No Updates

You won't be hearing from me for a while.  I fell off Thor and broke one bone in my elbow and two in my wrist, shattering my wrist.  From where I fell I had a nearly five kilometre walk to where the truck was, a thirty minute drive up a dirt road to the house.  Then it was another fifteen minutes up the pavement to the hospital.  I was transferred by ambulance to another hospital and spent the last four days in the hospital.  I had a seven hour surgery and have three metal plates and 26 pins in my arm.  I've typed this out very slowly on one hand.  I won't be doing any barrel racing, or riding in general for a while.  Theres also going to be no updates from me for a while, its too difficult to type.  I'm just letting everyone know.

Horse Day

This post is long overdue but I haven't felt like typing since it happened.  April 21st my sister, two woman she works with Di and Un, and Di's daughter A came out to have a horse day.  My mom and I arrived at the stable first so we went out and caught Socks and Jimmy and brought them inside.  We were brushing them when the others arrived.  This was not Socks' first time doing the tourist thing, as we always call it, she's done it many, many times and even now, the stable owner's children love helping me brush her so I wasn't concerned about her with them.  It was Jimmy's first time though so we mostly let Un do things with him, since A is only six.  She helped me out with Socks.  She liked helping me clean out Socks' feet.  M helps me all the time and Socks is great about it.  If there's a kid cleaning her foot, she'll let me hold up her leg for however long they need.

I let them all feed Socks treats.  At first A was afraid to but she wanted to try after she watched me do it.  Un and Di also tried and Un and A loved it so much they kept running back to get more treats for her and Jimmy.  I was a little afraid they were going to make them sick.

After teaching them how to groom the horses we took the ponies outside to the grass pens to let them graze while we all ate lunch.  A was so excited to be near them, she kept jumping up and down with excitment outside their pen, begging us to let her in with them (she was not allowed, not unless my mom or I were in with her.) 

After lunch we went out to the pasture to catch Artemis.  She made us walk to her.  A and my mom reached her first.  Ebony and Oceania came running over to us so I stayed with Di and Un as they gave them attention.

Artemis loves little kids.  It probably has to a lot to do with the fact that the stableowners two kids, M and L have been around her since she was born.  A and M are the same age.  She's used to little kids running around her, although I did explain to A she was not allowed to run around them.  She listened to me really well about them at least.

A loved Artemis.  She couldn't understand the different between a weanling and a pony.  She kept calling Artemis a pony and told me she was too big to be a baby horse.  She also telling me that she wanted to ride Artemis since she was the pony.

Un absolutly loved Oceania.  She thought her colour was the prettiest she'd ever seen.  It was hard to tear her away from her.

A really wanted to help me lead Artemis back.  I let her hold onto the end of the lead rope (my lead rope is insanely long) while I did the actual leading.  A didn't notice though and was happy enough.

A helped me brush Artemis and then it was time for them to ride.  A kept bouncing up and down as she waited for us to hurry up and finish saddling.  My sister, Jillian, took Un on Jimmy while I was going to lead A around on Socks.

After they got led around for a while, Di and I walked a few laps around the arena.

Un and I then rode around the arena a few times.  A wanted to race us so as we walked, she ran in front of us.

A then really wanted to race so Un stopped riding Jimmy so A could race Socks and I.  I think my sister captured it nicely in pictures.

The race did not last for long and Socks is still happily undefeated.  I don't have any pictures, but A loved trotting on Socks.  It meant I had to run around the arena with Socks trotting behind me, A yelling "More!  More!"  as she giggled madly.  It was her favourite but I could only run so much before I couldn't do it anymore.    Running in cowboy boots is not that easy. 

It was a long day, six hours out the with horses but all of them were great.  We might have another tourist day in a little while, a friend of my sisters really wants to do her engagement photos with a horse so she might come out and have Socks in the pictures.  It's not for sure yet but it's a possibility.

I'm Back

I'm finally back and am ready to begin blogging (and commenting) on a more regular basis again.  Last year my mom won a weekend long trip to her choice of either Disneyland in California or Disneyworld in Florida.  She chose Disneyland and ended up extending the trip to a week long.  Orignally all four of us were going to go but my brother and sister ended up not being able to come so it was just my mom and I.  We did everything we coudl physically do.  We spent three days at California Adventure park an Disneyland, one day at Seaworld, one day at the San Diego Zoo and one day at Universal Studios.  It was a very busy, fun week but I'm very glad to be home. 

We got home at 4:30 yesterday and as soon as we walked in the house I begged my sister to take me out to see the horses.  It's the longest I've been away from Socks and Jimmy since they came down to the stable and the longest I've been away from Artemis her entire life.  They were very happy to see me.  Jimmy and Socks came right over, Socks kept making her happy motorcycle noise she makes when she's extremely happy to see something (usually reserved for food or her baby, only occasinally for me).  Artemis was the funniest.  As soon as she heard my voice her head shot up and she came thundering over to us.  She followed us as we walked back up the gate, running in circles and playing with Ebony and Oceania.  She's starting to look like an actual yearling instead of a baby.  She's completely shedded out in the front but her sides need a good brushing. 

I was very happy to see them.  We're going out tomorrow, Monday, but I'm not sure if we'll ride.  They all need a good grooming.

Show Names

I'll get around to posting about this day...one of these times.

I honestly didn't expect to be blogging again before I left but we had such a fun time tonight I figured I might as well.  I wasn't even planning on riding, I was so tired and bleh.  We were just going to go deworm Socks, visit Artemis and leave.  Then my mom decided to ride and I figured I might as well ride too.  I'm glad I did.

L, the little girl at the stable, was out hanging with us and she came in the arena as she rode.  She doesn't usually but it was just us and we weren't doing anything, just walking around the edge of the arena.  She apparently decided that was too boring because she got us all involved in a horse show.  It was a decent sized class, ten horses.  There was me on Socks, my mom on Jimmy and then L on her prize jumping horse Max and Isabel, a five time world champion, on her Appaloosa Spots.  I have no idea who the other riders were but they were tough competition for us!

L was both a competitor and the race announcer.  She asked for our horses show names.  Most of our horses don't have one, and by most, I mean only Jimmy and Artemis do.  Artemis is of course, Artemis Areia, this blog is named after her, Areia meaning Warlike.  Jimmy's show name is Mr. Stewart, since he's in part named after Jimmy Stewart (He's also named after the horse in the movie, An Unfinished Life).  Socks doesn't have one.  I like to incorporate their name into their show name and I've never been able to come up with something for Socks.  It doesn't help that I don't like her name to begin with but really, I don't like Clean Socks or anything like that which is waht most people suggest.

I've had Socks for nine years this summer and in that time I've been unable to come up a good show name.  L came up with one in two seconds.  Socks is now known as A Perfect Pair of Socks.  Honestly, I don't mind it.  I think it's cute.  And since L was our race announcer, I got to hear "--insert my name here...riding A Perfect Pair of Socks!"  many, many times tonight so I'm convinced it won't sound that bad at an actual show.  T, L's mother, likes it a lot too.   So thanks to L, I finally have a show name for Socks!  Before this, it was just Socks.

Jimmy also got a new show name.  I guess Mr. Stewart wasn't good enough.  He is now Chubby Potato.  I burst out laughing when she said that.  Well poor Chubby Potato didn't do so well in the races.  Socks and I won each time, L and Max came in second and poor Chubby Potato and my mom came in fifth.  Yup, they got beat by four imaginary horses, only one of which even had a name. 

It was a lot of fun honestly, she was so funny to watch.  After riding we ended up talking to T and E for a good hour.  I have the best barn owners ever.

We did go see Artemis, since we'll be gone for a week.  She was cute and adorable as always.  She followed us halfway up to the the gate before she got distracted.  It was a beautiful night, muddy, but the rain at least stopped.  I was upset I didn't have my camera.

Also, Socks ate a carrot!  It shouldn't be exciting but my horse hates normal horse treats.  She actually gets angry if you offer her an apple.  She never used to eat carrots but tonight apparently they were tasty.  Artemis did not agree.

Five Day Deworming

It's been raining the past few days.  We chose a horrible time to do this five-day deworming.  Socks also hates the wormer.  I mean, I can't blame her, it doesn't seem like a good experience anyway.  The first two days weren't good at all, Socks-wise.  Tonight we tried to do something different.  This wormer is more liquid than paste so we tried squirting it in her food.  She licked it all up.  It's a much easier way for all of us.

All the indoor horses have been moved outside so Socks now has a new paddock mate.  Streak moved a while ago, I don't remember if I mentioned that.  Now she's in with Feline, a pretty grey mare.  She's pretty nice.  She's at least half Selle Francais if I remember correctly.  Socks is definitly the dominant one, but we all expected that.  There's been only one time in her life when Socks wasn't the dominant one and that only lasted a few days.  That's when we bought Sadie.  Sadie came in, chased Socks off and took over the herd.  Socks stayed by herself for a few days, and then came back and set things right in the herd.  Sadie never challenged her again.

Artemis is doing well, she's been kind of bratty lately.  She's going into Yearling Boot Camp soon to remind her that behaving isn't just for babies, it's still important for yearlings.  She seems to forget that sometimes.  She is doing well besides that though, she's getting really good at backing up.

Jimmy was horrible with his feet but unfortunantly for him, the round pen has been dry enough to use.  I've been waiting for it all winter.  He didn't want his back feet lifted up (that was his new thing) and so into the round pen he went.  He's been much better about it.  Our goal with him this summer is to get him to lunge. 

I know this is a really short update and I promise I'll do a real one soon.  I still need to write about when my sister's co-workers came out.  That was a long day, six long hours of entertaining a six-year-old girl with the horses on a hot day.  I have updates of the horses up at my dad's, although I still haven't been up to see them.  I've been a bad blogger and it probably won't get better for a few more weeks.  I won't be blogging at all next week as I'm gone, but hopefully after that I'll start being better.

Happy First Birthday!

Happy Birthday!  This post is a day late but I was way too tired last night to write it.  I can't believe it's been a year since I got the phone call telling me about the new addition to my family.  If you could ask any of my friends or family they would tell you that I was more excited for her birthday than my own (we're both April babies!).  It's just so exciting for me that she's a yearling now!

I'm not usually a crazy horse birthday person, I tend to bring them a treat and use it as an excuse to buy them a new halter or something, but nothing more than that.  I decided to throw that out the window this year and be as crazy as I wanted.  Which, as you can see, invovled a pink crown that says Birthday Princess and a pink ribbon to fit on her halter that says Birthday Girl.  She wore the ribbon all night and the crown for most of it, until it got too itchy.  She was great for it, she didn't mind having it over her ears.

Everyone came over to say happy birthday to her and E was the only one who shook his head at me.  He doesn't know how I can expect her to be good when she looks so ridiculous.  I brought her muffins as her treat, and she hated them.  I shouldn't be surprised, Socks is one of the pickiest horses alive and Cas was too.  Jimmy ate most of them.

She also got her feet done which she wasn't very good for, but to be far she'd been standing in the barn for a really long time by that point, since Jimmy took a while.  She was getting tired and grumpy by the end of it.

Here's the little monster the day she was born. 

Here she is on her first birthday.  At the risk of sounding like a mother, I can't believe how much she's grown!  I'm very proud of her too, she's been such an amazing horse to work with!  I'm looking forward to working with her over the next year and getting her ready for her first ride!

Windy Again

Last time we just visited with the ponies.  We didn't bring them in.  I've injured my hand somehow and it was insanely windy out.  They were all a little crazy.  Just enjoy some pictures I took.

Griffin, a new horse at the barn.

Tongue #1

Tongue #2

Tongue #3

Tongue #4

Eli, Jimmy's new paddock mate.

Ebony/Pearl

Oceania

Tona

Next Wednesday also happens to be a certain baby pony's birthday so we're for sure going out to visit that night.  T already asked me when I'm throwing the party.  I guess I might be a little bit excited for it.  I'll get her some kind of treat, and a party hat.  The hat is to annoy my brother.

We are also going to be doing a five-day deworming with Socks.  She was doing good with weight for a while there but she's starting to drop it again.  The five-day deworming will ensure that nothing is being missed and she's for sure worm-free.  It's worked really well for several other hard-keepers here.
Saturday, my sister is bring two co-workers and one of their daughters out to see the ponies so here's hoping they'll all be on their best behavior!