Monday, December 7, 2009

Photo Shoot, getting bucked off, puppy rescue and Yankee update

Well Saturday proved to be an eventful one that's for sure. I dragged my boyfriend DJ along to be my photographer for the day since Diane wanted some pics of her horses for sale. Freddy, Tempting and China were all ready and pretty and posed very nicely for their profile pics and most of them were good for the riding portion as well. Freddy was terrible at the beginning and I was afraid we wouldn't get many good pictures, but he eventually settled down enough to get some nice pics. China was very flighty that day, and I think it was because of the high winds. Also very cold winds! Makes the horses frisky! After her we photographed Tempting, who surprised us all and put in a great day on the lunge line. I was disappointed all but Tempting were still in 'western' tack but China and Freddy are too round for my size girth. Drat! And it was sooooo COLD! Here are some pics of the photo shoot at Diane's..


China posing like a good girl. She says "look at my pretty neck!"

She says, " I can trot so well now"

Freddy demands attention with his pretty coat coloring

"Look mom! I can canter on the right lead and on the bit now!"

what a pretty trot!

Such a gorgeous Tempting

Getting good at lunging!

After Diane's house DJ and I packed up Zoey and ourselves and headed 15 min down the road to California, MO. Suzie needed me to work two horses for her. It took us a loooooong time to catch them. Part of the problem was the fact we introduced Pippy and Junior to the herd that day and they were all having too much fun playing with the newcomers to come over to us. So round and round the 40 acre pasture they flew, leaving us not a clue what to do! Finally they settled and I was able to snag Dunny, a seemingly semi-broke AQHA quarter horse. Since Suzie didn't tell me what to do with them I just wanted to lunge for a few min to see how they move out and responded to voice and such. Dunny was pretty good so I asked Suzie how many times she had been ridden; she said "oh, plenty of times..I think". Well, I was sure this horse had at least been ridden, and I just wanted to hop on the see what she was like. So I asked DJ if he could give me a leg up on to her bare back and lead me around to see how she did. She was very good and just stood there calmly and walked a few times around the ring nicely and without complaint. Just as I was uttering, "She's great! Really comfortable too" Dunny EXPLODED into a massive crow hopping fit, taking me and DJ by complete surprise. Not knowing what to do, DJ let go of her. AH!! So I was still sitting on her gripping for my life while this maniacal horse tried to buck me off. She was really getting insane, so I decided better not to risk my neck and jumped off smoothly. DJ was impressed, lol. OK, so Dunny, not so good with riders. Probably not the best idea on my part, trustung a horse a barely knew. But I clambered back on WITHOUT walking just to let her know she had not defeated me. OH what an experience. After that I lunged Kit with no problems and promptly left for my 330 appt with Jill.

So again, DJ, Zoey and I headed up to road to see Jill and one of my most favorite horses, Zee. However, twenty min into the drive we see 2 dogs on the side of the highway and they blindly jumped out in front of us! I was screaming, "DJ STOP! STOP!" for fear the little one would get hit. She was right under our tires! DJ hopped out and the little one, now we could see was a weiner dog (lol), ran straight to him whimpering and shivering. The bigger one, a large mutt of sorts, rand as fast as he could AWAY from us. We tried to coax him over with food, but he was too scared. Sadly we left him :(. But we did mange to rescue one pup, and boy was she cute! Poor girl though, she was filthy and SO COLD and very hungry and had soft little tattered ears :( We gave her a little food and wrapped her in a sweater. I can't believe someone would dump these poor things, especially a dachshund with hardy any hair! She would have froze to death! But now she was safe with us, and we have fed her and bathed her and given her a warm bed to sleep in. Dubbed Pippa, she is the best little pup, and Zoey adores her! I still feel bad for the bigger dog, but he had long hair and was probably more apt to find food then poor Pippa.


Pippa with a sweater we fashioned her out of a sock

Anyways, we arrived at Jill's now with 2 dogs in tow. I quickly saddled Zee and warmed her up and then asked DJ to snap some pics before it got too late. Zee was a darling as usual and DJ was amazed to see how huge she was. A whopping 17.2 hand horse! And very fat, lol.


Zee being awesome out in the pasture

ALSO, a while ago, Grace Curell sent me some pics of Yankee, he looks pretty good, I just wish he was here.


Grace and Yankee in dressage class

awww cuteness