February Snow Storms

So.... you might have heard that Maryland got a bit of snow over the last 5 days....  After the first wave of snow earlier this week, George and I went on a trail ride.  Took tons of pictures in the woods, of the horses, of each other... so many pictures.   However, when I got back to the house, I discovered that I had failed to put the memory stick in the camera.  What a bummer!  So, this morning we tried to capture some photos of the second storm that came through last night.

(Remember, to view full sized, click on each image.)

 

 

Okay... Make that a heck of a lot of snow!

 

  

 

We brought the girls in to spend the night in the barn - and this morning they were ANTSY to get back out.  Ren has this lovely idea that she can dig, paw, or chew her way out of any confinement.  When she's left tied at the arena, she works on the ropes until she's free (at which point she stands there and possibly grazes - cause where is she planning on going?)  In the barn, she will sometimes do the same with the door when she feels she's been left in too long.   She doesn't chew at it, but she definitely lets us know she wants out!

 

The caged beast lurks and waits... plotting ways of gaining her freedom.

What a big shaggy horse she is in the winter!

Ren is very good about getting her halter on in times like this.  No disrespecting the stall door space!

Shae tolerates being stalled a bit better - she just begs shamelessly for treats when we show up.

 

Give me treats!

Then there's my husband....

So cute.

Anyway... we had the job of getting them back out to their pasture this morning....  No shoveled paths.  BIG horse feet... us tripping over our OWN feet... not the best combination.  So, we decided to make life easier and ride them down to their field.

 

Who knows where the mounting block is under all that snow.  Where's that picnic table?

  

 Getting ready to tie up her reins.

  

Wow... what an action shot.  Me... in mid jump!

  

You aren't allowed to laugh.  I have two pairs of winter pants on and am so bundled up I feel like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man.   I can barely get my leg over her back.

  

To the field!

 

 

Now here's where George missed capturing Ren wanting to run straight down the hill.  I decided to take her in a round about way to her field.  Even cooped up over night, she's still got to show some manners.

 

 These include gate manners... which she is very good about.

  

 This picture does NOT capture how fierce that wind is!!  Ren's hair gives you a little bit of an idea of how crazy the wind gusts were.

  

 One last treat for the road.

  

 Of course, making it back up the hill was more of a challenge.  Luckily, I this path wasn't too bad.

Now, it's Shae's turn.

  

 No Shae, don't climb onto the picnic table.

  

  

  

  

That is some DEEP snow.

  

  

 My funny camera angle makes this a horrible picture of Shae.  She looks like she has no rump!

  

 There.  A little cropping should help with that!

  

 A man and his horse.

  

 Is Shae looking for some scratches from George?  Or some treats?  Hard to tell...

  

 

New Year's Resolutions....

Well... it's nearly the new year, and with it comes the setting of resolutions....

I think my horses have some resolutions as well.  First and foremost, don't stress yourself.  Being a big draft horse in and of itself is HARD WORK!

Poor Ren!  Did I wake you?

 Number two, eat so much food that your owners are constantly having to muzzle you most of the year to keep you from turning into a whale.

"NOM NOM NOM!"

Number three, distract your owners from cleaning the house/being productive (cough cough *George*!) because you need someone to come play with you and take you for a ride.

(No picture... George did this yesterday with Shae while I was visiting my sister's family!)

Yup, all in all... three very achievable horsey resolutions.

SNOW!!!

Just in time for Christmas, it managed to snow in Maryland.   Not just a little snow, but a whole lot of snow - around 22 inches in all.  This is a rare occurrence in Maryland.

Ren and Shae seemed to really like the snow, so we left them out for about 1/2 the day.  In the morning, George went out to check on them, and ended up playing with them in the field.  By around 1 pm though, I figured it was time to bring them in to the barn.

Just as eager as ever, they both came running!

 

Ren is wondering why we think she needs to come in.  I think she would have happily stayed out all day.

"What?!  No treats??" (Ren's face says it all.)

Icicles in the mane - just lovely.  Needless to say, I let the girls warm up in the barn before brushing!

With dreadlocks and icicles, Ren sports quite the look.

Ren also was quite taken with the camera... either that or she was looking for treats.  It's sometimes hard to tell.

 

"Seriously?  No food?"

The next morning, we managed to catch the other horses on the farm being let out.  They were excited and raced all around before settling down to eat.

 

Everything was just covered in snow.

We decided to take a little ride out and about the fields.  Here, I am wearing about 6 layers of clothing.  It was COLD!  Shae didn't seem to mind in the least.

Looking back at our house.

George LIKES the cold.  Can you tell?

After our ride our girls had fun romping all around in the field at a full gallop.

Then, they settled down to their most favorite pastime - eating.

... and eating some more.

Beached whale?  Or Shae wallowing in the snow?  You decide.

Harvest Day 2009

Last Friday, we borrowed a trailer and headed of to the elementary school I teach at to do horse demos for Harvest Day 2009.  Basically, instead of doing a Halloween parade, my school celebrates the Maryland harvest - we bring in local experts and teach the students about Maryland agriculture, etc... It's such a productive use of time on a day that usually is filled with chaos since all the kids can think about is Halloween, costumes, and (of course) candy!

Over the years we had farmers, watermen, pie makers, demos on vegetable canning, representatives from Native American museums, and this year, they asked me to bring my horses!  Apparently, it's been a couple years since they've last had horses at farm day.

George did barefoot trimming demos for the students and I did horsemanship demos with whatever horse wasn't working with.  Unfortunately, George didn't take any pictures of me... but I managed to grab some shots of him.  Remind me to have a stern talking to my husband about that!

Here, Shae demonstrates how far she can stretch her neck to eat while George trims and talks to the students.

 

We had 8 rotations of students come through, each between 1 to 2 classes.  All the classes were wonderful about behaving themselves, and the horses seemed to enjoy the extra attention.

Here, Ren waits patiently for her turn.  The kids loved the horses, and my girls could have cared less that we left the farm to go to a busy school!   George fielded all sorts of questions from the students such as, "How do horses defend themselves?"  "Why don't wild horses need trims?" and, "Does it hurt the horse to trim their feet?"

 

Maybe SOMEONE took some pictures of the demos I did... grumble.  Shae enjoyed showing off her bow for the students and shamlessly begged for treats every chance she got by offering to stand on the pedestal.  I did a combination of ground work and riding for the students.  We discussed the role that drafts had in Maryland agriculture and early economy, as well as their role today.  Next year I would like to differentiate what I present to each grade group and maybe do some simulations in reading body language.  We'll see!   Right now I'm just thankful we found a trailer toborrow to haul our girls to the school and a friend willing to come all the way up from St. Mary's County to trailer them!  Thanks so much Steve!

 

I'll post any pictures if I track any down!

It's Fall....

... and it's raining and miserable outside.

So, I figured I would update the blog with some pictures I took of George warming Ren up last weekend before our ride.  Her sidebones still make her feel stiff and short right out of the field, but through warming her up, she loosens up and starts to feel better. I really, really, really HATE Blogger's new picture interface.  It's so hard to try to align pictures and add captions now!!  ARGH!  Most of the pictures look a lot better if you click to view them full sized.

Ren likes to act all flashy.

Here she is showing us how she can stomp on any enemy we meet out on our trail rides.

Her winter coat is just starting to come in.  I'm going to miss her dapples over the winter.

The leaves are starting to turn here in Maryland.  Ren's really changed how she's using her body these days.  She's starting to bring in some natural collection to her movement as you can see below as she trots towards George.This is a great picture to click on and view full sized.

Here's just a close up of her trotting towards George. I love how she's more toned!! Yay!  Click to view.

 

"Where's my treat?"

 

She's also working really hard on staying connected with her person during her warm ups.  She's willing to consider that it's really easier to just hang out.  Again, click to view full sized.

 

Of course, everyone likes to kick up their heels once in a while...

 

The leaves are just starting to turn!  I love the change of seasons, but HATE the cold!

 

For some reason, Shae's pictures didn't turn out quite as nicely as Ren's.  She's working on finding/developing that stretch down at the trot and even a little at the canter.  Unfortunately, the farm is putting out round bales to feed now that the grass is starting to die off, so Shae has a VERY BIG hay belly in this picture (grumble).  We've ordered her a brand new muzzle - I'm sure she's going to be thrilled.

 

And in case you wanted to see that first picture full sized, here's a version of it that you can click to enlarge (did I mention that I really don't get Blogger's new interface?  Not nearly as user friendly as it used to be).

A slightly early surprise...

Spring (my mom's little mare I've been training this summer) decided to have her baby a little early... I was hoping she would wait until she returned to her home in September, but apparently yesterday afternoon was the appointed time for this little filly to grace the world with her presence!

When we got to the barn, Spring had already given birth. However, the baby was VERY new (just minutes old). We helped the baby stand (she couldn't get any traction on the rubber mats in the stall) and moved her outside where she met with more success. In this video the little filly is about an hour old. Now we just need to figure out a name!!