Horses

Remember the Broodmare? She kept our Little Lady company after Champ died, and before Phoenix came into my life.


I just got an email from her owner including pictures of her new baby! Suzy gave birth to a lovely chestnut filly- a big girl- with three white socks, a white blaze, and a huge white blanket across her hindquarters. She is gorgeous. Suzy looks great and I feel so good that we took good enough care of her that her baby came out all perky and...alive!!! What a buzz to actually see the little critter that poked around inside the mare's belly for the last few months that she lived with us.

That was a nice little piece of happiness in my email.

Here's our Little Lady modelling her new Short Shank Jointed Curb Bit. That's the Thing In Her Mouth, in case you're wondering.


Can you tell she's just so stoked to be graduated up to the Big Girl Bit. I mean. Wow. The Enthusiasm. Hey, that was sarcasm outta me!!!! This horse doesn't get up for much of anything. She gets right upset if I take Phoenix away from her, or if you set up a tent on the lawn beside the corral, which ripples in the breeze, and then have a kid crawl into it which makes it look like THE TENT ATE THE KID but other than that she really doesn't get excited about much, including a new bit. This is why we kept her for our kids. She takes good care of them!

She doesn't really seem to care that there's a camera in her face either. She's so cute but often has a completely bored look. This is not a big horse. To get an idea of proportion, I am 5'1" tall. She's only 14hh (in horse height speak). She's a very stocky and muscular build, but she's actually very petite.


And I just noticed that the John Deere hat looks ridiculously huge on my child sized head. Whatevs.

Somebody else got a new bit last week. Here's my boy Phoenix in a nice Eggbutt Snaffle. Just take a minute to soak in that crazy term. Eggbutt Snaffle. That's what it's called! I love the horse world.



Now you can soak up the beauty of my horse. Go ahead. I do every time I see him. You may too.

Yeah...I think I'm in love again.

Here we are on our first trip around the corral with the new steering mechanism in his mouth. I try not to get too heavy handed with a horse's mouth. I am getting better at using my legs and the shift of my weight to cue him. (Although I still need to lengthen my legs and keep my heels down! I blame years of riding bareback!) After the first time around, he was already done chawing at the bit. He just keeps getting better and better.



Look at him standing there.


He's a good boy. He knows what WHOA means.

Of course he's testing me. He has to. He needs to find what my limits are, what I'll let him get away with, what I expect of him. He needs to know if I really mean it or not. If it turns out that I don't mean it, and that I'm not worthy of his trust, then he has to take over. That's the way horses work. Somebody has to be the leader! He'd kind of like to be the leader...and I like that about him.

I need the challenge. I don't know any other way. It's always been a challenge, since I got my first crusty little Shetland pony when I was five years old. My last horse was a flashy, fiery little ball of righteous arrogance. I loved it. He fought me every step of the way for the first four or five years. Yeah, it bugged me...but I kept him! Phoenix is a keeper. He's a fast learner, he's stubborn, he's clever, and he's a real mellow fellow. I'm older than I was when I bought my Half Arab in 1989. I'm ready for a Mella Fella. He's a challenge, but in a laid back kind of way. I'm up for it. I like him pretty good.

It doesn't hurt that he's handsome.





And just look at these spots!



I'm looking forward to many more years of memorizing his spots...