Nysak

Tis tasteh, you should try it
Soup

Styles is gone, blah, blah, blah

Horses are good, blah, blah, blah

Have to cook things for Thanksgiving, Blah, Blah, Blah

on thing of import to post, my friend Pam(who moved here from my home area and then moved back there this summer) had to put one of her horses(Spice) down yesterday, it is very sad and very shocking, this was the younger of her two horses and while she was mentally preparing herself to loose Sheba(at 29 with cancer) she was planing on having Spice(17 and no health problems) for a good few years yet and to have her through the loss of Sheba.

Ok this post is mostly for A and other horsie minded friends, so you other....yeah just disregard :P

Here is a peek at my daily routine with the ponies, captions above the pics.
Between 7:30 and 8:00 AM I get to the barn and feed them their breakfast of grain(it's already set up)
Kirby and Holi eat fast, Risque' takes his time, he likes to savor his food, Holi is already done and wants out, Risque' is still licking his tub out LoL

While they are eating I set up grain for the next "day", PM and AM for all three of them, 6 buckets total, PM buckets have supplements in them, AM buckets are just grain.

This is Risque's feed, Oats (top right) beet pulp (top left) rice bran(bottom right) and Sweet Feed(bottom left) his suplemts are salt/electrolyte and Su-per Substitute Powder(which he LOVES) a pain managment supplement, it contains Devils Claw, Yucca, MSM, Grap Seed, Ginger, Black Cohosh, Bromelain, Salix Alba(willow bark) Vitamin B₁₂, and Curcumin

This is Holi's feed, beet pulp(left), rice bran(bottom) and vitamins(right) it's a blend of Calf Manna and Sprout vitamins from Fleet Farm(sprout is GREAT but not very tasty, calf manna is tasty but too energy/protein rich so I mix it 2-1)Her supplements are Salt/electrolyte(center) Anti-Hist(bottom right, she gets less than half a dose) and Cough Free(next to the pellets) which she HATES, but it's good for her.

Kirby's tub is much like Holi's, beet pulp(top left) vitamins(top right) rice bran(bottom) Supplements for him are salt/electrolytes(center) and thyroid meds(brown blob on right) it smells like a combination of instant coffee and molasses crumbles, he seems to like it :)

Once they are done the go out in the pasture with the rest of the herd for the day, our herd is 14 horses at this time, they wear blankets or sheets as needed, if it's nice they are nekid :) Then comes the fun of stall cleaning and setting them up for the evening when the horses come back in, but I'll save those boring pics for another post, instead take a peek at my tack/grain room! it's mostly clean right now.
This is looking in the door, grain containers with supplement buckets on top, tack hooks along the wall, saddle pads and drying polo wraps on the back of the door, my locker has grooming boxes and my good bridles in it( my evnting vest too)the grain I set up is stacked neatly and ready to be fed this evening and tomorrow AM, the buckets are color matched to each horse so if I'm not there people will know what to feed.

This is inside my tack room, saddle racks for the two western saddles, dressage saddle, jumping/hunter saddle and behind that one the "band-aid" saddle for teeny kids. The black bag on the wall has my two bareback pads in it(on ubber $$ perelli one and one cheap-o)they gray locker has random stuff in it(some step in posts and my solar fencer I think)the brown box in the center is my first aid kit, that box was a wedding present from my Great Uncle Lyle.

OK last one, the front of my tack/grain room, these bins hold the grain and such that I don't use every day, extra oats, sweet feed, oat bran, rice bran, beet pulp and vitamins, I re-fill my smaller containers from them. The fridge has condiments from our barn cookouts as well as some applesauce/syrup/etc for making meds taste better, having a microwave and hot pot is a must in a barn with no hot water, doing first aid with cold water SUCKS, plus my ponies get spoiled with hot mash once a week in the winter.

So yeah that's about it for now, a peek at my morning routine and how things are organized, or the lack there of heh :) I like my barn and I like doing things my way. I would much rather pay a small fee and do my own work then have a HUGE board bill only to have my horse receive sub-standard care.

So Far Nov ember is starting out as a quiet month.
On Thursday Styles left for a 5 month deployment, nowhere dangerous this time and he'll be back for my B-Day/our Anniversary so it's all good, I may even go visit him around Christmas.
Friday myself, my Ma and two friends went to the Rocking R to trail ride for the day, it was freaking GORGEOUS! out, and we have a great time, but nobody warned us that Friday started deer season here in NoDak(in MI it's Nov 15th and you couldn't PAY me to take my horse in the woods that day) well I had on some bright pink and blue, Pauline has a neon green helmet cover and three of the horses are SPOTTED so we were safe enough.
Saturday was the last home football game of the season for UND, GO SIOUX!! they won but it wasn't a pretty win, they are close to a conference title tho, not bad for only their second year in a higher division.
Not much else to say, with Styles gone it's horses, horses, horses for me. I do some house work and I have some sewing that needs finishing...

I am hating this fall so far.
I am sick again.
I got sick last on October 6th, it started with a sore throat the day after the Packers and Vikings game, it progressed to a nasty cough, head cold, lack of appetite and generaly feeling crappy.
I was sick for over two weeks, it wasn't until October 19th or so that I felt 100%.

That was nice as I had a reunion at the summer camp I worked at to attend
Oct 23-Oct 25th, I had a GREAT time there with old friends(and Styles was so good about being at a place he has no attachment to and no friends at, I loves you Lover for being so good to me) and catching up with the full time workers that remain from my time there.

I started feeling a sore throat coming on last night and chalked it up to talking all day while helping Da work on the trailer and then talking during dinner with Da and Styles(early B-Day for Styles) but this AM it hit me that I am once again sick...and this blows. 

Just so you know....
Tookie 1
Tookie 2

Summer is gone, fall is supposed to be here but it looks like we've slipped right into an early winter.
  The last show of the season didn't happen, too much rain made conditions dangerous to be running XC(cross country jumping) and without that part an event is kinda pointless, I mean come on I can go do dressage and stadium at any show *puh* but it wasn't too disappointing for me, that meant I got to go to the Sioux's homecoming football game(which they WON!) and spend the weekend relaxing instead of showing and then recovering from showing.
  Fall beings applesauce season to my house, so far I've made 12 quarts and I have enough apples for at least that many more,  if I decide to pick more from the three FULL trees on base I could make about 100+ quarts, but I'm not that crazy. I usually make a few pans of Apple Crisp/Apple Squares too, then they are gone and I don't make anything apple until next fall, I just can't stand apples from the store for baking, they have NO flavor in my opinion.
  On the family front My parents are all settled in here for the winter, they found a quiet court to park their 5th wheel camper in for the winter, it has an "arctic package" so they are warm enough for now, they just need to get all the extra insulation around it before it gets any colder.
   Me? well I'm sick, got a bug from a friends son, apparently he was sick(barfing) on Sunday night and we went over there for Monday Night Football(and watched the Pack get STOMPED by the Vikes) had I known he had been sick I would NOT have gone over, nice of the guy not to warm us huh? oh well, I'm not dieing just feeling quite tired and not eating much, juice and crackers/bread is about all the interest me, I might have run a fever a time or two, not really checking it, just waiting the bug out.

That's enough mundane waffle for one post, see ya'll later, 

I've been neglectful of updating this during all the chaos last week, here's the run down.
  Last Monday I went to the barn to practice my Kur for the show on Saturday, I hadn't run through it sense July and needed to work with Holi on it, when I brought her in she had a very swollen and runny eye so I called the vet straight away, after discussing things with him it was decided she needed eye ointment 4+ times per day, to be kept out of the sun and as much dust as possible. Obviously with those requirements showing was out, such a bummer as we only hold three shows and skipping one basically means you are out for a year end award.
  I put in an email straight away to the show secretary asking if I could enter my other horse in some different classes, technically the show was "closed" but we are a pretty laid back group and thankfully she said it was fine. Soo...this meant getting Kirbis Maximus ready to show, he's not a show horse just a trail buddy but I do work dressage and jumping with him as it is great exercise and gives him something new to do, plus I like versatile horses :)
 
  Friday passed in a whirlwind of packing, riding, bathing, hair care and arriving at the show grounds, oh and putting up the dressage arena in the dark.
   The old arena was made of stakes and chain, it was packed in several big tubs and anyone could transport it around to our shows with a pickup truck.The new arena is very nice, proper white planks, but it's also a beast to pack up and requires a HUGE trailer to store it in, I've helped set up the old one twice and the new one once(at the July show) so I volunteered to help set up again. A member with a goose-neck hitch arrived to drag the HUGE trailer up to the dressage arena only to discover that the jack had sunk sense it was parked and was too low to go on her truck PLUS the jack wouldn't work so she could get it on her truck! she made a few trips back and forth with boxes and planks, thankfully she got help with the trailer, got it on the truck and to the arena area eventually, but it was getting very dark by that time and we ended up setting it with headlights from several cars lighting the way, and THEN we didn't have a meter tape measure to set out the letters, I know where they go in a dressage arena, I just had no way of knowing where they went in this one, gah! we quit at about 9:45Pm and said we'd finish in the AM, well I(and I alone) finished in the AM, I dug out the meter tape, went out there and measured out where the letters went. What an experience...

  For the show on Saturday I had no expectations of winning a lot, my goals were simple, namely beat at least one person in each class. When I took Kirbis to the May show we got some ribbons but they were sympathy ribbons due to low entries, I wanted to earn some this time around, also I wanted to sustain a correct lead canter in our ONE cantering class.
   OK first up Intro Dressage Test A, we scored a respectful 66.5%! the judge made remarks like "bold entry", "very capable horse" and "good gaits, more in there" and the best part he got a 8 for his free walk, and 8!! we WON the class.
  Intro Dressage Test B, we scored a impressive 67.5%! comments included "bold entry", "powerful trot", "plenty of ability" and "horse has great impulsion" we got 5th, there were some very good horses/riders in this class.
  Training Level Test 1, the dreaded cantering test, he was very good, we got the correct lead and didn't fall out of canter! our score was 65.217% comments were, "clear rhythm"(for trot work), "quality walk" and "athletic horse" we placed 2nd, a few good riders made mistakes in their tests but that's showing, anything can happen.
   Next up Walk/Trot Dressage Equitation(judged on my riding) it was a small class, maybe three of us? anyway I got FIRST! and the judged talked to me about Kirbs, how she liked him and thought I was a "well matured and athletic rider" but I needed to me more quiet with my hands, I explained where Kirby was in his training(haha he's not anywhere) and she said I was on the right track :)
  Now hunters, Green Hunter Under Saddle Walk/Trot to be exact(judged on his way of moving) out of 6 lanky TB and one arab Kirb got 6th, well we still beat somebody and really the chunky pinto isn't going to beat a TB in a flat class.
  Green Hunter Hack, a Walk/Trot class with two 18" cross rail jumps, it should be either a flat class where we all take the two jumps after flat work or we all take the two jumps and then get worked on the flat, but this judge had us do a little pattern almost like horsemanship, trot a circle, jump the two jumps, walk after the second, around a corner to a cone, stop and back four steps. Kirb jumped the first jump very awkwardly and then was crooked to the second, but he walked nicely and stopped/backed like a pro, we WON!
   Green Hunter Over Fences(trotting not penalized) needless to say we trotted the course, he can canter his jumps but he doesn't have his leads down, better to just trot and be a greeny than canter and get wrong leads, he marched around the six jumps like he'd been doing it all summer and we WON again!
   I am so proud of the Kirbis Maximus, he surpassed my expectations and it was nice to know the judge thought he had some talent for the dressage and hunter stuff, who knew he was a show horse in disguise?

time it's a flying by
Our last hunter jumper show is this coming saturday and I guess I'm ready, I'm doing two dressage classes PLUS my freestyle, the freestyle I haven't practiced sense the last show in oh...JULY! I'm also doing some flat classes and two jumping ones, baby jumper 2ft 3in and hopeful jumper 2ft 6in, and I'm such a weeny about jumping at 2ft6in, but I've been pushing myself these last few times I've jumped, I forgot to measure them on Wednesday when I jumped, I know one was higher than the last time I measured it, but it just means more prep work and only this coming week to get it right *sigh* why do I set myself up like this?

Hannah has been doing well in her lessons, she jumped Nysa on saturday and it was great, she had some mistakes but she handled them well and recovered from them well to boot, and I told her I'd rather have her make some mistakes and recover so well than have a "perfect" ride and have no idea what to do when things get iffy. If this last show goes well Hannah will win her short stirrup division for the year, yeah man, not too shabby for the kids second summer of showing.

Life wise things are ok I guess, finances are tight, made more so by my decision to buy Holi mare from my friend, she is totally worth the price(and more) and I can do it, it just makes me nervous. Add on a car with a nice front end noise/shimmy, a truck that has NO air condi, another car that needs a new...well car and yeah, I'm hoping that while Ben is gone I can save more money, I usually do.

wow been a while sense I blogged I guess...
This past weekend was filled with a horsie trip to Minot, the Wahl Walkabout tour with Clinton Anderson(horsie trainer/showman type person) a group of us from the barn went and we had a BLAST, from the road trip there to eating out to the antics we got into both at the event and the motel(Pauline doing a Shamu impression in the pool springs to mind) it was plain fun, Styles did not come with but that's ok, he took care of the animals here leaving me free to enjoy my weekend with no worries about them.
Here is all of us at the Minot Scandanavian heritage site, that is a replica of some famous church(the original was built in the 1700's!) behind us.

In other news I'm working with Kirbis Maximus on jumping again, partly because I've not been riding him as much as I should and he's out of shape (aka FAT) so he needs the extra workouts, and partly because I'm considering taking him in the Green Hunter classes at my shows next year. Not sure yet about that because 1. he's just not a hunter and 2. having two horses at a show is hella lots of work. Anyhoo here are some pics of us jumping, you can see he's improved from this spring a lot, he's got some motivation going on ;)

 here he is jumping, so cute. 
And here is a really good one of him really moving that big booty.
also he's got his canter leads down now, I don't have to struggle for the right lead at all, as long as I ask him correctly we get it right :D