Picture Time

This weekend it rained somewhere between 2 and 5 inches depending specifically where you were at, so no riding.  Plus my best friend came to Dallas to visit so the hubby and I drove up to see her.  We decided to make a mini-vaca out of it since we never got a honeymoon and Saturday was our 6 month anniversary.  Awesome weekend...

We went to Medieval Times...

It was awesome!  Lots more emphasis on the horse than I remember (last time I went was 12ish years ago).  Food was good except that we had chicken earlier in the day for lunch so we ended up each eating about a whole chicken in a day...gahhh...

We also went to the Dallas Aquarium...

Of course I find the horses...even at the aquarium...

It wasn't so much an aquarium as a it was a giant rainforest exhibit.  Lots of birds, and monkeys, a sloth and even a sleepy jaguar...

Came home to find that spring has sprung with new babies. :)  This adorable white-headed creature is at the barn's neighbor's.  They have 4 llamas and I saw that they got a new addition on Thursday before I left.  I have yet to see it again to get a better picture since I think they put it up in the barn because of all the rain and chilliness.

This adorable little being was a surprise.  Turns out one of young colts that belongs to hubby's grandfather knocked up a couple of mares before getting castrated last spring.  This is the third and hopefully last adorable little dun foal born within the last week.  She has 2 brothers that are identical and feisty (one of the mares got sold to Guatemala and they were surprised a couple weeks ago with his arrival).

This is my new buddy...Brahman bull calf from last spring.  He just got weaned and loves to be scratched on his adorable big floppy Brahman ears :).

And hubby found a lady bug while helping me with the ponies yesterday...

Last but certainly NOT least......

Today is Cabot's 4th birthday.  Man how time flies...Happy Birthday orange kid!

Patience and Persistence

So my patience and persistence have definitely paid off.  Yesterday I took Cabot for a little drive in the trailer.  We went in a big circle about a 20 minute ride.  He hopped on right away, which was a good start and then started to fuss once he figured out he was tied and I was closing the door.  He was mostly quiet for the ride as far as I could tell.  Then the true test was to get him back on once we unloaded back at the barn.  He made a little show of it and refused at first, but once I got his grain he hopped right on.  He got on and off a couple times doing that until I closed him in to eat.  Finally close to done, I opened the door and he hopped off.  I wanted to go back and get his bucket and he actually followed me in again.  I'm so proud of him :-D.  Hopefully we can get to the point where we don't need the grain, but for now, that is SO MUCH improvement.  I did this all by myself too btw.

I spent Monday lunging him in side reins.  I've decided to take a couple of steps back so he gets better with the bit contact and doesn't try to whack me in the head when I ask him to turn.  The lessons seem to be paying off. 

Oh and we bought a dressage saddle.  It's a brown Passier that I got a super amazing deal on and it fits him like a dream.  :) So now we're really going to have to do an 3-phased event...

Back to work

I was finally able to get back to riding yesterday.  We've gotten a tiny bit slower at the store so I'm actually able to leave at 5pm.  I headed out to the barn and tacked up Storm.  She was ok given that she has not been worked since, uhh...last summer.  She threw in a couple bucks when I asked for the canter but reasonably well-behaved for a 5 year old TB.  She is the TOTAL opposite ride of Cabot and is going to take a little getting used to.  First of all, she's a million miles long nose to tail (Cabot is very compact) and the front end doesn't always communicate well with the back end.  And she leans into the bridle so much.  I figure that comes from race training (which is what I think she was probably doing in Kentucky before she moved to Texas to be a polo pony).  I checked for a tattoo though and none there so I guess she never actually raced.  We'll see how she comes along.  She's a bit spooky so I'm going to try and get some places for her to go and experience. 

Think I'm going to try and ride Cabot today and see if I can stay on a every-other-day schedule for both of them.  Then no one is neglected.

PS. Cabot and Slim threw the mother of all hissy fits when I took their girlfriend away to ride yesterday.  Gah...boys....

Holy guacamole

To say I've been busy is a HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT!!!!

We started the sale on the website for the store going out of business on Saturday.  Since then, we've had approximately 400 orders.  This is a business that usually only gets 20ish on a good regular day and maybe 80 close to Christmas when it's crazy.  400!!!!  There's no way we can keep up.  People are just gonna have to wait and that's going to have to be ok.  Most seem to understand.

Anyway, if you want some good deals, hit up: www.legacytack.com.  Everything is 30% off now.  You better hurry...stuff's selling out fast.

I haven't even been able to think about what's going to happen after this gig is up.  Hopefully it will slow down a little bit before it goes dead so I can prepare a little bit.

And no riding this week...going in early to work and staying late = no more daylight.  Which doubly sucks because it hasn't rained and it was oh, 75 degrees today!  Why couldn't it have been like this last week???

However, I will continue to count my blessings.  A friend's husband passed away this morning from cancer at age 31.  Definitely puts everything in some harsh perspective.

I think I won

Cabot's still getting in fed in the trailer but is now getting on and off like a champ.  He got on and off several times yesterday morning by himself while I was cleaning his stall and even turning his buddies out (which totally surprised me).  In the evening, I didn't even put his halter on and he hopped right on.  Next step is to take him for a little ride around the neighborhood and see if he'll get on again afterwards, since it seems to be the trailer trips that make him upset, not actually getting on. 

His opinion of me since I told BO not to feed him in the mornings so I can feed him in the trailer when I get there...

Yep, full load of poop straight up in his feeder...

And it's still raining...maybe tomorrow we'll go for that trailer ride, so I feel productive.  I think all this rain/not riding has pretty much killed my dreams of being able to show in 2 weeks.  There's not another schooling show until June but there is a recognized one in April at Pine Hill.  Not sure if that would be a bright idea or not.  I need to get to work on Storm too so I can get her sold or just let her go back to being a  polo pony and focus on the orange kid.  Gah...not used to not having a place to ride when it rains...

Cabot 3, Ashley 1!!!

I am finally on the scoreboard in the battle of wills!  He got in yesterday!!!!  And went out on his own accord and GOT BACK IN!!  I was so excited :).  He was being his usually turd self and try to wait me out.  I put one of his feet on the trailer (my friend Kelly was holding lead rope inside) and stepped back and his just got right in.  No big deal :) (which on some levels is even more frustrating because it really is a battle of wills and he's not scared AT ALL!).  I told BO not to feed him again this morning so I can try again...we'll see.

Mom why is this such a big deal??

Good beautiful big chestnut butt!

The Battle of Wills continues

So of course it rained (hard) again yesterday so no riding :(.  I am not used to not having an indoor/covered arena when I actually want to ride and it has having some serious effects on my horse-happiness scale.  Instead I tried to work Cabot into the trailer using some methods I saw on COTH.  I have not tried the lunge line behind the butt method as of yet, since I'm still being patient and now he seems to have a tendency to go up when he gets mad and I don't want to encourage that at all.  After about 30 minutes, we are still no closer to getting in the trailer.  He has now not had grain for about 4 meals and that still is not enough enticement to get in.  Stupid pony.  I do feel like he's getting a little bit of an out, because I still turn him out and he theoretically gets to graze, but there's not much grass in there mud-hole of a pasture right now so I think he should still want his grain and hay for the 15 hours he has to spend in his run.  We'll try again today...

Valentine's Day was a major downer day -

A) I found out the tack store where I work is closing (stay tuned for an update when things actually go on major sales) and I am therefore becoming unemployed.

B) When I went to bring the horses in, all 3 of them managed to fight enough with eachother and take my concentration away from the gate, run through the gate and across the road.  As I trod after them, they decided they were in trouble and promptly ran back up the driveway where I was able to ghetto-rig some gates so they couldn't get out again and get them all in their stalls.

C) Checking my PO Box is a major cause of discomfort usually because of all the job rejection (tack store slave was not supposed to be my career after obtaining a Master's Degree) letters...this time there was an almost $300 bill from the dermetologist I went to see A YEAR AGO!  I guess all the funny business with my insurance has finally gone through so now they decide to bill me :(.

Ok...enough complaining...I'm very lucky in lots of other ways...