ALERT THE PRESSES: The girls are back in town!

Fly equipment galore!

THEY ARE ALL HOME!

YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!

It only took what felt like a lifetime, but they are all home now. The Lucy. The Vegas. The Bacon. And the Pandora.

Lucy does her happy dance!

The paint sisters were really good about hopping right into the tiny trailer, and unloading into their new home. They looked a bit confused and shocked. I turned them out into the pasture first thing, and it took them a second to realize they had grass to graze on. The bay sisters were so intrigued, but remained pretty calm. We threw their pen together quickly, as a storm was coming, and then it was done.

Phew!

A bit thin and in need of some elbow grease!

They don't look as good as I would like them to, but I will spoil them to pieces as much as I can. Pasture time, beet pulp, Nutrena's Perform grain (perhaps Special Care for Vegas and her tying up issues), a dash of apple cider vinegar and veggie oil, carrots, and lots of yummy alfalfa!

I missed this face!

There were some dreads going on in the paint manes, so I worked on those today. Unfortunately, we lost some, but all is good. I turned all four girls out into our tiny pasture. It was interesting to see how it all played out. Bacon wants to be friends with everyone, and no one wants to be friends with her (kind of like me in high school) while a Vegas does what a Vegas wants. Lucy usually stays quiet and close to Vegas, but whenever Bacon would come by the apple tree, the Goose would tell her what for. I have never seen such violence (if it could be called that) from her. Go old lady!

BUT LUCY! I WANT TO BE FRIENDS!!!

Where the cool kids hang out.

Pandora was last to be turned out, as she is usually the trouble maker. No suprise there really. I let her loose and she went charging over, puffing up as big as she could, at everyone, and then stopped and started grazing. Bacon kind of hung out with her but kept trying to win over Lucy.

Mom, can you tell her to be nice?

Maybe if I just sneak and graze closer to her, she won't notice.

So much mare drama. Blake said it is kind of like watching Orange is the New Black. Only the women are about 1000lbs, and are dressed in fly gear instead of prison wear. And there is an apple tree.

So many colors!

Pandora is the boss.

The Blues

Some Bacon love.

It has been a rough and tumble kind of week. And I am exhausted. My wedding is in 16 days and I am just all flustered. I gave myself an ulcer with the combo of meds I am on plus a few too many ibprofen. Whoops. I received news that one of our technicians is leaving, and then I was approached with picking up all of her hours. Which, at this time, is NOT possible with this whole wedding business.

Moo says "NO FRYING MOM'S BRAINZ".

That following day, I became extremely uncomfortable at work and felt like I was going to pass out again. When we closed up I headed over to our friend's house, which is a short drive from work, and laid in his lawn for about a half an hour to try and settle down. It worked, and I made it home.

He has saved me a couple times at work. And we are training him to help with race ponies!

Wednesday, I went to my first neuro appointment, when they placed electrode things on my arms and shocked them, and then put needles in my arms and moved them around. Not sure on the results, but I can tell you the assistant was nice and we talked about her showing her dogs and arabs, and me and my girls. It was distracting.

That face is also distracting.

That night we had a large storm pass through. I do not do well with storms. It sounded like a tornado was going through, which easily woke me up and I glued myself to Blake. I looked down, and my normally calm Roxy Moo was as close to me as she could possibly be. And the giant wuss dog was sound asleep, just like his dad. That next day, I tried to leave to go to work, and my truck wouldn't even attempt to start. After Blake messed with it, we got it to start and run, but it wouldn't restart.

Kind of like a storm telling me to go to bed. I ain't trustin' your ass.

So here I am today, stranded. I have some zits on my face that are so swollen, and making the whole thing painful. My stomach is killing me, as is my head, and I can't take anything for it. And based on my truck issues, buying several ton of hay tomorrow, buying railroad ties (to finally finish our paint girls' pen because somebody mentioned to me on Wednesday that they only had bale of hay left, thanks for the heads up) I probably won't be able to get the boots I had my eyes on for my wedding. So, old boots it is.

Sigh. My boots. Well, they were gunna be.

But you know what? It could always be worse. I get to marry the most handsome computer science motocross ridin' cowboy here soon, and all of my family will be in one spot at one time for the first time ever. My ponies will all be in one spot, nobody is lame or injured, and I have the cutest dogs to ever slime the world. And after the wedding, I can do all the derbies and trials and crap I want, says the boy!

Elephant horse comes home!

I get to marry that. 

More about my handsome gelding

He looked good in all the colors.

After my concussion, we had to take things a little slow. Helmets are a GOOD idea, and I am not sure why I didn't immediately wear one after that. I guess I am not the brightest. But that is a different story.

Best friend.

Booger was incredible. He did whatever I wanted him to do. One night we got a call from our boarder though, and it was horrible. There was a big accident between the gelding pasture and the mare pasture. One mare had broken her leg, one gelding had a severe wound on his stomach, there were some other scrapes and small injuries. And then there was Booger.

Ignore me. We know how my position is.

Our best guess was that he had been caught on a t-post with his shoulder. He now had a fist sized hole in it. We had a strict antibiotic regimen and hydrothereapy, and the lathering of his whole leg with vaseline (yuuuuuuck) so that the ooze didn't scald him. Also a nice application of scarlet oil in the wound, and swat around it, as it was prime fly weather. I was pretty devastated, but I made sure to keep my boy healing.

Pre-scrub wound.

I was pretty lonely in high school. By the time I was a senior, I had basically lost all of my friends (I did not want to drink or smoke, so I was no longer "cool"). The boy and Booger was pretty much all I had. Once my horse was all healed, I had him moved to Blake's parents' house to board. At first Blake was a little offended because I would hurry over to greet my horse before him. But he soon learned how awesome Booger was and loved him all the same.

I had a little fun with two negatives in the dark room.

One morning, a couple of days before my birthday and spring break, I received a note from the school office saying to call Blake's house and the word EMERGENCY on it. My heart plummeted, and the boys sitting across from me in art class jokingly said "Booger is dead". I hurried to the office, called and Blake's mom answered the phone. She broke down and told me that Boog had broke his leg, and to hurry to their house if I could. My heart had shattered. The ladies at the front desk tried to get me to sit down, and I fought and told them I had to leave and I had to leave NOW.

Hanging out at Blake's house.

I drove with tears flowing. Blake had been called from school too, and was already there holding my horse's head. The vet tried to talk to me and tell me that there wasn't any way to really save him. I already knew that. I kept looking past him and at my sweat soaked horse out in the pasture. I okayed for the euthanasia, and we walked out to see him. He neighed at me, the whites of his eyes showing, and he picked up his right front, where it turned 180 degrees right below the knee. Blake was sobbing into his mane. I wrapped my arms around his head and told him I loved him and that we would make him feel better. He tried to shift his weight onto me as I gave him one last hug around his neck. They had to drag me away, and as I left him, he cried out and tried to follow me.

Two happy kids.

I wish I would have stayed with him. Blake and I huddled and cried all day. We closed the blinds so I wouldn't accidentally see him. Blake went back out and collected some of his mane and tail. I was thankful to have him there with me. My only friend.

Unfinished watercolor.

I was currently in A.P. art, and we were supposed to be working on a series of twelve art pieces. I was halfway through, and of course, my subject was Booger. When I returned from spring break I didn't have the heart to work on it for several weeks. The rest of my pieces were a disaster, and talking about them in front of the class was even worse. It was also slightly therapeutic, but I could have done without the social trauma. Later, I had time to heal and be ready for a new pony in my life.

I miss you, my friend.

Along came Vegas to pick up the pieces. But I will always owe so much to my beautiful boy.

Sunday Position Check

Holy cow. Just. No. (This was August of 2012?)

So I was browsing through my photos of Bacon in her facebook album, and I was absolutely marveling at the pure hideousness of my form and riding position. But you know what? I have become a crap ton better.

I feel conceited when I say that, but come on, look at this.

Ahhhhh, my eyes! (Taken in April, this year)

And then look at this.

Taken today!

Yeah, there is a difference. It is quite noticable. Now, I am not saying that I am freakin' awesome now. But I look and feel like I am riding in a more effective way. Woo hoo for that! I wish I could do more lessons, as I feel that I would waaay benefit from them, as would Bacon.

From April or May this year?

From a few weekends ago!

And I am sure Bacon would excel at a faster rate and be even more awesome. But for now, I will take this. Woo!

Flawless Friday?

Because I like to make up crap? And I'm talking about the pony. Not that clown with no ass on her.

If you are really bored: Video Tuesday

Here is a little bit of our first dressage lesson. You don't have to watch it, because we aren't all that exciting. But if you are loving some Bacon and want to laugh at me, feel free!

At least I have a place to put this so I can keep track of our progress :)

Day three of the Bac Vacay!

Hey look! A non sticky trot!

Dressage. How do I feel about it? Well, I'm not really sure. I can tell you we suck at it apparently when we go to shows. Probably because I go around clenching my almost non-existant butt cheeks and crash into my saddle with my ass bones. Because, why not? I'm nervous. Bacon is nervous. The judge might or might not be looking (she does that sometimes) and so everything becomes not so attractive.

So beautiful. Just wish she had more weight on her.

Enter Linds. She gave me and the Bacon our very first dressage lesson. Though it was in a very forward flapped jump saddle, I think we learned so much in that first ride. The first concept was learning how to stretch down. This is obviously important to know. You know, to build up a nice topline, and maybe score above a four on our free walk, and to reach for contact.

Lovely canter on this thing.

So we worked on that at all three gaits. And worked on my position AGAIN. Because I fail. I get those floppy "tea pot" wrists when riding, and I've had them for years. So to keep those bad boys straight I may need to tape metal rods to my arms. Thumbs up damnit.

My position is poo. So just look at her.

But Bacon was just awesome the whole time. I feel like maybe we can better our score at the next derby. Pretty damn confident. Because she is great. And that is that.

Weeeeeeee!

After the dressage fun, we got a nice jump lesson as well! We took a lot of walking breaks to keep encouraging her to stay calm and to stretch down and work on that topline and flexibility. If she goes for too long, so starts to get pretty rushy and strong, but the small breaks seemed to work really well for her and me. I like not dying.

Nice knees here!

I'm still having trouble. Obviously.

And again, I worked on me some more, and worked on getting the canter I wanted before approaching the jumps. I wish I could do that every day.

The world needs more Bacon.