1st calf of the seasson

It has started.....

Monday (March 1st) night (well, technically Monday afternoon) while I was waiting for the blacksmith to come trim the horses hooves I was riding. I know, shocker....

And yes, I was messing around trying to

take a picture with my cell phone.

And keep my balance at the same time and not fall off.

But I climed up on Shamy (and this was not the brightest move I have ever done but there are some horses that you can do this with and some you can't..) bareback, with just a halter and 1 leadrope. No saddle, no bridle, heck, not even 2 lead ropes to control her. She probably has not been really ridden since sometime in 2008. And did I mention it's been almost 2 years since I've been on a horse? Probably 2 years this coming August.

It was fun - trotting and cantering around the field through the snow. She still remembers how to be a western pleasure show horse. Sit back, hit the cruise control button and go.

But anyhow....I was looking at the cows and thought Mittens looked a little uncomfortable. The blacksmith arrives, I end my ride, hold both horses while I catch up with him (when I showed horses I almost always showed against either him or one of his brothers and sisters), and as we are looking at the cows he even makes the comment that Mittens looked uncomfortable.

I go in the house at 5:45, Todd gets home at 6:20 and guess what? There is a baby calf on the ground in the back of the lot. She had it all on her own, no involvement or help from us:) I love this heifer.

We give them some time and then in the dark go out and bring them in. It's a tiny little thing, only about 60 lbs. And it's a heifer. Which was vastly disappointing to Tyler, who wanted a bull calf. But he has since decided that this is my heifer and we AREN'T selling her and sissy is NOT showing her - NO WAY NO HOW. hmmmm...... opinionated little thing, isn't he?

But she's healthy, mom survived and has figured out the whole routine, as we sit back (not really) and wait for the rest of the herd to start popping out babies. All the while we are praying really, really hard that everyone takes a mini break while we are in Minnesota here in a few weeks....

Let the fun begin......

Kris

Lilly comes home

Well, actually, Lilly came to our house last weekend, but Jessie was away at camp for a couple days, and we gave her a couple days to settle in with the other 2 horses. So Friday night we brought all the horses in so Jessie could walk her in peace and quiet.

Still a little nervous, but her friends are up in the barn calling for her.

Then she wanted to groom her, so I got out my horse, Kiara, and rode her. Still pretty untrained, but she was good. She is an incredibly lazy, slow mover. And big. I cannot see over her back (heck, my eyes aren't even level with her back) and I'm 5'6".

Then the kids wanted to ride, and rather than saddle up my old show horse, Shamy, I just put them up on Kiara. She's never bucked, jumped or done anything equally stupid, so I figured as long as I kept hold of her, we'd be okay.

Yes, I make the kids ride without stirrups pretty much all the time - for 2 reasons - gives them great balance and safety - if their feet aren't in the stirrups, they can't get dragged if they fall off.

And she was. Guess I ought to start riding her more often...

Jessie and Lilly

Several months ago, we brought a very cute little filly off my parents for Jessie's future show horse.

Then Jessie broke her leg. So Lilly stayed at my parents' house until the cast came off.

Now Jessie's not walking very well (or at least not well enough to be doing lots of work with a young horse).

But the plan is, after July 4th (when Jessie goes camping with Girl Scouts and has 3 or 4 physical therapy sessions under her belt) - she will come live with us.

January 22, 2008

Have I mentioned that we also have 2 horses? Soon to be 3? I showed Paint horses on the central Ohio circuit for a number of years, until having kids, but have hung onto my last show horse, a now 15 year old mare (YIKES!!! She cannot possibly be that old) and her 1/2 sister, a 8 year old breeding stock paint mare. My old show, Shamy, was the greatest - she was trained for bridleless western pleasure, and basically is a get on, go down the rail do the work kind of horse.
Jessie is into riding horses big time. . . .

Well, my parents had a brief vision of raising Paint horses, but when the bottom fell out of the market (so to speak) they were left with a cute yearling mare:

Who is maybe(?) going to come to our house to be Jessie’s future horse. I know, I am insane for thinking young horse, very young rider . . .but the thing is, Shamy will not be around for forever to babysit her. And while Shamy has many wonderful traits and qualities (bomb proof really does come to mind), she is an extremely rough horse to ride in a western pleasure lope. So I’m thinking, that at 35, I could possibly put some time in on this young horse for a few years, let Jessie show Shamy walk-trot for a few years, and maybe, just maybe, this filly and Jessie will click eventually.

Hard to believe we have finally gotten a little bit of snow on the ground here. The cows aren’t minding it, the horses and dogs don’t mind, and the kids sure do love the snow.
I’ve been toying with a quilt pattern for Tyler’s bed, using this fabric:

and alternating 9 patch blocks from the solid fabrics with solid blocks out of the firetruck fabric. Todd is a volunteer firefighter, and Tyler is so into anything firetruck/firefighter related. Tyler keeps asking about "his quilt," having seen the flip flop one I did for Jessie, so I really ought to get working on it very quickly. I had hoped to keep it back for his April birthday, but that may not happen.