Horses :)

I totally forgot to post a pic of the 6-up horses that I got to ride around on their wagon.  Now that's my kind of team, black and white paint horses :)

Rode Easy, been working him on getting out of the arena, got 2 laps around the yard so far without him freezing up or calling or trying to go back.  That's big progress for him, one day we will actually make it out into the pasture all by our selves that is my goal this summer.  I am so busy and it just hasn't worked as planned with riding early so I am gonna do a few central shows on him this year and I think I need to keep him at the trainer next year if I am serious about showing.  I've tried at home it just doesn't work for me until I get an indoor, or move to Arizona lol.

I had the ponies out the other day cause we needed to load some cows from thier pen and so thought I would give them a good brushing and let them have some grass, Pally is loosing hair like crazy while Jax is slowly loosing his.  I started them on a ration balancer a couple days ago and it has all the vitamins and everything they need in it and they love it so that should help them be shinier, although Pally likes being dirty lol.

(ha half her hair out, half in)

(eww her tail needs a bath)

(hes so adorable)

Called the stallion owner that I am gonna breed Nita too, he sounds perfect.  Even though he is a barrel sire, he is a dash ta fame after all.  He throws really nice friendly colts that just wanna work.  Easy going like him, sounds exactly what I want.  He is a bit taller than I want but Nita isn't very tall so hopefully it won't grow too much.  And shes OK if I never barrel race the colt.  I like talking to her, she has had stallions for years they have the system down and somehow she can remember every horse on the place pedigree and earnings...and they have over 80 there!

Went to the last equine seminar of the series this spring, it was farrier day.  Was interesting the first guy has been doing it a long time and talked a lot about it, the second guy talked more about therapeutic shoeing and showed us a new type of glue on shoe it was a very interesting day, made me glad my horses are fairly easy, all barefoot but front shoes on Jess.

Been debating on selling Pally, wasn't really but I have had a couple people in the last week ask me about her so a friend came out today to try her for her granddaughter, shes not buying just vetting lol.  Pally was good as always and she liked her (as does everyone)  I'm not listing her but if the right home comes I will sell her I am a bit busy too many horses lol.  Be perfect next year when Nita and Jess have colts and Easy is showing we wont be so busy at home.

Otherwise just ranch stuff going on, lots of calves around, only 35 left to go and an orphan we are bottle feeding and a set of twins, still on the cow for now.  Time to start farming, we had a neighbor tear up an old hay field and gonna plant it to oats and plant a different field to hay.  Should work good in a couple years.

Cold Days

Well besides the snow we got yesterday morning its been a good spring.  We are more than 3/4 calved out, had 2 sets of twins but as it would work we had 2 cows who lost calves (actually 4 but 2 went to town) and so they now have new calves.  One we are still working on but she seems to like it its the calf lol he likes every cow, so we got to get him to believe this is his only mom.

I got a perm earlier this month, Neil's cousin's kid is taking the hairdressing school in Red Deer and needed a model for her exams,  I wasn't sure I wanted a perm but oh well its only hair and it will grow out.  Turns out I actually kinda like it, gives a bit of volume to my otherwise super straight flat hair.

I been riding a bit, not as much as I want to or should be but its been wet and cold.  Neil went in the horse pen without moving the horses and they of course escaped and Easy and Nita ran around the yard a whole bunch of times, finally quit and I caught Easy and then Nita.  Easy worked hard, he was all sweated up, Nita was just following she wasn't even breathing hard.  I had a good laugh at them after being kinda annoyed with Neil and then did some groundwork with the weird stuff I have set up in the arena.  Easy doesn't care for anything he doesn't know, but the whip cracking or travelling anywhere over him is not a big deal, he backs up real nice (almost too much) he didn't care for the hula hoops or the logs, but the tarp that is one scary scary thing.  But I got a toe on it and praised him and quit there.  It was a big deal for him.

Nita didn't care about anything, she walked over the tarp, through the hula hoops, I even flipped one around and threw it and she didn't care.  The whip wasn't a big deal either after she could see what I was doing but she does not back up.  So we will work on that, she probly has never been asked and that's ok, quite normal I think from what I've seen.

We had Neil's birthday celebration on the 15th and that was good then the next day headed to Calgary for Easter.  Was nice, worked out well.  I stayed over and picked up my foam for my window seat and now just waiting on a sale for fabric to make the cover.

(I made Bunny Butt cookies,

 not quite as good as pinterest but still delicious)

(Finally finished my sisters Christmas gift,

 its hard when the shop isn't heated)

Was up at the Mane Event on Saturday, met my neighbors there that is kinda fun, all I bought was a slow feed hay net and got a bag of feed for free.  I'm trying to find a ration balancer for the ponies that isn't soy based and its really hard.  Watched some trainers challenge and a bit of the clinics and that's always fun.

Got Easy teeth and sheath done on Monday, teeth needed it but were not bad, sheath however was another story, I kinda figured cause I could smell him but hes so silly sensitive I didn't want to do it and its a good thing cause it was a big job and he had a bean way up high.  The vet earned his money on that one.

Also started back doing the therapeutic riding this spring, last night was the first night, we had a Boy named Tristan and hes been doing this since they began, he loves it.  So fun seeing there reactions.  only 5 weeks, so the end of May I will be done.  And yesterday was our last day swimming for a while since the closed the indoor pool for renovations. One day when it gets warm out they will open the outdoor but its not the same.

Spring

Well I think I can actually believe its spring now!  We had water running over our road for a couple weeks, I think when we got that thaw if Feb water went in the culvert and froze and so instead of going though there it was frozen and had to go on top.  It has gone down now but wow there was a lot of water for a while.

(our road, our place on the left, Craig's on the right. 

 There was over 4 feet of water cause the fence posts were not showing at all)

(and this was at the river when the ice was going out, that's a campground there)

I got Nita in with Jess and Easy and they seem to get along OK, she is still the outsider but they aren't mean to her so I guess it will come with time.  I also got in Pally and Jax cause the grass is growing and I don't need them having issues.  Jax has a cresty neck and my farrier thinks he has foundered in the past so I'm gonna be pretty careful with him.

So now that's 5 horses in, seems like a lot but I decided I will work with 2 a day and not get stressed about it.  Easy most days (5 days a week) and the others in a row.  Its working so far, except Jax only had one small outing so far cause I have no bit for him.  I did get my harness all tried on him and I dunno, I might just go buy new nylon.  Then I can get a fun color too!

(first Easy)

(the Jess working on a challenge, 

backing 20 feet then turn on hindquarters and back to beginning. 

  Kinda annoys me I used 2 hands I didn't notice till I watched video)

I set up all kinds of weird stuff in my arena, figured until I can ride out regularly and even then this will be a change of pace.  I'm going to a couple clinics this summer, a progressive series which is mostly private lessons on whatever and a trail clinic.  Not sure who's going in the progressive series, but gonna take Easy to the Trail clinic, it should be super good for him I'm hoping to get him where I can ride him out comfortably this summer.

(eww ant hill)

Checked fence after the horses were in the pasture, haha they thought I had something special and followed me around it was cute :)