Month: April 2022

I have been absolutely balls to the wall the last couple days with packing and other moving related stuff, so I don’t have time to write the usual little story that goes along with the Foal Friday post. I didn’t want to skip it completely though, because I dunno about y’all but I NEED the foal pictures to cap off my week. So – here ya go… a little bit of a photo dump of Baby Q from this week’s adventures, and I figured y’all can caption them or make your own little story for them however you see fit. Happy Friday!

Last week/weekend were basically the last relatively free and relaxed weekends I’m going to get for the next month or so. This week the t!ny h0use is being prepped and packed, next week it’s moving, then I have to go pick up Presto from west Texas, then we’re headed to Kentucky, then as soon as we get back from Kentucky we’re packing up the horses and heading to Florida. Between all that stuff and work and other random things, there’s something on my calendar basically every day for the next 3-4 weeks. So, knowing what was looming, we were trying to fit in as much horse time and as many “fun things” as possible into last week.

First noteworthy thing: Hillary finally got to ride Gemma.

The original plan was that she wouldn’t really ride her until way later, but Gemma’s a lot more chill than we anticipated, plus I was like “you really gotta FEEL her though”. Because just watching her you can see some moments of brilliance, but riding her and feeling those moments… that’s a whole different thing. It makes her very exciting. Hillary agreed that the nice moments feel even better than they look, and that we got a nicer horse than we’d even originally thought. That’s always fun.

The next day I rode Gemma again and Hillary jumped Henry, and Gemma’s main job was to stand quietly on the buckle in the middle while he worked around her, and while he buzzed nearby her front and back end. She wasn’t rattled in the least, and I think the “standing on the buckle” ride was her favorite. Lazy animal.

On Friday we headed over to Dover for their tent sale, because sometimes they do have some good deals. I will say though that the term “tent sale” was a bit of a stretch. In years past they’ve actually had a huge tent set up in the parking lot, but this time there was just a pop up canopy that had an empty table under it. They had some tables set up outside with boxes of stuff, a lot of it undesirable, but there were some good deals to be found if you dug around or went through all the returned items. A lot of stuff inside was on sale too but there were so many people crammed in there it was making me claustrophobic. Ultimately I ended up with two pairs of bell boots and a fly sheet (the fly sheet was actually a good deal, 50% off) and a free bucket. Still not sure if it was worth the 45 minute wait in line that it took to check out, though. Probably not.

We had tried the day before to message The TackHack to set up an appointment with them to come by their shop after Dover, but didn’t get a response. Since they’re only like a mile and a half from Dover we decided to try to drive by anyway and see if anyone was there. We called the number on the door but didn’t get an answer, so alas that didn’t happen. I wanted to check out their store at least once before I left Texas but I guess that wasn’t meant to be.

We had some Mexican food for lunch while we were out, and then on Sunday I met a couple more friends for an early dinner at another Mexican food place. I think literally the only perk of Texas is the superior Mexican food, but we’ll see what I can find in Florida. For now I’m stocking up, just in case.

While Dover wasn’t that exciting and TackHack was a bust, I did manage to score a nice used Devoucoux dressage bridle for Gemma from someone on Instagram for an absolute STEAL. I’ve always wanted one of these because I love the noseband, but also I am way (way way way) too cheap to pay $500+ for a bridle. I keep forgetting to try it on her, but hopefully it fits. If not she could probably wear Presto’s and he could wear this one.

Totally unhorse related, I also snagged a couple more poetry books. I’ve been having a definite poetry book moment for the past year or so and I’m not sad about it. Granted, I should probably stop buying freaking books when I know that it’s just yet another thing I have to pack. Details. I don’t have nearly as many books as I used to before I moved into the t!ny so I don’t really feel that bad about it. My book collection still fits on one shelf of a small bookcase.

Today my dad is coming over to help me take all the skirting off the t!ny, and then tomorrow I have a guy coming to prepare it for moving (unanchoring it, taking all the blocks out, checking the tires, securing the hitch, etc). I’m also trying to get the Kentucky breeding data done this week for a couple Eventing Nation projects and get some content done for the Patreon. All of this to say: it’s very possible that I might be more MIA here on the blog over the next few weeks than usual. I’ll keep posting at least semi-regularly until we leave for Kentucky, and then after that you probably won’t hear from me again until we’re settled in Florida. I’ll keep you updated as we go. Crunch time has officially begun!

Hillary and I really wanted to take Gemma and Henry on a fun outing before my schedule went completely off the rails pre-move. The last available weekend for that was this past one, which was maybe sooner than I had planned, but… beggars can’t be choosers. We opted for the little XC place down the road since it’s only a 20 minute haul and they have lots of little tiny jumps on their mini XC course. Gemma had not jumped yet (I’ve only ridden her like 7 times? 8 times?) but I figured this could be a good little introduction. My plan was just to lunge her over some logs and ditches and up and down the bank and into the water, and I figured if she was good for all that then I’d get on afterward and hack her around the field.

Spoiler alert: expectations exceeded.

Henry tried to murder her in the trailer (I love him to the moon and back but I swear to god he is such a freaking butthole sometimes) but other than that it was an uneventful trip. Poor Gemma spent the ride over cowering in the back corner as far away from him as she could get. My horses have chestnut mare vs bay gelding stereotype role reversals.

Gemma definitely had some ants in her pants while I was tacking up – she’s been to that facility once before when Henry was doing jumper classes and I just held her next to the ring. It’s a loud and busy place though, at the top of a hill (therefore windy AF and you can see a long way in any direction) with a highway bordering the XC and lots of traffic noise. She wasn’t being naughty or anything, just wide eyed with her head on a swivel. I put her to work on the lunge line, trotting for a few minutes until her eyeballs settled back into her head, and then asking her for lots of transitions to get her focused on me. Once she was listening we went over to some little logs and I asked her to trot over those on the lunge. Which she did. Quite literally. Just… trotted over. As if they were poles. So we walked a little further and found a few slightly bigger things… same reaction. So then I asked her to to canter a couple, which was harder on the lunge line. She still didn’t care. Ok well, this game now seemed stupid. Screw it, I said, I’m getting on.

I walked her up and down the smallest bank first, then trotted a few little logs and boxes. She was too busy looking around at everything else to even notice the jump until the last second, so she had that kind of approach where she did a hardcore wiggle right at the base. I didn’t have a neckstrap (yes hi, was not planning on really riding) so Hillary had to give me one of her stirrup leathers. Once I had that it was a lot easier to just keep my hands hooked on either side of the neck strap to keep the “tunnel” and put my leg on to keep her straight without worrying so much about keeping my hands out of her way or trying to grab mane. My spare neck strap will be living permanently in my trailer from now on so that Hillary doesn’t have to ride around with one stirrup again.

Gemma didn’t quite understand the game yet, since, ya know…. she’d never jumped before, but she was 0% worried about it and never cared about any of the jumps. The only issue she had was that sometimes when we were trotting things her hind feet didn’t quite remember their job, especially if she was too busy looking at something else. I was like well let’s see what happens if I canter stuff. It seemed to me like she might find that it made a little more sense or was easier at the canter (a lot of them do in the beginning since a jump is really just a big canter step, vs when they trot something and have to be more coordinated about all 4 feet). I mean, have I only cantered her like twice before? Yes. But it’s fine. Off we go.

Once she cantered a few jumps it definitely started to click for her more, how she was supposed to use her body. Then the things we trotted were a lot better too. I was also pretty impressed with her ability to also handle the slope and terrain – nothing about that place is flat really, and you’re constantly dodging bushes, so it’s not the easiest scenario for a wiggly greenie. She was very honest though, and even if she got wiggly at the base, as soon as I re-directed and closed my leg she was like “oh ok”. Pretty sure she was convinced I was just an idiot that clearly couldn’t steer around all these things, but she humored me and jumped them, even stringing a few together.

Then we headed back up toward the ditches, banks, and water. I had Henry lead the way over the ditches the first time, which was… ridiculous. Henry paused and took a hard peek down into them before he hopped over, and Gemma didn’t even notice there was a hole in the ground, she walked over like it was groundpoles. Or if she realized it she just didn’t care. Then we trotted over them by ourselves and again, same thing.

Then we went over to the water, which is narrow and dark here – most horses tend to be a bit spooky about it. We had Henry lead the way across it the first time because I thought she might need a lead. Lol. Clearly I do nothing but constantly underestimate Gemma, because she barely even hesitated before marching right in. When we turned back around to walk through it the other way Gemma was having none of the whole “following” business and surged to get ahead of Henry and lead the way herself. Ok then mare.

I trotted her across the water each direction by herself, and again she gave a last second wiggle and peek but she went. Then we went back to the baby bank and trotted up and down it a couple times. Zero hesitation, she plopped right down like a little champ. Up was a little more awkward because ya know… hind feet are hard, but she did it.

To cap it off I cantered one more slightly bigger box, then called it done with that. She’d done more than enough and… um…vastly exceeded the expectation for the day. Nothing like your first time jumping and your first XC school ending up being the same outing.

It was very helpful for me though, to see what she needs to work on most and how I think I should approach the jumping stuff with her. She’s different than I expected her to be, but in a good way. Less reactive and way more bold. I liked that even when she wasn’t sure what I wanted, she never said no, and even if she looked at something, she still went forward. She’s also got a pretty good jump on her I think, and her balance is super. All traits that I can definitely work with. You sometimes just never really know how they’re going to feel about XC until you take them and go do it, but she wasn’t intimidated by it at all… she ate it up. I think she liked cantering around the open fields especially.

We might just have ourselves an event horse!

The first couple weeks of a new foal always remind me of that scene in Family Guy where the mom is trying to just relax and the kid will not leave her alone. Some mares really like this time period when the foals are more clingy and more interested in them (like Peyton the helicopter mom) but others are just like omg kid what do you want? With Inca being a maiden we didn’t know what her reaction would be, but so far it seems to be somewhere in the middle. She likes her baby, and she’s patient, but sometimes she does look a little bit like she wants someone to come get this kid.

On one hand, she gets NO PEACE. Ever. At all. Her life is no longer hers.

She cannot graze in peace…

She cannot roll in peace…

She can’t even just stand there and be a horse in peace.

On the other hand, the kid (who I have jokingly been calling Quesadilla until she gets a real name and now I’m worried I’m going to end up calling her Queso forever) basically throws a parade for her anytime she walks around the paddock, so that’s one perk. Mom is still cool at this point.

There are slight reprieves when she’s nursing at least, although Q is like a little pint-sized shark attack. She’s an EATER.

And of course Q still does sleep a lot at this stage, so if Inca can just survive the part between naps, it’s not too bad. For a few brief minutes Inca’s life is almost hers again while the kiddo is napping.

Normally this is the stage where the babies would get to start going out together so they could play and give the mares a break, but since lil Quesadilla (dammit, I have to stop calling her that) is the only foal this year, poor Inca is gonna be on solo child care duty for a while. Good thing she’s patient.

Happy Friday!

I am one of those people that will somehow find a nickname for an animal, twist it 45 different ways, and never call said animal by their actual name. Unless they’re about to get in trouble… kinda like how your mom would throw out your middle name when you were teetering on the brink of a bad decision. Otherwise though, I basically never call any of my animals by their real names in regular day to day life. Mina for instance has morphed almost entirely to Beans or usually just B. Henry is Hens or Muffin. Presto is Pesto or Noodle. Also… hmmm… I literally just noticed when I typed this out that they’re mostly food related. That wasn’t intentional either.

So it’s no surprise that Gemma has had nicknames right from the start, and we’ve run through them pretty quickly. Slim Gem is the obvious one, and it was particularly appropriate when she first arrived and was so skinny (she’s still skinny, so I still call her this sometimes, but she’s less skinny now at least). She earned Jungle Gem a few times in those first couple weeks when she had some wild moments too… that’s a fun nickname but I don’t get to use it that often anymore.

Then there were all the “squirt” variations. The Mare Squirts are real with this one, although have definitely decreased since she’s been on Regumate. Still though… she’s squirty. It started out as Lil Squirt (her rapper name, obviously), then went to SquirtAlert, before settling on Squirt Gun Kelly. I still call her that sometimes.

The most often used ones are GemGem, which is not creative in the least so I disappoint myself every time I use it, and Clever Girl, which she has rightfully earned. I caught myself calling her Pretty Girl a few times in the beginning and I absolutely hate the word “pretty” so I had to force myself to say clever instead for a while, and now it’s well-stuck. I’ve always felt a weird way about the word pretty (in relation to living things at least) for my entire life and never really could figure out why until I saw this Rupi Kaur poem a few years ago… really hits the nail on the head.

Anyway. She is extremely clever, so that’s a more appropriate word for her.

She also gets called Goat Girl a lot, because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a horse that was a) more thorough in her grazing b) so non-discriminatory about the greenery she will eat. Like… this thing will get down on her knees and crawl halfway under the fence to eat a shitty weed even in a big pasture. I blame it on her west Texas upbringing where I’m betting she probably never had much grass so now she will literally eat anything that grows out of the ground. The annoying part about it to me is that she’ll eat these shitty weeds but still doesn’t like the coastal hay very much and I have to mix it in with her alfalfa to get her to eat it instead of just pull it out of the net and piss on it. Freakin goat.

Her latest nickname is Geminem, because she is both slim and shady. That one seems to be sticking too.

How often do I actually call her Gemma? Almost never. Or at least not to her face.