Oh Deer

There are a lot of deer living at the horse stables this year. There are at least 3 bucks (maybe 6 depending on if the group of 3 bucks I've seen twice are the same or not). There is a doe with two fawns, I've seen a doe with one fawn (or maybe thats the same deer with only one fawn with her), and one doe without any fawns.

I mostly see the deer on trail rides. Sedona is usually fine with me taking pictures of the deer, unless they jump out at us, then she freaks out.

This was the doe without any fawns. She let us get pretty close to her before running away.

The same doe, posing for the camera.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of the mother of two fawns, or the doe with one fawn (as she jumped out and totally spooked Sedona).

Funny Photos

Over the course of about two years, I've taken a lot of pictures on my phone. And occasionally, the animal I am taking a picture of will do something hilarious. So here is my collection of funny photos.

Coale, looking at the jack-o-lantern a little suspiciously. I was trying to get a cute Halloween photo of each of them, but this was the best I got of Coale.

Sedona, right after we shaved her. I caught this picture on accident.

Buddy. He was hunting my mom's shoe in this picture. I don't know why. I took a whole bunch of pictures, and he made a funny face in this one.

Nono, licking his nose. I cheated on this one and took a screen shot of picture in a video I took of him.

This is Motormouth (I miss him), waiting for me on top of a port-a-potty. He scared people who were in the port-a-potty when he walked around the roof.

This is Roku, one of my family's friends fostered her. She looks a little disturbing in this picture.

This is Wally, the friend who fostered Roku's cat. 

Wally again.



Mittens, our neighbor's cat that we cat sit for occasionally.

Sedona's new haircut

A few weeks ago, I learned how to clip a horse (which is basically shaving off their winter coat).

We clip horses in the winter because they grow a thick winter coat, and have a hard time cooling down after exercise (If it gets to cold at night, they wear a blanket).

Before Sedona's annual haircut

During the process

Even farther into the process

Sedona's haircut

Goofy picture (I didn't try to capture this one, it was an accident).

Horse Helping (after a long time!)

Between the crazy weekend two weeks ago, and being sick last weekend, I haven't gone to horse for a while. So today was my first day riding in two weeks (which is a lot for me).

I rode Sedona today. She got a huge work out. We round pinned her, and rode her for three lessons. After going on rides, Sedona likes to rub her face against her hay bag, which you can see in the background. Today, since it was a long work out, I guess she had to rub even more.

I found this movie of Sedona running from last winter.

Last Day Before Camp!

Today was my last day at horse before going to to an overnight summer camp with my friends from school. Today's horse section of the day was crazy. I had to exercise them in the morning around the time the horses would get their buckets (grain) and Motormouth would get his food. I lunged Sedona and then Wings. I took Sedona back to her stall first, which was a big mistake. Wings thinks she has to be taken first, whether it's for her bucket, for exercise, or for hanging out in Sedona's stall. She was whinnying loudly and she got herself stressed out. She was pacing in front of the gate and she pooped. While I was taking Sedona back, I thought she was hurt she was being so loud and upset. After I got her back to the stall, I didn't have any buckets (or cat food) ready, so I had three hungry and impatient (and very loud) horses (and cat) waiting. Fortunately, after everybody got their food, everybody was happy, quiet, and non-moving while they ate so I could clean the stall with them out of the way.

Wings

Motormouth

Afterward, I had time to groom Sedona. I brushed out her mane.

Tomorrow, I leave for camp. I should probably finish packing, or eat lunch… But I won't be at a computer for at least 6 days. 

Buddy always gets so sad when he sees my suitcase or when I leave for camp or vacation.

After trip animal update

Jax came over to play at our house twice since we got back. He's a little bit bigger than before. It was hot outside the first time, and he wanted to run and play fetch the whole day. The second time he came, it was still hot (It's been really hot around here lately). So our solution (we did this both times he came over) was spraying him with a hose. He ran from it, he ran to it, he several doggy shakes, he wiped the water off his fur and on our pants, and he ate the water. After spraying him, his fur was cold and it felt so good when he rubbed it on our legs.

Buddy is as friendly as ever (and when we returned from our trip, a little more clingy then normal). After two weeks in Europe, I had almost forgotten how much more friendly and tolerant Buddy was than other cats. Yesterday, he sat on my stomach while I did a bridge.

The horses have lately been overall good. My horse instructor is out of town for the week, so I'm helping take care of the horses.

One of the other people that helps with the horses sometimes braided Sedona'a mane about a week ago. Later that week, we round pinned all of the horses (Sedona, Wings, and Kona) together. Wings trotted and cantered a little, but when Sedona wanted to zoom past, she would stop and turn sideways so she blocked Sedona's path. We took Wings to the center of the ring and worked the other two. Kona cantered a bit, but Sedona blasted of and went Zoom. She ran (which is faster than gallop) at top speed, snorting as she went.

Here's Kona wanting to eat Wings' grain. This is one of my favorite pictures. She's been doing pretty good. Last week, we gave Sedona and Kona their baths on one of the hottest days. Earlier this morning, I round pinned her and Sedona. She ran around at full speed with her tail up and snorting. Sedona was not running or being helpful in any way, so I moved her to the center and tried to work her again later.

Lately, Kona and Wings have been becoming friends. Here's a picture of them eating together. When we returned them to pasture together at the same time, they walked over to the water together, crossed necks and drank together. Wings pulled back on her lead rope one day and got most of her back out of place. Two chiropractors came (two different times, her back was that bad), and now, she's better. We're walking and trotting her a bit each day to work her back up to lessons.

Motormouth and Sedona both explain to us very loudly how hungry they are until we feed them. When Motormouth sees the car, he crosses the street so he can tell us how hungry he is before Sedona gets the chance. I tried to get an audio of him when he was hungry, to help explain why his name is Motormouth, but it didn't work.

Teddy isn't at our house anymore. He left before we went to Europe, but we'll defiantly watch him sometime over the school year.

Animal Update

Here's an update on how all the animals around here are doing.

Kitties

Here are the three kitties. Buddy's in the front, Noel's in the middle and Coale is in the back. Buddy turned eight in May and he is still crazy and playful. Noel and Coale turned six in April. Noel is a pretty kitty and Coale is as troublesome as ever

Buddy is my cat. He's the best kitty ever! He's posing in this picture.

Here's Motormouth, one of the stable's mousers. He's a friendly cat, but he's a little weird sometimes. For instance, he buries his entire food bowl if he didn't finish his food so the other cat doesn't find it. He now likes sleeping on the roof of Sedona's stall. He sits on top of the port-a-potty roof so he can see if anyone who feeds him is entering the stables.

Teddy

Teddy is as playful as last summer. I think he's one and a few months old or somewhere around there. This is on of the structures he plays on.  It's made of plastic so when he has an… accident, we can just wash it off.

This is the whole structure. He has a little hidey hole below the yellow castle as you can see him peeking out of in the first picture.

Horses

Sedona is doing great. Her shoulder is better and I ride her regularly for lessons. Her saddle is fixed so now she will canter correctly. Sadly, Masai died last summer in a accident in pasture where he broke his leg.

Kona is doing good as well. Last summer, she had a back problem that confused her and caused her to spook and run non-stop. She had a sore back a few months ago again, but now she's all better. The bay horse behind Kona may be Kira, Wing's daughter.

Here's Wings. She hasn't been sick or hurt since we got her. Her health has gotten a lot better since she came here. It turns out that Sedona and Wings used to be friends and they were Wing's old stables together for a while. When we introduced them, they were already friends.

Running

Today at the stables, we exercised the horses by having them run in the round pin. At first, neither wanted to run although Sedona (the chestnut horse in the front) wanted to bite Kona's (the brown horse with her head sticking in the picture) tail. Then, Kona galloped for a bit while Sedona stood still. After a while, we chased Sedona around until she started to run. After she started running, she didn't stop for a while. In the picture, Kona was running behind trying to keep up.

When we exercise them this way, we do everything both directions. So they walk each direction, they trot each direction etc. In the middle of her run, Sedona suddenly stopped without slowing down. Then, she turned around and took off running in the other direction all by herself. That worked out well for us because it meant that we could just stand in the middle without having to chase them. Sedona knew the routine so well she changed directions all by herself. Kona was pretty happy chasing Sedona so exercised themselves.

My First Ride On Sedona!

This is a picture of me and Sedona. I've never gotten a chance to ride her because she is a more advanced rider's horse (she is my riding instructors horse) and she had a shoulder injury so she couldn't be ridden by students for a year and a half! Until now… She is recovered and after my ride with Masai, my horse teacher said I could ride her!

Me and Sedona.

This is a picture from the ride. After I first got on Sedona, my riding instructor put a lead rope on Sedona and let me get the feel of her. Soon after getting on we were riding around the ring. We walked, trotted, and cantered. Her trot and canter was very smooth. You could barely feel the bounces on her trot!