Finally - Ride Time

The weather has been...sucky! The ground has been...sucky! And the horses attitudes have been...sucky!

BUT! I actually made it to the barn last night to spend some much needed time with my girl! Luckily, she was already hanging out in her stall so I didn't have to walk through ankle deep "yuck" to get her! Yay! I pulled her blanket off and took a swipe with my brush...and then thought better of it and went and got the shedding blade!

Spring is coming people! Tia's lost enough hair last night to build an entire new Tia...and she still has more left to lose! Spring is coming!

Ahem..sorry about that..I got a little excited!

So, after brushing and tacking we made our way to the big barn. I lost my shoes three times in the mud. And it isnt even like the pastures are terrible. We have really nice pastures. We have just had 11 inches of snow sitting on them and then yesterday it was like 55 degrees! Sigh. I cant complain tho...it was WARM!

Anywho, so I took her into the indoor and lunged her while Gabs hopped on Mocha Man bareback. Does anyone remember the Flinstone cartoons where they would move their feet really fast but not really go anywhere? Yeah...that was what Tia looked like. In between looking like a cartoon, she looked, and sounded, like a freight train! Full speed ahead, damn anything in her way, freight train! Sigh.

I tried her new bridle on her...its to big. I need to punch more holes in it! She is this weird in between size of Cob and Horse...its kind of frustrating! Good thing I am friends with the Amish Tack Shop Owner!!! I love him!

So after a little more lunging, freight train remember?, I hopped on her and rode her in her halter and the reins. She was good as cold! Very calm. Very light. Seemed to enjoy not having a bit in her mouth!!! Which makes me happy! She is probably just going to be a trail horse, so a bit really isn't needed if she is controllable with just a simple sidepull. I have a really nice sidepull and a custom made bitless bridle that I will try on her next time!

Here is the link to the video of us last night. It isn't long at all. Just us walking around enjoying some time together. LINK

I hope everyone has a great weekend! We will be spending the weekend, yet again, moving my husbands parents. Pray for me! ;)

Off Course

Life has been....hectic. Yeah! That's the nice way to put it! I haven't had any time to get to the barn...and I wont until probably March! :( If it would ever stop dumping snow and rain and sleet on us I might be able to get down there! The barn owner doesn't plow the driveway and I have a non-snow liking vehicle! Luckily, I have two wonderful friends who can get over there and check on everyone!

In the meantime, we are working on moving my husbands parents into a new home. We started moving them this past weekend and will continue to work on it for the next 2 weekends I believe. This coming weekend we will be moving his parents and not just some of their stuff. There are numerous reasons why we can't do the move in just a weekend...but for my husbands sake, I will not list them. Use your imagination!

One the other hand, the snow has given me the opportunity to take some pretty cool pictures!

I got some good ones of my little girl playing in the snow the next day as well! But I will have to post them later! They are on my other computer!

I hope everyone is staying nice and warm out there! I am so ready for Spring!!!

RHW Magazine is LIVE

Hi Everyone!

For those of you who don't know, Tia was featured is the Rescue Horses World Magazine's February Edition!

If you would like to read the article, you can go HERE for directions and enter the code ILoveHorses for your free magazine! As a side note, you do need to have ITunes to download the magazine!

In other news, it was 70 degrees here yesterday! I got to spend some much needed time at the barn with Miss Mare!

My good friend Gabbi had to have gallbladder surgery, so the first order of business when I got to the barn yesterday was to "torture" Mocha Man! I was pleasantly surprised when he decided to be a total western pleasure pony instead of speed racer yesterday! We had a really nice relaxed ride and then I put Gabs up on him just to walk and cool him out!

And then it was Tia's turn! When I first drove into the barn, I stopped at her field and stripped her of her blanket...the barn she is at does not remove or put on blankets. You have to do it yourself. So while I worked on Mocha, she got to bask in the sunshine for about an hour and a half. Then, we got to work!

She is moving soooo much better! She is still a little off on the right stifle, but I suspect that that is going to be the norm for her!

All in all, we had a great session and ended on a phenomenal note! I can not wait to start trail riding her when the weather warms up again! It is currently raining and 38 degrees....I am so ready for Spring!

I will leave you with two pictures! The first is Miss Mia, in all her glory! And, the second is a nice shot I got of Tia yesterday before I left the barn! I hope everyone has a wonderful day!!!!

Blankets, Cold and Rain! Oh My! **Pics added**

Last Saturday, the 4th, I had this bright idea to run over to the barn and throw Tia's blanket on her for the upcoming Polar Vortex..or whatever they were calling it. I call it - RIDICULOUSLY COLD! Anyway, over to the barn we went. Tia and Mia were all the way out in the field and REFUSED to come up to the barn to even get a treat! Sigh. The fields were a mess and I had the wrong shoes on to be tromping through wet fields. So, we left and I resigned myself to just go over on Sunday. Which I actually did! Ha!

Tia was very very happy with her blanket on. I normally don't blanket my horses, but this weather coming in had me scared that she would do something silly like stand in the rain and cold all day and then not be able to get warm and dry at night in her stall. So, with the forecast being 7 degrees, I bit the bullet and just threw her blanket on her. I do have better pictures, but they are on my good camera and I haven't had a chance to grab them yet.

Monday night I stopped at Tractor Supply and picked up a heated water bucket for her stall. Then headed over to the barn to install her new bucket and Mia's heated bucket as well. I told myself "Do Not Drive Down The Driveway To The Barn" and yet, I did....and ended up getting stuck for about 10 minutes not 10 feet from the paved part of the road. But, thanks to my driver training from my dad all those years ago, I got it unstuck and parked it and walked to the barn.

The girls were happy to see me, which is a first here lately. I got their buckets plugged in and filled, gave them lots of love and kisses and treats and then settled them in for the night. It was ... COLD. Ugh.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. It rained, and it was cold, and that made people drive like idiots, and I wished to become a hermit. But all in all, it was OK.

This past weekend was pretty busy as well. When are my weekends not busy!? I really just want to ride my mare! Ugh!

Saturday morning I ran to the barn to take Tia's blanket off. She really only needed it for those couple of below 0 degree nights and it was supposed to be in the 60's Saturday. Well....apparently, she likes her blanket and she doesn't care what I feel needs to be done, she feels warm and pretty and important in her blanket ... therefore, the blanket stays on...FOREVER! Muuuaahhhaahhhaaaaaaa! Yep, you guessed it. She refused to come to the barn...again! It was pouring down rain, I had the little Chi with me and we were both wearing tennis shoes...of which mine are basically sandals at this point and need to be replaced. And with that, the decision was made. If she wants it on, fine. That beats me having to brush her mud soaked coat before riding her now and it beats her being wet and able to get out of being ridden in the first place! I will just have to remove it on warmer days. But, she is happy in her big girl blanket, and that makes me smile!

I will try to grab some photos off the camera tonight and add them to this blog.

I hope everyone has a great day!

As promised...Pics Added!

Rescue Horses World Magazine

Be prepared people! I have my "I'm So Stinking Excited I Can't Stand Myself" face on!

There is going to be an article in the RHWM February issue about Tia! OMG! I am so excited!

More to come....I gotta get started writing the article!!!!

YAY!!!!!

Welcome to 2014

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Holiday season and a Safe and Happy New Years!

I don't have a major entry to make today, just a quick note.

Tia went on her very first trail ride since coming to live with me yesterday! Happy New Year to Us!!!!! Mocha man has gone lame..again...and since I was stuck at home working on websites and trying to make Christmas leave our house, I told Becca to call Gabs and ask her to trail ride with her. So, Becca rode Tia and Gabs rode Mia. Mia is an old pro at this whole scary trail riding thing! Nothing ever really fazes her.

The last trail ride Tia was on was with her previous owner, and the nice way of putting this is that the ride didn't go well or even remotely as planned! There was bucking, spinning, rearing, dumping of the rider and leaving for the hills! Yesterday, however, Becca and Gabs reported that Tia was AMAZING!!! No buck, no spin, no spook, no rear, nothing! Becca said her ears were up, she was happy and moving forward! Even the deer that jumped out of the woods are breakneck speed didn't scare her. She just stopped, looked at them and kept right on trucking!

I can't express how happy I am for Tia. She has truly grown into a beautiful well rounded little mare. We still have lots of work to do, but I am so looking forward to spending some time on the trails with my little mare!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Years Everyone! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas was especially good to us this year. We got to spend the holidays with our families, which means more to me than anything else. There were people that were not able to make it to Christmas this year, for reasons I wont go into. And there were people that may not have been there physically, but were there in spirit.

As for the actual gifts, my hubby got me my new Camera! I am in love with this thing! I cant wait for spring to get here so I can get pictures of the trees and flowers blooming. I did, however, take the camera to the barn the other day to see what kind of pictures I could get. Be prepared....there are a lot...and even more on my facebook page!

So the plan was to head to the barn and see how my camera did on Tia pictures. Cause you all know she is my little muse! :) Well when I got there...this is what I found...

A very fat, very dirty pony! So I sighed to myself and loaded my care with the bath time preparations and headed to the big barn. Once I got her in the barn...I realized it was worse then I thought...this was gonna take forever!

I scrubbed this mare for at least 2 hours...and she still had little pockets of dirt under her coat! She was not happy about any of it either. We had 3 come to Jesus meetings before she realized it would be beneficial to her health and well being if she didn't lift her foot at me or try to sit down on the cross ties! Sigh..Next time I am just biting the bullet and washing her in DAWN! That'll get the crud off of her! She did..however..totally enjoy her teats being cleaned! The first time I ever cleaned them she tried to kill me. Since then, she loves it. Nickers the entire time I am cleaning them! Weird little mare! But, at least she was clean..sorta!

She even got a slight hair cut! Her mane was looking pretty raggedy and he bridle path was almost non-existent! So she got a little trim and then she was put back outside with her Mia Monster!

She was clean, sorta, for all of maybe 5 minutes! Then....

Yeah. She was feeling pretty frisky! It always puts a smile on my face when I see her this way. I have tried so hard to give her a life she is happy in, and watching her like this makes me feel like I have done something right! She is happy, and healthy, and that is all I can ask for. Going into 2014 there will be a whole different set of expectations for her and I. I just haven't told her yet.....

Gabs came over to the farm as I was finishing up with Tia to give Mocha a bath and see how he is moving now. He has been off for some time now. We put him back on his joint supplement and TADA! Sound Pony! Yay! And now, just because, here are a few pics of Mocha man!

I get this look A LOT! 

I loveeeee this picture! 

I'm sorry! I couldn't help myself!

I am hoping to be better about blogging in 2014, and hopefully I will be able too. There are lots of exciting things that are going to be happening for Tia in the coming year!

I hope everyone has an amazing New Years! See you all next year!

Erin and Tia