Exercise with Mr. Short, Fat and Adorable

I will have to blame my dissertation brain for neglecting to post these pictures of Ollie and I from the summer. Now, before anyone panics about me having his lead around my wrist, I sewed a velcro fuse in so in theory, if we have a wreck, we'll detach. Honestly, he trots so slow I can barely stay upright on the bike.

And a video

Future Employment?

I'm pretty sure Ollie has a future as a waiter.

Unexpected

This was a shocking thing to wake up to: snow. I was extra glad I'd put a blanket on Naners last night

See? It does occasionally happen.

I took it off maybe when it was cooler than I would have liked, but I much preferred the thought of her rolling in the snow instead of the inevitable mud

I also took this fabulous picture of her, worthy of the photography skills of my father

I can count the number of times I've seen her rear on one hand, so I didn't have the camera positioned for this antic. My dad, on the other hand, cuts off heads even when the subject more than fits in the frame.

Adventures in grazing

Ummm.... Ollie, that's not how you're supposed to wear it

Ollie says, "It's so windy you can see my forehead!"

It's been quite breezy here the last few days, as it frequently is this time of year. One of these days the wind will turn to dust storms, which I seriously dislike. Dirt behind your eyeballs is never comfortable.

Ollie in his turnout

It really blows my mind that I pounded the posts in two weeks ago and now we're covered in snow again.

Everyone needs some Ollie

The snowy one is from the beginning of January, when we actually had snow. The last couple of days its been the opposite and I'm pounding t-posts into the ground.


Only 8 more posts to go.

First snow

Banana is under there too, to the left of Willie.

In the grand winter tradition, Ollie got to get out to frolic as I was preparing dinner. He had a fun time, but I forgot about him at one point and of course he walked right in the feed room. Must remember to shut the door.

The first step

The first step in Ollie's driving education has been achieved:

Actually, putting it on him was probably step #2, as step #1 getting a surcingle that would fit him. It's currently on its biggest holes, but that's due to the fluff, and I didn't want to put it on too tight the first time. He just sorta looked at it and then followed me around (which makes it really tough to take pictures. So, so many with his nose in the lens.)

Whether he will actually be able to pull a cart or not is sort of in question. He's on the line height wise and with his funky foot... eh, just don't know. But, I'm going to at least teach him how to ground drive because he needs to lose some weight and it's more fun than leading him. I have ground driving reins, so I won't need to get any more equipment until I need an actual harness and a bit, and I know someone that has a mini sized harness they'll let me borrow, so I won't have to buy a ton of equipment until I'm sure. We'll see how this goes.

Flat Stanley

A friend's daughter's class is doing Flat Stanley. Follow the link to find out more, but in a nutshell, I have a paper cut out figure of a guy called Flat Stanley, because he's flat. I take pictures of his adventures and send them to the student. Today Flat Stanley rode Oliver. It didn't turn out like we thought it would.

Stanley on his noble steed

Uh oh! Good thing he's wearing a helmet

Ollie! What are you doing?

Let Flat Stanley go!

 

 

 

Beating him against the wall? seriously? If he didn't have a concussion from his fall he certainly does now

That is quite enough Young Man.

Flat Stanley is quite soggy, but intact from his ordeal. He helped me feed too

As amusing as Oliver trying to eat him is, I still won't have the best pictures. One of the other Flat Stanleys is in Sochi with an ice skating reporter and getting selfies with ice skaters.

Minis

Since acquiring Oliver I've been doing research on minis, to see if there's anything I need to know about them that I don't. It's astounding, actually frightening, how little horse knowledge the average mini owner has. Things like people with no horse experience buying pregnant mares. Asking for advice on their colicking horse on facebook instead of calling the vet. I could spend all day answering stuff on facebook (I really need to get off the facebook group. It just pisses me off.)

The best info I got from my vet: that they can't do rectals on them, so determining type of colic can be a bit difficult.

They're so damn cute though. And there's mini chariot races!

And mini jumping!

And of course, there's Oliver!

Lazy, lazy me

I'm having a small problem: I planned to spend December and January huddled in my house, being a hermit. Banana and I both needed vacations. Instead we've had unseasonable warm weather with days in the 40s. I should be out riding every day, taking advantage of this. But, I can't get beyond, "No! I'm not supposed to be riding right now!"

I decided if I'm not going to ride I need to at least do something with Naners every day, even if it's put the halter on and give her a cookie. So, that's what I've been doing. Then yesterday I remembered I could work on that stepping under herself stuff in hand so we're doing that. Now I've added on training her to ground tie. It's such a handy skill for a horse to have. I'm thinking about training her to the same commands the dogs know. It's definitely something I should train Ollie to do.

Speaking of Ollie, I've definitely decided I want to teach him to drive. It will have to wait though, as grad school is eating up my spare cash. Including eating up my competition budget. Good thing I have no plans for this year. So glad I bought a truck and trailer so I can be stuck at home.

A new fox is hanging out. It could possibly be Hunter, but definitely isn't Split Ear.

Guess I'm going to have to raise the bucket up

She tolerates him far too much

Happy Holidays

Oliver, and everyone here at Pam's Pony Place, wish you all a happy celebration of whatever holiday you choose to observe this time of year. (Ollie is a fan of Christmas and Santa, since the big man brought him a new halter and lead rope early.)

Fuzz butts

A trip down the road with Naners two weeks after her shoes were pulled indicates I might not need boots for her. Fingers crossed. She's also the fattest she's been in the year I've owned her. She hasn't fence walked in more than a month.

Oliver continues to amuse me.

He only goes out with the big horses for maybe an hour, because even though that grass looks dead I can assure you, down at the roots, it is still green. And that little bit of green is holding onto a crap load of sugar.

The big horses used to have buckets on the ground too, but Oliver would nose Kokomo out of his food and share Naner's bucket with her. He really doesn't need their food, so I had to hang buckets for their dinners.

No longer "Mini Without a Name"

We've decided to call the mini Oliver after John Oliver, Oliver Wood and Oliver Twist.

It stuck better than all the other names I tried out.

So that dressage show

I never did tell the tale of the dressage show.

As show secretary I schedule the ride times. This can be exasperating, but generally there will be one thing that will make it all work. This time it was starting the show at 9:30 instead of 9. That put a judge's break during a lunch appropriate time, instead of at 10:30 or 1:00. Since our venue was a further drive for most participants this was welcomed. I didn't have to load in the dark! As it was, Quirky and Naners had the air up their tails and were bucking and running around their corrals. The difficult part of the morning was catching them. Naners ran her hip into her stall door while trying to elude me. Horses.

Loaded up we headed down the driveway, Red chasing the trailer as he does (How dare I take his girlfriend away!) We headed south into the desert to the Taskmaster's, as that's where the show was being held. My tack room was doubling as show office, so I got a choice spot next to the arena.

Quirky and I were the first ride of the day. I would sum up the ride as just fine. Intro B: mostly 6's, two 5's, and two 7's on our center lines and halts. A 7 for Impulsion and a 7 for Geometry and Accuracy. I love that geometry score. Since I started doing dressage I would frequently get "accurate test" as a comment. I didn't realize until recently how good a comment that is. 59.325% We could have done better, but that's fine.

Then I tacked up Naners. We were the last rides before the judge's break and the switch to the standard arena. BN A was a mixture of 5's, 6's and 7's, the 7's on our canters (she does have a fabulous canter) and our final center line and halt. Also a 7 on gaits, which doesn't surprise me. Mare has nice gaits.

BNB was mostly the same, though with a quite notable 8 on our trot half circle right from B to X. 40 on BN A, 39 on BN B. I was quite happy with the mare.

Quirky was very unhappy that she had left him. He was carrying on at the trailer most of the time we were gone. I could see how his mom says he's "suicidal" when tied to a trailer. He did a lot of little rears. He wasn't quite suicidal though.

The two of them stood eating their hay at the trailer the rest of the day. I could tell near the end Quirky really wanted the day to be over. I don't blame him. When the last tests were added and trailers were pulling out I loaded the show office back into the tack room and then loaded Little Mini Man. The top of his butt was shorter than my dividers. I prayed he'd stay in his spot in the front of the slant and wouldn't infringe on Quirky's space in the next spot.

Everyone loaded we set off for home. First time I've had three beasties in my trailer. I kept a good part of my awareness on what was going on in back, but there was no evidence of unhappiness and everyone was good when we unloaded.

I really love my local shows. As I stood there I realized I've become friends with everyone who competed, so it really was like a show full of friends. Spending a day with horses and friends is always a good time.

Mini teeth fun

The mini got his teeth done today:

He has a small problem

Yeah, there was probably some trauma to that lower jaw at some point to make his teeth grow in so crooked. Luckily, all seems to be well considering. His canines are coming in, he has a baby tooth left, and some permanents are on their way in.

He has the vet's blessing, so we're going to keep him. Now we just need to come up with a worthy name.

We did discover a little bit of one eye is blue, which is cool.

Look what I brought home!

Sunday at the dressage show (more on that later) I loaded up three horses to come home when I'd left with two. Who was in the third part of the slant you ask?

This little guy!

He's auditioning for the position of Banana's companion. I know, minis can get very hurt by big horses and I was going to be very careful with him. In fact, he didn't ever need to go in the pen with Banana if next door was sufficient.

And the door is very big

However, when I made this plan I didn't know it was going to SNOW yesterday. Mini and Quirky have been in the two stalls, Naners out with Pinto and Red. But, I was going on a trail ride this morning (since cancelled) and I needed to lock her up so I wouldn't be trudging through the mud in the dark trying to catch her. I had three horses and two pens. Since Quirky and Mini have been living next to each other for most of a week I tried them together... that was a no-go. Quirky wouldn't let him into the stall (necessary with the snow) and kept biting him. So, I very cautiously put him in with Banana. A quick squeal on Naners part and then this:

I really didn't think she'd let him eat out of the feeder. I'd taken the grate out so she could clean out the bottom and I expected her to nose him away from the hay hoard and there was a small hole hay net for him in the opposite corner of the stall. Alas, that's obviously not how it went. She's so very gentle with him, and from straight off, so I don't think I need to worry about him with her.

Assuming things continue like this, and he passes his PPE next week, I may have her buddy and the merry go round of companions can stop. Red and Pinto went home yesterday, which makes me glad and sad at the same time. Quirky was supposed to leave today, but the trailer is all icy and the roads aren't going to be great. Cross your fingers the mini is enough for her.