marsh MELLOW

Baby got a new halter today. It was really fun picking it out. I don't know why, but getting a halter for your new horse is as much fun as buying shoes for yourself. But cheaper. He got plain black with an adjustable noseband. I was sure that the 'regular' size would be way too big on him, but to my surprise it fits just right. His head just LOOKS small I guess... or it's just me. Everything I own is oversized to fit Alexandre's ginormous head.

I decided to put a saddle on him today and see how he'd take it. I didn't tie him up or anything, I just did it while he was munching hay. He sniffed the pad and the saddle, but otherwise didn't care at all. That went so well I decided to free lunge him around in the arena to get him used to a western saddle. He looks better under saddle, not so gawky.


Right when we got there the Christian school bus pulled up to use our baseball field for their PE class. There were 25 screaming second graders- kicking and throwing balls, jumping rope, tackling each other. He watched them, bored like. I put a bridle on and free lunged him a bit... he bucked a few times due to the strings and stirrups hitting him on the sides. Didn't really want to go, had to really twirl my rope and cluck to get him trotting and cantering.



He seemed SO mellow through all that I thought I'd put some weight in a stirrup and see what he did. OTTBs are notorious for not standing still when you get on, and for getting hyped up when someone gets on. He didn't move when I put weight in the stirrup. So I got on. He stood for a few seconds and then ambled off in the slowest walk known to horse-kind. He's really green. He doesn't understand turning real well, but we did some slow serpentines. Eventually, a million hours later, we had made a complete circle of the arena and I got off and gave him a carrot.

I don't know if he's going to gain a bunch of weight and start acting up later on, but he sure is nice now. It's pretty obvious why he didn't make it as a race horse.

...and, back to eat.

Hair Did

Apparently Little no name does not like blankets. There are still huge chunks of blanket spewn all around the pasture. White fuzzy stuffing looks like piles of snow. I guess this morning it was in pieces hanging off of his neck. I'm still not sure how it happened.

He got his hair did today. Actually he got his first full-body groom. He came into the paddock in front of the barn and ate grass hay non stop for about 3 hours. While he was chowing down I curried and brushed his whole body (check- no problems), sprayed show sheen in his tail (uncheck- need to work on that), and evened up his mane. I did some spring cleaning and he ate.

He went to explore the adjoining muddy paddock because I accidentally left the gate open.
When I left he was back in front of the barn eating.

When the boys got home from school they were dying to ride as it's our second day of sun. We went out into the arena to get ready (it's the only place that's not knee deep mud). Today, maybe it was because his belly was so full of hay, noname stood very quietly. He got a bareback pad put on his back and a bridle put on his head. He is not going to be thrilled about cinches later on, but other than that didn't seem to care at all. He came into the middle of the arena with me and walked in slow circles again. I ended up having to stand on a big bucket so I could see everyone over his back. The boys were playing tag at the end, and he got quite surprised when a horse would come trotting towards him. Apparently they don't to that at the track. He was very interested in what was going on.

Is it racing day?

Took the baby (Oscar?) into the arena where 2 of the boys were getting their horses ready to ride. He ties but does not stand still. Apparently China is where he really wants to be- according to the hole he dug. When he gets really frustrated he kicks out behind. I think he saw the other horses get bareback pads put on and thought everyone was getting ready for a race.




After the 2 boys got on and were practicing walking and keeping their horses right next to the rail, I untied him and walked him around. Perfect gentleman. When I stopped he would walk in circles around me. Not panicky circles, just wandering circles. I just let him. He's figuring it all out. From the ground we practiced walking, trotting (needs work), stopping, and turning. Afterwards I tied him back up and he stood quite nicely. Picked up all 4 feet. (Phew- that's not something I wanted to have to work on).

A Busy Day

The baby (no name yet, let me know if you have good one!) had quite a day today. In the morning he met a pasture mate (Hershey) in the arena who couldn't care less about him.

Hershey and the baby. I like this picture, he looks like a dressage horse.

Alexandre, the baby, Hershey. Look how narrow his little butt is! Alexandre is 16.2 and Hershey is 16.3...

The baby's first carrots!



Then he got led around the perimeter of the pasture and was a very good boy, excited but walked almost the whole way. He got let loose by himself in there when the 5 horses in the adjoining pasture noticed him and that was the end of the peace for awhile. I let Alexandre in the pasture with him and let our huge wimpy grey gelding in as well.

Rooster and the baby meet while it's snowing.

After the commotion died down and the horses in the other pasture got bored, I let Hershey in too. The four of them just kind of hung out after running around a little bit. Every now and then one of them would take off after the baby just to make sure he knew who was boss. He's so much faster than they are. Towards the end of the day I let Moose, our old bombproof childproof gelding in and all hell broke loose. Moose was determined to chase him down. Baby is running, Moose is chasing him and heaving cause he's so old and out of shape, and the other 3 are running because hey, fun- the herd is running, wahoo! Luckily it didn't last long. We're fortunate to have a pretty big area for them so they all have room to avoid each other.


The pecking order now established, baby on bottom, the two mellow geldings (Rooster and Hershey) will start to befriend him and he'll have some buddies. He got a little bit of grain tonight and a winter blanket on. He also got lots of carrots today, whenever he came over to me on his own he got a piece of carrot. I want him to figure out that every time a person comes by it doesn't mean work. He didn't want to be caught or come near anyone at first, but by the end of the day voluntarily walked up to me a few times.

On another note, I was giving a lesson to one of the boys at the ranch today while it was snowing. He was riding bareback in the arena and was excited to trot. The boy has great balance and steady hands. Old Moose picked up a slow jog and stayed out on the rail. The boy was grinning from ear to ear and was giggling the whole time. He says he LOVES to trot and thanked me again and again for letting him ride. It's my job!

He's Here!

Arrived at Portland Meadows at 6:30 am in the dark and rain. Little TB no-name was a superstar and loaded up pretty well. I don't think he moved on the whole 7+ hour ride home, I don't think he even breathed. We drove through torrential downpour through the gorge, sunshine in the ugly desert, and (oh joy) SNOW when we arrived in Spokane.

After many warnings about turning out OTTBs for the first time, I decided to do it anyway. I didn't think he would run through our outdoor arena fence, I mean, it's pretty obvious. He's used to sand footing at the track, and I put Alexandre in there so he would have a buddy.



He struggled backing out of the trailer. It took a long time and he was really nervous. He was ancy but let me take his sheet off and let me lead him past the huge scary hay tarps and into the arena. He ran around with Alexandre which was pretty funny- he's so light and lean and athletic, and Alexandre is a 1300+lb tank who's overweight right now. He seemed thrilled to be out but never acted crazy.





Can I just say that after seeing him out and running around I LOVE him. He is gorgeous. And so athletic and fluid. He has a beautiful head and neck and just seems really balanced to me. I think with some groceries and training he's really going to be something.



Put some winter jammies on (he's got no winter hair! And it's snowing still, apparently) and left him in the arena with Alexandre overnight. It's good for them to bond as I'll probably be ponying him off Al later on.

Going to work is gonna be pretty fun...!

New Horse!

Sweet, awkward, gangly, 3-year-old (will be 4 June 6th) Thoroughbred gelding. He's at the Portland Meadows race track at the moment, figuring out how to get him home. He is very tall and seems older than his actual age. His feet are TERRIBLE and need to be done immediately. His registered name Dario's Double which will NOT be his nick name. I've been calling him Otis but we'll see. He's been started at the track but never ran a race. Some pix from my phone, will be updating more later!

First horse show ribbons of the year...

So. Ellie is for sale by her owners. I suppose I'll have to change the name of this blog. I do plan on blogging- about my new horse! I've been searching for an event prospect for a while now, and one thing I've realized is that the horses I can afford are going to have no training. Which is fine, I can do the training and like to do it, but I won't be competing this year with the new horse- whomever he or she may be. I've found a nice TB in Yakima and am waiting to hear back from his owner, and there's a gal down at Portland Meadows that said she'd look around down there and call me back. There's a beautiful mover on the coast with what appears to be good training I can't afford. Still waiting to hear back from a rescue in Seattle area. (If you've got horses coming out your ears wouldn't you call someone back that's actually LOOKING for a horse???)

So. I've decided to show Alexandre this year while I bring new horse along. Al can't jump due to an old injury, but he could do dressage and be fabulous if I actually worked at it. We only have an outdoor arena, and the snow finally melted off of it last week. I rode him twice and decided to take him and our little 4-year-old Palomino filly Porsche to a schooling show put on by the Quarter Horse people. I thought it would be good to be able to actually ride in an indoor arena, and the warm-up arena has a roof too. Here they are walking to the arena for Alexandre's first class.
We went into an eq. class and an english pleasure class. I really concentrated on being soft with my hands. He was nervous and very, very forward (he's 16.2 and 1300-1400 lbs, kinda like riding a freight train), but instead of getting into a pulling contest I half-halted and released. A lot. I let him come on the bit on his own by leg yielding a little down the long side. All in all he was fabulous. He broke at the canter 3 times in our first class, but picked it back up. In our second class he went both directions, w/t/c, and didn't break once. I called it good at 2 classes, he's so out of shape (we both are) I didn't want to push it.


Porsche was started this October, she's a little QH filly with a great mind. She got ridden occasionally this winter in the outdoor arena in a lot of snow, mostly at the walk. The gal that recently started riding her for me was up for taking her and exposing her to the big wide world. She did very well. She was very nervous and didn't relax the whole time she was there, BUT it was pouring rain and she hates rain. She walked and trotted in the warm up, not very straight but not spinning around or anything either. At lunch I led her into the indoor while K. rode her, and after about 4 laps let her off the lead. She never went to the rail (it's a really scary Fairgrounds indoor) but she walked and trotted around, and went in a walk-trot class where she got a blue ribbon! Yay! (OK, there were only 2 horses in the class and the other one was getting his mouth jerked off by his rider because... well, he looked good to me so I don't know).

All in all a very successful outing, one of the boys from the ranch came and took pictures. He's really excited about the possibility of being able to show his horse this year. It's great- his horse is an old show horse and will totally take care of him. And there's a little schooling show in April where there are tons of walk/trot classes.