Goings On

Phew, time seems to be slipping away from me....the end of the year is always hectic at work and it seems that everything else is crazy too.

So...Tiger came to us with feet that weren't in very good condition.  After working with the farrier and discussing with the vet, we all decided that he wasn't going to be the gaming pony we had hoped and we were going to try to find him a good home.  Through the power of the Internet and Facebook, we found his former owner from about 10 years ago and we gave him to her.  She was thrilled to get him back and we were happy since she already knows his personality and how he rides.

In the meantime, we decided to move back to a farm where we had boarded before that would allow us to work on a project or two and was much better set up for training and conditioning.  We moved horses a week and a half ago.  Craig and T did most of the packing up while I was at work and it was a pretty smooth transition.  Everyone settled in well.

So...an opportunity came up for a quarter pony mare that a friend of ours got when she was 6 months old.  Her name is Reba, she's 8 now, very sweet with impeccable ground manners and needs some more saddle time (she was broke by Kenny Harlow and has been in a lesson program recently). She came home on Friday.  T has been riding her and she's really happy with her.  She's also working with the QH gelding, The Great Diversion (we still haven't come up with a barn name for him).  She's going to be busy riding all winter.  In the meantime, the vet was at the barn and was checking teeth for me to see who needs to be done.  A pleasant surprise - Dash is 8 years old, not the teenager we thought.  He's the first horse that is younger than what we thought which is awesome.  And T started him on some gaming stuff.  That boy can move!!!  And she's still working Zip to make sure he doesn't lose too much condition over the winter (show season will be here before you know it!).  I've been riding Rooster in the ring and in the woods.  We did a 3 hour trail ride on Saturday - beautiful scenery but a tougher ride than I anticipated.  He was awesome but we were both pretty tired.

Got a bunch of pics to get through and will get some posted.  The temps have dropped and it's been cold even in the sun during the day so I pretty much want to curl up in lots of blankets and stay inside :)

Sunday Stills - Portraits

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is Portraits.  I didn't set out to take specific pics this week but did take two that I really liked (both involve horses of course!).

T's new project horse, registered name The Great Diversion.  Even though it's bright sunlight, I loved the way the light hit him and the pic just seemed to scream "selective color" to me.

Candid shot of T on the same horse.  I love the look on her face and the way her hair landed on her shoulders.  She wasn't aware that I was snapping away.

View other Challenge participants here

Wordless Wednesday - Tongue Wagging

Saddles Optional

One of the things that I absolutely love about the horses that we have is that you can grab a bridle, brush off some of the dirt and just hop on, in the pasture, in the ring, on the trails.  I tend to ride bareback more than with a saddle, especially when it's cold out.  T and I got to ride both Saturday and Sunday which was awesome.  Saddles were definitely optional.  The new QH gelding is about as quiet as you can get and totally doesn't mind tooling around with no saddle.

T on the new guy

Me on the new guy

Saturday we took advantage of the empty pasture and rode Tiger and Dash around the field.  It was so much fun!

Me and Dash in the pasture

T and Dash crossing the creek

T and Tiger in the field

The Great Diversion

Believe it or not, that is actually this horse’s registered name.  How on earth do we shorten that to come up with a barn name???  He’s been called Amos before but to me Amos is a plow horse, not a good looking Quarter Horse.  We will come up with something that seems to suit him better.  He’s 6 years old, papered and T’s next project.  He’s a bit out of shape and still figuring out where he fits in with everything but he’s an awfully nice horse.