Happy Sweet 18 Lester!

Less turned 18 today and I let him celebrate it with a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, they are his very favorite and he's earned it!

When it rains it pours...

Do you ever have a blog post in mind for days, weeks even months and just never get the time to get it down? Even though you've posted other things in the meantime?! Well this is one of those posts...

When it rains, it pours. Even though it's rainy for the next couple of days I'm not just talking about the weather:-) Last month I emailed an old instructor of mine, Gigi of Touch n' Go farm (she has a great website and stories of all the meaningful horses in her life) and asked her if she had anyone I could come take a lesson on, that I just didn't have anyone to ride. Like most dressage training barns she has no lesson horses, but she said I could come ride her daughter's pony and take a lesson on her. So I did this about a month ago! My sister Jen and I used to take lessons all the time with Gigi. Every Thursday she and I would trailer our horses (Lester and Kate) nearly 2 hours away for one. The ironic thing is that when I moved Lester down to Newnan-only about 20 minutes from Gigi's is when I stopped taking lessons:-( Backwards huh? But I didn't have a trailer, so, so close yet so far syndrome. I did take Less over to her place for a week of training back in 2005. It started out like a marriage counseling session because I had taken him there for her to help me ride through his spooking, but of course once we got there he didn't spook at a thing so we got to do something actual training... I must really ride differently in front of an instructor verses on my own:-/

Anyway while Gigi's daughter, Cassidy, was helping me get her horse Hanna ready to ride, I was greeted by their flock of dogs and I said "I remember this black dog that would come up and spit a rock out at my feet". Cassidy pointed down and said that would be "Dasiy", I couldn't believe it that was over 13 years ago that I had first met that dog! They even still had their boy goat named Eddie, again I first met him over 13 years ago. I just think it's so cool they were still around... so I took a lesson and both Gigi and Hanna worked my butt off! OMG my face was so red and my muscles ached so bad. Miss Hanna takes a LOT of leg, but she's a cute little horse that knows her stuff so it was a good lesson. I plan to take some more lessons on her if "life" would ever work out and let me, but between the rain, work and our schedules it just hasn't worked out...........but in the same weekend a boarder at our barn asked if I would start riding her horse, Basonge...so I've been riding pretty regularly lately:-) He's green, but a solid little guy that's pretty laid back. Like Hanna, I felt like I had to beat him with my legs at first just to get him to go, but he's respecting my legs much better lately and I haven't even been wearing spurs...

I hope to take him to Gigi's for some lessons soon, just need to talk to the owner.

So meet Basonge...he's a 6 year old, Arabian. I do feel a little top heavy on him though:-)

Like a box of chocolates...

I never know what I'm going to get when I ride Lester. Sometimes he's like a truffle - he's so soft and light in my hands and chewy on the bit. And then other times he's like that "looks great on the outside", but is like that unexpected tart/ bitter orange crap that makes you wish you never took a bite of! I'd say most days he's like one of those chocolates that has a nougat in it, still good, but you were hoping for a gooey center:-)

Have I said yet how much I love this boy's canter?! He has moments of self carriage and roundness that it's hard for me to believe he has any problems sometimes. It's like OMG "THIS" is my horse. The other night I was trotting him and he just decided to strut and do a lengthening! And if was effortless for him. Had a nice canter too. Course this is all going left:-) I've had him on MSM for about a week now. I was in Kroger and saw a HUGE bottle of MSM pills and bought it for him- so I got to crush 190 pills, I like to do things the hard way, lol. I figured if I at least got him on it that I would remember to order the powder kind. Course I still haven't done that and the girls are running out of dog food too....

Thank you all for the kind words regarding Moose. She was indeed a once in a lifetime horse and very special. She was a dream come true and she taught me so much. I have visited her through several animal communicators over the years and they all pick up on the same thing. She is an old soul that was like a mother figure to me. Once when I was at a job interview and was pretty nervous not thinking I was qualified, Moose popped into my head and gave me strength to get through it...a few months later when I spoke to an AC she said "Moose sends inspiring messages to you -To go for it!" all the time:-)

Chocolate Moose

Today's post is to remember and honor my first horse...Moose. I'll link you back to another post that tells her story in the end. She would have been 31 today...not a day goes by that I don't think of her. She was my everything- from babysitter to best friend.

This BUD's for Limo

I don't for see any Beer commercials in Limo's future. A Spud Mckenzie she is not!

Where the green grass grows

All of the pastures lack good grass this time of year, but there are several non-pasture areas at the farm that still have lovely grass and even some clover. Lester would prefer to stay in his stall and be fed hay by the flake full then be out in a barren pasture during the winter months... He is ALWAYS ready to come in- after a few hours of being put out he is standing at the gate and hollering and chasing any car down the fence line for someone to come get him. Can you say lazy and pitiful? So I always try to give Less some good grass grazing before putting him up for the night. He has always been pretty well behaved about being left in an area to graze with or without his leadrope on while I retrieve the other horses or do other horsey tasks. The only times he has been bad and ran off to a place I didn't want him is if I allowed his buddy Polo to graze with him- Polo can be the biggest sh*t sometimes! Grrrr

I love how the girls will hang out and chill while he grazes. Hah even when they aren't chill and they are playing and whizzing by he couldn't care less, there is grass before him.

"I've got my eye on you"

So get this. I rode PonyManFuzzyLegs Lester yesterday and he felt pretty goodish:-) He wasn't tripping over his feet like he did last Thursday and even had moments of roundness and self carriage- I wasn't asking for it, it's just something he does from time to time and I love it! We did a little bit of trotting because I wanted to practice my sitting trot a bit- my substitute for an Ab roller or other Abs machine:-) So needless to say I was happy with Pony and even though we almost stepped on Miss Pnut'so it was a good ride. And you know what occurred to me and wondering how could last Thursday's ride be SO different from yesterdays? Well last Friday, the day after my ride it POURED and rained all freak'n day where as there is no rain in the forecast for a while here... So I know rain affects people with arthritis and other ailments so I'm thinking it affects Lester too.

Peanut's First Snow

What's that white stuff?
























Limo trys to make a snow angel...

Driveway of the farm...