Comanche Update

Baby horse has been getting short spurts of training whenever I get the chance to go out there, or whenever the horses are not yelling and running up and down the fence lines.

I don't know if I was very clear or not, but Comanche was a two year old stud colt when he first arrived here... and as spring moved in, so did my wonderful mare's hormones.  Lady's always a cranky, irritated female during the spring, and having a stallion around the place shot her ability to focus straight through the roof this year.

It was supposed to be done sometime anyways, so I had the vet out on Friday and little Comanche is now a gelding. :)

He snored straight through the entire process and didn't make a fuss for anything at all.  I was really proud of him, and the vet liked him too.  :)

He recovered from the drugs really well and he seems to be healing up very well, and staying happy. Of course, he can't go out with the girls for a while yet, and I have to stay on top of his exercise, but all's well.

As far as his training goes, he is such a fast learner. He's figuring out personal space pretty well, learning to back up, and how to yield his hindquarters. He still hasn't quite learned that he can't just leave and turn away any time he thinks he's done with work, but even that has gotten better.

Hopefully in the next week we can start getting him comfortable with a saddle blanket, getting the idea of lungeing, and start picking up his feet better.

And hopefully Lady will calm down soon too.  We've got a lot of work to do together!  :)

Spring Fitness: The Goal

Every spring its the same. I get all excited about becoming more fit, riding ALL THE TIME, doing events with my horse, and everything that goes with that. I mean, of course I get excited around New Years, but this is when I really get motivated.

Am I the only one?  No? Yes? Anyone?

Well, this year, I made some pretty specific goals on the horse front, which involve fitness on both my part and Lady's. I also have a goal to have some off-property time with Lady.  So, the motivation is really, really strong right now. And the pressure. Lots of pressure.

So, I need some short term goals as steps towards the larger goals. April's goal is to prepare Lady for an intro endurance ride that is scheduled to happen at the beginning of May.

The intro ride will be approximately 11 miles long... and Lady is in decent shape, which means half of  getting ready for this excursion will be getting me able to ride for that long. Sooo... with that in mind...

My short-term, reachable goal is to get up on top of Lady 4 times a week up until the endurance ride, and spend 30 minutes up there each time.

Doable?  I think so... :)

Thursday's Inspiration

I always need inspiration to keep me going, especially at this time of the week. So I scrounged up these two horse things that helped me recently.  Enjoy!

Inspirational Minute with Silke Vallentin - this video is one of my favorite show of natural horsemanship, and liberty work. 

True Confessions of Horse People - this Chronicle of the Horse article cracked me up and made me feel a bit better about some of the things I do!

Europe - Part Three

Part three of my Europe pictures!  Ya'll might enjoy these best because this is the point where I show off pictures of the Spanish Riding School's stable and some of the horses!  We watched the morning exercises to music the day after I took those pictures.  :)

SRS Stable, from the street.

Leading the horses out for training.

Handsome stallions!

Crossing the street to go to training.

One of the handsome boys.

Coming back from training.

This handler was awesome, saw me taking pictures, and set this boy up for me!

I seriously got to snap this one from up close. :D

Vienna carriage horses.

The Wiener Eistraum (Vienna Ice Dream).

After we finished skating!! So much fun!

Parliament in Vienna.

The Palace Schonbrunn in Vienna. Famous palace!

Hot chocolate on our last night in Vienna.

Spending the morning in Venice.

Venice was beautiful!

TOABH: 18 on the 18th (and other recent events)

I haven't really participated in any of the other 17 blog hops from The Owls Approve, although I have enjoyed every one of them. What an adorable way to celebrate your horse's birthday!  But I really liked this last one, so here you go...

Eighteen on the Eighteenth.

In honor of Archie's 18th birthday, tell me 18 things you love about your horse.

1.  I love Lady's adorable blaze.

2.  I love her height. 15.2 is just a nice size.

3.  I love her super solid feet, even if it means I can't trim them myself.

4.  I love the sprinkling of white hairs she has at the top of her tail. Cute!

5.  I love her athletic ability.

6.  I love that she's an Arabian. <3

7.  I love the fact that she is nigh on impossible to tire out. Her brain is amazing.

8.  I love that she knows whose her human is. She's funny that way.

9.  I love her conformation, even her not-very-strong hind legs.

10.  I love that she can manage to look good in EVERY picture!  

11.  I love that she is super opinionated. Yes, it can be frustrating, but I wouldn't trade it for a shut down, silent horse.
12.  I love her summer coat.  *swoon*

13.  I love that she is such an easy keeper and has such good health.
14.  I love her amazing ground manners.
15.  I love that she's not afraid to tell me when something is wrong, even if it is subtle sometimes. She doesn't hide.

16.  I love that she never kicks or bucks (never say never, I know!).
17.  I love that she almost never spooks. Basically, really good brain.
18.  I love that she is mine. Forever :)

Now that I've said a bunch of reasons why I love my horse, I'm going to ramble a bit about the problems we've had since I got back from vacation...  I do this several times a year, so maybe I'm just overreacting, but I'm not really sure.

Fact: this was the hardest winter that Lady has ever been through since I bought her. She lost a strange amount of weight, and you can actually see her ribs.
She looks quite a bit older this year and it makes me worried. I wonder whether I ought to ease up on her or continue training...
Her homones this year are crazy. Maybe that has something to do with having a colt in the other pasture, but she has a very hard time focusing. This one I can understand and try to deal with.
She doesn't want to try right now. This might be a combination of homones and other sass, but she flat out will not "dressage", accept contact, or bend nicely through her body.
I worry that maybe this isn't right for her... maybe I shouldn't try to get too much better. Maybe I should just take her out for fun rides and not do work anymore.

Do you think 16 years old is too old to change from being a Western trail horse to being an English dressage horse?  Should I postpone my dreams if what Lady needs is different from those dreams?

I just don't know.

Europe - Part Two

More pictures, I know! :)  My computer does not enjoy uploading more than a few pictures at a time, so I am forced to split everything up into multiple posts.

View from a mountain cloister in France.

Snow on the mountain in France!

Hardworking horses climbing a mountain in a snowstorm in Germany.

The "Disney castle", or Schloss Neuschwanstein. In Germany.

The Lake Constance in South Germany.

The Alps!

So many horses in Vienna!!

More horses in Vienna :)

Inside the St Stephens Cathedral in Vienna.

Vienna, Austria.

Vienna, Austria.

April Aspirations!

I'm really really stoked about the month of April.  I just got back from an amazing 6 week trip to Europe, its spring time and the flowers are out, and I just all around feel really good about this month!  So here are my goals for April.

1. Work on my story notes twice a week.
2. Prepare Lady for an intro endurance ride that we have planned for the beginning of May. This will include trailer loading boot camp.
3. Stick firmly to my blogging editorial calender. For both blogs!
4. Memorize all my college piano audition pieces 100%.
5. Work super hard on all the productivity habits and routines that I am attempting to put in place.

And here are my thoughts about each of these goals for April!  Enjoy my brain's commentary.

1. It isn't all THAT hard just to work on story notes.  I just need to do it.  But I can't decide which story to work on and I can only have one!  It's not doable.  But I have to do it - I have to choose the story that appeals to me the most. And then work on it twice a week for 20 minutes at a time. That's really easy, right?
2. I have one month to get Lady trailer-able and fit enough to go to an endurance ride? How in the world does one do that? Yeah, I guess she is in good enough shape that it won't be too hard to get her ready for just an intro ride. And what if I can't afford it? Because I really want to do this, I'm just kind of scared that its going to fly out the window like so many other events that I've wanted to do with Lady have. So... maybe this time it will work? Maybe...
3. I'm pretty sure that I can do this one. Really sure. As long as I just write when I'm supposed to, it can't be too hard.  Only 26 posts (minus this one)... and I already know what they all are. Easy... right?
4. I just need to practice every day, otherwise this can't happen. I am already pretty good at all my songs, so just keep "loving your piano" like I was taught. And maybe squeeze a few lessons in too.
5. This one deserves a post all to itself.  Which I will have to write about yet in April...

What are your plans for April?  Do you have spring fever too? :)