Winter Woes

I'm realllllly tired of winter and I still have another 2-3 months of this junk!  I don't have much to report form the horse side of things since I haven't been to the barn much!  Poor Dolly - I hope she is enjoying her winter vacation...

*sigh*

Winter storm warning in effect.
Today: Periods of freezing drizzle or flurries changing to snow at times heavy mixed with freezing rain and ice pellets this morning then to freezing rain this afternoon. Snow and ice pellet amount 10 to 15 cm. Wind becoming east 20 km/h early this afternoon. High zero.
 
Tonight: Freezing rain changing to flurries near midnight. Snowfall amount 2 cm. Wind east 20 km/h becoming west 40 gusting to 60 this evening. Low minus 12.

Wading in to the Real Estate Market

We had two great Christmas presents this year. One came from hubby's work in mid-December: news that his job was now permanent instead of contract. With that news in hand, we realized that one of the major hurdles to looking for a new house was no longer an obstacle. We arranged a meeting with our mortgage guy on Dec 23. He gave us the news that we could be pre-approved for a mortgage and could start looking for a new place whenever we were ready!

So what are we looking for? Well, a property in the country is on the top of our list. I honestly don’t know if we’ll be able to afford more than 20 acres on our budget and with some of our criteria – decent house, no swampy or rocky property and a decent commute to the city – but we are excited about looking. We are in no rush to move, so hopefully we can wait until something good comes up. I would love to be able to keep a couple of horses at home. Some days I think I enjoy watching and caring for horses more than I do riding.

We still need to do some final clean-up and minor repairs on our current house before we are ready to list it for sale. I’m planning to get a lot of the work done, or at least scheduled, this winter so that we can be ready to move quickly in the spring/summer if we find a nice property.

We aren’t looking too seriously at the moment, since everything is covered in a layer of snow. I would be a little hesitant about buying property and not being able to see the land. Is it wet, swampy, clay or is it a fine layer of sand over the hard bedrock of the Canadian shield? (any geologists out there?)

In typical Laura fashion, I am working on a very nerdy list of contractors, tasks and due dates to keep all of this stuff straight. I find my lists get all of the info swirling around in my brain out in one place so that I can sleep at night! Lol  Here's hoping that we can find a great place this year!

Bucket lists and Resolutions

I have been thinking about bucket lists and resolutions alot lately due to the arrival of the new year... I’m sure I’ve tried writing a bucket list before, but the list was probably scribbled on a scrap of paper and shoved in a desk drawer to be forgotten. I sometimes think that bucket lists are like New Year’s resolutions – stuff you dream of doing (and probably should do) - but don’t take the time and effort to make the things happen. And when things don’t happen, you get discouraged.


So, for fun, I’ve combined some resolutions, goals and bucket list items into three categories – Dreams, Do-able and Personal - and I’m going to try and break individual items down into smaller chunks so that my chances of achieving things are greater. (I’m a bit of a nerd, yes...) I’ve been having a hard time coming up with horse posts lately, so this blog might start covering some of my personal challenges as well.

Personal

• Take care of myself – make good whole food, continue exercise program, transition to using more natural products around the house and on my skin
• Continue de-cluttering the house (a work in progress) to get ready to put it up for sale in the spring/summer
• Organize list of tasks for home repairs/upgrades
• Minimize junk email
• Organize important papers and contact information
• Use all of the food that is in my freezer/pantry instead of just letting it sit unused
• Find some sources for pastured raised organic poultry and pork
• Read more books! I read 46 books in 2011 and I think I’m going to set a goal of 60 for 2012...kinda crazy, but why not? Go sign up at goodreads.com if you haven’t already!

Things that are do-able, but will take some time

• Volunteer at some endurance rides
• Work on photography skills
• Learn more about hooves
• Learn more about bandaging and first-aid
• Learn how to braid a mane
• Learn how to create a beaded browband and a ribbon browband
• Sell some used tack and de-clutter my horse life

Dream items that are harder to attain (ie – take some planning and budgeting)

• Attend the Royal Winter Fair Horse Show in Toronto
• Complete a 25 mile endurance or competitive trail ride
• Attend some NFR events in Vegas
• Rescue a TB/STB and provide a good home, or re-train one to do endurance
• Ride out west – Three Bars Ranch in Alberta looks great!
• Ride in England/Ireland
• Ride on a beach - DONE!
• Raise and train a foal

Here's to a fun and happy 2012!!  I wish everyone a happy, healthy, horse-y New Year!

Small pieces of the puzzle...

I've been slowly working on trying to fill in a few of the gaps Dolly and I have in our relationship/training.

Since I discovered that I was being aggressive with her and pushing her away, I've sort of had to start over in my approach.  We are already doing better - I think she can sense that I'm not putting out the agressive vibes anymore and is more willing to do things when I ask her.

I identified two problem areas that I wanted to address first: one was her bit and the other was her nervousness about being saddled.  Those two things have been issues for awhile and I figured that there had to be a fairly easy fix for both.

I started with the bridle/bit situation. I had been using an eggbut snaffle with her, but a couple of people that have been helping me have suggested that she seems to be really sensitive in the mouth and the single-jointed snaffle might be really bothering her.  I tried a few bits and the clear winner was an eggbutt waterford:

The multiple joints on this bit seem to be more gentle on her mouth. I think she has a fairly low palate, so it wouldn't take much for the snaffle to hit her and cause pain.  I rode her at the walk only in this bit and it seemed at first that she was waiting for the bit to hit her, but when it didn't, she slowly relaxed and dropped her head. I think the bit hitting her mouth when she did her spins on the trail might have been making the situation worse...we'll see if that theory holds when I try riding her outside the ring sometime in the near future. 

Out for a hand-walk to get used to the new bit

The second issue was standing still in the cross-ties while being saddled. Dolly has a tendency to swing away and back when you approach her with the saddle.  She is ok for the saddle pad, but the saddle is trickier.  She has been adjusted by the chiro and we've checked her back a few times, so I don't think it is pain, just avoidance.... I have tried just ignoring her behaviour and putting the saddle on regardless of how she behaves, but that seemed to make her tense. And when she got tense, I would get annoyed and the situation would quickly escalate.

I decided to take in my very ancient English saddle that weighs about 10lbs and use that at first instead of my heavy western saddle (that I'm sometimes worried I am going to drop on her back.)  I kept a handful of treats nearby and slowly approached and retreated holding the English saddle. After 10 minutes or so of work, praise and a few treats, she would stand quietly and I could tack her up from both sides. I think I just needed to communicate more clearly with her, instead of getting all annoyed and flustered. 

This saddle is at least 30yrs old!! And almost falling apart...

I then progressed to the western pad and saddle. It took another 10 minutes or so and I had her standing quietly while I took the saddle on and off. I made a point to flop the strirrups and cinch around and to tack up from both sides and she was fine.  I will probably need to keep working on this a bit over the winter, but I'm confident that it is a minor issue and it will soon be a thing of the past for us!

Winter Wonderland? Or just cold and miserable?

I haven't done much (if any) horse stuff in the past two weeks. I've just been busy with Christmas (thank goodness that is over and done with!) and trying to deal with the dark and cold weather that we get this time of year.

 I don't really like the snow, cold and ice - but I'm stuck here, so I try and make the best of it. In fact, I can deal with cold and snow without much trouble, but I really don't like ice, unless it is in my drink. :-) It makes the footing terrible for horses and humans alike, not to mention it makes driving difficult.

 I've been hand-walking Dolly a bit lately, just to get us out in a safe way. I usually try and take a few pictures along the way to help Dolly with patience and standing quietly while I do something. I managed to get a few shots before my hands froze!

 We are usually followed by V - a friend's horse - when we walk.  He is a young arab gelding and is always watching when there are things going on. 

He followed me as far as he could in his paddock and stopped to pose when I called his name...what a handsome guy...

I'm hoping to get a short ride in this weekend, probably just in the riding ring, but it will be better than nothing!