April Showers Bring. . . Wait a Minute!

We've been getting a lot of this lately:

Which means riding has been a bit halted. I ride whenever I can, whenever the weather is decent enough. I'm not a big fan of riding in rain. . . not because I dislike being soaked (Well, I do, but. . . ) but because Daisy has always been funky about cars driving past on wet roads. Plus it decreases my visability as I ride, makes the road slippery, affects my ability to hear cars coming up behind us. . . etc. So I generally don't ride if it's raining at a good clip.

Today Daisy went out on the lawn for a half hour, for the first time this year. She enjoyed it.

I was taking photos, until I was ambushed. Miss Genevieve:

Besides some cropping on the one below, these are SOTC. :) I love my new camera!

These last two required a bit of zoom, and so I edited them on picnik.com. Not the greatest colors. I was headed into the house when I realized the other barn cat was visiting with Daisy as she grazed as well, albeit much closer. Daisy and Gronemeyer:

Gronemeyer has been known to plop down in the midst of herds of deer (. . . are groups of deer herds?), only to stand up after awhile and surprise them, making them scatter.

I went riding on Wednesday and has a great time. You know those moments where, despite the fact that you've heard it a million and one times, something suddenly "clicks" and you GET it? I was riding and thinking about this photo I saw that Smartpak posted of a Rolex dressage rider. Someone commented on how very closely the rider's legs were literally wrapped around the horse. Having seen the photo, it was all of a sudden much easier to understand and do, and voila, Daisy framed up really quick! :) I love it. 

My silly horse. So many times I ride and feel bad and think she's tired. . . but the last week she's been so FULL of it coming home. We always gallop the same straight stretch on the road, about a quarter mile, and she was hauling this week. And proceeded to gallop her way up hills following as well. And I thought she didn't have the energy. . . 

I'm so gullible.

Just Gotta Love Her

Some things about Daisy bother me, but...there is a bond between us that cannot be broken. I love that girl so much.
That said, I digress.

Jenny and her three mares moved into the nighborhood, and Daisy and I visited on Monday. Daisy was shocked to see them, and they were shocked to see her. I'm excited for all the things their living so close has brought for us; someone to ride with, ponies for Daisy to visit with, an indoor, etc etc. :)

Today Jean picked up Daisy...two hours late. That's never happened before :P but it turned out ok so that's good...by the time she came it was almost 9:30 and pitch dark out. My brother sat in the bed of his truck waiting for her with me (at the end of the driveway...as usual) and Daisy stuck her nose over, breathing in deep, looking around. I sat on her for a bit in the dark, with just a halter and lead...she was quiet. Same interested, not worried behavior as usual. In the dark...it was cool. What a sweet pony I have. I really do. :) <3 Lovvveee her. So...Mounted meeting with the 4H club Friday, possibly riding Saturday (depending on how energetic she is Friday), pleasure show Sunday, and parade on Bubba Monday. I'm super excited for the show...should be good. I need to do a refresher on side passing over a pole, and then we should be all set. We're showing in a borrowed leopard print pad from Jenny for western ;) with my new brown show shirt (I have 5 western show shirts now. I feel rich ;) and the new bridle. Funnn! English we have a new, stark white pad, and new paddock boots and chaps. Tall boots don't appeal to me...I feel like I don't have enough movement in my heel and leg with them...so I got new black half chaps to save just for shows with my new black paddock boots and those are my "tall boots" :P. That's it for now....my knee has been strangely swollen, again, since Monday...I'm icing it currently. :P These pictures were all taken tonight...I stuck the macro flower shot (of chives) in there for fun; it's pretty cool lookin'.

Random Stuff

The pic above is now my favorite ever. I didn't see it until yesterday, but my mom took it in May...it says it all. Thanks, Mom, for it! :D

My dad was never really a horse person. I have never seen him ride a horse, but apparently he has. He doesn't mind horses, but he doesn't really mind any animal...except rodents, but anyway, he never led Daisy anywhere until the other day. I was at school, and had left Daisy in our "lane way paddock" (a paddock that runs along the driveway). My mom got a rope burn from Daisy last summer, so she's a little weary about leading her now. She wanted to bring Daisy to another paddock, because Daisy is a spoiled, picky horse and doesn't really like the grass in the lane way, but she was afraid she couldn't handle Daisy (Daisy has only one thing on her mind when being led by grass-eating it- so she will pull a bit to try to get what she wants). My dad offered to lead her over. Apparently, after a stern word for her not to gallop off by herself to the grass, he led her (for the first time) himself! WOW! And we got it on tape ;-). My dad, I have to mention, feeds Daisy on the weekend mornings and summer mornings, so I can sleep in. Thank you, Dad! Happy Father's day by the way! Without my Dad, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have Daisy. I love him.

These last pictures where taken by my mother...actually, all these were. Anyway, last month my parents went for a week long trip to Germany, and at one point they visited an old friend who happens to live right by some horses. I love these pictures, the sky looks gorgeous, and the horses are lined up so nicely in the second picture! I think they make good desktop pictures... ;)
Doesn't it look wonderful? Have any of you ever went to a foreign country?

2:20 PM

~BTW, I haven't reached the farrier yet (ugh....), so Daisy has no shoes yet, and I can't ride. Yesterday I went to our county fairgrounds, where I will be showing, for a showmanship clinic because for out 4H, you are required to do showmanship if you are showing an animal. In showmanship you have to make sure you and your horse look good, and have to stand in a line waiting for the judge to come to you. When they do, (depending on the test) you walk up to them and make your horse stand square, then face the horse, belt buckle to halter buckle. One of the key things is that you have to pretend the horse is cut into quadrants (yes, math class is coming in handy now) and you can NEVER stand in the same quadrant as the judge, so you have to move back and forth, but you have to be able to see the judge at all times. Then you have to do a pivot and trot back to the line, all the while on foot. I was practicing this with Daisy yesterday, and I have to say, every single day I am amazed by my horse. She is SO well trained. She normally doesn't like to do side passes on the ground, but I got her to step her front hooves over herself, which is a big part of pivoting, and she did awesome! She also got really into it, and now she automatically turns and places herself so we are buckle to buckle, and squares up. I love my horse, she rocks! :D

Dentist Visit and New Paddock

Daisy's dentist came yesterday to float Daisy's teeth, and I must say, I think he's a real horse whisperer. He's very calm and quite with Daisy, and "Ms. I always have my ears back if you're in even a 10 foot radius of me" had her ears foreword the WHOLE TIME! She was even leaning into the rasp! When horses get their teeth 'floated' the dentist uses something that looks like this.
They run it up and down over the horses teeth to file them down, so they don't get over grown and cause eating problems. Daisy did really well!
Thanks for all your comments on Daisy getting shod (put shoes on)! I have called the vet and hopefully she will get them on soon...I can't ride 'till then!
We always thought that we couldn't let Daisy graze on our sewer field because we thought that she might a) crush the pipes or b) eat chemicals from underground. WELL, our power went out on Saturday, and a man came to fix it who actually laid the base for our barn, and he said that as long as the field isn't swimming in chemical-y water, (which it definitely isn't) it's fine! SO, I put up a temporary fence on it, and now Daisy has lots of lush grass to eat! That's the first pic.

Have a nice end of the week! I'm planning another post for in a few days, too, so...

9:12 PM