The Most Important Thing

When Zoe and I embarked on this adventure together, I was told one thing. 

If a draft mare loves you, she'll do anything for you.

But if she doesn't, she won't give you the time of day.

a thinking picture

I've let that shape my thinking in how I approach ZB every day.

The little lady is talented and has a fantastic work ethic and is delightful to be around. I don't doubt for a minute that she'll hit all the performance goals I set for us.

plus toodling

We have a lifetime to do those things together.

We only get one shot at our first year together.

SMOOSH MUM

I don't just want to be the person who shows up at the barn and pushes and pushes and pushes to hit some arbitrary performance goal.

The whole point of having a Zoe was to have a horse that could be fun every day.

And then to have fun every day.

COOKIES R MORE GREAT THAN TARP

I haven't put a saddle on Zoebird in upwards of two weeks. I haven't even looked at an entry form for a show.

We spend a lot more time hanging out than "working".

SRSLY NEED COOKIES

But the other night we were wandering around the outdoor arena in the the dark together.

Zoe had a good spook and took off towards the gate.

I said, "hey lady".

And she turned.

Trotted up to me.

And all was right with our world.

finding our footing

There are so many places to go and things to do. 

And we'll go to the places and do the things eventually.

But right now, it's just about us becoming us. 

Smoosh Champion!

I try not to be THAT BLOG where everything is always roses and there are never any struggles and it's magic land where everything just works all the time and the toilet has probably never even backed up at an inconvenient time (real question: is there a convenient time for the toilet to back up? even if the plumber is there. do you want him to see your poop?).

sunsets ftw

But you guys.

Omg.

Have you met my baby mare?

SMOOSH

She's cuter than shit. Can't even with how cute she is.

And then like.

w/t transition champion

Ugh she's the goddamn coolest horse to ride. She shows up to work every single day. Her answer to every question is HOKAY MOM ILL TRY. She's honest and sassy and fun. If she knows the answer, she does it the best she possibly can. If she thinks she knows, she gives this adorable little ear pin/head twist like U WANT THIS and gives it a shot.

As long as I'm fair to her, she gives 110% every. single. day.

first ride in an english saddle since a wreck? HOKAY I B PERFIKT

All of that is awesome. She may not know a lot, but she makes every ride worthwhile.

See and then I get off her.

sorry/not sorry that my barn crew is this cute

And you know what?

She is just as much fun on the ground.

I love her boldness and curiosity. No timid spooking here--she marches right up to unusual occurrences and sticks her smooshy nose right in the middle of things to see what's going on. She's never met a stranger. She's not afraid of anything. She's super smart and she thinks about things without ever getting panicked.

time to go #Zoesploring

It's not that she's some paragon of perfection who's schooling third and I'm over here shopping for a double bridle. She's a baby. The steering is getting pretty good and now we work on complicated things like doing up/down transitions without hollowing and collapsing. She's not on the bit. She's not inside-rein-to-outside-leg.

oh and lunging her in a flat halter is fine

She is fun every single day.

What else could I ask for?

SMOOSH VET

In addition to loaning me an entire pile of saddles to play with, Roxie's mom came to visit the other day. 

10/10 sharing this photo because my hair looks randomly amazing

Annnnnd while she was patting my beautiful Zoebird, she nearly got a chunk taken out of her. Which reminded me I'd been meaning to schedule the chiro vet.

So I did that.

and then we went through the magical light tunnel
it's a thing here ok

Anyways. Zoe is a fantastic lady but her entire life has undergone drastic changes in the last few months and her body doesn't really even look the same. It makes sense to me that she'd need a little support. 

she just wanted to play with the awesome giant horse lego

My chiro vet LOVED Zoe, haha. With Courage, you always had to be on your toes a little bit because he tended to launch in various directions to express himself. With Zoe, we just had to make sure she didn't get a chance to play too hard with the handy dandy standing block. 

Because it looked SO FUN. 

ugh fun police

Aside from being a little bit cranky to tack up, Zoe has been great. I appreciated the vet taking the time to talk about managing draftie type horses. Vet also took her time going over Zoe. She described everything she found as pretty basic stuff given the level of work Zoe is in and her overall training development.

tongue stretch!

You wouldn't think I could find a way to brag about how my baby mare is the best at chiro adjustments, but this is me we're talking about. It was so fun to watch Zoe's brain work. This was her first bodywork appointment, so a lot of what we were doing was unfamiliar. She just sort of let the vet mess with her and then relaxed when she figured out it didn't hurt. 

I wasn't expecting any surprises, but it was nice to have a trusted vet sign off and say "yup everything looks great" after a few basic adjustments. 

Houston, We're Out of Pixie Dust

If you've known me for ten minutes, you know I like tack. I like buying tack. I like to turn over inventory quickly. I like playing with new things. I like knowing about lots of different things.

It might surprise you to know that there's one piece of tack that I've had my entire adult equestrian life without replacing or selling.

2011 on the Hellmare

It's a super basic Nunn Finer hunt breastplate.

And it's magical.

I swear.

2012 on Cuna

I bought it to match a bridle I no longer own.

I used it when I worked in a busy training barn.

It fit literally everything from ponies to giant Irish draught types and everything in between. It's classic. It's super adjustable. It's sturdy.

2014 on C-Rage

It's just a solid piece of tack that's good to have around. 

Naturally, when I got Zoebird, it went on her too. 

2017 on ZB

I like having something to grab on babies and the adjustability meant I just changed a few things and off we went. 

Until. 

Well. 

Zoe is no wilting Victorian heroine. She's bold and strong and intelligent and well, she has curves that she is growing in to. 

You think I'm joking. 

she's a lovely lady

In the last two weeks, we went from a 48" to a 52" girth.

And the other night while tacking up, I saw this:

look past the haircut

Look close:

uh oh

If that looks like a Zoebird lady who is about to bust out of her horse size breastcollar to you, then yeah. We're on the same page. 

Apparently the magical Nunn Finer has finally run out of pixie dust. 

nope that is definitely not her bum peeking out of an 84" quarter sheet

Any recommendations on a new breastplate? I need size "real big". 

Training the Not-Hot Horse: Part the Second

As a person who's spent all of my time around horses with animals that were 50% or more thoroughbred, I had a lot of illusions about draft crosses. I think the biggest one for me was that because they weren't super reactive, they also weren't very intelligent.

And as a reasonably intelligent person, I didn't want to deal with a "dumb" animal.

Enter Zoe.

SMOOSH

Training her is fascinating for me. Remember when she started putting on the (literal) brakes out of the blue?

Well except it wasn't out of the blue. What preempted that was me realizing that my goofy brain was going U GONE GIT RUNNED OFF WIT BECAUSE U GOT NO BRAKES, which is clearly ridiculous on a horse that stops when you stop kicking. But brains will do what brains will do, so I taught Zoe a one-rein stop to appease my brain. We literally did it three times one day.

Annnnnnd the next time she was ridden, she started doing the STOP AND FREEZE response.

Huh.

So she not only learned it, but was also willing to show it off to me to prove that she understood.

That's actually pretty smart.

Another thing we've been working diligently on are our turn on the forehand/haunches. We do them on the ground, pre-ride, and then at the end of each ride. Except the other day I mixed it up and did them in the saddle at the beginning on the ride. Zoe was a champ, like usual, but then every time I asked her to halt (normally, not one rein haha), then put my legs on to ask her to go again...

...she started going sideways.

Like I'd asked her to earlier.

smartie. pants.

When I finally started to put it all together, I laughed. Here I was concerned that somehow the little lady wouldn't be "smart enough" for me and instead she's the smartest horse with the most try that I've probably ever worked with.

A Story About Baby Horses

Last Friday, Alyssa came over to play with Zoë and I. She's a super riding badass (who is going to championships at TRAINING LEVEL EVENTING this week omg) and she totally talked me in to riding my baby mare bareback for the first time.

also annual gameday photos

I toodled around like wheeeeeee omg imma die THERE ARE NO WITHERS HALP and ZB was perfectly fabulous. 

Then because I'm the best friend ever I was like ALYSSA NEEDS A TURN. 

yeah she just gets on my baby bareback in shorts and does this

After said fabulousity, Zoë stopped. And Alyssa was like "she's stuck" and I was like "pssh kick her you tiny penguin". 

oh yeah she's four and it's her first time bareback

Instead Alyssa messed around on her and I thought nothing of it and we all went on our merry way. 

DUN DUN DUN

Cough. 

So the next time I came out to ride, I hopped on and we were marching around at a going walk. 

no under saddle pics so admire her Zoë cuteness

And all of a sudden.

She stopped. 

Not just lost her balance.

Full-on planted her feet and grew roots like a hundred year old oak tree. 

There was no kicking or scooting or breaking her loose or changing her balance to move her. 

I finally had a barnmate ride over and loan me her dressage whip. 

We repeated that lesson many times that day.

the Zozo Brain

And the next time I rode her, I carried a whip from the get go and she never offered to stall out once. 

Babies are magical!

PS also don't assume your friend is just weak and can't kick because clearly that is not the case.

Free Jumping!

Look who is just the cutest!

We aren't doing any serious/under saddle/whatever jumping this year. Just occasionally little exercises to get her to think about her feet and her body in space.

trotting a vertical is very hard

It's so fun to watch her learning process!

First Farrier Appointment!

Ok so technically calling this a "first" farrier appointment is a misnomer because obviously Zoebird is four and well taken care of, so obviously she has had her feet done before. I mean. Her former owner, a farrier, picked her feet up and hammered on them for me to show me that she was fine. 

O HAI ITS U

Buuuuuut.

You know. You take a baby horse from the forested mountains that she grew up in and drop her in the desert with a bunch of strangers and completely change the expectations for her life, and it's a bit stupid to expect everything to stay the same.

So anyways. Zozobird has fabulous Percheron feet. She's four. She's never worn shoes. She was definitely due for a trim.

It's stupidly hot (still) and the flies are TERRIBLE (don't get me started on dumping pig manure on fields right now) and work has been exhausting, so when I showed up at the barn and my friend was having the farrier out, I begged us an appointment so we wouldn't have to roast in the sun-toasted arena.

IT BURNS US PRECIOUS

Anywhoodle. I'm that weird dork that asks a million questions of qualified professionals so I watched him work on a couple other horses and tried not to be too annoying, then we pulled out Zoe. 

#adultammystrong yes those are heels at the barn

I'd told him about the draft cross thing and when I said "momma was a paint" he started on like "paints tend to have trouble with their digital cushion like the one we just looked at" and then I said daddy was a Percheron and he was immediately "PERCHERONS HAVE AMAZING FEET" and then he looked at her and was like "omg yay percheron feet!" (my interpretation after a long hot day. not his actual words). 

I warned him Zoe was a baby with a baby attention span and baby issues. 

I didn't really need to. 

SMOOSHY NOSE

Zoe was all "o hai" and then a total superstar. We talked about transitioning from a mountain environment to the desert a little and we talked about her changing from teenage feet to adult horse feet--he commented that baby feet tend to be more spongy whereas adult hooves are harder. You can actually see the growth line of the grown up feet coming in on Zoe, which is pretty cool. 

He raved about her big, solid feet with excellent concavity. He also said that if at all possible, he likes to leave shoes off of babies so that they can keep growing and developing--apparently if the shoe helps them compensate for structural weakness while they're growing, then the foot kinda stops developing in the younger horses. I've never had a proper baby before so that was a fascinating insight. Good news is that Zoe is doing great barefoot, so we're greenlighted to continue on. 

unrelated photo of farrier and vet consult over a mobile xray for a different horse

I mean. It's probably silly to write up like "my horse got a trim and it was a total non-event", but it's just so weird to me to have the horse that's non-dramatic, well-behaved, and has awesome feet. Like. Awesome.

<3 Ms Zoebird

A New Paradigm

A couple of people have mentioned to me that they noticed a shift in the tone around here when lil Ms. Zoebird came home. 

tail brought to you by Equifuse

It's true.

Courage and I had such a complicated relationship. Off again, on again, with twists and turns and ups and downs.

such hair <3

It's not that Zoe and I won't have our differences, because I'm sure we will. It's not even that we're in the glowing honeymoon phase of a new relationship, which we are.

tasty stick

Zoebird just brings a whole different energy. She's calm. She's so smart. She's a thinker. She shows up, she tries hard, and she's good to be around.

and she's fanceh!

She makes every day fun.

O HAI

We aren't doing cool advanced stuff. We're doing baby mare stuff. You know. Steering. Ground work. Stop. Go. Eat cookies.

And yeah, I enjoy every minute.

even the goofy ones

Zoe's First Trail Ride!

As I told a fellow boarder, Ms. Zoebird has more rides on her than I have fingers now so probably it's a great time to go trail riding. I lined up the two most broke horses on the entire planet to go with us, and this weekend we loaded up.

Noted: ZB has limited trailering experience--her last owners hauled her 3-4 times and then her last trailer experience was when Roxie's mom stuck her in her (luxury liner) trailer and hauled her all day to our barn.

All that to say. If the little lady was like "ehhhhhhh i dunno" about loading into a strange rig, I couldn't have been too upset with her.

But instead she marched on like a freaking champion.

She unloaded like a champion. And remember. She's been very few places. She's four. This is her first off-property trip with me. It's her first trail ride. It's off a semi-busy road. There's a lady with a weed whacker directly across the street.

I'd be lying if I said I was totes 100% calm. I was more like 89% HOLY SHIT IMMA DIE WHAT IS LIFE and 11% trusting the people I was with.

And uh. Yeah.

HAI FRIEND

Zoe like. Looked around a little. Was a little pushy on the ground. And I was like "stop". And she stopped.

WHAT EVEN IS MY LIFE

I got on first because I wanted someone on the ground to grab me if things went sideways I guess.

Yeah...

She was fine. We went through the scary gate. We started motoring down the trail.

Motoring as in Zoebird thought her friends walked too slow SO SHE JUST LED THE FREAKING WAY LIKE A FEARLESS BADASS TRAIL HORSE.

(No pictures because I was like HO SHIT DO I HAVE BRAKES) (yes at the walk) (i have issues ok)

zero drama

Anyways. I did have brakes. I made Zoe follow the lovely brave painty mare because that just seemed like a better idea for everyone.

And you know what terrible naughty thing she did then?

Literally nothing.

At one point there was a big, scary stump right off the trail and Zoebird was like WUT IS THAT SCARY? And the other horses ignored her so she just walked past it.

pictured: not that stump

We saw a hiker with a dog. Zoe wanted to go put her smooshy nose on them SO BAD but when I said no, she just stood politely with her friends until they went past.

water sighted!

We went all over the park and followed lots of little trails. Zoe is not always the best at remembering how many legs she has, so she tripped more often than the other horses. One loop took us back in the direction of the trailer so she was like SMART ZB KNOWS WHERE WE R GOING FAST and tried trotting a couple times.

She didn't jig. Didn't throw fits. Didn't get mad. And when I asked her to walk, she just walked.

i also wore my kickass percheron shirt but the only hiker we saw didn't even notice to compliment me on it

About halfway through, my brain finally kicked things into gear and I realized I was actually having fun on my baby horse on her first ever trail ride. Loose rein. Smiling. Felt totally safe.

I mean, she's definitely a baby. Steering is still kinda, well, babyish. She kept wandering off the trail.

But that's literally the worst thing I can say about her.

To finish the ride, we had to cross through a marshy area and go over some concrete pipes that are partially exposed. Zoe trooped right up until the marsh and then was like HO SHIT GUYS DANGER which I think is a 100% rational response to the ground changing under your feet. The steady eddies were both not thrilled about the footing. It took some encouragement and a lead horse, but after a while, Zoe went through the marsh and up onto the solid ground.

But then the concrete pipes are right there.

And she was like HO SHIT WUT R THAT NO PlZ DO NOT WANT. (There are no photos because I blogger failed you).

Anyways. She'd been so damn good. She had literally just made it through the marsh with the sketchy footing. We were less than 100 feet from the parking lot. Oh and her "ho shit" response is literally looking at something quizzically and not offering any naughty behavior or getting agitated.

I just hopped off and led her over the pipes. She went first try with zero resistance and did fantastic. Calm, positive experiences. Next time will be better.

I R ZOEBIRD CHAMPION TRAIL BABY

Oh yeah. And loaded and unloaded like a freaking champion. Again.

I just. You guys.

What do I even say? She is the coolest little lady and I am so lucky to have her.