Happy New Year!

Wordless Wednesday - Soaking Up the Sun

Daisy

T's riding skills have improved greatly in the last year.  She rides quite a bit and has expressed interest in doing more English riding and possibly showing other than gymkhanas.  We have been keeping our eyes out for a project that she can work with and maybe show in some English classes.  Jet and Zip can both be ridden English but they really excel at neck reining and more Western style riding. 

T came across a 4 year old Haflinger mare online who is said to be very broke and would make a good English prospect.  The pony came to the farm just before Christmas and T has named her Daisy.  Sunday was sunny and warm for this time of year (in the low 40s) so it seemed like a good time to try her out.  T used her Western saddle since we weren't sure how the pony was going to react.  Daisy was a peach.  She's not very tall but she's sturdy and smooth.

Macro Monday - Daisy the Pony

This is Daisy, the Haflinger pony.  She is the pony featured in our Christmas greeting and you'll see more about her later this week.  She's a real sweetie.

You can see other contributors to Macro Monday here.

Sunday Still - Odds and Ends

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is Odds and Ends.  I decided that I would do a collage of pictures that I've taken and posted throughout 2009.  Gymkhanas were a big thing for our family this year and my daughter finished her season as Reserve Champion so she is featured in most of the collage.  I hope you enjoy it.

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Skywatch Friday - Season 4 Episode 24

Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday - Growing Like a Weed

Snow Birds

When the snow started on Saturday morning, it set off a feeding frenzy with the birds.  They started to gobble up any berries or seeds left on the trees.  This is a flock of mostly starlings with several robins snacking on the pear tree in our back yard.  I took these from my second story kitchen window which is just about the top of the tree.

Macro Monday - Tracks in the Snow

It seems that some birds took shelter under the overhang at the barn during the storm.   They left little tracks in the snow that blew onto the mats.

You can see other contributors to Macro Monday here.

Sunday Stills - Holiday Lights & Decorations

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is Holiday Lights and Decorations.  This has been another one of those crazy-busy weeks for me and I didn't have many opportunities for photos.  We haven't done much decorating for Christmas this year.

Mother Nature served up a major snowstorm yesterday so we have nature's holiday decoration in the form of 8 inches of snow.  Philadelphia, which is about 35 miles east, got about 23 1/2 inches so I'll take the 8 inches.

Behind my house

The horse pasture where I board my horses

One of my favorite decorations - Breyer Santa and his horse

Breyer Drum Horse

Check out other bloggers who participate in the Sunday Stills Challenge.

Skywatch Friday - Season 4 Episode 23

My ride to work starts in the rural area that I live in and progressively gets more populated as I get closer to work.  Along the way, I travel through some small towns and end up in the corporate and retail area where our office is located.  The sun is usually coming up as I drive.

The sunrise along Hatfield's Main Street

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Profiles

My fuzzy, fuzzy horses

Zip in his fancy English bridle

Jet in the plain-Jane Western bridle

Wordless Wednesday - Shadow Rider

The Joys of Riding in the Cold

I am not a cold weather person.  The lower temperatures mean more layers and lots of gloves.  This poses a challenge for me for riding especially getting on (good thing Jet is 14 hands!).  After days of really gloomy weather that included snow, ice and rain, Saturday dawned sunny but cold.  The temps were just above freezing and luckily the wind had died down.  T got a new English saddle that she wanted to try out so I figured I'd get the nice comfy sheepskin bareback pad and hop on Jet.  The horses have shaggy coats and don't seem to be too bothered by the colder temperatures.  Both have had waterproof blankets on to keep them dry in all of the rain that we've had.

A long sleeve shirt, fleece and big parka plus jeans, neoprene boots, and heavy lined gloves

make me look like the Michelin man.  I instantly gained about 20 pounds but I was pretty warm.

T inherited Craig's internal radiator and doesn't seem to be bothered by the cold as much as I am.

She swapped out her heavy jacket for my zip up fleece. 

She was doing quite a bit of ring work so she was warm.

All in all, it was a nice ride and we spent an enjoyable afternoon at the farm.

Macro Monday - Bits

We headed out to the grain mill on Saturday morning which is in the beginning of Amish country.  It's a really pretty ride through farmland that is still green and being worked.  We have a regular round of stops along the way which include 2 harness/saddle shops and 2 equine consignment stores.  I grabbed my camera to take into one of the consignment stores.  Along the wall next to the saddle is a row of bits and bridles.

A bit and bridle

A line of English bits just waiting to be used

You can see other contributors to Macro Monday here.

Sunday Stills - Technology

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is Technology.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to use for this week's challenge so I took my camera to work with me.  This is my work computer that I spend most of the day using.  It's a laptop with a flat panel monitor, a cordless ergonomic keyboard and a cordless ergonomic mouse.  Plus an external CD/DVD burner.  And you'll notice my very hi tech pencil sharpener, eraser, and post-its.

This is my Garmin eTrex GPS that I use for trail riding.  2 riders had an accident in the local state park last year and were able to call for help on their cell phone but they were unable to give anyone an idea of their location so the State Police used sirens at various intervals to help the girls pinpoint where they were.  Since we trail ride often, I didn't ever want to be stuck like that so I found this eTrex on ebay.  It links up to a minimum of 5 satellites and tells you all kinds of cool stuff like how fast you are traveling, the direction, your altitude, longitude & latitude and you can set waypoints and navigate to various locations.  Plus you can use it to back track in the direction you have traveled.  I've only used it a couple of times but I really liked the functionality.  And it was really fun to calculate how fast my Tennessee Walker gaited (6 miles an hour at his slowest).

Check out other bloggers who participate in the Sunday Stills Challenge.

Skywatch Friday - Season 4 Episode 22

One of the things that I absolutely hate about this time of the year is the fact that I leave for work in the dark and come home from work in the dark.  But I do get to see some fantastic sunrises along the way.

We've had lots of wet weather.  It seems a week doesn't go by without at least one rainy day and lately it's been lots of rainy days.  This sunrise was after one of the recent storms.  The field is part of a sunflower farm and the building you can just about see is a hothouse.  Beyond the sunflower field is a corn field, before suburbia starts.

Check out skies from around the world at Skywatch.

Licking the Door

Zoey has a habit of licking anything that just might have some water on it.  It's something that Bandit will do, too.  Both of them were thrilled that someone spread ice cubes (in the form of snow) all around just for them. Zoey thought the glass door tasted pretty good.

Wordless Wednesday - Let It Snow

Peanut Butter, Please!

Bandit says, "Please, oh please, can I have some more peanut butter?!?"

Macro Monday - Bonfire

The burn pile was lit at the barn yesterday.  It consisted of garden clippings, some hay, branches, miscellaneous wood and a few pieces of cardboard.  It made a huge bonfire that chased off the chill.  I got as close as I dared and used the zoom.  The fire was putting off some serious heat.

You can see other contributors to Macro Monday here.

Sunday Stills - Pets

This week is the one year anniversary of Sunday Stills so this week's Challenge is the same as the first week - Pets.  We had our first snowfall of the season yesterday.  It started off as rain and then switched to all snow.  Temperatures below freezing last night left us with ice this morning.

Zoey and Bandit sitting in the door watching Craig clean off the truck.

Jet in the early snow yesterday.  He is a lovely shade of mud on one side.

Believe it or not, the blanket he has on is actually gray and dark blue.

Zip licking his lips after his bowl of grain and alfalfa cubes.

Check out other bloggers who participate in the Sunday Stills Challenge.

Skywatch Friday - Season 4 Episode 20

This week's full moon through the trees

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Fly Away Jet lives up to this name

At the end of the gymkhana season, we decided to retire Jet from competition since he's getting older and we know that he's arthritic.  However, no one apparently informed Jet of this.  This horse loves to go go go and decided that he would like to jump too.  I had trimmed his feet earlier and was kind of tired and not up to jumping so T hopped on board and away they went.  Zip let me be a photo taking passenger and was very happy to quietly walk around the ring to cool off from his workout.  These two horses are so much fun to have around.

Wordless Wednesday - Sleeping Beauty

Pony Up

It's a very long walk from the hay feeders to the barn.  The distance isn't huge but it's all uphill.  T hitched a ride on a blanketed Jet and I handed off Zip so she could bring them both up.  That's me in the red jacket bringing up the rear.  We haven't ridden Zip bareback yet and, while I don't *think* he would misbehave, I didn't want to take a chance riding him in the pasture.  It's really wonderful having 2 horses that are so well trained.