My mirror

"A horse is a reflection of its rider."

Have you heard this theory before?

I'm guessing most people have.

I don't think it is true for everyone, but I think it exists. For example, a friend of mine has a very rude, disrespectful little horse. He is rude on the ground, and rude under saddle. Not dangerous, but rude. But she is actually a very polite, well mannered woman. She is well traveled and VERY well educated. She has had this horse since he was a baby, so 14+ years. Maybe they do mirror each other in some way and I just don't see it.

Hampton, however, is a mirror of myself. Both good and bad.




The good

• He will do anything you ask of him if you ask nicely and, if needed, give him a moment to think about the challenge.
• He is a quiet soul, and nothing really rattles him.
• He is not the type to lose his marbles over things. For example, a plastic chair blew in front of us earlier this winter when it was super windy. It hit his front legs. Here merely scooted and snorted. Has it been another horse? Probably a different story.
• He does not hold grudges
• He takes correction well - if it is fair.
• He is forgiving
• He will try new things. He may hesitate, but he always tries.
• He likes puzzles (gymnastics grids, etc)
• He is friendly and kind, but not obnoxious. 
• He hates Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

The bad

• He is not an overachiever. He will only put in as much effort as is required of him. But he really isn't going to go above and beyond. He has a good work ethic, but there is a lazy streak in there.
• He can get pissy when you challenge him at first. Mostly because he does not know what is expected of him.
• If you "yell" with your aids for no good reason, he tells you to f - off, usually with a bug buck or kicking out. (I guess this isn't really a "bad" thing, but a character trait)
• He will test boundaries in a subtle way
• He gets complacent

Does your horse mirror you? How so?

EDITED TO ADD: Really excellent comments everyone - thank you! Some good points I had not thought of. Also, I realize I have totally anthropomorphized my horse. He has his own personality (so do I), I just think we have some of the same tendencies sometimes. :)

The story of Moses

About a month ago, there was a rescue situation in the area in which a young horse was apparently abandoned. He could not be approached and was very frightened.

Moses

A group of ladies from my barn rallied together to rescue the poor creature.

He has spent the last month at our sister farm gaining weight and being evaluated for personality, health, etc. This poor animal is pretty much feral. He is terrified of everything - especially humans. He does not know how to lead. Hard to tell if he is just NEVER been handled, or has been abused. Somehow, the vet was able to evaluate him.

It actually turns out he was a 9 year old STALLION.

He has been named Moses.

A few weeks ago Moses was gelded, feet trimmed, etc. (He had to be tranqualized. And I am not sure how the vet was able to do this as Moses is extremely frightened of people and will not let you handle him, much less give him an injection).

Yesterday he arrived at our farm.

"Creative" measures were used to get him on a trailer. It involved using someone's cow horse and a long rope. Not abusive, but Moses did not go happily.

So now Moses is here with us. We have a guy who will be coming out to handle Moses and teach him about life and hopefully, eventually, MAYBE ride him.

Every time I walked by his stall today he spooked and snorted. And I mean EVERY time. The poor thing is so scared. The good news is that he does have a halter on now, and a long catch rope. ha. He appears to be a palomino pinto, some kind of pony breed or cross. He's actually quite cute. Part of me wonders if he might be gaited. lols.

I am hoping with kindness and daily handling he will learn that people aren't so bad, and then hopefully find a great home. He doesn't behave like a typical unhandled weanling or yearling. At least those guys know what people are about - and will come up to investigate you. This guy is terrified, and therefore quite dangerous. But he doesn't appear to be mean or anything.

So I thought I'd blog about his progress a little bit here. :)

Can't you just see him as a pony club companion? Or 4H pony? :)

Limbo

Well, hello there.

Here is what we have been up to so far in January.

You serve me cookies in snow?

It's winter. It's cold. There is snow and ice everywhere. 

We don't have an indoor, so I can't ride until at least the arena unthaws (could be on Saturday - woot!). I could go for a snow ride in the jump field but I haven't had the motivation. Typically my mornings go like this:

Clean 1 stall

Hurry to office to put fingers in front of space heater because I fear they may actually freeze off.

Clean 2 more stalls

Back to space heater, thaw toes

Clean 2 more stalls

Cuss at trying to push wheelbarrow throw 4 inches of snow up an icy hill

Realize I have to pee. Decide to hold it because I am 1) not taking off 40 layers of clothes and 2) NOT sitting on freezing ass cold porta potty.

Bed stalls with shavings that have frozen chunks in them

Take water buckets out of stalls. Usually 4 or 5 snaps are frozen so I spend 5-10 minutes blowing on snaps so that they will open.

Hammer out ice from buckets.

Refill buckets. Wonder if they will be frozen again in an hour.

Make Hampton's alfalfa mash.

Check on Hampton - he seems content with his face in a roundbale.

Get back in warm car, go home.

Working in this cold (single and negative digits) is exhausting. I know people ride in much colder temps but I just cannot do it. 20 degrees I can handle, but not 4. 

There is no good footing around anyway, except to take a walk in the fields I suppose. 

A fellow blogger said something to the effect of nothing I do in these temperatures is going to improve my show season. Amen sista. Amen. 

So I ride when I can and hope that winter gets the f*ck out soon.

14-photo challenge

Check out Eventing in Color for the rules. I stole this idea from her. :)

Your horse's stall.

Nothing too fancy. The previous resident left poo smears
all over the back wall. Maybe this summer I will
get around to painting.

Favorite saddle pad.

"Santa" got this BOT saddle pad for Hamps this year.
I love it, and Hampton seems to be looser in the back
when he wears it. Placebo effect? I don't know.
(I added the hearts. ha)

Barn cat? Barn dog? Barn ____?

One of the barn kittehs

Favorite area to ride at your facility.

Right now we are limited to the arena. And even that is sloppy.
Argh.

Between-the-ears shot, out on a trail ride.

This is the jump field, so not technically
a trail ride. But footing was too bad to go out back.

The bottom of your horse's hoof.

It is nasty and muddy.
He is due for a trim.
Best I could do.

The hay stack at your barn.

One of the hay lofts. My favorite thing about the loft is
the old red bucket (top left) that says "Barn Ball" on it.
I wouldn't want to spend too much time up here though,
thanks to the damn pigeons. Nasty creatures.

Favorite grooming thing.

I love this stuff. During show season I saturate Hampton in it -
especially after baths. And he glows.

Your horse's best friend or significant other.

Right now, it's Shiloh - his halter tag pal

A snapshot from your commute to the barn (be careful).

This drive is actually quite beautiful when
everything is green.

Between-the-ears shot, at a random location at your facility.

Hmmm, seems we have some barrels sitting around.
What should we do with him?
Hmmmm.
Any ideas?
;)

The cutest or most attractive part of your barn.

The lane. Not as pretty in the dead of winter.
Oh well.

Favorite piece of tack.

Hampton's (newly updated!) double bridle. It's a Heritage bridle.
I love this bridle because the leather is so supple. It's a beautiful,
classy bridle and such a symbol of our journey together.

Selfie with your horse

Farm Blop hoppity hop hop hop

Thanks to The Process of Learning and SprinklerBandit for hosting this Blog hop. :)

Our farm is not as fancy or "modern" as some others, but I love it. The horses are happy (they don't care about cosmetics), and I really love how you can be as involved (or not) with your horse as you'd like here. There is NO. DRAMA. And everyone is friendly and supportive. You can have any instructor you want come in to teach. It is very low pressure. It's also very close to other bigger farms - including Spring Run which is literally right across the street if you want to school XC. It's within a 5-10 minute drive of Flying Cross and a few other eventing barns.

A view of the barn

Main barn (left) and shed row. Hampton lives in another
barn off to the left.

The creature's living space

During summer they are out all night (3 pm to 8 am)
Schedule is opposite for winter.

Tack room

Best photo I could find. The tack room in Hampton's barn is a mess right now,
so you don't get to see that. haha.

View of where you ride

Love me some freshly-drug arena.

Favorite feature of facility

The gorgeous property. Plenty of hills and there is NEVER
a shortage of grass.

Weathered

Somehow, Louisville was spared the giant snowstorm that walloped the midwest. There is not a lick of snow here. And very little ice.

But we did get the Polar Vortex (hahaha so ominous), and negative temps.

Kentucky of course FREAKED THE EFF OUT. School was cancelled. Grocery stores cleaned out. For 1 degree temperatures? When I was in school they never would have cancelled for that. We would have shivered at the bus stop. I also had to walk up hill ... both ways ... in the snow ... and ... GET OFF MY LAWN!! hahaha.

I've been at the barn both frigid days. Passing out warm mash, breaking water buckets, checking water tanks. I've stayed pretty toasty and the horses seem just fine. Hampton is bright eyed and has been playing halter tag with his friends in the field.

Halter tag

"So do you have a treat or are you just standing there for
no reason?"

Yup, they all have been turned out during the day. *gasp*. I think it's good that they get to move around. They have roundbales if they need it, but I haven't seen many nibble at them yet. There has been plenty of playing and romping.

Around 8 pm I go back out to the barn and deliver Hampton a warm alfalfa cube mash with carrots and some oil mixed in.

He isn't complaining.

It's supposed to be back up into the 50s by the end of the week. hahaha oh Kentucky and your sense of humor. So maybe by Saturday we will be back to riding. Here's hoping!

Past and present

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I have some gratuitous dorky photos of me and Hampton to start out the year (I am sure you are used to these types of photos by now), and unfortunately a sad story to tell. So read on.

Keeping weight on decently so far this winter. I've been giving him soaked
alfalfa cubes to help him out. Meanwhile, I have totally slacked on
keeping him clipped/mane pulled. Hippie horse.

On NYE, we joined a fellow boarder for a walk to the very back of the
property and back. (We rode for over an hour!) This includes several awesome hills to torture Hampton ...
work Hampton's butt. It was so quiet and beautiful - even for the
dead of winter.

Still working on our Third Level stuff in the arena when we can.

Matching Horsewear fleeces! Not dorky at all. Nope.

I just ordered new bits for Hampton's double. These were the most basic, generic bits
to start out with. He's earned some updates.

More dweeby goodness

Me and my niece! Her first selfie. She may have had too
much eggnog on Christmas though. She is drooling.
(ok maybe it was me who had too much eggnog)

And that brings me to a rather sad story.

On Christmas Eve I stopped by the farm where Hampton was born. His sire still lives there in fact. I'm not sure I wrote too much about it in this blog, but I also worked as a trainer on this farm for about a year. The owner breeds larger type hunters/foxhunters/jumpers/sporthorses. 

She built the big barn in 2006 I think? I still had T-Bone at the time and boarded him there as well. It is a nice barn. Really nice stalls, 2 washracks w/ heaters, an indoor arena, an outdoor arena and acres and acres of pasture. The barn office was snazzy with leather couches, TVs, an office and big windows to see into the indoor. There was even an apartment in the loft. It was always sparkly clean (for a barn), the horses all fat and shiny with perfectly pulled manes. It was a busy farm (52 babies were born in the year I worked there - Hampton was one of them!). 

Basically what happened was the owner had too many horses (175 at one time), and ran out of money, and then slipped into depression.

She's now down to 12 horses - 4 stallions- and the rest are about Hampton's age and not even halter broke. When I arrived at the farm - I was immediately sad. The outdoor area was nothing but overgrown weeds. The fences were broken. Grass not really mowed. Broken and rotting jumps strewn about. On the porch there was old halters and various other pieces of junk piled up. As I walked into the office area - you are overcome with the smell of a cat box. So much dust and dirt everywhere. There are holes and tears all over the leather couches. Various junk strewn about.

I walked over the aisle where the horses were. Hampton's sire, Fletcher, greeted me at his door.

Fletcher says oh hei!!! He is a big sweetie and enjoyed some lovin's.

I notice that the stalls have not been cleaned in ... a while. Like, a good while.

All the horses had tangled manes. They were in good weight, but it appeared to me that they

have not, or do not, go outside. There was no mud on any of them and we all know that chances are this time of year, if your horse goes outside, there will be mud somewhere.

It was so heartbreaking to me. I mean I don't believe the horses are in danger, but it was so obvious that the passion that once was there, is gone. Very heartbreaking to see what depression can do to a person.

Several of the "young" horses (between 6-8 years old I believe) appeared to be quite nice. It's really a shame that they cannot even LEAD. Because now they are too big to really wrestle. Who wants an unhandled 7 year old? So who knows what their futures hold. No half-brothers to Hampton, however.

BUT - I did find out that his mother is still living! She is in her mid-30s! Wowza!

I did end up having a wonderful chat with Hampton's breeder and my long time friend and mentor (she used to be the breeding manager when the farm was doing well). She basically agreed with me and said that the barn's owner is depressed - sometimes not coming out of her house, and out to the barn until 3 in the afternoon. But what can you do? 

She's not sure if the farm will be sold, or what will happen to it.

Just hate to see this stuff happen.