Mama-To-Be

MEET DARLENE'S BOYFRIEND:

His name is Chocolate Never Lies (Cisco). And yes, the big news about Darlene is she is going to have a foal!!

Hopefully! So I researched a ton about stallions, mainly just for the fun of it for like two weeks. And this guy kept coming up. I really liked his conformation and movement, plus he is supossed to have a really good/sweet temperament. 

So Darlene is generally in heat the last week of the month, or first. Well it was the last of the month this time apparently because when we had the vet check her we just missed ovulation. BUT, he gave me a shot to give her last Saturday that will make her go back into heat quickly, called short cycling her.

It worked like a charm! Today we went back to see where she was at and she is doing great and the vet said to tell them to collect the semen for me tomorrow, ship it, and it will be here Thursday to breed her. Yay!

This has been SO fun to learn about. I have never read or heard much about artificial insemination so this has been really educational. I have been reading anything I can get my eyes on. Besides asking the vet 20 questions lol. 

So after we AI her Thursday he wants me to come back Saturday to check her follicle. If she still has one we can dose her again with more semen. After that it's a 14 day wait to see if a baby is growing in there! So the 25th. Gonna be the longest wait ever! Well until we have to wait all the way until NEXT SUMMER to have a baby! Sigh. Horses have the longest gestation, I swear.

So that's all for now! I'll update again when I have more news!

FINALLY. Part II! Combined Training show and Overnight Fun Show!

So the weeks leading up to the Full Circle combined show I was riding HARD. And hitting lessons hard. I knew we had a lot of ground to make up to have a good showing. We had only begun to jump the year or so before and when we restarted we still had a lot to work on.

The show was the second Saturday in May. And because it's impossible to have a NICE day of weather at a horse show this year so far, instead of freezing cold and/or rain, it was SURFACE OF THE SUN hot. Thanks Alabama. Thankfully my parents decided to come and brought their 45 foot motorhome. Yasss. It was so nice to have to change in and cool off. The kids also liked playing in it. We set up our tent next to the horse trailer so we had a shady place to sit and watch the show across the road.

We had a great spot, I'm standing in the jump field

So as usual I was later getting there then I wanted. I never seem to have enough time to warm up. He is not an insta-dressage horse and requires a good bit of time to supple and get his engine going comfortably. So of course by the time I got over to the arena hoping to have some time to ride in the same footing as the show arena, it's like one person until my ride. -_-
Anyway I did a bit of cantering trying to get his motor going but it didn't do much. He was so stiff and uninterested in bending etc. It was an okay test, no errors, but we can do so much better. SO MUCH. I believe I scored a 60%. Bleh.

Anyway we had a nice break before it was time for my jumping class. The hubby and I went over and walked the course a few times. Thankfully it was set up in the same pattern for all of rounds so I could get a good idea of what I was going to be doing, minus a few jumps. It was SO long, 10 jumps! I was a tad nervous. That seemed like an eternity to be on course. I was thinking it would be more like 8 tops??

Lee had us over there to warm up on the jumps in the warm up area about 45 minutes before the jumping was to start, so it wouldn't be so congested. Harold did great, no issues. Another short hang out time and then we all gathered for our round. Our class was first of course since we were doing the teeny 12" cross rails. I watched one lady go and then it was my turn. All the jumps had numbers on them which was great, but I STILL forgot a jump. I thought I knew where I was going and had not thought to follow the numbers as I went, whooops. Thankfully I just circled around and jumped it with no issues before continuing on. We finished clear! I was so proud of us both. That was our first course ever, at a show, and first time to jump that many in a row!

So we got a Clear Round ribbon, lol, and a second place ribbon in our dressage. Shelby had leadline after so we swapped tack on Harold again and she did another great test, for a blue of course! So far we have not seen any other lead liners this year.

   

Two weeks later we had our next show. This one was in Huntsville, which was about an hour and 20 from us. We decided to borrow my brothers nice travel trailer so we could stay on the grounds. The show started at 7, which jump schooling at 6! I had no desire to load a horse and four kids up at 5 in the morning. Plus we didn't get done the night before getting him stalled and schooling until nearly 9! It worked out really well.

That morning cheesing with a Harold
who is not impressed, lol

So the arena wigged mister Harold out a bit. It was huge in there. Lots of different sights, big glass windows at the end where the lobby was. He had also been in a stall all day. But he eventually settled and we got a few good jumps in. And just to be clear, a wigged out Harold means I had some energy under me that I don't usually have, lol.

**And this is where I go off of a year later memory because I had this post saved, never finished it and it's now JUNE 2020. No joke, lol! I wish I had buckled down and done it! I love reading details of things like this.

Anyway, I'm going to post pictures and try and let that jog my memory!

So after we schooled for a little bit I got him settled in his stall and headed in for some sleep! I was up again early that morning to get him fed and braided so we could go school before the show started. 

Really woman, in there again??

He was still pretty distracted about the arena but it took him less time to settle this time. I didn't have Lee school him for me that day, I felt like we had it!

And we did! To make a long story short we got a first in walk trot, 2nd in one of our cross rail classes, and 3rd in the other to become Cross Rail Champs baby!!  

                                         

Yeah, I'm sorry, I might have squealed like a school girl. Look at Harold he's like, I totally did that. So the 3rd came when I decided to canter the last jump and he hit it bad and knocked it over, otherwise we would have done first or second I think. Cantering jumps is not our forte yet.

After that Shelby did leadline and costume, and I did halter. We won first in halter and got called back for the champion class but lost to a paint being shown by a kid, who was far inferior if you ask me. Whatevs.

This is 'Spirit' and 'Lucky' from
Netflix :D

Obviously the cutest and best leadliner

Halter Champ to me

We were supposed to be in two more (sport horse flat classes) but they were at the END OF THE SHOW and we were exhausted. It was getting really late and we just packed up and headed home. I had a BLAST but it was a lot of work with four kiddos. Daddy was amazing though, so thankful for him and his support.

      

    

I love my buddy

Well this post is finally done! Stay tuned, I'm working on one about some MAJOR NEWS about Darlene! SQUEE!! 

New Horse and Horse Shows! Part I

So it's been a LONG time since an update! Here's a quick run down.

Fourth baby girl is now days away from being 9 months! Oldest girl is almost 9, middle girl is 5 and about to start Kindergarten! She has also been in three shows this year already! Third baby girl is finally coming out of the 'whiny' stage at about 3.5 years and is now daddies best friend.

BIG NEWS. We bought another horse! The husband remarked he would ride with me if he had a horse he trusted and liked. And that's all it took to get the wheels turning! We decided to sell Snowy, who really was not being used much. And look for a smaller horse that would work for the kids AND be big enough for daddy.

We found her!! She wasn't EXACTLY what we were looking for but she WILL be. Meet Darlene! She is a just turned 6 year old APH, bay tovero. We tried her out in the dark in a arena under lights (which she had never done) and she was foot perfect. Quiet and calm, listened well walk, trot, lope. I liked her a lot. We came back the next day and tried her out again in a wooded area to make sure we liked her, and then brought her home!

She did awesome for about three weeks. And then all of a sudden turned really nervous, spooky, just unsettled. It was so weird. It coincided with spring and her first cycle so we put her on mare magic and changed her to a low starch feed. Wha la, 2 weeks later she was great again. :shrug: We aren't positive what caused it but jut happy she is back. I have taken her off the mare magic the last few weeks to see if that changes anything. We shall see! Don't you wish horses could talk?!

Here is some Darlene pic spam:

These two are from her ad. I passed over her already based on these pictures! She looks small and homely, lol. We had traveled to TN to look at a buckskin that was TOTALLY not what they said she was, and had another person cancel on us. So I jumped on FB to look again on a horse sale page and saw her. I thought, well she's sort of on the way home and sounds good, let's just go for kicks. I'm SO GLAD WE DID.

These are from the night we brought her home and the next morning, isn't she pretty!!

From one of her first rides at home, before she went Jekyll on us, lol. My man looks so good up there. He really likes her, and not just because I think he is doing it for me, but because he genuinely likes her.

Slicked out! She had bad rain rot we are STILL battling, and took part of her mane out, ugh. But thankfully it is white lol and blends into her neck. It's starting to come back now!

The last two are from her first off property ride! We went to my instructors place and rode her after my lesson on Harold. She did great! Trailered perfect, stood tied great, and rode great. I think we have a winner. We haven't gotten to trail ride her yet, so that will be another big test. Chunky baby girl is still eating too often to go off without her yet, so that may be a fall adventure, or even next spring. 

I had a great informative conversation with her trainer on messenger. She has only been under saddle maybe a year, which was a lot less then we were wanting, lol. But she said her mind was so good she always felt comfortable on her, even her first ride. She told me she was starting lope circles with her, and had put her on a barrel and pole pattern a few times. She also used to take her to the stock yard and work cows there, and she seemed to be pretty 'cowy', which was kind of neat to know! They have only trail rode her once so I hope she will be ok doing that, I think she will be though.

Anyway we have just been riding her around here, mainly me. Getting her started neck reining and guiding and stopping well at all gaits. Teaching her to be still for mounting and standing when we stop her until we say to go again.
She has come a long way in a few months! Her trot still needs lots of work and we are just now starting to do a bit of loping. I did some at Lee's and she was basically galloping lol! Speed control is something we have to work on. She would rather go slow, but she has PLENTY of pep and energy. She likes to just make random laps around the pasture for the fun of it. She even got Harold into playing one day! It was adorable.
She is a lot more 'wary' of things then Harold, which I hope with more riding and exposure she will improve at. Hubby does great riding her and taking care of her. It has been a blast having him be involved in the horses.

So on to my favoritest, Harold! I finally feel like we have got a pretty decent bit of conditioning now. We both can ride and jump for a good while before getting tired. In April we started back jumping. Whew, that has been a bit of a mess for both of us. But thanks to my instructor we have slowly been improving. Well mostly slowly for me, Harold has done great. He's so good at taking care of me.

We had our first show in March, which I got 2nd with Intro B I think? It was SO COLD, Sadie was being the devil for Lee, we were in an covered arena with no where to warm up. Let's just say that was all grounds for a sub par couple of tests. Shelby did her first test and did awesome! I had to DRAG Harold around but she sat up there so pretty and did her favorite part (the halt and salute) perfect.

Don't let this photo fool you. We were pokey and stiff
all ride -_- (check out my hair coming down too, sigh)

The barn that hosted the show put this photo on their Instagram story :). Anyway there was no one else in leadline so easy blue. Our next show had no one either. She loves her blues! And she doesn't care if she's the only one.

Our next show was a few weeks later. And ALSO cold, but this time we added rain! Yippee! My gosh. So the kids spent much of the time in the truck out of the mist. I spent most of my time warming up in the indoor next to the arena. I popped out right before my test and then waited a bit for my next test before tying him back up and untacking. It was Easter weekend so they had a fun little egg hunt the kids participated in.

Harold did quite well. I mean, the warm up in the covered helped a ton. I had a horse that was supple and bendy. BUT, I wish I had brought my whip. By the second test he was dodging puddles and running out of steam and my legs aren't strong enough to be proper motivation. We got 1st for A and 2nd for B.

Not quite sure he likes all the commotion outside.
There were jumping horses above us in the jump arena.

Fancy in the mud, notice my leg, lol. Go pony!

Sadie: Can I eat this? Thanks.

So Sadie was a bit less of a devil then she was at the other show, thankfully. Or the husband would be banning me from further escapades until she is weaned. She is a good baby but she is very sensitive. She wants what she wants and now. If she doesn't get it she SCREECHES or pitches a fit. And WILL NOT STOP until she gets it. I'm not exaggerating.

So the end of March I knew I had time to start jumping again before shows in April. I aimed myself at the Full Circle show the end of the month. I wanted to do Intro B and a jumping class. Which specifically was the 12" crossrails.
The video above is our first jumps back since BEFORE baby. It wasn't horrible! But that was to come...lol.

So back to lessons we went! I took Harold to Lee's and showed her what she was working with first, lol, then let her get on and school him for me. She had warned me a few times to get onto him for putting his head down and kind of twisting it. I was like yeah, I'm trying. But frankly I was trying to do SO much already it was all I could do. I was still so out of shape, had been off my meds quite a few days, and hadn't ate breakfast. All this added up to me hitting the dirt (sand) at the end of my lesson. Whoops! Harold did his silly snakey head where he pulled me out of the saddle over his shoulder. I landed just fine on my side/hip still holding the reins! A little shook up but not horrible. Lee got on him and got after him and then I rode again with success.

I'm not gonna lie. Knowing that your not invincible and you CAN come off, put a bit of nervousness in me for a while. I am doing better now after quite a few subsequent rides, but it's still there. I'm gonna work through it be better for it though. He hasn't done it in quite a few rides so I'm hoping he has decided to kick that behavior, lol. I'm also much stronger and getting my technique back also helps.

Lee schooling Harold for me

You can see at the end of the vid below the snakey neck I was talking about that pulled me off, lol. Don't look at me, my eq is HIDEOUS.

Anywho! We practiced at home as much as I could. Many times we didn't come in to eat supper until almost 8 clock. Thankfully the kids love playing outside. In between jumps I also worked on his canter a lot. We can do a decent canter now sort of with contact and not breaking every other stride which is so huge for us! Lee also has me cantering up out of my seat. She said that's how I have to ride him around a course. That's hard yo! It's getting better though. Come on thigh muscles, work!

Our next few lessons went great. Lee always rode him first for me and got him going well so we could really work on us both as a team.

As you can see I look a lot less like  monkey
on his back!

Well I better split this into two posts, part II to come! Our first jumping show and the Arabian Fun Show!

Hello 2019!

It's January 2019! It's going to be a great year.

I am almost 4 months post partum! I've been riding off and on as much as I can.

I should probably change the name of my blog to Riding During Nights because the last 4 rides at least have been after dark around 7 or 8, haha! No joke. I just don't have time to ride in the day time on work days. And every NON work day has been busy or RAINING. So I just park my truck by the pasture with the lights on bright and wear a headlamp so I can see to tack up etc. Works like a charm! And of course the bestest horse in the world, AKA Harold couldn't care less. Of course if I was doing a lot of trotting or cantering it wouldn't work as well I have a feeling. But I am just walking 90% of the time right now getting us BOTH back into shape.

This baby threw me for a loop. Pregnancy was hard, labor was hard, recovering was, guess what? HARD. Know what was way too easy? GETTING PREGNANT. Lol. Well, we won't go there... :)

So I'm starting back lessons Friday! Super excited. I just know we are so far from where we were before I got pregnant. I hope she isn't too dissapointed with where we are. I mean, I have done maybe two full circles of trot, lol. I may have done more lately if the ground hadn't been a SWAMP every time I ride. It has been like monsoon season in AZ here. Never ending rain! We have finally gotten a break lately and dried out a lot. I rode two nights ago and it was still squishy down in the bottom where I ride tho, -_-.

I bought Harold a new bridle the other day off a used horse tack website. It's his 'big boy' bridle, lol. It has a nice monocrown and thick lovely leather. Can't wait to show him in it. I also got a $100 gift card for Riding Warehouse for Christmas that I plan on buying him a new show hunt seat bridle with. I also need some shipping boots...maybe I can find some newish used ones on a facebook group.

UPDATE: I started this in January and never finished it, so just going to post what I have and move on!

New Pasture Pics and Planning

So I thought it would be fun to sit down and type out how the pasture is going and also plan out a bit (a very loose plan!) of what I want to do in my horsey life after I'm no longer prego.
I have about 2 1/2 months until my due date and then am supposed to wait 6 weeks post partum before doing strenuous activity. So that puts me right around the first of November. Unless baby girl decides to grace us with her energetic little self earlier! (She's a kicker and mover!!)

So I will have all winter to leg Harold and I up. Then hopefully be ready to hit some dressage shows in spring, maybe some jumping classes towards the middle late summer.

I'm hoping after Harold gets moved into his new pasture right by my house I can go out and start doing a bit with him now. Just walking and stretching, ground work, walking up and down the hills. Which will be good for me too, I have been pretty inactive this pregnancy right up until we started building the fence, lol. So getting some fitness in before labor day will be GOOD.

But I also worry about my comfort level in all that. I trust Harold and have never had him do anything dangerous but I don't move real fast these days and my belly is WAY out there and pretty vulnerable. I'm not sure if I will be worried all the time and not enjoy it, or get comfortable again after I start into it.

So after I get Harold going again, I think I will start back lessons with L in January. November I will need to get some fitness under him and then December is just too crazy with holidays and my middlest has her birthday also that month. I will probably do one or two private a month. I used to go every week in her oldest girls class, but I don't think I'll be able to swing that anymore with four kiddos and all. We'll see! L may have another idea also.

SO! Today MAY be the day my pasture is done! We have one run of barb wire to do on the bottom of one section, and then three to run on the short end by the house and I think its DONE. Yay!! It is going to be so awesome. I mean right now I don't even feel like I own a horse I see him so little.

I need to get him some mineral blocks, water trough, and grain buckets for him and Snowy. Other then that they are good! I just have a little anxiety about how long the grass will hold up before I will have to move them off. I really hope it does well. I plan on getting a bale of hay and keeping his slow feeder net full at all times so he will not be constantly grazing. Maybe.

Here are two pics from this morning!

I'm standing by the shop which is just beside our house. All that in the pasture is
fireworks from the brother in laws -_-

See our little gate up there to the right??

So this is the end closest to our house. I'm going to store all his grain and such in the trailer, and put his water trough and feeder up there by the gate so it will be convenient to the water faucet and trailer.

I have a feeling WE are gonna have to go out and clean up all the firework crap. Sigh. Living near in-laws can be so annoying. We had a fireworks show there last Wed, like we do every year, that my husbands two brothers put on and pay for. Well it is now almost a week later and it is STILL all over the pasture.

The heat is still unbearable after about 11 until nearly 7 when it finally starts cooling off a BIT. I feel so awful for the husband having to be out in it nearly all day. The humidity makes it even worse. I tried to go out and help him yesterday afternoon around 5 and I had to stand in the shade the whole time, lol. Being pregnant makes it worse, I'm not normally such a pansy!

So that's all for now! I will update next with pictures of my ponies in their very own pasture!!