGHT A HORSE!!!!!!!!! :-D

Last week one of the boarders at home mentioned a horse that was available on the Mid Atlantic Horse Rescue. He had been previously rehomed but his new mom was not the perfect fit for him and he had been returned earlier this fall. I looked over his ad, obsessed over his videos, and sent him on to Megan for her opinion. The line that sold me on going to see him? "Perfect for a rider with talent but no money". Megan agreed it was worth a trip to Maryland, so I emailed Beverly Strauss at Mid Atlantic and set up our visit.

Needless to say, everything went fabulously, and I am the proud new owner of a 7 year old, 15.3 HH thoroughbred gelding named Reformation. His rehoming fee? One dollar. That's right. $1. UNO. Eins. Since Mid Atlantic is a rescue, they can't bring in new horses until other are rehomed. And Reffy needed to go ASAP. I can't believe how incredibly lucky I am. They are such great people, they just wanted him to find the best home where he would have a job and a purpose and someone who wouldn't put up with his testy TB nonsense.

Our journey begins as of next weekend. He will be coming home to live down the street until a stall opens up where I live. I am so excited to get him started on his way to being an eventer. I see lots of lunging and dressage rides in his future ;)

Yay Dollar Horse!!!!

Always the guinea pig!

Since I'm the kind of person who will basically ride any horse without question, and I haven't passed the "bounce when you fall off" stage of life yet, I get recruited to do all sorts of fun things. Like be the first person to find out if Karla's percherons are broke to ride. Meet Belle! Next time, it's Lois' turn.

Frankenstorm!

It's been a scary couple of days here on the northeastern side of the country. Hurricane Sandy ravaged the coast and left millions homeless, without power, and facing months if not years of cleanup and rebuilding. Luckily, here in the Lehigh Valley, we didn't get hit as bad as some areas. At home, we only lost power briefly during the early hours of Tuesday morning. I don't know if she had anything to do with it, but if so, thanks to one of our boarders, Audra, who works for PPL, for making sure we have electricity! Boots and Saddle, on the other hand, is still in the dark. Nothing like mucking 30+ stalls in the pitch black.
Boots also sustained some damage, mostly to the slate roof of our ancient hay barn and to one of the pastures and the lower outdoor ring where a tree fell through a power line and the fences. Still no word on when we'll be back on the grid. Hopefully soon!

I hope everyone and their horses are safe in the area. And prayers to the people in coastal areas who have lost so much.