Estee and Kiddos

Estes is truly the equine version of me.  A crusty old bitch on the outside, but a total marshmallow on the inside (don't tell anyone!).  Usually she does a pretty good job of hiding her soft, gooey insides, but she totally blew it a couple of weeks ago.  A friend of mine from way back (we're talking 19 years - yes, I just cried a little bit, I'm not old enough to have known anyone for 19 years!) came to visit her family and brought her kids up for a "ride".  With kids, normally we just throw them on bareback and lead them around the block.  Gives the kids the feeling that they got to ride without the trauma of taking them up on the mountain.  Trust me, going up on the mountain the first time you've ever climbed up on a horse can be very traumatic.

Jen's daughter, E, happily climbed up on Washoe and waited for D to get settled on Estes.  Only, he was having no part of it.  We managed to get him up on her, but that was as far as we could go.  His poor little nerves were shot just at the thought of being on her - and she's a short little mare.  Despite being absolutely terrified, he managed to find a smile for the camera...

Mom headed out, leading Washoe with E on board and I followed up riding Estes. 

We made it around the block intact and stopped just long enough for Jen to snap a picture.

I was able to convince D to give Estes a treat for letting him sit up on her.  I just love how soft her eyes are and how gentle she's being taking the treat from his hand.

Queen Estes Says...

"Stand still?"

"You want I should stand still?  Fine!"

"This is what I think of this Standing Still Lesson!"

"Are we perfectly clear now?" (look closely)

"Standing still again? I won't have it!"

"I won't!"

"I won't!"

Dang, I love my opinionated mare!

This and That - 4th of July related

On my way up to the Lodge last week, I was astounded by the St. Vrain River.  It's higher than I ever remember it being.  Part of it is the fact that Winter forgot to leave, Spring never showed, and Summer cranked up the thermostat.  We were well above normal for snow pack, so once Summer showed up, the run-off has been astounding.  Also, Summer brought a friend, Monsoon, who has been determined to cause flash floods.  Winter, Summer and Monsoon have worked together to bring record highs for our river levels.

This is just crazy...

You shouldn't be able to see the river that close to the level of the road.

I had a harebrained idea to paint the horses' hooves red, white and blue for the parade.  Since I had no idea where to find hoof paint in those colors, I settled for non-toxic poster paint.  It worked out pretty well...

Except for the dirt that the horses managed to kick all over their pedicures.  *shrugs* It was worth a try and it was fun.

The morning of the Fourth, Nebalee got in on the action and put the sparkle polish over the paint.  I don't know how I managed to not get a picture of that.  I decided the week before that I was going to ride bareback in the parade - if Estes hasn't killed me on the mountian, she probably wasn't going to kill me on the same road that we ride when we don't have time to go up the mountain.  The problem of riding without a saddle meant that we couldn't do a whole lot of decorating.  Instead of wearing the "skirt" she usually does for the parade, she got a big pretty bow in her tail...

...and the 3 Heathens "brand" in blue sparkles.  None of the kids were at the parade, so they get a nod with the brand. 

Poor Washoe had to wear a pretty bow too...but what a cool picture...

Strutting our stuff...

Even Ripley got in on the action (as a spectator)...

Equine Bloggers! It's Almost Time!

Can you believe there's less than a month until this year's HCR?  Where did the time go?



With Mom's hip surgeries, recovery and the beginning of their season, it took us a while to come up with a schedule for HCR, but we've got a tentative one hammered out.

Thursday 

3:00 - Check in at the Lodge

6:00 - Welcome dinner

Friday

8:00 - Breakfast

Saddle fit seminar by Dr. Dave (time TBA)

Horse games (time TBA)

12:00ish - Lunch

Free time for shopping/touring RMNP/Estes Park (time TBA)

6:00 - BBQ at Livery

Saturday

9:00 - Breakfast

11:00 - Ride to Calypso Cascades, sack lunch furnished.  Cost $65/horse

3:00 - 6:00 free time

6:00 - Dinner at Lodge

Sunday

9:00 - Breakfast

11:00 - Check-out

By extending HCR a day, we've increased the amount of free/blogging time.  After all, we are a group of equine bloggers, right?

If anyone has any other ideas for activities or has an area of expertise that they'd like to share, let me know.  I am considering doing a short presentation on the Bosu ball and exercises that helped improve my balance; I'll bring the Bosu up so everyone can give it a try if they'd like.

If you haven't yet registered for HCR, click here for information.  The Lodge is filling fast, and HCR is just next month, so if you've been on the fence about joining us, just do it!  You won't regret it, I promise.

Winner!

Congratulations Shirley!  You won $25.00 to reward yourself for sucking it up.

Shoot me an email with your email address and I'll hook you up with Rebecca from Horse and Wildlife Gifts.

Contest entries

I'm super behind on everything.  I'll have the winner drawn and posted late Tuesday night.  So sorry about the delay, there's just not enough time in the day anymore.

Sucking it up and a give-away

Last year, I had Mrs Mom and Mr Mrs Mom come up to Colorado to teach me how to take care of Estee's feetsies.  Since they came up late in the season, I didn't have to do a whole lot to maintain her feet.

When we brought the horses back up this spring, we had our farrier come up and do the trim, because there was no way I was going to take off as much hoof as need to come off.  Eventually, though, I knew I'd have to do it myself.  Frankly, it terrified me.  Ole Thrush came back for a visit and I knew that I couldn't put it off any longer.

Last week, I took a deep breath, put my big girl panties on and gave it a go.  First, let's just say that Mrs Mom and Mr Mrs Mom make it look far too easy, but I did learn something cool from them...



I may not be very good at the actual rasping of the hoof, but I can flip that damn rasp around and look impressive.

I was afraid to mess around with Estes' hooves, which is why I wanted to learn how to do it right.  Frankly, after learning more about trimming, I went from being merely nervous about it to having almost a paralyzing fear of it.  I could really screw up her hooves.  I took a deep breath, put on my big girl panties, picked up the hoof knife and made my first itty-bitty cut.  Estes didn't kill me and I didn't hurt her.  I shaved bit after bit off of her sole and frog, then hit it with the rasp.  To say that I was conservative would be an understatement, but I figured if I took off just the tiniest bit every week, I couldn't do too much damage.

It was, so far, the hardest thing I've had to learn to do to take care of my Equine Soulmate.

So, what about this give-away?  I know that we have all had to learn to do things that we were afraid/intimidated/didn't want to do in order to take care of our horses.  It may be the worst experience of our lives, but we suck it up and do it because we love our horses.

As a reward, someone should win a horse-themed gift.  Leave a comment telling us what you did/learned/overcame in order to take care of your horse.  Was it worming, vaccinating, trimming?  Certainly we've all had things that we didn't want to do, but did out of love for our animals.  Each comment left before midnight (MST) on Friday, June 17 will be entered into a random name picker and the winner will receive a $25.00 gift certificate to reward themselves with.