Say hello to my little friend

Meet Montana.

He is the newest addition at the farm, and boy is he cute!  He is a Shetland pony, and only three days old today.  Hence, not leaving his mother’s side quite yet. 

I’ve never seen a baby horse before, well atleast not one this young.  Everything about him is just so adorable.  The “who are you” look he gives you; how he has to run to keep up with his mom, and then his akward legs get in the way, and he trips a little; the constant interest in everything around him.  I just wanted to pick him and bring him home with me!  My sister in law rescued the white pony (Willow) and she was already pregnant. 

Definitely worth it, wouldn’t you agree?

A day on the trail, and some crooked talk.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!  As you know, we went house hunting on Friday.  I will tell you all about it….later.

I had a great weekend.   Sunday, my sister and I went to the farm as usual.  Then we went out to a friends house, on a lake, and spent the afternoon on the boat.  Monday, a few of us went trail riding, and it was so much fun!

We spent about 3 hours riding, and then let the horses play in the water a bit.  Echo didn’t want to go in at first, but eventually she got in.  It turned out to be a beautiful day, and was also very hot, so I imagine it felt very good to stand in the water. 

I spent about half the day trying to figure out why I would keep sliding to one side in the saddle.  It was very strange, because when I felt like I was sitting straight, I wasn’t.  When I was sitting straight, it felt like I wasn’t.  I guess I am a little crooked.  So, that’s something I have to start working on.  I always carry my purse and bookbag on my right shoulder, and that’s the lower of the two.  Hopefully, with a little work, it will straighten back out!

Another year has gone by

Well, last weekend I finally managed to remember to take my camera out to the farm.  Of course I wasn’t able to ride due to the four inches of snow that decided to make it’s way out to us last Friday.

Echo turns three today.  I have a feeling this is going to be an exciting year for us.  We went trail riding a couple of weeks ago on a nice day.  Now, I haven’t had any experience training a horse before, but from what I can tell, she was absolutely perfect out on the trail.  When we came up to some obstacles, she didn’t even blink an eye.  The few mistakes there were can be blamed on me, because I was more nervous than her.  But, I smoothed it out and calmed down a bit.  She loaded right into the trailer and stood still.  I can’t wait to get out there again!!

Anyway, here are some pictures my sister snapped of her and I last weekend.

Here she is with the barn cat.  He is such a sweetie and loves to hang out with the horses. 

Happy Birthday, Echo!!  Here’s to another wonderful year!

He really does like her

Last night, Derek and I had an argument about my horse.  It wasn’t serious, and everything was fine about twenty minutes later.  He just has this constant need to get me riled up, and that isn’t too hard to do.

So, I am not going to go into the details.  It was pointless, and honestly it was really my fault.  See, I belong to the class of arguers that don’t know how to argue.  I just lose my temper and start yelling things.  Most of the time they don’t make sense and in an argumentative sense, they are not good arguments AT ALL!  Derek is a class A arguer, so most of the time, I just get upset because I can’t defend myself, forget about it, and things are fine five minutes later.  It’s just what we do.

So, I was actually laughing my butt off this afternoon, upon receiving this.

I think I’ll keep him.

Back on track…for the time being

Here I was getting all worked up that it was actually going to start warming up again.  Guess again.  Just another day and another snowfall to go with it.  I’ve never minded winter before, but honestly, this year it is starting to get on my nerves.  I am ready for spring.

Yesterday was spring enough for me though.  It was around 40 degrees, and we were out there without our coats on, having a jolly time.  Isn’t it funny how northern people will jump at a chance to go without a winter coat in 40 degree weather, while southern people would be all bundled up in winter gear at a sighting of 40 degree weather.  Anyway, I did go riding yesterday for a little while.  It was the first time I took Echo out of the training arena, and she did very good.  There were a couple of times she spooked over new sights or sounds, but they weren’t bad at all.  I just talked her through it, and there was no bucking or running off.  We just walked down the road a little ways, and there was only one car that drove by.  I decided to play it safe as it was driving by, and I got off her and just stood at the side of the road.  She was completely fine.  Besides the fact that my legs feel like noodles today, I can’t wait to go out again!  I had this whole big plan to document the first ride this season with photos, but you guessed it, I forgot my camera. 

It seems like just yesterday she was just a little filly and I was getting on her for the first time.

This was last summer, notice the cheesy grin on my face.  I was a little excited that day.  It was an excellent day though.  There was such a sense of accomplishment and pride when I knew I had helped get her there.  Of course, I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without the help of my sister-in-law.  She has been such a wonderful teacher throughout this whole process, and I know I will always be learning from her. 

Everything else has been pretty busy around these parts.  So, I will apologize now for the lack of posting and any lack in the forseeable future. 

Sure, no problem!

This is one of my goals this summer.  Do you think I can accomplish it?

Me neither. 

This is Stacey Westfall. I think it is absoultely amazing what she does.  If you are wondering what is so special about this video, you should notice that she is riding without a saddle and a bridle.  She is controlling that horse with nothing other than seat and leg cues.  To get that mare to do that, especially without any sign of irritation from her, is simply astounding.  Considering I have yet to even canter on Echo (and I may not even get that far this summer), I am a long way from this.  If I can get her to turn just on leg cues, I will be thrilled!  I honestly don’t expect anything like this to ever happen, but a girl can dream right?

Equine love.

This is Echo.  I never really understood the whole horse phenomenon, until I got into it, that is.  Now, I will never go back.

Horses are work, a lot of people don’t understand that.  I never did, until this filly came into my life.  But I have learned so much in the past year and a half, and by no means am I anywhere close to knowing everything there is to know.  It truly is a lifetime hobby, because there is always something new to learn, or new to teach. 

I love every minute I spend with her.  It’s been quite a journey for both of us, because I am still learning about horses, learning to ride, and learning to train.  She is just a young horse who needs someone to teach her what she needs to know.  I think we’ve done good though.  There have been some rather rough days, but we got through them.  You get through those days, and you get some really wonderful days in return.  Like today…

Today was an excellent day.  It was one of those days where you really feel like you got somewhere.  We didn’t work for very long, and we had some fights, but in the end, she did what I was asking her to do.  That makes me feel like I was actually doing something right.  It’s hard to know whether or not I am doing something correctly, since I am still learning.  But like I said, today we got somewhere, and it makes me feel so wonderful.