Hey guys! Just thought it had been a LONG time since I posted so I wanted to just say yeah, I'm alive, and yes, I had my sweet baby girl! Here she is!
Chloe Leeann 7lbs 8 oz 21 inches
This is her not long after she was born, and here are a few more that are a little more recent. She is going on 6 weeks now! WOW! Where did time go?? She is about 3-4 weeks in these down here. I need to take some more pictures with my camera! I have a bunch on my phone, lol, its what is with me all the time.
Anyway the delivery went SO GREAT, better then I could have dreamed. I am feeling pretty good now, I go in for my 6 week post partum check-up today, so hopefully I will hear I can resume normal activities. Like horseback riding! And sex...yeah, thats a good one too, LOL! As well as working out, gotta get rid of that flabby baby belly!
So hope all is well with everyone else! I hope to have horsey goings ons back on here asap! I'm dying to ride Daisy May again! I also got a new HD video camera, so that will make my videos much better quality! Yeah!
I guess picture updates are going to be all you get for awhile, sorry! Until this child is born thats about all I'm up to! (less then 8 weeks until her due date!) The farrier came out last Thursday finally and got them all trimmed up. Tuff was, hm, okay, fair maybe. ALMOST good. But he pulled back a few times on his fronts so that keeps him from getting an A report. B- more like, lol. He did great on his backs of course, he just has a hard time balancing that front end. Daisy of course was a jewel as usual. Stormy and the FIL's horse gave him a bit of trouble, but nothing serious, so all 6 of them did pretty good! (that guy made a CHUNK of change off of us! I swear, it took him 5 mins a horse probably with 30$ a pop! Man, I need to learn to trim...)
So last Friday I was getting so tired of the house and decided to take the doggies and Chloe (lol) for a walk. It was still early so not too hot/humid yet.
First we went out and visited with Tuff and his 'gang'. And every time I tried to get a picture of Mr. Tuff this is what I got:
"Where ya goin, where ya goin??" Finally I got him to quit following me and got a pretty picture. I think he was watching the puppies.
Skip also decided to give me a good one! I'm going to email this one to his 'mommy', she loves taking pictures too. After we visited them a bit I called the dogs and we took off for the back pasture. Tuff decided to accompany us. He started off pretty far back but I'm so slow these days that even his slow stride caught up with me by the end of the lane. So I had him breathing down my neck until I shooed him to the side, lol. I know they are used to following nose to tail with theyre horse buddies, but I didn't want him on MY heels! Lol.
Then he decided the grass was more interesting then I was ;)
The look on his face here is hilarious, lol. He's like, now why do you want to go over there??
So I continued my walk, going along the fence line. I didn't see Daisy and Rusty yet, but I figured they must be over by the pond in the woods where it is cooler.
Going into the woods...and lo and behold, there they were! In the little lane between the fence and pond. Just hanging out!
Such a great background for pictures! The last one I made black and white, it looks like a winter scene now. Far from! Although it WAS a lot cooler in there and the gnats and flies were GONE, whew. Although the horse flies were NOT. Poor Daisy had them just chewing on her legs. Anyway, I went up and said hi and then started trying to get that huge knot out of Daisy's mane thats been there for who knows how long, lol.
This is after I've been working on it a bit with just my fingers, and it still has a looong way to go, lol. I did finally get it though! I've always been kind of good with knots, tangles, etc. No idea why. Its kind of strange.
Pretty girl! So we chilled in there for awhile as I did her mane, it was really nice. Rusty kept trying to sniff the dogs, who wanted nothing to do with him, lol. Then he would come and pester me until I finally elbowed him good. That would keep him away for a bit, until he decided to come and sniff me all over again, lol.
Then we ressumed our journey on down through the lane and out the other side. Here's a few pictures of the pond. Good place to fish here! Which was exactly what I was planning on doing, going home and getting my tackle and pole and coming back out, but then I got home and was so hot and tired that I never made it back out, lol. Someday! I wish the husband enjoyed it more, but its just not his thing. He is a good bait and pole setter upper though! ;)
Looks like the horses have some well worn paths going on!
Can you find Missie??
So thats about it! I walked on back through the pasture and found Tuff back with his buddies. Guess he got lonely, lol. Then on back to the house!
Hey everyone! Not much has been going on, obviously. Horses are all doing well, everyone is fat and happy, well Tuff could stand some more weight, but Daisy looks GREAT as you will see. The hooves need to be trimmed soon, so we are going to get that lined up, also need to do a worming, but thats about it!
I don't plan on doing much with Tuff until the baby is born, he has a good grasp on about everything I want him to know. Daisy of course is just Daisy, she doesn't need anything. The BIL might ride her a few times, dunno. She looks so great, nowhere NEAR her 20 year old age. I don't think she has lost a bit of muscling at all. I wish I was riding! But I'm going to lay low with that until Fall. Ms. Chloe will be taking up MUCH of my time for a while. I may not get back in the saddle until next spring, who knows. We'll see!
So anyway, yesterday afternoon I went out and war painted Tuffs ears up and under his belly. The gnats are EVIL out there. Then the older BIL and I drove out to see Daisy and Rusty. I haven't seen her in months! She looks beautiful. I also war painted her up and checked her over and then had the BIL take some pics of us. She was obviously much more interested in eating grass as you will see, lol.
Oh! And lets not forget, Tuff is a three year old now! He turned on April 29th. Happy birthday Tuff Tuff!
So without further ado here are a ton of pictures I took.
Tuff Tuff coming to see us, hes so coot
Who me??
These next two pics are to show you his color now that he is mostly shed out. Do I have a flea bitten gray?? What do yall think?
The group!
And on to Daisy girl! I just love her face! Dont you guys love the mustang mane? Eeep, need to get some show sheen after that mess
Wondering what this crazy lady is doing
Lookit those dapples! So cute
:D
Pretty girl
Rusty thinking there has to be something left! Missie girl! I just wuv her. Yeah, she needs a hair cut, lolAnd lastly, the pasture. Doesn't it look great? Thats just part of it
Hey everyone! Sorry its taken me so long to get to this post!
Last Saturday was a really fun day! My husband didn't go to work like he has every saturday for at least 2 months, and we just hung out at home and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
Well later that afternoon I got my stuff together while he was mowing the lawn and headed out to the round pen. Dropped my stuff off, tracked down the western cinch I was going to try with my english saddle, and went and got Tuff. They were of course down in the other pasture again, but this time I just called them up and had them follow me up to the barn, instead of going and fetching Tuff and leading him. Worked great! After we got to the house they all went on up the fence line to the hay rack and Tuff walked right up to me. Nabbed him and we were out of there with no trouble at all!
So on out to the round pen. I put his full-cheek on again, this time under the halter, that seemed to work well. Then I put his saddle on and tried the cinch. FAIL again, lol, way too short still. Sigh! So anyway I took that off and walked him a few rounds on the lead to make sure everything was good with his bit and then on to lunging! Which went a lot better this time. I kept my cool, patience, etc, and did everything slow and as obvious as I could. He did great! Was cantering on the left lead in sync (no cross firing!) and he got his right lead about three times. He even did a few good right inside turns, I think he's finally getting the idea a bit. Just takes practice!
All this time he was carrying his bit and had no trouble with it at all. His mouth was quiet most of the time, he chewed a bit, which is totally fine with me. Thats a good sign. Clenched mouth = bad sign!
So after we did a good bit of lunging I went back to the gate and decided I would go ahead and just try the FILs western saddle on him. This is the point where my memory card completely filled up in my camera and I didnt get anything else on video until my husband came out and I cleaned a bit off to get the last bit of our work out.
Anyway, the saddle was still in the hay barn from Scarlets ride, which is right next to the round pen, so not problem finding it. The problem was carrying the huge thing while leading a horse! Not so fun! I about broke my back lugging it over there hunched over with one hand (I made Tuff carry his saddle blanket, haha, he didn't mind) and we made it, thankfully its quite close to the pen.
I settled him in there, straightened his blanket, let him sniff the saddle a bit, and up it went! I think he might have blinked, and that was it, lol. That thing is a good 25+ lbs! So I moved it about a bit, got my cinch attatched, and tightened him up a bit. Still no problem at all. He was more interested in chewing on his grooming bucket, lol. I flapped the stirrups on his sides a bit and then we moved on out into the round pen. He looked a little confused but walked along well and didn't offer any trouble at all. So for the next 15-20 minutes I would stop every so often to wiggle the saddle side to side, pull on it as if I were getting on, (also hopping up and down like a fool next to him, lol) and then after he did well with all that I started putting my foot in the stirrup and putting a bit of weight in it, not stepping up in it yet, just enough to make the saddle pull a bit. After that was boring I started hoping up into the stirrup for a second and then back down, all of this on both sides. He was so good! I called my husband somewhere in there and when he got over there I had him hold him while I stepped up in it a little more.
At this point I was feeling pretty brave and had my husband hold onto the outside stirrup while I stepped up and layed on my chest/stomach over the saddle. I was holding my breath, pretty positive I wouldn't have any trouble, but you never know! But of course, I didn't! So I did that a few times, and then I told the husband to give it a try. When his much more substantial weight stepped up Tuff moved quite a bit to get his balance, but was in no way alarmed. He got back down and stepped up again and that time he didn't move at all. Good boy!
So then! I leaned up over him again and told the husband to lead us a few steps. THRILL OF A LIFETIME. He did great. Of course he was a little hesitant about moving but so calm about it all. I slid off again and then we repeated and he did even better about moving out that time. We only did like 3 or 4 steps, but it was huge to me! :D
So there you have it! Tuffs first 'ride'! Very good and uneventful! If I wasn't pregnant I probably would have swung over, but I'm not going to risk that. Plus I want him to do some more growing. By fall I think we will be set!
So here is the video! Mostly lunging, and at the end you get to watch the husband walk and trot around with Tuff dressed in his bridle and saddle, hehe.
Next steps! Start working with the bit. I haven't touched it so far, just been letting him carry it, so we will start doing some flexion with it next time I'm out. After I'm sure hes got the concept we will move on to ground driving, probably wearing his western saddle with the lines run through the stirrups. I'm so glad I tried the western on him, seeing as I can't get a girth to fit the english. I'm going to be riding him in the western anyway, I was just afraid it would be too big for him. Seems okay for what we want to do with it right now though.
After that? Well I can't think of anything else besides refining everything he has been taught and then actual riding. So we will probably work him off and on this summer when I have the time (and feel like it, I'm less then 3 months from my due date now!) and then sometime this fall start putting some rides on him.
Hello again everyone! Hope you are all getting the gorgeous weather we have been blessed with lately! Its been in the 80's all this week and most of last. Love it!
Anywho, the same day last week, Wednesday I believe, that I worked Tuff the FIL got his little mare out as well. My memory card was full of Tuff from earlier, so didn't get as much footage as I would have liked, but I got a bit!
So at first she was a little spazzy. He lunged her to begin with and she was a little racecar in there. She kind of looks like she is running scared. But when he asks her to woah, she WOAHS. And then looks at him hopefully like, "can I come in to you now??"
So he did that for a few rounds and then got out his saddle and bridle. That was a bit interesting, lol. We're not sure how many times she has been tacked up (and rode for that matter) but it can't have been many. You'll see how skittish/nervous she is in the video below. It's almost like she is expecting someone to mistreat her. She has a hard time keeping her feet still when you are messing with her. Even just brushing.
Anyway after he got the saddle on her he lunged her around some more with the saddle, she didn't buck or anything but she was definitely moving on out. After that he put a bridle on and thats where she had serious problems. Any time he tried to pull on her outside rein just standing next to her she would have a complete come apart and he would have to let her go. So he would calmly go and collect her and try again. Same thing 2 or 3 more times. So finally he told us to watch her and went and got some driving lines.
Now at this point I'm thinking to myself, okay something is not right, we need to go back to the beginning here and sort it out. And get that dang tom thumb out of her mouth. But of course its his horse so I'm not going to tell him how to train her.
Anyway, he comes back and hooks her up to those and she has one nasty episode (its hard to describe what she does, she doesnt buck or rear or jump, she just has a spaz attack!) and he hauled her in and made her back up and give to the bit. And BAM. She was a different horse. Head down, docile, do whatever you say, whenever you say. He walked her around that pen turning her both ways for another 10-15 minutes and she never picked her head up or offered anything that he didn't ask for. When they woahed, she stopped and stayed there. It was like a light switch flicked on! Crazy! He said is the way she has done when he's worked with her before, its like she has to have her little moments and then she just gives up! His phone even rang when he was on her and he walked around one handed talking on it and she didn't have any issue at all with it.
I'm hoping its because of the way she was handled before and that eventually she will figure out that we aren't going to hurt her and she doesn't have to put her defenses up every time we work her. Hopefully!
So after that he took the lines off and started pulling on her saddle, putting weight in the stirrup, etc, and then just swung up and walked her off. No problems! They rode around for quite awhile just walking and trotting. She looked relaxed and a okay with everything the whole time.
Here is the video of the saddling, a little of her spastic lunging, and them walking and trotting around the round pen. (thats my handsome hubby assisting, hehe)
So anywho, definitely ended on a good note. I hope she remembers that and starts out that way next time!
Anyway the delivery went SO GREAT, better then I could have dreamed. I am feeling pretty good now, I go in for my 6 week post partum check-up today, so hopefully I will hear I can resume normal activities. Like horseback riding! And sex...yeah, thats a good one too, LOL! As well as working out, gotta get rid of that flabby baby belly!
