Chrome's Firsts of 2011 Video

I put together a bunch of clips from 2011 of all of the new things Chrome did throughout the year. All of these clips are firsts for Chrome. First time wearing a saddle and surcingle. First time pulling something. First time being exposed to tractors and four wheelers. Lots of fun clips! Some of them are even clips I've never posted before on his blog. :D Check it out and let me know what you think.


Isn't he so cute? I think he's the most accepting, laid back, curious, interactive horse I've ever known. In my completely and totally biased opinion he's the best horse on the planet. :D Have a safe and happy New Year everyone!!

Failed Christmas Picture Shoot!

We decided to get the horses all dolled up for some Christmas pictures, but it was getting late and the lighting was horrible! Our skin turned out very overexposed in all of them. They were still cute though so I decided to post them anyway. Just focus on the cute horses instead of the scary glowing ghosts (me and my husband) holding them. We will try again another day, hopefully in the morning when the light should be better. Any suggestions on the right lighting for portraits?? I'll do some Google searches and see what I can turn up. Thanks guys! Enjoy the pictures.

Chrome enjoyed his thorough grooming. I even ran a damp rag over his coat to get rid of the dust streaks. :D

Trying to line them up so you could see the size difference between Faran and Chrome.

Isn't Chrome cute in his matching hat?? He doesn't look impressed, although he was such a good boy about wearing everything. The thing around his neck and along his mane is something I made with a hot glue gun, decorative silver rope, red bead string and silver jingle bells. It took forever, but was so fun. I'll try to get a better picture of it when we have better lighting.

They aren't lined up perfectly and the camera angle is off so you can't really see the height difference, but check out how different their backs are. Chrome's back is so much longer than Faran's! It won't look as long once he has some muscling through the loins, but it's still interesting to see how different they are. Are all Percherons so short coupled? Also look at the difference in their legs! Wow!

While my husband was fiddling with Faran's rope Chrome gave me the cutest picture ever! Check it out . . .

Look how CUTE he is!!

I got a lot of pictures like this one while I was resetting the self timer. Chrome was being a pest and kept trying to bite Faran lol. I think he was jealous of sharing the spotlight. :D

I love this one. Faran looks awesome (no clue what he was watching) all puffed up and makes my husband and Chrome look small lol. I like how my husband's face is framed between theirs hehe.

This one turned out pretty well even though I'm standing weird and Chrome's ear is back. I'm so proud of him for wearing the hat over on ear though lol. He's so tolerant!

Me and Chrome.

Led Zeppelin decided to join in and Chrome tried to tell him off hehe. Aren't they adorable?

This picture makes Chrome's face look so grown up.

I like this one. I was holding my tripod bag because I was throwing it to make him put his ears forward and he put them forward before I could even throw it LOL.

Always have to have a cute smiling picture.

Chrome is so cute. He's watching our neighbor driving down his driveway.

And now for some of hubby and Faran. I was so proud of Faran! He was so brave about the jingle bells. :)

Percheron rolkur? Haha just kidding. He was reaching for a treat.

Reaching for treats again. We've turned him into a total treat whore, but if that's what it takes to gain his trust that's what we will do. Besides he's always a perfect gentleman.

They are so cute together.

As it got darker the pictures turned out so grainy. Faran is so fuzzy in his wonderful winter coat.

Chrome was sooooo bored waiting while Faran got his picture taken. I caught him on the end of a yawn here.

At one point when we were preparing for a picture Zep tried to tear the tripod apart lol. He almost dragged it off. I chased him away and saved my camera, then a bit later he came up behind me while I was taking pictures. You can see me on the left side of the picture. Cutie Zep!

And the two best (not very good) group pictures that I ended up with . . .

We will try again when there is better light. :D Hoping for some that aren't overexposed. Thanks for checking out our first attempt. Later!

Merry Christmas! - Equine Christmas Gifts!

Click to enlarge.

Merry Christmas!! I wanted to share our Christmas morning with the boys. Here is their stocking . . .

I made my husband hold it so you can see how big it is hehe.

We let Chrome check it out . . .


Want to see what is in it?

Chrome does too hehe. Do you like my husband's jacket? I got that for him for Christmas. :)

My husband removes the first item . . .

It's a bell! With a handy handle on it for Chrome to hold in his teeth. :D

Chrome held it for a second, but he wasn't incredibly interested in it hehe.

What else? What else? Observant readers probably already know, but if not you'll have to wait.

Faran finally got brave and decided to check out the stocking.

Stretches out to give it a sniff.

And gives it a nibble.

I was leaning over Chrome's butt to take this shot of them together lol.

While my husband was holding the stocking Chrome accidentally got it stuck on his head lol.

He proceeded to walk, completely unconcerned, to his feed bucket to check for breakfast.

My husband put the stocking over Chrome's back so Faran could look at it some more.
He completely smeared it with slime lol. I love this picture of him. Look at those beautiful brown eyes!

Faran also played with the bell a little.

He thought it was a treat! When he realized it wasn't he lost interest.

And pictures of Chrome modeling his Christmas present (that I've been wanting to buy for a while, but it has been too expensive and was finally on sale yay!).

My favorite color blue! Doesn't it look awesome on him? It's a little big (so hopefully his head will grow a little - anyone know if his head is as big as it will get at two and a half?), but I can always put more holes in it if necessary. It has an adjustable crown piece and chin strap. It also has the snap on the throatlatch which I love (lazy hehe). In the above picture the strap between the chin and throatlatch was shifted to the side. Normally it's below his jaw.

Isn't it cute on him?

What does Chrome think of his new halter?

You tell me!

Led Zeppelin was feeling like a scrooge. He wanted nothing to do with our celebrations and only wanted breakfast lol!


Sorry the pictures weren't that great. The lightning was bad and Faran was so dirty lol. I think they had fun though and I know I did! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Beginning Stages of Driving Training with Chrome

Yesterday Chrome got his hooves done, so as always I got him out about an hour ahead of time to spend time grooming him. Doesn't he look fantastic?? He doesn't even look like he has a winter coat in pictures. Of course it hasn't gotten really cold yet. Is the flax making him shinier?

Silly boy was playing with the fence in this picture. I brushed him and combed out his mane and tail.

I know it's just the farrier, but I like for him to look nice instead of being a fuzzy mudball when she comes over. I always spend a lot of time cleaning out his hooves and cleaning off his legs so she doesn't have to deal with muddy feet. Just something I like to do to be helpful. :D

Trying to check out the battery charger my husband sat nearby, but his lead was too short lol.

Pretty tail! You can see the white in his tail. Is the blonde the color it comes in or is it because it's dirty? Would washing it make it whiter (I don't care for the blonde)? It happened so gradually I didn't even notice if it came in that color or came in white and changed to blonde.

See how it goes black, white, blonde? It is sort of cute actually lol.

There is white in his mane, but none (well not much) of the blonde thank goodness lol. I know he only has one copy of the gray gene which means he'll gray out slowly, but what goes first? It looks like his face, mane and tail are graying the fastest. Anybody have any guesses about when he will go dappled gray? Since his mom is flea-bitten do you think he will turn flea-bitten too? I can't find much info online about the genetics of flea-bitten gray. It will definitely be interesting to watch as he changes over the years and I'll be thrilled if he stays dark a while longer. :) Also will his legs go gray too or stay black? My trainer's horse had black knees for years but I think they eventually faded. I never met him as a baby though so I don't know what grayed first, how quickly he grayed, how many gray genes he has, what his base coat was, etc. He's ten or eleven now and just now losing his dapples and getting flea-bitten. I hope it takes that long or longer for Chrome lol.

I had a brilliant idea the other day. Using my surcingle and breastcollar I can make sort of a harness. I couldn't find my nice breastcollar so I used one of my husband's old, old breastcollars. Cute, huh?

The red and white actually looks adorable on him. :)

His forelock almost reaches his noseband (his halter stretched from that episode in the trailer).

I wish this one wasn't blurry! I love his smile!!

Trying to reach the grooming box that was sitting on the log just out of the picture.

My husband scratched Chrome's itchy spot. Chrome was all stretched out, wiggling his lip, being absolutely adorable! He couldn't reach it to scratch for himself because of the breastcollar so he appreciated the help.

And he proceeded to dunk his lips in my husband's hot chocolate LOL! He didn't know it was hot so it startled him. I hate that it burned him, but it didn't seem to bother him. Maybe he'll think twice before sticking his nose where it doesn't belong lol. See the chocolate on his lip? And the green/yellow around the corner of his lips is from the apple treats I was feeding (that he isn't sure he likes, but they were on sale lol).

Now I will show you the video of what we did with my rigged harness. Faran lovers here is a picture (above) and check out the video because there are some adorable shots of him. I tried to edit the video down because it was pretty long. It's still long, but I hope some of you can see it. :)


He did so great! I'm glad I kept those old tires. :) I can't wait to eventually hook him up to my gorilla cart (wagon/wheelbarrow combo), but I want to go slow. Just because he wasn't scared of the tire doesn't mean we can move on after only one session. I'm excited how well he did with it. I hope this is a sign that he will someday make a good driving horse. :D Now I just have to save the money to buy a wagon/buggy and harness . . . but wait first I need a saddle lol. Sorry I talked so much in the video. Wasn't Faran cute?? I didn't mean to scare him, but he is getting a whole lot less explosive. Now for some pictures for those of you who can't see videos.

He did so well. I don't know why he chose to carry his head low (maybe because we work on it so much?), but that's actually a good thing because it builds the muscles over his topline (correct me if I'm wrong) instead of the muscles at the base of his neck. I was not cueing him to lower his head, he was offering it on his own. I think part of it was also because of the new treats. I don't think he's that crazy about them. They are longer than the ones I've been feeding him so he was sucking on them until he could chew them up. That's why we took such long breaks between pulls. I didn't want to stuff his mouth so full that he would drop them.

He makes it look so heavy lol, but it's not. I can easily pick up the tire. How often should I work on this? Pulling doesn't stress their backs like riding so it won't hurt him on mostly straight lines (to protect his joints) right? It's been so long since I researched all of this lol. I guess I need to go do some reading.

Such a sweet, sane boy. It never scared him, even when we trotted (see video). :D

Stopping to let Faran approach the tire . . .

Faran did well too. It scared him a couple of time when it would move near him, but he never lost his curiosity so that's awesome.

Faran is so gorgeous!

I really wasn't expecting him to carry his head low. I thought he would stick his nose in the air and hollow his back. He surprised me and I'm thrilled with how he did.

Walking back to the gate.

Leaning on his back makes him look tall lol. It took about six shots to get this picture because he kept trying to play with the breast collar. I finally gave him one of the big pieces of treat that he's not crazy about so he would stand still. He has that expression on his face because he was sucking on it lol. He's such a dork. His mane is getting so long. I wish he wouldn't rub it out near his withers. Brat. :D

The boys say goodbye until next time!