Ponies, Dandelion Love and More

I have written before about the pony Sophie from Bill's neighbor. Bill has been working with this horse to help her overcome some of her fears. He's made a series of videos (13 in fact!) on Sophie's progress. This past week, the progress continued.

Here's the little darling on Thursday night (bah! I mean the horse not Cowboy Bill!). Thursday at lunch I had gotten a text from Bill saying Sophie was ready to be ridden again. He had the round pen set up and she was ready. I finished work at 6 and since the weather was perfect, I headed over.

While Bill tacked Sophie up, I hung out with my brumby who was in an extraordinarily snuggly mood. She was probably laughing to herself that I was getting on Sophie and not her. 

I gotta tell you, I don't remember what kind of saddle Bill had on this little mare, but it looked very nice. Bill put a little tiny bit in her mouth, checked all the tack, lunged her for a minute and then it was my turn to get on. First I just stood in her stirrup. Then I bounced in her stirrup. And then I climbed aboard. Yes, it was a very comfy saddle.

Before I got on Sophie, I told Bill if he spied a buck before I felt it, he was to yell NOW! and then I'd disengage her hindquarters, Chris Cox style (or try to anyway). I need not have been worried. Sophie was very good. No, she was perfect. We started at a walk. We walked around the round pen, changed direction several times and then I asked her for a trot. Gorgeous, all of it.  I'll tell you though, my legs are kinda long and this was a pony so I felt like a giant person on her.

Sophie has a trot that is as smooth as ice cream. It was fairly windy too and she just kept trotting around. I will also tell you that this pony neck reins a lot better than my brumby! To see part of this ride and other desensitizing that Bill has done with Sophie, follow this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMNPEryTKuc
It is  Bill's most recent Sophie video in the series, Sophie 13. You can watch 1-12 too  if you want to!

Saturday I was back at the farm. Bill and Jackie were off to Maine so Jackie could run in the Sugarloaf Marathon (she ended up finishing first in her age group!). I decided to try split reins so here is a picture of Lilly wearing them. I think they look very nice, very western. What I like about them is that she can't get caught in them like she can with rope reins.

In my opinion, the weather was lousy all weekend. On Saturday I was chilly heading down the road but by the time we got to the trailhead ten minutes later I was broiling. So I hung my jacket on a tree thinking that it looked weird and scary and when we came back it would be a good training moment. Never pass up a training opportunity!

Even though I am the only one who uses my saddle, sometimes I need to adjust the stirrups. Now I wonder, why would this be so with all  factors remaining constant? I just don't get it. Barn elves? In any case, I had to lower this stirrup one notch.

We had a fabulous ride. Here we are at the ice pond on the short trail. I also call this Ansell Adams Pond. Brumby took a nice big drink here and this is when I realized that the split reins meant that I could still sit up in the saddle while Lilly bent her head down very low to drink. Very convenient and comfy.

We ventured into the Blueberry Pasture to have a look around. I have not been in there in MONTHS! I could see the opening to Trollwood beckoning. But I wanted to wait. Maybe the first ride of the season in Trollwood might be more fun if I were with Bill or Christine. While I pondered, my brumby lost no time having a snackfest.

It was quite nice out in that field.

I am amazed at the pictures my little Olympus camera can take. Take this fern for example. Isn't it gorgeous? I love the idea of it beginning to unfurl and get its life started. What will this summer hold? What will we all do with it? I think this little fern is suggesting it is going to be beautiful.

 At the BP I stopped to count heads since Bill was away. Ruby, Glitter, Charlie, Freddie, Jodie, Pokey. All present and accounted for!

 Always a friendly bunch at the BP. I should have been filming though because Lilly made quite a squealy production during our visit. She acts like she has no idea who these guys even are. Sometimes she kicks a front foot out too which I find scary and ridiculous! But alas, I am a human and they are horses.

Footnote to Saturday's ride: remember how I hung the jacket on the tree thinking it would give Lilly a pause? Nothing of the sort. She walked by that jacket like it had been there for ten years!

Another footnote: When we finished this ride, I picked more than 50 ticks off of Lilly's legs! Now that's gross!

On Sunday, in spite of the gloomy, wet weather, I was back in the saddle.

The Gobbler was at it again. This brumby loves dandelions. Each spring she has a love affair with them. Saturday she ate so many of them I worried that she had overdosed and so I did not give her a single carrot when we returned to the barn, which is extremely unusual! Can one OD on dandelions?

Not if you are the Dandelion Queen, you won't!!!

Here's a closer look at the Queen.

Another ride, another blissful weekend gone!

Hope everyone is enjoying themselves and their horses, and CONGRATS to Jackie C again on her win in Maine!!

Beautiful Brumbies in May

 I can't believe it is Wednesday and just now I am posting about my Sunday stroll! Have I ever mentioned how great it would be to not have to work at all? To spend every day riding Lilly? Oh, only about a thousand times? Well, I guess anything worth saying once is worth saying twice...or a thousand times as the case may be. Christine and I were very pleased it wasn't raining cats and dogs on Sunday. We met at the barn and headed out on the trail.

Do you know how everyone says about their state/city that if you don't like the weather to wait 5 minutes and it will change? That is actually exactly what was happening to us on Sunday. It was sunny and warmish, then it was threatening, then it was breezy and cool. At one point we passed through a muggy pocket and were attacked by bugs. Five minutes later, not a bug in sight and dropping temps. Very strange indeed. But not a drop of rain and lots of greenery. Yes, we were feeling quite good out in the hills of western mass.

I am still using the biodern bitless bridle with Lilly. Or biothane--I forget the material it is made from. I really like it. I am hoping for my birthday I get one in bubblegum pink since pink is my brumby's fave color. The one I am using is Bill's. (I am always using Bill's stuff.)

Up a the BP all the horses came up to the perimeter to say hello, and QTee got to see her daughter Ruby on Mother's Day. It looked like Ruby was out in the BP bossing all the other horses around. Like mother like daughter, mused Christine.

I put some trail markers on some trees months ago that I wanted Bill to identify. He probably labeled them immediately and just this weekend I noticed them. A spring discovery! I have all summer to learn trees. In February I signed up for a spring Tree Understanding and Identification class  But it was cancelled because not enough people had signed up!  I am going to have to get Bill to teach me. So you see, I not only borrow Bill's tack, but his knowledge too. It is a wonder he does not get sick of me coming around.

 Here's another.

Back at the barn, Lilly and Qtee were groomed carefully, checked over for ticks and returned to the pasture. This always makes them happy. Before we left, we inspected Jackie's garden. Can you believe this charming flower?

Recently I got this crazy idea to try mounted archery. Brandon and Kestrel presented this to me as a [step]mother's day present. I shriek at how fun this is going to be. 

Practice makes perfect! It's just a kid's bow. But I love it. Get ready, Brumby!!!We have some targets to stab!

That's all for now! Happy belated mothers day, all you trail ridin', barrel racin', pole bendin' moms!

 

The Super Mosey

Back in the saddle! After spending last weekend in Boston with fabulous friends, this weekend found me back in the saddle. As I was tacking Lilly up, I fancied that she had missed me...but I could have been imagining it.

Unfortunately for both Lilly and me, it was raining. At first I considered just making it a spa day for Lilly in the barn. That idea was nixed almost immediately. I found a crumpled raincoat in the barn, put it on and out we went.

It was really raining. No thunder, but a whole lot of water. I began to long for those very cool oilskin pants I have seen in all the horse catalogs. They would have been perfect.

It became pretty clear from the very beginning that the rain was not going to bother my brumby...as long as she could do all the nibbling that she wanted. This is always what she wants to do when we ride alone. Nibble    Nibble   Nibble  NibbNibblenibblenibblenibblenibblenibble. You get the idea.

With all this nibbling, it was taking us a very long time to cover the tiniest of distances. Up ahead on the left you can see Bill's mile marker. We were soaked through, my brumby had nibbled a ton of fronds, I had invented an entire chorus of silly songs to ward off the bears by singing them (off key I guarantee), and passing this mile marker told me we had traveled..... a....whopping....ONE mile! Seriously, all brumby's grazing was getting out of hand.

 One little tiny mile? I began to refer to this ride as The Super Mosey.  A ride no theme park would be interested in.  We also saw several newts scurrying along (we avoided them) and heard several loud birds that sounded like monkeys. Oh, Warm Weather, welcome back! 

At the end of the Parallel Trail, instead of looping back up to the Ridge Trail, we plunged ahead to a short trail we had never been on before. I have always wanted to try it, but haven't because I know it is a dead end. But today in the rain, we went for it. Lilly was very apprehensive. She did not want to do it. She wanted her old trail back. With a lot of coaxing, we came out onto this piece of property. I wanted to ground tie her for the photo but she was looking like she might make a run for it.

Well, not exactly what I'd call a "soft eye." Lots of strange new things to see on Dead End Trail. After this photo we headed back to the Parallel Trail which we took in reverse.

For a brief moment the sun came out. Then it vanished again behind a giant wall of dark blue atmosphere.

My rope reins, cut in the center and held together with electric tape, became so saturated with rain they came apart. Bummer. I tried to use them as two reins, like really stupidly short split reins, but that was ridiculous. So I unraveled all the tape and rewound it, giving my brumby an excellent opportunity to nibble for 3-4 minutes straight.

Off the trail I spotted these electric orange mushrooms. I backed Lilly in and sidepassed her to the tree to get a close-up of them. She maneuvered very beautifully but had no interest in standing still for the photographer. So these are not really in focus, even though each time she got out of position I got her back into it. I mean, she couldn't care less about mushrooms. I can't imagine most horses do. This mushroom , Tremella lutescens, is edible but bland. It's another mushroom with quite an imaginative common name: Witches' Butter.

Another trail ride over! Sleep tight, Brumby! See you tomorrow.

Sauntering Through Sunday

 This is my friend Marc Lombard! On Sunday when I arrived at Bill's he just happened to be buzzing down Bill's road as part of his 55 mile ride. The good luck of being at Bill's right as Marc was zooming by was very joyous indeed. He got to meet my brumby and Bill, and Christine and get his picture taken next to the donkeys. This guy is quite the athlete. He also happens to be married to one of my favorite friends on the planet, Mayr Collins, animal lover extraordinaire.

After Marc sped off, it was time to get riding. Christine and I headed out on the trail and along with Getty and we had a magical ride. It could not have been a better ride. We took the short trail to the BP,  started toward the Ridge Trail and then swung around and took the Parallel Trail backwards. We also were ringing our bear bells because the black bears are all up and wandering around now. I want to see a bear on the trail and I don't want to see a bear on the trail if you know what I mean.


I mentioned a few weeks ago that lately Bill has been working with a neighbor's pony. The pony, named Sophie,  is totally darling, but has a few issues that Bill is helping her work though. He brings her to the farm and works with her. He trims her feet, he introduces her to the herd and works with her in the round pen. Sophie is making real progress! To see one of Bill's more recent videos of Sophie, follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX80QRDfb8Q

Sophie is 12 hands and according to the measuring tape, weighs 675 pounds. Bill had this idea that because I am smaller than he is, maybe I could get on her back and see if she'd tolerate it. So after Christine and I were finished with our trail ride, we all went down in the ring with Sophie.  Sophie gave a little flinch at first when I jumped on her from the left side but as you can see in this photo, she let me stay on while Bill led her around.  I mean she was being very tolerant because I am no ballerina when it comes to mounting without a saddle...even on a little pony. I am clumsy and clunky and my butt hangs out of my pants. (Good thing Christine did not get that in any of the pictures.)

Then it was time to move to the off side. Sophie has kind of a weird eye on this side. She seemed OK so I climbed on. But after a fraction of a skeleton of a second, she decided she did not want me on her back and before I was even fully seated she gave a buck and off I went! Suddenly  I was on the ground and Bill and Christine were looking down at me. Maybe she doesn't like that side because of her weird eye. Maybe no one has ever worked on that side of her before. None the worse for wear, I got up and.....

 ....got back on. But just for a little gentle ride and from her good side. Still, overall, Sophie did great. I just love her. And I think that very night she had a sleepover at the farm.

I never get sick of this stuff. It makes my heart grow.

April, What's Your Hurry?

 According to Scientific American, the earth is rotating at 460 meters a second. That's 1,000 miles per hour. I bring this up because it really feels like April is flying by. It has been the best of months and the worst of months. In this post, I will focus on the best parts. This picture is, speaking of the passage of time, of some clam fossils that Brandon found a few weeks ago when we were in New Jersey. He was very excited to visit a fossil bed in Red Bank.

Naturally, when we go to New Jersey to visit Brandon's dad, the beach is one of our favorite places to be. Here is Getty enjoying the sun.

She was really enjoying herself! And she better, because after May 1st, dogs are not allowed on the beach until September. Cruel beach laws!

Before we left NJ, we snapped a picture of ourselves. The camera is on a 12 second timer and we felt very silly smiling at no one.

Meanwhile, back in MA, finally spring is underway. It takes a long time in our neck o' the woods for the earth to warm, even if it is spinning around at 1000mph. But on my way to Bill's today, look at the signs of spring I found:

These little dandelionish looking flowers are called Coltsfoot.

And these little beauties are called Bloodroot. And in case you do not already know why they are called Bloodroot, I will show you:

Here is the root that I dug up. BLOODY!!!!!  They are such a cheerful flower, I love them so.

So anyway, after all this flower gazing, I made it to Bill's and got Lilly out. Today was exciting because our friend Johanna had brought her friend Trish over to meet Lilly, Bill, and the herd. This is Trish in the photo with me. Bill and I convinced her to take QTee and join us on a trail ride. Trish is an experienced rider. She is so experienced in fact that the last horse she was on (a horse named Buttons which makes him sound cute and deceptively harmless) bucked her off and gave her a broken back! Yipes, Buttons. Who wants that experience??  No one! Since her accident, Trish has not been riding. But lately has been missing horses. So today turned into her inaugural back-in-the-saddle ride. She had not planned on it being so, but the day was so bright, and QTee is always so perfect and willing, that it happened spontaneously.

Bill started out on Cody, and I was, of course on Lilly. All three horses would have galloped off through the trail if we had let them. They were that throttle-ready. But we kept it mellow. QTee let us know her bridle was too loose almost immediately. It looked like she was trying to eat the bit in her mouth. As soon as that was adjusted, she was just like the dreamboat we know her to be.

Up at the BP, Bill dropped Cody off and took Jodie out. Both Cody and Jodie are red roans. It really looked like Bill hadn't made a switch at all once we started moving again.

Another great ride.