The Myth of Forever

I hate the term "forever home". 

One thing that really bothers me is when I see ads for horses "looking for a forever home". 

Even if we ignore the blindingly obvious "why does someone else have to keep a nag forever when you've clearly decided they're not worth it", that transitions on to a bigger problem:

You aren't guaranteed forever.

You see this horse?

so cool

That was a cool horse. I rode her all through highschool. She was batshit crazy and I loved her. I was so, so excited when my first horse as an adult was her baby. I was going to keep that baby forever.

Remember her?

about a half a second before I got rodeo bucked off and broke 3 bones

Yeah well then I wasn't. The mare and I were NOT a fit and keeping her "forever" would only have made both of us miserable. I was scared of her, which meant I wasn't the rider or owner she needed and neither of us was going to improve together.

So I sold her.

And that's one of the easier stories. Possibly even more common in my age group (late twenties) is having a horse, but then having life commitments crop up. Marriage. Home ownership. Children. It's one thing if you can afford it all, but most of us have to make choices and hopefully most people choose their spawn over their livestock. Seems like a pretty serious moral issue and all.

And those scenarios are overlooking things like chronic illness in yourself or a loved one. Bankruptcy. Job transfers. Economic fluctuations. The fact of the matter with horses is that they are a large luxury animal requiring a lot of time and care and money. Lives change and sometimes what we thought would be forever, isn't.

No one's fault. Life happens.

What's more, different people want horses to do different things. I know SO MANY people who have horses with atrocious or borderline-dangerous ground manners that are passed off as "oh, I shouldn't let him, but I don't mind X behavior".

But here's the thing: if something happens to you and horsiekins needs a new home, will that behavior be the thing that ends him up at a low end auction bound for a double decker and Mexico? You think it's cute that he bolts off on the lunge line. Someone else gets scared, he gets passed around, and things go from bad to worse.

A horse's life insurance is its' job. Plain and simple. We as owners have an obligation to our horses to teach them the job they excel in to the best of our abilities SO THAT should the unforeseen happen, the horse isn't reliant on the mercy on strangers.

knew job inside and out

We've all seen those ads--15yo OTTB gelding, hasn't been worked in 5 years, probably not sound, no papers, no training. Do you know where that horse goes?

I do.

There's no guarantee of forever, not for you, and not for your horse. Instead of trying to create more and more ironclad legal documents that are completely unenforceable, it makes more sense to focus on creating a horse that a reasonable person would actually want to keep.

not a jumper, hard to ride. impeccable ground manners, hacks on the buckle.

If you love your horse, give it a damn job.

Shadows of the Past

best freewalk he ever did

I guess it's been kind of a long time now, but if you've been hanging out here long enough, you remember the big red horse that made me, my Cuna Matata. Compared to him, I've always thought of Courage as small, short coupled, flexible, and squirrelly.

adorable old bat

But the other morning, I got a chance to sit on the mare I grew up riding, and realisitically, the one that introduced me to OTTBs. She's probably the reason I always go for the short-coupled, hot thing.

She's 23 now, but she's still an old bat, just like she always was. She's 15.2, short-necked,. short-coupled, and so balanced. I had a fun ride on her. She still has a ton of buttons (that I put on, back in the day) and she still is a hopeless curl-er who will never take a real contact.

At her age, you just learn to roll with it.

And then I hopped on Courage and tried to put a dressage ride together.

Yes, tried.

nap time

After spending a week jumping and hacking, Courage was as stiff and disinterested in dressage as I have ever seen him. His neck felt long, my reins were heavy, and impulsion wasn't happening. He wasn't bad. He just wasn't going to play.

It felt strongly reminiscent of my old red man. Like, eerily so. I think part of it was just the contrast with the ol' bat (because she is THAT SHORT).

There were some near-disastrous machinations by another horse while I was up, and I literally had to kick Courage into a trot to get out of the way off a loose horse careening towards us.


I never had to pick up the reins.

Because that's the kind of horse he is. I know this is weird to some of you, but I've always thought that Courage came to me for a very specific reason. He is his own horse and he's not ever going to be Cuna, but every once in a while, he reminds me of the red fellow so strongly.

That's when I know this is right.

Winning with Warhorses

Can a war horse do this? Yes. Yes he can.

I tell people that I like the thoroughbred war horses who've been there/done that on the track, but I didn't realize just how deep that ran. I was doing a little thoroughbred research recently and ran across some interesting info. Let's look at my horses.

Absolute Courage
You all know my little man as the blaze-faced sport horse that could. I knew him on the track and I knew he ran extensively. His equibase profile tells me that he ran 33 times, won two races, and had career earnings of $40,802.00. That's respectable, right? I mean, he's hardly a graded stakes winner, but he's a pretty classy horse and he ran 2007-2013 with one year off in the middle, so basically six years.

Always taking care of himself

Acuna
He's my beloved Hakuna Matata thanks to the helpfulness of show secretaries after he started his show horse career, but Cuna was no slouch on the track either. Again, equibase indicates that he ran 41 times and despite winning only once, he earned $25,747.00. He ran a mere 5 (!!) years, from 1997-2001. He wasn't a hugely successful racehorse, but he paid his bills.

Look what a wee young thing I was

Klasi Renee
I don't talk about her much on the blog, but this is the mare I leased and adored all through highschool. She evented, dressaged, jumped, showed, and taught me about being quiet and calm at all times lest we lose our brains completely. We had horrible disasters and we won giant trophies. I looked up her race record just for kicks. She ran 58 (!!!) times and won 9 races from 1994-1999. Despite those numbers, she ran at tracks that are maaaaybe a step up from bush league and only won $22,944.00.

Just Courage, winning a race

And those are just my horses. I certainly understand the mentality of wanting a young, barely started thoroughbred if you're trying to make it to the upper levels or something, but I'm not. I love horses and I love riding and I want to do 3'3" or maybe 3'6" jumpers. Maybe. Mostly I want a horse that's fun to be around, no matter what we're doing any given day. I want to jump and dressage and trail ride and chase cows and pony racehorses (not with Courage apparently) and do all the things.

The best at new careers

I guess it's because I'm something of an old soul myself, but these been there, done that types just speak to me. Whether it's because they've seen it all or because they hold up under high stress or because only a certain personality makes it that long on the track, I really can't tell you. I can tell you that every one I've met is a unique and cool in a very special sort of way. They maybe don't want to race anymore, but they are athletic and intelligent and like having a job.

They might not be for everyone, but they're definitely for me.

I Can Haz Ponee

Izzy got the day off due to going two days in a row at the clinic. I think she was a little grumpy about the lack of attention until I turned her loose in the arena to play. That combined with cookies, always makes her one happy pony. Even though I didn't ride her, I am just enjoying (a ridiculous amount) the feeling of having a happy, sound(ish), sane horse who is beautiful and amazing. She's so quiet and sweet and soft and silky... ah.

We're planning a trail ride in the foothills on Friday morning and a horse show at the end of August. I'm looking forward to it.

Since Izzy had the day off, I took the opportunity to ride Cassie, Izzy's mother and my old show mare. It's the first time I've been able to get on her in quite while, since she's been off due to a crappy trim job and exacerbated by her incessant weaving since she hates not getting out to work. Silly mare.

Riding Cassie is like coming home to me. I spent so many years on her that the way she fits under me just feels right. I know her reactions and actions before she does them, and she knows I know. She's athletic, hard-working, and smart as a whip. We just bounced around and did some dressage since she's still a touch off in her right front. It was a blast. I hope to be able to get her out more often, especially since I noticed that after riding around for a while, she wasn't weaving anymore. :-)

Knee Deep in Euphoria

I think Izzy is settling in to the new place well. I didn't make it out to see her yesterday because the weather was lousy and my grandma was having a good day. Since time with grandma is limited, Izzy lost out. (As a rehash, Izzy was a nutcase on Monday.)

Here is Izzy today:
Why yes, she is knee deep in green grass. If only the pasture fences were in... oh well. One thing at a time.

Anyways. After a week of not riding for various reasons, I got to ride both girls today. Now I'm going to brag about it, because I'm pretty proud of how it went.

CASSIE:
Cassie is an 18 year old OTTB who I've known and ridden for years. She's also Izzy's mom. On Monday, she was actually pretty quiet, so I got her out first today. Today was not as quiet. She didn't like being by herself and out of sight of other horses that she knew. To deal with this, I turned her loose in the (cool big) arena. Galloping is relaxing for Cassie and she has an amazing recovery time, so I'm not concerned about wearing her out. She galloped quite a lot and whinnied at her friends some. When she was a bit calmer, I got on. I noticed that there's a spot in the windbreak by the arena that lets her see her friends pretty well, so we rode in a big circle by that spot.

We started out cantering. I took no contact, since Cassie isn't big on it anyways. We did a lot of shorten/lengthens in the canter, then did a few trot/canter transitions. We didn't go around the whole arena, but when she got strong, I just took her on a bigger circle (maybe half the arena) and let her gallop some. Remember, we're trying to relax in a new place, not do a dressage test. When she settled and was more or less listening to me, I dismounted and took her back to her friends. I think this is important. She needs to learn that she goes to this arena to work, then goes back home. Once she figures it out, I think the anxiety will disappear.

IZZY:
Izzy is cut from a different cloth than her mother. She likes to gallop, but she doesn't have momma's ability to focus or her almost tireless gallop. Thus, I needed to get her accustomed to working in the new arena without wearing her out. I can wear out her body long before her brain and that's a bad situation. Instead of turning Izzy loose to run and look at stuff on her own, I put her on the lunge line. We just started walking the perimeter of the arena together. When she stopped, pricked her ears, and snorted at something, I'd let her look at it. When she looked away, I'd ask her to walk a 5ish meter circle around me and past the scary thing. When she could walk the circle without changing pace or gait, we would continue walking the rail. It probably took half an hour to get all the way around, but it was worth it. We finished that off by lunging both ways, w/t/c just to get her going forward and listening to me.

She didn't offer any real disobedience, so I hopped on. I'll confess that we only went right today because the wind is still ripping through here and I didn't want to push her too hard, but she was really good and almost relaxed, so we did some walk/trot/canter transitions and then I got off. I untacked her at my car (since we don't have the tackroom area set up yet) and then put her halter on and took her out in the field to graze. She only whinnied to her friends once while I had her out in the arena, and not at all while she was grazing.

What a day!

Maybe Pictures?

Still having picture issues. Oh well. Cassie is settling in nicely and I have high hopes for a ride tomorrow, but Izzy is acting like a total nut (whenever she can drag her face out of the tall grass), so we'll see where that goes. I'm sure a full day to look around will improve her outlook substantially. I would have ridden Cassie today, but it started pouring rain and the indoor has a bunch of crap in it while some stuff gets worked on, so I'll have to wait. Besides... I'm not sure Cassie's ever been indoors. She didn't do the doom bubble.

After walking Izzy around and watching her freak out, I decided to turn both girls out in the arena together. The runs that they will live in aren't quite done, so they're staying semi-peacefully in the round pen together. (Yes, we have a roundpen now. I'm taking a bit of peevish delight in occupying it which annoys someone I'm not a fan of. Still, it's temporary. Tomorrow I'll hopefully get things straightened out.)

So, here are the hooligans themselves.
Izzy's fabulous butt. Admire.

This was towards the end of her racing around madly. She was tired and wanted to come see me. Behind her, you can see the wall of the indoor arena.

Look, no hooves!

Sadly, I don't have many cool pictures of Cassie from yesterday. In my defense, Cassie is way fast and hard to take pictures of.

I'm kind of impressed by what Izzy's doing here. I'm not sure I ever want to ride it. I'm also not super excited by the play equipment next to the arena. Seems like all kinds of fun that I'm not sure I want to have. Still, the fencing (railroad ties with metal rails) is solid and free of sharp edges.

Cassie and Izzy make a lap. Cassie, an OTTB to the core, is balanced and fast with an amazing recovery time. Izzy pretends to be a dressage horse, albeit a wee bit downhill. The sand piles in the background will be spread over the arena. Oh, and I should mention that our old arena was like 90 x 120 or something. This one is pretty dang big.

Izzy thinks that weeds growing in the arena is one of the best things ever. Cassie thinks that getting out and running around is the best thing ever. I have to say I'm happy with Cassie's attitude, but I do think Izzy will get it together.

Sing: Goin' on a trail ride!

That's right, folks. Izzy and I are going on a trail ride tomorrow with Irie the fearless halfie and his mom. I'm psyched. We haven't been since last summer and it will be good for both of us. The barn we board at is totally land locked on five very flat acres, so any opportunity to get out is fabulous. Then factor in that we live in Idaho with lots of mountains and it's a fabulous hill workout.

Ahem. So today we did several awesome things. First off, our new dressage bridle came. It's a lovely black bridle with white padding and no flash (and it was an amazing steal off ebay!). Best of all, I have pictures again today!!


Despite our fabulous new bridle, the jumps were set up and I really wanted to go over them, especially since Cathy gave us the all-clear to be jumping little stuff on our own. I love my rubber reins on my other fabulous bridle, so we switched the bit back and went for a ride. Izzy was wonderful!! (I'm running out of superlatives today.) We put the scary fake bush from our scary stuff session yesterday under one of the crossrails and I put a rail over the terrifying planks.

The scary plank jump in all it's glory. We are no longer intimidated.

Izzy jumped them all like a super star. I need to work on keeping her straight before and after the jumps and staying back with her... We had one hairy moment where I jumped ahead of her. She still went (over the plank, no less), but I nearly came off the front. Poor mare. I stayed back much better after that.
Izzy's cute face.

Then I talked Irie's mom into riding Cassie. I promised her that I would only take pictures of Cassie (Izzy's actual horse mother) and not of her, so please ignore the person. ;-)
The ol' lady's still got it. What a lovely girl she is!!
And...
Yeah. Not the best form picture ever, but not bad for the rider's first time on Cassie ever and the rider's first time intentionally cantering a jump ever. We'll work on it.

PS Does anyone know if there's a way to rotate pictures?

Some Things

So. The never-ending dilemma that is Izzy goes on. We had a dressage lesson today in which I realized I suck at riding (read: go to my hands too quickly and give up on my seat, resulting in her ignoring my seat most of the time anyways). We did use the new saddle and a different padding arrangement, but I don't even know what to think about it. I'm ordering this pad (from a cheaper company) and hoping that 1) Izzy will like it 2) It will solve our rubbing problem and 3) because we have a treeless saddle, it won't create pressure points alongside the withers. #3 is conjecture (as are 1 & 2, I guess). I know this type of pad is recommended against in the Pain Free Back and Saddle Fit Book because it can create pressure points, but the book also says that treeless can relieve some pressure points. It's really hard to read between the lines of books on treed saddles and try to adapt solid advice for something we're not really using (ie, a tree) to fit a princess pony.

If Izzy asks you, tell her the pad cost oodles of money. She likes things that cost oodles of money.

In other news, I've been putting in some quality riding time on Cassie, Izzy's mom and an OTTB. I love her. I always have. She is completely ruining me. I enjoy aspects of Izzy's warmblood side, but more and more I'm realizing that I'm just more of a TB person. I love their sensitivity. I love their personality. I love their willingness. I love their athletic ability. I even love the stupid things they do at shows. (And yes, I know all about those.)

I know I'm struggling with Izzy right now and I know Cassie is basically an ol' broke mare I can just jump on and do anything, but it's hard. I mean... I'm really out of practice at jumping. Cassie LOVES jumping, so I've been riding her 4-5 times a week, partially to help Cathy by getting her ready to lease out, but mostly so I can practice. We do a day of dressage, a day of dressage with a few jumps, then two days of dressage and then another jump day. It's amazing practice. Cassie is so light and forward and responsive and willing. There's no "I don't want to" temper tantrum. There is precious little fussing. For the jumping, I just try to stay out of her way and focus on my flaws and she goes. She doesn't care what the jump looks like or where it is.

Sigh. I miss her...

On Izzy's really bad days, I scheme about people I know who are connected at the track. I'm thinking mare, 15.3-16.2, color not important, chrome not important. There have got to be dozens of them. Then I remind myself that I really do love Izzy and there is ABSOLUTELY no way I can even dream of affording two horses and I don't want to sell Izzy...

Someone make me love horses that are only half TB again.

Oh. And Izzy and I are riding in a dressage clinic this weekend. I'm hoping to find someone with nothing better to do early one morning to come take pictures, but don't hold your breath.

The New Fitness Challenge

As I may have mentioned before, Izzy did lack a bit of "spunk", as Cathy put it, in our lesson. I credited it to having worked pretty hard for six days that week. I was in a hurry when I was out on Sunday, so I didn't have time to get Izzy out to do anything. Apparently, while I was gone, the mares got turned out in sets (first time this year!!), but Miss Izzy did not. The reason? She's a psycho alpha who tends to go after other horses and Cathy can't trust her with anyone. Trust me. We tried this last year. Sigh...

As a result, Izzy had a conniption yesterday when I went to get her out. She pranced and nearly reared when I was just leading her over to take off her blanket. Usually, I turn her out in the arena to run and she just meanders around unless I chase her. Not so today. She took off bucking immediately. I went to get my old mare (Izzy's mother and the only horse more dominant than she is), and Izzy freaked out. When I brought Cassie back, Izzy was so excited to have a friend to play with that I couldn't get her away from the gate to actually let Cassie in without unsettling Cassie. Ugh. Mares.

Eventually, I got both girls out together and they ran like idiots for quite a long time. Remember, Izzy has been worked 5-6 days a week all winter long. I think Cassie has worked 3 times, none of them hard. When I went to put the girls away, Cassie hadn't even broken a sweat and her amazing recovery time meant that she was barely breathing hard. Izzy, on the other hand, was almost completely drenched with sweat. Her shoulders and neck were dripping and she was sweating around her eyes. And puffing. I walked her, groomed her, and tacked her up, and she was still puffing.

It's ridiculous. I know Cassie has a ridiculously fast recovery time, but she hasn't even worked. That's probably why she always did so well on cross country, despite our lack of schooling and conditioning opportunities. She has incredible endurance and recovers faster than most people can blink, especially when fit. Izzy looks like a different sort of challenge. I'm not going to be able to take any shortcuts with her, fitness wise. Yes, part of it was a warm sunny day and Izzy's winter coat, but Cassie has a thicker coat than Izzy does.

So now we know.

In other news, it was fascinating to see my girls together. Cassie is very compact for a thoroughbred. She has some nice hock action, but very little overstep, tends to be high-headed, and is wicked fast. (Did I mention she ran 58 races and is sound to this day?) Izzy is like Cassie on steroids. Izzy has a natural overstep, gorgeous suspension, but is longer and leaner than Cassie. I really should have taken pictures. Sorry... maybe this afternoon. Izzy looks really fast, but I still think mommy would beat her in a footrace.

I did ride them both yesterday. I figure it's time to take advantage of having little-to-no job. Ride! Izzy was tired and fine. Cassie was wired. It's weird to me that with 1 year of training, Izzy is probably farther along in dressage than Cassie will ever be. It's about what comes naturally to them, I guess. Cassie loves speed, endurance, and jumping. Izzy hasn't quite figured those out yet.

Ahhhh

The outdoor arena footing was good yesterday and today, so I rode Izzy in it. We have had two amazing days in a row, and I've probably jinxed it by talking about it now. Whoops.

Anyways. I've been working on keeping my reins shorter and doing the trot/halt/trot transitions that Katie recommended for us. I start by doing halt/walk transitions, but I make sure that we're walking forward, not just toodling along. It's going really, really well. Because I'm using my seat more,I'm sitting deeper in the saddle, which makes us both more secure and balanced. Then, when we start trotting, it's so completely natural that everything just flows. Outside distractions are blocked out. We had one transition from a forward trot to a square halt to a forward trot. It was gorgeous.

Say with me: ahhhhhhh. These are the days.

Canter/halt/canter transitions are stewing in the back of my mind, but we probably need a lot more practice cantering before we do too much with that.

I rode Cassie again yesterday, and she was wonderful all over again. As the weather improves, I'm going to have to look more into the reining thing. It's not like we'd ever compete, but it sure sounds fun.

I Love Tbs

Yesterday was a crappy, windy, cold day, but it was above freezing and it had been blowing for two days straight, so the outdoor arena was sort of dry enough to ride in. It's is an amazing opportunity to have access to an indoor, but I sure love being outside.

Anyways. I rode Izzy after turning her out to run in the arena, and she was pretty naughty. She would have been better if I cold have done a bunch of transitions and made her focus, but the footing wasn't that good. I only rode for ten or fifteen minutes, then I out her away.

Finally, I was able to get my old girl out. (I say "my", but she's really not mine, except in our hearts.) She doesn't do the indoor, so I haven't been able to do much with her in the past couple months. I also turned her loose in the arena, then groomed her thoroughly and got on.

She is such a good girl. She isn't as forward into the contact as Izzy. She'll never be a dressage champion. She is, however, smart, sensitive, and athletic. Despite the fact that I hadn't ridden her in a month or two, she still moved forward perfectly off my legs, and stayed balanced under my weight. She's so sensitive that I can just think about halting, and we do.

If I had more money, I think I'd try to do lower-level reining with her. She's catty and sensitive and doesn't like much rein contact. I think she'd love it, and it's probably lower-impact on her joints than jumping or dressage. Unfortunately for her, I don't even know how to put a western saddle on, and I don't think I know anyone who ride western well enough to train her. Oh well. Maybe I'll get a book and see what we can do. She'd probably do fine in a western bridle, but I guess we'll stick to my ansur, so it would be a fun picture.

So, anyone know a good reining training book?

This is Cassie, my old girl, a couple summers ago.

I Really Shouldn't Be Here

I have a massive paper due tonight. I haven't even started reading for it yet.

So of course, I went out to ride this morning and rode both girls. Sounds like a good plan, right?

It worked well from a horsey perspective; I rode Cassie first, and she was really good. The poor girl's been neglected lately because between work, school, a house, two dogs, a cat, a husband, I only have just so much time for riding. I comfort myself by remembering that I only have two months left, but that doesn't really help Cassie. At any rate, we went w/t/c and it was nice to ride a horse who knew what she was doing, even though she's rusty. Plus, she has an amazing, beautiful, rocking-horse canter. That was lovely.

Izzy was also good today. We did lots of irregular serpentines and figure eights with changes of gait and direction in walk and trot. She was pretty good. She worried a bit much about the far side of the arena (monsters!!), but managed to focus most of the time. I tried to work on my position a bit and keep from being defensive, but I had pretty limited time at that point, so I didn't try to canter.

Sigh... I wish I had more time...

Running Late

My husband had the day off work today, so I slept in until (gasp) almost 8 am. That's pretty late for me. As soon as I was up, I darted off to ride. Izzy was fairly good today, but because I was an hour later than usual, she arena was a lot more busy with people who don't steer well. It's really hard to do concentrated work when you're watching out for a beginner rider and trying to not get run over by a careening draft horse. Still, we had some really nice trot work to the right and a lovely, lovely right lead canter depart. It was our first time cantering in my new saddle. We didn't try to do too much to the left for the aforementioned reasons.

I think I've come up with one other possible reason for Izzy's resistance to going forward in areas other than the sticky spot. She's kind of a lazy girl anyways, and if we keep in mind her stiff side, and then throw in her tendency to get behind my leg and stop before, it looks like we have the answer. So, while the sticky spot problem I think was psychological and I hope we've overcome it, the non-forwardness is probably a riding problem. I need to focus on getting her forward and not letting her fall behind my leg. When I mentioned a couple days about that it could be a horse problem, a rider problem, or both, I wasn't thinking that it could be all three. My mistake, I guess.

I also rode two other horses for Cathy today. One was Cassie, my old OTTB girl. I call her mine, but I've never properly owned her. I just leased her for like five years. Someone else is now interested in leasing a horse, and Cathy wanted me to get on the girls to get them going a little bit. Cassie was really good until I went to lunge her, and then she almost ripped my hand off. Silly old girl. I ended up just taking advantage of a brief quiet time in the arena and let her run to her heart's content. She felt a little off from having her feet done, though, so we just walked.

Then I got out Ellie, a chestnut Hanoverian/TB mare. She's our resident example of bad conformation.
Here's a friend of mine riding Ellie. She (Ellie) toes in badly in front and I think her knees are twisted in slightly. That said, she a total puppy dog on the ground and very nice to be around. In regular work, she goes really well, and she could probably show comfortably up to first level dressage or so. She used to jump, but I don't think I'd do that to her anymore. She's just been hanging out in the pasture with Izzy for the past couple months, so she resembles a sausage right now. Poor happy fat pony.

A happy thing that happened today was that Izzy actually came up to me when I went to go get Ellie. She just wanted some attention, and was really sweet. Usually I go get her during breakfast time, so she's not too keen on being caught and certainly doesn't hang around when I turn her loose. It's nice to know my pony likes me too.

Princess Hats

Izzy was wonderful today. For the first time ever, we walked, trotted, and cantered both ways on the correct leads. There was no rearing on the lunge line and no fighting with the bit. It was lovely.

Then, Michelle and I went to the tack store and I got my girls crusader fly masks with ears. So fancy. They both thought they were princesses, though Cassie's joy was a bit short lived. I switched her into a pen and put Ellie, a sweet Hanoverian mare, out with Izzy. I feel bad for Cassie, but it's for the best. Izzy gets picked on too much, and Ellie never pins her ears at anyone. Hopefully, they can be buddies.