It has come to my attention (*cough cough thanks Becky*) that I have not posted an update on this blog in months. There is not a whole lot to say about Zoey. Miss Thing is back in the pasture, living the good life for right now. We did move the two year old group to a pasture in the front. That means she lost access to the pond, which is a bummer with the summer heat that is rapidly setting in!
Things are starting to slow down around here, which is much appreciated. It got crazy for a few months, with foaling mares, breeding season, and shows. We are done foaling mares out (had 5 babies) and are at the point where if the mare is not pregnant then she is staying open for next year.
I did have a client come out who is a pro photographer...she took some pictures of Zoey in the field. I have not seen them yet but I will share them as soon as I do. Zoey was a complete ham. She wanted to be right in our faces and, when we would chase her away, let us know just how insulted she was by bucking and squealing. *sigh* She has no shortage of attitude!
To hold you over, here are some pictures of this year's foals. Enjoy!
Today was a big day for Miss Zoey. She got to wear her first saddle ever and, I am happy to report, was a freakin' rock star. I lunged her first to let her blow off some steam. She cantered a few laps, squealed and played a little, and then was ready to stop and stand there. I caught her, swung the pad on and off her a few times from both sides, and then picked up the work saddle. I set it on her back, gave her a few pats, and went to her off side to swing the cinch down. She stood there, totally relaxed. She did take a step forward once I started to do the girth. I asked her to stand still with a "whoa" and a light tug on the lead rope. She stopped and let me finish girthing her up.
She stood there watching me as I unclipped the lead rope and tried to follow me back to the center of the round pen. Once I picked up the whip, she moved into the trot. She squealed and hopped a little when she felt the stirrups banging on her sides. OT and I were cracking up at the way she was flinging her front feet in front of her and slamming them into the ground; she was not sure that she approved of this new contraption strapped to her. She never really bucked hard and, after a few laps of protesting a little, she settled down and trotted quietly. When I asked her to move into the canter, there was no bucking or hopping around. I was so proud of her!
Looking all grown-up!
So far, she has been completely sensible about everything. She has been wearing a surcingle for the past several days and the saddle, as an extension of that, was not unfamiliar enough for her to have a melt-down over. Such a good girl.
We did measure her with a stick on concrete...15.2+ at her withers and 15.3+ at her hip. Since she does not actually turn 2 until April 26th, I am pretty happy with that.
My plan is to get the saddle on her a few more times, maybe introduce ground driving lightly. I find myself continuously contemplating how much to do with her. Right now, she is not being asked to do very much and none of it is strenuous. She is asked to work in the round pen for less than 5 minutes/day and quite a bit of it is at the walk. She has been wearing a surcingle in her stall for a few hours/day. Her and Reba are getting turned out together at night.
Mentally, she is doing great with this schedule. She is thrilled to see me anytime I walk by her stall. They are stalled behind the roundpen, so her and Reba both spend quite a bit of time looking over the round pen wall watching us work the other horses.
I am still in no rush to get on her by any certain date. She is obviously still growing and I want her to have time to just mature. I do like the idea of introducing all this groundwork stuff slowly so that she has time to process it. I find myself amazed by how intelligent and trainable she has been so far (I know, I know, I am biased!). She really seems to enjoy the work. I love her personality. When we measured her today, she just stood there and watched. So many of the young ones are concerned by the measuring stick the first few times. Zoey has that personality that I really like: bold and self-confident. I feel like, as long as I go slowly and don't overwhelm her, that personality will serve us really well in the future. I think she is going to have a lot of heart under saddle. Love love love!
And, for your viewing pleasure, here is some video of the princess under saddle:
Sorry for being so absentee. I have noticed that quite a few of my posts begin that way. Funnily enough, most of my journals from middle school have entries that begin the exact same way. What can I say? I clearly have not turned over a new leaf as far as prompt documentation of my life goes. The ironic thing is that I check everyone else's blogs that I follow at least once a day, hoping for an update.
The gorgeous Miss Zoey is back in the barn after enjoying several months of leisure in the pasture. I have not measured her but I think that she has grown. She is almost 22 months old and it is time for her to start learning how to be a solid citizen. We have a long way to go-she still throws temper tantrums complete with pawing everything in sight, screaming, and running circles in her stall bucking. Naughty naughty. The funny part is that, once you have her out and are working with her, she is generally stellar. She remembered everything from her previous 2 or 3 longeing sessions. It took exactly two times of me showing her that she needed to stop on the line and wait for me to come to her instead of turning to come to me before she was doing it every single time. Our leading skills are much improved. She has been wearing a surcingle and pad during the day and is being slowly introduced to being tied, much to her displeasure. I even stood on the mounting block next to her today and leaned over her, letting her get used to someone being above her. She was clearly traumatized, as she promptly cocked a hind hoof and went to sleep.
My plan is to introduce a saddle at some point next week and let her wear that around her stall for a few days. I don't anticipate that being a huge deal. Clippers are on the list of things to introduce. I would like to get the leading a little more solid as well as the being tied and (here's the hard part) standing tied quietly. We might even work on the longe line in the arena at a walk and a trot. After that, it is back to the field for her for a few months. I am in no hurry to actually ride her, as her long-term soundness is still the most important thing to me. I do want to get some of this groundwork done before she gets any bigger...the potential is there for her to throw a huge hissy fit and I want to increase my odds of surviving it!
I took lots of pictures on my phone but I have lessons showing up in a little while. I will try to add pictures later this evening.
Hope that everyone had a great Christmas and spent some quality time with loved ones. The DPH and I took it easy this year, which was wonderful! I am so blessed to have such a great husband. Lots of good food, great gifts, and time with family.
To start off this post, let me shamelessly plug a contest that getmyfix.org is having. They are giving away a custom Hayward hunt coat. To be honest, I read about the contest/brand on Tucker the Wunderkind's blog and did a little research on the Hayward line. I am not in the loop as far as current fashions go (both equine and regular life, sad to say!) so I had not heard of this company. If you ever show hunters, jumpers, etc. then their FB page/website/etc. is definately worth a visit! I may not know exactly what is in style but I have been seeing some gorgeous (and I mean GORGEOUS!) hunt coats at the shows. Gone are the days where you got to choose from navy with subtle blue pin striping, navy with subtle red pin striping, or a nice charcoal. There are options up the wazoo now. I personally am coveting a chocolate coat with a subtle turquoise lining. Yum. Check it out and visit getmyfix.org to enter the contest!
I am hoping that I will get to show some this spring. I get really frustrated at times because I do not know how to get from Point A (where I am now...starting these young horses) to Point B (getting to show at least a little) to Point C (being a successful trainer). The answer seems simple enough; get the young horses to the point where I can show them and go from there. The problem would be that all of the young ones that I ride are sale horses. Generally, we sell them right about the time that they get to be pleasant to ride. This does not bode well for getting them to the show ring. It is also hard to try to get back into showing successfully with really green horses. I know, I know...complain, complain, complain. It is just one of those days!
On top of all that, my special extended NaNoWriMo word count is sucking big time. (Becky-hope yours is going much better!). I should have written quite a bit last night but I ended up cleaning out one of the bedrooms in our house. I have a huge pile of stuff to throw away and a huge pile of stuff to go to the local charity resale shop. Unfortunately, all that stuff = no words added to the word count. Darn. Maybe tonight?
I have the hardest time coming up with a catchy title. I read other people's blogs and turn green with envy over their witty headings. Unfortunately, I may be doomed to always have boring blog entry titles.
As predicted, I failed utterly at NaNoWriMo. My final count was 25,232. Part of me is rather impressed that I made it halfway there. The sad part is that I think I had enough plot to carry me to the magical 50,000. Just not enough hours (or motivation to give up sleep for a contest where the only competitor was myself) in the day to make that happen. I have not opened the file on my laptop since then. Part of me was pretty disappointed. At first, I felt like I had written all these words so quickly and had sacrificed quality for the sake of quantity. Whenever I have sat down to write something in the past, I hem and haw over finding the perfect prose to convey my character's thoughts and emotions. Eloquence reigns and the editing that I have to do later is non-existent.
That is not the case for my 25,232 NaNoWriMo words. Not the case at all. I need to run rampant through the pages with a red Sharpie.
On the other hand, 25,232 words is the most progress I have ever made on a novel. I know that I can edit things and clean them up at a later date. Maybe what I need is to just write for the sake of writing. Word vomit, if you will. At least I have that many words to work with and edit now.
Who knows. Maybe I will go ahead and try to hit the 50,000 word mark. It is not technically NaNoWriMo anymore but I can set my own goal. By the end of December, I am going to have 50,000 words. I will update my progress here. Hold me to it, fellow bloggers.
I am a complete failure at NaNoWriMo. I am tragically behind on my word count. Of course, the fact that I did not start writing until November 13th might have something to do with that. I might just have to give myself a different deadline...National Novel Writing MonthS.
I am still not exactly sure where this novel is going. I had an idea, started writing, and am hoping that the characters are just going to determine what they want to do. You always read about writers saying things like that. "Oh, I thought Character A would end up doing this but she told me differently." I am still not convinced that this is not a total, bald-faced lie! I'll let you know how it turns out.
To make up for my lack of a real post, enjoy this video of naughty Miss Zoey. I told you guys that she has a bit of a temper! She was fresh and was just letting me know that she had an opinion about having to canter. Make sure your volume is turned up to get the full effect of this video...
