December 8, 2014

Yesterday I headed out of my house at 4am with the trailer in tow.  I met up with my friend and teammate, Zoe, and we made tracks to Ohio, to pick up a new pony.

Spike is a 13.1h, Percheron Arab cross nine year old gelding.  He is mostly white with a little gray still showing in his thick winter coat.  He is bubbling with personality, moves like a dream and is destined to be a games pony!

In the trailer he went and we were back on the road home.

A few adventures along the way included nearly hitting a deer who was just standing in the road.  Stopping for a birthday breakfast for Zoe at IHOP.  Yep, Zoe spent her entire birthday in the truck with me!  We got to meet Stacey, who was willing to sell me this amazing pony.  Zoe also bought a pony from her named Finn.  I have to say how honest and easy to work with Stacey has been.  Spike was one of her personal horses, but when she met Zoe and learned about games, she knew it was his calling.  So she agreed to part with him so he could have a real career.

I got home last night and settled Spike in.  Then I introduced Simon and Poe to him.  I originally was going to wait until the morning but the screaming between Poe and Spike in separate fields was crazy.  The introductions, done one at a time, were incredibly smooth, and everyone was settled in eating hay within 20 minutes.

This morning I found them all quietly waiting for breakfast.  I spent a little time hanging with Spike, who was happy to see me and followed me around while I distributed flakes of hay.  I talked to him and spent some time petting him while he lipped me between bites of hay.

Yea!

This is Spike and Stacey.

Zoe gave Spike a quick lunge.

After settling in last night.

Early this morning eating his breakfast.

December 4, 2014

Winter grooming pretty much sucks. Ponies with long hair are hard to keep clean.  They cake mud into their hair and it can be near impossible to get it out.  If you clip them you have to deal with blanketing, which can be a burden.  But it does make cleaning much easier.  It also makes it easier for someone like myself that tends to ride right before dark.  With long hair my pony gets sweaty and hot, and their hair is too thick to dry out on its own.

So I choose to clip.  Poe got his second clip of the year over the warm weekend.  I generally go for a very easy modified English hunt clip.  I do the neck, check and then a line from the wither area down to the flank area.  Sometimes Ill shorten it up and just go a ways back on the belly.  This leaves hair under the saddle, so no itchies.  but it gets the bigger sweat areas cleaned off.

Poe is a champ to clip and stands there looking like a brave statue, enjoying the attention.  Don’t let his serious expression in the photo below fool you.

I have given Simon the same, or similar clip for years.  When I clipped him in early October he got angry towards the end of the session and refused to let me finish his belly.  I tried to clip him again this past weekend but he flat out refused.  I picked the clippers up (still turned off) and he all but liquefied into the ground in fear.  I have no idea where this came from, but I decided it was not worth the fight.  I tacked him up and off we went.  When we got back he enjoyed a nice roll in some of the fresh mud.

When I was unpacking Simon, I went to put his saddle and bridle away, and when I came back out to get his breast plate he had worked his halter part way off.  Such a silly pony.