Treely Update

I went to see Treely at the trainer's today. I am such a proud mom. She is doing awesome. I almost didn't recognize her. When I pulled up, one of the trainers was just riding out of the barn on her. She's shed out since I saw her last and has a lot more dapples. Also, I hadn't met the trainer who was on her, so I kind of had that thought in the back of my head: What if that's totally not my horse and I walk up going, "TREEELY!!" She looked so mature and was moving into the bit and looking hAwT (OMFG, I like totally turn into a teenie bopper talking about my mare)!

They already have her driving (pulling a cart) and have now moved on to riding her. She's doing SIDE PASSES(!!) beautifully and is really softening up. The biggest thing they say she needs to work on is her confidence. She's been a bit of a weenie when it comes to new stuff like the mud pit and water and big scary farm equipment. She's having to learn that it's not okay to just move away from everything that looks scary. I didn't get many pictures of her being ridden because they were in the indoor and it was just too dark. I didn't want to be the ignorant owner flashing away on my camera and spooking the horses, haha. I really wish I had some pics of her side passing though. I just LOVE my mare!!

I only got a couple pictures of her driving before the trainer said, "Hop on." I've never been on a training cart before, but I have watched a lot of wrecks on youtube, haha. It was a first for me and, umm...a little scary. BUT I got to stare at my gorgeous girl's big beautiful butt, and that always makes me happy. I was holding on to the "oh shit" handles too tight to take any pictures. Trust me, though, the view was wonderful. The trainer drove her down through the hay fields which had just been cut. There were big hills to go up and down and sharp curves to fly around - at least I felt like we were flying. Treely was so awesome. It kind of makes me want to do combined driving. Who knows, maybe it will be my new thing...if I can ever afford a cart and harness.

They have to piece together her harness with whatever is big enough for her...which is why none of it matches. Here she is with the first piece waiting for the rest of it. Her head looks especially big in this picture, but look how dark she is! I appreciate it now because in a few months she's going to look like a red roan.

Ground driving.

The obligatory butt pic. I must say that harness really enhances her assets.

Almost ready to hook to the cart.

She's coming to a screeching halt in this picture. It's funny because you can see the mechanics of that butt in action. If I could draw, I would make a cartoon where Treely is a superhero who uses her super butt powers to hold up falling buildings and stop trains etc. I don't know if that's funny to anyone but me.

Treely gets purty

FINALLY!!! A nice day that's not too cold for a bath. I've been dying to give my horse, Treely, a bath. It's either been Sunny and freezing or warm and rainy. It took me about an hour to get all the mud scrubbed off of her. She's shedding out globs of hair. Yes, globs.

Then I made her run around until she was dry while I took pictures...[insert evil laugh here]

I'm so mad I cut part of her out of this picture. I had the lunge whip in one hand and camera in the other and I needed two hands to take the picture.

Her expression always makes me giggle. She looks like a cartoon horse.

I've got a trainer lined up for this spring, so Tree mare is going to learn to drive and get some more time under saddle on trails and side passing and all that fun stuff. I just love my mare!

It's cold

The electrician finished electrifying the barn just in time. According to the forecast (which I never quote as fact) it's supposed to get down to -4 tonight. The chickens all have their heated waterers plugged in. The goat has a heating pad, but I wish I had a blanky for her. Treely (the horse) has her blanket on and everybody's got lots of hay/feed to munch to keep their body heat up. I know animals up north have it way worse, but I feel like I'm not doing enough.

I wish I had more heat lamps for the adolescent chicks. I accidentally burned through the wire on my good one while I was cleaning the brooders. I didn't realize it was on and left the bulb sitting on the wire. I left to go clean the waterers and came back to smoldering rubber. Oops! Could have burned the shed down. So, now I'm afraid to use it, though it does still work. haha...somehow it doesn't seem worth the risk of burning down the barn and HAY (OMG NOO!!) not to mention the animals and all that fancy electric work. Any horse person would understand my worry of losing my hay mid winter. It's not like I can just go out and buy more...well, not unless I don't mind paying $10/bale to have it shipped in from California...For the record, I would mind that.

Here's a picture of Treely in her blanket from last year. Do you know how hard it is to find a size 84 ?! I did take a picture of her today in her blanket, but it looks kind of silly because it's so sunny. It looks like it is about 95 degrees outside instead of 15.

In the spring after the snow melts and the rains come, an interesting thing happens...My mailbox ends up in the middle of the river. This wasn't such a bad thing since I was sitting high and dry in my cozy little house. It does bring new meaning to the saying, "Lord willin' and the crick don't rise." I've never actually been able to use that saying until I moved here.


Treely wishes her paddock was in the river all the time.






The water stayed up for a few hours and then began to recede. Within 20 minutes, it sucked back down to where it belonged.