OMG It's September???

Seriously... where has my summer gone?  I cannot believe it's already mid-September and I'm worrying about getting out Alex's turnout sheet.  I haven't been posting because there hasn't been much interesting to write about.  Since work on our indoor began mid-August we've been without an arena (the indoor is being built over the previously existing outdoor) which means we have been relegated to working in the fields.  At first this was awesome in so many ways, Alex was super pumped to be out in the open and I was gaining tons of confidence riding him out in the open.  As the weeks have passed, I'm finding it harder to keep things interesting and as the seasons change the weather is not being as cooperative.  Luckily, our indoor should be complete in the next two weeks, so I am trying to focus on quality over quantity and Alex seems to appreciate my approach.  The best thing is that he is still SO HAPPY in his new (it's still new to me) home.

So, since the building of the indoor is the most exciting thing we've had going the last two months, here's a ton of pictures!

Post Holes Complete

Post Holes...

Really Big Post Holes!

Setting of Posts

Posts in Place

Trusses Started!

Trusses Again...

Trusses Finished!

Framing Complete!

From the Distance

Metal Starts

Again...

 And Again...

From the Inside (we have a roof!)

Almost Finished....

It's SO PRETTY (Happy Dance!)

From the Inside (More Happy Dance!)

I know this is probably more than you ever wanted to see of building an indoor, but it's pretty darn exciting :-) The electrician is due to start on our lights this week and then excavation to redo the base and give us amazeballs footing starts shortly thereafter.  Hopefully we should be in business by the second week in October...squeeee!

Golf

This past weekend, I journeyed into uncharted waters... a golf tournament.  I am NOT a golfer... despite having an abundance of patience I don't think I could ever play golf and would fully expect a round of golf to bring out my inner...

I have gotten to the point where I can watch golf on TV without complaining, I know some of terminology and can basically follow along.  I do have a few players I like to follow..so what if my favorite one is hot...It helps me pay attention :-)  Outside of eye candy, I do actually thoroughly enjoy most sports, you can catch me watching football, basketball, auto racing and golf any given weekend (mostly football as I am an insane Green Bay Packers fan... no really, I'm serious... INSANE) in addition to the rare moments I can find equestrian events on TV.

Since the PGA Championship was being held right here in our city, is a "major" tournament, and my hubs is a golfer, I decided to check out what live golf is all about...after all he's attended tons of horse shows and equine related events with me (with relative little complaining), so what the hell?

Interesting notes about golf... 

Attending a tournament is kind of like going to an horse show as a spectator.  You should expect LOTS of walking (actually I think it might be worse than XC at Rolex).  Don't expect spectacular food... not much choice and costs a fortune.  There are Porta-Pottys (cleanliness optional). It's a really slow sport...seriously at times it seemed to take forever.  Golf officials and golfers are super anal...they require total silence when preparing for and making a shot, there are officials everywhere to make sure the spectators stay quiet and don't distract the player (like watching Dressage on steroids).  Not only must the spectators be absolutely silent, no one is allowed to take pictures... zip, zero, zilch.  You're not even allowed to bring a camera on the property and the PGA is so serious about no photos taken with cell phones that they even have guys like this 

following the players around the course watching to make sure no pictures are taken.  If they catch someone taking a photo, they can literally kick them out.  This doesn't mean I didn't risk detection by and successfully evade Mobile Device Enforcement to take photos of my fav. Huge rebel, I know! :-)  

Our tickets were for Saturday and Sunday and the weather was crazy both days.  I was literally soaking wet and burning up for good portions of both days.  On both days we had rain delays although Sunday was nearly two hours, a good hour of which we sat out in the rain waiting.  Being the good sport (and horse person) that I am I didn't whine too much.  Turns out it was all worth it... the end was actually exciting because there were 4-5 players battling it out to win or tie and force a play-off and because they were racing darkness trying to finish up.  In the end, Rory McIlroy raised the trophy after storming back from being 3 shots back (see I know enough golf terms to be dangerous) and made his final put in near darkness (I think it was like 9PM or later).  Pretty cool stuff.  

I'd definitely go to another one... but maybe not two days in a row.  Don't look for me to become a golf groupie, you see WAY more of the action on the television than in person.  Back to horses and our regularly scheduled posts tomorrow :-)

Pepé Le Pew

Alex's love for his girls has calmed, but not left him. Only hopeful glances, no love songs last night. Perhaps he's feeling ashamed because it seems he's been recently sprayed by a skunk bwahaha!! Poor guy, it's not terrible but he definitely stinks! 

On the plus side we had a fairly productive ride yesterday even if the skunk smell increased as he sweated :-)

Alex Discovers Girls

As I mentioned, upon moving to our new farm, two mares were left behind to be moved when a pasture was ready.  Said pasture(s) became ready last weekend, so we moved the girls this past Sunday.  The girls will be living outside in one of the three pastures with full (more like giant) run-in sheds.  Initially they were living in the largest pasture that borders what is now the outdoor (soon to become indoor) arena, so if they chose they could come up to observe/hang their heads over the fence bordering the arena.  

After a beautiful ride on Saturday, despite a post-hole digger being used in the background, our Monday ride left something to be desired.  Alex was so worried about his new "audience" that he pretty much kept one ear on them at all times... "what are they doing? how come they are walking around doing whatever they want? are they watching me? are they still there? OMG they moved!" But basically he finally settled enough that we got some work done and called it a day.

Tuesday, I climbed into the saddle expecting more of the same since the girls were once again hanging out to observe our ride.  Initially, it was more of the same, but a little better... until... the girls decided to run off down to their run-in shed which sits way into the back of the pasture.  You would have thought Alex had lived with these girls all his life and had sired their babies (he's never even touched noses with either of them!).  He started whinnying and snorting and losing his proverbial shit.  "But I MUST go with them! They are my women!" Despite the fact that I finally worked him out of it and quit for the day, he was still looking for them from the wash rack and calling out.  As we had originally planned, we moved the mares to the other back corner pasture (construction for the new indoor means some of the fencing in their current pasture will have to come down) which we also hoped would calm Loverboy down.  It did not... when we turned everyone out for the night, he totally ignored his BFF and walked the fence calling for his women despite the fact that his pasture is at the front of the farm and theirs is at the back.

This morning the report was that he and his BFF, whom he apparently convinced to join his cause, were lathered up when they came in for morning feed.  Alex then spent the morning staring longingly out his window while intermittently singing sad I love you songs... OMG.  Fortunately, he seemed to calm down throughout the day and the report was that he was calm when he went out tonight.  Hopefully we won't have such an issue now that his women aren't right next to the arena.  I swear one of them must be coming into season, because I have never seen him act like that and he lived next to a mare for the first year plus of his life with me!

We'll see what the morning brings... silly goofball :-)

Moved!

Alex & Bernie BFFs

Wow I can't believe it's August and we've been at the new farm for almost a month!  Time is literally flying... it seems like yesterday that summer had just started... now all my friends kids are going back to school and people are talking about summer being over.

Alex officially moved to the new farm July 13, 2014, but most of the week before and after was spent cleaning, prepping, moving and settling in to our new wonderful home.

New Abode for Alex and Friends

Inside the Abode

Feed Room

Grass! Alex & Bernie's New Pasture

Alex & Bernie's Giant Run-In Shed

Moving weekend was crazy busy... Saturday we moved all my jumps, which seemed more numerous the more the temperature climbed, 40 bags of shavings and 50 bales of hay. 

Trailer Hay Explosion!

Sunday morning we moved 4 of the 6 horses (two mares came later in the month).  Lucky for us all the ponies were well behaved for their trailer rides and everything went smoothly.

Alex in his new stall. Just love how
there's so much light, makes
everything bright and cheerful!

New Pasture First Night

Since we had moved away from Alex's home for the past two years (and the only place he'd ever lived while I owned him), I figured it would take quite a while for him to settle.  I gave him a few days to hang out before I rode.  Of course since I was expecting mass chaos, he was pretty much perfect despite having nearly a week off AND being in a new environment... such is life with Alex :-)

First Ride!

And in the same vein, as quickly as we'd had our first ride, Alex decided to rip off his left front shoe...

Now that was partially my fault because he was overdue for a shoeing because of our change in location and my farrier was trying to get us on the schedule, but Alex certainly got his money's worth.

He gives 110%

Familiar from our abscess days...

AND... back in the boot

Luckily for us, the farrier came in two days, so we didn't waste much time and I think that saved us from any lameness.

After the shoe debacle, things have pretty much been smooth sailing... Alex seems REALLY happy in his new home and I am really happy there too.  The peace and quiet are amazing.

"Mom, I love this place!"

Busy June

First I want to say thank you for all the nice comments about our photo shoot pictures.  As I mentioned, I am usually not fond of pictures of me, but these I actually like :-)  

June was a busy month and started off with a trip to Masterson Station Park for Alex's second field trip and potentially his first cross-country schooling.  We had some trailer trouble getting to the park, which necessitated Alex's being unloaded on the side of the road and he handled it like a total pro.  Once we got to the park, after initially being scared of a trailer full of jumps, Alex was fabulous...better than fabulous... I was completely over the moon.  

Below are some videos... sorry they are small and a little hard to see, but you can still sort of see what we were doing.

As June moved along Alex and I jumped more and more and even managed to sneak a little more height in to the mix.  He's continued to get more and more comfortable with other horses in the arena and with things going on around him while we work.  He loves to jump so much that where he normally would be on alert when turnout starts at night, he pays no attention if there's jumps involved.  Our last and biggest first was that last weekend I was finally comfortable enough to work without stirrups for an extended amount of time even riding without them through a little rain shower.  Not bad eh? I think (hope) he's starting to grow up.

Finally, now that it's official, I'm happy to report that Alex and I will be moving soon.  A friend has just bought a very nice farm, which is about to be made even better by the addition of a new indoor arena, and we have been asked to come be one of the few or the possibly only boarder.  Given that our current farm is getting steadily more populated, meaning more trouble getting into the arenas and less choices for turnout, this is going to be an excellent move for us in the nick of time.  The new farm will be considerably less crowded and there will be paddocks with run-in sheds, automatic waterers and grass as far as the eye can see.  I can't wait!  

A Photo Shoot

No Alex and I haven't ridden off into the sunset somewhere, we've just been very busy!  Even though I hate pictures of me...we had a little photo session with a friend of mine who's a very talented photographer.  If you've visited lately, you might have noticed some changes to my blog and my banner which includes a few of said photos.  I've posted my favorites from the shoot here.  Enjoy!

                   

                   

                         

                   

                    

                    

                   

                    

                    

                    

                   

                    

                   

                    

                   

                    

                   

                 

                 

                 

                 

               

             

                   

                   

                  

                 

                     

                     

                   

                    

                     

Not sure why I was making that face, but find it hilarious that Alex looked embarrassed :-)

                     

                     

                     Love this pony!

                  

Photo looks innocent enough, but really that's a closed fist because he kept trying to take a bite out of me!

                   

Alex decided he'd had enough pictures, he was done with us girls and our demands!