Melting

I have to say... One of the best feelings is walking out to the water trough in the dead of winter, and not seeing frozen water. Saves so much time and energy!

Today, our high was 40°! In January! Crazy, but hey, I'll take it. Upside? We can cut down on the hay we're feeding until it gets colder again, because believe it or not, on the high ground, we had grass! Downside? M-U-D. Grosssssss.

Honestly, I'd take snow over mud any day. I don't particularly like snow, but hey, it's sparkly and fun to ride/play in.

I haven't ridden in a while, but! The horses did get their hooves done yesterday. I'm so thankful for my wonderful farrier. If anyone's looking for a farrier in Central Indiana, shoot me an email and I'll hook you up. (: He's awesome. He'll do trims for $35 each, which really isn't bad. He doesn't tell you his life story, but he holds good conversation. And he's good with the horses. Always a calm hand and a loving touch.

Also, I ordered a new English saddle! I'm super excited. It's time for me to get back into it, and I have Ty to carry me along! He's a fast learner, and he certainly builds muscle quickly - hopefully he can also be my English horse! The saddle is a strange color, but I'm sure it'll be alright..

I have to say... This up and down weather has me missing summer, and I'm kind of angry that it's not too warm for Ty to wear his blanket!! Oh well, all's well that ends well.

Until next time.

Lately

We haven't done much lately. However, color guard practices have started - meaning Ty and I are getting regular work in. I can't wait to get his muscles developing.

His blanket finally arrived, and it fits perfectly! It's the most stunning blue on him, he looks like a model. Also, thanks to sparse grass and getting worked, Sissy is dropping weight and is beginning to develop muscle.

The chickens have been up to no good, and Ty has enjoyed making faces at the camera as usual.

I met some interesting stallions last week, but more on them later. Oh, and I got a puppy, who my step mother named Lucy. She's quite enjoyable, and thanks to her I've been on a photography kick lately. Enjoy!

Bok Bok CHICKEN!

All has been well. The world didn't end yesterday, (thankfully), but it was freezing, and the horses were miserable. There were balls of ice literally frozen to Ty's front legs and nose, and the end of his tail. Poor guy ): Sissy wasn't horribly cold, just miserable because she's somehow in heat (last one before winter?) AND the weather keeps changing. Needless to say, they got to stay inside last night with a cozy stall, heated water and fresh alfalfa/Timothy mix hay. Livin the high life!

I ordered a blanket for Ty, for his Christmas present - he gets a whole lot colder than Sissy, and his winter coat isn't very impressive. It should be here today!

Unfortunately I haven't gotten to ride or lunge them - it snowed and froze horribly Thursday night, yesterday I wasn't willing to risk Sissy going lame if I rode her (she has pretty weak legs in general, and to ask her to work when it's so cold... Nope), and Ty's mood keeps going downhill.

I'm almost afraid to ride Sissy. I feel like a chicken. She kicked my sister in the chest back in September, and ever since I've had a hard time setting boundaries with her. She's one of those horses that you have to find the perfect balance of discipline and love before you can work in harmony. The time will come when we're a wonderful partnership, but until then... I have to keep working with Ty even if I don't work with Sissy. I'm really hoping the weather gets better so it's safer to work with both of them...

I'm not quite sure what's on the horizon, except hopefully less cold days, a good Christmas, and some happy horses.

(P.S. that picture of Sissy with chicken wire in front of her? I took that picture through the chicken coop. I promise we don't try and fence them with chicken wire! Ha!)

the past few months: catching up

Day one: August 18, 2012.

Sissy left, Ty right

Sissy left, Ty right

We brought them to a family friends house, because at this point we didn't have our own place. We were in the process of finding a good house with a barn and pasture room, and our friends were kind enough to let us use their field space. Sissy was fat and happy and Ty was skinny, fit, sleek and shiny. I tried to use my bumper spurs on him to get a little bit of energy out of him, and he about killed me. Obviously he was tired from traveling two hours in a trailer on a highway, and the trauma of saying goodbye to his old family. All was well, though, and it was a good day.

A few weeks later, we had found a good house that, while not ready for us to move in, was ready for the horses to move in after some minor adjustments to gates and such: 

Leaving the old place - Ty was having issues with loading, which we quickly fixed a few days later. Can't have that now, can we? I'm DONE with horses that don't load. Sissy, however, has obviously never been trained to load properly but always jumps right in. Meh. Good enough for now. 

At the new place! Wide open spaces. They were bug eyed and prancy, so we walked them around a few times and they seemed fine.

 A few hours after we moved the horses, my sister and I were moving all of our tack into the new tack room and fixing things up. While waiting for our ride to come pick us up, we decided to chill in the pasture with the horses. I sat on the fence and was texting and not really paying attention to whatever H was doing. However, I looked up when I heard H messing around, running, towards Sissy's back feet. Just as I looked up, I saw Sissy's eyes go bug-eyed, and she kicked H right in the chest. H passed out, fell back, and just as she woke up our ride got there. We had a nice trip to the emergency room, she was fine, nothing broken, but she had an impressive bruise.

That, though, is how Sissy came to get her name of Lil Bit. Yes, it is an abbreviation... enough said about that. (:

A few more pictures:

Enjoying their new digs

"but mom... I know I'm chubby, but i'm huuuuuungry."

So far, so good. Going out tonight to lunge them both, hopefully getting Ty to learn to drop his head for when we're ready for into to English riding, and to clean the barn. Hooray. (:

and it begins.

(To read the beginning of my adventures previous to this blog, click here.)

My name is Gabriella. I have two fabulous horses - Laceys Little Tyke and Sissys Lil Bit, otherwise known as Ty and Sissy/Lil Bit. They are the first two horses I have ever owned. We just bought a farm with a fixer-upper for a house, and we plan on moving in soon. The house is in central Indiana, right smack dab in the middle of the horse community here.

Ty and Sissy came from a 4H family a few hours away. We bought them in August. I figure since my past adventures were recorded via blog, perhaps Ty and Sis deserve their own blog as well. So, here we are - ready to share with you our adventures together. This is our journey, to heaven and hell and back again. I suppose it doesn't really matter where they came from... as long as we know where we're going.