It still hurts....

I miss her.... (also funny story about Chrome)

I went out to feed the horses this evening and Chrome was being a butt!  He tried to push by me to get to his feed, so I chased him off.  He turned away and bucked in my direction.  He wasn't trying to kick me, but it was still a threat nonetheless, so I took the feed out of the round pen where I feed him (to keep the others from stealing it).  I went and got my longeing whip and then sent him around the round pen.  He bucked again in my direction so I snapped the whip in the air and chased him off aggressively.  He trotted around the pen.  GORGEOUS trot!!  I wish I'd had it on video.  So floaty!

As he was coming around the yard side Jackal, who had been standing there unnoticed, gave an excited bark.  Chrome spooked so violently sideways that his feet slipped out from under him and he fell on his side.  My jaw was on the floor as he jumped back to his feet and trotted off.  I don't know if he thinks Jackal threw him or if he thinks I threw him but he was rattled.  Afterwards it was kind of funny and I was joking that 50 pound Jackal threw my 1000+ pound horse to the ground lol.

Chrome trotted off completely normal so I'm hoping he didn't hurt himself when he fell (he seems totally fine even later, but I'll be anxious to check on him in the morning).  So when Chrome finally stopped I lowered the whip and talked to him as I approached him.  He started to bolt, but I grabbed his nose and he stopped.  I flicked the whip gently over his back on both sides until he calmed down.  Once he'd lowered his head and relaxed I put the whip up and got his feed bucket.  I dropped the bucket on the ground like I do everyday and he followed me over there.  I turned around and asked him to back up.  He backed up calmly.  I told him to whoa and he stopped.  This is the point where he normally throws his head around and tries to go around me (which is why I chased him off in the first place), but this time he just stood there looking at me with his ears pricked (as opposed to ugly pinned ears he normally makes), so I walked away and he calmly walked to his bucket to eat.  I think he needed that attitude adjustment!!!!  Thank you Jackal for your training help.  :)

I feel so numb...

Go hug your dog....

.... and your horse and family too for that matter.

Thank you everyone for the comments.

My heart is broken....

I rode a purebred Friesian mare!!!! It's a dream come true!!!!!!!

This gorgeous Friesian mare is Z!  My best friend, who is as Friesian obsessed as I am, has finally realized her lifelong dream of having her very own Friesian!!  Z is a seven year old mare who was imported to the states as a foal after her dam died of colic, so she is a bottle baby.  Her previous owner is having serious financial problems (due to a child's illness.. so sad), so he had to sell all of his Friesians.  She is a bit thin due to a foal who nursed too long and I guess he couldn't afford to feed them as much as they needed.  Otherwise she's totally healthy and will be perfect once she puts some weight on.  As gorgeous as she is now I can't wait to see her filled out.  :D

I'm so happy for my best friend!  She has been waiting so long for this.  :D  And because she's awesome she let me realize one of my dreams!  I got to ride her beautiful new mare!!  I wasn't wearing a helmet because I didn't bring it with me (hour drive), not knowing I would get to ride.  I was only on her for a few minutes, but wow her walk is huge!  So much reach.  She trotted a couple of strides, but I stopped her because her backbone stands up a bit and hurt bareback LOL!  Notice she's in a halter?  She's awesome!

Sorry the pictures totally suck.  My camera died so my husband was using some tablet thing from work.  I'll get better pictures someday when I get to ride her again (after she's put on weight) and I'll wear a helmet next time I promise!!

She is so gorgeous!!  Check out the pictures I took below.

She has a lot of knee action at the trot.  I love it!   

 

 I LOVE this!  I love her feathers!

 This one is my favorite!  She has so much reach behind.  

Super trot!  I wish it wasn't blurry.  It's so hard to photograph a black horse!

I'm so happy for my friend and so thankful she gave me the opportunity to ride this wonderful mare!  I will definitely be sharing more about her on this blog in the future.  :D  My best friend and I actually call each other aunts to our pets hehe, so I'll definitely be posting more about my niece Z!

Ride 41

The weather was absolutely perfect today so I went for a short ride on Chrome (bareback for thirty minutes).  We mostly just wandered around in the yard, but we did also go for a short walk up the road with my husband.  He was much happier out on the road than in the yard.  He gets just as bored as I do LOL!  He did really well, although he had been grazing in the yard before I rode so he was a bit annoyed about being interrupted from his yummy (dead) winter grass lol.

These are crappy cell phone pictures that I totally didn't edit because I'm too tired, but I LOVE this shadow picture!!!!  He looks so Arabian with that tiny nose LOL.  So cute!

I also trimmed his mohawk yesterday because it was falling over.  I did a total butcher job on it hehe.  I'll have to get pictures sometime for you to see.  :)  I can't wait for it to warm up so I can start riding more often!!

P.S.  This posted a day late.... so sorry for any confusion.  I rode on Sunday the 17th.  :)

More Snow Pictures!

Did I ever mention that the gate in the above photo was made by me and dad when I was a kid?  We welded it out of black square tubing.  :)

Okay so my pictures of Faran still wouldn't upload correctly.  I tried everything!  So I finally gave up and went back outside yesterday to take more pictures.  They all turned out great and uploaded great, so I have absolutely no idea what was wrong with the others I took...  anyway did I ever mention that it's really hard to take pictures of a black horse in the snow??  It is! I hope you enjoy them.  :D

 

 A lot of them turn out as silhouettes because he's so dark.  

Oh well, that's a super gorgeous silhouette.  :D

 Hubby finally pulled all of his mane over to the side it normally lays on.  :)

Check out his muddy ear lol!

I tilted the camera again... :-/

Check out those tree trunk legs though (and his feathers)!

I love how much bone draft horses have.

I crouched down for the last one so I could get the trees behind him.

Eating snow from hubby's hand.

Impersonating a Friesian again hehe.

His back is so dirty LOL!  Mud doesn't stop this boy from rolling and scratching his back.  :)

It was funny because when I first saw how dirty his back was I thought someone had been riding him!  You know how if you ride a horse and don't brush it after the dirt comes to the surface on their backs.. then I realized that it was from rolling.  :)  I'm just paranoid because a friend of mine found out that kids were riding her horses...... that would make me so angry!

And because you're never lonely with a pocket pony, here are some pictures of Mr. Busybody.  :)

 Kisses!

 Yawning.  I love how you can see his dished face against Faran's black coat.

These next two pictures cracked me up.  My hubby was leaning against a tree and Chrome walked over to him and leaned his head into his chest for hugs.

 

 It's hard to tell but he has his forehead against my hubby's shoulder and his nose tucked back along his chest.  So cute!
 

 And last a sneak around pocket check!  Told you he is a pocket pony.  :D

And very brown in these pictures for some reason......

So I'm not upset that Faran's pictures messed up because these are even cuter to make up for it.  My boys are so handsome!  Now the snow is melting and turning into lakes of mud....... yay......not!

More Snow!

We got more snow!  How weird is this??  I'm so not used to all of the ice and snow.  :)  Anyway the horses were being extremely uncooperative for a snowy photo op.  All they wanted to do was stand by the gate staring at the feed shed longingly (from the hoof prints in the snow it looks like they did their playing while I was still sleeping hehe), so I had to bribe Chrome to follow me out in the pasture with some hay pellets, so I could get pictures with snow and not buildings in the background lol.  I managed to get some pretty good ones.  Not many action shots because the ground is frozen solid and I didn't want him trotting around on it.

 For some reason the photos uploaded.... poorly.  Some of them are okay, but the one above looks like crap compared to the original.  I have no idea why it happened.  I had to delete the photos of Faran because they were so pixelated and blurry...  I even tried uploading them again and it did the same thing.  So I'm going to try posting his tomorrow.  I don't know if it's blogger or my computer... anyway here are the pictures that uploaded okay.

Walking by my shoulder.  I cut his ears and mohawk out of the frame because I couldn't see the screen.  I was holding the camera out with my hand opposite him since he was so close to my side.  If I had taken it normally all you would have seen is an eye or a cheek lol.

Zep just wanted me to come back and feed him lol.  I tilted the camera in this picture.  Actually I tilted the camera in several of them... :(  I just don't take good pictures when I'm freezing LOL!

 He lagged behind and then trotted to catch up and I managed to get this one.  I like how it turned out.  Too bad there is a donkey plastered to his windshield... err I mean his nose hehe!

Silly boy knew I had hay pellets in my pocket so he was offering all of his tricks!  He was smiling, lowering his head, shaking his head, etc.  Everything he could think of to earn a treat.  I think he misses our clicker training.  

 So then I had to give some pellets to my husband because Chrome was glued to my side and I couldn't get any pictures of him.  He didn't believe us that my hubby had pellets too.  He was convinced I was the only one.  Of course I'm the one who trains him so I can't really blame him.  We did eventually convince him to follow my husband.  :)

 But every time I would crouch down to get a picture he would come back to see what I was doing!  Makes taking pictures very difficult Chrome!!

 I got a few poses when he would get distracted by something.  :D  The brown in his coat shows up so much when there is a white background.

 I zoomed out a bit to show the pretty snowy trees.  :)

 I LOVE this one, although the quality sucks from the upload.. don't understand what happened..  in fact this one is my new desktop background on my computer and it looks amazing.  :D  He's not that butt high by the way.  He's standing on a slope.

 

He's so cute!  I was getting frustrated because he wouldn't get away from me so I was jumping up and down, swinging my arms and yelling... he just stood there and stared at me with this expression LOL!

Finally!  Got some distance between us and snagged this one.  I LOVE it! 

 Then he was right by my side again so I crouched down and got some shots from different angles.  

I love that three of my boys are in this one!  Chrome, Jackal and hubby!  I tilted the camera, but hubby says it looks artistic.  He's right.  I like it!  :D

 Walking back toward me.  Chrome was watching Jackal off to the left of the picture.

 I like this one because it gives some perspective on how small Jackal actually is.  He's only nineteen inches at the shoulders and Chrome is 15.2hh.  :)  Oh and Chrome won't kick, but I do try to keep Jackal from walking behind him... he doesn't always listen!

 The boys saying hi!  That's Chrome's "I wanna stomp it, play with it and destroy it" expression.  My dogs have good reason to be leery of the horses.  Storm won't even go with me in the pasture anymore because of Zep, but Jackal is always by my side for photo shoots.

 

 

 

 I was so excited about the above photos because the neighbor's horse neighed so Chrome stopped and looked alert!  Score!

 My boys.  The reason Chrome's ears are pinned....

 ... is because hubby was playing with Chrome's lips.  :)  

 I finally got sick of him wandering back to the feed shed so I let him out in the yard, knowing he would explore.  :D

And he found grass under the snow hehe.  Happy pony!

I got a couple of pictures of him cantering and trotting in the yard (the ground is flat and softer in the yard), but they turned out horribly blurry so I didn't post them.  He was feeling spunky, but I made him settle down and graze a while before putting him back in the pasture.  :)

Anyway I hope you like the pictures.  Chrome was very uncooperative, but very handsome so it all worked out.  :D  I'm going to try to figure out what's wrong with Faran's pictures so I can post them tomorrow.  Later!