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!
Hold Your Horses!!
One of the many things my dad does is own and run a hay farm. This week my whole family went on a hay delivery to help unload 40 bales at a client’s place. As we approach are destination, I was looking out the window of our Dodge truck, day dreaming….that was until I heard an “oh no” come from the front seat. I immediately looked up and what I saw brought immediate fear…There were our hay customer’s ponies coming down the road. I’m not talking about one of two I’m talkin about close to 30 ponies trotting down the road! My dad brought the truck to a stop and my mom jumped out and beckoned for Meefy and I to do the same. The ponies started to turn down a drive way so Meefy and I started out across a snow covered field in a desperate attempt to get in front of them. But as soon as I hit the snow at a full out run… SPLAT! I face-planted in the snow! The snow apparently had melted a little and then refroze so it wasn’t at all fluffy, It was like concrete! 10 times harder walking in than soft snow. But if you ran fast enough you could stay on top of the snow. But if one foot broke through you would nose dive or face-plant into hard ice balls. Not fun! So I pulled myself up and started after the ponies once again. But as soon as Meefy and I got close to being in front of the herd and turning them around, I looked over and Meefy had fallen, scraping her hand the snow was so rough. At that particular moment, snow was definitely not on my list of favorites. Luckily, I finally reached the front of the herd and Meefy was soon at my side, helping. Together we got them heading back down the road towards home and back into their pen. What an Adventure! Thank the Lord we got them back in their pen safe and sound.
What’s New?
New month, new experiences! This month I figured out how to make a YouTube channel!!! Check it out here ➡My Journey with Alaska.
I also made this awesome logo using “Canva!” It was super easy and fun to make!
Snow Snow Snow And More Snow
January was warm and sunny and everyone thought we would have a mild winter… That was until the winter storm of 2019 broke out around the county! At first, it snowed 3 inches and life went on as normal. People still went to work, kids went to school and you could easily take a walk outside. But on February 8th, the storm really set in!! It snowed all day and by the time evening finally rolled around, we had over 9 inches of snow! It continued to snow the next day and the snow level raised to a whopping 19 inches! The pigs and the family mutt, Buck, had to fight to get through the snow that was over their heads. Stores closed, cars went flying off roads and school was canceled. Even Walmart closed for the storm! Only Costco prevailed.
The snow was perfect for building snowmen in and for having epic snowball fights. We even covered E in it!
We also took a family trail ride down the road! Besides our freezing hands and feet, it was a really beautiful ride!
Chores on the other hand were not as fun. It took a lot of energy to plow our way from the house to the barn in knee high snow. And it froze at night, so all the water troughs were frozen over and the ice had to be broken and scooped out. We also had to sweep off the roofs of all the snow so they wouldn’t collapse. And the stalls…oh the stalls, they won’t be cleaned until the snow melts and we can push a wheelbarrow again… and that won’t be soon because it will be super muddy when everything melts!
Baby pigs staying warm!
Even with the snow, I am determined to work with Alaska. When it first snowed, I was only able to work on having her stand tied while I brush her. But luckily, the round pen packed down quickly and I was able to get on with her round pen training!
First Snow
Alaska and I played with a scary tarp in the snow! Here is a link to a video about it➡ Playing With Tarps
My Dad works for a water plant that is at a higher elevation than we are and they got 3 feet of snow! Unfortunately, the snowplow was unable to clear the small dirt road that leads to the plant. My dad had to make a treacherous 2 hour hike in, up and down the mountain on snow shoes. Hard work! Luckily, he found someone with a snow cat (think fully enclosed ATV on tracks) to drive him up to the plant for next time!
We had a blast in the snow but I can’t wait for summer! Many fences and barns collapsed around the county due to the heavy snow fall. We are praying for those less fortunate, who I’m sure are eager for warmer weather to rebuild.
What’s been happening in January?
Wow it’s been a long time since I posted, a very long time!!
The last couple of weeks have been very busy. Let’s begin on Dec 30th when we headed over to one of our favorite trails, Miller Peninsula State Park. Dad took the lead while leading my littlest sister on Sundance. Mom followed on Echo and Marissa road Abu( the old man at 25 yrs young) while I took up the rear on Iroquois the paint, desperately trying to video tape the whole time. Let’s just say going down hill was a little tricky, but luckily the phone didn’t drop. There was a little puddle that posed a problem with Echo’s beautifully manicured nails so Mom did some water training with her. Echo didn’t want to step in the puddle(she is an Arab after all …think desert creature), so she jumped over the puddle and tried to go round the puddle but with some work she accepted the wet Northwest habitat we live in and Mom got her walking calmly through the puddle. It was a beautiful sunny day and the perfect easy trail to trot down on a Sunday afternoon. After unloading the horses at home and changing out of our muddy riding clothes, we headed over to Papa and Caribou’s house for dinner. What a great day the Lord has BLESSED us with, on the Lord’s Day!
Mom and Meefy
Dad and E
Iroquois
Iroquois’s shadow
Puddle!
Meefy has been training a 14 yr old miniature horse named Bluebell to cart for a client on and off for a little over a year. She has been doing an awesome job and this week she was able to hook up Bluebell to a new wagon the owners bought for Bluebell. Go Meefy!!
On New Years Day, Dad, Mom, Meefy and I headed up to one of Dad’s hay fields that has an access to a trail. A friend was able to meet us up there, so all five of us headed out on the trail. We had to ride down the road to get to the trail head. This was Echo’s first time riding on the road and she didn’t even flinch when the cars passed her! She is kind of a dramatic Arab and we are so proud she kept her emotions under control. Once we were on the trail, we cantered up a hill to a lookout, were we could see Canada. What a beautiful place God made! After we did a tack check, our friend sadly had to turn back towards home, but my family and I were able to keep on riding. On the trail, we encountered huge puddles, logs and motorcycles. Amazingly, Echo took everything in stride. She was ecstatic but completely under control even when we let the horses gallop down an old logging road! She has turned into such a good girl. Mom and Echo make a great team! The only trouble we had on the trail was when Iroquois lost an easy boot. Apparently someone (me) wasn’t paying attention and didn’t notice it came off. Now the question was how far back did down the trail did it fall off. So all four of us reversed directions and slowly made out way back down the trail trying to find the boot. Luckily, it didn’t take long to find. Iroquois had thrown it perfectly in the middle of the trail.
The line up…Dad and Pip, Meefy and Miranda, Mom and Echo
Mom
Puddle!
Dad and Pip
Where’s my boot?
Then that night I got a 101 degree fever. Ugh, now for the next seven days I am stuck on the couch while Meefy and Dad get to go on a trail ride with Lisa and a 4-H friend. So unfair!!!
When I was finally all better it was time to get back to work. Alaska enjoyed her week off but was happy to start training again. Alaska has learned many new things in the past couple of weeks including loading into the trailer, ponying behind a horse and round penning. She did so much better loading into the trailer than I thought she would. I expected a long training session, but after just a couple minutes she hopped into the trailer! We then turned around and came back out quietly. We repeated it 8 times and she did great each time, although by the 8th time she looked at me like, “again?”
Ponying took a little longer for her to figure out. Ponying is were you are riding one horse and leading an other horse. At first, she wanted to stay right behind Iroquois instead of up by my knee where she was supposed to be. But she eventually got it and by the end of our training session we were able to trot! What a smart filly!
While I was sick, I read John Lyons book about raising baby horses and it had a section about round penning. So I decided to try out my new knowledge. I asked Mom to help me and we headed out to the round pen. I asked her to do it first while I watched and then I tried my hand at it. I have round penned quite a bit with horses that have been round penned before but this was the first time I had round penned a baby. She did so well. She joined up really quick and we were able to walk across the round pen with out her running away! Every time we practice, she gets better! I also put my little sister’s saddle on her and she did great. Alaska has picked up so much in such a short time and is so eager to learn new things! Thank you, KT Ranch in Connell, Washington! She is such an outstanding quality filly.
wearing a saddle
Here is a picture I found of Alaska from when she was younger. She was adorable!
On January 13th, we were blessed with 10 baby piglets. 3 of them were less than half the size of the other 8, so we had to bring them inside the house to raise and bottle feed. A couple days later another pig had 7 more piglets but she didn’t take care of them and four of them didn’t make it. So now we have six cute and demanding baby pigs in our kitchen. My poor mother had to feed them every 2 hours even through the night. I can sleep through any alarm, so I was no help for night feedings. Luckily, now they can go longer and she is getting a little more sleep. She is not referring to them as blessings anymore. But sleep deprivation does cloud the judgement.
Tiniest piglet ever
Thanks for reading and don’t forget to follow!
January 28, 2019
Happy New Year
2018 has been an been an amazing year! From getting accepted into the AQHA Ranching Heritage Young Horse Development Program, going to state in 4-H equine judging, to hanging out with my awesome Parents, Sisters, Aunts and Uncle, cousins and of course my wonderful Grandparents. The Lord has truly blessed me with an amazing family. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!!
Christmas
What a fun week! The beginning of the week concluded Alaska’s second week with us. We continued our leading lessons, particularly practicing trotting. We are definitely making progress but she still bucks and jumps around some. Not a big deal though. She is just a baby and babies bounce. We have also been working on picking up her feet and can now pick up all four feet and clean them. Dad brought home more wood chips and we have had lots of fun playing on them. She is doing amazing. Here is a link to the video of Alaska’s second week with us ➡Week Two With Alaska.
We also did Christmas photos!
On Christmas eve, we drove over to my Caribou and Papa’s house in our 24′ motorhome. We had our big Christmas dinner on Christmas eve so no one would miss all the Christmas fun, being stuck in the kitchen. The cousins from out of town were even able to come! After dinner… and a video game competition…we headed over to church and had a nice candle light service. When it was time to light the candles, some how all the kids ended up crammed into the same pew, with lots of hair sprayed hair and hair jell all around! This was a definite oversight on the adults part when they said we could all sit together. It was Christmas miracle nothing caught fire!
The next morning, we got up around 8 am. I know, I know, really late for a bunch of kids on Christmas. But we were tired and so full. When we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, we all just sat around the living room… talking ….while the adults drank coffee. Mom and I snuck away to feed the critters back at home, and we made good time limiting ourselves to only fifteen minutes of petting and doting on the fillies. When we arrived back to the family festivities, the kitchen was filled with the delicious smells of egg casserole and applesauce with cranberries and red hots. Yum! Immediately proceeding, we finally began “The Opening Presents Marathon!” It took us from 10am to 5pm with a few snack breaks for energy and also a spontaneous and epic game of laser tag! We even got Caribou (my grandmother) to play!
The next day, my cousin, Addy, came along to help my family feed the animals and was able to meet Alaska! She couldn’t leave without a snuggle for Iroquois, as well😁
Sierra, Addy and Alaska
Addy and Iroquois
Addy and Alaska
Addy and the fillys
Then, we went back to Caribou’s for Target Practice!!!! My cousin, Duke received a super cool air soft gun for Christmas and he was generous enough to let all us girls try it out! Thanks Duke!
After a great lunch, we headed over to see my cousin’s new house! The house has so much character and they have a beautiful river right in their backyard!!!
What an amazing Christmas. I hope you all had a safe and Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad ⛄Thanks for reading! Tell me about your Christmas in the comments below.
December
I can’t believe I have only had my filly, Alaska, for one week! I have been having so much fun working with her. At first, I was pretty happy just to walk up and pet her with out her bolting. She quickly settled in and now is happy for me to approach and constantly follows me while I clean her pen. She is a bold filly, eager to go for walks out of the round pen, and never does the “baby chewing face” when meeting our other horses. If you’ve never seen the “baby chewing face” I assure you it is rediculous. It pretty much tells other horses that the baby is not a threat. Anyway, I have been working on leading her over new things. She is super curious and loves to check out the poles on the ground and gets distracted by the grass when leading her over them. My dad dropped off a dump load of wood chips a couple days ago so I decided the mound would be a great challenge to test the filly’s courage and trust in me, not to mention her agility. She approached it stoically, but then wavered a bit, so I waited until she had thoroughly sniffed it and lost interest, focusing on my sister in the round pen with her filly. I encouraged her forward to the top of the pile and she bounded over trotting down the other side. No problem. We have also been working on picking up her feet, and getting her used to things on her back, like my jacket, but I think Alaska’s favorite part of the week was playing with brushes! I was trying to get her used to a brush by letting her smell it, but it apparently looked like a toy because she grabbed it and threw it! Several times! Silly Filly! Last night, we trotted for the first time while leading, on purpose. She is learning so quickly! Here is a link to a video of Alaska’s first week at her new home➡ Alaska week one
Back in November, Meefy, started training a two year old pony named Chica Linda. She had been running wild with a herd of ponies and had not been touched by humans…ever! Meefy and Mom had to do a lot of work to be able to touch her and get a halter on her. They have done so well and this week Meefy was able to lead her outside the round pen.
On Saturday, Dad, Mom, Meefy and I loaded up the trailer with four horses to go trail riding. The plan was to take Iroquois (paint), Pip (new Arab), Echo ( Arab) and Meefy’s Appy, Miranda. But, then we would have had to make two trips with our 3 horse trailer. We took out the tack room in the back so a smaller horse and a pony that got along could squeeze in and ride together. So plan B was to take Iroquois, Pip, Ty (Arab\Appy) and Sundance (project pony) and put Ty and Sundance in the last stall. Unfortunately, they must have had a tiff in the field because Ty was in a very sour mood. On to plan C, bring the original 4 we had planned on and make two trips …we thought. So we went out to get Echo and Miranda but they took off running to the back of their 10 acre field. Apparently, they heard we were going to work on crossing water. Meanwhile, Abu, Dad’s 25 year old retired endurance horse was following us around as we chased the other horses. So plan D take Iroquois, Pip, Abu and Sundance. Once we were finally on the trail, everything went smoothly. It was Dad’s first time riding Pip on the trail and they did amazing. It was Sundance’s first time on the trail and he did great. He even led part of the way! The only part Sundance and Iroquois didn’t like was a forty foot puddle that had ice on It. I had to ride Abu back in the puddle and they eventually got in. It was an awesome ride and it was gorgeous when we got to a clearing and saw a inches of frost glistening on the bushes and trees.
Young Horse Development Program
On Saturday, my whole family (including the dogs) all loaded up into the 24′ motor home pulling our 2 horse trailer. We hit the road to go pick up my “AQHA Young Horse Development Program” filly in Connell, Washington. The ranch named the filly KT Alaskan Ruby calling her “Ruby” but since I’ve known of so many “Ruby”s I have decided to call her “Alaska”. Saturday night we stayed at a pretty camp ground that was only 9 minutes from the ranch. As we pulled into the ranch’s driveway the next morning, we could see the weanlings. They were so cute! Toni from KT Ranch greeted us at the gate and was really nice and knowledgable. The filly was a bit flighty at first but soon settled down and Toni was able to catch her. Once she was caught, Toni had me come into the pen to meet “Alaska”. She wasn’t sure about me at first but eventually let me pet her. When it came time to load her into the horse trailer, Alaska did not want to hop in the trailer at first, but with the help of some grain, she got in. She rode in the trailer really well and without incident on the entire 10 hour ride home, but was very happy to get out of the trailer once at our farm, even boldly stepping down out of the horse trailer into the black night. Thank you KT Ranch for giving me this beautiful filly!
Steffen Stampede 