Alberta Equest

I haven’t fallen off the face of the blogosphere, I’ve been incredibly busy and quite frankly, as a result I have nothing to blog about.   Kidd is still fat, happy and incredibly adorable.   It’s fully winter now, Christmas is just around the corner, and my husband and I are going ham on working on the Cabin.   We are having a holiday party just before Christmas and our goal is to have all the walls and flooring installed and complete prior to then… or at least a big chunk made in it.   The tricky thing with the cabin, like most things in life, is we just pick away at it as we can afford it and as we have time – both resources are limited and therefor result in this project being slow… although, moving forward is still progress, even if it seems like it's at a snails pace – just like riding. Kai has been majorly on the back burner and I’ve been questioning why I bought a horse in the late fall.   I know what our seasons are like and I knew wha...

Two posts in one day, someone get this girl a trophy!  Ok all jokingness aside, I have a lot of ideas swirling around in my head and rather than annoy my friends with them like usual, I figured I had best just blog it - since that's what this blog is here for - me to track all my annoying thoughts and theories! So I finally braved the elements, put the office phone on call forwarding to my cell and set out to have mine and Kai's first 'real' session.  I went outside with the goal to introduce my Neck Stretcher to her on the lunge line, and hopefully graduate to ground driving if things go smoothly.  I noticed this morning when I came into the office/house that she was half-ass weaving in her pen due to her 'buddies' being gone out of sight.. I ignored her and went into work.   The Scrape on her fetlock, after removing the poultice. I opted to leave it unwrapped for tonight. When I went outside this afternoon she was contently snoozing as her buddies s...

I realize my blog has been a little lackluster these past few days, but with the onset of Winter and Hunting Season being in full swing, I have hardly had time to play horsey let alone sit down and write about it.  This post is probably going to be random and jumbled, filled with photos that have little to no relation to what i'm actually writing, so bare with me! This summer my Hubby taught one of his OTTB's to tolerate Archery Due to stumbling over the frozen, lumpy mud in her pen, Kai presumably scraped the front of her fetlock and subsequently tore the scab off her old injury.  It wasn't dripping in blood or anything, but rather just had a small amount of blood around the area. Hubby and I decided to skip hunting one evening due to the blizzard, so I took her into the barn that evening and brushed her down and poulticed her.  For the first time ever, she was an absolute wingnut in the barn.  She was pawing, kicking, stomping all 4 feet, threatening to set ...

I'm going to keep this baby hopping because it seemed super informative and fun - perfectly suited to someone new to Blogging like myself!  I got it from A Enter Spooking , who snagged it from it's originator, Viva Carlos  so lets get started! How old is the youngest/greenest horse you've ridden? The youngest Horse I've ever gotten on was Kidd, as a late 2 year old.  I spent the spring/summer/fall of his 2 Year Old year doing lots of ground work, driving, etc and he had 4 brief, light rides in the Fall of that year.  His first ride I had my Husband lead me around on him for a few circles in the arena before I patted him and stepped off without incident.  A few days later my nephew-in-law came out and wanted to go for a ride.  At the time, Ray's older gelding Rocky was the only 'safe' horse available on the property, so naturally we put the nephew on him.  Ray asked to ride Kidd and knowing that Ray has likely started more horses than I have, ...

Unfortunately due to the onset of colder weather which is accompanied by filling our freezers, general farm prep, etc Kai has had a few days to her own devices.  In a way, I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. I've suffocated her with snuggles since the day she arrived, and I like to think she would probably enjoy some time just hanging out.  With the solidly frozen ground came a lumpy disaster in her paddock.  Unfortunately, bless their souls, my wonderful In Laws didn't really thoroughly think-through their layout when building the paddocks some 30 years ago, because 4 of the 7 in the block aren't accessible with Machinery. As well, the footing is composed of 30+ years of broken down manure, so the drainage is subpar.... so as you can imagine, what was lumpy, mucky yuckiness a week ago, is now the exact same - but frozen solid.  As a result, I don't think Kai has been moving much.  For the most part, she's been chillin' at the back of her paddoc...

My good friend from That Red Mare  has started a Blog Hop.  This is my first kick at the virtual can, and I've opted to single out Kidd for this post, only because I've only owned Kai for a week so I feel there isn't much I can say or post about her! Ok, so here are some Before & After's of Kidd! The day I brought him home! Finally have the worm infestation mostly cleaned up and finally putting on some weight! Sacking out as a long yearling with a lightly girthed up saddle for the first time! Kidd @ 2, First time being clipped (and my first time clipping!) Kidd in the Fall of his 2 Year Old Year, very lightly started U/S Preparing Kidd to be started Under Saddle, Fall 2012 Kidd's second ride U/S, and Ray's first time on him! Spring of 2013, after a light backing and the winter off he was ready to rock! Did you know as a Yearling I trained Kidd to stand up, due to the intent to show...

Today the  stupid mud was frozen, which was reason enough to jump for absolute joy!  Sadly, by the time I was able to sneak away from work for a few minutes the top of my recently floated mud pit of an arena had become greasy and slightly slick from the warm sun despite the air being a crisp 4 degrees Celsius.  I took the risk, fueled by missing getting to know Kai further, and her growing frustration due to the muddy pen she's unfortunately stuck in.  I made the plan to simply lunge her at the walk, and set out to bridle her and get on our way.   My stupidity was second to none, because I should have known better than to expect a 3 year old OTTB to just walk given that she's in an arena she's never been in before, and she's otherwise stuck in a smaller, muddy pen.  I'm still torn between what caused her sudden freak-out that resulted in her tail up over her back, nearly running me over and being impressively balanced during her goofy c...