Stolen Saddles!

In less than a week, two stables in my area have been broken into and saddles were stolen! One place lost 25-30 western saddles and the place that was hit today had dressage/english saddles stolen. No news yet on the details from that most recent one.

This is pretty bad. I don't remember hearing of tack thefts of this size around here for many, many years. Local folks are convinced it has to be the same people doing this. They are checking in with the auctions held in our state and neighboring states to alert them if someone comes in with a large lot of saddles to unload. People are also trawling Craigslist to see if things are posted on there.

Just today on Facebook, the Chronicle of the Horse posted about thefts of 150-200 bales of hay. You can read it here: Hay stolen from Kennebec farm

And apparently these kind of hay thefts are not unheard of, too.

Wow, desperate times? Has anyone else been hearing of things like this? Keep an extra watch on your possessions, folks. Be safe.

He's still awesome!

Even with the weather turning crisp and chilly, Joey continues to be his same, unflappable self. Can't ask for better than that. I have plans to enter our first hunter pace event the first weekend in November. I'm excited, a little nervous but determined to make it happen. My team is only interested in taking it easy, which is fine by me.

Here's some recent pix of my pony after a weekend ride on one of these lovely fall days:

Autumn in the air

Last night I rode Joey for the first time under the lights in the riding arena at the barn we now board at. Since the light switch is inside the barn owner's home, I have to text her and request the lights be turned on for riding. The barn owner is so, so nice and put the lights on for me even before I headed out to ride. It's been getting dark now at just 7:15PM and usually the earliest I can get in the tack is at about 6:45PM. So I have to bang out as much schooling as I can before daylight is gone. I've been holding out asking for her to put the lights on for me because it's going to be a long winter and I'm going to be requesting this a lot!

With the lights on early, Joey was able to adjust comfortably as we worked and daylight faded to darkness around us. Even with it being a chilly, windy evening, with strange sounds and gusty rustles he kept his mind on his business (which is so like him, anyway) and we schooled for a good 45 minutes. I'm trying to ride him at a lot of trot/canter work, I have plans to enter a Hunter Pace in November and I'm starting our conditioning now.

Mosquito Bites, Tiger Balm and Fly Spray

Went to ride after work today. We had heavy rain late last night into the morning and everything is soggy. When it rains heavily, the mosquitoes get really bad at the new barn. They owners have two huge fans blowing through the barn to move the air and keep the bugs away and it does help but today was buggy even with the fans.

Poor Joey, he was miserable. Stomping flies as I tried to groom him, then to add insult to injury, the girl came to feed dinner as I saddled up. I kept stuffing handfulls of hay in his mouth since I felt sorry for him but I finished tacking up and out we went.

I planned on a short half hour ride, just walking and trotting because the bugs were so annoying. I swear at this time of year the critters just huff the fly spray and party on. I mounted up and once we were moving Joey seemed to get a little relief.

I kept my promise, 30 uneventful minutes later I dismounted and brought Joey back to the barn. I felt so bad for my hungry pony that I untacked him and then let him into his stall to start eating his hay as I finished up brushing him and adding another coat of fly spray. Once I finished brushing him down then he got his grain. I swear he sighed in relief.

Fly Spray - okay, here's where I need opinions from some of you folks in the steamy south, what brand of fly spray do you find really works to keep the flys and especially the skeeters away from your horse? I tried Mosquito Halt and it worked a little better than the Bronco stuff I normally use but how toxic do I need to get before my horse gets some relief?

And as for the Tiger Balm, well, I figured I'd spread the news that Tiger Balm works great to stop the itch from mosquito bites. I read it somewhere in some forum online and when I woke up at 2AM last night with 3 nasty, aggravatingly itchy bites on my leg I tried it.
You use a Q-tip and rub the Tiger Balm into the welt for about a minute. Then the itch is just gone! I was so happy it worked! Thank you internet!

A Good Weekend

So I rode both Saturday and Sunday and Joey was a rock star as usual. There were lots of jumps set up as the barn owner's daughter was prepping for competition at the Hampton Classic on Sunday. I played with the cross-rail, LOL. I also was daring and trotted him over the small liverpool she had set up. Joey jumped it with no hesitation and better than the cross-rail.

The best part was on Sunday, as I rolled up the driveway toward the barn, Joey was lounging in his paddock. I rolled down the car window and called out to him, "Hey Pony, whatcha doin'?". His head lifted and he watched the car as I parked at the barn.

As I got out of the car and walked to the stable I called him again and he started to stroll up towards his stall. Then he stopped, he never took his eyes off me the entire time. I went into the barn and was now out of his sight. I stood in front of his stall, opened the door and called him again.

There was the thunder of hooves and Joey burst into his stall at a trot and came right over to me sniffing my shirt and nuzzling me. Mind you, he doesn't get treats right away when I arrive at the barn and those are always in his bucket. So I guess it was the scratches and nose rubs he was interested in.

But after the past week or so of worrying about what was, I was really happy that he reminded me what IS!

Pictures from Joey & I at our first Horse Show

Well, they were pricey, and it's taken awhile but I caved in and bought two of the pictures from Joey's first Horse Show. They arrived the other day and now seems like the best time to share them here. Both pictures are ©Bruce Smith of Digital Hoofprints.

We competed in the English Hunter Pleasure horse division. I know, he's a little too "framed up" for a pleasure hunter flat class. Too many years in the Hunt Seat Equitation ring, LOL.

Here we are in the line-up. He looks so cute here. 

There was only one other competitor in the classes besides me. Actually, we were joking with each other when were entering the ring that everyone else was afraid to ride against us!

But for my first horse show experience with Joey, I didn't care. It was a great day as I posted before and  I don't know about you, but my pony looks pretty happy with himself in both shots!

I know I was very proud of him!

And by the way...

I rode my horse this evening, and Joey was a good boy.