Filly on the Go and Homemade Reins

Redheads will do it, but they'll do it with some sass...

 It was 30 degrees this morning when I fed at 6:30 but by 10 am the sun was warming things up a little and after much screwing around, a good hour anyway, I had Desire tacked up and Sheza girthed up for the first time in my bareback pad, ready to hit the road. The bareback pad fit fairly snug on Sheza on the very tightest hole, and it's a normal horse size pad! What the heck happened to my BABY filly?!

The two personalities: Forward and OHShitBehindYou

 Sheza likes to stop and eat. A lot. It takes a long time to get anywhere with all the eyeballing and eating, but that's okay

 "Hmm black hole beneath my feet, possibly.."

 Testing new reins, ponying Sheza, taking pictures, and keeping ADD mare on the trail intead of taking a shortcut through the woods to ??? like she always is

 The Girls out on the trail(road)

She scents along like a dog sometimes

 A little quieter back home after a few hills ;)

 ..after 2 seconds, "Hmm, I'm hungry" 

 Momma mare steed

 I've been wanting rope reins for a long time, but the few times I've bought them they haven't been the right sort of rope and have pilled out on the Velcro on my pommel bag really quickly. After some consultation online and with friends, I went to the local Surplus store--which is stuffed full of awesome random junk--and bought two different weights of technical climbing rope, $10 a piece for 50 ft of rope of each. Then I bought some more scissor snaps and some rope clamps in different sizes from Tractor Supply and last night my husband and I whipped the reins up in about 10 minutes.

The black rope rein is VERY lightweight and I loved riding with it today in gloves. I was too busy with the filly to switch reins out as I had planned so I haven't tried the heavier weight grey and blue rein yet. It should be equally nice as it isn't even as heavy as a normal rope rein so may just sit more comfortably in the hand width-wise. We'll see!

Filly wandering off

 SuperTurkey training

 Desire's ultra lightweight bridle, custom bit hanger by Distance Depot and rope reins by us!

I did a maintenance "trim" on Sheza with the rasp after the ride today. The 3.7 miles had put a nice natural rasp on her toes but she still needed some toe taken off and a better roll all around. After the miles, which included a few short, steep hills, she was *much* quieter for hoof work. May have figured out a back saving strategy there!

The knowing stare of a miniature Dachschund cannot be denied nor avoided..are you being Watched? 

Thanks-giving and Country Life

I won't deny it, living in our own home with all our animals surrounded by beautiful land and critters in the woods is my Heaven. No matter when, where, or what, I am a country girl at heart, for ever and always. True my early years were spent in the Suburbs of Maine, but even there at our cool old 2 story rental house we had 2 big yards, a pond to ice skate on in the winter, a dog, cats, and a handful of critters in aquariums on top of the bookshelves along the walls. My mom ran a successful print shop business full time as well as mothering the 4 of us kids, and she made sure we had space to play, animals to play with, AND I got that one riding lesson a week at the barn that started it all. It doesn't matter what else happened along the way, I declare that a positive and wonderful childhood and I'll be forever grateful for it.

Just stuff I was thinking about yesterday as I worked around the place, trimmed Blaze's hooves, brought in more firewood from the bottom field. Working hard in the clean country air surrounded by a cast of animal characters fills my heart, especially with an equally enthusiastic and outdoorsy guy by my side.

Some of the characters:

Jay, 7 yr old Catahoula/Shepard mix

There was a squirrel in my truck under the hood!! Luckily our mini Doxie Wilbur hunted it down and saved my wiring :)

 Blaze Hind mustang rolls, see Joey in the red blanket in the back, watching closely

 Blaze right front, the smushy heel on the left side of the pic is getting better, quarter crack on the right, I am still learning to scoop the quarters and keep his flaring down

 Blaze left front, out of the pasture

 Blaze left front, in progress

 Fuzzy winter Blaze <3

 Took 10 pictures and this was the best of ole Mule Ears out in her blanket. Sometimes she is so photogenic but bedraggled in a blanket that she is still half-protesting wearing is not one of those times, Hah!

Green Grass, Raincoats, PUPPIES!!

 I've visited my puppy twice in the last week and may I just say, he is *divine*  Happy, mellow, trusting and relaxed. He gets tired first and sleeps Hard! He has ice blue eyes that should stay that color and is very fluffy and soft. Unfortunately he can't come home until he is four months old, because he needs to complete all his Parvo vaccines before coming home to our property which is a known Parvo zone. Our county is really bad for Parvo, unfortunately. Luckily the breeder is a good friend of mine and only lives about 9 miles away! I will be seeing lots of my pup in the next few months. He was 5 weeks old on Monday.

Registered name: Dragonfly's True Tattooed Rascal

 Barn name Rip Van Winkle (Rip) because the first 2 times I met him all he did was SLEEP and you see he is still quite good at it

His siblings playing it up. Look at the beautiful half face marking on his dapple brother

On to pretty but not-as-cute things, I  was up early this morning with a bottle of Cowboy Magic in hand to de-tangle stickery manes and get blankets on everyone. Desire wore hers overnight as she is a Princess but I had decided to comb out Joey and give him Blaze's hand-me-down midweight waterproof and see if Sheza would let me catch her to try her new blanket *eyeroll*  Joey was a little snorty but stood to be haltered and  with liberal Cowboy Magic love I eventually had his mane and forelock untangled and braided them all up securely. 

 Grass is growing, Blaze in his foresty home :-)

Looking stormy behind ole Joey boy

 One paddock is empty and soon grass will be tall

 Sheza is still very squirrelly in bad weather and it was very cold and windy this morning, her least favorite sort of morning. Surprisingly she crammed her head into Desire's halter and I took her to the cross ties and put her new blanket on. Which. Is. Too. Small. AGAIN. Le sigh. First time foal owner here and I have now failed 4 times consecutively at blanket buying!! I swear I measure every time, but if they are long enough (usually barely) they aren't long enough on the sides to cover her big ole body. Hmmph. So she doesn't fit in a 60" now. Still, proof below that she is out in a blanket at some point this winter: