17 Days Until Our First Ride Countdown

 Okay, my first question is from Judi at Trail Horse Adventures (I LOVE her new horse Cole!!) and she asked, "Have you ever done a "first" ride before?"  I can't remember for sure but I think the answer is no.  I used to ride horses for other people (problem horses, exercise, trail experience, etc.), but I don't remember if all of them had riders on them before me.  There might have been one or two, but it wasn't anything special to me because it was a job.

When I was twelve my dad bought us another horse (I'm a twin and her horse died of colic so we only had one and we were sharing mine).  She was a chestnut Quarter horse named Lightning and she was pregnant.  She had a filly that we named Cloud.

 

 A picture of Cloud at three years old.  

Sadly most of my pictures of her are film and 

I don't have a scanner so this one will have to do.

Cloud was the only foal I'd ever been around and we couldn't even touch her for the first year of her life (well except for when she was cornered in a barn for vaccinations and hoof care).  We eventually gained her trust and could do anything with her, including ride her.  She was such an awesome horse.  I didn't get the first ride on her though because a friend (who was a lot shorter and smaller than we were) rode her for her first four or five rides.  She was visiting her grandparents (our neighbor) for the summer and was totally fearless and asked if she could ride Cloud.  We let her.  Cloud was perfect.  :) 

My first ride on Cloud was not that perfect lol.  My friend rode her bareback, but I had her saddled for my first ride.  Thinking back I realize now that was probably the first time she'd worn a saddle, so it's no wonder she reacted the way she did!!  My dad had her on a lead rope so she couldn't take off and I climbed on.  She walked fine at first and then started jumping around so I jumped off.  The second time she started actually bucking and I came off.  After that my dad started riding her.  He weighed a LOT more than I did (6'4" tall, which is why I'm now 5'11" lol) so she didn't really give him a hard time.  To this day I can't remember if I ever rode her again.

So for all intents and purposes Chrome is the first horse I've raised from a weanling up through riding for the first time.  That's why I'm excited AND nervous!  I've done a LOT more work with him than ever went into Cloud's education (because I didn't know any better and Dad worked a lot), so I'm sure it will go a lot more smoothly with him lol.  That's why everything with him is so new and exciting.  I feel like I've learned a lot and accomplished a lot with him.  Sure I've made my share of mistakes, but you have to learn somehow and I try my hardest to do what is best for him.  Great question Judi!  I'm sure that will give everyone a better idea of why I'm so excited, yet nervous as well about our first ride.  :D

 So anyway here are some more baby pictures for your enjoyment!  Looking forward to answering more questions.  :D

 

 

 

This last one is the only three month old picture I have of him I think.

Hobby Horse Blog Hop 10

Here are the rules: Answer one or all of the prompts. Link back to Living a Dream's post. Visit other blogs. And don't forget to ask a question of everyone else!

Due to the new evil Blogger layout Dreaming lost her scheduled blog hop, so we're doing it a little differently this time.  She left us with a prompt 'I really hate it when...' and we're allowed to do whatever we like with this hop.  :D  So here goes . . .


I really hate it when . . . well . . . after the day I had at work today . . . there are a lot of things I hate.  Things like people who are passive aggressive and people who don't keep their word.  Sometimes I wish I could just give up on the human race (including the creepy guy who gave me his card and told me to call him because his wife is out of town a lot WTF!!!!) and just spend my time with my family and pets, because they always have my back and they make me happy.  :)
 
Now my question (I'm gonna cheat and use a popular one) . . .

What do you want to be when you grow up (yes even the grown ups!)? 

18 Days Until Our First Ride Countdown!

Today is May 1st!  That means only 18 more days until Chrome turns three years old and I get to ride him.  :D  In case I haven't mentioned it before we're having a get together with some friends.  After I ride Chrome and we get pictures and video we're going to build a bonfire and have hot dogs (or chili dogs).  I'm so looking forward to it, even though it's on a Saturday and I'll be exhausted from getting up at 5am to go to work.

I wanted to do a countdown, but couldn't really think of anything (guess I should have started planning sooner).  What I came up with is question and answers and a review of his life so far.  So I'll share pictures and stories (maybe even entries from his offline training journal) from his life, since some people maybe haven't read the whole blog (not to mention it's fun to see baby pictures), and you guys can ask all of your questions (especially if you have any I might have missed and haven't answered or if you have a good question you think other people might like to see the answer to) and I'll answer them in the next post (please keep them relevant to Chrome or horses in general including Faran and Zep).

So we will start out with his birth.  His mom is a really awesome 14.3hh flea-bitten gray Arabian mare named Beebee.  When I met her it was obvious Chrome's breeder loves her.  She is so sweet and from the stories I heard she is an awesome trail horse.  We're making plans to eventually take Chrome to horse camp so we can all trail ride together (hopefully this fall, I'm so excited!).  I'll definitely be getting some more pictures of Beebee when I see her again.  His sire is a gorgeous 16.2hh Friesian stallion named Hertog Jan v.d. Paddensteeg or Jan (pronounced yawn) for short.   You can visit his website here at the 4-13 ranch.   


Chrome's breeder sent me a CD with his papers that had baby pictures on it.  He was soooo cute!!  I wish I could have known him when he was so young.  :)

 

 

 

 

So if you have any questions please leave them in the comments and I will answer them in the next post.  :)  If you have any ideas to make the countdown more fun let me know that too please!