Does anyone else feel like we went directly from summer to winter with barely any middle ground? I know I posted some pictures of leaves changing color but temps were still warm and now I’m freezing and there was sleet yesterday. Blargh.
Most of my photos with this location are taken while waiting at the gate for husband to dump the poop in case you wondered. There is a benefit to having a husband who likes to drive the tractor.
The chestnut boys have been taking the changing of seasons in stride besides that one afternoon they were complete nuts and ran around ripping up the pasture since it was windy with on and off rain. I guess at least they feel good?
Yep, this day. Stump took off again after this.
For me the worst part of the change in seasons is doing everything in the dark or almost dark. I like to see my ponies and watch them do cute things in the evening while I do chores.
Sometimes the lighting is nice though
Both ponies have been relatively low maintenance (knock on wood) aside from some extra hoof picking and thrush treatment to go with the wet weather lately and a recent hind leg crust flare up on Stampede’s part. They are pretty good at eating, drinking, pooping, and peeing. Stampede recently showed off his prowess at rolling in my aisle after I had worked hard leveling it, raking it, and hosing it down to reduce dust. Of course he needed his sheet back on so I had a good time cleaning him that evening!
Maestro and I keep trucking along getting to know each other. On the flat I’ve been adding more exercises to improve bend and teach him to move off my leg laterally. When it comes to jumping I am seriously having a blast. The lead changes are not quite there because he wants to anticipate and duck in but he’s already so much straighter down the lines and obviously loves jumping. I really need to get video so I can have some comparisons for later on.
Why so cute?
I had the CWD rep out last week to check out my two saddles. I know P’s was okay but required a thicker pad to get it up off his wither and I had never tried Stampede’s on him figuring it would be too narrow. Jokes on me because the fit of Stampede’s saddle wasn’t half bad. The fitter said ideally she would probably remove 5mm all around but said for now to ride in it with no half pad or a thin half pad and see how it goes. Since I prefer Stampede’s saddle for myself (it’s 1/2″ smaller seat) this makes me quite pleased. Even if later I end up spending $550 to get the panels adjusted that’s still better than replacing it. Once I make sure Maestro has no objections to my plan I will list P’s saddle for sale so if anyone is interested in an 18″ CWD deep seat with 4C flap let me know (picture of it in below photo).
In other saddle related news, I finally broke out one of the Ogilvy profile pads I ordered on Black Friday last year. By the time I got them (custom order) Stamp was mostly retired and I decided to hold onto them until I had a new horse. So the pads sat around for quite a while waiting for Maestro to come along. Thankfully the colors I picked seem bay friendly and the one I have used so far I think looks great on him.
<3
I probably sound like a broken record but I am just loving having my own horse to ride again. Working with Stampede’s issues really gave me a love of flatwork that I never had before so coming up with exercises and trying different methods to teach Maestro is so fun. Too bad I’m not brave enough for eventing and love jumping too much to do dressage, lol.
I’ll close out this post with a Stampede mystery. My stalls are from a kit and the front bars are put in such that you lower the top onto them making the bars permanently trapped. Somehow Stampede does this…
Two bars loose?
He also is bowing out his end wall so maybe he just sits on all the things all night between chowing down on his large amount of grain and half a bale of hay? #specialneedshorse forever
I swear we went straight from summer to winter too! I’m freezing!
Love those colors on Maestro. Where did you order yours on BF last year?
Mary’s tack included them in their sale last year.
omg stampede…. how even does a horse manage that? maestro has the sweetest face tho, i’m so glad you’ve got such a solid new partner to get back into the action with now!
Stampede has some skills! The best part is this is not the first time he has done this somehow, different bar this time though since we did a repair on the last one. I need to get a picture of Maestro’s contemplative face, sometimes people think he’s grumpy when he’s really just concerned. He’s an interesting guy and so much fun to ride.
He’s just trying to add personal touches to make it feel more like home!
He does enjoy interior decorating and gets quite concerned if the poop isn’t placed appropriately along the back wall.
LOL at Stempede! That’s crazy bout the bars! I could actually potentially be interested in your CWD, as I am on the saddle hunt myself. What year is it and what is the tree size? 4C flaps would probably work for me, although I am predominately looking at Antares right now.
I had an Antares for a while, I think the flap was a 5AB, and it belonged to a man who was well over 6′ before me, lol. It ended up with a squeak so I sent it in and they found it had a broken rivet. They fixed it but the saddle still had a mild squeak/creeky noise and it drove me insane so I bought this second CWD for P instead. This CWD is a 2013 SE02 with a medium tree although I’d say it’s generous and best for a WB build. I can certainly go back and measure the dot to dot on it but I was told it was 4.5″ when I bought it in August of 2015. I was also told by my rep it could be repaneled for $550.
Rio is semi narrow for such a big boy. My current Antares is a 4.5 and sits a hair lower on his withers then I’d like. I think I need something with thicker panels, and definitely not wider then 4.5. Yours is a possibility- what do you think of the wither clearance on it? If it’s better for a warmblood type it may not work, as Rio is a tad withery.
P definitely needed the right half pad to be able to use the saddle so I’d say unless you plan to use a thicker half pad it would sit too low. I’ll measure it though once I remember to take a tape to the barn, lol.
Maestro is the cutest ❤️
Thanks, I think so too!