I’m a little behind in blogging. I’ve been a bit under the weather lately, and no, I haven’t kissed any pigs. I took these pictures during the last heavy snow we had. Our gate was open and our neighbor’s cows huddled for shelter with our horses. The little white calf was just a few days old.
Jazzmin munching contentedly
Eeyore with the other calf
This was really no big deal as we had over 24 hours notice. We just made sure we had groceries and battened down the hatches. It lasted for about 24 hours. Here are some pictures of what I saw when I went to check on the horses this morning.
A woodpecker warming himself after the blizzard
Mouse eating Jazzmin's hay. Barn cat must have migrated to Florida.
The girls in the corral
Snow drifted on the north interior wall of the barn
More drifted snow in the barn
Chicken coop in the background almost completely obstructed by a drift. The drift is covering the future garden area.
The cars
Thomas atop a drift
Looking south over the garden area
Filed under: Horses
I am so flattered to learn that people miss it when I blog! In my last post I alluded to more farm-related news that was waiting for me to find time to post. Unfortunately, I needed to vent and you, poor readers, were forced to suffer! I’m feeling much better now. 🙂
Julie
It’s about time I introduced you to Julie. She’s a sweet 28 yr. old Arabian mare who likes to keep her feistiness under the
Julie and Jazzmin
radar. Don’t let her age fool you! We actually got her just before Christmas to keep Jazzmin company and to have another horse to ride since it seems Thomas has taken a liking to horses. She is missing her back teeth so she has to be fed horse food that’s the same consistency as someone in a convalescent hospital might require. She can gum carrot slices, though!
It has been very helpful to me to see how horses interact with each other. They are really not very nice to each other. Jazzmin is the dominant one and constantly threatens Julie by pinning her ears or nipping. One night when I was out feeding Julie had her belly full, spun around and nailed Jazzmin in the belly with a nice kick. Jazz looked kind of stunned, shook herself and left Julie alone—until later.
I had Julie out for a ride a few weeks ago and she is the easiest horse to get going. It doesn’t take much at all to get her into a trot or even a canter. She leads beautifully. It’s great to have a gauge for training. After riding her you can see how green Jazzmin is. Hmmmmm. I wonder what they think about me?
So sweet and innocent
Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth
I had my first horse accident as an adult a couple of days ago. I’m only blogging now because my pride is hurt. I’m pretty convinced that it is simply because she thinks I’m an idiot and sees no reason to do what I want her to do. Unfortunately, there are no pictures but Thomas saw it and described it to me. We were taking turns “riding” her while the other one led her by her halter rope. Kind of like those little pony rides you find in a park. The idea was to get her used to us and used to being “ridden” until we had the tack we needed to go for a real ride. Well, I climbed on her and she decided that wasn’t what she wanted. She started bucking and Thomas let go of the rope (good boy!) and got out of the way. He said it looked like the rodeo, only somewhat less violent. I probably stayed on 3 seconds. I remember not being able to see very well and deciding not to try to hang on anymore and the next thing I knew I had landed on my right side, head and butt, glasses gone. I was a bit stunned for a few seconds. Was I wearing a helmet? No!!! Had I been told to wear a helmet? Yes!! OK, so now I’m going to buy a helmet. I landed in the gravel in our driveway. Thomas came over to me asking if I was OK and I said yeah. I was just a bit dizzy from being whacked on the head. Then he noticed I was bleeding, so I went inside, calmly informed Juliana that Thomas said I was bleeding and that she might have to do the first aid and went upstairs to see what I could see. I saw a trickle of blood down the right side of my neck and figured I had a scalp laceration. I explained to the kids that scalp wounds are usually pretty small relative to the amount of blood they produce so not to worry. I got out the first aid kit and told Juliana what to look for and she patched me up. (Typical home school mom: when life craps on you, turn it into a home school lesson in first aid.) I am a little sore today. My neck feels like I was in a rear-ender, a little rodeo whiplash, my head is scabby (I think there is more than one cut) and I have a bruise on my right hip. It was a cheap lesson. I think I will talk to someone about getting some basic horsemanship lessons just because the learning curve will be too slow and potentially dangerous if I do it myself. And yes, I’m not getting on again (nor is anyone else) without a helmet.
One of the cuts in my head
Ouch!
Filed under: Horses
I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t being so nice and then I found out it was “that time of the month.” Poor girl. I was trying to insist that she be in horse school and she wanted to go text her boyfriend across the fence.
It was a little dark when I took the picture of them sneaking a kiss, so I blurred it like one of those romantic wedding pictures.
Isn’t he a handsome guy? And yes, I have been spelling her name wrong all this time. Ya gotta love breeders and their fancy horse names.
Our beautiful Arabian mare, Jasmin, arrived Monday. 
Here she is with her boy. Turns out that Thomas really likes horses, too. Who knew? It was never something we could really explore living in the city.
Each day since we ‘ve had her he has insisted on getting up early (generally anathema to teenagers) and helping me groom her and walk her around to get her acclimated to her new home.
You can see that she is quite beautiful; a very dark bay with a little star and a hint of a sock above her left rear hoof. More endearing than her goodl ooks, however, is her sweet (and sometimes mischievous) dispositio
n.
During the adjustment period where she’s getting used to her new digs, Thomas and I have just been leading her around after she’s done with her morning spa treatment. She’s so spoiled! Cocoa, our dog, is quite jealous. She thinks Jasmin is just a big dog getting all the attention that should be going to her. Cocoa is learning not to crowd her as she has been stepped on a couple of times. The last time was pretty sad because the horse had not a clue as to why this dog was yapping, seemingly in pain. Jasmin had a hoof just enough on Cocoa’s foot to keep her from being able to move. Cocoa was fine and didn’t even limp away. She acted like she was dying, though.
…and I’m getting excited! Note the happy expression on the City Girl’s face. This picture was taken in front of Big R, a place I had never been shopping until about 60 days ago. I am holding a manure rake and a bareback pad. I feel like I’m adopting a baby. 🙂
Note the BlackBerry at the hip. There’s still some City Girl in there!
Filed under: Horses | Tags: Arabian Horses, horse, Jasmin, Quintessential Arabians
A friend of mine has a horse who needs more attention than she’s able to give her now and so when she heard I moved and have 40 acres of living space, she thought I might be able to help her out. What she didn’t know was that she was making a childhood dream, a dream that I gave up on a long ago, come true.
Being a city-girl my whole life, there was never a possibility of horse ownership. Now I have a pretty safe deal. My friend re-familiarizes me with what I need to know and I keep the horse as long as I want. If it’s too much work or I decide I don’t like the horse any more, she goes back to my friend. I’ve spent a few hours at my friend’s place getting to know the horse and I’ve even taken her for a short bare-back ride. I got on her from a stump that was about 8 inches off the ground. Boy, am I glad my husband didn’t have a camera then. I jumped on to her back and then my friend pushed me up the rest of the way. Just picture a 160 lb., 48 year old woman hauling herself onto a horse—but then again, maybe not. Some things shouldn’t even be imagined.
Part of my training involved going to a very informal Arabian Horse show at Quintessential Arabians, a local breeder. Since Jasmin, the 4 year old mare I hope to adopt, is 7/8 Arabian, my friend thought it would be a really good idea. So I took Thomas and we spent the whole day yesterday looking at beautiful horses. My favorite was this little yearling filly named Psylk Noir, “Silk” for short.
Isn’t she adorable? I learned that black is a rare color for an Arabian horse. Jasmin is black with dark brown in her flank and belly area. I don’t have a picture of her yet, but “Silk” gives you an idea of what she looks like. Just picture her three years older. Here are some more pictures I took yesterday. They were just a joy to watch. They were all so attentive, energetic and eager to please. They reminded me a bit of equine border-collies.
Silk and Stardance
Stardance
The City Girl Farmer 