Winter Sum Up!

Hi long lost blog! (That has been in the back of my mind for months!) I haven't forgotten about you. Life just decided to pick up speed and roll in a little different direction. 

Chester, yes, that is what this blog is about. My adventures with my sweet horse. (He will be turning 23 next week!) It's been winter for the past few months so there hasn't been anything real exciting to blog about. Recently it occurred to me, that I used to blog about everything horse. Not just when something exciting happened. Since then a few weeks have slipped by and now it's spring! I have worked Chester three times now and the good old days of horse sweat and dirt smudged cheeks are coming back. (awwww, I love summer.) 

 So here I am to give you a quick update on the past few months. 

January 

.......................

We did a lot of chilling out...didn't do much at all. 

Standing and looking majestic. 

I took him out this particular day to stretch his legs and graze on the lead. Well, he did fine for the first 15 minutes. Then he flipped and wanted back to his barn as fast as possible. I wasn't ready to go back up and I wasn't about to let him get away with telling me what to do. I put him to work by sending him in circles and backing up. He tolerated that for a couple minutes then decided he would have none of that. He freaked out-ran around me like a crazy horse bucking, kicking and tossing his head, sliding here and there in the wet soggy ground and making huge hoof holes in the ground. For about 30 seconds all I did was make sure I didn't get kicked in the head or run over. I'll tell you, dealing with horses isn't easy. And even the sweetest horse in the world can spook, be rusty at ground manners, or just have have a bad day. Since I hadn't worked him in a few months he had tons of energy and I was rusty at knowing how to deal with the situation. Once I got him under control we headed back to the barn as safely as possible. 

You know how people say certain things take blood, sweat and tears? Well that day brought forth the tears. 

Thus in this picture, Chester may look majestic, but he is probably thinking about what just happened. 

           

We took some selfies...or tried. In the first one he was eating my coat. :P

He started losing fur on his face-from rubbing his head on his feeder and from my not keeping him clean enough. I put bag balm on it and some Eden salve. Both helped and he healed quickly. You can see the balm on his face in this picture. 

We had some nice grooming sessions. This day (Same day day as above picture) I tied him to a tree but he ended up just standing there on his own. I just wanted him to work on tying in case I ever need to tie him up. Then when I went to take pictures of him he followed me around and wanted to smell my phone so I clipped on the lead rope again. 

"Are there any treats in there?"

~ Chester ~

 A winter morning- where sunlight shines down on my fuzzy horse and his mud filled yard. 

 Looking in the other direction into the barn. He's enjoying some crunchy hay on a cold crisp morning.

"What are you doing?" 

"Taking a picture." 

"Okay I'll go back to eating my breakfast."

"Okay, sounds good."

  A quick carrot and a selfie between cleaning jobs. 

February

...............................

We sold our trailer. We weren't using it and it was going to need a couple touch ups in the future so we decided it would be best to sell it now. And now I will be able to go to collage in the fall. (Baking Art) Hopefully we will also be able to use some of the profit to get sand for our round pen. :) 

We're goofy and it's okay.

Starting him on fresh grass once again. 

I love this picture. You can see a small part of our little farm. 

One day we hung out on the hill out back. The only dry/firm ground on our property at the time. It was a really nice and warm (54) Saturday. 

One of the things I noticed right away when I first saw Chester, was how big his eyes were. I still love his big soft eyes. 

Hopefully I will be able to have some more exciting posts coming up! So stay tuned! 

~Happy trails~ 

Sunday Pictures!

The farrier came this morning; SO glad that it's done for another two months! You know what's weird though, is that when you have something scheduled for two months away, those two months fly by!
It's crazy how that happens. It seems like he comes more often then six times a year. Which, he could if we did seven weeks instead of eight weeks, here or there. But anyways! =)

Chester did great! He hadn't had breakfast so he could have been a little more patient. But he did really good. I haven't before, but today I decided to stick some peppermint treats in my pocket to give him while he had his hooves done because he hadn't had breakfast. He really enjoyed them and gobbled them up! At one point, since I wasn't giving him any more, he started giving me kisses and wouldn't stop. He was trying hard to get more treats and he knew that normally if he came me a kiss he would get a treat. =) He was so cute!

One Sunday I went out with my sister and took some pictures with Chester. We didn't really have a nice camera so a lot of them were blurry. Yet, we did get some good ones and thanks to Fotor I put some tints/filters on some of them and that really helped! =)
First I'll get the selfies out of the way! You gotta have those! (Actually, a little side note here, I didn't take selfies until I had a horse...hmm.) =)

                                                  "Can I please have a treat, mom!"

                                            Cheese! "Does that camera give treats?"

                                             See the mud? Uh-huh. Yep. Washington.

That's my boy! Tongue is always out! =) Right there he looks like he was licking and chewing. Sometimes though he just leaves it hanging out. (He's SO cute!)

                                                         " Hey there...I'm cute!"
                                                             

Annies Asteroid

I have been a slacker....I know. But when there are horse adventures to be told, I will tell.
I did have someone over the other day that wanted to brush up on their horse grooming and tacking skills. Chester did great! He did try to sneak off when I was busy talking to someone....but I saw him. ;)
I "weighed" him the other day with my weight tape, and he has gained about 100 pounds since the last time I "weighed" him which was maybe a year ago? I can't remember. =)
He actually doesn't like the weight tape. So after he ran around his yard not letting me get within twenty feet of him, I set down the weight tape and got his halter and he submitted to me. When he has his halter on he switches from a free roaming pony in his yard, to, a pony that's like, ok what are we going to do?
I do groom him free though....I don't always put on his halter when I'm doing stuff with him in his yard. Anyways, back to the weight tape. Once I had him standing there I put the weight tape around his heart girth area and lined it up and what not. I wasn't sure what numbers to look at so I read the directions out loud while holding the tape on him. He wasn't super comfortable but he was standing there quietly and being a good boy. As I was reading the directions a loud I came across, "make sure the horse is not holding it's breath." I looked at Chester and asked, "are you holding your breath?" He was looking straight ahead, not moving a muscle, eyes open a little wider then normal and wasn't blinking. I told him, "I think you're holding your breath".  He did great and I was able to finish and when I was done gave him some peppermint treats. (Actually, before I "weighed" him, I gave him a peppermint treat in the same hand that I was holding the scary white thing.) =)

I then went on to de-worm him. He did great for that too. I'm not an expert at giving him stuff orally. He was totally relaxed about oral stuff when I got him but has since taken to not liking it. I think it might be because I'm "newer" at it? It's not that hard to do though....so maybe not.

Alright, you are probably wondering what Annies Asteroid as to do with this post. Well, I wanted to share a game with you all! It's called Annies Asteroid. My dad made it! You can down load it for free off Itunes. It's made for a phone or Ipad, so if you don't have one I don't think you can get it. (If you don't have a phone I totally understand. I just got my first phone a few months ago, and I'm eighteen.) =) If any of you check it out or get it, let me know what you think! Go Here to see it.
 I think it's really fun and can get addicting once you get the hang of it. Please pass on the word! Enjoy!


                           

Guess What?? I'M SO EXCITED!!

I am so excited to tell you guys this! I got a round pen! What does that mean? That means; I have a confined area for the first time ever to work Chester in on our property, I can work him more often, we will both be safer, I can work with him in more ways now, and my wild pony can use up his energy!!!

                                                                        Here it is!

                                                                          It's 40 ft.

                                       It's used but really nice!! I'm so happy and excited!
Every time I think about the stuff I can do with him in the round pen, I get excited! I can now work with him loose and don't have to have him on a lead or lunge line.

                           When the sun starts a shining, this round pen's gonna get a lot of love! =)

 Here is a picture so you can see how it is relative to the other parts of the our yard. That's the garden fenced in over there. 

                             Here, I'm taking the picture from up on the hill that our house is on.

 Now, I'm down by it looking back up there. I was standing on the hill to the right of the house. You can see a little bit of Chester's fence and barn up there.

                                                                Lovely round pen!!
    (Oh, that's our play house over there to the right.)

 When we got home, Chester came over to his fence and watched us unload the round pen from the trailer. Then he stayed out there when we set it up. He's one smart horse!
We are planning on putting sand in it. But we're taking it one step at a time! =)

Hair Cuts All-around!

 Chester is sorta known for his long thick tail. He does have a nice thick, black tail....I will admit. =) He prefers it tangled and dirty, with leaves or ceder branches decorating it. I have to admit though, brushing his tail is not my favorite thing to do! I don't do it that often. =/ I have conditioner I put in it every once in awhile; it helps de-tangle it. Which is really nice. And then for the next couple days after I use it, he smells really good like hair conditioner. Haha, it's kind of odd to walk past your horse and smell a clean soap like smell. =)
Well, it had gotten quite long. So long he would step on it coming out of the trailer. =/ That's when I realized I needed to cut it. It was dragging in the mud and was such a stringy mess! 
I have trimmed it a couple times. Like, an inch and a half one time and then maybe two inches another time; not much. But I have never cut any of his main, tail or anything else before.

After putting it off- as I wanted to bring the camera out there and take pictures- I finally just did it!
Oh my! Does it look great! It looks so nice and neat! I basically cut it straight across. For a while I had in mind that when I cut it, I wanted it to look natural. I changed my mind though and decided I wanted to look nice and neat; I cut straight across! =) And it looks nice and neat!

Note: I put some conditioner in his tail before I cut it- that's why it looks wet. =) Because it is! =)

                                                                      Before...

                                                                      Before....

                                                                       After!

                                        After! (I think he's taking a step forward there.) =)

                                                   After; I think it looks so good!




Back in December, I decided to cut my hair, too! I have had long hair most of my life. Like, really long hair. In the past few (3-4) years I have started to try different styles. Trust me, my styles are; layers this way, then maybe longer layers that way. Not like black or purple hair. =) Taking it slow, and not doing things too drastic. This is the shortest hair cut I have gotten. It is definitely different for me. =) It has it's pros and cons though. Like you can't make that many different kinds of buns with it. But yet it is loads easier to curl! I like it- it's fun to have something different!

                                                       Before.... (That is straightened)

                                                   After! (And that is curled.)

How often do you guys trim, cut or pull your horses manes or tails? How do you do it? I'd love to hear all about it!! Do tell! =)

Two More Days!!

So, there are only two more days for anyone who wants to add to my, Winter Tips and Techniques, post coming up this Friday!!
I only have two people so far.... I would LOVE it if anyone else would participate. I think it would be really cool if there were lots of peoples advice and tips. Please, consider it!! Two more days!!
Here is the link to the post, with all the info on it. Or click on the picture.

Hurray!

I've hit 4,000 page views! Hurray! I know that it may not be that many to some of you but that's a lot for me!
Thank you, to my 11 wonderful followers! For following me, supporting me, giving me advice and just being nice friends! I appreciate you more then you know!

Day Twenty-Seven

Day Twenty-Seven-You know you're an equestrian when....(list five things)

When you can't watch a horse movie without analyzing the horse, watching the horses reactions to certain things, watching really closely the person working with the horse and seeing how they do things.

You cluck to other animals and treat them like a horse.

You look at peoples barns as you drive by.

You can spot every horse trailer that passes you on the road. (I don't think one can pass our car without me seeing it.) =)

When you can smell hay and tell if it's good. Stale, sweet, rotten, ect.

You spot a green open field and think how wonderful it would be to ride in it, and how many horses it could feed.

When you own over four different types of boots. (Cowboy boots, mud boots, work boots, snow boots and dress cowgirl boots.)

You love burying your face in the fur of a fuzzy horse. (And taking a deep breath!!) =)

You love the smell of horses and leather!

Day Twenty-Five

Day Twenty-five- Your dream trailer

Here's my dream trailer....

           Ok, I know this is a crazy trailer! But hey, they said your dream trailer! =)

This is the same one as above, just white. Plus, it has more doors open.

Alright, going to, REALITY now....=)

I would love to own a trailer like this!

 This is a nice, safe, (more practical) trailer that I wouldn't mind owning. =)