Rest in Peace, Macho

Macho Nacho was the first Shetland I ever met, and a pony I will remember for a long time.

We received him the summer of 2013, he had some unsightly health issues but was very adorable and very sweet. He'd wander up to you to say hi, and loved being pet and scratched, and loved it even more if you had 'the G word': grain.

He was euthanized the night of December 23, 2014. He was happy and content and stayed warm and cozy in the barn with his grass hay and grain, but he was in his mid-30s and his sores hadn't ever fully healed. We all knew it was the right thing, but I still miss him very much.

Love you, Macho boy <3 p="">

Macho Nacho, Shetland Pony, ~1980 – 2014.

For more about Macho, see "Nacho the Shetland" and "Nacho the Grain Stealrz (and Sham".

When You Find A Dead End

When you find a dead end, try the other door.

No, I'm serious.

If one aspect of being with your horse is getting nowhere, work instead on improving the other aspects.

For me, this means just chilling and bonding with Beauty, enough of all that riding stress for now. Instead, I'll go hang out with her and maybe give her massages, and take her on walks with me. :D

And because I know that our relationship won't fix all the issues with riding her and not wanting to, I'll continue riding...on other horses!

So going back to the basics on a horse that won't try to run away with me and will show me which of my riding needs work. Without running away with me. \o/

From that horse, Splash, I'll eventually go to Tia, who'll help me to refine and stretch those calf muscles.

Perhaps you've got a horse that does awful in-hand? And because of the mutual stress that occurs when you two do such, you'd rather not work the horse at all? Instead of not working the horse at all, try something new. Change things up a bit. Learn how to give horses massages and try that. Braid your horses mane. Take your horse on walks with you. Just try to get that stress gone and return to being best buds with your horse. :)

3-in-1 Open Show: Results with Pawnee

This past weekend was the 3-in-1 Open horse show out in western Washington. Saturday was a two-judge affair, followed by a single, different judge on Sunday.

I went in a total of five classes; three of them on Saturday. We weren't too impressed with the Saturday judges nor our Saturday results. Pawnee was being more of a fidget that day, though. :P

However, I am completely happy with our Sunday results! Pawnee got 5th in mini mare halter, even though she did rear up in the show ring from being mad. xD Guess the judge didn't see that, lol.

Then we did adolescent (3 years or younger) trail-in-hand. The course included sidepassing, a gate, backing an L, and lots of trotting. I had already seen one horse balk on the backing, so when Pawnee had a near-perfect run I figured she'd place pretty decently. Also, her sidepassing? It was a dream. She has never, ever done so well at it. In fact, the only thing she maybe messed up on was wanting to speed up to a canter.

Anyway, it completely shocked me when I heard that Pawnee and I got first. We got first!

Here's a pic of Pawnee and I with our first-place ribbon. So proud of my girl. :D

Pawnee and I with our first-place ribbon from winning Sunday's adolescent trail-in-hand class.