Inside is the Wild Side

remember when we could see the ground?

My world is still iced over and not improving. Courage gets turned out every day, but it seems he's not enough of an idiot to play hard on top of ice. I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT THAT.

However, that results in a creative effort on his part to burn excess energy without being too excessively naughty. While I applaud this effort (mostly), it has boiled down to me creating a list of entertaining things he's found to spook at. Here's last week's offenders:

innocent horse is innocent

• Trucks outside the arena
• Applause on the radio (3x in one ride)
• Divots in the sand (multiple times per ride multiple days in a row until I finally kicked dirt over the offending divot)
• The mounting block
• Sand when it hits the mounting block
• Ground poles (DANGER)
• A lunge whip on the ground
• His own shadow (complete with a spin and a grunt!)
• His own reflection

DEMON LIGHT DEMON LIGHT

• The wall (no particular section--just it's general existence)
• Sunbeams (full gallop AWAY FROM DEMON LIGHTS)
• The corner (another good gallop)
• An open stall door
• A closing stall door (yes the same stall. his friend lives in it. i don't know.)
• Nothing (horses gotta horse!)

ALERT

And you were wondering why he's back in the martingale? The fact that I'm adding to this list every day is why. The good news is that we're getting LOTS of practice at going back to work after a distraction. Right?

Belated Christmas Pictures!!

We actually did take Christmas pictures this year, but they were part of a present that was being mailed out of the country and customs decided to just plunk it's fat ass down on them and they ended up being late. Because they were a surprise, I didn't want to flood the internet with cuteness until the intended recipient actually got to view them.

Anyways! They have arrived. Because some of them are just too cute for words, I decided I need to share more of them on the internet. Many thanks to Redheadlins for taking the pictures and hiding them from me until the time was right because my head would have exploded if I couldn't share such cute pictures.

The old man horse in all his fuzzy glory

:-)

So lovable!

Just getting to know Courage

I was having a good hair day

It's New Years Eve. I'm working on setting goals for next year and hope to get that post up in the next week or so. Hope everyone is warm and well!

WE RIDE!! (and it is so bloody cold)

ALL THE ENERGY!!!

I know at the beginning of the week, I said I'd only go to the lesson if I got to ride Monday and Tuesday, since C-rage has done nothing for three weeks. Instead of clearing up, the fog got thicker and the ice got slicker and Courage did nothing. And then Wednesday morning came and Redheadlins and I were like "screw it, we're going" and we stuffed the ponies in the trailer and headed off to the trainer's barn.

I did warn the trainer that it was most likely going to be terrible and that Courage was just coming to get out of the ice, so we weren't doing the lesson, just lunging in the arena.

"Please don't embarrass me"

We had to go to an arena Courage had never seen before, complete with tiptoeing across packed snow and ice to get there. He had an epic spook at "something" while we tried to chill out along the rail.

He was sort of keeping it together, so I threw on his bridle and clipped the lunge line on.

Looking so calm

It was foggy and about 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Courage hasn't been able to trot around his field in three weeks.

He's had crazy eyes for the past week and a half.

Oh, and the arena was full of other greenies coming from similar work schedules.

Showing off for the only non-greenie in the arena

It was really more like flying a kite.

I was actually impressed--we had a couple of leaping/WHERE R MI LEGZ moments, but mostly he stuck his head straight up in the air and trotted. And trotted. And then trotted some more. I got him to canter a little bit, but he wasn't losing his mind trotting and I knew he needed to blow off steam.

As long as he wasn't going to be crazy, I wasn't going to push him. Trotting is great.

So fancy

Frankly, he was putting on the best kind of show. I had warned everyone in the lesson that he was going to be horrible and a nut and all manner of bad things. I even told my co-workers that I was going to get bucked off.

And this is what he gave me. Gorgeous, animated, suspension. He whinnied a couple of times, but since his supermodel girlfriend was along, he was actually pretty settled.

Looking pretty relaxed

I hand walked him around the arena once and he was really good. He was a little damp from all the trotting, so I knew I either had to throw his cooler on and call it a day or get on and keep him going.

So I got on.

Little man was foot perfect.

We walked around and stayed out of the way of the people jumping. He didn't flinch. I was having some serious "oh THIS is why I love this horse" moments, not gonna lie.

Extra careful

We picked up the trot. Instead of sticking his ears up my nostrils and flailing his legs around, Courage reached his neck forward and down and stepped out. BAM! I was beyond impressed.

We even sort of joined in on the exercise. We started out trotting some poles. He canter/leaped them the first time, but then trotted through like a champ. I couldn't believe how calm and collected he was.

Why is the crazy lady wearing my clothes?

Then the instructor directed us to trot the poles, go around the corner, and jump a little box in the snow. Courage trotted in, then halted politely in front of it.

Wasn't his fault I asked him to cross the great wall of China, haha.

We did a little circle, then he let the instructor lead him over the tiny box. A light bulb flashed on. Not the great wall! A jump!

He's got this

And guess who is the best at jumps?

Courage.

He didn't even hesitate after that. Once he understood the question, he trotted right in, snapped his knees up over it, and landed cantering.

The last time through our instructor played "Eye of the Tiger" for him and he shook his head when he landed. Little dude was so proud of himself.

We even got invited back to ride as long as the arena is good. I am so.excited. It was beyond awesome to be back in the tack. This little horse is going to be so awesome.

Winter Shots

Alright, I know I've said over and over that the part of Idaho I live in really isn't a winter place. It snows in the morning (a couple of times a year) and it melts in the afternoon (always).

And I'm having to eat my words. We have had three different snow storms over the past week or so and we still have snow from ALL OF THEM.

I hate it. I am not a "snow and cold" person. I never have been. I doubt I ever will be. Those of you in Canada (and its' attendant misery) are laughing, but seriously.

Where is cookie?

It started out yuck.

This is from yuck round two. Cuna was not impressed.










Awesome stuff like this is happening.

This should never happen.

Ever.

In fact, there were sideways icicles on the fence this afternoon that I would have taken a picture of but I was too cold to get the camera out and my phone had died of cold.

The snow. Gets on ears. Not ok.

This shot marks the last time Cuna voluntarily left his stall. The snow is now covering his run, again.

Ugh.

Staying in the box

This is what he does if you ask him to leave the box.

Weather not fit for Cunas.

Just keep walking.

Now he just watches me go by. If I bring peppermints, I must go in the stall to feed him. Nasty snow.










As we were wrapping things up at the barn today, I got this shot.

Still snowing. Supposed to snow all night and into tomorrow. Then temps are dropping to single digits.

This weekend=fail.

I want to go play somewhere warm.