Fuzzy Girl

Warm weather is coming, and our 'lil Honky Tonk Girl is still as furry as ever. She's usually the last to shed out.

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.

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.

Without The "Ta"

After we sold Jin the search began for a new horse. Sara wanted another young Western Pleasure prospect that she could finish. Again, the internet was searched and calls were made. A couple of appointments were scheduled, but were cancelled at the last minute by the sellers. It seemed that anything that caught Sara's eye had a big fat price tag attached to it or was too far away or it had some concerns that would cause us to look elsewhere.

But one little horse kept coming to the top of the list. For the life of me I don't know why Sara was drawn to him. The sales presentation was horrible. We were sent two teeny little pics and a poor quality grainy video that was taken on a cellphone. These are the actual pics, and no, they don't enlarge if you click on them:
I'd find Sara at the computer studying that low quality video over and over. I'd just shake my head. Sara would email the seller a list of questions and the reply would come back with maybe half of them answered. I thought it was a waste of time. Sara thought she saw something there, some untapped potential in that blurry 30 second video.

I could tell that Sara had the itch to get a new horse, and soon. I told her to take her time, the right one would come along. She told me that she thought she found the right one in those tiny pics.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Yep."

His home was in central Illinois, about a seven hour's drive from here. We tried to schedule a time to go see him, but the thought of making two trips didn't sound too fun...one trip in the car to look at him, and a trip back with the truck and trailer if we liked him. We discussed just making one trip with the rig, and if we didn't like him we'd just be out a bunch of gas money. But the thought of dragging a 30' trailer through Milwaukee & Chicago didn't appeal to me too much. After much discussion we decided to take a crazy chance and buy this guy, sight unseen, and have the seller's deliver him. Sure sounded crazy. In fact, it still does.

We made the offer to the sellers, and they accepted, delivery included. They readily accepted. Maybe too readily.....

So, we bought this sight unseen (in the flesh) horse from someone we've never met from a land far away. Stupid? Maybe. Crazy? For sure. I just hoped he had that untapped potential that Sara saw.

He arrived June 12th on a cold and windy day. The poor boy was all shed out from his warm winter hair, and it was 40 degrees and nasty. My first impressions were not good. He was short. His feet were long and his shoes were falling off and no two hooves were trimmed at the same angle. And he was thin. Ribs showing like a xylophone.

Did I tell ya it was a crazy idea to buy a horse sight unseen?

But he was quiet and cute and sound and he moved nice. Sara still had hope.

Mega's Doctor Time is his real name. But they called him Mater. That's right, like the hillbilly tow truck in the Pixar film. Mater, like tamater without the ta. Yeah.... But we kept the name. It fits him.

We got his shoes pulled, trimmed his feet up right, got him some good groceries and attended to anything else he needed. Sara worked on his training, and it needed a lot of work to bring him to where she wanted him. It was frustrating for her at times. She kept expecting him to perform as well is Jin did, but she had to realize that he was far from being where Jin was in his education. Take a few steps back and remember how to teach the basics. With Mater being the same age as Jin, it was hard for her to grasp that he just didn't have the training that she was accustomed to. But they worked hard and Mater had the talent and brains to learn it all.

About a month after we got him, Sara thought it was time to try an open show to see how far they had come along in his training. They loaded up the trailer and headed out with the plan to show in a few open walk/trot classes. I wished them well and saw them off. When they came home that evening I asked how they did, and Sara had a weird look on her face and her hands behind her back. I asked if everything was ok. That's when she showed me the pair of etched wine glasses and blue ribbons that they earned that day! Turns out lil' Mater Mater Sweet Poo-tater took 1st out of 20 in open walk/trot and 1st out of 27 in open walk/trot horsemanship.

His training and showing continued over the summer, and he kept proving that he had all the potential to be a champ.

In the six short months we've had him, he's shown us that he is everything and more than what Sara saw in that blurry video. A big heart, tons of give, and a calm disposition.

We sure lucked out with this sight-unseen lil' pony.

Mater, like tamater without the ta

or

Mater Mater Sweet Poo-tater

New Blog Link

I've got a new blog listed in my blog links in the right column. I suggest that you regularly check out Sleep Talkin' Man . I find it hilarious.

Dreams are amazing things, and this fella vocalizes them. His dear wife then records all of his crazy mumblings and posts them for the world to see. Some of it is very "adult", so be warned.

Put your coffee down and enjoy!