oh baby!

News flash = there is a new baby at our barn!! The foal belongs to our trainer, or her husband, depending on who you ask :)  It's been a long time since Iron Horse has had a wee one running around, none in the past four years since we've been riding been there. Their new little guy stole everyone's heart, but not before the dam did. What a sweet sociable mare Dolly is, and more importantly she is a good mom. 


The baby has fancy bred into him, and is a curious cutie. He doesn't have a name yet. I can't wait to find out what they are going to call this little guy! We met him when he was 3 days old, sadly I didn't have my camera...but I've been shooting pics of him ever since he was 5 days old. I am really happy to have a foal I can take pictures of & watch grow up. I've already accumulated a lot of photos of the little guy in six weeks time. The hard part is choosing which ones to keep. I'll be adding to his gallery and doing some sharing along the way. Below are a few of my favorite photos of baby Iron Horse at 5 days old, and the last two at 6.

he can jump...

he can fly...

likes to run...

 and looks cute, without even trying

holiday bonus

We planned on taking advantage of the Fourth of July holiday, to ride an extra day. Plans came together and we enjoyed a sunny late afternoon ride, just our three horses in an outdoor relaxing arena atmosphere.

Our frainer is typically pulled in 500 directions so she really savors rare moments like these, and so do we. I have no clue how she patiently deals with all of "it"...nice to just spend time together and ride. I am glad she was able to join us. She rode Cierra, and Brad & I rode our usual mounts. We had not seen Cierra under saddle for several months. She is looking really good, responsive but relaxed, and enjoying her job.

In the midst of the arena fun, the resident grandkids asked to ride. Brad led them in hand on Nemo. They are young, and it was the first time Nemo had done kid duty. He was a champ! Altho Brad said he nudged him in the back while leading the kids (separately) as if to say "are you kidding me?". Gotta love that spotted horse! While this was going on, Koda was all ears. He was very curious what those little people were doing on his brothers back!

We rode on Saturday & Sunday too, a bonus three days in a row! Doesn't happen too often. I am back to loping regularly, altho getting more softness still needs work. Oh, and getting that darn (expletive removed) left lead!! Koda is making me work so hard for it, and knows what I am asking for... 

His left counter canter is so smooth that I need an extra set of eyes to reassure I am feeling what I think I am. Wish I didn't have to ask for help, but I just don't catch it fast enough. Sometimes I'm correct, many times I'm not. I'll simply have to keep working at feeling it...just when I think I've got our left lope off figured out, we seem to take two steps back.

I asked Brad to take a video of us loping left, so I could not only feel but see where we are at. I think seeing yourself/horse can help. Nice of him to oblige, however the video turned out b-b-b-bouncy! He trotted on Nemo to "keep up"...granted it is a big outdoor arena, but I'm pretty sure zoom would have worked better ;) it was pretty funny at the time. 

Here we are in motion, going forward and with a little extra help from Brad going up & down too! Not pretty, but we are slowly getting there. I think.

tree mail

It's old news that I've had my share of saddle woes. My good old Circle Y Equitation saddle that I loved riding in for years, prior to getting Koda, stopped fitting him somewhere around age three. Four years later, I am still working on getting a saddle that fits both of us...sad, but true.

After trying different saddles that played into my hitting the ground a couple times, I've learned the hard way. A proper fitting saddle can make all the difference in the world! I don't enjoy learning from the school of hard knocks, and have high hopes I won't be repeating those lessons anytime soon. It's not like I didn't know how important saddle fit is to begin with...however, sometimes the ground isn't the only hard thing you run into.

Over the years I've asked a lot of questions, and put faith in trusted professionals. The one person I didn't put faith in was me. Had I listened to what my body was telling me, I wouldn't have purchased a saddle that wasn't completely right. It fit's my horse okay, but it doesn't fit me. I harbor no bad feelings toward the folks I entrusted for help, for in the end I believe we are all ultimately responsible for our own decisions. They have resolved many a saddle woes, and did their best to try to help me too. Guess everything with me has to be more difficult?!! 

I was tired of saddle searching and inconveniencing people. Scheduled trail trips were rapidly approaching. I wanted to move on, and just gave in. I ended up buying what turned out to be the wrong saddle. It's all on me. 

On the brighter side, as you may know, this difficult fitting duo of horse and rider are now looking forward to a custom saddle! After making the hard decision to purchase, and being measured. I found there were a lot of details that make up a saddle, that I had not really thought much about prior to ordering. 

I was going to share the details I chose, but many of them won't make sense. Unless you know what a #1 horn is, or a 13 swell, or the dish size of a cantle. However these details will make sense; I am getting partial rough out leather in key area's, a rounded skirt, and black padded seat. The horn will be wrapped, so I can play! I requested the same double shell edge tooling they did on my chinks:

tooling sample

The little bit of silver hardware will be like the center conch below. I didn't do a lot of cosmetic upgrades, because what matters most to me is that the saddle fits both of us and helps keep me seated. They assured me it will do both.

silver sample

I took photos of my horse "naked" from all angles...

...including a top view, while standing on the back of a tailgate. After emailing photo links for review....

...my anticipation grew...and then tree mail arrived!! Inching us one step closer to a new saddle. It was time for another Koda fashion show, this time wearing just the test tree. From the tree photos, taken from all angles, the saddle maker determines what adjustments need to be made different in order to fit Koda.

With all the tough saddle details figured out, horse and tree fitting photos done, now it's back to waiting and wondering...

it's not all about the ride

Earlier this month we made the trek up north for a trail riding trip with Nemo & Koda in tow. The change of pace, different surroundings, friendly faces, and spending time away with our horses are memories we always look forward to making, and hold near and dear to our hearts.

Koda

As many times as we've ridden the same Nicolet National Forest trails, they always feel different. The ecosystem is ever evolving, and this year it offered a very lush forest. It was as if someone dumped buckets of different shades of fresh green paint, everywhere. The forest also offered something much less appealing, the worst mosquito/gnat/biting fly infestation we've ever experienced! Apparently after such a looong cold hard winter, the sudden hot weather hatched 5 out of 7 mosquito varieties all at once. Fun-fun, or more like swat-swat!!

We heard the bugs were bad beforehand, and armed ourselves accordingly. We picked up a couple Thermacell clip-on's, loaded up on fly spray and brought along fly masks for the horses. 

Nemo had started showing signs of trouble with his allergies the week before we left, and got checked out by the vet. The fly mask seemed to keep whatever was irritating him at bay, so we didn't medicate. Some years his seasonal allergies are an issue, some years not.

The bugs weren't too bad at our cabin site. We decided to head out late afternoon on arrival day to see what the buzz was all about. That didn't last long. We never made it off the main multi use trail, and turned back home shortly after leaving the ranch. The horses got swarmed by pockets of mosquito's, not fun for any of us. Koda was thrashing his head from side to side so bad that he actually yanked one of my reins right out of my hand. I wasn't very happy that he didn't whoa, and continued being an antsy-pants while spinning in a one rein stop fashion...I know he was understandably in a frenzy from the bugs, but still...whoa means WHOA!! We finished our ride in the much less buggy outdoor arena on the ranch, and called it good.

After going out for a quick bite at one of our favorite local bar eateries, it was campfire time!

ifire

The paddocks are right outside our cabin. It feels like the horses are all but sitting at the campfire with us. We love, love, love our campfire time!! 

where siesta's happen

Listening to the soft sounds of our horses munching hay, fire crackling, evening chirping, and the clear expansive star filled dotted sky....sigh...it's SO relaxing, and puts everything into perspective.

smoke follows beauty ;)

We tacked up and headed back out on the trail in the morning. This time it was Nemo that was clearly miserable, his head tossing was hard to manage. Poor guy. Nemo's allergies hit full force as soon as we left the ranch. We didn't get much further then the day before, and turned back around. Wondering if we should load up and take the horses back home? or just not ride?? We decided instead to see if we could get a hold of some medicine, and when/if it calmed Nemo's allergies down - then we would try trail riding again. 

We played telephone tag-n-text with our daughter, who works at our clinic, who got a hold of our vet, who called the local vet the ranch owners use for their horses, then we called, she called, they called - all to help Nemo be more comfortable, and make a difference. Altho everyone was super helpful and responded asap, this all took hours - including our little adventure we had picking up the medicine. Finding the north woods vet proved to be harder then we thought. No thanks to our phone GPS. At one point the GPS told us to get out and walk the rest of the way to our destination (not kidding!!) in the middle of nowhere...say what?!? We called the local vet, and found out we had another 30 miles or so to go. That would have been one heck of a looong walk! Needless to say we turned off the dumb@ss GPS. Guess we should have accepted the directions we were originally offered back at the ranch!

We gave the allergy medicine a chance to work overnight, and savored a nice dinner at one of our favorite supper clubs on the lake. I had my usual, walleye & scallops ~ mmmm! Of course we also enjoyed another p.m. & a.m. relaxing campfire, shared with our horses!

Brad's iphoto with caption that he sent to a few friends

"6:00am, horses eating breakfast, fire going,
 sitting back with a cup of coffee with my best friend.
Wish everyday started like this."

At first we were somewhat disappointed that we had barely ridden through the forest on this trip, but Nemo's comfort was more important. We truly enjoy being up north. It's not all about the ride...our trips are so much more then that to us.

Nemo

On our last full day we headed out on the trail, going the opposite direction. It's got more hardwoods, so we figured it might be less problematic for Nemo's allergies. There was only one way to find out if he was better - and whala - the allergy med's worked! It felt good to be back trail riding in the depth's of the serene forest! 

The cooler weather made for less bug activity, so it was enjoyable. Altho Koda had gotten a taste of turning around from the prior attempted rides, and gave me some challenges. We worked through them, without dismounting. Some were easier then others, each scenario was resolved differently. Thankfully there were only a handful of "I don't want to go that way" and eventually he quit the sudden spin to change directions. 

Koda was on forward march the entire 3.5 hour ride. Needless to say we lead most of the way, and at times worked on rating his speed. Sometimes we do a little trotting on the stretches, but otherwise we walk the winding trails and soak it all in.

being one with the pines

sauntering through a sea of green

On leaving day, we opted not to ride. Some years we pack everything up before heading out for one last ride, and some years we don't. The boys were sooo relaxed, and comfy in their sandy paddocks... 

chillaxin

...so much that Koda attracted another camper who stood watching him lying flat out on his side sleeping for the longest time, and took pictures of him. 

It's wonderful to see that even the horses settle in and enjoy our trips. Everything moves at a slower pace in the north woods. Not that the local folks don't work hard, because they most certainly do. But when surrounded by vast nature, eventually relaxation sets in - if you let it. 

We had a wonderful trip, and wouldn't change a thing (minus mosquitos). It all serves a much larger purpose.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder