The two current WTW foals are in a really fun stage. They’re past those first few days of life where they’re so delicate, but they’re still young enough to be really cute. This is also the time when their personalities start to really shine through, and boy are the babies different.
Take Oakley, for example.
She is a spitfire, this one. Very bold, lots of sass, and can often be found running around doing whatever the heck she feels like doing. Running is her favorite.
Even if her timing is perhaps a bit rude.
when you’re just trying to roll but you spawned a demon
She also ain’t skeered of nothin’.
What dis?I KILL IT
Remi, on the other hand, is a GQ model. His specialty is being really really ridiculously good looking in every photo. He’s also brave and bold, but in a less OUT THERE kind of way. His is more of a quiet confidence. He likes to investigate things, but he’s also being raised by a bit of a helicopter parent, thus is definitely more of a mama’s boy.
checking out his future career
Last week they got turned out together for the first time, which is always a little nerve-wracking, mostly because of the mares. Daisy and Peyton are very familiar with each other, but dynamics can change quickly when foals are involved.
Oakley had no problem marching right up to a strange mare and foal to say hi, of course. Peyton wasn’t so sure that she wanted her precious son playing with the neighborhood punk, although she was willing enough to say let him say hi as long as she was with him.
And then Oakley figured out that she could wait for Remi to venture away from Peyton, come flying out from behind the roundbale like the Tasmanian Devil, and send poor Remi running for the hills. She’s a terrorist.
It also appears from the photos that at some point the mares had a dance off.
I’ll let you guys decide who won.
Aside from being mischievous little balls of craziness, they’re definitely still really cute. There’s no disputing that part.
Hopefully by this time next month we’ll have a 3rd foal in the mix! As far as I’m concerned we can just keep piling on the cuteness indefinitely. Their antics and goat beards are bringing me lots of happiness right now.
As a parting shot for this week, I leave you with Daisy, who is probably all of us in quarantine right now. Food hanging out of her mouth, scratching her ass on a round bale. Way to sum up April 2020, Daisy.
First of all, before we get to the actual point of this post, two things:
Henry jumped out of his stall last night. I guess he decided he needed an XC fix or something??? I opened the back door to go feed this morning and there he was in the courtyard, screaming at me for breakfast. His stall door was still latched and there’s nary a mark on him. I can see the hoofprints where it looks like he landed in the sandy barn aisle. WTactualF, horse? I expect this kind of crap from the babies but you’re 13, stop it.
Hufglocken is having a 25% off sale so if you want a custom Mattes, now is fo sho the time. Code is SAVE25.
Ok, moving on.
If there’s one thing this Rona situation has taught me for sure, it’s that real pants are overrated. Real pants being pants that have zippers and/or buttons, of course. I’ve been living in leggings, and it does not suck. Pretty much all I do is switch back and forth from my “house leggings” to my riding tights. My fat rolls have never felt so liberated.
It has made me convinced that I need another couple pairs of riding tights. I’ve really grown to love them because they’re more comfortable for doing barn chores in too, so I don’t feel like I have to constantly change pants. The ones I have (Ovation Aerwick) also have a pocket on each side, which I love. I keep my phone on one side and usually have treats or a hoof pick in the other. The only things I don’t really like about the Aerwick are the waistband (it’s elastic) and the slight shininess of the fabric. I’d really like something that was more like a yoga legging, with a wide waistband and regular stretchy sport fabric. And since the collective hive mind of the internet is better than one person with google, I figured I’d ask for suggestions here.
This is what I’m looking for (and yes I’m being really specific, because if I can’t find some just like this then I’ll take the easy way out and buy more Ovations).
Must have features:
a phone pocket on each side
knee patch, not full grip (or would even be ok with nothing, like a regular athletic legging)
no seam up the inside of the leg
wide waistband
under $65
burgundy and hunter green (would settle for dark gray. I have enough navy and don’t want black or anything bright)
don’t sag
no cotton
aren’t see-through
So far I think the only ones I’ve found that meets all that is the Aztec Diamond ones, although they only have burgundy. Are there any out there that I’m missing?
Presto is a butthole, in case anyone was wondering.
I officially admit defeat on the fly boots after my third time climbing over the no-climb fence at the back of the property to retrieve a discarded fly boot from the neighbor’s pasture. Such an ungrateful little turd. The duct tape helped for a few days but then he figured out the trick to quickly and easily removing that too, so… I quit. This is what I get for trying to do nice things for him.
But Henry has really seemed to appreciate his boots, and I took one pair of Presto’s and gave them to the older mare. I think I moved back up to the top of her hit list judging by the look she gave me, but she’s definitely not stomping nearly as much. I haven’t gotten brave enough to put the back ones on her yet, because I value my life.
It’s been a very wet spring so far here, with lots more rain in the forecast. It seems like it’s either raining all day or it’s 90 degrees, one or the other. It does mean that we’ve got some serious grass, lush and abundant and beautiful. And the pond has gone from a glorified puddle to almost topping it’s banks in spots. The frogs and turtles are delighted.
But it also means that the flies are out in full force, and we had such a mild and wet winter that they never really went away in the first place. These are some super-fly MF’ers too… like you have to spray them directly with fly spray to deter them. I’ve been coating all the horses in fly spray for turnout, going through about a bottle a week.
So last week when Riding Warehouse did a 15% off sale, I figured it was a good time to stock up. I tossed a gallon of Pyranha in my cart, and then went off in search of something else to meet the free shipping minimum (’tis my duty and honor to challenge myself to always meet the minimum). I couldn’t really think of anything else the boys needed, so I wandered over to the ever-dangerous New Arrivals page to see what was new.
This is always a mistake, I dunno why I do it to myself. I can’t help it. Have I ever learned? No, no I have not.
I spent a long time going back and forth but ultimately – the shirt won. It was only $33. THIRTY THREE DOLLARS. Doesn’t really even count. Plus I’m a real sucker for a mesh sleeve.
shitty bathroom mirror selfie and no apologies
It’s super cute, I have no regrets. One of these days I’ll actually wear it… just seems too pretty and dressy for mucking stalls and hacking around the farm. I want to see how it looks under my green Motionlite too, because I’m kind of into subtly colored shirts under show coats. If any of us ever show again. Let’s not talk about that. Just click Add to Cart and you’ll feel better.
I also threw one of these rope halter hooks into my cart for Presto’s rope halter, to make it quicker/easier to get on and off. I’m not using his rope halter much these days, he’s graduated to his navy leather one, but it’s nice to have a quicker on/off when I do use it.
There were no delays with the order or the shipment, which is good, because I emptied my previous gallon of fly spray the day the new one arrived.
On the subject of flies, I noticed that Equizone (where I’ve ordered many things now, including my Pioneer boots, and my Mountain Horse boots, and my Le Cense bridle) is giving away one of those mega bug-eye fly masks.
I’ve been debating whether or not I think this style would stay on Presto. Because, surprise, he removed his regular style fly mask so much last year that I gave up on that too. This seems to be a theme with us. If nothing else it might be good for hacking Henry, especially during gnat season.
How’s the weather (and the bugs) where everyone else is? And – who has been doing a little bit of online retail therapy during quarantine? Fess up.
I was really into poetry when I was younger. All the way from the Shel Silverstein days (still think those books are absolutely brilliant) on through high school when I remember checking out big volumes of all kinds of poetry from the school library. I’ve always clung to it a bit in everyday life, too, from my very first apartment where I had a framed poster of a Robert Frost poem (“The Road Not Taken”, of course), right up to current day, where I have the last two lines of my favorite poem tattooed on my arm.
So when Bel Joeor posted a Poetry Month blog hop for April, I knew I wanted in. She wrote:
April is National Poetry Month. Post a poem about a horse (or a barn, or a dog, or just one that brings you joy).
I figured I would post my favorite horse-related poem, and then my favorite non-horse one. Why not make it a twofer?
First: the horse-related one. I have always loved books, and when I was a kid I would beg for literally any horse book I came across, no matter where we were. My parents were always pretty supportive of the habit, so getting them to buy me a book was generally never that difficult. And I didn’t really care what the subject matter was – if it had horses in it, I wanted it. That went for regular novels, like the Thoroughbred series, as well as non-fiction instructional type books. I had everything from horse breed and color books, to jump building books, to grooming books, to equitation books, to horse care books. You name it, I probably got my grubby little hands on it at some point.
There was one book in particular about horse photography… I remember all the talk of aperture and exposure and blah blah blah. All of it went right over my head of course, I was maybe 10 or 11 and certainly did not own a camera or have any idea what the heck they were even talking about. That was the early 90’s, kids with cameras wasn’t a thing then. I really just wanted the book because it was chock full of gorgeous, glossy horse pictures, from cover to cover. I pored over that thing constantly, looking at all the different horses, to the point where I still remember some of the photo captions. But one thing that stood out to me in particular was a poem that was included with one particular black and white photo – the poem was called “The Ode to The Horse”, by Ronald Duncan.
For a kid who just purely loved horses, the poem struck a chord with me. It gave me the words to understand just why I did feel so drawn to horses. It summed up everything I loved and admired about them. I STILL to this day think back to certain lines of that poem all the time, and it always takes me right back to why I fell in love with horses in the first place. They’re such incredible animals, and our history as humankind really was written upon the back of a horse. It wows me every time.
As for my favorite non-horse poem, the tattoo spoiler probably gave it away:
Courage, perseverance, strength, free will. What’s not to like about Invictus? It’s said that Henley wrote the poem while in the hospital recovering from a leg amputation due to complications of tuberculosis. It’s a good reminder that no matter what happens to us, and no matter the circumstances, we still have control over our own thoughts and actions, and we can steer our ship however we choose. I actually have a copy of this poem in my tack trunk, and look at it sometimes at shows if I’m feeling nervous or worried or intimidated. After all, we’re the ones that get to decide whether or not we’re truly beaten.
What are your favorite poems – horse or non-horse related?
Last week on a work call our boss had us go around the room and everyone rated their anxiety/stress level on a scale of 1-10 so we could talk about it as a group. Most people were somewhere between a 6 and an 8. I’m like… uh… 3? Maybe?
I mean, this is now my view from my desk, woe is me
Well… maybe it was a 7 when I was in Walmart on Friday morning and made the HORRIFIC DISCOVERY that they were completely cleaned out of Little Debbie’s. That was almost a national emergency. Luckily I have a good friend that sent me some, and the SO brought a box of Fudge Rounds with him when he came out on Saturday, so now I’m like… knee deep in Little Debbie’s. Crisis averted.
But really I’m not a particularly anxious person unless there’s no plan or no solution. No plan makes me really anxious. I’ve got maybe one point of anxiety from not knowing how long this will go on, and one point of anxiety from having to change around/postpone the tiny house purchase, and one point of anxiety from the uncertainty surround SO’s job. But I can’t control any of that, and there is a short term plan – stay home for a while – so… okay, I’m fine. It’s a rare and strange opportunity so may as well make the most of it, right? I’ve had no problem finding ways to keep myself entertained.
I finished pulling all the weeds up out of the arena.
begone, bitches.
I also spent a lot of time watching the babies run and play, because the temperature dropped like 30 degrees on Friday and naturally they celebrated with lots of galloping all weekend long
and some moves that made me think “ah yes, this is how I’ll fall off some day”.
They’re fun to watch, at least.
I had already listened to the Tiger King podcast, so I knew the story, but I finally watched the Netflix docuseries. Wow. Woooooooow. If that level of batshit doesn’t make you feel better about your life then I dunno what will.
best Tiger King meme, hands downI found a slightly different version of this and had to modify it to include eventing. #wearesaff
Also… am I the only one who thinks that Doc Antle was BY FAR the creepiest, worst person on that show? He gave me the major heebie jeebies.
Oh, and speaking of drama, there was a big ol “colorgate” on facebook that devolved into over a thousand comments. Why? Because a palomino mare crossed with a chestnut stallion for an embryo transfer foal supposedly produced this:
Which is… genetically impossible. A red based horse plus a red based horse can’t produce a black based horse. Methinks someone made a mix up somewhere with the embryos or surrogates. But boy were the comments mega-entertaining. It’s kinda crazy how many people (including supposed big time breeders) have no clue how color genetics work. Yes you can get a chestnut from a gray and a bay. Yes you can get a palomino from a buckskin and a bay. Yes you can get a chestnut from two bays. No you cannot get a bay from two chestnuts. And definitely no you cannot get a bay or buckskin from a chestnut and a palomino, as this place is claiming. Dominant and recessive genes are a thing. Lots of people out there just seem to think that foals can come out any color at random? They don’t. It was good for hours of entertainment though, since apparently nobody has anything better to do right now than argue on the internet. Who needs Tiger King when you’ve got horse people and facebook?
The other real life drama/entertainment is that my farrier went *poof*. Completely MIA. Tried to get ahold of him for 3 weeks via calling and texting, and some other clients were having the same problem. Never did hear anything back at all, and still haven’t. Henry had been missing a shoe and wearing his glitter boot (I really need to do a proper review of the glitter boot, I’ve sure used it enough by now) for 2.5 weeks, and the boys were both due to have their feet done. I was at my wit’s end. Luckily my vet has a farrier that he recommends a lot, and said farrier does horses at the boarding barn down the street every Thursday, so he was able to tack my two onto his schedule with no problem. So, the boys have a new farrier.
I made Presto stand and wait patiently the whole time Henry was getting shod, so go ahead and sign me up for Worst Human of the Year
Otherwise it rained a lot this weekend, which meant I spent a lot of time cleaning stalls. It did fill up the pond though, its been quite a while since I’ve seen it so full, and boy you should hear all the frogs down there at night. It was also nice to get one last cool day in, because it looks like we’ll be back up to 90 by mid-week. I’m not ready for summer.
there isn’t a lot of Henry in this post because he and Quinnie are boring – all they do is alternate between grazing and napping under this tree
Hopefully now that Henry’s wearing 4 shoes again (knock on wood OMG STOP PULLING SHOES) and the arena is beautiful again and we’re getting a few days break from the rain, I’ll be able to ride a bit this week. I’m also working on Presto’s April vlog (I have not forgotten!) this week, and should probably do my taxes at some point. Ugh.
breedrideevent.com 