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?

Yes

Today, we stopped at a store on our way to his parents' house for dinner. This store happened to be a jewelry store. The item that was being picked up was an engagement ring! We had gone to "just look" yesterday (or so I was told) and I spotted a ring I rather liked. Today it is on my finger! When he got back in the car he proposed (totally unromantic I know, but sweet all the same) and of course I said yes :)

Happy New Year!

I can't believe 2009 is done and gone already! I wonder what 2010 will bring?

2009 has been a pretty eventful year for me. I moved to Miami, FL, I got a "real" job, I got a puppy, I climbed on my horse for the first time, I think it's been a pretty good year.

Now for those blue moon pics. The sky was cloudy but when I went out to snap a shot the moon was peeking through an opening.

And I think, for now, I'm going to leave them as dark as they were straight out of my camera.

The moon over our apartment building.

The moon peeking out over a palm tree zoomed in as much as my little camera could go.

Finally found a place

I finally found a place to board Cody. It's further away than I'd really wanted, but the people seem really nice and there is turnout and places to ride. So this means I am can finally finish making plans to ship Cody. I used uShip to get bids from shippers and was able to find someone to haul my nutty pony from one corner of the country to the opposite corner for $1500. So the plan is to haul him here mid-January.

The barn is about 16 miles away, but it's going to take 20-30 minutes to get there. But I plan to head there after work 2-3 evenings a week and then on weekends. They have a round pen and an outdoor arena (I haven't really seen any covered arenas around here, not quite sure why). I got a really good feeling from the place when we stopped by there on Saturday. We showed up unexpected (were out to drive past a few places and we saw people so thought we'd stop and get out) and they were in the middle of getting ready for a holiday party for their boarders and lesson kids. She let me wander and look around a bit and then showed us around and told us more about the place. And after all of that, she invited us to stay for their party! Sadly, we couldn't stay, but I thought that was really nice. So I am really looking forward to having my horse back!

I've been at my new job for 2 weeks now and it's finally starting to get interesting. I actually have a job now where my job title is "programmer"! It's fixing bugs and doing modifications for a company that has a software program that airlines use for tracking maintenance and engineering for airplanes and parts and such.

Bummer thing about the job is that I have to wake up at 5:30 to get there on time! Since start times are an hour and a half apart and in differing directions, I am riding the bus to work. It's all of a 10 mile commute but you put that in city rush hour traffic (and the fact that I am riding a bus) and it turns into a 50 minute commute. I find the nice thing about riding a bus is that I can totally tune out the traffic and just read or look things up on my phone.

Sadly, I've dropped my poor cell phone twice in the last week and put some significant cracks in the screen. Luckily it seems to still be working. Hopefully it will make it through to summer so I can get an upgrade.

How could we resist?

We went to Ikea today because I had a coupon for $25 off our purchase and it expired at the end of the month and we could really use desks (2 people and one desk just doesn't work very well). Had a productive day and had lunch there (yum meatballs!). On the way home were gonna stop by a store to grab some soda and it happened to be next to PetSmart. Went in to look at the cats that are always there for adoption. Walk in the door and there are puppies. I haven't had a dog since I was five. Somehow we came home with this....



Isn't he cute? He is 9 weeks old, was born September 15. He is Jack Russell and Shih Tzu so it's going to be interesting to see what he ends up looking like, right now he looks kind of like a solid colored Jack Russell.

He is possibly in need of a name. The name the shelter had given him is Tommy and I'm just not sure if that feels quite right. Some other suggestions have been Pete or Charlie. Any other ideas?

English Saddle

So while I was in Washington for a few days last week, I tried my old Stubben saddle on him again just to see how it was fitting. It's not perfect, but it fits better than the Wintec I tried on him for comparison. And when I got home to Miami and I've looked at the pics I took a few dozen times, thought I would compare how he looked in it now versus when I first tried it on him back in February. I do believe I can say he has actually grown a little, lol.

February 21, first time I put a saddle on his back

---

Tuesday morning, November 10 before heading to the airport


Now that I have found a job (I start Thursday) I get to have my pony shipped here in about a month or so! So now I am really looking for somewhere to board him and I have been getting quotes from shippers. Does anyone have any good or bad experiences with any particular shipper?