Joey & Desire Have the Same Grandpa!

Okay, it just shows how ignorant I am of bloodlines, and by ignorant I mean *mostly* not very interested in the whole bloodline thing. BUT since acquiring Desire, and then going through the whole Sweepstakes/registry process with Sheza, I have had my eyes opened a little by bloodline-saavy friends. Still, somehow I didn't realize until Dian from Global pointed out last night that our new little Joey is a Haat horse! See his registered name is DF Touch of Mojo, because at time of naming, early on, my friend L (the breeder) thought her other little stallion Mojo had snuck in there and was the daddy. But when they went to register and did the DNA, Joey's dad was in fact the intended stallion, their other stallion: barn name Maverick, registered name RS Haat Flash. Son of Pico Haat Shaat! Desire is daughter of Blitzen of Pico, who's dad is Pico Haat Shaat--and therefor, they have the same darn grandpa! The Global folks LOVE Pico horses and were so excited that our new addition just so happens to be a Pico Haat horse, despite not having it in his name. He certainly has the luxurious forelock, mane, and tail that Desire, Sheza, and the Global Pico horses all exhibit! Of course this means that Joey's Grandpa is Sheza's great-Grandpa, so she might have to keep dreaming on him being her boyfriend ;-)

Joey's dad, RS Haat Flash, turns 20 this year and still lives in all his glory at L's. He is a BEAUTIFUL animal. I'll have to get her to send me a photo of him to share on here.

Joey was in position in the shed this morning, ready for his warm beet pulp mash. He had eaten some hay but got 2 mashes yesterday and all the grass in the paddock to himself so I think he just can't eat fast enough to get through it all, lol. He is really very cool, he just isn't spooky and that characteristic never fails to warm my heart, especially in an Arab, especially after dealing with Desire and Sheza--hah! If I spend too much time around the ladies I start seeing creatures hiding in the shadows and behind all the stumps, maybe questioning my sanity a little--then I go hang with Blaze, and now Joey, and things just don't seem to be so scary ;-)

Welcome to the family Joey--but you were already part of it! :-)

Luxurious Pico hair genes!

Welcome Joey!

New member of the herd today. Welcome 7 yr old registered Arabian gelding Touch of Mojo, "Joey." He came from a home where he was well loved but had found himself low on the totem pole of late, and as such wasn't getting his share of groceries. He is in his own paddock for now so I can sock the beet pulp and extra goodies to him, but he might make a nice pasture mate for Sheza as he is used to the herd and is pretty gentle. He'd probably be better off with her than trying to join the Blaze-Bandito gang, I think Blaze would boss him pretty hard. Sheza was all mealy-mouthed baby for him, gumming his face and halter. 

He is very calm and sweet--and a little stubborn I discovered! He popped right into the trailer to come home, with the help of a domestic turkey standing behind him and thrumming at the perfect instant--it was really something! THRUM went the turkey and IN the trailer went Joey. Getting out of the trailer, however, didn't prove as easy. He knows how to back up, but for whatever reason decided he was quite comfortable in the trailer and really wasn't interested in backing out. My horses were whinnying of course and he yelled back twice then didn't bother to again which I thought was interesting, especially considering he came from living in a herd. Then again he wasn't fairing the best in the herd so maybe he liked the peace and quiet! He was eating hay most of the ride up, which was funny to see since neither of mine ever eat in the trailer. But yeah, backing out, not gonna happen. I tried every trick I could think of for over an hour, then called his previous owner for any ideas. His problem was he would get to the point of setting a hind foot on the ground and then get scared and surge forward. Thanks to an idea from his old owner I tied the lunge line across the trailer stall so that he couldn't just continually surge forward all the way to the front again. He wasn't panicky, just back back back, surge forward, and repeat. In between times he was mellow and licking and chewing. Just not interested in putting that hind foot down into the "lava" or whatever he thought was happening. Once I blocked half the stall off I pretty much let him figure it out for himself. He tried to go forward, couldn't, took a few tiny steps back, put a hind foot down, surged forward, remembered the rope and stopped. Then slow both hind feet went down. He stood half in half out for a few minutes while I praised him to the heavens, then a little pressure on his lead and he stepped back and all the way out!! Phew! Once out he had eyes only for the endless green grass, and even meeting the other horses wasn't particularly interesting to him, just EATING. 

He's now settled in a paddock on the house side of the property, with Nan and Maizie goats as neighbors and the horses in sight across the property. Looking forward to seeing him fill out and settle in, and who knows what adventures are in store for us!

Make It Work, People!

Or..If you forget your saddle pad and end up riding using a random blanket from the truck as a saddle pad....you might be a redneck...?

My husband had a great spontaneous idea for us to throw a horse in the trailer, his fishing rods in the Bomber, and head down to the lake together. I decided Blaze was overdue for some trail time and loaded him up. Bless his heart, I must mention that after 6 months without being in the trailer (time off after last season's saddle fit issues, been riding him from home) he hopped right into the trailer without hesitation. He was sweaty and had nervous cow pie poops in the trailer, like he used to when I first got him, but I know he'll chill out with a few more times out.

We parked near the diversion pool where J fishes, at a spot conveniently large enough to turn around, with direct access to my usual lake trails. I hopped out all excited, opened my trailer tack door and immediately saw  that my saddle pad was missing. That would be because I am so over the top on color coordinating that I pulled Desire's blue saddle pad out so I could put his green pad in. Except I never put the pad in. So there I was on a perfect gorgeous afternoon at the lake with no saddle pad. Well I briefly considered trying the saddle without any sort of pad but couldn't make myself do it. Then J spotted the very navajo-esque blanket I keep in the truck for my chihuahua, Georgia, to sleep under when she's cold (and if it's under 70 degrees, she is cold). I was dubious but I REALLY didn't want miss an awesome chance to ride Blaze and with his winter coat and the sultry weather I knew riding bareback wouldn't be fun for long. So I folded that random blanket in half, then took another fold in the front to sort of lock it in and make it the right length on his very short back, and strapped the saddle on that puppy.

Make it work, people!

Boots

My husband took a few cool pics of us. In the top one the big "hill" behind us is Oroville Dam. Below that I rode down the road a little ways with J to where he heads off to fish and Blaze was snorty snort snort at everything and standing on his Arab tippy toes, not wanting to go forward. There is a mountain lion in that area (that's the spot our lab, Tady, ran off up a hill and came back with claw marks down his chest and shoulder) and we wondered if he smelled something because he was NOT pleased and it's not like Blaze to make a big fuss over nothing. Still, cool photos:

We hit the trail around 3:30 pm, and ended up riding down to the Lakeland tunnel and back, some along the water and some winding on the trails above the water-side trail. It was about 7 miles in a leisurely hour and a half, I didn't ask a lot of Blaze, just some nice trots along the flats, and I was paranoid as all get out the whole ride that my ghetto saddle pad was going to ruin him, or even just rub, either way, oohhhh nooo what was I doing to my horse?!

Noble steed

Oroville Dam Spillway

The pollen was HORRENDOUS today, it was so thick you could see, smell, and taste it. I took some Claritin before I went to the lake but I still felt the pressure/sinus headache throughout the ride. I've never had such severe sinus headache reactions to pollen as I have this year, just in the last couple of weeks! And never had any sort of allergies at all until I moved to the Oroville area. I guess that stuff sometimes catches up to you later in life. It's annoying, but it's real, the last few lake rides I've done I've had terrible sinus pressure later in the day, so I need to be preemptive about it from now on I think.

That blooming white tree is my pollen nemesis 

Lakeland tunnel

Heading back, Calm waters

We wandered back to the trailer around 5 and I held my breath as I untacked the Blazer--and discovered almost perfectly even sweat marks! There was a bit of ruffed hair at the shoulder areas but that seemed to be more saddle fit than anything else, and I had changed my shimming for today as I didn't think I had adequately thick shims at the hollows behind his shark withers. Yeah, he is a special shaped horse. But anyhoo my cheesy saddle pad improvisation worked a charm!

See, he survived

Blaze was dogging it on the last mile or so to the trailer but I'm pretty sure that was more the warm weather and semi-confusion at being on the trail again than being truly tired. Who knows. I had almost forgotten how incredibly painfully slowly he walks, I can literally walk twice as fast on foot and it makes it hard to appreciate the ride sometimes. I'm sooo impatient! Sometimes it feels like we're going to go backwards he walks so slowly!! Desire's brisk walk and smooth gaits have really spoiled me, but Blaze is the dearest soul in the world and I'm glad I got to spend a gorgeous evening on the trails with him.

My husband made an amazing dinner and when I went snooping in the freezer I discovered he had bought Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch too! Ohhh heaven, after spin class this morning and an evening ride, I'm digging in!


Tomorrow morning I'm going to pick up a new animal friend. I'm bringing the horse trailer :-)