One Chill Horse

At a horse show recently I realized, you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl. I spent all of my adult life trying to get myself away from all things country and here I am finding my personal joy immersed in nothing but the goodness of country things! Boots, jeans, outdoors, horses, dirt, sweat and pure bliss! It is insane to me how fast life changes.  Two years ago I was giving up on a life long dream, keeping a door closed to what I really wanted, telling myself that those wants were not within my grasp. I was throwing myself into my work and only my work. I was unhappy, hollow, going through the motions of adult life and trying to figure out where I belonged. Two years ago I thought I would never have a horse, thought I was going to be some varying level of miserable forever.  I thought that being an adult meant being in some level of constant disappointment.  I was wrong.  With the encouragement of my awes...

So I was asked recently, is that horse a baby? Is a baby horse a pony? This question immediately makes the innate horse lover cringe! But alas, I will walk you through this without the eye rolling :) Ok here's the deal horses are measured in hands (1 hand = 4 inches) it's an oldie time thing, so don't stress over it, just accept it. To measure a horse you use a stick - they make specific devices for this, but you could use a yard stick (if anyone still has one of those around) or a tape measure, do some math and poof you'd know how tall in horse speak your horse actually is. So where do you measure a horse. Well like other four legged critters you measure from the shoulders to the ground. In horse speak you're getting the height at the withers. So why is this important in discussing ponies vs horses vs baby horses. Well ponies have their own breeds, but a lot of their classification revolves around height and we are keeping this simple. So here are so...

Oh the rules of the horse, so many things to remember and so many things to take for granted. I have introduced many people to Pistol in our first year together (yes it has officially been one year!) and in that process I became aware of some things I just take for granted.  I assumed there were some common knowledge things, that simply are not common. So in an effort to be more aware of all the things I need to tell a 'new to horses' person, here is a short list of safety tips - the real list is so long that it cannot be written, so just roll with this as a starter Pistol July 2019 - Just Chillin in his New Halter 1. Meeting the horse - Pistol makes it look easy because he is kind and self confident, he has no issues with strangers walking right up into his personal space and touching his face. He is not the norm.  Most (non lesson program) horses do not want you to invade their bubble to rub their nose.  It is safer to approach from an angle, try to ...

That was the question I was asked this week. Why do I love to ride? My initial response was 2 things. 1. There simply isn't time to answer that 2. I don't I love my horse. I love having a 1000 lb best friend. I love the people I have met because of my horse. I love how all parts of me grow and strengthen every time I go to the barn. I love the smells, sounds, activities of the barn. Riding, is actually the last thing, on the list of things I love about horsey time. I mean given the option of sitting in a chair or being in a saddle all day, I would always pick the saddle. But riding is not my motivator. What keeps me engaged are all the things that I didn't know in the beginning. When I started this journey, all I knew was that, I desperately wanted to be around horses. It wasn't a specific need to ride. At that time: I didn't know that, this was what I was missing in my life. I didn't know that, somehow having a horse was going to change me a...

Yeah, horses are icky! Horses are full of, or, covered in: slobber, poop, gas, fungus, skin weirdness, hives, bumps, bites, dandruff, bugs, hair, ticks, flies, dirt, did I mention slobber and fungus?? Yes, your dreams have come true, you have your very own horse and you are forking out all the money for the tack and pretty things, then POOF you discover how utterly gross horses are. This should send you running for the hills, but you're a horse person, now and there is no turning back. So you just shrug, remind yourself that you'll shower it off later and just keep moving on. The only way to keep sane and trudge through all the muckity muck of horse care, is with the right stuff to help you, you need an arsenal of random products that you've never heard of before. So to help a little, here are some of my chosen remedies, sprays, pastes, feed and what not. Fly Spray : Farnam Endure  Hard Keeper Horse Feed (someone just can't keep his fat on!!!) : Nutre...

I spend a lot of time thinking of things to write that you as my readers might want to read. I find this does one thing really well - it keeps me from writing anything! Writing is such an easy format for others to judge us, when we read we are always in our own head space and we can think or criticize however we choose. This knowledge makes it difficult for writers to put things out there, it's easy to get wrapped up in the - 'well, what if it sounds stupid' mentality.  I have decided today, that I don't care anymore if it sounds stupid. I hope what I post is useful in some way and not a waste, if it's not then, ooops - my bad. So with all that in mind I wanted to share my story of my recent visit to the 'barn'.  The barn where I keep my horse is 110% my happy place, this is not to belittle in any way how much I love being home or at my day job - those are also happy places for me. The barn is just different. I never have to wonder about what I should d...

You might be horse crazy if: If you stare at pretty pictures of pretty ponies all the time If your Pinterest feed automatically populates with horse pics If you know the closest tack shop, feed shop and vet to wherever you are in your city If you can talk about the size of a horse's butt without giggling If you misread things with horse context If your phone is full of pics of your horse, your dog, other people's horses, horses you want, horses you think are pretty and like 3 photos of yourself If your first thought each day is the forecast and if it says rain you immediately think mud If you are always interested in buying buckets, brushes, treats and every little thing that you probably already have 8 of If your YouTube history is full of instructional videos on bits, collection, flexion and lead changes If you see a single horse in a pasture and immediately feel sad for it and wonder where it's goat/donkey/horse friend is, because what kind of monster woul...