13 Dogs

The past week I've been house sitting for 13 dogs. 13. The lady is a dog breeder and breeds Havanese. Here is a little picture of the monsters. 1 terrier not pictured who is about 50 lbs, 9 adult Havanese, & 3 puppies. 

It feels nice not having to clean up after puppies anymore. But with how often I've house sat for this lady and how many litters of her puppies I have had the pleasure to take care of, I am convinced I could be a dog breeder. I don't want to care for puppies or have 13 dogs. But I could do it. 

In other news, it has been about 18 degrees average as of late. Aka no riding time. Personally, I don't like to ride below 20. The outdoor is an ice rink and all the paddocks have been shoveled (ask me how I know) so the ponies aren't slipping on ice. It makes stall cleaning easier at least. 

Since we have mirrors in the indoor now we are no longer allowed to have turnout in there. So the other day I stuck Ries on the lunge and let him derp around. Poor guy had so much pent up energy. Much buck. Very rear. 

He was quite satisfied with himself and leaned into my pats afterwords. Silly boy. Christmas money means lessons are on the horizon! 

My brother is currently in the hospital from a bad motorcycle accident down in California. Tomorrow I head out to go see him for a week. I hope it stays frozen in Idaho so I don't have to feel guilty about missing rides. 

Adios frozen weather! Maybe I'll get a tan ;)

Blogger Gift Exchange!

Wohoo! First of all, thank you to Tracy @ Fly On Over! Second, just receiving something from Ali & Dino over at Pony'tude felt like a visit from a celebrity! Total nerd alert I know. 

They sent me an awesomely wrapped package of PINK SPARKLE POLOS and gorgeous bling spur straps (that I forgot to take a picture of!). I have always wanted to put pink on Ries but since he is a gelding everyone always judged me whenever I wanted to. #genderstereotypes. But now I can! I'm currently scouring the internet for a good deal on an epic pink saddle pad to match. 

Thank you again so much Ali! I love everything! 

Back to basics

Yikes. Ries is feeling better. 

But as much as we look like crap in this pictures we felt like crap too! Ries was super antsy since he hasn't been able to get turnout due to inclement weather. So I tried to keep his head in the game but he decided it would be more fun to be short-strided and hollow. We managed to get a little work done in the walk but the rest of the time I just tried to get him to use up some energy. 

He gave me a nice buck instead of a canter transition so that was fun. As much as I hate to show you these crappy iphone pictures I need to document the suckage. Enjoy a good laugh. 

Wandering

Cute pony that lives at my house

12/15- Ries got seen by massage therapist! And then he was a little brat. He felt MUCH better after getting worked on and wanted to go run in the swamp. I let him out and he romped around for awhile. 

Meanwhile, I went back inside the heated office to get myself adjusted. Afterwards, we were sitting there talking when a barn mate started waving at me threw the window. I waved back politely when she suddenly seemed like she needed my attention urgently. I walked outside and apparently Riesling was taking a self guided walk down the road. 

Apparently when the barn mate showed up to clean stalls she opened the arena gate and didn't see any horse in there and proceeded with her chores. Ries spent a good half hour wandering around the ranch before getting bored and walking down the road. 

Luckily he wasn't super excited and was just cruising. A car was coming towards him and stopped. He came up to them and they pet him while I walked towards them with a leadrope. When they saw me they shooed him towards me. He saw me and nonchalantly walked up to me and would have followed me back to the barn even if I didn't have a leadrope around his neck.

When I first saw him walking down the road I was sure that is how I was going to lose him. Instead he just wanted to scare me half to death. Ahh silly ponies. 

Crooked

12/15 - I noticed the past few weeks that I am crooked. I have a shoulder out and who knows what else. Knowing it had been awhile since Ries was worked on, I focused on feeling out his body. 

The first thing I noticed was a problem we have been having a lot of lately. Ries does not want to stretch into the contact. We will be working on this a lot more. We have been really struggling with the walk and even though it is super boring to work on, we need to do it. 

Tracking right he is counter bent and stuck in his poll and chest. I believe he also has a rib out because he is upset when we try and get bend through the rib cage. Ries was a little fiesty since there hasn't been turnout due to the swamp and he wanted to do something more physical. His trot is still forward and connected, his neck is just very stiff and he isn't coming up under himself. 

We cantered just so he could use up some energy. Holy freaking dolphin. Poor guy was very stuck somewhere (probably why he can't lift his belly) and was just trying to get it out. We stopped cantering because I knew he was uncomfortable somewhere. Hopefully he'll get all fixed up today!

Any suggestions to help him stretch out under saddle? 

The swamp

Thank god for indoor arenas.  Our entire facility is a swamp right now. Even the concrete floors in the barn has a pool in the middle. They decided this year to try and pump out all the excess water. There is a canal that runs through the property so they are pumping water into the round pen and then pumping from the round pen to the canal. 

We will see how it works! In the mean time Ries and I are just derping around the indoor. 

WW: Lion King

Update: L came to his senses and the kittens are now named Nala & Kiara. 

Where I still havent found my winter gloves..

11/25

But yet I still rode. Yay! Ries has been awesome. Very forward! I immediately noticed he is struggling with balancing and carrying himself. His topline has decreased so we will be working on that first to get back in shape. 

Apologize for shitty iPhone pictures. Better than no pictures? My bf is not gifted at taking horse pictures yet. No pretty trot pics, sads. 

I was super pleased with his attitude. He is really wanting to get back into riding fun. Hopefully I'll scrounge up some money and be able to start lessons again here soon. Getting a little more in shape first wouldn't be bad though. 

In other news, for the past few months I've been using Jamberry nails. They are wraps that you heat up and stick on your nails. Surprisingly, they can last up to a month with no chips or falling off! (I may or may not have tested this theory last month..) 

I'm not selling or advertising for them, I just really like them and found they work great with equestrian hands! I work the front desk at my job and they tolerate that well too. 

I live on a little (10 acre) farm now and with winter here, there has been a lot of mice in my house! I decided it would be best to get some barn cats (at least that was my excuse hehe). So I have three new family members! The oldest is a grey cat (that blends in with the blankets) named Noodles. The two kittens are little girls named Salt and Pepper (my bf is so creative in the name department *rolls eyes*). 

Anyways, that is about it for now. This week we will battle the cold and just try lots of long and low trot to get that topline back up. 

Cute sleepy kitty to brighten up your Tuesday!

Salt