Brrrrrrrrr

It's a winter wonderland outside and so pretty! But freezing! We've had a few water issues out at the barn so I took out a water tub to supplement Lily's auto water if needed and convinced her once again (it took about 5 minutes) that her blanket was in no way hiding a monster ready to make a snack out of her! She looks thrilled huh!!
I don't think the cold bothers her much but it makes me feel better to know she's got a little extra protection!
I don't know if the snow will last, but it would be really cool to have a white Christmas!!

Zmule?

I just had to share this picture that I got in an e-mail today! How cute is this little bugger??!!.... look at that little face! He (she?) has those stockings pulled all the way up!

Queen Lily surveys her muddy domain.....

She's actually still fairly clean in this shot, but trust me it didn't last for long!! Mud seems to be very important to Lily for reasons that are beyond my comprehension.I'm beginning to think that she realizes that the dirtier she is the more grooming she gets, and she will stand for hours at a time for a good thorough grooming session! At any rate Horses=Mud, a fact that I accepted long ago, even when I lived in California, mud was the dirty three letter word out at the barn and considering that it seems like it rains at least 75% more here in Oregon I'm lucky I don't need a canoe to get around!

OMG.......Is that the sun??

The Pacific Northwest + December = gray & soggy, usually anyway! Imagine my delight to wake up to a bright, clear, sunshiney day! There was a nip in the air but it was so gorgeous out and I was able to hand graze Lily on some select patches of lush green grass. I really enjoy hand grazing her, just the two of us hanging out, with her munching away but every so often she'll put her head up and brush my hand with her nose......it might sound a little corny but it touches me when she does that, it seems as though she is acknowledging our little herd of two and telling me she's glad I'm there in her own way! Reminds me of how true a little saying that I heard recently is... "There's something about the outside of a horse thats good for the inside of a (wo) Man. I love to trail ride and show and team pen, but sometimes its the days like today and the little things that make me go WOW, horses are so cool and I'm really lucky!

A Trot Down Memory Lane......

I always get nostalgic around the holidays and I'd like to share my horses from years past! Gone (from me at least) but never forgotten! Three great horses preceded my lovely Lily......Oly the Welsh X pony given to me by my parents when I was 11. Pete the 3 year old AQHA gelding I bought when I was 23 and Savannah, a yearling Mustang filly that I adopted from the BLM, and joined Pete 2 years later. Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of my first love Oly, but he was a feisty little thing and we had many adventures bombing around (the rural) neighborhood! I never had a saddle while owning him, but I don't recall ever falling off (I think 11 year olds have super glue in their DNA!)


My next horse didn't enter my life until I was 23. I saw an ad in the paper for a ready to start 3 year old AQHA gelding near where I lived, so I went to see him and fell in love! Repeat A Scooter, "Pete" as I called him was a gem! I wanted to train him myself, so that I could "get the horse I wanted", the problem being of course that I had no idea how to accomplish this! He was very tolerant as I got him used to saddle and bridle and lunging, I was even the first one on his back! Fortunately I had the sense to have a real trailer help me with the rest. He turned into super trail horse and we had many fun and exciting miles together!




About 2 years after I got Pete a friend called me up and asked me If I wanted to go with her to a BLM Mustang satellite adoption that was coming to our area. I said sure, it would be fun to see some real live Mustangs in the flesh and I had no intentions of doing anything but looking. HOWEVER (I know you saw this coming) once I got there a yearling filly caught my eye, not because she was gorgeous at the time (she was really small, super shaggy and had a worm belly) but because out of the 8 other horses in her pen she was the only one who hadn't been adopted! I felt so bad for her that I put in my name and after paying the $150 adoption fee and scrambling to find someone to haul her for me, Savannah came into Pete and I's life. It took about 6 weeks to finally be able to even touch her, but once I gained her trust, I could do anything with her! The picture at right is when she was 2 1/2 and was saddled for the first time, it took me all of 5 minutes! She was one of the most mellow horses I have ever know!

It makes me sad sometimes, that these horses had to go out of my life for one reason or another, but I have some great memories!! And now I have Lily, and I plan to keep her forever!

Books,Books,Books

I LOVE books! I have loved books since my first Dick, Jane and Spot readers in the first grade! I have so many favorite books and authors that this post would be truely huge if I went into them all! However since this is a horse blog , I wanted to mention some instructional type horse books that I think are great!

How To Think Like A Horse - By Cherry Hill
This book has a lot of great horse information! It has chapters on horse senses, phsyiology and nature as well as chapters on how horses commumicate, how they learn and training. This book is rich with illustrations and easy to read.

Building Your Dream Horse - By Charles Wilhelm with Allison Houston
I think this is a great book focusing on foundation training and helpful for anyone who has a younger horse like mine (even if you send your horse to a trainer) In particular two passages in the section called 10 Secrets every horse wants his owner to know sold me on this book: "Use pressure Judiciously-Your job is to understand the least form of pressure you can apply to your horse that still makes her react" and "It's Never Ever the Horses Fault - If we use human lauguage to communicate with the horse, then there will be no commumication. However, if we invest time in learning the horses language, then we start a relationship and earn the respect and partnership we are seeking"

These are just two of my latest reads and I know that there are hundreds of other books out there focusing on horse training and behavior (and everything in between) that I have not read............so if have you any suggestions that have inspired you, I'd love to hear about them!
You can also check out my Shelfari for other books I love!

Dream Horse can be dangerous!

Amazing how things just fall into place sometimes. I've always been happier with a horse in my life and I hadn't had one since I had to sell my QH gelding and my Mustang mare about 10 years ago (can't believe it's been that long) So I decided that it was long past due to get another and have horses be a permanent part of my life! I was originally going to wait a while to purchase said horse to give me plenty of time to prepare i.e. gather supplies (as I had none anymore), find a boarding facility, check out area vets and farriers etc and save up the money to basically buy the horse I wanted (within reason- I was thinking $3500) WELL..... let me give you a little bit of advice........DO NOT go on DreamHorse.com until you are ready to buy!! I couldn't help myself, I just HAD to look and you can probably guess the outcome . Yep, I found a beautiful red dun 2 y/o filly, another QH which is what I wanted . I don't regret it even though it was about 8 months earlier than my original plan! With her quick delivery (4 days after I bought her) I had to go into turbo mode to get everything ready,but sometimes you just gotta roll with it. I've had her for over a year now and she's a keeper!