Blog Hop - Week 12

Late.  Again.

Typical.

But I made it this week.

That counts for something, right?

This week's prompt: Firsts.

First horse: Estes is the equine love of my life.  I love, love, love her.

While we were shooting Horse Master with Julie Goodnight,
three weeks after I bought her.

I had offered to sell my children for the opportunity to buy my little mare.  I can't decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I didn't need to sell my kids to buy Estes - she's cheaper to keep than the kids are.

First blog post (on this blog): A Day in the Life.  The timing for reposting this is actually perfect, as the season starts this week for the livery across the street from the lodge.

First blog: Just another perfect day, started out as a way to share my life with my friends and family.  I then branched out to this one, talked Mom and Beel into starting one for the Lodge, and partnered up with Mrs. Mom to start The GunDivas.

First day as a wrangler:  yeah...my first day didn't actually involve horses.  It involved a horse trailer.  A big, red stock trailer that needed washed and waxed.  So the newbie (that was me) did it.

The second day included digging post holes to extend the hitch rail.  In fact, I don't think I touched a horse for the first week I was a wrangler.  I was just so happy to be at the livery that I didn't mind any of the grunt work. 

First new-new car: Ripley, a 2010 Kia Soul Exclaim.  I love, love, love her too.

 I'm running out of firsts...I know there are a ton, but I'm drawing a blank...

My question for you is based on one of Dreaming's answers: Why did you start blogging? Changed my mind.  Here's a new question:  In what way are you spoiled with regard to horse ownership?

I about fell over a month or so ago when I read that another blogger had to haul her horse to the vet for a check-up.  Truly.  It was absolutely shocking to me.  And then I realized how spoiled we are.  Our vet and farrier come to us and their costs are lower than if they had to maintain the overhead of a building and staff.  Even with Estes' brush with death last year, and all of the emergent trips our vet made to her side, her treatment, all told, was less than $300.  Our farrier comes up twice a year to trim and just check on the horses' feetsies - $40.  Mom always throws him some gas money, because he doesn't charge us for the travel if he sees all four horses on the same day.

The biggest way I'm spoiled though is through the Bionic Cowgirl (Mom) - she takes care of Estes day in and day out during the summer.  I scoop poop and move hay when I'm up there, about once a week, but that doesn't nearly come close to the amount of work that she does for the herd.




Hobby Horse Blog Hop - Week 9

It's that time again!  Of course, with the craziness that is my life, I'm a couple of days late hooking up with Dreaming over at Living a Dream, but at least this week I made it.

1. Tell us a bit about your feelings or experiences regarding musicals. Do you like them? Have you been in one? What recollections might you have about musicals?

I love musicals.  Well, most of them.  Cats, Grease, West Side Story, Wicked - all my favorites.  I love going to the theater to watch them, but my *favorite* thing is to go to the dinner theater.  I love the more intimite atmosphere of the dinner theater.

I've never been in a musical, due to my lack of singing ability.  However, Grease is a staple in our home.  My kids have been raised on it and can sing along with me as we good naturedly butcher the songs :)

2. Tell about a near miss or a fall that was simply stupid. Don't scare me... or other readers! Until my back end feels better, I don't really want to read about a compound fracture, dislocated thing-a-ma-jig or a broken helmet and a concussion. (Although, I am most compassionate and if that happened to you, I am oh, so sorry - and I'm glad you are better now!)

How 'bout a separated rib?  Washoe dumped me a few years ago.  Made me a most excellent tip off the fall, but it wasn't anything I'd care to repeat.

Whatever you do, DON'T read about the Bionic Cowgirl's accident.

3. What song (or part of a song) defines an event in your week?
I have no idea.  I don't usually think in musical terms, though RCC certainly does. I'm sitting here, smoke coming out of my little head trying to come up with something...I got nothing.  Sorry :(

Ok, my question for you: what new skill do you want to learn?  Can be horse-related or not.

I want to learn to side-pass and I want to ride bridle-less this summer.  Maybe only in the pen; too many outside variables out on the trail, but it would be fun.

PSA: Do You Have Horse Insurance?

Image from Google Images

Not the kind that will help pay for colic surgery.  Liability insurance.  Do you carry it?

I can tell you that it wasn't ever anything I thought about when I was younger.  I rode my friends' horses all over the place, I rode livery horses.  It wasn't until I bought Estes that Mom suggested I get liability insurance for her.  She and Bill had to have liability insurance when we ran the livery, of course, but it never occurred to me to carry it on my own personal horse.  But why didn't it?  Mostly because I was the only one who rode her, and I have health insurance, so if I got hurt riding, my health insurance would cover any injuries I might have.

There are so many ways horses can cause injuries not only to yourself, but others.  What if your horse got out of the pen and was hit by a car?  Happened to a friend of mine.  Her horse was killed and the car was totalled, but the people in the car were okay.  What if they hadn't been okay?  What if their car insurance didn't cover a horse/car accident?  She would have been on the hook for damages.

Our horses live right next to the livery.  People line up for their livery rides between the livery hitch rail and our fence.  What's to stop them from allowing their children to climb into our fence with our horses?  It's happened before.  People can be clueless about the dangers of horses and often don't think twice about letting their children run amok.

Out on the trail, there are so many hazards that can cause accidents, not the least of which are other animals.  Mom's arm got busted by someone else's horse.  Thank God Mom carries good accident insurance, otherwise she and Bill might have been out a whole lot more money.

Liability insurance for your horse in Colorado is cheap.  Cheap-cheap.  Like, $50/year for $1,000,000 coverage for an individual membership through the Colorado Horse Council. Like, $95/year for a family membership.  A Google search turns up a whole heap of equine liability insurance options, from adding it to your homeowner's insurance to buying into a policy like we do with the CHC.

If you don't have liability insurance for your horses, even if you are the only one who handles and rides your horse, you should think about it.  There's no telling what can go wrong and no one wants to lose everything over an accident.

Washoe the Wonder Idiot Does Water

Beel describes Washoe as the kid who runs around with his fly undone and has no clue.  I just call him the Wonder Idiot.  But to be fair, he didn't have a very good start.  His first humans treated him like a lap dog and kept him alone - he had no instruction from other horses as to how to behave.  He truly had no "horse manners", he had no clue how to interact with Jesse and Ranger and it took him a long time to learn.  His human manners were even worse when Mom bought him.  He'd been treated like a lap dog, as I've said, but he got big and pushy to the point that he was dangerous to his first owners.  Moving in with Jesse and Ranger and Mom and Bill was a bit of a culture shock to poor Washoe man.

Washoe's always had a bit of trouble with water, too.  Again, not his fault.  Mom had asked the barn boss (a total asshole who we ran off after he threatened to hit one of the wranglers) to help work Washoe.  When Washoe balked at the water, he wrapped his lead rope around a tree and started whipping and winching him across the small stream.  Mom just about killed the barn boss for that little stunt.  I'm surprised she didn't take the whip to the ass.

Since that time, Washoe the Wonder Idiot has had issues with water.  We've worked him through most of them with a lot of patience and firm guidance, but never whipping or winching.  Because of his little problem with water, it's always a joy when we get to do things like this water obstacle.

Lining up...

...between the rock and over the log...

...front is clear...

...and now the back is clear.

I called it a water obstacle of moderate difficulty.  Mom disagrees, as I didn't have to duck under overhanging branches.  That, she says, would have increased the difficulty to moderate.  This, that I did, was merely average difficulty.

That woman is so picky some times.

No, Really!

Mom put up a picture of me and Washoe over at her blog with my hand up in the air. 

I was demonstrating something I had seen on Facebook, but she thinks I was just super excited about being out on a real ride for thefirst time in six months or so.  I suppose I was a little excited to be out, but I was telling her about this...


Can you imagine doing that entire routine with your hands above your head?

A Real Ride

Stealing Ranger for a walk around the block back in February was great, but we went out on a real ride today.  I had to ride Washoe who was not-quite-a-Wonder Idiot.  On the Washoe scale of  idiocy, he was down-right excellent.  I only had to get after him a couple of times for attempting to eat.  We laid down the ground rules right off the bat and he tested the rules less than usual.

I'm concerned about the lack of snow.  We saw less snow today than we should have.  We're already under a fire ban and it's only April.

I thought we'd get some moisture today from the look of the clouds hanging over the mountain as I headed up the hill...

I promise, Mt. Meeker and Longs Peak are there somewhere

As I climbed higher, the clouds cleared, which made me happy.

It doesn't take too long for three fools who don't know squat about horses  to tie the lead ropes around their necks and climb up bareback (<--- that's for you Mrs Mom), so shortly after I arrived at the Lodge we were off.

Where's the snow?

Ranger found some.
And promptly fell through.

Snow?

I can't believe the frogs were singing,
their pond is drier than it was at the end of the year.

SNOW!
Not much, and certainly not enough to ward off the fire gods.

It was a great ride, which I needed desperately.  With my change in position at work, it looks like I'll get to get more equine therapy in each week.  My hope is to get my arse back in riding shape before Queen Estes comes home.

Hobby Horse Blog Hop - Week 7

I'm not actually very good at getting this done every week, averaging every other week, but I'll try to get better.  If you want to join in, please do, just click the link at the bottom.  Dreaming over at Living a Dream hosts this fun hop every week (even if I'm really bad at making it weekly).

1. I was so embarrassed when....at first, I couldn't think of anything horse-related and then I remembered getting hung up in front of my guests at the livery.
2. What did your horse (dog, husband, cat, bird, kid) do recently that 'made your day ' ? Estes is still at winter pasture, so she won't make my day until she comes home for the summer.  But...look at these sweeties enjoying the sun...doesn't that just make you smile?

3. Do you use sheets on your horse(s) during the summer? Mom has borrowed a blanket from Compass on bitterly cold, wet winter days for Queen Estes, but I've never used a sheet on her during the summer.

My question:  How many hours, on average, do you ride - for fun - a week?  Not because you're training for an event or working a horse, but just because you enjoy riding?