SB's Awesome Things "Blog Hop"

I love SB's "blog hop" that doesn't involve any fancy links but is a GREAT idea. Here are some awesome things I can do with my horses.

Celebrate the holidays with Reindeer Realness

Teach a kid to groom

Walk over scary liverpools

Find a freaky-similar Breyer model

Sunrise hacks

Winter naps

Own grids

Pose for treats

Lick our lips

Jump clean at our first show

Start a ribbon pile

Dressage in front of one of the best in the world and not die

Scrutinize our tests

Teach a kid to ride

Jump!

Ensure M's job security

Learn to like XC

Road trips!

Model outfits

Snuggle

Jump 3' for his first time like a boss

Ride show jumpers in the dressage ring and live

Scrutinize tests some more

Summer naps

Make my coach work WAY too hard

Have some dressage moments to be proud of

Jump like a baby rockstar

Ahhh. I love these horses. Thanks, SB, for the cool idea!

Some Cute Stuff

I was looking through my phone and realized that there are some cute blog-worthy pictures around and stories to go with them. I hope a post totally not driven by narrative is still interesting.

OMG I love him even when he's bad

 I guess Mo likes to read his dressage tests. This was from Gordonsdale. I think he was sticking his tongue out because he wanted 10s on his gaits. Unlikely, my darling OTTB.

It's all Pony Club all the time around here.
At least we have helmets on.

 My nephew is really enjoying Sugar when he gets a chance to ride her. He's a bit of a timid kiddo, so he's happiest riding with me up there too and my mom leading him. Sugar doesn't care. She's just pleased to have the attention.

ANGRY PONY

She is not pleased to have to wear a grazing muzzle. It doesn't matter how many times I tell her that founder = death. I think she'd take grass + death over the grazing muzzle and her one flake of hay in the nibble net in her stall. We are very cruel humans over here.

If only I had a sharpie.

 I just took this picture to humiliate my horse. I love how he was sleeping with his mouth kind of open. I got his whole mane pulled and his bridle path clipped while he was out. It was glorious.

So cute. So naughty.

 To make it up to him, here are a couple of pictures of him looking adorable. He sure knows how to rock that blaze face for maximum snuggles even in times of great badness.

Uh huh. Sleepy. I bet.

He will sometimes trick you by playing possum, standing around looking like this and then acting like a total nut once you're on. Oh well. You take the good with the bad.

M made fun of these polo wraps but I don't care. I like them.

 Red continues to be handsome. He's VERY good most of the time, although occasionally he'll have a day where he thinks the most fun to be had is in spooking and spinning. It sucks to ride through, and I wouldn't let anyone else sit on him when he's like that, but then the next day he comes out fine. I think he appreciates it when he gets to wear a cute outfit like this one and then he behaves better.

Blurry pics, yay.

I took this so my friend who sent him to me could see that his coat is shiny. Could I have done a better job demonstrating that? Surely. But sometimes you're texting and riding and this is the result. I'm pleased with his coat and body condition. Now maybe I need to find a horse show to take him to.

So there are some odds and ends. In other news, I'm thinking of doing a Great Girth Comparison Review between the Total Saddle Fit dressage girth and the County Logic. If anyone has thoughts they want me to consider--and maybe I'll quote you--please holler at me. I have both girths and I'm going to sell one, but at this point in my mind there's no clear winner.

Gimme Some Sugar

So I've been seriously holding out on you all and you should definitely not forgive me, except for the fact that I'm about to overwhelm you with cuteness and you will get over your outrage immediately.

As you recall, I have the world's cutest nephew, and he is OBSESSED with horses.

<3

So my mom and I have been thinking about getting him a pony for awhile, but there was absolutely no rush on it. If the right pony came along for the right price and we had a stall, we'd go for it. Otherwise, we could sit chilly. He's only two, after all.

Well, as it turns out, the woman who owns the barn where I boarded Lex in Ohio was doing a fire sale on all of her lesson horses, including one I quite liked when I was there. So--and bonus points for you if you'd already put this together--I sent Tracy over to have one more look at her. (If you aren't already a huge fan of Tracy, I'm questioning your judgment. She's an A+ human being and horsewoman.)

The short version is, Tracy told me everything I needed to know about the pros and cons of the pony, and Mom and I decided we could handle the cons and liked all the pros. So now we have a pony! Sugar arrived last night and is now a happy member of the Clawson family.

In case you haven't read Tracy's adorable post yet, Sugar is a 10 year old POA mare who has been used in a lesson program and for birthday parties since essentially the dawn of time. She has a couple habits that come from being a lesson pony, but we can fix those. She's a good girl.

She hopped right off the trailer and put her head down to eat grass. I let her hang out for a minute before we approached the barn. The other horses were like "whaaaaaaaaat is thaaaaaaaaaaat??!!"

Someone left that one in the dryer too long!

We put her next to Ink, my old man. He was pretty obsessed with her. I have a feeling he nickered at her all night.

"The Easter Bunny brought me the pony I asked for!"

She calmly took in her surroundings, found the water and hay, and clearly laid down to sleep last night as she was covered in shavings this morning.

My brother and his wife brought the kids over to meet her. He brought Logan to the barn straight away, and Logan was all: "She needs more water! She needs more hay! Can she come out? She needs an apple." Then we had to go in and eat dinner. He wolfed his food down and insisted on going right back out. Because the adults hadn't even had a chance to take a bite, we had him draw her a picture while he waited.

Who wouldn't want a purple sword-wielding dragon wearing a crown as a welcome gift?

So we finally let the kid go out and see his pony again (he doesn't know she's his yet and won't for another year or so probably). He noted correctly that she needed to be brushed, but we figured it would be best to let her settle in before we let the kid have at her. 

She was very interested in him, though.

This morning, we let her out with Ink. He pestered her for awhile, and she'd just trot away and eat grass. Eventually he got over it and it's been heads down grazing ever since. 

So now we have a medium pony, who's going to be ridden around bareback by 5'8" me sometimes, by the pony club kids sometimes, by lesson kids sometimes, and by Logan whenever possible. We are just thrilled to have her, and I think she's gonna love being at our house (until the grazing muzzle, which might have to happen until spring is over).

Nothing is more fun than a new pony, so expect a lot of pony obsession over here for awhile.