Friday Fotos and Films: Dogs

With this weather, the dogs haven't been doing much of anything either. It's too cold for them to be outside for very long, and the ice makes play time too hard on their paws, especially for Herbie. Our usual hiking spots are all treacherous this time of year.

Julio is perfectly happy to just snuggle forever, so he's not complaining. Herbie wants to play, play, play, but a few steps out of the house send her running back to the warmth of the indoors.

I have been spending some time teaching them new tricks, mostly for my own amusement (I should do a video of that...)

Julio hoping for a treat. (Yes, I gave him one. I'm not a monster!)

Thankfully, they have each other for entertainment and they spend a lot of time playing together. In fact, they're roughhousing in the background as I write this.

The other day, the temperatures spiked briefly into the high 20's, and we took the opportunity to go outside for an  extended play session. Mike threw the Kong for Herbie about a million times and played with Julio's rope tug. The dogs eventually wound up tugging together until they wore each other out. In the meantime, I snapped away with my camera, with some pretty hilarious results.

Such a majestic creature.

I also took some slow mo video of Herbie in motion. I love the way she leaps across the ground when it's snow covered.

Eventually, it was time to bring the kids back inside, despite their protests.

Anyway... have about thirty a million photos (and one more video) of the dogs in the snow. And one of Mike for good measure.

WW: Jigsaw Puzzle

Venison Taco Platter

I have been majorly (MAJORLY) slacking in the sharing recipes department on here. Mike and I cook from scratch nearly every night, and a lot of what we make turns out great. It's something we enjoy doing together, and I often post the results on Facebook. For some reason, though, it has been over a year since I shared any of our cooking here.

Recently, I was inspired by a post about taking pictures of food on one of my favorite food blogs, Some the Wiser. I'm always so jealous of the amazing food photos I see on my blog reader every day, and I decided to start trying to take pictures of what we cook from time to time.

The first recipe is adapted from one in Taste of Home. That magazine is our go-to when we're short on inspiration, and it's well worth picking up in the grocery store aisle. We now have the soups, casseroles, pastas, and ground beef issues.

As always, we put our own spin on it. Mike and I have stocked up on fresh venison this year, thanks to his hunting friend connections. It's tastier and healthier than store bought beef, and comes out cheaper in the long run. I honestly can't imagine going back to buying beef at the store.

Venison Taco Platter
Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground venison (or beef)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato puree
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 garlic clove minced (or garlic powder if you're lazy like me!)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 can kidney beans, drained
• 2 cups hot cooked rice

Toppings:

• Shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• Fresh tomatoes, chopped
• Sour cream
• 1 bag of Fritos (this is the key!)

Directions:

1. In a large skillet or Dutch oven, brown venison and onion.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, except beans. Simmer until sufficiently thickened (our stove cooks on the hot side and it's about 45 minutes). This is also when I cook the rice.
3. Add beans and heat through.
4. Serve over rice with toppings of choice, but definitely the Fritos! (You could probably also eat this as a burrito with great success.)

This makes a TON of food and makes excellent leftovers. It is also the reason why I should probably start running before ride season...

Snow Horses

It continues to snow almost daily out here. It has also been miserably cold (highs in the single digits during the day, lows in the negatives at night) and extremely windy. We have been under a wind advisory for as long as I can remember now. I actually stood in the barn and cried after trying to do the horses without Mike the other day.

Meanwhile, the horses don't seem to mind one bit.

They have a huge run-in shed, and while Ozzy goes in it to sleep, both horses spend more time out in the open than in the shed.

I've been keeping piles of hay out for them, and it's an alfalfa mix, so they're loving that. They're also getting grain once a day since the weather is extra miserable lately. JR firmly believes he has died and gone to heaven.

Keeping ice off the water has been easier since they moved in. We check the trough every few hours, and Mike made an ice strainer by drilling holes in the bottom of a contractor bucket. This means ice-free water without so much as getting our hands wet. Every night, we lug 10 gallons of steaming hot water down, which prevents the water from freezing for several hours while we sleep. It also encourages the horses to drink, and their water intake is at an all time high. Mike has the water transport down to an art as well (water cooler jugs, capped to prevent spilling and featuring handles for easy carrying). Basically, the water hasn't been an issue even though there is no running water or electricity in our field.

The nice thing about having Ozzy and JR at home is that I can check them frequently, and we do a night check right before bed, usually around midnight. Even with stuff coming out of the sky and winds threatening to rip my head off, the horses have been toasty to the touch. Nobody is shivering or clamping tails or looking unhappy. Mother Nature seems to know best. Of course, I know that on a logical level, but to see it happen IRL still impresses me.

I took some photos of them on a sunny morning this week. Ozzy gave me a courtesy trot, but JR wasn't the least bit interested in showing off for the camera.

Today, I glanced out the window in the afternoon to catch them in the midst of a rousing game of 'feed pan tag'. This is something Ozzy used to do with Erin's horse, Jabby, when they lived together at SRF. I haven't seen him do it with anybody else, and I have never seen Ozzy and JR playing together before, so the sight warmed my heart. It's nice to see JR being nicer to Ozzy now that there are no mares in the picture, and it's good to see that Ozzy can make friends to some extent (he has always been the low man on the totem pole and is generally afraid of other horses, avoiding them at all costs when it's possible).

So... the bottom line is that the horses are doing really well, even if winter makes me want to do something crazy like move to the tropics.

Friday Fotos: Venison Wraps

A regular staple at our house. 

WW: This Old Truck

Friday Fotos: Snuggladogs

SFTS Blog Hop: Three Little Words

Idea from Jenn at Stories from the Saddle.

I want to know: what three words would you use to describe your horse? They can be any words, but you're limited to three words and three words only. 

Ozzy: Goofy. Fast. Partner.

JR: Fat. Trustworthy. Unamused.

WW: Smile!

Mike took this photo of Ozzy while I was riding the other day.

Apartment: One Year Later

Today, I decided to take some pictures of our apartment the way it is currently, one year after we moved in. It definitely feels like our place now, which I love. We have settled in and made it our own. We've been slow about hanging existing art and printing new photos, but we do have plans. This is mostly just for me, but feel free to take a look around :)

This was our main living area when we moved in:

This is it now:

The water bottles on the right are for the horse trough. And the blanket on the couch is the same shade of brown as Ozzy (not orange).

Ozzy sort of dominates this room.

This is our office/dining room/living room/workout room. We plan to hang a panoramic photo on the big wall on the left.

 This was the bedroom when we moved in:

This is it now:

I should post pictures of my dogs' deluxe hotels crates.Each one has a bed, pillows, and multiple blankets. Deck door on the left. Deck hasn't changed much and is covered in snow so no photos.

This photo makes me realize that I really need to hang more photos.

 Bathroom when we moved in:

Bathroom now:

Yeah. Mostly the same.

 Kitchen when we moved in:

Kitchen now (complete with Mike making tuna melts):

So there you have it :) Our cozy first place. I can't complain.

TOABH: Idiosyncrasies

Idiosyncrasies.

What personality quirks does your pony have?  What makes him special?

Ha. Hahahahahaha. Ha.

What quirks does Ozzy have? What quirks doesn't Ozzy have.

Seriously though...

Ozzy:

Ozzy's main thing is that he just doesn't know he's a horse. He doesn't care if he never sees another horse again. He is the complete opposite of herdbound. In fact, I have caught him on multiple occasions shuffling back to the herd when he hears my car coming, as if to say, "Look, ma, I do have friends! Totally normal. Nothing to see here."

Ozzy is also way more flexible than any other horse I've met. It can be downright freaky.

Of course, there are all the tricks he knows, and the fact that he just offers them up at random when he wants attention. Smile, back rub, say wha'?, and even fold like a pretzel. You turn around and he's just doing one of them.

Then there are his lesser known quirks. 

He loves, loves, loves having a run in shed or stall. He hangs out in the shed more than any other horse I've met, even on the most beautiful days. 

Despite his love of being enclosed, Ozzy is very nervous about walking through narrow spaces. He used to bolt in and out of stall doors and gates. He knows better now, but he still gets very uncomfortable about it.

He is also terrified of ground poles. Despite the fact that he has jumped three feet and cross country, he just never got over that one.

Finally, he does this goofy thing under saddle when he's bored. Mike and I call it "sky's closer, ground's closer".  If I put him in park for a while, he'll get bored. He knows he's not allowed to move a foot out of place (this used to be a struggle for him). Instead, he'll tilt his head to one side, then slowly move his neck up and down. It sort of looks like he's doing a snake impression. After a few repetitions, he'll turn his head the other way and repeat. What a dope! 

Hey, it's better than when he used to trot with his head on sideways whenever someone other than me rode him...

JR:

JR is far more normal than Ozzy, but he still does some goofy things.

One of his quirks is that he'll lick someone's hand and then yawn. And lick. And yawn. And yawn, yawn, yawn. If you have the patience to stand there, this will go on indefinitely.

Another quirk is that he loves to play with swinging gates and doors. If you leave a stall door unlatched, he won't go anywhere, but he'll swing the door back and forth with his nose for ages. If you park him next to a gate while riding, he'll push it open with his head. I suspect he developed this particular habit when he used to live in a hunter barn and was stalled for hours on end. 

And last but not least, JR likes to lay on the ground and scratch his belly in the sand. When we first got him, I assumed his sheath was filthy, but it is in fact something that he just enjoys doing. He grunts happily, and the sandier the footing, the better. 

What can I say? All my animals are a little weird!

Saturday Snaps: Moo

Meet Moo, my former barn owner's Appendix quarter horse mare.

Guess how old she is.

27. She is 27.

She is one of many examples that make me cringe when people use age alone as a defense for horses being skinny.

I just don't buy it.

Friday Fotos: Night Photography

I felt inspired the other night and pulled my tripod out of the closet to do some night photography. It's something I haven't done in a long time, but used to real enjoy. I started off on our deck, trying to get a long exposure of the full moon rising over the back pasture.

From there, I wound up playing with a bunch of different settings, filters, etc. Eventually, I decided to try the HDR feature in my camera, to see what it would look like in the dark. That's when I discovered that I can shoot in practical pitch blackness as if I were in broad daylight.

I ended up running downstairs to get an HDR night shot of the barn. Tookie and Oreo were extremely 'helpful' with the process, trying to devour my camera and knock over the tripod. But eventually I got this photo.

I can't even describe how much I love, love, love this barn. I think it's gorgeous and has so much character. I love living here.

I'm also including some throwaway photos just because I had fun taking them :)

Riding JR Bareback

Thanks to the Previcox, JR has been looking much sounder these last few weeks. He tears around the field at home looking good with his tail flagging. He's not 100%, but he's almost back to his version of normal.

Two nights ago, I turned my back for half a second at feeding time, and turned back around to find Mike sitting proudly on JR bareback. The pony wasn't even wearing a halter. Mike had lined him up next to a snow bank and swung a leg over. JR looked completely indifferent. Haha.

Yesterday, the sun finally came out. I decided to take advantage of the pretty snow and relatively warm weather. Right before feeding time, I bridled JR, climbed up the fence, and hopped on him bareback. JR, ever the trusty steed, just sort of stood there, looking somewhat unamused.

I haven't ridden one of my own horses since August. I have missed it terribly, especially with everyone posting beautiful photos of themselves riding their horses in the snow.

I kept it short and walk-only. We moseyed around the empty horse pasture between my guys and the landlord's horses. JR did his duty and toted me around while I grinned like a fool. He hasn't been ridden in six months and he's been here less than a week and there are things crashing around in the woods, but he didn't put a foot out of line.

I am super secretly hoping that JR will be sound enough for some light pleasure riding once spring gets here.

Of course, I made Mike take pictures of our jaunt.

Wordless Wednesday

Monster Jam

And now for something completely different.

On Saturday night, we drove up to the Izod Center to see Monster Jam with Andrew and Amy. We're always doing all these horse-related things, and Mike pretty much never says anything about what he'd like to be doing. When I heard the monster trucks were coming to our area the week after his birthday, I went ahead and bought tickets for the four of us.

We met up for an early dinner at Applebee's, where we decided that Andrew would drive, even though I had gone through all the trouble of actually cleaning my car. I even vacuumed the back seats! This never happens.

When we were done eating, we were still way ahead of schedule. We had gotten to talking about Amy's calf, and I jumped at the chance to meet him. That's right. Andrew and Amy have a pet cow. He's five months old. His name is Case, and I am totally in love with him. I am slightly obsessed with cows as it is, so the idea of a baby cow who loves to play and be petted totally agreed with me. I was beyond excited, and Case humored me by licking my fingers, chasing me playfully around his pen, and letting me love all over him. I didn't have my camera so this adorable photo of Case and Amy will have to do.

Ok... one more...

Seriously. Ok. This entry is about trucks, not cows... back on track...

The IZOD Center is up in the Meadowlands. I haven't been there since my SRF days, but I did spend half my life commuting back and forth to that area for horse racing-related reason. Turns out I still remember how to navigate that particular part of NJ, and I knew better than the GPS.

Despite our little GPS-guided detour, we made really good time and arrived an hour before the gates opened. I felt bad, but you just know that if we hand't planned for extra travel time, we would have been stuck on the turnpike in bumper to bumper traffic for hours.

It was bitterly, bitterly cold that night, and even though we got a great parking spot right out front (the parking lot was still empty at that point), I was frozen by the time we walked to the ticket office. The staff at the center was kind enough to let everyone wait in the heated lobby even though the show didn't start for another two hours.

The nice thing about being super early (and having our tickets in advance) was that we were the very first people in line. Once the gates opened, we spent zero time waiting. We had found our seats, bought beer, and wandered around to all the food and souvenir vendors before most people were upstairs!

We got great seats for a good price ($40 per ticket). We were at the top of the lower section (about 20 rows back), right in the center, and at the edge of the row, right by the aisle. We didn't have to climb over people. We had a great, unobstructed view. And we were right in the middle of the action. Go us!

The venue didn't allow anything more than cell phones and point and shoots, so I left my camera at home. There is a great album up on the official Monster Jam website for anyone who cares (or is reading this far).

I was a little disappointed at the fact that they hadn't set up a dirt track for the event. I had only been in the IZOD for Cavalia, and didn't really know much about it. After watching this event, I definitely want to see one of the bigger shows.

This was the arena before the action started:

Photo by Dave DeAngelis. This is pretty much exactly where we were seated.

We spent some time avoiding eye contact with a girl we know but don't particularly want to interact with (she works with Amy, and knew Mike and Andrew from their wild summer at The Farm, and knows me through the horse world). Of course she was sitting three rows in front of us. Of course. The entire population of the state and the entire stadium and we were right there.

Before long, the show started. They did some cool special effects with the lighting for the opening.

Photo by Dave DeAngelis

They introduced the trucks, and I was impressed at how big and loud they were. I had some idea of what to expect, but TV really doesn't do it justice. There were some well known names there, including Grave Digger and Bounty Hunter. Iron Outlaw was out from a mechanical issue from a previous show.

But of course, I immediately fell in love with the underdog, a monster truck dressed up as a lobster. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Crushstation (punny!):

Photo from themonsterblog.com

By the end of the night I was ready to buy a lobster suit. I even had a lobster claw dance going on. The guy next to us loved it (or was wishing he was somewhere else, I'm not sure).

There was a lot packed into one show. Quad racing (the girl from NJ beat the NY team, which is good because the NY guys were a bunch of dirty rotten cheaters), wheelie competition (they get some serious air!), donuts (Bounty Hunter was up on one wheel), racing (Grave Digger won, no surprise), and Freestyle (Grave Digger broke down before he got to pull out the big moves-- bummer.)

Photo by Dave DeAngelis

I totally got into it, cheered like a sports fan, and laughed myself stupid.

Amy snapped this photo of the four of us having a good time:

Not a huge fan of my face, but I love how Mike looks. PS: Liz, I wear that sweatshirt everywhere!

At the end of the night, we were in our car and on the highway before everyone cleared out of the building. No traffic heading home either! And the more time I spend with Amy, the more I find we have in common.

It was a great time, and something to mix up the routine. I think Mike enjoyed himself, and it was awesome hanging out with Andrew and Amy again. If my endurance season doesn't go to plan (might be half over before it even began, as it turns out), I hope to spend more time doing this sort of thing.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging...

The Boys Come Home

Today marks one year of Mike and me living in our lovely apartment. We are very happy here, and upon deciding to renew our lease, we also decided to move our horses home. I gave my barn owner 60 days notice and slowly started piecing together the details.

This afternoon, after a year of daydreaming and two months of careful planning, my boys came home.

Marissa was kind enough to lend us her trailer. The boys loaded up pretty quickly. Ozzy hesitated a bit because it was narrow and slippery and he hasn't shipped since he got EPM. I'm not sure he 100% knows where his feet are.

I let Mike drive because the roads are narrow and windy, and currently covered in ice.

The horses unloaded quietly, looked around, and followed me obediently to the paddock. Our landlord was kind enough to plow a path from our driveway all the way to their shed, which was very thoughtful. I took Ozzy and Mike took JR. We closed the gate, and removed their halters.

I think our boys are so used to just taking everything in stride that they basically shrugged it off.

"Hmm... shed, hay, water. Looks like we live here now."

They did a courtesy lap around the pasture, sniffed the shed, rolled in the fresh snow, and settled down to eat. When I came back after dropping off the trailer and having lunch with Mike, they were right where I left them. Our landlord was impressed with how quickly they seemed to settle in.

Tookie, our resident stallion, on the other hand, is having a pretty significant melt down about this. I don't think he realized there were other horses on the planet. This is a very big day for him. Haha. At first, he didn't realize anything was happening, but once Oreo trotted over to investigate, he was all over it. He's too good to go through or over the fence, but he ran, ran, ran until he had no energy left. Now he's just pacing aimlessly while my boys ignore him. There's an alleyway between the paddocks that's big enough for a truck to drive down, so I'm not at all concerned, but I sort of feel sorry for the bugger.

Oreo keeps looking at us as if to say, "Can I live with the two quiet horses, please? They look like they have nice hay..."

I keep staring out the window. I don't really care what they're doing, but it's nice to be able to check from my own living room! This is a lifelong dream come true for me. Right now, I am very, very happy.

The boys were very synchronized in their laps.