Tony Photos

We only have one foal at work this year. His sire's name is Danza, so naturally the baby's barn name is Tony. His registered name is going to be Whose the Boss (grammar mistake necessary to be JC legal). There's not much to report about Tony. He's currently at the bosses' house, separate from the main farm, growing and getting to just be a foal. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of him once he's weaned. He is already halter broke, picks up his feet, and has been on a trailer ride, so he's off to a good start in that department. In the mean time, I figure everybody loves foal photos, so I'm going to dump a bunch of them on you guys now and get one more topic checked off my blog list.

If only they stayed this size. I have missed baby horses <3

July Photos

Since I'm so sunburned that I had to cancel my morning ride and can barely walk...

One of my favorite local views.

Hiking Jenny Jump

About a month ago, Mike and I went up to Jenny Jump for a short hike. It was hot and buggy and we had slept in a little later than we usually do, so we weren't up for a longer adventure. Jenny Jump is on all the "must hike in NJ" lists. Despite the fact that it's relatively close to where I grew up, I don't think I'd ever been. To my delight, there were several Geocaches in the park, which would give us a way to pass the time on a shady hike.

After doing some research, we decided to park down on Shades of Death Road and hike up from Ghost Lake. (And for those of you wondering, yes, the road and the lake are as creepy as they sound if you go at night. Some of my high school friends and I had a very scary experience when we got lost and ended up on Shades of Death late one night in 2005... Long story short something climbed on top of our moving car while we drove down the road, and the late night dew revealed over-sized hand prints on the car when we parked at the diner later...)

We parked in the empty lot by the lake, quickly found the first Geocache, and started hiking up the mountain. The weather was bearable in the shade, and we had remembered bug spray, which was very helpful.

The lake was lovely, full of dragonflies and lily pads.

Percy Photos

I keep touching on everything with Percy without going into too much detail. Before he started rearing regularly again and earned himself a snip-snip, I really managed to build my confidence on him. We were going up on the hill regularly with Juli on Patrick and I was actually getting comfortable going "fast". We broke 25mph, which is bordering on a two minute lick (one step below breezing). After Doc came up and physically pulled my reins out of my hands (longer rein, faster), I really got better with my position, steering, etc. Juli and I were regularly clanking stirrups and I was getting ready to breeze.

Even when Percy started to rear again (and these are the Hi Ho Silver variety rears where you see front legs up above your head), I was getting braver about handling it and smacking him forward. I still didn't love it, but I wasn't immediately dismounting and freaking out for six days after the fact.

It's funny, now that I'm riding some of the other horses (Bam Bam, Sam, and Patrick) and am learning how these guys are supposed to feel, I'm realizing just how tough of a horse Percy is (at all, but especially to learn on!) He's got an exhausting way of moving, is huge and gangly, is liable to trip, and likes to throw tantrums. I feel less like a failure now. (Oh, and I've realized that Harry really didn't have brakes or steering!!) Still, I miss the big guy (he's 16.1hh at the withers and 16.3hh at the croup and he's only two!) Hopefully, he'll come back from the track in a few weeks with a little more education and I'll be able to get back to riding him.

In the mean time, I'm finally getting around to sharing some photos Christine took of us on the hill at the end of May. Also, have this awesome slow-motion video her friend, Heather, got for us that day!

The Babies Take a Field Trip

It has been over a month since these photos were taken, and a lot has changed since then. In fact, Patrick and Percy moved to the track until further notice yesterday. In the mean time, Darby and Flame had their first race (I have an entry coming up about that too!) and poor Pebbles came home lame, grew lamer, and finally formally retired from race training.

As an aside, Pebbles had a ruptured bladder at birth and had to undergo lifesaving and very expensive surgery to save her. Some people might argue that she never should have been declared a live foal. She was started at the farm and has lived at the track on and off for the last few years. She never made a start, and had a lingering mystery lameness up front. She also had a pretty crooked pelvis. Over the years, she has been seen by multiple professionals (remember, our boss is a vet!) She even had extensive chiropractic and massage done at home before the last time she moved to the track. Nobody could ever pinpoint what was wrong with her, but she did lose her mind and crash through a fence last summer (with Shelby on her!) and she flipped over a lot as a baby (not during training, but as a foal) so that may have contributed to it. At the time these photos were taken, Pebbles was four and still hadn't made a start. She was going the best she's ever gone and there was talk of possibly finally starting her racing career this year. She was relaxed, sound, and happier than she's ever been. Unfortunately, it didn't last and she came up NQR behind. We brought her home to rest, and the atrophy in her hind end got worse and worse. After trying one last round of treatment, her owners decided to pull the plug. She got her shoes taken off and got turned out with two of our senior citizens, Tristan and Wednesday. She is currently out in a big, huge grassy pasture. She is queen of her little herd, and looks happy and sound. She just did not want to be a racehorse. We'll see what she looks like in a few months, at which point maybe she'll get a shot at some other riding career. I want to emphasize that both our bosses and Pebbles' owners did everything in their power to give this filly a chance at racing, and then made the right decision and let her have the retirement she deserves when it didn't work out. Lest anybody think there's any kind of negative connotation to "retired from racing".

Abused, clearly.

4H Shows

Two of my students have been trying to qualify for the big 4H State Horse Show at the end of August at the Dream Park.

Leigha has been showing in both the English and Western divisions on Nikki and Justin respectively. She lessons regularly, splitting her time between the two horses. I have also ridden both horses myself on multiple occasions.

Nikki

Justin, photo by Leigha's mom.

Caitlyn has been showing strictly English on Huey.

Hubert.

Photo Post: Retirees

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it specifically, but we have a bunch of retired horses at work. Most of them came from one big local show barn that is no longer open. Some belonged to the late barn owner herself. Others belong to her clients. We do also have some random ones that have come from other places (and of course, there are retired racehorses and broodmares on the property as well). I recently took pictures of the retirees who have outside owners so my boss could send them updates on their ponies. I'll admit, I had a lot of fun taking these. I wouldn't mind coming back as a retired horse at our barn. It's a good life. So here you go, eight million photos of random horses.

This is Bailey. I'm not generally a huge app fan, but I love this girl and her photogenic spots. 

Hiking: Sunrise Mountain to Culver Fire Tower

Back in May, Mike and I did another day hike off my AT list. This one was Sunrise Mountain to Culver Fire Tower. I was concerned about doing a well known Appalachian Trail hike on a holiday weekend, but we lucked out and there was practically nobody out there on this day.

As usual, we packed our cameras, stopped for lunch along the way, and drove up to Stokes State Forest in north Jersey. The drive up was lovely and we stopped to help a father and son navigate their way to a trail head along the way.

The view from the parking lot was breathtaking and you could easily tour the area by car if you didn't want to do any hiking. Sunrise Mountain is the second highest point in NJ and you can see into NY and Pennsylvania on either side. There was a little picnic area right there in the parking lot, complete with bathrooms (which featured some funny graffiti regarding bears).

Sussex County below.

Photo Catch-up: LRG

I'm going to do that thing where I go through the folders on my computer and dump photos with little or no explanation.

First up, the barn I picked up last fall. I keep dropping bits and pieces of information about all the students and horses I have there, but haven't done any formal introductions. Frankly, I'm probably going to keep it that way. I have way too many students to keep everyone up to date on what's going on with all of them. Plus, I really want to steer this blog in a direction more about me and less about my students.

With that said, I still take pictures of my clients' horses for them on a regular basis, and I figure that none of you are going to complain about pony pictures on a horse blog, so here you go.

First up is Nikki. Nikki is an 8yo OTTB mare, and a personal favorite of mine. I get to ride her for tune up rides and I enjoy her so much every time. She's light and bendy and forward, with just enough sass to keep me from being bored. She is owned by Loretta, the BO, and leased by one of the barn kids. Loretta has been trailering Sam (one of the boarders) to dressage shows so she decided to take some dressage lessons and enter Nikki too. Turns out they have a knack for it and they are now scoring in the mid-60's consistently and getting ready to move up a level. In the mean time, Nikki cleaned up at the 4H show in the hunter and English pleasure classes, and then went on to jump 3' oxers in her next lesson like it was nothing. If I could make Nikki do whatever I wanted, I'd make her into an eventer. Nikki does have a touch of kissing spine, but her owner worked at the local clinic and has a ton of know-how. Nikki has had back injections and some other therapies and her back is rock solid right now and not bothering her at all.

June Photos

Monthly phone clearing below ;)

We got some more hiking in despite the increasing temperatures. This one was taken at Jenny Jump during a day of Geocaching.