Challenge #5

So, I haven't done one of these in a ridiculously long time. Honestly I completely forgot about it. But have no fear, the 30 Thing Horse Challenge is back! Sadly, so far I've only made it to number five. Oh well, here she goes anyway.

Challenge #5

The Last Time You Rode Your Horse and What You Did.

I took Mya out for a ride last night. We decided to go on a trail ride again to relax and have a change of pace. Mostly we just rode around in this huge field and enjoyed the cooler evening weather.  Riding in the later evening during the summer is one of my favorite things. The setting sun makes everything so peaceful and beautiful. Anyways, that is what we did. Thus ends challenge five. I am going to have to remind myself to do more of these...

Hey, Hay!

     Yesterday we had an adventure getting the horses' winter hay. We've been so busy and that was really the only day we had time to go pick up some bales. Even though it was cloudy and had a possible chance of rain we decided to go for it anyway. It was a slightly nerve racking drive on the way home as we hoped it would start raining on our large stack of hay bales in the back of the truck. But thankfully we succeeded on getting all the hay bales home and stacked in the barn without anything getting wet. Now the horses can be happy knowing they have some nice grass hay to munch on this winter.

     As a bonus after our hay adventure we had time to go riding. One of my horse loving cousins, who helped me with the hay, rode Lady while I rode Mya. We decided it would be fun to get out of the round-pen and go for a trail ride. This was the first time that Lady and Mya had been on a trail ride together. The great thing about them is that they get along really well. That makes me happy; I don't know what I would have done if they didn't like each other. The ride itself went pretty well. The only eventful thing that happened was Lady spooking at a gate that was painted red. Since she'd never been on this trail before I think she did okay with it. All she did when she spooked was spin in a circle and stop, no running off. She was a good girl about it. I mean, hey, red gates can be pretty scary sometimes can't they? Other than that she did awesome and I think it was a pretty good first trail ride for her. I'm hoping to take her out again this evening once it cools off.

Lady is on the left and Mya is on the right.

Off on our adventure!

Pony Rides

What does one do when you have a skunk in your stable?

I have no idea.

I dislike like skunks. That was slightly an understatement. There is only one animal in the world that I absolutely despise, and that would be a skunk. I would much rather see a mouse or a snake. Skunks, uh no. Luckily the thing left the premises. I decided to put some moth balls in my tack room just to make sure it won't come back. I have no desire to see that guy again...

In other news Lady is becoming quite popular. This past week because it was the 4th of July I had a lot of family in town. Several of my little cousins were begging their parents to come over and see my horses. I said that would be fine and I would give them pony rides on Lady. They absolutely adored her, and Lady was such a sweetheart. She seemed to really enjoy letting them ride her. She acted happy and content. It was very cute.

A fun little fact is that when I bought my western saddle awhile back it came with a pair of kids stirrups. The kind that just fit over the saddle horn. I hadn't ever used them before, but I was able to put them to good use this time. They worked good and helped the kids to feel more secure in the saddle. A great bonus!

Window Shopping

     Window shopping on the internet for horse stuff is a fun way to waste time. I looking through all the saddle pads, bridles, etc. and imagining what that would look like on my horses. Of course sometimes I am actually somewhat realistic in my window shopping. Last night I was browsing and writing down a list of things I need/like to buy for my ponies. Particular both horses need a new saddle pad. An english one for Mya and a western one for Lady. So naturally I was searching for those.

I liked this one a lot. The way it was quilted is really nice and adds a fun touch. I also like the material its made out of. The type on the bottom is supposed to help with moisture and sweating. The saddle pad has that nice piping around the edge too.

This saddle pad is the same brand as the one above but is a different variation. The quilting is a little different and it comes in different colors. I think I like the quilting better in the other pad but I do like the bright color of this one.

I liked the vintage rose color of this pad. Its the same brand as the other two, but once again with different quilting. 

I'd like to buy a half pad to use with Mya. I hear the make the horse more comfortable.

And then I couldn't help looking at polo wraps. I want some that would match the saddle pads above.

I really liked the bright blue color of these polo wraps.

haha Okay, I know I didn't post any green saddle pads above but I just loved the look of these. Green is one of my favorite colors and I love the bright green checked pattern of these.

This was one of the western saddle pads that I liked for Lady. It looks really comfortable and well made. I liked the Navajo pattern and color of this pad.

 I liked how they incorporated blue into this saddle pad. It sets the rest of it off in a nice pattern and color.

And then the last thing I wanted to buy was these leather cleaning wipes. One is leather cleaner and the other is conditioner. These look super easy and quick to use. I've heard some great things about them from other equestrians, so I wanted to give them a try. 

     Of course I won't buy all this stuff but it is some things I had my eye on. Particularly the saddle pads. Like I said before Mya and Lady really need some new ones. Besides who doesn't like to go window shopping?

Lady Earns Her Keep

     I haven't been able to do a whole lot with my horses the last two weeks. Do to quite a bit of traveling I was only able to do stuff with the ponies in between all busyness of life. I should be able to spend more time with them the next couple of days which I am happy about. Who doesn't like to spend time with their horses? I know that I miss it a ton when I can't.

     On one of those days in between I got to put Lady to good use. I had Lady earn her keep so to speak. Lady gave her first official kid riding lesson. She made me excited and proud of her. This is why I wanted her in the first place! I wanted a horse that anyone could come over and ride. Personally I love giving riding lessons which is another reason why I was excited to get her. Lady has quickly become part of my zoo family. ("the zoo" is what I call all of my animals/pets) I really am liking her a lot.

     The lesson itself went really well I think. Lady behaved well and listened pretty nicely to her rider. The rider was an 11yr boy (who is a cousin of mine) who loves horses. This was his first time riding Lady of course so considering that I think they worked together good. I had them start out with just riding around the ring and getting used to each other. Once they seemed more relaxed I had him start do some steering exercises. Basically we started out with a figure eight and then got more complicated from there. I ended up putting a couple of poles in the center between the two buckets I was using for the figure eight thing and I had him maneuver Lady through the poles. Once he could do that I had him halting her in the middle of the poles every time he and Lady went through them. I pretty much had him doing an obstacle course with her.

     The second part of the lesson was a little more fun. In amongst my collection of horse books I have one the is full of just games you can play of horseback. Its a pretty sweet book. I was going through that particular book the other day and I found this game using a catalog. It sounded pretty fun so I thought I would have said lesson student person above play it. The idea of the game was that you would have a catalog (in this case a Dover Saddlery catalog) sitting on a bucket at one end of the arena. The rider and their horse would be at the other end of the arena. I would then give you a number of a page in the catalog, say go, and then you would have to ride to the other end of the arena. Once you got there you would hop off flip through the catalog until you found the correct page number, rip that page out, mount your horse, and ride back to the start. All the while I would be timing you to see how fast you could do it. The game was a hit. I think he (and Lady!) liked it a bunch. I even played it! We had a lot of fun with that one. I'm going to have to try out some more of those games out of that book...