Posts Tagged ‘chesapeake boomerang
April 11th Mounted Games Clinic
On Sunday we held a mounted games clinic with trainer Michelle Reilly at Iron Horse Farm. Michelle Reilly has been coaching mounted games since 1989. She has sent over 25 teams to the USPC Championships with teams placing as Champion in all levels. She is the former coach of the USPC International Team and she was named the 2009 Best Trainer of the year by Mounted Games Across America.
We had BEAUTIFUL weather, and a nice turnout. I always jump at the chance to have a clinic with Michelle because she always has fantastic tips to share. She’s also really in tune to each specific horse’s needs, giving you pointers on how you can make the ride better for your horse. We’re having another clinic with her on April 25th, so anyone interested should sign up now!
Below are some photos from the day.
Spring Haircut
Its Spring. That means its raining, a lot, but it also means the flowers and grass is sprouting, the warm weather is creeping in, and the ponies are shedding their winter coats. It also meant that it was time for Boomerang’s Spring haircut.
Boomer is a very funny pony. I’m always completely amazed at how unflappable he is. Having only ever had one introduction with the clippers from me, I whipped out the heavy duty ones – put it on full power, and went clipping away. The rest of the horses in the barn were snorting and alert as the sound echoed through the barn, but not Boomer. He was looking around for his treat for being a good boy and standing.
Kisses for my boy – who I forgot to mention turned 7 years old on March 21st! Happy Belated Birthday Chesapeake Boomerang!
Pole Bending at Liberty
Many of you have probably already seen this video on Horse Agility.
Well I was trying to help my mom come up with things she could do with the ponies on the ground – since she will be getting her knee surgery in a week after her fall from Blitz. She really won’t be riding for a while, but there are still plenty of things you can do with your horse from the ground.
The horse agility sprang to my mind as something fun that both my mom and Blitz could do together. So yesterday I grabbed Boomerang and started working on some liberty leading to see if I might be able to get him to do something agility wise. He actually picked up what I wanted pretty quickly and within 15 minutes I was leading him around the arena without a rope. The next step was to bring out some of my bending poles to see if I could maybe get him to bend them on his own. Here’s our third try:
Pretty good for only his third try. Boomer already knew how to pole bend (from our gaming work) – so the hardest part was getting him to recognize that I wanted him to do it on his own and then asking to move away and to me in order to weave the poles.
Anyway I think he did pretty well and I’m looking forward to doing more ground work with him in the future. The funny thing I’ve been noticing about Boomer is that ever since he saw me working with Minnow on his Spanish Walk a few months ago he has begun mimicking it whenever he recognizes that its “trick time”. He’s been doing leg lifts randomly in order to try to get me to reward him. All because he watched Minnow do it one time….smart pony I’d say!
New Look
If you follow us on twitter you may already know that we’ve been working on making some changes to www.PonyPaintings.com
After 4 years I decided its time for a face lift! So with some proding, my graphic designer husband has been working on a new logo and new design for the website. I’m so excited I can hardly wait for it to be finished. My original website layout and design was done by me while I was in college – and teaching myself how to make websites. So needless to say its not very good, and I went through a brown stage or something, its ok you can say ew.
Anyway, the new idea behind the updated website will be Misty of Chincoteague, Beachy, Bright, and fun! No more dark and dank! Along with the new website look I’ve spent several days contemplating a possible name change too. When I first registered the domain name PonyPaintings.com many of the options I wanted weren’t available, but for some reason now they are! So I had my choice between…
trickponies.com
thepaintingponies.com
paintingpony.com
thepaintinghorse.com
I think I’ve finally decided to go with Paintingpony.com – so in the near future I will switch the website over to that domain name – although you will still always be able to reach us at ponypaintings.com. so what do you think? Do you like the name, or do you think I should have gone with something else?
Here’s what the new logo will look like:
Our online shop has already been updated to reflect the new look – with the website soon to follow. So what do you think? The likeness of the pony is taken from a photo of Chincoteague Minnow – since he was the very first Painting Pony. 🙂
All images are copyrighted by Painting Pony, PonyPaintings, and Kyley DiLuigi. Not to be used without permission.
The Boys
Yesterday was my mom’s Birthday – which means after weeks of waiting, I can finally post a photo of what I gave her for her Birthday! Yeah!
I took some really neat photos of the Trick Ponies and had my husband (the graphic designer) print them really large for me. I then framed them up at the shop so that my mom can hang them up at the farm. I think they turned out fabulous and I can’t wait to see what they look like on the walls. And I promised to continue the set with 2 more photos of our other horses….who can forget beloved Nitro and Jet – they may not be Chincoteague Ponies, but they are still part of the family!
Boomer
Minnow
Blitz
