Look at the difference 26 years make!!

Wow!  Looks at the difference 26 years makes in the sport of dressage......

1984 Olympics


2010 Grand Prix Freestyle

My Belated Thanksgiving Post

 

 
Hi, everyone!  I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I've finally stopped feeling sorry for myself (about canceling my vacation with my family and my surprise road trip due to stomach flu) so I figured I would write a post about what I'm thankful for.  About time huh?

Chrome and Faran sharing their salt block.   Look at Chrome's tongue lol!
So since this is my horse blog I'm going to list the horse related things that I am thankful for!

1.  I think the biggest one is Chrome!  He may only be half Friesian, but he's still a dream come true.  I'm thankful to have him in my life and that he is healthy and happy.  I'm thankful for how sweet, confident and curious he is.  I'm thankful for how patient and cooperative he has been with our training.

2.  I'm thankful that we were able to rescue (using the term loosely since he wasn't really in any danger by the time we came across him) Faran.  I'm thankful that he trusts us enough to let us pet him, lead him and do his feet.  I'm thankful that I have all the time in the world to continue to gain his trust.  I'm thankful that he is healthy and happy.  I'm thankful that he's my big, black, hairy fairy tale horse even if he isn't a Friesian.  :D

3. I am thankful that we found Led Zeppelin when we did and that he has been such a wonderful companion for Chrome and taught him how to be a horse..... or donkey lol!!  I'm thankful for his silly braying, sweet personality and adorable donkey ears.  I'm thankful that he is happy and healthy.  As with Faran I'm thankful we have the all the time in the world to gain his trust.

4.  I'm thankful that we were finally able to get our barn fixed and that the insurance company paid for it.  :D

5.  I'm thankful for the Aussie saddle that we got for a really good deal on sale so that I can ride Chrome.  :)

6.  I'm thankful for my awesome husband who never, ever complains about the horses and adores them almost as much as I do lol.  I'm thankful that he supports me in everything equestrian related that I want to do.  I'm thankful for the pictures and videos he takes of me riding Chrome.

That's all for now!

 Led Zeppelin and my mini white turkey hen.

Very Belated Monthly Progress Report

 Sorry the picture sucks.  I didn't have a helper and it was around noon so the sun was high.

 Date: 11-24-12 (sorry for being so late again)
Age: 3 Years 6 Month
Height: N/A
Height Gain: I didn't measure him because my husband was sick and couldn't help.
Weight: N/A
Weight Gain: N/A

Progress:  I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but he's finally growing in his thick, soft winter coat.  :D  Also, his sweet itch is totally gone now!!  I'm so happy it finally cooled off enough for the dumb gnats to go away.  I rode him on the road for the first time and he was awesome.  We still need a lot of work on steering and whoa though hehe.  My husband had him on a rope for part of the time just to make sure he was okay and also whenever there was traffic since he's difficult to steer out of the way of cars.  I won't take him on the road again until we have steering, I just was dying to see what he'd do.  :D  He loved it.  His ears were forward and he was striding out just like when we go for handwalks.  To him it was no different hehe.  I love my confident boy.

I also never posted about Thanksgiving day (I'm doing a Thanksgiving post tomorrow) so I'll tell you the story here.  After feeding the boys I noticed the neighbors had a bunch of kids playing in their yard and Chrome headed straight for them.  My first thought was they must be feeding him for him to be that interested in them, but then I realized he's just a curious horse.  So I went over to make sure they weren't feeding him, to say hi and to let the kids pet Chrome.  The kids LOVED Chrome and he was perfectly happy to lower his head on their side of the fence so the little two year old could reach his nose.  It was so precious.  I wish I'd had my camera.

So the older girl was asking if I trained him and when I said yes she wanted to know what he could do.  So I showed off his smiling trick and his new shaking his head trick that he learned in September.  They loved it.  One of the adults wanted to know if I ride him so I climbed up on him bareback with no halter or bridle or ropes (and I just realized two days later I didn't have a helmet on either oops!  Won't happen again).  He walked over to Faran to say hi and then walked back to the kids with me on his back.  They loved it.  My neighbors are so fascinated by the horses.  So I had fun showing off Chrome's tricks and making the kids laugh (the adult even took a video of him smiling so he'll be famous in some office somewhere probably lol).  :D

 Goals: I want to start clicker training again, refresh what he knows and work on giving to rein pressure so that I can start teaching him to longe and ground drive.  He really needs to learn some steering before I do much more riding.  :D

Sorry the pictures were just out in the pasture.  I can't get pictures of him on the road without my husband's help.  I'll do a better progress report next month!  Here are a few more pictures.

 His neck looks so short and gawky here LOL!

 He actually looks chunky in this shot. 

 I wonder if that's why they pose a lot of Quarter Horses that way lol.

 

 Trust me in reality he's still narrow!  Especially next to Faran.

I think it's too funny how in the above picture you can tell when Faran has been walking through the trees because the limbs rub across his sides and bring the dirt to the surface.  It looks like someone dragged their fingers down his side hehe.

Well, that's all for now guys!