Oh Pony

Last week was shots and teeth day for Penny. In the past J the vet has had no problem with Her Royal Poniness. Now, that can't be said for another area vet; Penny used to kick and bite him. So, we were quite shocked that she would not allow J to sedate her. She bucked, reared, kicked... so very unlike my pony. While there could be other possible reasons for her behavior our consensus is that it's another sign of her downhill decline.

She's gained quite a bit of weight this winter. In theory I should stick her in a corral and put her on a diet. But, she's just not going to be happy if I do that, so I'm not going to worry about it.

The state of the underside of her tail wasn't as depressing as it would have been a year ago. It is worse, but since I've decided to let nature take its course with her it was more of a sad sigh instead of tears over what opportunites I would miss with her due to her health. Those things are being missed regardless of the progression of her melanomas now.

Her tail has always been the worst part, but now the lower areas, which I accidentally didn't take a pic of, is so, so much worse than it's ever been. Nothing there is healthy now. You can feel the melanoma bumps in ever pinch of skin.

It does seem sort of wrong to me, who is so crazy anal-retentive over my equine's health, to just say, "Let it be." But, it's also very freeing. I can throw all the money I want into her and it's not going to change things. So, better to give her a good life while she can have one and when it's time it's time.

First event of the year

In a few weeks Bean and I will be rocking Pre-Comp at St Johns.

Or, I hope we're rocking it. It is March and today instead of being at The Taskmaster's with sub-freezing temps and high winds I'm enjoying my couch and the dogs pressed tightly against me keeping us all warmer. Mucking the corrals was unpleasant this morning, even the 5 minutes it took me to do it elicited a "Holy crap it's cold out!" when I got back in the house. (Note: having your poop pile within throwing distance of the corrals? Brilliant on my part.)

St Johns was my first event ever, back when it was held in June and was insanely hot. Our XC time was 6:04 in the morning.

First trot out of the start box. And before I made the pink striped saddle pad.

Last year we had high winds and snow. I'm hoping for the weather we had the second year: clear, not too windy and perfect temps.

I keep feeling like I'm not ready, then I remember I went to Coconino with her last fall and we weren't really cantering two weeks before and hadn't jumped a course of jumps. I think we'll be fine and I will make sure we do a couple more jumps before we set out this time :D

Make it so

The Taskmaster loves the Cliff Barnsby AVG dressage saddle. So much that she has 4 of them. There are ways to tell them apart, but as you might guess it can be a bit confusing when the description of the saddle you need to get is "The one with the velcro knee rolls" as opposed to "the one without the velcro knee rolls." I, in my brilliance, decided to name them. Barney was natural, the others were Fred, Oscar and Vinnie. However, other than Barney we couldn't remember the names either, even though they had a piece of tape. Now however I've got it. It's Barney, Picard and Riker. Picard is narrower than Riker. The fourth isn't currently being used by anyone but will probably be Worf or Geordie. This is what happens when you have Star Trek TNG fans working together.

Love My Naners

I adore Banana.

It took me a bit, I resisted. She's been working on me: watching me wherever I am around The Taskmaster's, nickering at me and being a very good girl while the Taskmaster rides her. She's affectionate without being annoying and seems to thoroughly enjoy having me near. Today I hugged her and she hugged me back like Meatball does. My heart just melted.

The Taskmaster has been riding her for the most part: working on the things she needs worked on. A glorious discovery was that she's actually easier to ride than we thought. Like Penny Pony she doesn't care for being messed with, but she has the benefit of being conformed in a way that she just naturally carries herself right. So, less messing, better horse! And, I love to not have to mess and my screwed up body likes it better too.

I rode her today for the first time in awhile. The Taskmaster told me to just ride her like she's trained and doesn't need to be messed with and think about perfect equitation. So I channeled my inner Hunter Princess and wouldn't you know, my horse is awesome. She is still very much green, but I felt perfectly comfortable on her at the walk. She has a giant, fast walk. We trotted a bit, again, very forward. I was feeling confident enough I gave her the smallest canter cue and off we went! The Taskmaster said she had a lovely canter and she was so right.

Banana has more to learn and I need to get more comfortable riding my incredibly forward horse. At least she has excellent brakes, even the emergency brake (knuckles into the withers.) I'm hoping we might actually be ready to go to Watermelon Mtn Pony Club HT in May, which would thrill me. Their Pre-Comp is only 20" so I think we'll be okay.

Crawling Out of Internet Hell

Well, we seem to be back in the land of faster internet. What have I been doing? Riding and enjoying this:

That's the foxes that live in my arena. Literally, their den is into the slope on the side and they seem to have excavated a large hole out the top. I'd rather it than the ton of smaller prairie dog holes I used to have and having a fox there means the damn prairie dogs will keep their distance. I suspect there will be babies in the coming months.

Speaking of babies, due to my angel fish laying eggs more than once I'm trying my hand at raising them. The first time they actually turned into little swimming fish, but I lost them. Fortunately, they laid eggs again yesterday. The eggs are now in their own tank. They'll grow their tails, then eyes, then in about a week detach and be little swimming blobs.

I believe that's the male fertilizing in that pic. Yes, they like to lay them on the intake to the filter.

Fun of Rural Living

We went over our bandwidth allotment at the house so we're in internet hell. I'm writing this from a coffee shop in town.

All the ponies are doing well. Major snow meltage the last week so Penny and Condi are covered in mud. Meatball and Bean are being good, I've been popping over cross-rails with both of them. Meatball isn't over jumping them either, which is beyond awesome. We did discover he does not like a neck strap. Banana is looking more promising and I'm starting to get excited over my future with her.

There's a show at the Taskmaster's in a couple of weeks and I'm planning on taking Banana x-rails and Bean 2'. I'll let the Taskmaster show Meatball, she's planning Pile Of Poles as she's pretty sure with the excitement of other horses around he's going to clear the x-rails like they're 3'. I think they'd be just fine x-rails, but it's her call.