Farm Life
Lazy Summer Days at the Farm
Taking a rest on Minnow
So I fully intended to ride Boomerang yesterday….I really did – I swear. My engine just sort of died when I got to the barn. Sometimes I wonder how I fit everything I do into a day. Its difficult to balance all of it. I’m barely getting much sleep lately – thanks to a cranky dachshund who can’t understand why I’m sleeping on the floor and he’s locked behind a doggie gate, I balance a full time job running a business – make that 3 businesses (Green Horse Studios, Pony Paintings, Studio 3), I then feed and care for 7 horses (which includes mucking stalls and daily feedings and turnout), I try to ride/train my horses 5 days a week, and then there is the house remodeling, not to mention having time to make dinner/spend time with the husband. I just made myself tired typing this list.
But honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m extremely happy (even if I’m sort of exhausted lately) and I enjoy having lots of projects to work on. I’m not one who enjoys “being bored”.
Boomerang
So that being said – yesterday I just didn’t have to energy to ride. I feel kind of bad about it actually – considering I have another competition coming up in 2 weeks and Minnow is set to perform again in a week. Ah – I need to get on the ball again!
Anyway, so instead yesterday, I enjoyed some time with my favorite Chincoteague Ponies. I discovered an apple tree in the back yard of my new house – and of course any loving horse owner like myself would bag up as many as they could carry and bring them to the barn for their horses. My ponies better love me after that.
Blitz
So there you have it….a very rare lazy summer day for me and the trick ponies (and the dachshund too).
A Roof of My Own
So something really big happened last weekend that I haven’t mentioned on this blog yet. Mostly I’ve held back about it because I guess its not really “trick pony” related. And while I like to keep this blog mainly devoted to the Trick Ponies of Chincoteague (and the occasional Dachshund post), I couldn’t not post about this because its a pretty big deal, in my life atleast. Anyway….I bought a house!
Really scary actually – I was on the verge of a mild heart attack throughout the whole process. At 25 years old, my husband and I have been saving our money for this day since we were about 16 years old. You probably don’t believe me when I say this, but its true. We met when we were 16 – at our very first jobs. We have both always been really really good savers (I guess something we can thank our parents for instilling in us at a young age). So since we were 16 years old, and started our very first jobs at a local art store we have been stashing away our hard earned cash. Now mind you we weren’t hermits, and he did go out and do things, we went to college (bought expensive books) and basically lived – but cash consciously. No big ticket purchases for us (well ok my husband bought his beloved big plasma tv and I bought a pony last year….but thats it I swear!). But our main goal in saving has been a house. Being design oriented people we both have dreamed of the day when we could own something that would allow us to paint the walls, decorate the way we see fit, and basically do whatever we wanted!
Now neither one of us has high-paying jobs (actually far from it) – but the fact that we socked away enough cash for a down payment really “payed” off. Not to mention our parents were great enough to have us get credit cards at a young age which allowed us to rack up a pretty high credit score. We were always sure to pay off our bills in full each month.
So now onto the house part. The process was rather nerve racking – looking at houses was the easy part. But when I first saw “our home” I wasn’t totally convinced it was the one I wanted. I liked it, but I didn’t feel that “oh my god I have to live here” feeling. You know the feeling you get when you see a horse you must have! 🙂 So I took a little convincing to get on board with the home. So we made an offer – which the sellers countered and then of course being first time home buyers we chickened out and walked away from the table. After saving our money for so many years it was hard to us to justify letting it go all of a sudden. But a few weeks later (and after seeing a few more dump houses) we finally came to terms with letting our money go. So back to the table to make another offer.
Late night pizza while we work
This time it was accepted and we were on our way into the process of scary home buying. Inspections and snags that come with buying a 40 year old house began to pop up. And with each little road bump we got more and more scared we wouldn’t be buying this home. We worried about affording the monthly payments, we worried about everything. Luckily we had a great realtor that kept us on track, and my dad who is infinitely filled with knowledge about everything never failed to calm our nerves.
Ammo settles into his new home
So last Friday, we signed a few papers, forked over a majority of our savings, and got keys to OUR HOME! Ahhh! I of course then I hopped in the car and headed to a competition with the ponies – I think I have my priorities straight!
So since I got back last Sunday my husband and I have been hard at work getting ready to “officially” move in this weekend. We’ve been staying at the house until the wee hours of the night painting walls and stripping carpeting. I’m so exhausted, but so happy to be doing this manual labor. And as we are nearly finished “re-doing” one room I feel this great satisfaction. Not only did we buy a house at 25 years old (rare in this economy and at our age) but we’re making it our own with our bare hands. My blistered and sore bare hands that is.
Painting
I’m looking forward to many happy years in this home with my wonderful husband and our Dachshund Ammo. Its just a shame there isn’t a little shed barn in the back yard for the Trick Ponies. (humm..project in the future?? haha)
So as a final thought I leave you with a little video about how Ammo decided to help us christen our new home. Don’t you just love a Dachshund!
I’m not a Dog
So I’m starting to think that my Dachshund, Ammo, doesn’t know that he’s a dog. Lately I’ve been taking him to the dog park along with my parent’s Labrador/Austrailian Shepherd mix, Trooper. Trooper, like most normal dogs, romps around and plays with all of the other dogs at the park. Ammo (which I know he’s small) prefers to play by himself in the water (there is a neat stream that runs through the dog park). When other dogs approach him he sucks into a ball and gets very submissive – not only towards bigger dogs, but small dogs too. As soon as they turn their back he starts to romp towards them in a playful manner, but if they turn around again he’s right back to being submissive. Now again, I know he’s small – and I’m sure he’s not the only dog to do this, and I’m not going to force him to play with other dogs if he’s scared – so you may be asking yourself then, why do I think he doesn’t know he’s a dog?
I’ll tell you why. Ammo won’t play with other dogs, but he will play with the trick ponies and the barn cat, Cricket! Very odd considering that the ponies especially should be even scarier to a small Dachshund. Anyway, luckily you don’t have to take my word for it. Just watch these two videos I took the other day.
Pretty in Pink
So Boomerang is going to kill me, but I have to post this horribly embarrassing photo of him in his new grazing muzzle. Poor BOY just got knocked down a few more pegs in the herd hierarchy because of this bright PINK ensemble. The story behind the muzzle is that Boomer sneakily ripped a large hole in his (in order to get more grass) so in a dash to keep him from getting any fatter my mom hit the tack shops in search of a new one for him. After not much luck (for ones in stock) she found this stunning pink one at a used tack shop – and at $15 cheaper than a black one, Boomer will just have to make due with pink.
So aside from our muzzle debacle yesterday, I was able to sneak in a ride between rain storms (hence why Boomer is really wet in these photos). My mom, my sister and I are all getting our ponies ready for a big competition on August 15/16 in New Jersey. This will be Blitz and Boomerang’s very first mounted games competition in the masters division. The masters division is meant for top playing skilled individuals with ponies to match. Many of the horses resemble race horses as they charge the starting lines and make turns to match the best quarter horses in the world. Boomer and Blitz will now be among some of these top playing horses as they enter into a playing field where the best horses are not only the fastest, but the most controlable.
So in order to get Boomerang ready for his big competition we did a little mounted games practicing in the ring. Boomer was on his game yesterday and had an explosive urge to race around the arena. Now you may be thinking – this doesn’t sound like such a great thing for a horse to be doing. But mounted games is unlike most equestrian sports, because in this sport we all strive to have horses that want to race at the drop of a hat, yet have the control to do sliding stops and turns at their rider’s request. Now Boomer wasn’t always the race around the arena kind – we had to work towards this. Boomer spent 5 years of his life trying to be slowed down to the ideal hunter pace before I bought him last summer. I was slightly concerned that he wouldn’t have that urge to race – like mounted games horses need to have. But I’m a bit more of a conservitive rider in that I prefer a horse that starts off controllable and slow and I can work up towards the speed and the desire to race. (Most racing professionals would totally disagree with my mentality – saying that the desire to run has to be there first).
Boomerang in competition(see my clicker around my arm)
But I think Boomer (Blitz too) might just be proving this theory wrong. With each practice Boomer seems to want to go faster and faster, and he’s really enjoying playing the races. I’d much rather train a horse to give me speed than be riding something that I constantly feel like I have to pull on to slow down. That is not fun for me, or the horse. And believe me, the majority (not all) of mounted games players spend entire competitions doing just this. It saddens me to see this because obviously the horse is just doing what it has been trained to do (race) but the rider can’t complete the skills at these speeds so the result is a horse that is constantly being yanked around by the mouth or forced to wear a stronger bit to get the him to slow down. Riders that train/ride this way have no idea about training a horse properly in my opinion. I am by no means a professional (no formal training) but I do know that the way to a well trained horse is not through force.
Boomer waiting patiently for his turn to go
I could go on and on about this subject – since as you can see I am very passioniate about training without force. But I won’t bore you with my rants (for today atleast). I do want to say though that through the methods I have been training Boomerang (and how my entire family is training their horses) I hope to provide an example for the riders within my sport. My family (to the best of my knowledge) is the only group of people training their horses using clicker training within the organization I belong to called Mounted Games Across America. We arrive at the competitions with clickers and treat bags, and even ride with them during most of the races (a fact that we hope to eliminate once our horses are fully trained the way we want). I know that we are slowly getting noticed with our odd methods, and I hope that other competitors are also noticing the difference in our horses. I would love to provide an example of what could be achieved without force in training – perhaps we will even save a few horse’s mouths along the way. I do know that through clicker training we are creating a connection with our mounts that most other riders in the sport don’t seem to have. Spectators can even pick up on the difference in our connections with our mounts compared to the other riders.
Minnow and I during our very last competition as a pair.
Numerous times I was singled out in demonstrations and competitions when I rode my now retired Chincoteague Minnow because of the special connection that spectators could tell we shared. I’ve been told that while watching me ride Minnow it was almost as if he performed each task before I even asked him (our cues were that subtle). Not to mention that it was obvious to all that Minnow was willing to do anything for me and was loving what he was doing. These to me were some of the biggest compliments ever. I am more proud of the fact that I can display how clicker training has completely transformed my once rogue Chincoteague Pony into a horse that people can see the connection we share, than the fact that he can “shake hands” or “paint a picture”. Any horse could learn to do these tricks, but the difference with Minnow is that he does these skills because he wants to please me and genuinely enjoys it. Not because I MAKE him do it and he is complaint.
A properly trained horse has a connection with their trainer and they are only complaint because they desire to be. And you can quote me on that.
Accepting Boarders
Iron Horse Farm
Iron Horse Farm, where the Trick Ponies of Chincoteague live and site of my family’s new horse farm, is now accepting full boarders!
Our Facility
8 12’x12’ matted stalls with dutch doors
1 12’ x 16’ matted foaling stall
4Â pastures with 2 bay sheds
1 small paddock with screenings
Hot/Cold Water Wash Stall
Tackroom with boarder lockers (lockers to be constructed soon)
Bathroom
150’ x 290’ riding ring with screenings and lights (footing and lights to be added soon)
Access to stadium jumps
Access to miles of trails including the Laurels
For more information please visit our website!
