Proud

You know what makes a girl (this girl, anyway) very, very happy and very, very proud?

This. [can't insert the picture because they won't let me!]

And this.

Long-time readers, recognize that face?

Yep, that's my Rhapsody girl! (Click here for all the stories...)

(And yes, I have been sleuthing the interwebs ever since I left that barn to try and figure out what became of her...)

Going off the bright new halter and the girl-riding-who-I-never-met, I'm guessing that's her new owner.

I'm going to go with that anyway.

Because if any of my ponies can sell on to a teenage girl who needs a friend and if they will let her play around in a halter bareback, then I'm very, very happy and proud!

In Which We Go Public

...sort of.

You can see our YouTube channel here! It's nothing professional, for sure--just some basic stuff for the folks that are working with my project babies when I'm not there. So constructive feedback is welcome, but no snarky comments por favor! Haha, not that I expect that from any of you but y'know... :)

Last week was a zoo but we rode anyway! My new challenge is getting River comfortable in our new schooling area. He is decidedly nervous of the big-open-area-without-rails and is skittery and tense and gnaws and chomps on the bit like nobody's business. To the point where he's literally flinging drool all over. It's crazy.

This slobber is greatly reduced from when we were actually riding...!

It'd be lovely if it was from a really relaxed jaw instead of a nervous one!

So I scrapped my plans of working on walk/halt/back transitions and now we're just walking around up there, round and round and round, till he relaxes. No biggie. I'm flexible--we don't have anything we have to be ready for!

I am so sad Daylight Savings Time is ending this week!

Shaggy pony and late-evening sunbeams

But we are enjoying the time we've got. Today was my evening to feed, so after giving everyone their grain at the barn, I went down to get River and check on the pasture horses. Saw him first, so gave him his carrot and then went off to make sure nobody else was broken or bleeding.

Turned around and Mr. Food-Pony was marching off to the gate on his own! He did stop halfway and deign to give me his most disgusted look...I call it the Moose Look and it's pretty much this:

From earlier in the year...

Saying plain as could be, "Hurry UP, lady, why u so SLOW?!"

He walked all the way up to the gate then without any halter or anything. Ha. Got his yums and then we rode a little bit--walking around in the schooling area--and I did his feet. It was a good evening.

Three Babies

Sooo, promised an update on my new projects! Well I don't have any pictures (I know, shame shame), but here is the back story! 

They belong to a private school for boys with ADD/ADHD and/or behavior problems. I found them by responding to an ad on my college job board for "volunteer horse training and maintenance." Called because I couldn't imagine anyone just posting a random ad for such things, and because I couldn't imagine anyone else picking them up as a project at this time of the semester. Then discovered that there were three babies--and I mean baby babies, the oldest is barely three, the youngest right about a yearling--two of which were (still are, but for a limited time!) stud colts. And there's nobody there who knows anything about horses period, let alone baby horses. Woowweee, fun fun fun.

So a week ago Sunday was my "eval" trip, to see if I thought I could handle this or if it was quite beyond me. Turns out there is one kid at the school that knows a little bit about horses in general and has been working with them. Mostly consisting of giving them treats and petting them and getting them used to halters/picking up feet/etc. Not a bad start, except that now they have NO concept of staying out of one's personal space, or doing anything else in fact except eating. The filly (oldest and most definitely the boss) will tie and lead (sort of, except when she doesn't) and usually deal with having her face pulled into all kinds of contortions with the halter and lead-rope-reins (again, except when she doesn't), but the colts won't do much unless the others are nearby, and don't do a whole lot even then.

But none of them are dangerous, so I said sure, I'll come up once a month or so and help you as long as the boys are gelded and someone's willing to work with them when I'm not there. Will be interesting! I won't be getting anywhere unless this kid, J, and his friend are willing to join in and do the footwork, so we'll see. First day we worked on moving off pressure and handling scary things appropriately. Now we are taking some video of River so they can understand what is supposed to be and to help them remember somewhat of how to get there. Though the Beast isn't perfect, he's pretty good these days, and demonstrates the need for all these skills quite well--nothing like getting run over by a 1200-lb. critter to convince you that your horse does need to learn to move when you tell him to...

He is not impressed by the videoing--thinks it's eternally boring. Lol. I did get his feet trimmed this week, though, and he is sounder than ever before, even on the little (quarter- to half-inch) gravel. Woot! 

Crazy

Crazy crazy week! I rode a grand total of once this week, went out to see the Buddy every night though. His back seems a bit sore so perhaps it's just as well I didn't ride too much. I'm worried the saddle might be making him sore but it's not like he's being ridden a whole lot, so perhaps it's just that he's missing his massages or maybe he tweaked it in the pasture...guess we'll see.

Anyway, rundown of the Week in Horses, bullet-point form (more to come later, I hope!):

• Sunday: Went and did an eval visit on three new project babies (YAY Arab babies!) that I've taken on as a volunteer job
• Monday: Fed pony, not much else as I had an evening appointment. Sent off my Christmas wish list to whoever-wants-to-buy-me-stuff. :D
• Tuesday: Fed pony again, again not much else because of evening appointment.
• Wednesday: Lunged to try out a new riding spot, and rode in the arena. Discovered the footing in said arena is now nearly irreparably nasty. So much for that.
• Thursday: River and I had our film debut!...or something. Groundwork video project begins (more on that later). We discovered River is not the most photogenic beast when it comes to standing still for the video camera, haha. 
• Today: Fed, not much else--another evening appointment!

Did my two-point on Wednesday, obviously no other day though. Next week I definitely don't plan on having one supervisor in the hospital, interviews coming up in my other job, and two presentations--so it should be a bit calmer and hopefully more productive on the horse front!