Pony Sledding – February 2014

February 14, 2014

You might have heard of skijoring. There are some awesome photos and videos floating around of it. For those who have not, basically it is a person on skis being pulled by a horse.

We have about 1 1/2 feet of snow right now but I do not have skis, or friends with skis, so we decided to try pony sledding instead.

First we had to lay down a track, and with such deep snow that took some work. Simon was corporative and pulled Rich down the hill. And then back up the hill. Then we switched to sledders going down the hill and Simon pulling them back up the hill.

Simon was into it, and seemed to enjoy being part of the party. But after a while he was done and decided the sled, the purple one in particular, was going to eat him.

Clearly Simon and I will be spending some time dragging the purple sled around. We need to make sure he is fully prepared for our next pony sledding opportunity. Which hopefully will not be until next winter.

Later we switched to porch sledding. This involved piling snow on the front steps and down into the yard. And we put a jump in at the bottom of the steps. No ponies were involved but it was still a lot of fun.

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Pulling rich down the hill to cut a path.

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Shoe removal

February 10, 2014

While I was away for three weeks over the summer, Simon removed all four of his shoes. I found one of them the other day.

(Yep, still nothing exciting to blog about. I like this photo though).

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USA USA USA – 2014

February 9, 2014

Cheering “USA USA USA WOO!” loudly, and throwing my fists into the air while sporting Stars and Stripes apparel, that’s how I couch surf the Olympics.

The only non horse sport I have ever participated in throughout my life was swimming for two years for my high school. I never played soccer, or enjoyed running, I suck majorly at riding a bike, and other than sledding down the neighbors hill as a kid, the only snow sport I have tried involved a shovel, the driveway, and freeing my truck.

But I am 100% enthusiastic about international competition and I love my country.

Its fantastic to see people with different political ideas, economic standings and ways of life, coming together to cheer their country on.

As a competitor who has ridden for my country on numerous occasions, there is no feeling quite like representing your country. They work hard and they are there representing us! They deserve our support.

So, I’ll put my patriotic hoodie on and chant “USA” all Olympics long. Even if I have no idea what a good run really looks like, or if our guy (or gal) falls, “Hell Yea USA!”

USA USA USA

Poe Conditioning.

February 8, 2014

The footing is still crap but it’s gotten better and is ok for some trot-hill-conditioning. So that’s what Poe and I did last night. He is always such a pleasure to ride and makes me smile. I love this pony.

I have been playing music on my iPhone when I ride lately. I have a nice jam-grass/bluegrass playlist for Simon. Poe has more attitude, like heavy metal, but I just can’t do that. So I decided on a radio dance type of play list. I titled it “radio cheese”. He likes it too. Not surprisingly Simon loves the radio pop.

After I hit shuffle and stuck it in my pocket, we got our trot work on.

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Blanket Repairs

February 7, 2014

Last weekend it warmed up enough for me too pull the blankets off the ponies. I washed them and then stitched up the rips, replaced some straps and added a few patches.

Good as new.

I also scored a practically new, high neck Rhino, from a lovely person on Facebook.

Nothing exciting going on right now. Crap footing, ice and snow intermittently, the trails are too crappy to ride on, and so you get a lame post about blanket repairs. I wasn’t even good enough to take photos of the repair work. Lame.

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