Daydreams

When I was little, my older cousin and I used to draw designs and make plans for a place we were going to have someday that we dubbed "Dream Ranch". We had drawings of barns, trails, a 3-story octagon shaped house, and sheets and sheets of horses we were going to have. I think at the time we had planned to breed Quarter Horses and Trakehners, lol. I'm sure a lot of horse crazy girls have dreams like this.

That dream has never left me. My mind often wanders to day dreams of what I would make Dream Ranch today. There are thoughts of mustangs, of having an after school "homework and horses" program, a dressage ring and an "extreme" trail course, well, you probably get the idea.

I haven't given up on my idea, but lately I am torn. Right now I am in Florida, down in Miami. Dream Ranch isn't gonna happen in Miami and we don't plan to stay here more than 3-4 years. The talk after that is to possibly go back to Washington or to go north in Florida up between Ocala and Orlando somewhere.

I miss the mountains and I miss friends and family in Washington. What I worry about, is there any where to build my Dream Ranch in Washington? I don't want to step on anyone's toes and I fear I would be laughed at for such an endeavor.

Ocala is definitely horse country. Rolling hills and horse farms all over. From Thoroughbred farms to Friesian breeders and everything in between. My mother-in-law keeps sending me links to property for sale up that way. They hope to retire up near Orlando in about 5 years and would like their children and families to be nearby.

Could I build my daydreams in Washington?

My first trim

So...I got it into my head to try trimming Cody's feet. I want to keep him barefoot and so I've been reading about it and I emailed Andrea at Mustang Saga for advice since she trims her horses' feet. So far I have only attempted his front feet. What do you think? I figured if I didn't take too much off I couldn't screw up too badly, right?

Before, left front (he has always had that line you can see on his right front, there is an old injury on his coronet band)

Before, left front

After, left front

After, left front

Left front done, right front still to go

Perfect Day

More pics when I get them back from the photographer :) Cody was a star! This was all of the third time I have ridden him outside of the arena or round pen. He went past cars, people, small screaming children, with only a second glance at a flapping table cloth for about 5 seconds. It was a wonderful day, not only did I get to marry a great man and best friend, I have an awesome horse :)

Spring is here

Cody sporting a hat

The last couple of weekends have been really nice. Cody has been doing well, even if we are still just trotting around the round pen. I wasn't able to go out to the barn at all this past week, so the last time I climbed on him was last Sunday. He did great today! Tomorrow I may go back out to the arena. I also had a chance to talk to one of the other boarders today who goes on trail rides a lot. He is one who tends to go and and likes to GO, so I don't think we'll be tagging along with that group any time soon, but he said Susie, the barn owner, tends to go much slower and she goes on Saturday mornings, so I just may check into tagging along in a couple weekends. Well, first I have to ride him around other horses....just haven't had a chance to do that yet unfortunately.

I got some conchos and buckles to decorate Cody's bridle. You can't see them all that well, but they dress it up nicely :)

I think I need a new name for this blog

So I've been thinking lately (I know, scary thought) but I don't think Cody is going to have the movement to go very far in dressage. He has nice forward movement, tracks up nicely at the trot, has a nice smooth looking canter, but he just doesn't seem to have that little extra spark of pizazz that makes a good dressage horse. So I've decided that what I'd like to do is get into trail riding. Either competitive trail riding or endurance riding, still trying to see what I can find around here (especially since I don't have a horse trailer). Who knows, if I can get in better shape, maybe in a couple years we'll try an Extreme Cowboy Race....

So to that end, I found a new used saddle. It's in great shape and seems to fit him as well as I am going to find something to fit him right now (he still really needs to fill out).

So here is my western pony, what do you think?

In the arena

Video from our ride today.

New bridle

There is a place called Sunset Feed a mile from our apartment. Nice place, nice people, could use a bit more in the horse tack department, but it's not bad.

They had a sale awhile back (okay, it was Thanksgiving weekend) and clearance stuff was half off the already marked down price. How could I pass that up? I found a nice english bridle for a nice price, and a royal blue saddle pad.

Today, I went out to the barn and when we (fiance came with me) got out there it turned out there was a birthday party going on. Barn owner (nice gal) came over to talk when she saw us heading to the barn and she said the round pen was fine to use. So I got Cody all tacked up and off we went to play in the round pen. I have some video that needs to be edited that I hope to upload later.

Cody has been here two weeks today. The first week was just spent trying to brush out a lot of his shedding coat and letting him settle in a bit. Oh, and he has trimmed whiskers and a bridle path now. Never seen clippers before and he just stood there while I trimmed him up a bit. I wonder sometimes if he came in from the wild already trained...

This past week we were back to working by the moonlight. Turns out even though he has had the last 5 months off he hasn't really lost much. I even ground drove him with a bit for the first time this week. The arena was a bit of a lake because there had been a downpour earlier that day so we just went back and forth and did figure eights alongside the barn. Got one other ground driving session in before today, out in the arena and we wove in and out of cones and such. Climbed on bareback for about a minute and a half one night and once with my english saddle on for maybe all of three minutes this past Sunday.

Today we rode for 10-15 minutes, in the round pen, with a bit, with noisy kids and a fire going in a fire pit not far from where we were, with chickens wandering around along one side of the round pen, you get the idea. Cody didn't appear to care. We practiced turning and stopping and backing (I've never ridden him with a bit, just with the rope halter with side rings) and he did awesome.

At this rate, I think he really will be ready for me to ride him in my upcoming wedding (May 15). Lol, I basically have as much time to get him ready for that as trainers do for a Mustang Makeover, think we can do it?