First Driving Show!

Well, it definitely has been a long, long time since I posted last!  A lot’s been happening, although you’d think with my unemployment status, I’d actually have more time to spend in front of the computer.

I really haven’t been home much!  I’ve just been spending all my free time at the barn, and enjoying every quickly-dwindling minute of it.

I’ve restarted my diet and my daily pilates work out.  I’ve lost a whopping 2 pounds (whoo hoo)….. only about 28 more to go, lol.  No hurry, though, I suppose… I’ll get there sooner or later.

I’ve found a new job and actually start that tomorrow.  Should be good.  More details to come as I learn them myself.  It’s great that I found a new job so quickly – it’s only been a month.  And it’s close to home.  Really close.  Like 2 miles close.  Which is important to me, because I don’t want to spend a ton of time commuting– interferes too much with my barn time.  lol

And speaking of barn time – a lot of that time recently has been spent prepping for my first driving show!

The show was May 5, Cinco De Mayo, Derby Day – did you watch the Derby?  What a race.  Truly, while I am disappointed with the horses over all, having such a tight field really makes for an exhilarating watch.  I wish there was one clear cut winner, a super horse if you will, but I guess that they all can’t be Zenyattas, right?  But all the same, it really takes your breath away to watch that final fight to the finish.  Just wish I could pick the trifecta one time!

Anyway, so back to the horse show.  The plan was that I would show Jesse, the black mini, single.  He’s never been shown before, and since I started working him back in August 2011, I’ve put maybe 50 drives on him… just a little less than Chewbacca who is up to 68.

Chewbacca is on temporary lay up, as he decided he only needed 1 shoe on his front feet, and proceeded to lose one somewhere in the abyss.  I’m awaiting the farrier and a new shoe, so Chewie is out for the count until that happens.  Good thing I wasn’t planning on bringing him to this show!!!  He better not lose his shoe again the day before the next show, because he *is* going to that one.

So, Jesse got body clipped earlier in the week, and I took the liberty of teaching myself (thanks to YouTube) how to French plait a mane and forelock.  I practiced it a couple times during the week, so by show day, I felt I was ready to put one in “for real”.

So, the day before the show, I groomed Jesse and Luke all up nice and shiny, and cleaned and prepped carts and horse trailer.  Show morning rolled around in a misty haze worthy of the movie “Mist”, but I was undeterred to show Jesse and myself in our first show – and compete against my husband and Luke, none-the-less!

I lead the horses out towards the trailer in the morning, and suddenly – it dawns on me….. I spent months training Jesse to drive properly, to flex, to bend, to frame up, to control his gaits….. spent all that time clipping him and grooming him as best I could… and as I stare at the horse trailer, I realize – I never practiced LOADING with him!

I laughed to my husband and said since he’s small, we may be pushing if he won’t go.  I popped Luke on the trailer quickly.  His experience leaves nothing to question.  He knows the drill and stepped right in, tied, and stood.  Then I turned to Jesse.

Would the little black, shiny, freshly clipped beastie load seeing how his fellow competitor hopped right in?

The moment of truth at hand – Jesse jumped right up.  No problems!

In less than 5 minutes, we were off to the show.  We arrived, we parked, set the horses up, and the rain cometh.  And cometh.  And cometh.  And cometh.  It rained lightly for about 3 hours and the temperature kept dropping and the wind kept picking up.  Ugh.  The horses remained tied to the trailer and grazed happily.  They were never a problem.

And a little drizzle wasn’t going to stop my first driving show experience, and soon enough, we were harnessing up and heading about the show grounds so Jesse could get some time to see the place up close.

Jesse has not been shown before.  I’ve never shown driving before.  And I have also never shown a green horse at its first show before, either.  So what a combination, right?!

Of course Luke was the pro he should be, and proudly walked around the warming up areas with a look of pure perfection.  Jesse on the other hand…..  was amazingly excellent.  I was totally impressed with the little guy’s attitude through the whole event.  He had a couple very brief moments of getting a little “cranky” and some rearing in the cart was involved, but it was very slight.  Overall, he was perfect.  Absolutely perfect.

We walked around the grounds a bit, then warmed up some on the grass amongst the larger horses.  Spooked quite a few, and did cause someone to get dumped.  My bad.  Sorry.  We actually weren’t anywhere near them, but the girl’s mare just stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that little horse come around a turn, and it was over.  lol.

That mare got over her issues, and in no time, the arena was opened for warm up for all.  Jesse went in like a pro and worked around the arena amongst about 20 other riding horses.  Some of the people riding apparently never heard of the arena etiquette rule that you DO NOT PASS ON THE RAIL.  So at one point, I was literally being passed by 10-12 cantering horses on both sides of the little mini.

I felt like an eco-car being passed by semis on a highway.  It was a new experience for both me and Jesse.  Jesse has never been in an arena with ANY riding horse at all.  In fact, he’s only had brief experience working with Luke as a fellow driving horse, and of course with Dixie tandem.

Did all my preparation in whatever limited means I could, pay off?  It did.  Jesse handled being passed by cantering behemoth horses on both sides like it was something that happened every day as part of normal life.  He never put a foot out of line.  What a fantastic boy, and great first – show- warm- up experience.

So, when the class was called into the ring for competition, how would he stack up against Luke, one other mini, and a Morab horse?  There were only 4 in the class- remember, our local open driving shows are small, getting 8 to a class is a big deal.  4-5 is about average.

Jesse trotted around beautifully.  He did superb.  Luke pranced his way to his usual first place win in the pleasure class.  I expect nothing less from that amazing pony.  The judge swooned over him.  I suppose my husband did Ok, too. lol.  Jesse stacked up to 3rd while the other mini got 2nd.  Not too shabby.  I was happy just to have a successful class, without breaking stride or messing up.

Next up was the reinsmanship class.  It’s like “driving equitation”, and is judged mainly on the rein handling skills of the driver.  Usually Luke and my husband win this too, but then again, they never competed against their “trainer”.

Guess who walked out of the arena with a 1st place ribbon and a trophy?!!  Yep.  The little tyke certainly earned his keep at the show.  The judge had great things to say, and took the time to actually inform the competitors of his thoughts and decision making process, which was nice, because usually judges do not do that.  He swooned over Luke again and offered many compliments about how he was the best horse he’s seen in a while (for driving) and the like, and also praised my driving skills and explained why he awarded me the 1st place win.

Then it was on to cones.  Cones.  Generally the idea of cones is that, like with jumping, you leave your “obstacles” UP.  At home, I am very good at cone bowling.  I run them down like I’m trying to get a turkey or something.  I hoped my lack of driving skills would not appear on the cone field.  Well, I only killed one.  So I guess that’s good.  I ran that cone over good.  Spooked Jesse a little when he heard the thump and the cart lifted up over the hard cone.  At home, my cones squish down, and are quiet.  lol.

Oh well.  The cones was a duel between only my husband and myself.  I went first.  Heck, I even walked the course and planned my approaches to the cones, and I still ran the one down.  I suck at cones.  Can’t wait to do it with Chewbacca next month.  I’ll probably run them all over.

My husband trotted onto the cone course without any prep, without walking the course, nothing.  He of course won.  lol.

So all in all, I walked out with a 1st & trophy, 2nd, and 3rd, and my husband got two 1sts (1 trophy), and a 3rd.  Good show.

The horses were exemplary on every level, and I was thrilled to have the chance to compete finally!  New job starts tomorrow, and while I’m nervous, I’m looking forward to it, and I hope to get pictures soon of the show and I will post them when I do!

Have a great day!!

Pictures and Updates!

Still unwinding a bit from our 3 days of hectic driving around, and to add to that an extra day spend at the hospital.  My scans ran late, which meant my doctors appointment got bumped from the morning to the end of the day, which translated into 8 1/2 hours whittled away at the hospital, plus a  2 hour drive each way means our whole day was pretty well eaten up! 

Happily, though, my MRI & CT scans revealed nothing!!!  My first 4 month check up and I am clean!  I just hope it stays that way.  Yay!!

 

On our road trip to Kentucky and Ohio and Indiana, we saw a whole lot of open farm land.  I was really pretty.  Quite rural, but very nice.  Still working on video, when I have some time.  Here are some pictures of the trip…

We first drove to Kentucky and visited this place:

Which was a lot of fun, I have to say.  I’ve never been in an aquarium where you walk through “tunnels of fish” and this one had a massive shark tank with huge sharks everywhere and some gigantic rays, too.  Really wonderful to see.

 

We left Kentucky and drove to Ohio and then the following day, we headed into Indiana, destined for Shipshewana – an Amish community in the northern part of the state.

We knew  we were getting close when we started seeing buggies crossing the street….

And I admit, even for me who drives on the roads.. it was strange seeing carts & horses just “in town”.  The roads I drive on have some homes and a few subdivisions, and they are 25, and 35 MPH zones.  These Amish were coming out of a McDonald’s parking lot and crossing a 55MPH street.

And while zooming down the freeway, just as we were almost passing them up, we saw an Amish farmer working in 6 abreast hitch of Belgians.

We barely had enough time to get a quick picture.  I would have loved to turned around and gotten more, but it was busy busy highway.  This was really cool to see.  We also saw a 6 abreast of percherons a little way up, but missed a camera opportunity entirely.

Along the way to the town, there was a lot of great, wide open space.  I tell you – INDIANA IS FLAT, FLAT, FLAT.  And I thought Western Illinois/Iowa was flat… holy cow, Indiana was just one big long stretch of flat farm land as far as you could see.

But some of the farms were lovely, and as we zoomed by, we managed to get a picture of some Belgians enjoying the cold but sunny spring morning….

And a few minis and 1 horse frolicking happily.

As we neared Shipshewana, the buggies were *everywhere*.  We saw more horses in 2 hours there, than we did in 2 hours at the Midwest Horse Fair…. lol.

Many of the roads were 55 zones, which for me, I just couldn’t imagine doing with any of my horses.  But these horses trotted along and didn’t seem concerned….. I’d be more worried about someone on their phone not paying attention than my horse doing anything unwanted.

In the town, the horses were everywhere, tied to hitching posts, trotting up the streets… my husband asked if they ever walk their horses, lol !  Everyone was trotting everywhere.  I think we did see 1 horse walking for a moment.  I guess they’re not out for a pleasure cruise, though- the horses *are* the transportation.  We did see a few Amish getting out of cars, though – not quite sure how that works, exactly?!

And then there was a line up of waiting horses over at a grocery store – made for a really neat shot, I thought, although one of the horses is leaving.  I kind of wish I got there just a minute sooner and gotten the backs of all the buggies….

It was a neat trip, though and all in all, a good time.

 

Til next time!

Long Post!

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I posted last.  Not terribly much has been happening, really.  My job search continues.  I had a nibble, but it did not turn into a bite, the position was filled.  Bummer.  So I’ve been spending a lot of time scouring the web looking for a great new position, which I am hopeful to find eventually.

I’ve also been spending a large amount of my free time at the barn.  (imagine that…), and needless to say, the horses have been getting worked, worked, worked.  lol.  In between, I’m also staying busy being a merry little house wife, spending time cleaning, landscaping, and whatever else around the house.  Haven’t really watched much TV or just sat around.  I like to keep busy.

The horses are doing great, and I in the final stretch of preparing Jesse for his first show in less than 2 weeks.  It will also be my first driving show, and I’m looking very forward to it.   I plan to body clip Jesse, but the weather has gotten so cold again, I only hope he won’t freeze when I do clip him a day or two out.

I have the papers in front of me to register for Chewbacca’s first driving show, too, which is about a month away.  I can’t wait to take him to it!  He’ll be competing in a 3-phase, 1 day show called an ADT (arena driving trial).  It’s like a 3-day event done in 1 day and within the confines of an arena.  It’s a great place to start out and experience the “marathon feel” without the distance.

He will do a dressage test in the morning, which is quite quite comparable to ridden dressage Intro A, and then immediately go into cones.  After lunch, he will do an obstacle course in the arena, and experience CDE Marathon-like elements, just in the arena.  We’ve already been practicing, of course.

His dressage is coming along great.  I’m happy with where he is, and since the test doesn’t call for changes in trot, we’re focusing on the working trot, which he does quite well once he’s warmed up.  I think we can manage to get through.  The only real “move” in the test is a large circle in the center each direction, and a change to a free walk across the diagonal.  We need to work on the free walk.  He’ll do an OK working walk, but his free walk needs help.  Otherwise, where he’s at, we will perform competently at the test.

We haven’t done any practice on cones this year, so this week I plan to start setting up cones courses and getting him through them.  When we were doing them last year, he seemed to greatly enjoy it, and I think cones are going to prove to be his strongest point.

As far as obstacles, well, we do practice the barrels quite a bit, but it is definitely not Chewie’s favorite things to do.  It’s impossible to make tight turns in the cart we have, so if we can’t pivot the vehicle around at a strong trot, we need to make the huge circumventing circles, which would kill our time in a show.  Since I can’t afford a marathon vehicle, we’ll just have to make do, and all in all, I’m not overly concerned about our obstacle efforts for the show – whatever we do, we do.  I’m not pressuring him, or myself, for that matter, to try to make a winning run.  I just want to leave the obstacles up and not run into anything!!!  lol

This weekend was very busy for us.  Saturday was the MidWest Horse Fair, our annual thing to do.  It was fun, and I got a lot of shopping done.  I picked up my custom ordered lightweight driving whip.  As soon as I picked it up I couldn’t believe how light it is!  My wrists will be thanking me next time I drive Chewbacca, which will be later today actually.

I also got carriage diapers for Chewie & Luke, as required now by the village police who have twice given me a hard time about manure on the village streets.  And I bought some other needed supplies, some yummy junk fair food, and although it was very crowded and took 1 1/2 hours just to park, it was a good few hours of running around.

Sunday morning we left home again for a little road trip and drove to Kentucky.  We visited an Aquarium in Newport, KY, which was quite fun!  Newport was a pretty little city, and I do have video, which I will be working on this week.  The aquarium was neat and had a huge shark tank you could walk under and around on several levels.

After that, we drove to Ohio and visited Jungle Jim’s International Market.  This place was seriously crazy, and a lot of fun!  It is a grocery store on 5 acres and has just about everything from every country that you could possibly think of.  We went into food shopping overload and had a lot of fun.

After a night in a hotel, we headed towards home with a stop in Shipshewana, Indiana.  It’s an Amish town with good places to shop and eat, and of course 3 carriage and harness shops   I got some things I needed to re-upholster the seats of Chewie’s cart, which I hope to get done before his show in a few weeks.  It was a nice town, lots of Amish buggies everywhere.

By the time we arrived back to the Chicago area, I was exhausted and quite happy to get home and pass out in bed, lol.

And, no rest for the weary, though!  I’ve got lots to do today, including some yard work, cleaning & waxing my car, then to the barn to work all the horses, and then tomorrow morning I need to turn right back around and go to Chicago at 6am.  I have my first recheck MRI and CT scan tomorrow at Northwestern.  Keeping my fingers crossed that all turns out for the best, but yes, I am of course nervous.  They will be looking to see if they see any new or recurrence of tumors in my leg or in my chest.  eeek.

Thursday, the horses get their shoes on, and then they’ll go to work again, too.  The weather should hold out I think, but the weekend calls for rain… that might make a good time to upholster my seats.  Hmm…

Well, that’s it for now, so more later!

Enjoy the day!

 

 

Pegasus Chewbacca

Chewbacca is trying to learn to fly….

My life… what a ride!

I am definitely, DEFINITELY, I have no doubts whatsoever….

CURSED.

I am like an endless run of bad luck covered in black clouds.

 

I’ve been laid off.

 

Awesome, right?

 

The last 4-5 months have been such a roller coaster, I just don’t know how much more I can take, really.

Happily, my skin is healing impressively well, after 4 weeks post-raditation treatment.  My swelling issues seem to have resolved, I’m walking better and better every day, and I’m off my ibuprofen for pain control.

Happiness abounds.

In fact, yesterday I had a superbly awesome day, and spent quite a large portion of it on my feet and I’m still walking today, and not in pain.  YAY!

Amongst the superbly awesome things I did on the pre-Easter Saturday was have a great steak dinner, see Titanic in 3D (which I’ve been looking forward to for a month)… yes, I cried.  I always cry when I see that movie…

And I also got all the horses worked.  My husband came out to the barn and we worked Chewbacca and Luke together for a nice 3 mile drive.  It was wonderful, a beautiful morning, and a fantastic morning.

Chewie definitely needs his shoes on, so I’ll be getting that done soon, but other than having a few little miss steps from some rocky ground, he was superbly awesome, and clearly was feeling pretty good by the time we turned back towards home and he was well warmed up.  Oh, it was also the first time Chewbacca has had a passenger in the vehicle !  He did great!  I was so happy.  I need to get him working with 2 people more often in prep for my goals of doing CDE’s, and after seeing how Chewie worked out so strong and forward yesterday, I really think maybe he’ll end up liking CDE’s after all.

Hopefully this link works:

Here’s some of the drive, and watch their little drag race antics at the end.  It was funny.  They actually tried it twice and were getting pretty goofy on the road, but they were having fun, so I’m OK with it.  Luke somehow managed to get his trace off the single tree after their 2nd drag race “happy” antics.  Not sure how that happened, it’s never happened before, but I’ll see what can be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  Oops.

 

And, after that, I got the minis driven tandem.  Drive 7 for these 2, and I am more and more happy every time with their improving skills.  I just wish Dixie would keep up, not plod along so much, but all in all, I think this tandem thing rocks, and I would absolutely LOVE to show these 2 tandem.  Only problem is that Dixie doesn’t breathe properly so that’s not going to happen.

 

Well, last but not least, enjoy Easter!

 

Monday it’s resume time for me.

 

Let’s Revisit Some (bad) Stallion Photos!

About a year ago, I had a little fun looking at the stallion promo pictures people chose to use to identify their stallion for the upcoming Midwest Horse Fair.

With just a little under 3 weeks to go before this fun event, let’s check out some of the many stallion photos for this year… the good and the not so good….

The MWHF is the premiere event in the entire Midwest.  It’s massive, and it draws in hundreds of horses for demos, competitions and clinics.  It’s a great event, and I simply love going.

The barns are fun to walk through, and the walls are usually plastered with ads for horses and tack and equipment for sale.  It’s a great place to find just what you’re looking for, whether you shop through 140 vendors or look at what horses are for sale in the barns.  And it has all the fair food you could possibly want, including our personal favorites- gigantic Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese curds and Cattleman’s Steak Sandwiches.  Diet be damned when I go to the MWHF!

It’s also a great place to meet and greet new breeds, and see all types of disciplines in action, with demonstrations, clinics, competitions, and nightly entertainment, too.

If you have a breeding stallion, and you service the Midwest, you want to go to this event to be seen and help get your stallion’s name out and promote your breeding operation.

And you should want to do it right.

I’ve got nothing against “BYB’s” back yard breeders.  At least, I’ve got nothing against the BYB’s who don’t have a huge fancy barn and formal promotions, but DO have a quality, papered, competed, and proven stallion, and promote and breed sensibly.

I do have major problems with Joe Schmoe who thinks just because his horse has testicles (or ovaries) it should be “bread”.

At the MWHF you get a really broad smattering of everything.  You see high dollar stallions that come from marvelous facilities with top notch care, you see the “little guy” who has a quality stud or two, and you see the total back yard breeder who hasn’t a clue.  I mean,  none at all.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.. I don’t care if you’re breeding cats, dogs, goldfish… you need to know what you’re doing, have the right set up and education and be prepared to do it right.

If you’re promoting your horse- be it for stud, sale, or whatever, you want to show off the best qualities, and if you are advertising for breed-specific purposes, you want to know and duplicate what is expected out of that breed’s conformation/promotional ads, and the photos you use to represent that animal reflect not only on the stallion, but also on your own operation and level of knowledge.

Pictures really are worth a thousand words…

So, let’s have it.. shall we?

First up, a Bashkir Curly stud.

Ok, you’ve got me.  I have no idea what the breed criteria standards for a Bashkir Curly would be.  I assume you would want to promote their curly coat, but then again, they only get curls part of the year.  So as far as a stallion picture goes, this one is OK.  I don’t have any major problems with it.   Nice pleasing background, no distractions, and a nicely photographed horse.  Bravo.

I just can’t comment on this Impressive Quarter Horse.  Again. I’m sure you can see why I’m so bothered by this horse.  Not necessarily the photo, but the actual horse himself.  Same photo every year.  Let’s at least try something new, people.

This is a grullo Portuguese Lusitano stallion.  Can’t say I know a danged thing about the breed, but I am not impressed by his stallion promo picture.  It shows nothing about the horse other than he can be ridden.  I’m assuming he’s working cattle, so something maybe displaying his cattle working ability a little more would be nice.    At least it has a clean background and a presentable horse & rider, so it’s a good effort.

This palomino American Warmblood is young and just getting started in both the working and breeding world.  The image is fine enough.  Definitely shows off his movement and high quality potential.  The picture would be even better if they dressed up the horse and handler as though they were at an inspection.  I’d like to see the annoying blue barrel and orange cone directly underneath the horse gone, and the handler not in jeans.  Even if the horse isn’t competing at Devon, you can still present him like he is.

This is the same image as last year for this young Arabian stallion. I’ll say it again… This photo was terrible the first time around and definitely not worth repeating a second year.  Seriously?!  If you think your stallion is so great- can’t you at least clean him up, put on a decent halter and better lead and take a presentable photograph?  You’ve had a whole year to plan for the MWHF… what thoughts were running through your mind when you sent in this same photograph… again?

I won’t even get started on all the faults with the horse.  We’re talking about photography here, and this does not come close to cutting it as a stallion image.

If you love Friesians, the MWHF is the place to get up close and personal with them.  The Fair brings out the baroque horses by the groves.  They’re everywhere.  I personally think a Friesian is OK.  I’m not in love with them.  I wouldn’t mind having one as a driving horse, but there are about a dozen other breeds I’d rather have first.

Now, you would never know that this Friesian stallion is an upper level trained horse capable of displaying his high quality movements going off this picture alone.  Why?  Because as a stallion promo photo, this image sucks.  It’s OK for a medieval knights poster, or some grim movie poster, but the grays and horrible half-rear pose of the horse offer nothing to promote him as a high quality breeding stud.  I’d like to see him moving out under saddle, or performing one of the many upper level movements or tricks that he knows.

It’s pretty amazing that you can take 2 breeds I’m really unimpressed with, cross them together, and get this outstanding stallion.  I’ve seen him at the fair before, and he’s an incredible horse.  This picture is well done and shows off plenty of his unique qualities.  If you don’t know what breeds he’s crossed with, you need to go back to equine 101. 

Now we’ve hit a breed I really do like.  In my fantasy land, I’d own one.  Oh heck, no, scratch that.  I’m into driving 2 horses now a days, so I’d own 2.  I love Vanners.  However, this image as a stallion promo image is really really lacking.

This is a pretty bad crop job.  I won’t complain that the feathers aren’t clean, I could only imagine how hard it must be to keep them white.  The stallion looks dull and lethargic and the image does nothing to show off his good qualities.  Is he a nice mover?  Is he a proven working horse?  Does he ride or drive, and how well does he look doing it…?  Does he actually have a lower half to his left hind leg?  Shouldn’t have to wonder these things….. And the strands of wire fencing isn’t working either.  That at least would have been a easy clone-out job in Photoshop.

Moving on…

I will never… I repeat never… understand why people feel the need to pose with their stallions?  If you’re riding/handling/working the horse for an actual reason, of course, that’s one thing.  But I have seen stallion ads with high school aged girls draped over their backs, with farmer John proudly standing next to them over the stall door, and I’ve seen so many huggy/cuddly pictures as stallion sale ads it is just absurd.

This is not a stallion photo.  If you want a photo like this for your scrap book, go have at it. You obliviously love your horse and that’s great.  But leaning in to give him a cuddly kiss on his furry muzzle does not show what a good quality stallion your horse is.  This picture does not show anything.  He’s advertised as a jack of all trades, impressive in Western, Dressage, trail, and jumping.  Show one of those qualities in your stallion picture next time .  Or at least show him moving out.

Only a couple more, I promise…

Here’s a horse after my own heart!  It’s a hackney horse.  But you probably wouldn’t know that by looking at this picture… why?  Because he’s standing still!  If you have a breed that is particularly known for a certain movement quality…. for the love of all things horses, SHOW IT in your stallion promo picture!

This is a decent photo.  It would be better having been taken in lower light without the huge shadow under the horse and the glaring highlights through his barrel and blown out whites on the hind socks.  I don’t like that’s standing mostly square-ish semi parked out (pick one or the other) and his head is cocked to the side.  If you must show your horse standing there, at least have him straight.  The quarter-shoulder-angle is fine, but the head should be straight.  A horse like this should be shown moving freely or doing his job.  Can’t wait to meet him at the horse fair, though!

And last but not least… the winner of this year’s stallion avenue.  I’ve got to give credit where credit is due.  Maybe these people read my blog last year about their image, lol…

To recap… this was last year:

Firstly, I’m not sure why you would want to operate a mustang breeding program anyway.  There are so many mustangs fresh off the range that needs homes and training, why breed more purposely?  Having said that, last year’s picture of this little buckskin mustang is awful….  simply awful, and in no way what a stallion picture should be.

Looks like someone got it together this year, though!  Well done!

They hired a pro, got a NICE background that doesn’t distract.  The horse is standing square, not moving off with one leg cocked, and the sunlight is mostly even.  I’ve noticed a lot of the horses pictured for this year’s stallion avenue have this lovely green field and pond as their back ground – are all these horses at the same barn or something?

Anyway, while this isn’t a conformation picture, and does not display that he even has a job in life other than breeding, it is a heck of an improvement over last year.  Usually, I’m not fond of a rope halter for a stallion image, but bearing in mind that this is a mustang and rope halters are popular with Western people (I’ve got one, too – neon green, of course ), it does work for this image.  At least it’s clean and crisp.

Very nice job cleaning up your stallion image.  If you’re making the same quality of improvements in general with your breeding operation, you may win the gold star.  Now, I just can only hope you don’t advertise on Craigslist.

Good job mustang owner!

Looking forward to the horse fair as usual!

Much needed driving!

What a couple weeks this has been!  It’s been over 2 weeks since I completed radiation therapy, and almost immediately after, my leg got worse and worse.  It got to the point where I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t tolerate the pain, and I couldn’t control the pain, either.  Which is very frustrating.

So it turned out that the majority of the internal pain I was feeling was due to swelling.  What caused the swelling?  Well, a reaction to radiation of course, but it’s totally atypical from what I’ve been told by my oncologist at Northwestern.  He’s never had a patient, with a mass in a leg, suffer the types of post-treatment reactions I’ve experienced.  Awesome.

Oh, and my skin… the blistering, the peeling, the fact that the burn area expanded over a several day’s period- also abnormal as I’m being told.

So, let’s keep count- so far through this cancer situation, I have had 3 adverse reactions.  I’ve also had 4  reactions to the medications I’ve been on.  I get nauseus and have headaches and dizziness, apparently after anethesia and on any type of narcotic or strong pain killer.

So now, I’m on a high dose of ibuprofen which is cutting my pain, and I’m doing better.  I have my leg wrapped up, which has helped force out the swelling and thus my leg is feeling better.  I’ve switched creams on my skin to silvadene, a burn cream, and with 24 hours I noticed a major change in the appearance of my skin.  It actually looks healthy, now, not yellow and crusty and blistering and dying.  So 3 for 3, I think I’m finally on the road to healing!

Of course, I have been off work for the better part of 2 weeks now to recover from this.  I’m going to start back Monday, with half days.

And I was actually able to get in some driving time!  <cheer, cheer!>  It’s also been the better part of 2 weeks since any of the horses have done anything remotely constructive as far as work goes.  I did some trick work with them 2 weeks ago, and that was about it.  They really don’t even want to run in the arena- just stand there and eat the new spring grass of course!

So I was able to crack out Chewbacca, Luke, and Jesse all in one day and work everyone.  Amazingly, my leg held up!  Yay!  I also re-did the leather on the shafts of Luke’s cart, so now it looks super awesome and I did a good job and am proud of myself!

Chewbacca worked brilliantly even with his 2 week vacation.  I worked him on the much-needed working trot, the somewhat lethargic, but we’re working on it park trot, and the road gait, that elusive extended/strong forward trot -that- usually- turns- into – a -canter- because – it – takes – muscle- building- and – strength trot.  He did great, and I was very pleased.

We also tackled some arena obstacles- a pattern I made up with barrels that serves as my only CDE-like training element.  He did well with that.  We’ll have to see if Chewbacca develops an affinity to take tight turns at a forward speed.  It will take time.

Luke, on the other hand, is all about the CDE stuff.  I seriously think he needs to become a CDE pony and I’ve had several people tell me that.  That pony will practically pirouette and spin the cart on one wheel to make a tight turn, and he can do it fast, too!   Luke is so awesome, there’s nothing he can’t do, or won’t try.  Of course, Luke has 5 years of driving experience that Chewbacca does not have, so there’s plenty of hope for Chewie! I know Chewie has had 53 drives to date, because I keep anal retentive track of every drive, from the start.  Luke, although I don’t keep track of his drives, has probably had over 300 in the time we’ve owned him, and who knows how many before that when the Amish had him as a younger man.

I also drove Jesse, who I am gearing up to hopefully in just about a month.  The first show of the year is in 2 weeks, but I think I’ll be passing on that one due to some conflicts.  In 4 weeks, though, there’s a small open show that usually gets 4-6 minis, so it would be great competition for Jesse, which is why I’d rather take him than Chewbacca.  I don’t see the point in bringing my QH to put in a ring with a bunch of minis.

Jesse schooled very very very well.  For the open show, all he needs to know is park and road trots.  He doesn’t have to worry about a working trot.  And he’s spot on with what he knows.  He also is starting to learn to back.   Jesse is a real work horse.  He does not want to be your buddy, but he will work, obey, try hard, and is turning out to be a truly amazing little dude.  He’s ten times better than any of the other minis I’ve seen compete locally, and so long as he doesn’t do his spooky/bolty thingie and break gait, he stands a real chance of  coming in second……. lol.  Because Luke will be showing, so you know will get 1st.

Well, that’s all really.  Nothing too crazy happening these days.  Just a lot of rest and doing nothing.  I did manage to get out of the house today and go grocery shopping.  And lo and behold, as I’m putting my groceries away, I turn to grab a new bag, and the psycho ex neighbor- whose – house- burned- down – in – November, and who we had to file a restraining order on to keep her away from us, was standing there next to me, looming at me with her shit-eating grin on her nasty face.

I happily called the police on her for confronting me.  Now I have to go court- for the 4th time in my life thanks to this no good insane woman – and have the restraining order permanently amended, so if she ever comes anywhere near me ever at all again, her butt ugly ass gets to go to jail.  It’s a pain in my butt to go to the courthouse, which is like an hour away, but it needs to be done.  I don’t need, on top of all the other crap that’s been happening in my life the last 4 months, to be harassed while I’m trying to load groceries in my car.

Ugh.

In other news, just to be quite clear.. *I* am planning to win the $640 million Mega Millions tonight, so don’t bother buying a ticket, because I’ve already got the winning one.

lol.

I’ll let you know how that goes on Saturday morning.  Oh wait, I’ll be dead of a heart attack and won’t need to worry about going to court on Monday… nor will I be able to post on the blog.

I can only dream…well, not to have a heart attack.. you get the idea.
Enjoy the weekend, and if you bought a ticket, I truly wish you the best of luck.  Remember us little people when you win your share of half a billion dollars…. k?