~horsefancy

Well, dang, if I haven't updated this in over a year.

I bear sad news. Maytag, the topic horse of my last entry, has been sold. This means I'm no longer able to ride the feisty old horse . Marie, one of the stable owners, has bestowed upon me a project horse....I think it's to give me something to do now that I don't have Maytag to ride. Honestly, I've never trained a horse before. In all actuality, I've only been seriously riding (aka, not including the trail rides at state parks during yearly vacations) for a little over 4 years. I've never had lessons; I've just watched and learned through repetition, books, and observation. The problem: this new horse, Rusty, is desperately attached to this mare named Autumn. He is said to have been a lesson horse, but I can't picture anyone learning with him...except maybe patience. He is skittish when saddling but totally calm if allowed to graze while being tacked up....some kind of distraction maybe? He's very stubborn about taking the bit. I'm going to try rubbing molasses on it to encourage him a little. He has either forgotten or is ignoring all his neck reining signals. He won't turn left. He'll turn when he wants to but won't let you turn him left. When moving, his stride is always very collected. He has very long legs but won't extend them. He's not lame or tender anywhere. He might be slightly stiff from lack of exercise. But goodness knows he ain't overweight because of it. Without being motivated to move other than to drift from clump of grass to clump of grass, he's lost a lot of muscle mass in his shoulders and wither area, giving him a very scrawny look. He seems to have forgotten how much space a human needs. He totally disregards the fact that someone's there. Not a care in the world if he bumps you over or hits your head when he swings his thick skull to see if his girlfriend is there....let me tell you, he has a THICK skull for one with such a narrow face. If you have ANY suggestions, please feel free to share them. Besides the molasses idea, I'm going to lunge him more and do a lot of ground-driving to remind him about his left turn. Wish me luck!

Woot! I'm so excited. I get to go riding again this Saturday and the stable got new horses a couple weeks ago. I went last Saturday and brought a bunch of people trail riding. Dude, was that dumb. Never ever bring a group of inexperienced riders on trails with horses that aren't programmed to "follow the butt in front of me." My favorite horse is an ex-roper! A gorgeous chestnut named Maytag. Yes, like the washing machine. His previous owners were going to buy a new washing machine. But when the husband returned and his wife asked him "Did you get the Maytag?" he said "Yep, it's outside." She responded "Well, bring it in." "No, I don't think you want it inside." He had found the horse (I didn't quite hear all that the present owners said) and they then became the proud owners of a monstrously tall horse named Maytag. Anyway, this week I'm taking my sister and her husband riding. She was on her college equestrian team but he's never been on a horse before. That means we can't run. Bummer. Oh, what I would give to run with this horse. We couldn't move faster than a trot, and then only for a few paces because few knew how to ride. Oh well, I just can't wait to get back over there and ride him again.

Mwahaha! All the snow is melting (said in sing-song voice). Just the other day we were under a foot of snow with a temperature of -10. Today, we have sunny skies with 55 degrees melting the snow in rapid amounts! Haha! I'm so excited. But that's what happens here. If you don't like the weather today, wait until it changes tomorrow. Woot woot! Goodbye, Snow. Your end has come!

Uhhh...I hate snow. Putrid, digustingly white death. Everything turns white, the yard, the cars, the roads, the houses, the people. Everything is coated in either the revolting substance or the salt used to "melt" the snow. We don't even have that much, only a foot, but I hate it. When I was little I had a rather disasterous experience with snow.
I was born in Florida, nice warm Florida. We moved to Wisconsin when I was about four, horribly cold wintry Wisconsin. We happened to move in the dead of winter, never seen the house or the yard. I was terrified to go out in the snow and play with my siblings. My parents promised me it would be okay, I wouldn't get hurt, it would be fun. HA! Well, little did they know that there was a treacherous ditch in the front yard near the road that was also conveniently hidden by the white powder. I fell into the ditch, falling into ice and water. I've never liked the cold weather since then. Uhhh....snow.