The New Excitement in the Neighborhood

Well, my foot is feeling much better! Apparently nothing is broken. Whenever I can get some babysitting help (my normal child care provider is out of town) I feel I can get back up on that high horse, literally. However, there is something a little more urgent happening around here!

My mother in law is getting a very early Christmas gift from her neighbor; a 9 year old registered Quarter Horse mare. She will be here in 2 weeks, so we need to get the MiL's fence fixed before then! There hasn't been a horse on that property in ages, so the fence is in a sorry state, but I think we'll manage. It will be a lot of work, and we need to find a saddle and bridle for my mother in law, since all her tack was destroyed in a house fire a few years ago. But soon I will have access to another horse to train my horses to ride around a strange horse! Yay! Also, MiL can ride her mare, leaving at least two more ridable horses at my house (three once Nine is started well) so everyone can ride together! I just had a little image in my head of MiL riding her mare (she thinks she'll call her Sally), I riding Nine, my fiance riding Ashley and ponying Hammar who will carrying our daughter. Cute!

Ouch!

So on Wednesday I did manage to get myself on the horse. It fried my nerves, but I sat all the way in the saddle, and Nine never even flinched. I was going to try to ride him on Thursday as my mother in law ponied Nine from Ashley, but as I was saddling Nine he spooked, stepped on my foot, then jumped off my foot, leaving a hoof shaped mark in my favorite boots and a swollen bruise on my foot. Today (Friday) I can walk, but I am very sore from being so beat up and my foot is quite tender. So I didn't get on Nine again :( My baby sitter is out of town for a while, so I don't know when I'll be able to work with the horses again for the next two weeks. We'll see. Well, I will. I doesn't seem like anyone is reading my posts anymore :P That's what I get for not posting for weeks at a time!

Good News!

So I had my mother-in-law come over to help me work with Nine, and owing to the emotional/courage support and a person on another horse to hold Nine, I managed to get all my weight in the saddle again! And, this time it was without a mounting block. Nine wasn't snubbed to saddle on Ashley, but the other horse standing there did help hold him still! Got to do dishes now, but I'll work with Nine again tomorrow, hopefully this time actually straddle the horse, and post some more.

I do have some new pictures to share, so here are a few:

Wow, No Updates...

Poor readers! Well, honestly not much has happened since Hammar's sheath cleaning... I still haven't done Nine... Nor have I ridden Nine, but we're getting close! Hammar needs his feet trimmed up and Nine is currently having his mane trained to all lie on the right side of his neck (to better show his freeze brand) but other than that life with the horses has been pretty routine. My mom and my mother in law have both helped me by ponying Nine from Ashley while I ride Hammar (therefore getting all the horses out at the same time) and I have ponied Nine from Ash by myself as well. Nine is getting pretty good about it all.

Hammar and I had a fun ride a couple weeks ago; we rode along the road, past big trucks and a construction zone to a gate, then trotted to my mother in law's house to race her truck. She has a 85' Mustang but insisted on using the 71' Ford truck to race instead... We had a false start when the truck stalled, and on the second try she was only along side Hammar and I for half a second, but we caught Hammar going at least 36 mph! Not bad for an old man. Then it started raining and we had an excellent trot home. Lost my dog, but she showed up a while later and is now on a diet!

The whole family has been sick with some sort of stomach bug for a few days, but we are starting to get better. Next week I will hopefully be back to normal and get going with the horses again.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but our internet connection went down the toilet!