Time Flies!

It is still hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I have had Mylo 7 months now! It seems like yesterday when I received a super awkward picture of him from the hauler and was thinking "what did I just get myself into?!". Luckily for me he came off the trailer the cutest little pony ever, although he was still quite awkward! Being it was it 2nd birthday when he arrived I obviously knew he had growing and weight gaining to do but it has been very fun to see him change over the months!

Day 1 after some clean up

I had him for about a week or two

Im hoping to find my height tape so I can measure him but he has definitely been going through a growth spurt. He has lost weight, gotten leaner, and seems overall just bigger. I had a feeling he was starting a spurt as I was noticing that he had dropped some weight but it was more apparent after I clipped him so he gets to have another meal during the day now. He isn't skinny by any means just a little leaner (which I guess isn't bad since he is a growing baby anyways!). The little man needs all the help he can get in the growing department!

2 year old year in full swing... so mouthy!

One thing that has surprised me is how much his hair has come in. Yeah he was only 2 but his feather was very minimal and even at 2 they should have a decent amount. Both his mane and feather have at least doubled in thickness and what used to be the longest part of his mane is now the shortest. It is amazing what good nutrition and care can do! He isn't even on any extra hair/coat supplements and I haven't oiled or MTGed his feather. Now if he could just be 5 now so I can see what he will look like as a mature adult that would be awesome ;)

Seriously adorable... I cannot handle it!

When Everything Goes Right

Our barn has a Facebook page just for the boarders so that we can communicate better with each other. Since it is a smaller private barn a lot of us are on different schedules and often don't see each other much. A fellow boarder posted that Sunday was supposed to be really nice at the beach and it would be fun to go. Of course you can count me in on a beach trip anytime! Only 3 of us went but it was a total blast and the weather was the most perfect it has ever been.... and its January! It was seriously tank top and short weather, which on the Oregon coast isn't common, and we had low tide timed perfectly.  Not only was the weather perfect but between the 3 horses one hadn't been ridden since Septmeber (mostly pasture pet who subbed in for the owners horse who is currently without a shoe and recovering from an abcess) and another who has never been to the beach they were perfect. We ended up spending the better part of two hours out there. Couldn't have asked for a better Sunday!

Easily one of my favorite places to ride! Along with the XC course :)

Sunday night Mystic also had an appointment with a body work guy. I had met him in one of my classes when he came to do a demo for us and was intrigued by it. This guy does massage/accupressure stuff before adjusting and I was very impressed with Mystics response to it all. You could really tell when he had found a sore spot on Mystic and could also tell when it started feeling good. Ponys lip got to twitching, his eyes softened, and his head was all but touching the ground. The guy said that he was pretty out in his shoulder and lower back region and it took a solid 2 hours to get him all straightened out. The really cool part about this guy is that he completely works on the horses time. Sometimes it only takes an hour sometimes he spends over three on just one horse. He had me walk him down the aisle way when he was finished and it was amazing how much lighter he walked. Instead of loud clumpy steps he took longer and lighter steps. I am really looking forward to riding him and seeing if I can really feel a difference. He recommends that they get done 4-6 times a year depending on their work but also says that each horse is different and to just see when Mystic shows signs of tightness again. I am going to plan on having him back in March. Mystic is pretty stoic so I want to be more proactive about staying on top of it, especially with a harder work load coming up this summer.

Then to continue our streak of exciting things we had a spectacular lesson tonight! He is feeling better than ever and continues to amazing all of us with his dressage ability, that from just looking at him he shouldn't have! We are completely ready to get to showing 2nd level test 3 next month and I am excited to see how we do. With the work we get in our lessons I have no doubt that we can get a respectable score. Looking forward to a bigger and even better 2015 show season! Pony Power :)

Where Mystics Thanks Our Trainer

Pony and I finally had a lesson on Monday night! It was our first lesson in over 3 months due to lameness in September, slowly bringing him back in October, and then him having a nice little 2 month vacation over November/December where we rode a few days a week and didn't get the saddle out for most of it. Since coming back we have had some not so nice rides. It all started off nice but in the last week and a half we were in the slow lane on the struggle bus. Thankfully our wonderful trainer put it all in perspective for me and got all our wheels spinning again. Looking at the big picture I was trying to ride him like a conditioned 2nd level horse when really we needed to go back to our 1st level frame and work. She got me to really let go of my reins so that I was not just 'holding' him up and by the end he felt very loose and supple. The longer reins took some getting used to but because he was so quick to reward me with every small adjustment it made it easier to feel. For me the struggle will be finding that fine line between giving him his head and letting him carry himself but still being able to effectively half halt him and not let him run through my outside rein. To continue all of our progress from this week we are doing another lesson on Monday! I am envious of people who get weekly lessons, we would make so much progress in a program like that.

Monday nights lesson was a great ending to my birthday weekend. He gave me a great birthday ride and my mom got us a Back on Track mesh sheet! Technically I knew I was getting it, and paid for half of it, but still... I love it. Our new routine involved a 45 minutes marination before our rides and I even got my friend using hers again so our boys soak together pre ride. Im looking forward to him getting to wear it all night and also using it at shows.

Birthday picture with his new BOT sheet :)

Then I got some birthday money and have been holding back from going crazy, not sure its working too well though! I ordered him an ear bonnet and Im pretty sure its going to be adorable. 1) I think they are super adorable but that doesn't justify using one enough (especially with all this hair that I will have to figure out) so 2) He is super sensitive to flies. You would think with all that hair he wouldn't care but he twitches like none other in the summer. So bad that when I put his saddle pad on he twitches it all the way to his butt. Plus they are custom and super reasonably priced, even if I do have to wait 10 weeks to get it. It will be just in time for some events!

His will look this this except the brown will be navy and the purple will be red

On top of that I am on the hunt for a memory foam half pad and I might be pulling the trigger on an Ogilvy (NWOT dressage one for $20 cheaper, plus free shipping and no wait time). I was really hoping to find a used Ecogold or Ogilvy one but knew it wasn't going to be easy. Still doesnt make it easier to swallow the cost of one! To continue my good month I also got $200 worth of EquiFUSE hair products (that I love so much) for free for winning a contest.

Mylo is loving his life now that he has a girlfriend to play with. On the down side he is so incredibly hairy, and obviously not in any kind of working shape, that he gets super sweaty. I think I'm going to clip him this weekend. I hate to do it, especially since he isn't 'working' but I do not like putting a horse away wet, especially when it still gets a little chilly at night, but it takes over an hour for him to dry because his hair is so long and thick. At least that way I won't feel like I can't let him play with his friend. A happy baby is the only kind of baby that I want! He has been handling the no pasture thing very well but getting him out to run is definitely a must to keep him happy!

That hair do didn't last long...

It is supposed to be nice this weekend so post hair cut/bath pictures will be done :)

Opinions needed!

First I will start with how the clinic went this past weekend before we get to the fun "how much money should I spend on which one" question ;)

Although I was not able to ride in Jessica Wisdoms clinic I did go and audit all 5 rides and picked up some cool exercises.  Even though watching makes you want to ride even more it was also fun to see the transformations in each horse by the end of lesson. Watching her teaching style has made me even more excited to ride with her. She adapts super well from rider to rider and has several different exercises or ways to explaining a concept to help each rider better understand what she was getting at.  You could tell how she would feel out each riders way of learning in the first 10 minutes and change her way of teaching from then on out. Pretty cool! Since most of the horses were more green beans most of the exercises Pony can already do profiecently but it was cool to learn why she was having the riders do the exercises and to see how it translated to the overall picture that each rider was trying to achieve. I did also get to see our dressage trainer ride and although we are no where near their level I could related to their underlying problems, such as straightness, and how it effects every single movement as you go up the levels. I am looking forward to riding with her when she comes back in May, especially since we will actually be more on our game then anyways. For the mean time I am SUPER pumped to get back to lessons with our dressage trainer next week. We need a solid butt kicking!

On a super fun note... I won a contest on Facebook! I never win any contests which is probably why I am so competitive when winning is up to me Haha! We won $95 worth of our favorite EquiFuse products. Im telling you, if you want not only a gorgeously beautiful clean horse but also for them to smell heavenly you need to try these. I will have to do a whole post on them sometime because, yes, they are that amazing!

Our winning picture :)

Now to the hard part! I am going to look into getting new Ariat tall boots this spring. Through my work I get an amazing discount on them, the only problem is that they do not make mens dress boots (I really need a mens height, even women tall is too short). So, do I just stick with women dress boots and have them short or go to a mens field boot? I don't know that I feel ride riding at recognized dressage shows at potentially third level (sometime in our future) in field boots. Is that too picky?!
Monoco field boots (I thought I posted the dress ones but guess not. I would get these but in the dress boots, not field!):

Westchester dress boot:

The Monocos are quite a bit more expensive but with my discount it would still be a steal for them. I think that because they both have the high cut spanish tops it may help them look taller on my legs then my current ones. Personally I am a fan of the Monocos but if they are just the better of two evils (fit wise) Im not sure I want to spend more to get them! What do you guys think?

Off to a good start

So far 2015 is off to a great start! Mysic and I are getting back into our groove and have been building our strength and stamina back after some down time and he is doing super well. There is a Jessica Wisdom clinic at our barn this weekend that was super last minute and I sadly didn't have time to scrape up the funds to do it. Instead I will go watch everyone have fun until next time she comes!

Mylo and Mystic got matching rain sheets and it's pretty adorable if I do say so.

Mylo continues to be his usual comical self and is always keeping me entertained. He is learning how to walk/trot on big circles on lunge line but because he is still only 2.5 I only do it about 1x a week. Luckily he listens to voice commands while free lunging!

Show season is quickly approaching and we are slowly getting ready. First show is end of February. Let 2015 begin :)