SnowBunnies

I'm glad that I can approach my resting pony without the stomach dropping fear of "omg why is he laying down?!"  I know him, I know his napping times and this was just one of them. It took a while for me to get here..to let go of fear a bit.  

It had snowed a lot the night before with high winds and low temps so I had blanketed him. He was warm and happy to shed his rug and roll in the snow

We rode a bareback hack. The pasture was literally too pretty to ride in, so I left it alone and we went for a ride down the road

I mean, sometimes, you just can't beat nature or mess it up

We had such powdery snow to plow through, what a good work out for Laz and Mason

 Playing in a side field along the road, where Laz was pawing at the snow threatening to roll

I had to steer him past it as he full on ROLLED with me in the water only last month...I didn't want to test his 'want' again

 Look at how much snow we have already, it's beautiful

 Bare toes

 Relaxing

"I iz sleepin nows..you go homez"

On Saturday, I took a bunch of videos of our ground work for an online lesson I'll have with my Parelli trainer coming up this week. SO excited! For $25 she helps with any 'issues' or sticky spots and we have one going on.

It's minor but I want to nip it in the bud before it escalates  Laz is tossing his head and doing this physical 'thing'..it's not a buck, it's not a crow hop, it's like snaking his head side to side, tossing out his front legs, forward and semi crow hopping/baby threatening bucks.

At any rate, he did it on the trails this past Fall, and lately in our winter work so, I want/need help with it. Looking forward to what she has to say :)

Sunday, I got video of us riding, and dealing with said situation

But despite the tiny misbehaving moments caught on our youtube, Laz was such a good boy...

 We road rode (lol!) and played in the thick soft snow

I used our treeless and need to take the stirrups down a couple of notches-yipes

 Working through some deeper snow/brush aka making a good trail pony :)

 Some trot work (girl, keep you head UP)

 Some stills from our ride

Dressage anyone?! ;)

In all seriousness, he is acting very coltish and I want to know how to handle this. 

It reads as soooo small on video but under saddle it feels big and STRONG

I just want to know 'why?'

Do I channel it? Do I push through? Do I stop him? etc etc...we'll see after we skype to discuss 

The side tossing of his head side to side, in a bareback situation makes it VERY hard to stay on

Being he did this a lot more on our rides, I want to contain/change it now before it turns into a nasty habit.

Speaking of coltish, doesn't Laz look like a 3 yr old below?! 

He's a handsome 11 yrs old :)

Another video still and maybe a favorite photo... what a handsome boy

Speaking of handsome, what better view than your man riding your fuzzy horse

Billy is 6'3" for size comparison, he makes Laz look like a pony. We just walked around and I stuck by Laz's head as Billy got to enjoy 'the feeling' of Laz walking

So cute :) 

You have to appreciate a non horsey hubbie willing to come out to the barn to video tape while he misses football.  

The Lions suck anyway, right??? ;)

 Laz eating his warm mash of hay cubes, beet pulp, spirulina and chia seed

 Not one calorie was burned ;)

Adjusting

 On our way out of town for a few days, we were able to stop by the barn to check in on Laz to/from.

He's doing well, I wonder if he was able to say his own quiet 'good bye' in the night when Justin was laid to sleep nearby before he was picked up the next day.  

It was a quiet, still, starry and clear night, so I hope so...

Christmas morning, the barn owner sent me these two images;

"Prancer"

It was exactly what I needed. A smile and a laugh.

The horses were fed peppermints and each got a Guinness in their grain at night.

Camel lips, hmmm seems someone smelled a candy cane!

On Christmas Day, I was so grateful to be able to stop mid day for some Christmas hugs

and kisses

 Lots of both.

We both needed them

Laz got a new saddle pad from BOT which I thought would be great for winter riding.

Black licorice which has become his new favorite thanks to E introducing it to him ;) and a Blue Ribbon from OTTB Designs. I think Laz deserves a blue ribbon for just being his awesome self and my wonderpony

 Today, I went out early in the morning and put on his winter blanket. We are supposed to have 25 mph winds and 4-6" of snow so I thought he could use the extra protection despite his thick coat.

The herd has seemed to actually come together a bit closer, sensing they lost an important one.

If weather cooperates I hope to get Laz out for a change of pace mentally and physically.

 And of course Mason channeled his inner wolf and enjoyed his barn romp with having a three day hiatus 

Thanks for the kind comments on my last post. 

It helps so much to vent on my blog and to read words of encouragement.

xoxo

The loss of a dear friend, Justin

 Yesterday was one of those days, where it's tremendously hard to be a horse Mom.

My friend E, lost her beautiful WB X Justin yesterday...Laz's best friend.

 He showed mild signs of colic, we met at the barn and she did everything, everything right to try and help him as we waited for our Vet. Thankfully, our Vet was on Emergency call but despite about 5 hours of medicine, hand walking, massage, curry combing, tubing full of electrolytes it was starting to become clear that he was showing signs of possible distress. 

She made the brave decision (and to say incredibly hard is an understatement) to end it and not let him suffer.

We all cried, sobbed and all our hearts shattered.

 Laz had been by Justin's side almost the entire time. Free walking with us as we hand walked Justin for hours.  

Towards the end, we had to keep shooing him off as he kept nudging at his buddy "come on...come play!"

E thanked her lovely boy for the 11-1/2 yrs that he was her best friend and the world's best horse.

He really was a kind hearted, silly, and  loving horse!

 As her friend, I was there for Justin along with the Vet, the Barn owners and her Mom so she leave with her boyfriend and not have to watch him be put down.

 It was very quiet, very peaceful yet completely heart breaking.

I kissed him, told him how thankful I was that he and Laz loved each other before he went.

 I shut his eyes and just wept.

 I cried because my friend lost her beautiful, talented horse so suddenly...

 I cried because my horse lost his best friend...

 His favorite riding buddy...

 Justin gave Laz confidence and friendship

There was just a very special, honest and caring relationship between these two.

 I know Laz has never had a friend, in my owning him, like Justin

 They were together always. 

If I took Laz away, Justin waited for him.

 Two like and kind minds...

 Playful

It will take a lot of time for us all to heal and for the herd to adjust.

It's never easy to lose a very special soul

Justin-Tyme, I know you know you were well loved. 

I want to thank you for being my horse's best friend and for being a sweet and gentle horse.  

May you be running in heaven above

You will be missed dearly.

Slow, easy and chill

Slow, easy and chill has been our work ethic lately, at least at the barn. In my work life, the total opposite is true. Crazy, hectic, busy, etc is my daily life leaving me so stressed out and with little pony play time. Ah well...

Our foggy misty weather. I'm not hating the 40-50 degree days in December, but not sure the ponies agree. 

They are shaggy and wanting cooler weather

 Fatty Laz has been doing a LOT of this...

 He is always caked in mud when I get there. ALWAYS

 We've been still doing either ground work or riding

 I even had one day with a little extra time to play with Red, the little chestnut OTTB.

He's suuuuper smart and a very very quick learner. He's fun

Bareback hack down the road a few times. 

Laz has been comfie barefoot so we are able to do trot work and canter down the road.

His hip/back/pelivs? is not quite 100% and I've been getting him adjusted by his Chiro along with some acupuncture to try and help get him more and more sound.  

But he's been doing SO well and no more tendon issues (swelling/etc)

He was trimmed last week and we opted to not cast this round to see where it leaves him. 

I need to do updated hoof pictures! 

He has been landing so much better on his fronts, heel first! YAY!

 Eating a Christmas tree-yum yum!

 This barn and stone wall just calls to me for photos!!!

 On our alone bareback hacks we still play 'trail pony' and I do a lot of desensitizing and exposure of what I can, when I can. Laz is great. We worked on some canter sessions and he was chill with no playful antics of wanting to buck. I also had pre readjusted his bitless just in case that was causing some discomfort.

 When decorating our Christmas tree, I pulled this ornament that has a baby Mason swimming in Lake Charlevoix, awwwwwwww

9.5 yrs later...angel boy.

Wishing everyone a VERY happy holiday season with zero stress (if possible) and healthy animals!

Gallop into December

Sometimes things can come full circle.

About 4.5 years ago, I had the major ITCH to start riding again. I started looking at horses to lease and found a great person through Craigslist and we totally bonded. My friend Sam had several horses and she wanted a lessor riding  buddy. We are the same age and it was such a fun fit. From that experience is how I met Laz (when he was dropped off at our farm along with 44 other OTTB's HOT off the track to be sold or sent to slaughter)

I adopted Laz, we moved barns and my friend started her own riding barn about an hour away.

We have always stayed in touch and finally had set a date to meet up and ride.

She trailer-ed her 17.2 WB Seeley, and had a friend and her paint pony join in.

4 years later and we ride again

I had rode Laz for a good 35 minutes to warm him up. He's been WIRED lately with loads of TB energy and just keeps testing me with naughty "IMZ SOOO EXCITEDZZZ" squeals and shoulder pops/neck snaking. So much so, that I need to re-align his bitless to make sure we are still 'connected' lol

Off to the trails

 Sweaty boy. 

Laz did quite well being he's never ridden with these two horses OR MET even except for our way to the trail.  He was a bit more drama llama but still lead the majority of the way, but with much more Arab action (snorty, arched neck, prancy moves)

 Ex-Eventer Seeley loooves to RUN and Laz quickly picked up on this and race time was 'game on.'

Not what I wanted or intended. There are parts of the trail where it's fun to canter, but Laz would racehorse LEAPT into a flat gallop the second he saw Seeley getting ready, and I had to use everything to re balance him and bring him down a bit. He was in racer mode which was fine, but he was listening more to Seeley than me at that point, which was not OK.

 Towards the end, as dusk was approaching and I had a pretty wet horse, I had to remind the group "UH, we need to cool these crazy monkies OUT and Laz needs a mental stop on the racing" 

I'm not into having a wet horse at the end of a ride...or having a crazy amped horse during the trail who now wanted to RUN everything.

This little pony was super chill the whole time, lol

 My friend had brought dinner, loads of delic appetizers; hummus  tabbouli  grape leaves, home made fallefal, etc. I brought a bottle of  South African Foodbarn Rose. YUM

 And our ride below;

Not a bad way to welcome in the winter that is soon to approach

Now, I have some training thinking to do, of how to keep Laz interested in trail riding while maintaining his manners and remaining with me as a partner...stay tuned