After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time! most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the...
So today it finally stopped raining! LOL! The mud is out of control and I have decided that there is really no good use for mud at all. The mares were pretty dirty after a few days of rain and mud, but Sparky was really the worst. My son went with his grampa (my dad) to camp to stack wood this morning for a few hours, so I decided to clean up the three dirty mares after I cleaned out the barn.
Sparky is pretty serious about coating her body in mud. This is her neck.
She gets the best winter coat of any horse I have ever seen. Granted she now has Cushing's, but she has been getting a coat like this since the first winter I owned her (January 1993). It has nothing to do with Cushing's and everything to do with the fact she is part woolly mammoth! LOL! I am not sure the pics adequately show the amount of hair this horse grows. She has never needed a blanket. And it does seem weird to blanket everyone else and the oldest horse is naked!
All clean!
Reva was not nearly as muddy, but her mane gets pretty out of control. It is so long and pretty, when it is brushed out. I know I will cry when I pull it......someday she will have to have a short pulled mane to make her dressage debut in 2011! But for now, and for next year, she can have her pretty long mane.
She was rather bored with the whole picture taking thing. I am so bad at taking horse pics, as they all look like the horse has a HUGE head and tiny body. :P
I spent a lot of time with the first two mares, planning to ride Dreamy. I must have spent too much time, since right in the middle of grooming Dreamy to ride, the boys came back. :( Oh well. We pretty much take the month of November off anyway, between the fact that I can no longer ride during the week (my husband gets home at 7PM and it is dark at 4:30.......there is no one to watch my son, not to mention that I am often not home from work until 3:30) and my husband is gone all weekend to hunt, as in overnight from Friday to Sunday. Granted, I can ride on the weekends when my son naps, but the rain has been out of control lately. And to be honest, I need time off, seeing as I ride 5 days a week as soon as the footing allows it in the late winter and show heavily from April to October.
Here is the Dream Girl all cleaned up. Another week off.....sigh. It is all good though. We will do as many short, easy rides as we can all winter and start back up in late winter. :)
Too bad I am not rich enough to have an indoor........or even a RING for that matter!!!!
Back to work tomorrow. It was a good break, but I wish it had not rained four of the five days!
Sparky is pretty serious about coating her body in mud. This is her neck.
She gets the best winter coat of any horse I have ever seen. Granted she now has Cushing's, but she has been getting a coat like this since the first winter I owned her (January 1993). It has nothing to do with Cushing's and everything to do with the fact she is part woolly mammoth! LOL! I am not sure the pics adequately show the amount of hair this horse grows. She has never needed a blanket. And it does seem weird to blanket everyone else and the oldest horse is naked!
All clean!
Reva was not nearly as muddy, but her mane gets pretty out of control. It is so long and pretty, when it is brushed out. I know I will cry when I pull it......someday she will have to have a short pulled mane to make her dressage debut in 2011! But for now, and for next year, she can have her pretty long mane.
She was rather bored with the whole picture taking thing. I am so bad at taking horse pics, as they all look like the horse has a HUGE head and tiny body. :P
I spent a lot of time with the first two mares, planning to ride Dreamy. I must have spent too much time, since right in the middle of grooming Dreamy to ride, the boys came back. :( Oh well. We pretty much take the month of November off anyway, between the fact that I can no longer ride during the week (my husband gets home at 7PM and it is dark at 4:30.......there is no one to watch my son, not to mention that I am often not home from work until 3:30) and my husband is gone all weekend to hunt, as in overnight from Friday to Sunday. Granted, I can ride on the weekends when my son naps, but the rain has been out of control lately. And to be honest, I need time off, seeing as I ride 5 days a week as soon as the footing allows it in the late winter and show heavily from April to October.
Here is the Dream Girl all cleaned up. Another week off.....sigh. It is all good though. We will do as many short, easy rides as we can all winter and start back up in late winter. :)
Too bad I am not rich enough to have an indoor........or even a RING for that matter!!!!
Back to work tomorrow. It was a good break, but I wish it had not rained four of the five days!
We have a ring - not an indoor - but as the weather gets colder at some point it isn't usable. We do have trails, which last us for part of the winter until it just gets too cold - I've been know to ride down to 10 degrees - or we have ice.
ReplyDeleteWhat pretty girls you have! Hang on to Reva's mane as long as you can. It still bums me out that Phoenix had to get his pulled to be a show pony. And as for the ring...it sounds stupid but if you could put away $50 for a ring every month you would be surprised at how quickly that added up. The place where Phoenix lived put away $100 a month towards a big ring (they had a tiny one). Every birthday and Chirstmas all the woman wanted was a little bit towards the ring so the barn would get together and everyone would kick in $10-20. It took 4 years, but the woman was able to afford the thousands of dollars it took to put the ring in. You don't need anything huge so it could happen. Just something to think about. Oh and another question...I am struggling right now with the debate in my head of whether or not it is worth it go recognized next year. Right now I am leaning towards no, but I could use thoughts from someone who has a non-traditional horse who went training level last year. Was it worth it?
ReplyDeleteDo you have any indoor arenas close to you that you could truck to?? I find that in the winter it's the time that I do most of my base training because summer is so busy with showing and trails and stuff. Hope you get to ride soon, hunting season is just about over yea!!!!
ReplyDeleteYour oldest horse grows a coat like Johnny! Body clipping him is absolutly essential if you want to ride him at all because he sweats after about 10 minutes under saddle!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about not having a ring to work with. At home I ride my horses in the field because we don't have an indoor, or even footing for an outdoor for that matter. It works just fine except for the rainy months in spring and late fall and during the winter (before I went to college) I used to do a lot of road work with mine to keep them semi-in shape. Now that Johnny is at school with me, we get the luxery of an indoor but he will be coming home for ini December for a month of winter break so its back to the roads for us! Good luck with Dreamy!