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Off to Candrive soon...

1/3/2016

Actually should be titled - "Gone and Went Already". OK, true confession time. The title to this post was written in June 2015 - that was it. Then summer got in the way. So here I am, January 3, 2016, summarizing Summer 2015.

IT WAS SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!

Summary complete. And yep, yelling :).

It was, ahem, my first healthy summer in awhile. Stupid back. This year was a milestone year, turned 50, daughter turned 25, been married for 25 years - the multiple of 5 thing. I've been waiting to get back full force into the horsie scene, and this was the summer to do it. Finally. Difference was - it was with the enamored husband (not of me, well, he does quite like me, he has just gotten really enamored of this whole driving thing).

For our 25th wedding anniversary most couples lean the romantic way for celebration you know, a trip to a warm Caribbean island, a romantic supper, jewelry (well, that still works for me but whatever). What did we book? A week long driving camp in Invermere, BC at Gerard Paagman's place. With bunk beds no less. It was summer camp all over again. And so not your typical romantic getaway (refer back to bunk bed sentence).

But it was the best anniversary present ever! Candrive II was awesome - for us. Encore had a slightly more reserved Princess "this sucks" opinion of it all. She, cough, had some moments. But nothing that a Dutch drill sergeant couldn't solve. And a determined Mom. "Oh, she'll be tired by the first day" they said. Then they said "Second day". Then "Third day?". Then "End of the week???". How about - Not. Holy Welsh pony energy. Orion, he was - Orion. Gotcha boss. Whatever boss. When? Now? You bet.

Oh my goodness, we learned so much. I joke about Encore, but the ponies were SUPER! The instructors were great and we met so many people from all across North America. Both of us came back with more confidence - in our skills, our equipment and our ponies. But the true test of 25 years together was yet to come. Hubby navigating me through my first CDE with Encore....film at 11! LOL!

Welcome to the horse world dear husband

6/18/2014

Winter is gone (how can you tell I've read Game of Thrones). As mentioned before - hibernating took up most of the time. With hibernation came contemplation. And contemplation in the horse world usually equates to finding more ways to spend money. Seriously.

And so here we are, summer-time, looking at all the upcoming clinics, driving shows, in-hand shows, mini shows, sport pony shows, trade shows, meetings about shows, mare inspections, fun drives...you name it. What to do? Where to go? Which brings us to the more practical (albeit perplexing) issue - how to get there. Yes, the bane of it all - transportation of horse and human stuff.

And here's the welcome to the horse world dear hubby comes into play. Did you know you can spend anything from 3 figures to 6 figures on transportation? And since we worship on the Toyota reliability altar...it narrows down the choice of rigs. Thankfully it eliminates the 6 figure rigs. Snort. Like it was ever gonna be (rolling eyes now).

Sooo, stay tuned, let's see how Lobo's can transport one Diva-Princess-Pony mare and Mr. Marathon-Lovin'-Mini and their "stuff". Let the games begin :).

Natalie the Navigator

6/14/2014

Well that was fun! My first time as a "gator". All I can say is thanks heavens it was with my own horse. If you can't bring a sense of direction, at least bring your sense of humour. Buckets of it. The complete irony...the one obstacle we got eliminated on, was the one I thought we were going the wrong way. The rest of the time I was totally. And completely. Lost. But was it FUN!!!! On to next year when I will drive...woo hoo!! Thanks to my great friend Cyndie...who brought buckets of her sense of humour too!! We had a blast! Even getting eliminated is complete fun :)

...and on to winter

12/13/2013

Keep it simple. Best way to approach winter. And intervene when horses can't figure out simple.

Heavy snowfall warning? Hibernate. Blizzard? Hibernate. Frozen water trough? Put hibernate on hold. Use profanity. Show horses that they don't need to Dessicate whilst doing the Hibernate. Trudge across 200m of two deep feet of snow, dragging Welsh pony Drama Queen and her court to the other heated water source. Swear when Her Pony-ness decides she is just NOT sharing a water trough with a bunch of minis. Re-drag Her Highness to new water source AGAIN. Then, perform the stupid human trick for a THIRD (and last) time. Strip off Pony Tiara and lock horses in with new water source - that is, pony gasp, beside the un-cool minis. Hibernate.

Drama Queen and her Court

Green on green, thankfully, did not make black and blue

9/16/2013

After April back surgery, I am in healing mode. I thought my pony driving adventures with Orion would be on hold this summer during the long healing process. Well, I was wrong. To make a long story short. My husband stole my pony.

It all started one fine Sunday spring afternoon when there wasn't a horrendous pile of chores to do on the acreage. The exact husband words were "I'll think I'll harness up Orion and ground drive
him". OK, so I was thinking bad thoughts here. Like let's get a chair with his name on it at the ER. My husband knows what he needs to know about horses given the fact that really, it's his wife's hobby. He's a great bale hauler, horse trailer-hooker-upper guy, and the absolute bestest horsie cheerleader around, but really hasn't paid much attention to the finer details. Like how to tie a horse. And well, how to harness a horse. And put a bridle on a horse. Well, you get my angst.

So I hobbled down to the barn and well, yah, the breeching is now the breast collar and the breast collar is now the breeching so my imaginings are fairly accurate on the"I'm really worried he doesn't know what he is doing" scale. And to all my horsie friends out there visualize this scenario. Try to teach someone how to put on a bridle on a Reluctant Mini when you can't bend at the waist to show
him. Let's just say the first unschooled attempt of holding the bit in both hands facing the pony head on and saying "open your mouth" approach showed it's limitations right away.

But the look on Orion's face (if a mini can have a look on his face) was priceless. It was - you are
kidding? Seriously kidding? OK, well I'm gonna have sooooooo much fun with this. He hasn't been completely evil, more like modified evil minus ER visits. Suddenly Orion remembered that he didn't HAVE to remember how to do things. Well, to make a lot of interesting stories short (future blog posts. No. Doubt.), husband had more staying power than Orion and drum roll...they attended a CDE (Combined Driving Event) in August. And did very well. Orion still showed his devil horns a bit (dressage had an "Eff the approach to F" moment. Or two) - but they had a great time! Boy, that mini has zoom power :)

So now I don't have a mini to drive. But just wait Weasley and Potter...Mom has a back now and your
turn comes this spring!!

Weather.

4/8/2013

...or how to title this blog post without using profanity.

Oh the joys of Canada. Northern Canada. I shouldn't complain, after all, Canada has brought us Timmie's, health care and has again shipped Celine Dion to Las Vegas (finally). I can't explain the Biebs, can only profusely apologize (like a real Canadian). But really now. At this rate there will be 2012/2013 snow remaining in early May. Granted it most likely will be lurking in the trees, far away from sunlight and warmth. Sunlight and warmth...yo, nature...if I can type it together you can whip up some too. Really.

Ah, I complain...but truly do love it here. I would just like to have the ability to beam my house and horses to, I dunno, Grand Cayman? At least for a week to 10 days. Min.

Oh well, good news is Aj looks like she will hold off foaling until waaay after my surgery. Little wee pony foal in there seems to be a smart little fellow (it's a colt, I just know it) so he's put up an "On Strike" campaign for warmer weather. Not sure what Aj thinks about that but she's just happy her blanket straps still fit over her preggo belly so all is good with her.

Oh Canada, our home and native land. Flippin' cold land...but there you go.

Encore goes to school

3/23/2013

Ok, so here is a draft of my news blog that I started mid-February, then completely forgot about. Skip forward to the "hating to jinx things" comment below...
February 23rd, 2013 "Well, Encore has been in school for three weeks now. Hating to jinx things, but (looking quickly left and right, shhhhh...) she's doing really, really well."

Well, she did do really well training-wise, but unfortunately got a cough at the end of February. Luckily Encore recovered quite quickly, but the one week off for every day of coughing advice from the vet completely changed our plans. So after some antibiotics and some quarantine time, Encore is now home to recover. The vet did confirm there was a confirmed case of streptococcus zooepidemicus in the barn so that guided our decision to treat. This is a common bacteria that most horses recover from very quickly, but the vets have been seeing horses get sicker from it lately...so the decision to treat was made. The whole situation was very, very frustrating to say the least. I certainly wish the positive case was brought to our attention before we arrived. The Alberta Equestrian Federation has an excellent article on biosecurity, just hope all barn owners read and implement these practices.

But good news in the Stand Quietly Department. Encore has decided that patience is now a virtue and stands quite well single-tied (and alone if you can imagine!). Although one day she managed to deftly untie a really well tied safety knot and wander down the aisle to the smorgasbord...I mean round bale. Note to self...next time - macrame.

So our plans? Up in the air at the moment. Encore needs to completely recover, Aj needs to foal out safely and I need back surgery...so we will see what the summer brings for her and all of us. She's my keeper, so if she's getting a delayed start so be it! Hah, not that Her Pony-ness minds... :)

Encore The Restless and the "Revenge of the Milk Jugs"

11/27/2012

Well, we tried to put some driving training on Encore in October but the weather gods were not on our side. So typical of our northern Alberta climate. Sooo, Encore now has a date with an indoor stall in February/March 2013 to get a jump start for spring.
One thing Encore struggles with is patience. Well, most times she is patient (cross ties seem to keep her brain grounded). But single tie...oh my. The world just might pass her by. And she can't BEAR to see the world pass her by. Fidget. Fidget. Fidget. So our November, December and January lessons are - tying. And tying. And boring, snoring, flippin' tying. And now we have discovered milk jugs have been directly sent from a really hot place to make her life miserable. So Mom has milk jugs tied to her feed bucket. Mom has milk jugs in her hay bucket. Mom leads her with milk jugs. And these are special little milk jugs. They have rocks in them. Special little rocks that make milk jugs appear to resemble some type of rock breathing milk-jug dragons. We're getting there. We still are on hunger strike when they are tied to the feed bucket, but we now eat hay that have rock-breathing dragon-like milk jugs cozied into the hay feeder. Ahh, life at Cajonat Farm. Never boring :)

Weasley and Potter's first lunge lesson...

9/28/2012

The Inner Monologue - Weasley and Potter's first time on the lunge line

Potter's thoughts: Waaaay cool. I get to run in circles around the lady that feeds us apples. Woo hoo - this is so much fun!! If I listen to her she makes such a big fuss...I just love my lady...I'll cross mountains for her, I'll forge the widest streams...she is the BEST!! Wait...she told me "HALT". So I better stop. I'm just the BOMB!! Love this work stuff!

Weasley's thoughts: Are you KIDDING me? You want me to run in a circle around you? No. Seriously. NO. I don't care that you are hitting me with a stick. NO. I don't care you are hitting me harder with a stick. Absolutely NO. Hand on ears - la la la la la. Ouch. OK, maaaaaybe I will walk. A bit. FINE - I'LL TROT. Now I won't stop. See - don't you regret asking me to do that? Harumph. We're done? Where's my apple? I deserve an apple, I did good. Well, eventually did good.

Welsh Pony Alvesta Picasso Cajonat Ajawaan