Farm Life
From Beach to Barn
So I’m back from the beach (a little early) – and I know you all missed my posts on the blog. Well have no fear – I’m back in action. I haven’t been out to the barn yet as we got in late last night, but I will surely be out there after work! I did get to pick up our Dachshund, Ammo, from my parent’s house and he greeted us with a very enthusastic HELLO! This was the first time we left our 9 month old puppy somewhere …I think he was very glad to be home in his own bed. He did get to have a lot of fun with my parent’s dog Trooper however. I felt a little bit like a mom going away on vacation without their child for the first time – I missed him terribly. I don’t know how I will do it again when I leave for Chincoteague, Virgnia in 2 weeks for pony penning – atleast Ammo will get to stay home with my husband.
Family Photo with my in-laws
Now you may notice that today’s post is not about the trick ponies (afterall I’ve been away from them for almost a week) because there isn’t much to report. I did however do some beach reading of my newest clicker training book. So I have lots of ideas floating in my head. I even picked up some beach toys for Minnow so that he can learn some new tricks before pony penning. So stay tuned as all that develops next week! And hopefully these few photos from my beach vacation will satisfy you – I even threw in a photobooth strip (I have a complete obsession with photobooths and I swear one day I will own one in my own home).
Ammo glad to be home in his bed
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Farm Life
Today I simply have some photos to share that I took over the weekend at Iron Horse Farm. I hope they are able to brighten your day – a good pony photo always makes you smile! Enjoy the nice weather, and give your horse a hug today!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Boomerang taking a roll
Boomer playing with the tuff ball
Ammo wanting to be a trick pony too
My 3 favorite Chincoteague Ponies
Dirty Laundry
So unfortunately today I don’t have much to share. I didn’t make it out to see the ponies yesterday because I worked late, got a haircut, and baked tons of chocolate chip cookies for tomorrow’s barn opening party at Iron Horse Farm. Oh and I also did some laundry :-).
Sorry to be so boring – but all I can offer you are these funny photos of my dachshund, Ammo, and I doing laundry.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Footlong Racing
Ammo waking up the morning of the races
On Sunday I took my Dachshund, Ammo, to the Keystone Dachshund Races. I had pre-entered him months ago and was very excited to attend. The event was held to raise money for the Keystone Dachshund Rescue – I’m always up for supporting a good cause…especially if it involves animals. I had been practicing with Ammo for this event – mainly working on his “Come” – which being a puppy of 8 months old was somewhat difficult. I knew he would be plenty fast enough (he can keep up with my australian shepherd/lab mix no problem) it was more a question of would he listen to me.
Ammo gets ready for the start of the race
Well my suspicions were right – Ammo was more interested in touching all of the other puppies than to running to me. He even sat down in the middle of a race to give himself a good scratch. He didn’t even want his treats (a huge first for him!) and despite my best efforts he didn’t win a single race even though he was the largest and oldest puppy in the divisions. But despite my puppies’ failure I was still very proud of him, aside from not listening when I called he was very well behaved. I felt like a proud mom attending their child’s first sporting event (so this is what it feels like!). My husband and I (along with many of our family members) had a great time – hopefully we will be able to attend next year. I thought it was wonderful to see all the different colors and sizes that dachshunds come in. We saw a whole array of Dachshunds – even some in baby front packs and strollers. Ammo’s buddy, Trooper (my parent’s dog and Ammo’s best friend), tagged along for support. People commented on what a strange Dachshund he was (weighing in at 55 lbs and legs 10x’s longer than the average Dachshund) – I had to laugh.
See all of the photos from the event here.
Ammo stoping inches from the finish line for a good scratch
The day after the races I had to take my poor little guy to have a baby tooth pulled that wouldn’t fall out. When I picked him up he looked at me with the saddest eyes and ran straight for the car. I felt horrible – he spent the rest of the day moping around – I’m sure he will forgive me in the future….but I couldn’t help but feel like a terrible mom. He got extra kisses that night…and I even snuck him into bed with me…he just needed his mama. 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Ammo proudly displays his ribbons from the day
Buying the Dachshund a Home
So today unfortunately I’m not going to post anything about The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague. (sorry). I really should rename my blog The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague and their Dachshund.
Anyway, back to my post for the day….so recently my husband and I have been house shopping for our first home. And at 25 neither one of us has any idea what we are doing! House hunting hasn’t been so bad – Mike and I are pretty good at narrowing down what we want to look at. And in the past month we’ve only looked at 4 homes. We usually study the listings then do a drive-by first before we decide if we want to set up an appointment. I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted – had 
to be inbetween my parent’s new farm and my shop in town. Mike wanted to not be farther from his work, which is already a 40 minute commute. I also wanted a pretty private yard – something the dog and us could enjoy and where the neighbors weren’t up our butt.
So a couple days ago we looked at a rancher that had the perfect location, a nice 1 acre yard – which part of it was fenced so the dog could go outside at will (doggie door included), nice sized 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a finished basement, sunroom, and to boot it was on a quiet culesaque with lots of trees and was pretty private. So that being said after looking at this home (that was pretty nicely kept I might add) the only thing I could think was its perfect for my Dachshund but its not “my home”. When my husband asked me why, I had no answer, I couldn’t pinpoint one specific thing about it I hated…there may have been a few tiny things I would of liked to change, but overall I had no clear answer.
So after a few days of back and forth on why I didn’t like, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to take a second look. This time I brought my father (builder extroidinaire who seems to know everything even though his day job involves computers) and my husband brought his dad (electrical expertise). So after investigating every square inch they came to the conclusion that the house was in good condition and they didn’t see any “red flags”. I found myself hoping they had some clear answer for me like don’t buy this house! So it was back to agonizing for me. My husband clearly wanted the house – I was still unsure. I just felt like I should be completely inlove with the place.
So after much debate I came to the conclusion that my Dachshund, Ammo will love the house, and I will love it if he’s there (and my husband of course). I guess you can’t go wrong there – although it still totally freaks me out! I think I will still always wonder if my DREAM home was out there and I just didn’t wait long enough to find it – but for all I know thats just completely unrealistic.
Anyway thats my vent for the day – me trying to buy a house for my Dachshund- I think I might be crazy.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
