March Update: Spring Is Here!!

March 30, 2019

At the beginning of March, my family, Buck (the family mutt) and I loaded up in the Big Foot(our RV) and headed out to the Washington State Horse Expo in Ridgefield at the Clark County Event Center.

We arrived late Friday night and parked at the local Walmart parking lot.  We checked to make sure overnight parking was allowed and grabbed a quick and convenient sub at Subway for dinner. The next morning, we woke up early, excited to get to the Expo.   Meefy recently applied for the Mustang Yearling Washington Youth Challenge, where you have approx. 100 days to train a mustang off the BLM that has never been touched! So the first thing we went to go see was the “Teens and Oregon Mustangs” talk. It was very informative and we had so many questions about Mustangs answered. Meefy left the talk confident she could do it. Then we headed over to see Smokin Double Dutch, a Quarter pony who has a Breyer made after her. I’m pretty sure this was E’s favorite.

We also watched horse training clinics by Steve Rother, Warwick Schiller, Evan Bonner and my personal favorite Alina Stasik, a trick rider!! She began trick riding when she was 7 and went pro at only 14 yrs old! She performed in rodeos and eventually the traveling show Cavalia!! It was so cool to watch …and really motivated me to exercise more!

Saturday night we stayed for, “The Extravaganza.” It was awesome! It featured acts and demonstrations from over a dozen different groups. We were able to see the Latigo n’ Lace drill team, Esmeralda’s & Charro School Mendoza (They did tricks with lassoes) and Alisa Stasik, who did amazing trick riding stunts. She performed one trick where she climbed under her horse’s neck while she was blind folded at a gallop! Steve Rother’s All Disciplines Demo had me laughing so hard I was sure I was going to fall off the bleachers. Here is a link to a video I found of him doing the same skit several years ago. It’s hilarious! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gSaoVTMcY3w.

We also brought home three new ponies this month, Barbie, Bling and Hidalgo!!

Barbie is a total sweetheart. She is a princess and loves to have her mane braided and to be brushed. My mom, sisters and I have totally fallen in love with her. She is also in foal so we will  have a baby pony soon! It will be so much fun! E has led Barbie  all over the farm and we are thinking of keeping her as E’s next riding pony after her baby is born!

Bling is Barbie’s baby from last year. She doesn’t trust humans yet and wouldn’t let anyone touch her until recently.  This week I was able to touch her forehead, shoulder, back and rump and lead her outside the round pen! Yay! But every time I touch her, she does the baby face (what baby horses do to older horses to show they are not a threat) so she doesn’t quite trust me yet. In the future, I hope to cart train her, but right now I am focusing on getting her to trust me and allow me to touch her all over her body, particularly her feet so we can trim them.

 

Hidalgo is a sweet pony.  Meefy and I have been riding him, working on the essentials, steering, stopping and trotting. We also have taken him out to a tree farm three times this week.  He is such a good boy and let’s E and her friend, Chelsey, ride double on him.

But,… he is a bit of a trouble maker. A couple of days ago, Meefy put Hidalgo out in the field to graze. She took off his halter and turned around to close the gate… to her surprise Hidalgo plowed through the fence. Apparently, he doesn’t know about hot electric fences.  This is when I’m very thankful of our 8 ft tall woven wire perimeter fence around the entire property. Loose horses aren’t that big of an emergency. They can’t escape to the road, at least.  Luckily, he was easy to catch. Meefy and I reassembled the fence and returned him to the field.  I stood by the fence charger ready and waiting for the signal that Meefy was clear and to plug in the fence . Meefy leaped over the fence and I turned the fence on lightening fast. Hidalgo boldly touched it with his nose ready to bulldoze his way through it again, but …it shocked him and he jumped back. He tested it a few more times, getting the same results. Furious, he started galloping around the pasture. Then suddenly, he turned towards the fence and pick up his pace to max gallop speed. Meefy and I watched wide-eyed as he jumped and cleared our 4ft electric fence! Ugh! Back to the 6′ tall round pen he went. We will have to build a bigger fence if he’s to be put out to pasture…maybe tomorrow.

 

Iroquois and I were also able to participate in a reining clinic with Mike Stokes this month. It was awesome and really gave me some things to work on. I can’t wait to see how we improve over the summer!

 

Buckwheat went to live with an adorable little girl. They hope to do Pony Club with him in the future. They are going to have so much fun together!

 

The sun is shining, the weather is nice and warm and the days are getting longer. Summer is feeling likes it’s right around the corner. With all this nice weather, I decided to get Alaska use to getting sprayed off.  At first, she didn’t want the water to touch her and she did circles around me, determined to not let the disgusting cold substance touch her legs. But eventually, she decided the water wasn’t going to kill her and she relented. To her surprise, the water was really fun and she now loves playing in the water with her nose. She is such a silly filly!

 

My sisters and I are really enjoying the longer days and we love taking evening rides in the sunset! Everyday I thank the Lord for these many blessings.  I hope everyone is having a blessed month, and please don’t forget to follow!