Thursday, February 26, 2009
I'm back!!!
:) I got my computer back tonight! And they were able to save all of my pictures! Yes! That's truly all I wanted too. I don't care about previous reports I've written or power points I've created, especially since most of them I have on my USB. I have so much to share with you all, but I have to reinstall EVERYTHING, including Office and all of my picture programs, so once I have that done I will post away like none other! Hope you all have a GREAT weekend! I know I will- I have the outside world back now! ;)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Oh man....
Sooo.... my laptop presented my with a gift last night (again), the Black Screen of Death, and I am unsure if it will ever come back to life. I will have limited internet access this weekend as I am staying here in Pullman for the weekend and the library is full of "mid-termers" but I will try my hardest to upload what I had to post for Wednesday sometime this weekend. Hopefully I can get my computer running again soon, until then please wait patiently for new posts and pics from my INCREDIBLE ride from last Saturday! I'll give you a hint about what we encountered, I'll explain later:
Hope you all have a great weekend! Looks like it's going to be a nice one here in the PNW! ;)
Hope you all have a great weekend! Looks like it's going to be a nice one here in the PNW! ;)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Going to see The Dream
The day had finally come. I was going to see the horse from the emails. The owner of the horse was going to be unavailable to show her to me that day, but one of the gals who sent me the email about her, Ann, agreed to meet me out at the facility so I could get a look at her. It's funny looking back now because this facility is visible from two different roads that I drove past for years! I had never seen horses there because the pastures along the roads were used to grow hay only. I hadn't realized the horses were out back behind the barn. Silly me.
As I pulled into the long drive way, I got a little nervous. What was I doing? Really, what was I thinking getting a young horse when I am still going to college on the other side of the state?! Oh well, I was there so I might as well check her out. Besides, she probably isn't right for me, so whatever.
I met Ann in the barn and we grabbed Dakota's halter as she was still out in the pasture. We walked out there together, me getting more anxious by the second. Dakota was standing next to Ann's chestnut gelding Sailor. I thought maybe they would bolt up to join us cause besides being a brisk and breezy clear December day, they had never met me before, but they just jogged up to us intently instead. Ann pulled Dakota's halter on and shooed Sailor away.
I have to be honest. My first impression of Dakota was not the reaction I expected. She was shorter than I imagined and she had almost no tail. I really shouldn't have been so surprised her being an appy and all, but I just wasn't use to seeing a horse whose a tail didn't get past their hocks. Star's luxuriously thick appy tail touches the ground.... I had to snap out of the comparing this horse to Star, so I stepped back and took a better look. She was covered in mud and I remember not being able to see her feet very well. As you will learn later, feet are a bad deal for me. I would have quit looking at her right then and there if her feet were too small or deformed to severely.
Since I couldn't tell, we decided to bring her into the barn and groom her up. I was looking forward to this because you can learn so much about a horse by just being around them and seeing what kind of ground manners they have. Ann handed me the lead and we headed to the barn. When we were inside, I tied Dakota to the tie ring and grabbed a curry. Dakota stood with her feet still, but she was fidgeting with the rope and liping at Sailor, who had returned to his stall to see what was going on with his girl. I got her curried and got started with a stiff brush. The mud was removed from her coat so I started on her feet. I grabbed a hoof pick and brushed the dried dirt and mud off her unshod hooves. Her front feet she picked up easily, but she was pretty nervous with me handling her hind feet. OK, interesting but not that big of a deal.
That last bit made sense when Ann informed me that Dakota had not really been asked to do much since the last time they rode her, in August. Hmmm.... Considering she had probably just been brushed and messed with on the ground since then, I was glad she was as calm as she was about having a strange person work with her so closely. I remember liking what I was seeing with her, conformationally speaking. She is in no way perfect, but there were no glaring issues that would suggest she would be more susceptible to lameness or injuries.
Now that she was clean and I could evaluate her more accurately, we took her out to the small outdoor arena to take some, more or less, conformation shots. Please ignore that some of these photos did not turn out so good. They were taken with an old disposable camera I found in my closet just before I went to see her. When I pointed the camera straight at her, it ended taking a picture to either the right or left of her. The horrible color distortion of the frames makes the pictures even more laughable. Anyway, this is Dakota/Mercy the first day I went to see her:
Yes, I have been asked before if she was a mule, lol!:
Note the shorty tail... supposedly someone *cough* ate it.... I loved the skunk tail though! I had never seen a tail like that!:
A not so flattering shot of her, but look at the mane! How neato is that! She has natural white highlights not only in her tail, but also in her mane. Note how the white mane hairs are longer than the darker mane hairs...weird....:
This shot shows her calm eye and relaxed nature, exactly what I was looking for:
As I pulled into the long drive way, I got a little nervous. What was I doing? Really, what was I thinking getting a young horse when I am still going to college on the other side of the state?! Oh well, I was there so I might as well check her out. Besides, she probably isn't right for me, so whatever.
I met Ann in the barn and we grabbed Dakota's halter as she was still out in the pasture. We walked out there together, me getting more anxious by the second. Dakota was standing next to Ann's chestnut gelding Sailor. I thought maybe they would bolt up to join us cause besides being a brisk and breezy clear December day, they had never met me before, but they just jogged up to us intently instead. Ann pulled Dakota's halter on and shooed Sailor away.
I have to be honest. My first impression of Dakota was not the reaction I expected. She was shorter than I imagined and she had almost no tail. I really shouldn't have been so surprised her being an appy and all, but I just wasn't use to seeing a horse whose a tail didn't get past their hocks. Star's luxuriously thick appy tail touches the ground.... I had to snap out of the comparing this horse to Star, so I stepped back and took a better look. She was covered in mud and I remember not being able to see her feet very well. As you will learn later, feet are a bad deal for me. I would have quit looking at her right then and there if her feet were too small or deformed to severely.
Since I couldn't tell, we decided to bring her into the barn and groom her up. I was looking forward to this because you can learn so much about a horse by just being around them and seeing what kind of ground manners they have. Ann handed me the lead and we headed to the barn. When we were inside, I tied Dakota to the tie ring and grabbed a curry. Dakota stood with her feet still, but she was fidgeting with the rope and liping at Sailor, who had returned to his stall to see what was going on with his girl. I got her curried and got started with a stiff brush. The mud was removed from her coat so I started on her feet. I grabbed a hoof pick and brushed the dried dirt and mud off her unshod hooves. Her front feet she picked up easily, but she was pretty nervous with me handling her hind feet. OK, interesting but not that big of a deal.
That last bit made sense when Ann informed me that Dakota had not really been asked to do much since the last time they rode her, in August. Hmmm.... Considering she had probably just been brushed and messed with on the ground since then, I was glad she was as calm as she was about having a strange person work with her so closely. I remember liking what I was seeing with her, conformationally speaking. She is in no way perfect, but there were no glaring issues that would suggest she would be more susceptible to lameness or injuries.
Now that she was clean and I could evaluate her more accurately, we took her out to the small outdoor arena to take some, more or less, conformation shots. Please ignore that some of these photos did not turn out so good. They were taken with an old disposable camera I found in my closet just before I went to see her. When I pointed the camera straight at her, it ended taking a picture to either the right or left of her. The horrible color distortion of the frames makes the pictures even more laughable. Anyway, this is Dakota/Mercy the first day I went to see her:
Yes, I have been asked before if she was a mule, lol!:Note the shorty tail... supposedly someone *cough* ate it.... I loved the skunk tail though! I had never seen a tail like that!:
A not so flattering shot of her, but look at the mane! How neato is that! She has natural white highlights not only in her tail, but also in her mane. Note how the white mane hairs are longer than the darker mane hairs...weird....:This shot shows her calm eye and relaxed nature, exactly what I was looking for:From there I decided to saddle her up and see how she would respond. Her current owner, Gale, had purchased Dakota as a 'green' broke horse, so she had been ridden before. Gale and her daughter had ridden Dakota too, so what would it hurt to see how she accepted the saddle? Looking back, I probably would not have done this, but I trusted Ann's knowledge of the mare, so after seeing how she responded to the saddle pad being thrown on her back multiple times, I threw the saddle on her...literally. I did not lightly place it on her. If she was going to have an issue getting it on, then I wouldn't have pushed the issue. She didn't move. When I lowered the latigo and pulled it through the cinch slowly I was careful to pull it tight enough so if she reacted, the saddle wouldn't move and spook her further. When I was done, she looked back at me as if to ask, "Is that it? What's next?"
;)
ps~ Names were changed to protect real life identities.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Fun Flashback
I have a few things to double check before I re-post my most recent story, but until then I have a great photo from the past! This was taken in the summer of 2007, the first summer Mercedes was with me. It was so freakin' hot that day, yet both Mercy and Star decided to sunbathe, silly horses! This one shot, is still to this day, the only time I have seen both horses laying down at the same time. Enjoy!
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