High life!
27 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Nerdyness, Life Tags: tinker, gallop, farrier
Behold my fiery steed ready to rush into battle… Actually, he looks more inclined to fall into a heap never to get up again.
Garre is not thrilled about the summer heat, that much is evident. But he did wake up once I got in the saddle and we had a pleasant 1.5 hour ride out.
A couple of nice, fast, gallops aligned with the setting sun (I could see how we galloped in the shadow that we casted – rather cool!). Garre is really starting to wake up and find his own mind, his own wants. And as it seems what he likes the best is to stretch out in a nice gallop. We’re like made for one another! ♥
But now I must sleep, early date with the farrier tomorrow. Time to get new shoes before we leave to Västerås.
Pictures & videos (3-årstest)
27 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Nerdyness, Life Tags: Horses, Wittvång, 3-årstest
I allready made a post about the 3-years test yesterday. So here comes a few pictures and videos of the horses I did get to see. Since I spent half of the day at the track I missed most of the test. I did get to see a few nice horses though. Corinne NG was one…
And since she’s such a looker she got two videoclips.
Flip’s fairytale (with the famous mother Butterfly Flip.
Filip H was next.
Then of course, Pickaboo (who I did film but I don’t have the footage cause I used Jannas camera, hopefully she’ll put the film up soon!).
And last, but not least, Billie.
Ausbo Polly at the race track
27 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Life, Nerdyness Tags: horse, polly, race track, trotter
So the video clips just keeps piling up on my phone. I figured I’d just bunch this week’s little movie clips of Polly into one long clip instead. So here goes, Polly-bolly in action:
Nevermind the ugly windows movie maker theme… haha. Or the talking in the background.
Peek-a-boo (read: Pickaboo)
26 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Life, Nerdyness Tags: cartier, Horses, Wittvång
Caskoj’s Pickaboo (registered as Pickaboo Caskoj though) peeking out from her trailer while waiting for her turn to be evaluated in the 3-year test at Wittvång.
She’s grown a bit since I last saw her.
Quite the neat little lady horse by now… Grown out of the pony look she had during her first two years in life.
Both Pickaboo and her owner did really good today. And I think they were both equally happy.
Pickaboos half-sister and old box mate Billy Jean did even better. Double diploma (both jumping and dressage) for this beauty.
Congratz to Jenny – and Janna who gets to borrow Billie to take a foal. Can’t wait to see this future foal (yet to be made, but soon…).
Who would have thought… Thinking back to the thin, long legged, tasselled up one year old that carefully stepped out of the horse bus two years ago. She was a beauty even then but I can’t say she looked much to the world.
A day filled with horses
26 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Nerdyness, Life Tags: monte, track, trotter
No, every day isn’t filled with horses, even though the blog might make it seem that way. We started the day off early. Polly had a date with the track.
Polly is so professional. Takes everything with calm and a small hint of curiosity. Well, if you’re not named Magnus and piss her off. But today it was Jenny in the sulky.
To begin with they got to share the track with this fast running bunch. Note the monté rider in the group.
I’m strangely tempted to try this discipline out…haha.
I have some videos, from wednesday aswell, that I will put up a little later. I have too much to blog about today and now I’m going to eat and watch footie. But there’s more to come with regards to horses and my day today…
Friday night fun
26 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Life, Nerdyness Tags: gallop, paddock, tinker
Poor G was all sweaty from the heat again today. I guess he’s still getting used to the heat.
I went by the stable after sis and after BBQ at Josse in the hopes of a lower temperature. Today we rode in the paddock and Jenny & Deedoo tagged along as audience.
The air was suffocatingly hot…
But the horses were quite happy. Garre even bucked with joy, higher than ever before, as we tried a little gallop.
We took it easy today though. I can still feel yesterdays ride in my legs, all sore. Haha. 20 minute work out in the paddock seemed long enough for both myself and G. Shortly after we were back at the stable a thunder-storm broke loose. At least we made it out on time! Now bed calls, good night world. I have a date with the track early tomorrow and after that…
Hanging in the park & the pink ladies
25 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Food & drinks, Friends & family, Life, Nerdyness Tags: bbq, morberg, pink
This fine friday offered a bit of everything. Hanging with mum, reading in the sun, hanging with sis and some of her coworkers. Driving barefoot for the first time ever…
And of course enjoying the sun and trying to stand the heat.
Sunglasses …a very very good invention! And to my great amusement pink, of some variation, seemed to be the colour of the day.
Out of six people at Josses tonight five wore pink tops.
Even the grill sympathised with our cause this fine evening. And Maria drank her special ordered Morberg wine out of a plastic glass, very classy.
Me, I stuck with the orange drink you see on the picture. Drank it with a straw, just like a five year old… Thanks you all for a nice afternoon/evening!
Bareback in the sun
24 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Life, Nerdyness Tags: bareback, farrier, horses shoes, tinker
Poor Garre was all sweaty when I got him from the pasture today. The plan was a nice easy ride out so I figured I might aswell go bareback.
Rode for maybe half an hour and walked next to him for another half an hour. Even though I rode in the evening it was still much to hot for both me and Garre. Will try to ride a bit later still tomorrow. We’ll be taking is easy these next few days anyhow because the shoe Jenny put back on is gap, not quite loose but not quite sitting as solidly as it should be either. Kind of hard to explain – but I’m not riding around on a horse with a loose shoe. So I made a little plan for the next few days, untill the farrier comes on monday we’ll be taking it easy. Tomorrow I’ll ride a short bit in the paddock then walk him out by hand. I’ll be keeping a close eye on that shoe aswell. Theres not much point to ask Jenny to take it off and nail it on again at this point. It’s three more days. Then he’ll get nice new shoes in preparation for the summer.
The horse-ombudsman
23 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Life, Nerdyness Tags: hästombudsmannen, race horse, track
Or in this case ombudswoman. A new position in racing Sweden with focus on the welfare of the horses. Today she visited Örebro to talk a bit about what she does and what we, the people, thinks she should be doing.
At the moment she works for the trotters but she’s working on building bridges to the other equestrian sports. I think its nice that there’s someone, as independent as you can get, who works with the best interests of the horses in mind.
Me & Terese seemed to be the only non-trotter people in the room and yet we had quite a bit to say. I guess us having Jenny & Polly in common contributes to some interest in the race world. I also find the discussion of what to do with the race horses after they are done racing very interesting. Far to many retired trotters ends up going from home to home, having owners who doesn’t understand how to ride or care for them properly. It’s important that theres a plan for what comes after the racing career so that the horses are more than just disposable winning machines that get replaced if they don’t win enough…
Weird stuff & a day at the track
23 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Life, Nerdyness Tags: summer, tinker, track work, trotter
Hihi. Jenny finally caved in and became rational! Instead of bandaging Polly’s legs (having to roll the bandages back up again) she dug out the transport-thingies.
Polly thought it felt really weird and lifted her hind legs really high when walking. At the track she ran so fast it was hard to catch her on camera…
From what I could tell she behaved really nicely, no funny business.
Just running…
Good little trotter doing her job well. Back at the stable it was carrots for all.
And G got the day off (though I chased them around for a wee bit, only to realise its impossible to take pictures while running after the horses).
A movie clip or two of Polly’s day will be up later tonight. At the moment I’m busy frying in the sun…
Garres new haircut
22 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Life, Nerdyness Tags: gym, horse, tinker
Yesterday the big scissor was put to work chopping down the overgrown mane of Garres neck. It is custom to cut it down real low on horses with as much mane as these. It’s simply to make it easier putting the bridle or the halter on without getting it tangled in long strands of hair.
The length of the manes is – just as the forelock – a no touch area. Definitely no cutting that.
Today we went “gymming” …body building for horses. We climbed x 5. Twice in walk and three times uphill in trott. Garre seemed to really enjoy it. Hopefully he’ll feel it just as much as I will tomorrow.
How to spend a tuesday…
22 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Life, Nature, Nerdyness Tags: summer, sun
Flat out on my tummy soaking up the sun…summer, sweet summer.
I intend to enjoy these days off to the fullest. Eating breakfast while reading in the sun listening to the wind in the trees while feeling tiny bugs running over my skin is one way.
And nice long ride out is another. Right now all my body and head (good thing they are in agreal) wants is sun and more sun… I never were good at the whole sunbathing thing, I get restless and bored much to easilly. That’s changed over the past few summers though. It’s nice to sit or lay in the sun. Very, very, nice.
A sweaty ride
21 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Life, Nerdyness Tags: gallop, horse, tinker
The second part of the day was spent at the stable. Garre got a new saddle blanket, then we headed off to the paddock working on serpentins in trott and transitions to gallop.
We were both about melting into a pile after five minutes but we kept going for a good twenty minutes in total. Then we went out for a short forest ride to cool off.
Garre checked out the two new horses in the neighbourhood…
And they flirted right back with him. Neighing as we continued our ride. Back at the stable Garre got a nice cool shower then we joined Jenny for a walk to the paddock.
Garre immediately decided to have a roll around and threw himself to the ground. Three times in a row…
Haha, silly horse. But he seemed quite pleased with himself. After getting himself dirty I let him graze while Jenny worked Polly a bit.
Mostly Polly looked like some sort of donkey…
And G was just very dirty…
Back home again I realised that there’s a good reason to use sunscreen… My arms, chest and face shines brightly red, oops. Oh! And I almost forgot. A car stopped when I came walking with Garre, opening a window and a woman asked if they could take a picture of Garre haha. It was a 10 year old girl who wanted a picture and the mum asked what race he is and was saying how beautiful he is…and the eyes. Then she told the girl she should wish for “one of those” for her birthday haha. It’s quite nice all the reactions people have to Garre. I meet people out driving and they wave, big smiles on their face. Or people out walking telling me how beautiful he is – and he is this brave, huge, sweet horse.
A summer’s day
21 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: Cats, icecream, summer, sun
It is official… Five days with an average temperature of 10 degrees celsius is the criteria for summer. And here she is…
And it’s oh so very pretty and oh so very warm. Half the day I spent sunbathing…
The cats are enjoying the fine weather just as much as I do.
Weather report says temperature will go up by the day this week. Perfectly timed to the little bit of vacation that I get this summer.
I expect a lot of sunbathing and ice cream these coming two weeks.
Hello summer & hello cows
20 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Horsies, Life, Nerdyness Tags: cow, horse, tinker
I completely forgot to mention the ride out part of the day when I blogged yesterday. We had an eventful hour and a half ride, meeting an elk, a couple of ducks, some cows and a pair of motorcycles… Today we saw cows aswell.
Very interesting says the cowhorse who is not afraid of cows…unlike Clabbe who is terrified of them.
Garre, however, got spooked by a duck couple who peacefully floated on the water in a ditch. So he simply threw himself around wanting to run in the other direction *shakes head* silly horse.
An hour and forty minutes later we were both soaked in sweat so Garre got hosed down… I even got to shower his head off so he must have liked it. Then I took him grazing while he dried up.
Oh and I almost forgot – that seems to be a running theme at the moment – that I geared up, brought Garre outside and had a little discussion about standing still. Got up in the saddle and realised that I had forgotten the helmet, duh. So I sat off, on the wrong side for the first time – nemas problemas! Grabbed the helmet and sat back up in the saddle again…
