Thursday, February 11, 2010

Oops. Excuse Me.

As the big storm was blowing all the whiteshit sideways outside, we were inside the barn readying the stalls for the nite. We let Kirby and Mater blow off some steam in the indoor arena during our chores. Mater was more interested in stealing hay from over the railing, but Kirby was having fun rolling around in the nice soft sand. I think he was trying to tell us he didn't want to be a Paint anymore, because he did a real good job of turning every white spot to sandy brown. After his roll he took off buckin' and runnin' all over like a fool. Rear hooves straight up in the air while his head was tucked between his front legs.

Mater was unimpressed and continued to steal hay over the rail.

After the acrobatics show, we got back to work cleaning stalls. I set my can of beer down on the rail. Dumb move, I know. That's a fine spot to set it if I wanted it knocked over. And sure enough, Kirby happened to spot it and proceeded to knock it over. Any of the beer that spilled on
the rail was promptly licked up by that messy boy. Amazingly the can landed upright in the aisle and didn't make much of a mess. I picked it up and was going to set it on the shelf away from thieving horse lips But Kirby was sure interested in that beer can. I took a sip and blew my stinky beer breath at him, and he just sniffed and sniffed. So I figured why not - and poured a little bit onto my had and let him slobber it out.

No sooner did I take my hand away that Kirby smacked his lips twice and went "URRRP"!

We just laughed and looked at that dirty brown horse. He didn't seem to understand all the commotion he caused. Sara just laughed harder and said that he's becoming more and more like me every day: always a mess and full of beer burps.

Now, I've always been told that horses can't burp. I'll be the first to argue that they can.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Four Blues

Congrats to Sara and Mater!

They went to Heartland Stables on Saturday for the Fuzzy Wuzzy winter series that they host.

They had a successful day, earning:

1st in Showmanship
3rd in walk/trot English Equitation
2nd in English Equitation
1st in walk/trot Western Pleasure
4th in Western Pleasure
1st in walk/trot Horsemanship
1st in Horsemanship

The Horsemanship class had quite the pattern: Imagine a big capital "N". Lope off on the wrong lead, continue loping on the wrong lead around the cone, do a lead change halfway to the next cone, then lope around the next cone on the opposite lead all the way to the last cone, then stop and back. They've only been working on simple lead changes for a short time now, and he nailed it!

Even though they come home with four blue ribbons, Sara was still disappointed about not placing better in the Western Pleasure. It seems that Mater has developed a habit of falling out of the lope at the most inopportune times, like when he's directly in front of the judge. It's just another thing that Sara will add to the list of things to work on at home.